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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 3 years ago

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Floyd and Epel?

Leona Character Opinion Bingo here!

Rook Character Opinion Bingo here!

***Standard disclaimer: These are just my personal opinions of the character(s); regardless of what I may think of them, sharing my thoughts is NOT meant to offend or to shame anyone that thinks differently.***

I think I’m speaking for almost everyone when I say that Floyd has one of the most unique character designs I’ve ever seen before (I mean, the same applies to Jade, just flip Floyd’s face horizontally and change the eye shape). It’s very bold and eye-catching in both the colors and the shapes; the earring, the black stripe of hair, and the heterochromia should make him look like a non-cohesive mess, but instead it really help the look pop. Floyd’s laidback attitude is reflected in how he dresses—loose, without paying much attention to fully buttoning up. Little details like that are the cherry on top 👌

Floyd is an extremely difficult character to comment on because he’s so finicky and hard to pinpoint. I generally really like him; his unpredictability makes Floyd a real wild card in any scenario or interactions he ends up in. I’m unsure of where he’ll lead the situation, but it’s sure to cause chaos and being me a good amount of entertainment. This wouldn’t be the case if he were real; it’s a nightmare to deal with a person that’s so moody and flippant with their desires and motivation... and worse yet, no clear or consistent way to tame or to calm him! I get a migraine just thinking of that mess 😔 But even with all of that in mind, I can’t help but love how free-spirited he is. Floyd doesn’t let anyone or anything tell him how he should live. He doesn’t let other’s opinions of him or their judgement deter him from having a good time. Yeah, it definitely means he gets out of hand sometimes, but there’s still something so cool about being free of everything but your own whims. Floyd doesn’t even want to be tied down by his relationship with Jade as a twin, he wants to be seen as a separate entity, not just someone “similar” to Jade.

Funnily enough, I think Floyd is the least insidious of the Octatrio. He’s not 100% innocent, he’s still capable of inflicting harm, but at the very least Floyd is open about it and will give you super blatant signs that you’re About to Die. With Azul and Jade, it’s much more of a slow burn, or like... the build-up to a jump scare in a horror movie. You never know what to expect or what they will knock you out; meanwhile, Floyd will give a ton of signals via his facial expression or body language (or outright announcing that he’s coming after you).

There’s two big misconceptions about Floyd in the fandom, and quite frankly, both of them can get on my nerves 🤡 because those misconceptions grossly contradict the canon information we are presented with in TWST. The first of these is that people seem to think Floyd is... dumb??? I’ve seen people straight up and unironically call him a himbo????? Which simply isn’t true; Floyd is “all or nothing”, he runs extremely hot or cold. If he feels like it, he can ace anything. If he doesn’t, then he fucks off to do something else or just doesn’t put in the effort. Floyd is extremely brilliant, but he doesn’t feel the need to put his talents to use all of the time if it doesn’t hold his interest and/or attention. Just because a character is spontaneous and “lolz so random” doesn’t always correlate with low intelligence, and I think it would be unwise to conflate those traits.

Now, the other big thing that the fandom tends to do with Floyd is 🤡 infantilizing him to a sometimes uncomfortable degree, and then often romanticizing that very childish and simple version of him. I totally agree that Floyd can be really cute (especially when he’s in his better moods), but to believe that he can do no wrong, that he is incapable of harming others, that he feels bad when he does it, or that his “squeezes” only amount to bear hugs is just incorrect. Episode 3 literally opens with Floyd “squeezing” a mob student until that mob student passes out. Note that Floyd appeared to be even eager to do it, asking Azul if they’re done talking and if he can finally start squeezing. When Azul prompts him to “squeeze to [his] heart’s content”, Floyd does it hard. There’s so many other instances of Floyd terrorizing his classmates (to varying degrees, it’s not all extremely violent, like when he teases Riddle about his height or ill-intentioned, like when he keeps chasing Jamil after he’s already out in a game because he wants to have more fun), but the fact is that Floyd isn’t sorry about anything that he does, he actively enjoys being a shit. Another thing I see a lot (that’s related to this take) is that???? People believe that somehow his mood swings can be controlled????? That isn’t true; even Azul and Jade, the people closest to Floyd, have a difficult time reining him in because Floyd HATES being controlled or being told how he should act. No one--not figures of authority, not his friends, not his significant other (in fanon), not even his family--can take charge of Floyd. Only Floyd can take charge of Floyd.

One headcanon that I’m very adamant about when it comes to Floyd is that I believe his nicknames aren’t meant to be cute or affectionate (especially Koebi-chan/Shrimp). I’m honestly shocked that so much of the fandom thinks otherwise???? Yes, he nicknames people based on the traits they have that remind him of corresponding sea creatures, but nicknames don’t inherently mean that Floyd likes everyone. The biggest example of this is Azul. When Floyd first met him in middle school, he had called Azul “Tako-chan” (Octopus). In modern day, Floyd only ever addresses Azul by his NAME. The same goes with Jade. What this says to me is that Floyd will actually drop the nickname if he likes someone enough. Now, that doesn’t mean that Floyd will necessarily always obey them, but it confers a degree of respect that’s rare for him to demonstrate in anyone else.

It’s so easy to just take Floyd at face value and not look any deeper into the things he says and does. He’s simple in that he just wants to chill and do whatever he feels like doing, but he’s complex in that he’s a lot more skilled than people take him for. He’s carefree, but that doesn’t mean he’s entirely childish or dumb--and he definitely can be cruel when he wants to be. I won’t claim Floyd is Super Deep, but I still wish the fandom wouldn’t lean into such extremes (whether it’s the soft takes, the harsh takes, or the ones that make him out to be just “random XD”) when it comes to him. It disregards the subtle nuances of his character 😔

With most characters, I can at least list a few redeeming qualities, but that doesn’t really hold true for Epel. He hasn’t done anything to offend me to the point where I’d actively dislike him, though! I just... find Epel to be blander than a slice of heavily processed white bread (and yes, that’s taking the other characters I think are boring into consideration). I guess he looks kind of cute cool? I really like the lace collar of his school uniform, his dainty lashes, and how his lilac bangs form delicate wisps around his face. Maybe I’d cut Epel some more slack if he didn’t look like he was 10 and constantly worrying about coming across as cool and stereotypically masculine 😅

He doesn’t have anything going for him personality-wise other than being a country boy that’s forced to act like a proper high society gentleman (which just so happens to be a trope that I don’t like), and his accent only makes it harder for me to understand him 😔 I don’t even find any of the little things he does cute or charming, I just stare at Epel and see your usual “fish out of water” character with kind of inconsistent writing. Like... in-universe, is there a clear reason for Epel keeping up his shy, timid facade whenever Vil’s not within view or within earshot? I thought the whole point of Epel was that he wanted to be more of a wild child, so why isn’t he breaking free more, because he’s scared Vil will catch him? What about when he’s back in his hometown, why does Epel keep up his polite and well-spoken act up then and only occasionally break out into his dialect?

There’s honestly not a lot of interesting lore about him 💦 I found myself paying more attention to the local foods of Harveston more than I paid attention to Epel’s family tree or to his childhood stories. There’s not a lot happening to keep me engaged, and everything seems to go by so much slower when Epel’s involved. I can’t even explain why I feel this way, it just is.

This is a personal peeve of mine (since I didn’t like Epel to begin with), but I think he took up WAY too much screen time in episode 5. It felt like he and Vil were fighting for dominance, being equally as unreasonable to each other, while pushing everyone else out of the spotlight, including his own vice dorm leader. The back and forth between his cheekiness and his moments of timidity were NOT cute to me. Perhaps I would be more forgiving if I actually cared about Epel, but I don’t :/ so the entirety of episode 5 was mildly irritating to sit through.

In spite of everything I’ve just said, I’m not going to completely write Epel off; he does have something to offer in how he engages with other characters (most notably Pomefiore). He has kind of a found family dynamic with Vil as his stricter parent and Rook as the more lax one. It’s also nice to see Epel cut loose and be himself around the other first years! I think what bothers me about Epel is that most of the time he’s pretending to be something he’s not??? It feels forced on his part and like he’s not enjoying it, so I feel like I can’t get invested in it either.

#Floyd Leech #Epel Felmier #twst #twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #notes from the writing raven #spoilers #ask game #character opinion bingo

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lovee-infected · 4 years ago

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Hi there! How would the twst boys react to their s/o being slapped by Eliza 😂. Thanks for feeding us the wonderful headcanons! 💜

I love writing for such brilliant ideas , enjoy !

Riddle Rosehearts

Riddle goes blank for a second , unsure what to say or how to react : Half of him wanted to act in and condemn ghosts for their arrogance to lay a hand on you but on the other hand , he knew that he didn't have the right to ; It was their brides choice and she did have the right to do it - which wasn't really pleasant -

You give him a sad look , expecting a show of mercy of sympathy , but he didn't move an eyebrow

You run to a silent corner to cry , and he comes after you . Riddle gives you a hug and apologizes that he couldn't help anything back then

He criticizes your movements as well , how you didn't present yourself properly and why Eliza could've changed her mind

But in the end ; he gives you a small reminder : " Perfect or not , know that you're enough for me ,"

Trey Clover

He got slapped himself so he understands how the world flashed before your eyes for a second

You look a bit down about failing so easily while you were trying to help ; but so did Trey . You get each other on that point

He barely notices it but he literally doesn't know how to flirt , but he tries his best to cheer you up "Ah don't give me that face ! At least you were waaay better than me,"

Well , maybe you weren't such an overly perfect being but neither was Trey , he was just an ordinary guy you'll get to see everyday ; not a stunning prince . It seems like the two of you come from a rather similar level

Perhaps that's why the two of you get along pretty well

Cater Diamond

You didn't expect him to even put his phone down for you but he eventually did ; you find it pretty odd to see him this eager about anything without wanting to share it via Internet , but it also means that he does care for you

He doesn't bother touching your cheek and asking if it hurts

He plants a small kiss on your blushing face and then goes salty again : " So glad that she didn't get you , means you're still all mine ! "

He brings up his phone and before you could've recognized , takes a selfie of him kissing an all shocked you . You beg him to delete it but he isn't listening , but he insures you that this one's a private issue so he won't post it ; perhaps the first selfie he isn't going to share anywhere

Ace Trappola

Trey and Riddle grab his body and mouth before he could do something stupid , how dare she , how dare she slaps you !?

Ace ws already tired of this drama with the hopelessly romantic bride , and you were the final shock .

" SHE IS A HUNDRED TIMES BETTER THAN Y-" Ace tries to shout at Eliza but Riddle grabs him by collar and puts a hand on his mouth : "YOU IDIOT WHAT ARE YOU..."

You come to calm him down , insisting that it's really nothing important , you didn't care . He still seems to be really pissed off at Eliza : " Huh , does she really think that she's any big deal ? My- girls are really crappy sometimes ,-"

Ace refuses to believe that you don't feel any offended so he pulls you to his embrace and keeps on sending you positive vibes non-stop : " You're gorgeous (y/n)! I mean it ! You're smart , talented , dignified ..."

Deuce Spade

He is low-key happy that you two join him at the losers bench . At least you won't now see him as the awkward loser he was in front of Eliza ; not too much to say

"So you too got slapped ?" he tells you he has no idea how to start the conversation

He knows that he is supposed to do something better but he is just blank about it

One half of him wants to hug you and tell that it's fine , then ask if you think he's awkward or something . But the other half just doesn't know what to say

He says that you two must learn some social skills together , that's the most he can do to flirt now : He soft boy

Leona Kingscholar

He actually doesn't mind insulting you a little for getting slapped . He's pissed off himself so he appreciates teasing you

From putting on a cocky smile and smirking to playing with you using sarcastic words

His very last sarcasm seems to be the worst : " I can say that you are way lower than royal standards ,"

But he puts a different end to his words : "...But since I as well got rejected , I guess we're now rejected mates ,"

Is it his sarcastic way of saying a small "I love you" ? Yes it is

Ruggie Bucchi

He didn't bother to come and try proposing , but wasn't expecting for you to try either . He lets out one of his Hyena-like giggles and comes to you

" Was that bride this savage ? Then I'm thankful that I didn't show up ! " he sneakers

He disappears for a second and comes back with an ice-pack : " Geez , it's my third time doing it today . Come over ," he tells you

He already did it for Leona and Jack because he was told to , but he is all ready to give you all those services and more to you

He does enjoy teasing you , but nursing you in situations like this is another hubby of him , after all you're an exception

Jack Howl

He kinda feels guilty about you getting slapped ; he shouldn't have let you tried it anyway . The possibility of you making it was low and you weren't a NRC student anyway

He knows that everyone else were the same but when it was you who got slapped right in front of everyone , he fears it being an issue

He quickly checks on you to see if you're fine and or need a doctor

He is a bit worried about your face swelling so he takes you school's nurse

On your way back , you thank him because of caring for you and he starts to blush and denies it all : " What do you mean ? It was nothing important . No need to thank ,"

Azul Ashengrotto

Azul grabs your hand , wishes Idia a happy marriage and the two of you leave the rest in the middle of chaos

He nags under the lips , telling how he wished others to let him turn her into a little clam

He telles you what an unfortunate soul Eliza is , not only did she die on her marriage day but she also lost perfect lover such as you

He doesn't care about the rest now , so he decides to leave them on their own and instead , have some free time with you

While you wear having some tea at mostrolounge , he shakes head and insults Eliza : " You are surely too much for her , my dear (y/n) . Ghosts always envy humans ; specially when it comes to someone as great as you ~"

Jade Leech

Eliza is now pretty odd to him , first she dislikes the flowers , and now , she rejects you ? Ghosts seem to be even weirder than surface creatures , he thinks

He understands the high standards required while choosing a partner , but you don't seem to lack anything ? How strange

He even cares to ask Eliza about what she might have disliked about you since you don't seem to have any problems , but he avoids it anyway because he isn't ready to get secondly slapped

He offers you a short walk with a bright smile , and you accept

" Miss Eliza surely has weird standards , (y/n) sweetie . You were perfect enough to win ,"

Too bad Crowley insists on them respecting their ghost visitors as long as the stay , Jade is really encouraged to give them a lesson . But uh , he has to have a hold of himself as Octavinelle's vice dorm leader

" Too bad she is dead , flowers would have had an interesting effect if she weren't ," he sighs

Floyd Leech

This bride is getting on his nerves , loud , dumb , in love with a blue , awkward chicken and finds silly excuses to reject everyone proposing to her. If she weren't dead , Floyd would wish her to be . Some brats are better dead

He doesn't see any need to spoil you , but he decides to spill somevtea since it was you " Don't worry shrimpy . You may not be perfect , but she's worse than you , " he flirts .He gives you a tight hug and squeezes you , rambling that it's because Eliza didn't let him do that

He actually finds the red mark on your face cute , saying that it makes your skin color just similar to a shrimp .

He can't help loving your -shrimp-like face - and so , he lowers his head and gives it a small kiss

Vil Schoenheit

If Eliza were alive , Vil would love it now to burn her alive in a huge dig of poison . Or maybe feed him to the dogs , both seem nice

He gently holds your face within his hands and carefully looks at the mark Eliza left behind

He curses under the lips and then pulls you into a soft hug : " Don't mind her love , lowly creatures are unworthy of true beauty , don't let their though bring you down," he mumbles

He absolutely hates being disrespected like this , so he leaves it to Rook and Epel ; though he doubts them being any helpful

He takes you to Pomefiore for firstly , making sure that your slapped face won't swell and then , giving you a full day spa . From extreme showers to putting on your makeup

When you're done , he stares at you through the mirror and smiles : " What an idiot she was to lose this stunning beauty of yours ,"

Rook Hunt

This bride keeps fascinating him , first Vil and now you ? Good god , she is pathetic

Rook really looks up to both of you as a symbol of beauty , grace and in general , perfection . Seeing the two of you being insulted like this is a real pitty

He is being relied on as one of the only four guys who didn't get slapped so he sadly doesn't have much time to comfort you now ; so he comes up with a new idea :

He asks you to give him the pleasure and be his : Bride model ; he has got plenty of tricks up his sleeve , but he still needs to practice them on someone

His long and beautiful poem which was hiding an I love you within its words , and his brilliance ways of winning one's heart leave you speechless ; not ever imagining that he might be this much of a romance man

He practices literally anything he was planning to do with you , and then comes up with the final words : " Dearest (y/n) , would you give me the honor of being your servant of love for eternity ? "

Epel Felmier

You got...what ? Epel was a normal guy at least in his own opinion , Vil senpai was surely beautiful but...not perfect either . But why you ? You didn't seem to have any specific problems . He doesn't like this thing with proposing anyways , so he was hoping someone , specially you , to succeed before he has to...

He is supposed to be practicing dos and don'ts of being a perfect groom , but he just can't do it without checking on you

He comes to you and gives you a tight hug , asking if you're alright

He confesses that he as well is now really scared since he has never even kissed a girl before , but he's going to try his best and put an end into this

He isn't the best of his own , but if a prince on a white horse is what this Ghost needed , he is going to make it , and prove it to you that he can

Kalim al asim

He doesn't know what is going on when you face him with your half red face , he gasps and worriedly starts asking questions : was there a fight ? Did you get hurt ? Was someone trying to bully you ? Who on earth had dared to do this to you !?

You explain the whole issue with he ghost bride and how almost everyone got slapped , making him calm down a bit

He now wants to have a word with this bride , it's rude to slap people just because you don't like them and that really bugs Kalim

Jamil stops him by reminding that it's none of Scarabia's business and as the dorm leader , he has to stay here taking care of more important stuff

Kalim has to agree but he isn't quite satisfied , but he comes up with another way to cheer you up :

" Imagine you're the bride and I'm proposing to you , let's see if I get slapped or not ! "

Jamil Viper

Just as Kalim , he can't imagine why you got slapped for at first but when you explain , he chills a bit

Most of the brides Jamil know gave in to marriage after being given tons of gold and jewelry , but since it is with a ghost , he wondered what might actually attract her. Princesses have to marry people from the same level as themselves , probably a prince or someone pretty rich ; so he isn't really fascinated that you and others all got slapped

He can't help it much , but perhaps insulting all other guys losing their chance is something he would appreciate talking about . It isn't clear if he wants you to feel better by neglecting every other guy or is just trying to chill a bit ; anyways it's joyful for you to talk and having him spending some time with you alone

Idia Shroud

Idia is locked inside the room ,, but he hears sound of you trying to propose to Eliza . His feeling are a bit complicated , both hopeful that Eliza would give up on him because of you and jealous of Eliza , whom you proposed to. No one's here to see him can freely admire your beautiful words coming one after one , and then an unexpected sound : You got slapped

Idia now has lost both his very last hope to get freed and his temper : His hair is slightly turning read . This crazy bride made him lose the global championship league of his favorite video game (since he was tied up by her ) and now slaps you !?

His thoughts are really wild now , especially because of how he can't do anything at all . He wishes he could see you and tell how beautiful and great he thinks your proposal was , hopeful that it'll make you smile

You still went out of his way and tried to free him , and that was more than enough for Idia . All he wishes is to see one more time and get to tell how he feels for you♥

Ortho Shroud

This ghost : Kidnapped his brother and now , slaps you

Who says robots can't feel anything ? Because now , Ortho is mad

He really does want to hack all of NRC's servers and share pictures of ghosts who dare kidnapping and insulting students without the principal doing anything . That'd be an end to Mr Crowley's career but since he isn't doing anything serious , he deserves it

You apologize him because of failing to save his brother , but he just gives you a hug telling how scared he is

You and Idia are the most important people in his life , he just can't stand having you hurt . Not even imagining what he might do if he loses any of you

Malleus Draconia

He wasn't there to recognize this any sooner , but Lilia and Sebek did tell him everything .He shouldn't show up in front of any other students (because they might spoil his real name ) and shouldn't show up in front of any ghosts (because they may catch him and force him to propose ). He was thinking of meeting you in front of ramshackle drom ; your regular corner but since there as well is haunted by the ghosts , he can't help but to wait for this drama to cool down

When you finally return to Ramshackle dorm in the middle of the night , your unexpected guest , tsuno-tarou , is waiting for you

You are suspicious that you didn't see him at all today , so he explains that due to some reasons he couldn't make it . He says hat he doesn't really know what had happened since he stayed in dorm all day , so you go on telling everything from the very beginning . He already knows everything but wants to hear it all from you one more time . He likes to see what they all might've looked like into your eyes . When you're done telling him the story , he giggles and asks one more question ; just curious to see how you'll answer : " So didn't you try proposing , or did you as well get slapped...?"

Lilia Vanrouge

This day was getting more and more complicated... First getting rejected for being too cute and having his 500+ year reputation ruined like this and now , you being the second to get slapped ; this isn't fair

He can help but to let his tears fall , if he's too cute then it's fine for him to cry . Sebek and you freak out in fear of him being through some sort of serious pain or injury , then he just laughs and tells you that he's alright . He just needed to comfort himself but freeing those tears

He doesn't see any need of today getting worse , so he doesn't mind flirting a bit . He jokes on whatever you rejected for not being more frustrating than being too cute and laughs

He thinks that you may like to talk more , so he brings up a more interesting issue : His hundred years experience with women

You are fascinated at how many times he has joined ladies for dances or drinking , yet has never been on a serious relationship

He's actually trying to spill more tea of his low experiements with relationships , hopeful that you get his point

Silver

You return along with Lilia and Sebek. , all of having half of your face red . Silver wasn't there to know what was going on or why Sebek is shouting at him for being a coward not trying to propose like a real man . Poor boy is just blank

Lilia takes Sebek along with him and leaves the two of you alone , so you start telling everything over . He tries his best to hide his laugh at the point where Sebek got slapped but he failed , then Lilia and finally , you

You tell him that you really feel frustrated about failing others and not being good enough , but it makes Silver gently laugh : " Well , from Leona Senpai to Mr . Vil , they all got slapped one by one , doesn't it sound a bit weird ? "

You surely don't get hos point so he continues : " When someone keeps rejecting everyone one by one , it means that they don't really know what they want. They're seeking perfection ; but no one's ever perfect enough for them . Through lovers would still love each other aside lacking too much on their own , and that's what makes their love last : They complete each other "

His words really move you and make you ask how he can tell all these words so beautifully

He gives you small smile and adds : " Well , it's because I've experienced it all with you "

Sebek Zigvolt

Having both master Malleus and you insulted on the same day : This is too much !

You shouldn't have been the one forced propose while others like Silver were laying comfortably on a sofa dreaming of rainforests and colorful birds , it wasn't your right !

He doesn't even ask , he immediately takes you to the nurse office to put a stick on your slapped face . You insist that it's be too much but he isn't listening

He then , apologizes for about an hour for not talking you out of something that wasn't even your duty and promises that there won't be a next time on it

You really get concerned at how stressed out this boy suddenly gets over nothing , so you cut him off by pulling yourself to his embrace and giving him a hug . He freezes at first , but then relaxes and hugs back

" Promise that I'll never let you down (y/n) , never"

♦♥��♣

Tagging : @lilyholo @yourlittlerunt @minteasketches @epher-posts @takumipineapplexd @yandere-of-your-dreams

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grailfinders · 3 years ago

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Fate and Phantasms #174

Y’know what? It’s the america anniversary, and it’s FGO’s anniversary too. Let’s celebrate a bit. Here’s a build early, we’ll be back on schedule on the sixth.

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re making the precious cinnamon bun who just wants to ruin the environment, Berserker of Learning with Manga! For this build, we’ve got three goals; grow big, grow bigger, and grow biggest. Expect spoilers with her build breakdown below the cut, and slightly fewer spoilers in her character sheet over here!

Next up: Give me a sign~ Build me Nero one more time!

Paul Bunyan is a Rune Knight fighter to grow bigger while helping her friends, a Giant Soul Sorcerer to grow bigger while stepping on stuff, and a Totem Warrior Barbarian to smash things good with Babe’s help.

Race and Background

Pauly B was made out of Udon dough, and as a result she’s a Custom Lineage, giving her +2 Strength and a size of Small. She also get proficiency with Animal Handling, and the Magic Initiate feat to pick up some spells from the wizard spell list. Shape Water is just the beginning of your settling abilities, and Thunderclap is a single step for you. You also get Find Familiar to pick up Babes.

Aside from that, you are America’s pioneering spirit made manifest, so you’re an Outlander. This gives you proficiency with Athletics and Survival.

Ability Scores

You’re a glass cannon, so make sure your Strength is as high as you can get it. After that is Charisma- you’re only here because you were so popular in the book, after all. Your Dexterity comes next so you don’t die wearing denim armor. After that is Constitution. You might be a glass cannon, but a building-sized body is still pretty hard to take down. Your Intelligence isn’t amazing, but we’re dumping Wisdom. You’re a berserker anyway, but you also came from a comedy manga. That’s going to hurt your sense of reality.

Class Levels

1. Barbarian 1: Starting out here gets you as much health as we can, as well as proficiency with Strength and Constitution saves and two barbarian skills. Being nine hundred feet tall helps with Intimidation, and you gotta know a bit about Nature if you’re going to tear it down as effectively as you do.

You also get Unarmored Defense, making your AC 10 + your dexterity mod + your constitution mod when you’re just wearing denim. Your Rage transforms you for a minute as a bonus action. It gives you advantage on strength based saves & checks, extra damage on strength based attacks, and resistance to standard weapon damage. When you’re big enough to drink from a great lake, swords don’t do much.

2. Barbarian 2: Second level barbs can make Reckless Attacks, getting advantage now at the cost of giving other creatures advantage against you. Berserkers are not well known for their defensive power, but this will make up for you using such a heavy weapon while small.

That being said, Danger Sense gives you advantage on dexterity saves against effects you see coming. When you can step across the entire battle map in one go, fireballs are easy to avoid.

3. Fighter 1: First level fighters start things off right with a Fighting Style, and grabbing the superior technique style to make one Trip Attack per short rest is a great way to have enemies shouting timber.

You also get a Second Wind, letting you hang out and eat some beans as a bonus action, healing you 1d10+your fighter level HP.

4. Fighter 2: Second level fighters get an Action Surge to help you perform supernatural feats in a single turn. Now you can add on an extra action to your turn once per short rest.

5. Fighter 3: Our last level of fighter unlocks your martial archetype, the Rune Knight! The big reason we’re here is for Giant Might, spending a bonus action to grow Large, also giving you advantage on strength checks and saves, and you also deal extra damage once per turn while attacking. You can transform this way Proficiency times per long rest.

You can also carve Runes into weapons, armor, and jewelry. You get two runes, and can carve them into one item each at the end of a long rest. The Frost rune gives its wearer advantage on Animal Handling and Intimidation checks. The Fire rune doubles the wearer’s proficiency bonus with tools. Once per short rest per rune, they can also be invoked for extra power. The frost rune gives its wearer +2 on all strength and constitution saves and checks, while the fire rune forces a strength save against being restrained by fiery shackles, dealing damage each turn and restraining the target, when you hit it with a weapon attack. The DC for that save is 8 + proficiency + constitution.

6. Sorcerer 1: We might be done with fighter, but we’re not done multiclassing! First level sorcerers get Spells they can cast using their charisma. Thanks to an old unearthed arcana, you can be a Giant Soul sorcerer , granting you Jotun Resilience for slightly more HP; 1 extra per sorcerer level. The Mark of the Ordning also grants you extra low-level spells, like Heroism and Shillelagh. Neither of those are really useful to you, but they’re free, and not why we’re here.

For spells that are in character, grab Mold Earth, Create Bonfire, and Light to spruce up the wilderness and make it your own. You can also use True Strike to chop down trees, but that’s dumb, just make two attacks. For first level spells, Earth Tremor and Thunderwave are you stepping around. The former knocks people prone and makes the ground a big crater, the latter pushes them and objects away from you.

7. Sorcerer 2: This level isn’t that complicated, but you do become a Font of Magic for some Sorcery points that come in handy later. You can also cast Catapult to throw stuff around. Sadly, the maximum weight is only 5 pounds, but you can always just throw stuff yourself.

8. Sorcerer 3: Third level sorcerers get two Metamagic options to personalize your spells using sorcery points. Extended Spell will help out with a certain buff we’re getting this level, extending the length of the spell. You’re also big enough that your spell ranges should grow to match, so grab Distant Spell as well.

This level you can Hold Person, which you tend to take more literally than most casters. After the target fails a wisdom save, they’re paralyzed until they make one. While paralyzed, all attacks are made with advantage, and melee attacks are auto-crits.

Alternatively, you can use the Mark of the Ordning spell, Enlarge/Reduce to make yourself even bigger than usual. (Giant Might explicitly grows to large, so you have to start with that if you want to stack them.)

9. Barbarian 3: After spending half our build elsewhere, we can finally return to our starting class! Third level barbarians set down the Path of the Totem Warrior, letting you use your connection to Babe to pick up all sorts of goodies as we level up.

Immediately, you become a Spirit Seeker, letting you cast Beast Sense and Speak with Animals as rituals to really get into the Babe mindset.

Babe also becomes your Totem Spirit, so we’ll be taking the Elk options whenever possible. Right now, that gives you an extra 15′ of movement while raging. It’s not quite the whole nation in a step, but it’s a start.

10. Barbarian 4: At tenth level, we finally get our first Ability Score Improvement, so round up your Strength and Dexterity for better attacks and a better AC.

11. Barbarian 5: Fifth level barbarians finally get their Extra Attack each attack action, and your Fast Movement adds another 10′ to your movement speed, regardless of whether or not you’re raging.

12. Barbarian 6: Sixth level totem warriors get an Aspect of the Beast, doubling the travel pace for yourself and up to 10 companions. They can just ride on your shoulders, it’s fine.

13. Barbarian 7: Your Feral Instinct gives advantage on initiative rolls, and you can ignore being surprised if you rage at the start of the fight. Raging right away might not be the best option, but that’s for the casters to figure out. You’ve got land development to get to.

You can also use an Instinctive Pounce to move half your movement speed towards an enemy as part of your bonus action when you rage.

14. Barbarian 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Constitution for better runes and more health. You’re pretty squishy for a barbarian, but I guess that’s to be expected, considering what you’re made of.

15. Barbarian 9: Your first Brutal Critical adds an extra die to your critical damage rolls. Big kid, big axe, big damage. Simple math.

16. Barbarian 10: As a Spirit Walker, you can Commune with Nature as a ritual, summoning a cool spirit Babe to tell you stuff about the world around you.

17. Barbarian 11: Your Relentless Rage gives you a case of Guts, letting you make a DC 10 constitution save to avoid dropping to 0 HP, dropping to 1 instead if you succeed. Afterwards, the DC grows by 5, but it resets on short rests. You shouldn’t be getting guts at all, so be grateful.

18. Barbarian 12: Use your last ASI to bump up your Dexterity again for less getting hit. Healing’s nice, but avoiding the damage in the first place is way better.

19. Barbarian 13: You get another round of Brutal Criticals, for another extra die of damage on crits.

Not exactly rocket surgery, huh?

20. Barbarian 14: Your final level gives you your final barbarian goody! Your Totemic Attunement lets you move through a large or smaller creature’s space as a bonus action. It forces a strength save, or the creature is stepped on, knocking it prone and dealing damage.

Pros:

Thanks to your speed, size, and action surge, you can cover a lot of ground very quickly. With 55 feet of movement, two dashes, and an instinctive pounce, you can cover ~195 feet in a single round. Aside from that, your size gives you mobility options that aren’t available to others. Standing around 15′ tall will do that for ya.

You’ve got some solid swings with your axe, letting you deal plenty of damage in a single swing. Bring down the hammer on a natural 20 to blast through those doors. At your biggest you can deal 1d12+1d6+1d4+4 damage. That’s not a smite, but you can do this every turn while enlarge is up.

You get just enough spells to apply a lot of utility to your build, altering the landscape and messing with enemy movement to help out your team.

Cons:

Due to how we leveled up, your first ASI doesn’t come until level 10. If you roll poorly, that might be a problem.

I wouldn’t call you squishy by any means, but you do make for a big target, with your huge size and an AC of only 15 making you easy pickings even before you start getting reckless.

Most of your abilities are tied to your rage, but your biggest size is tied to your spells. They don’t play nice. Even worse, it’s a flavor fail- you can’t trample over people if you’re at your biggest size. (On a semi-related note: being big and being a barbarian have a lot of overlap. Both giant might and raging give you advantage on strength stuff, so having both up is sort of a waste.)

#fate grand order #fgo #DND #D&D 5e #Berserker of Learning with Manga #Barbarian #Fighter #Sorcerer

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dragynkeep · 3 years ago

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If we're making confessions about problems with the greater lbgt community may I say something? You can ignore this if you want. But I'm a young woman in her 20's and identify as aroace. And I don't think I need to tell you how sex and romance obsessed the world is. All society's, all people, all media, tv shows, movies, songs, video games everywhere everyone assumes on some level that every person born wants to fall in love and have sex. Those of us in the aspec community are basically ostracized from everyone. Straight people who refuse to believe our identities are real, gay and other identities seeing us as straight passing and thinking we're infiltrators taking up resources. Everyone invalidating our feelings that oh we're just confused silly and immature. We'll find someone to love us and if we don't we're repressed losers, weird, broken, wrong. If it's not rape threats to "fix us" we get harrassed by someone thsr has romantic feelings we just can't return and getting screamed at because our friendship isn't good enough. Not to mention we always get sidelined. All people prioritize and value romantic and sexual relationships and the family's they will make themselves. Friendship is not valued the same it's seen as lesser that slowly loses importance over time. So friends get pushed further and further to the wayside and if you remain single and without kids everyone starts excluding you. Parents focus more on their children who gave them grandkids, siblings will want more in wills because they have their own family's to care for. That doesn't even go into the sexism ace women face in the workforce. Women who settle and have a family are often overlooked for promotions but ace women who don't seek out qpr and are single get overloaded with work and seen as having more "free time." But if ace women remain single and childfree they get harrassed by everyone they know to settle down eventually, they're not a real woman if they don't fall in love, get pregnant, adopt, or just have sex with someone. It's so lonely it's a loneliness no one ever considers. No one wants to understand asexuals, no one cares for us. I haven't experienced every single thing listed above thank god but it's still common enough that as I get older I'm sure will become more common place. Sorry I just. I'm proud to be aroace I am. I'm not ashamed but man is it hard when everyone looks at you as the other. The outlier that seems barely human that doesn't conform to any conventional standard. I'm low key relieved I've never been able to date anyone long enough to become serious, have crazy exes or even fall in love. It sounds exhausting being distracted by a person or multiple (not putting anyone down) but I've lost many good friends. Friendships I've spent years building up. And that was real heartbreak to me. I lost relatives and no one knows how to help with that because my support group is small. No boyfriend or girlfriend whose friend group would adopt me. Just mostly on my own having to rely on myself as best as I can. Anyway thanks for listening and letting me speak. And to my fellow asexuals and aspec people you're perfect just the way you are. Don't let anyone tell you you're wrong or your feelings are fake. You are fine just as you are so take up space don't hide yourselves if you are safe to be out.

i’m honoured that you see our blog as a safe place for you to vent your feelings & i’m sorry for the way society & people other you for who you are, even those in the community that is meant to be home.

to all our ace / aro followers, we love you & you’re safe here, for anything you need. ♥

#queer #lgbt #asexuality #aromantic #owl.txt #answered #q #aphobia /

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dreamii-yume · 4 years ago

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Ohh Queen Yume you've opened the floodgates!! Which guys would be head over heels over a gorgeous, kind sensei!MC?? Who would feel conflicted about their feelings and who are shameless enough to try to pursue her?

“Tell the guards to open up...THE GATES~”

EVERYONE (΄◉◞౪◟◉｀) fight me with this one, Darlings.

Everyone would be up our Darling Sensei’s ass, I BET YOU MY LIFE SUPPORT. The better question at this point would be asking which wouldn’t be attracted to a beautiful Sensei lol

Riddle would act as if it’s the end of the world as falling in love with a teacher is a huge violation of many rules. Though he sometimes slips up with little gestures that makes him stutter and blush uncharacteristically, he can hide his emotions very well. He will try to kill these forbidden feelings, but doing so just breaks his heart. He secretly wants you to come and save him, recognizing him like he does withyou.

Deuce would be ashamed for falling in love with a teacher, how can he tell his mother about this? He came here to become a model student, not to become so attached to his own instructor. He tries to hide as much as he can but he’s a blushing mess with just the slightest attention from you, anyone could instantly tell what’s up. It’s just a matter of time before Sensei herself realized this precious boy’s feelings.

Jack is conflicted. Why was he feeling this way towards his teacher out of all people available? I see him as someone who fully respects you, he’ll be less violent and even if you haven’t noticed, you already got him perfectly tamed. He’ll keep his feelings for himself and wouldn’t ever plan to tell anyone. Though people have been noticing how slightly protective he’s being with you, of course he’ll violently deny them all. But sometimes it can’t be helped, his own tail would involuntary sway back and forth so excitedly if you go as far as to graze him.

Sebek doesn’t seem to like it, poor boy is just really confused. He should already be dedicated to his young master, he doesn’t need these silly feelings to add to his plate! You’re a teacher! You’re a person that he should respect and pay attention to for knowledge but instead, he’s disgusted at the way you haunt his dreams every night! He can’t believe he’s already falling in love with a human like you! Stop making him feel all giddy on the inside, it’s some sort of spell, isn’t it!?

Poor Idia just can’t take a break, can he? When he’s already stuck in a school full of self-centered brats, how dare you come and knock at his closed-off, introverted heart? He knew these kinds of scenarios from all the dating sims he’ve played but never in his life had he thought that he will find himself in the same situation. That being said, he’s still anxious to come and talk to you personally, his tablet was one way but even that doesn’t feel enough. He might really be going crazy as he starts to want to go outside just to meet you...

Silver can’t seem to put two and two together, he couldn’t quite figure out why his heart was beating so fast for his Darling Sensei. He would ask his father for any explanation but wouldn’t get anything out of it but a simple chuckle. That’s fine, something tells him that he wouldn’t be able to trust his advices anyway. Whatever it is, he’s quite fond of it and he doesn’t seem to care much, he does become really sad when you’re away though.

As we already established, Ace can be quite shameless when it comes to his feelings. He won’t outright say what he feels for you, but he’ll constantly flirt and tease you when he has the chance. Don’t be surprised when you begin to notice him actually trying to cope a feel or looking up your skirt because that’s just him. Also, be careful, he’s very prone to using dirty handed tricks to capture your attention.

Leona is another shameless one, he doesn’t care about status, if he sees a prey, it’s just natural for him to bite from the neck, right? What’s wrong with being a little older? He’s not even that young compared to these useless herbivore, he’s the best that you can get. It wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say that your class might just be the only class that Leona wouldn’t skip. Mainly because he might miss some exclusive view of you, like when your skirt would hitch up every time you bend over to grab something. He wouldn’t hesitate to grope either, that ass is just too tempting not to bite to at least once.

Floyd is difficult to deal with, since he’s likely the most shameless one out of the bunch. He doesn’t care about you being a teacher, Sensei is Sensei regardless! He’ll bother you at every opportunity he gets and at every place he sees you at. He’ll make excuses to meet you up, even going as far as to skip class just so you could take the effort and search for him. It bothers you a little that this particular student of yours constantly keeps asking questions about your lectures even if he always seems to already know the answer.

I’d say Malleus would also be shameless but he doesn’t actually realize that he’s being one. Forgive him for acting so strangely possessive and clingy around you, following you everywhere like a lost baby animal. It’s just that he’s not familiar with having romantic feelings with someone, let alone a mere human. He doesn’t see anything special in your role as a teacher, he had lived much, much longer than you after all.

Lilia is amused, to think that someone as wise as him had actually fallen in love with someone who was supposed to be his ‘teacher’. Never in his long life had he found himself in this kind of situation, it’s interesting! It’s not like it’s a problem anyway, you are nothing more than a child compared to his actual age, you’re just a mortal teaching him stuff that he already knew. But it doesn’t hurt to take advantage of his youthful appearance now, does it? Lilia’s excited to know where this relationship can go.

Sometimes, Trey and Jamil just doesn’t feel like a student to you. Being a lot more mature than the other students, you just can’t help but to rely on them for a lot of things. Maybe that’s probably why you’ll never notice how deeply in love these two are with you, they’re just that good when it comes to hiding emotions. They’ll give subtle hints here and there and Trey, most likely, might even flirt with you at some point but you’ll be so familiar with him by now that you wouldn’t even mind. I’d say Trey’s a bit on the shameless side, but not in a way that makes him clingy while Jamil is the type to just keep quiet but secretly and skillfully making moves.

Cater is categorized as shameless when it comes to expressing his feelings, but when Darling’s a teacher, things becomes a little...complicated. Don’t get him wrong, he’ll be the same as always, so talkative and energetic around you, even calling out for you with a cute nickname. He’ll even flirt like you’re the same age as him but he would always make it seem like a joke. If you’re a teacher, he’ll also be very careful about posting something about you in his Magicam, he knows how this works anyway. One word out that you’re becoming too close with a particular student, you’ll risk losing your job. Cater doesn’t want that happening anytime soon, but just know that he can make it happen too if he absolutely needs to. Until then, it’s all good and dandy!

Ruggie wouldn’t be guilty nor conflicted about his feelings, but he wouldn’t be as shameless as to scream out his feelings to everyone around him. No, only an idiot will do that and it’s embarrassing so, no thank you. Instead, he can play the long game, he’s a patient guy despite how he looks. Besides, he’s used to these kinds of stuff by now so it’s not that much different~! Expect many coincidences with him in it though!

Azul appears to be very calm on the inside, always helping you out whenever you need him without asking for anything in return. That’s what he is, a simp a gracious student ready to help his dear teacher out any time! But that’s what you think, in reality, he’s just desperately trying to earn your favor by being your “Yes-man”. He believes that if he became the goodest boy in your eyes, you’ll be able to love him as much as he does with you. Although, just expect a few tears and tantrums when he doesn’t get his way though.

Jade is so different from his brother that it surprises you that they’re even twins in the first place. He respects your boundaries, even if he wanted nothing more than to become as shameless as his other half. He’s very active when it comes to your lessons too, always paying attention with the greatest interest. He even serves you tea as refreshments and helps you with work if he feels as if you’re overworking yourself. He’s not really the type to care whether you’re a teacher, “I wonder~?” He’ll be very vague about it if anyone dares to ask but if you look closely, that smile says it all.

Kalim wouldn’t be able to recognize his feelings for a really long time. He’ll think it’s just normal to feel this way, for his heart to beat this fast, for his face to heat up, for thoughts of you to flow through his head even at night. But when he does, all those times he shamelessly clung to you and talked to you will come back to attack him all at once. He’ll actually lower down his affection levels because he was told that liking a teacher is bad and it might actually cost you your job. But it’s so difficult! It wouldn’t hurt to spend...a little more time with you, would it!?

Vil thinks it’s stupid of him and of you. He thinks he’s stupid for falling in love with someone like you, his own teacher, it’s unbelievable how low his standards had become. But at the same time, he thinks you’re stupid for not being able to understand why he fell in love with you in the first place too. Despite the salt of falling in love with someone like you of all people, it doesn’t change the fact the he’ll keep on striving to become the best for you. He wants you to notice him, notice his improvements, and make you feel how lucky you are for catching his attention, so would you try and look at him in a different way for once?

Rook just loves anyone and anything, does he? Everything is beautiful in his eyes and yet, there was something about you that shines the brightest amongst all others. There should be no shame in expressing his feelings, he’ll shout it out loud to world. His eccentric personality is working against his favor too, even if honestly and openly admitted his feelings towards you with everyone, no one will actually take it seriously. But what others perceives to be true isn’t always true, Darling.

I’m not quite sure where to put Epel in all of this, something’s telling me that he would be on the shameless side only if he’s willing to show his much more aggressive side. However, I can imagine him being worried to show that side to you, since you were already put under the impression that he’s a dainty, gentle boy. Although he doesn’t like being treated like he’s the most fragile thing of all people, he can’t deny the attention he gets from you whenever he’s acting like this. Epel doesn’t really seem to care if you’re a teacher in all of this, he knew that it’s not good but he’s determined. Once he graduates, he’ll definitely make a move on you so, just you wait...!

Before I knew it, I made something for every character holy shi- my teacher kink is terrifying.

Also, yes, Darlings! Yume changed her usename from “amai-no-yume” to “dreamii-yume”! ( ＾∀＾) To tell you the truth, I didn’t expect to like posting sins in tumblr this much ヽ(；▽；) So I ended picking such a half-ass username! But now, I decided to change it to something hopefully cuter and more appropriate! ( ´ ▽ ` )

Nice to meet you again, Darlings~!

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margridarnauds · 4 years ago

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Hey, can you give us a summary about the Celtic content in AC: Valhalla? (Is there much Celtic stuff in it in general and what's wrong it?) I haven't played it yet, but I know a guy who they hired to translate Old Irish text for the game so now I'm curious what they got wrong with the Celtic parts in general since I've been looking forward to seeing those parts in Irish.

That’s actually really exciting! I didn’t know they’d hired someone on! (If you don’t mind...would you actually PM me where your man’s at? It’s unlikely, but I need to know if I have to shame any of my own nearest and dearest for being involved in this WITHOUT TELLING ME.)

Unfortunately, I don’t have ahold of a copy myself, namely because my “gaming rig” is......outdated. And by “outdated” I mean “I can play Assassin’s Creed: Unity via GeoForce and Stardew Valley, because it is, in fact, a Mac.” A lot of what I’ve been getting is coming roughly second or third hand - Personally, I’m tempted to change that, because it’s (1) a little unfair and (2) ....I’m unfortunately very weak for this series anyway, and I’m weaker for any possible Celtic stuff.

What I UNDERSTAND is that, in the game, there is a cult.....in 9th century (I am EMPHASIZING *9TH CENTURY*) Gloucester that worships........Cernunnos. Because that was a thing. In post-Christianized. Gloucester. (Note: Druidic practices DID survive for longer in Ireland, in various forms and with significantly less power/influence, but. Gloucester.)

Now, we might ask ourselves: How do you worship Cernunnos? In 9th century Gloucester? Well, the answer the game developers came up with was apparently.

With.

The.

Mari.

Lwyd.

Which, my Welshicist friend reminded me, was first attested to in the 19th century. (Also: NOT to encourage the game developers, but if you were going to bring in the Mari Lwyd and decide that Gloucester= Welsh..............why not use Rhiannon? Like, if you’re going to do this, COMMIT to it.)

And they worship Cernunnos.

At Samhain.

With the Mari Lwyd.

(Just. Just say “Calan Gaeaf”.)

And the Welsh lady’s name. Is Brigid. (Also note: .....I don’t want to be too judgemental about a game I haven’t played, but I AM going to express a SLIGHT degree of salt to the fact that I’m seeing a lot of discussion about her being “unintelligible” and how funny it is that no one can understand what she’s saying. Like, if it was a magical fantasy language, it would be one thing, but that’s suspiciously similar to how I’ve seen a lot of people deal with Welsh in the modern day, even on this website, and I do NOT appreciate it. It seems like the Welsh is accurate, from the Welsh speakers who’ve contributed, but I don’t trust leaving it untranslated and played for comedy.)

Because. As we all know. Marginalized languages. Being labeled “unintelligible”. Is funny.

And I would give it a pass on the Vikings not knowing it, except that apparently, our protagonist can read Ogham stones with perfect clarity so like. Come on, guys, you can do better than this.

There is also a quest in which you can choose to let a man burn inside a wicker man or not. Because, as controversial as discussing it in the classical world is, it is also TOTALLY a thing that was done. In the 9th century.

I did notice that there are puzzles left by Brendan the navigator that you can solve! That was actually the first thing to pique my interest.

There IS going to be an expansion pack that features Ireland more prominently, called “Wrath of the Druids”. I fully expect to have an aneurism, since.....mythographer. This is regrettably smack dab in my area of expertise.

But, on the plus side:

“"Within Wrath of the Druids you will get to fight The Children of Danu [Tuatha Dé Danann] cult, discover who their members are, hunt them down and fight them. You will get to conquer ringforts, and also influence the trading systems of Dublin, which at the time was a bustling, trading metropolis."

So, it looks like you’ll be hunting down a druid cult....in 9th century Ireland (which, tbh........look, I could split hairs over the timeline here and say that they’re still at least a couple centuries off, but you know what? It’s more plausible than Gloucester.) That worships the Tuatha Dé - I expect we’ll see a scenario similar to what we saw in Curse of the Pharaohs/Dead Kings, with the cult using an Apple of Eden to conjure up images of the TDD. It goes without saying that, in 9th century Ireland, the country was THOROUGHLY Christianized, but also....Personally.....After Wales, my standards are INSANELY low, and if they let me fulfill my life’s dream of personally bitchslapping Lugh (note: in relation to recent discourse: Bitchslapping Lugh is fully in keeping to the spirit of the original myths, as demonstrated by the Milesians, who made “Bitchslapping the TDD” into a personal hobby)......I will simp.

I have been dreaming of the day that I could bitchslap Lugh since I was 13 - Truly, this game lets you live your dreams.

Tbh, my standards for ANYTHING like this are insanely low, so.....if I’m EVER in a position to upgrade.......I’m still most likely going to get it. I WILL say that hearing they hired someone on (I’m guessing for the expansion pack? It doesn’t look like the main game deals with it so much) for the Old Irish makes me VERY happy, and if nothing else, I can distract myself by trying to parse it out. That being said, despite that, I’m STILL hesitant because of how thoroughly they blundered the main game content.

Also, I don’t know if you know about this one, but another time when I know they hired on someone for Old Irish was, of all places, for the TV show Grimm, specifically the episode “Star-Crossed” - If you’re looking for hearing Old Irish in pop culture.

#an-moncai-mishuaimhneach

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tigerkirby215 · 4 years ago

Text

I’m a particular fan of wasting my time so I decided to rate all the Half-Feats for no real reason

(Artwork from the Acquisitions Incorporated 5th Edition sourcebook, because I can’t just use artwork from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything.)

If you have been around my blog for any lengthy period of time you will know two things about me.

I often fall into flights of fancy mostly under the guise of attempting to branch out with this blog, even though the real reason is that I wish to publicize any and all work I do for this hobby.

I really like half-feats.

And who could blame me (at least for the second point.) It’s always exciting when you can get a feat, and half-feats allow you to round out a stat of your choice while still allowing you to diversify your character with unique abilities to make them your own. Feats are always strong and even the most basic half-feat still provides you with unique traits to differentiate yourself from the standard adventurer. But it can be hard to choose when they are all so diverse which is why I’m making this list for myself and anyone who may find it useful.

I would also like to thank LudicSavant from the Giant in the Playground forums for their organized list of Half-Feats. It has made the creation of this list far easier and I frequently reference it when making builds.

WHAT IS A HALF-FEAT?

For the sake of understanding (because the last time I used the term “half-feat” on Reddit a lot of people got confused) I will define a half-feat here: A half-feat is any feat that gives half of an ability score improvement (+1 to a given stat) along with its regular features. They are obviously good choices for any player with an uneven stat, as they can make that stat even (for the increase in ability modifier) while also gaining an additional bonus.

HOW IS THIS LIST ORGANIZED

This post is split into 6 sections, one for each stat. (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma.) The feats are organized in alphabetical order. Basically I’m lifting the formatting from LudicSavant.

Each feat will be shown as follows:

FEAT NAME

Description

Summary

Rating

Feats that can be applied to varied ability scores will be mentioned multiple times, however unless the feat changes based on the ability score chosen the entry will simply be shown as a redirect to where it was summarized earlier.

And I guess it also has to be said: This list is just my opinion and is in no way an objective ranking of the half-feats that currently exist in D&D 5th Edition. Feel free to make your own decisions when designing your character: this post is merely meant to share my opinion and provide a reference resource for people making characters.

(Artwork still from the Acquisitions Incorporated 5th Edition sourcebook. Damn this book has some nice artwork.)

STRENGTH

Athlete

Grants you the ability to stand up from prone faster, climb more easily, and jump further.

You’d think with the amount of builds I’ve included this feat in I’d have more positive things to say about it. But no: this feat is trash. Climbing is rare and jumping is pretty much never used in D&D. Even if it was there are low level spells (Spider Climb / Jump) that allow you to do what this feat does.

The only really useful addition to this feat is the faster speed to get up from the prone position. Being prone sucks and it can heavily restrict your movement when it happens. Putting yourself prone is also helpful in a ranged build to give enemies disadvantage to hit you from range. (You can technically knock yourself prone after attacking to make it harder to hit you.) But this strategy loses effectiveness quickly and it isn’t worth taking a feat to combat the rare possibility of being knocked off your feet.

Ultimately if you genuinely see any of the features of the Athlete feat as being useful chances are that either your DM forces way too much jumping / climbing, really likes knocking people over, or you really like knocking yourself prone.

2/10

Crusher

Grants extra utility to bludgeoning weapons, allowing you to move foes into more favorable positions.

RIP in piss Monks am I right lads? To be fair there aren’t any Finesse Bludgeoning Weapons with the only exception being the Sling. But regardless: this feat has two features along with its Ability Score Improvement:

The pushing ability is situational at best. Displacement abilities in 5th edition rarely have a significant impact. You may push an enemy off a cliff on occasion but unless your DM makes a significant effort to present these opportunities to you it won’t come up often. There is some niche use for this feat to work as a poor man’s Mobile feat, as you can push a foe back 5 feet before running away without needing to disengage.

But perhaps the biggest problem with the displacement ability of Crusher is that Shield Master does everything it does almost objectively better, all while providing additional benefits to Dexterity saving throws. Shield Master isn’t a half-feat, granted. But one could get one of the better +1 feats to STR / CON along with Shield Master.

The effect on a crit is incredibly potent. Giving all allies advantage to hit a foe will lead to more damage being dealt and an even higher chance to crit. However relying on crits usually isn’t a smart idea, and crits are already deadly enough without a feat to boost them.

7/10

Dragon Fear

DRAGONBORN EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Allows you to roar with your Breath Weapon ability, frightening nearby enemies.

This feat singlehandedly makes Dragonborn viable. I’m not even joking: being able to replace your CON based, low damage Burning Hands-lite with essentially the Fear spell which comes back on a Short Rest and is based on Charisma is insanely useful for any Charisma character. The most obvious use is for the Charisma casters: Bards and Sorcerers can get an extreme amount of value from this feature. But other Charisma classes like Paladins, Swashbuckler Rogues, and any other class that requires Charisma can use it well. Warlocks get a little less use out of it than most since their abilities already come back on a Short Rest but it’s still nice to have in your pocket.

It’s less useful for non-Charisma classes but it can’t be flawless. But it removes the problem of choosing between a subpar AoE damage ability or just attacking with your weapons / spells, and instead gives you a utility ability to give yourself space. It doesn’t scale well late when most enemies resist fears, but neither did your breath weapon. Especially with the Dragonborn subraces from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount this feat is extremely good.

I mean, you could just play a Leonin and get the fear without investing in a feat, especially since Tasha’s lets you move ability scores around. But Dragonborn have more fun roleplay and other abilities that the Leonin lack.

10/10

Dragon Hide

DRAGONBORN EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Your AC is equal to 13 + DEX and your unarmed strikes do a d4 + STR damage.

The Mage Armor feat / the worse Tavern Brawler feat. What confuses me about this feat is how at-odds it is with itself. On one hand your AC is still based on DEX but on the other hand your natural weapon is based on STR?

Let’s just ignore the Unarmed Strike damage because let’s be real here: you can just pick up a dagger instead of slashing people with your dragon claws. Is Mage Armor really worth losing half of a feat? If you have nothing better maybe, but this list alone shows that there are better options. There are some very specific niche scenarios where Unarmored Defense is more valuable than actual armor but those scenarios are usually campaign-specific or a choice done more for roleplay, and you could just as easily accomplish the roleplay by taking the Magic Initiate feat to get Mage Armor along with two useful cantrips.

Honestly this should’ve just been added as a base feature for the Dragonborn, and most DMs I know give this feat to Dragonborn at level 1. (Minus the half feat ASI.) Lizardfolk have innate AC, crafting skills, and a healing bite; Dragonborn should get innate AC, damage resistance, and a crappy breath weapon that can be upgraded by the Dragon Fear feat.

3/10

Heavily Armored

Gain proficiency with heavy armor.

The vast majority of classes that are expected to wear Heavy Armor have Heavy Armor Proficiency. In fact the only Martial class that doesn’t have Heavy Armor proficiency (minus Barbarians and Monks who can’t wear Heavy Armor) is the Ranger, so this feat is good if you want to play a Ranger like a Paladin. Huhn. Ironic that I am playing a Horizon Walker Ranger like a Paladin in one of the campaigns I’m in.

(Artwork by Bo “chenbowow” Chen. Made for Riot Games.)

Like, you can grab this feat for Clerics and Druids I guess, but why would you? Medium Armor is on-par with Heavy Armor, and 14 DEX is far more useful than the 15 STR required to wear Platemail.

The only other two (well technically three) subclasses I can think of which could grab this feat are the Hexblade Warlock and the two Martial Bards. (College of Swords / College of Valor.) For Hexblade... why do you need Strength? You can swing your sword with Charisma. Bard however... I guess if you want to play a Strength Bard it’s an option?

But yeah: the only time I ever used this feat was to play a Ranger like a Paladin. And saying “I used this feat to play one of the worst classes in the game like a better class” isn’t exactly an accomplishment.

1/10

Heavy Armor Master

While wearing heavy armor, bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage that you take from nonmagical weapons is reduced by 3.

The word that kills this feat is “nonmagical.” I can tell you as a fact having had a Fighter use this feat in a level 1 - 5 campaign that it is TORTURE for any DM. “Oh boy I finally hit the 20 AC Fighter annnnd I did 5 total damage, even though I rolled max damage.”

But this feat literally becomes useless past level 8 or so when enemies start getting magical weapons. There are a few enemies that still technically do nonmagical damage at high levels, but even then this feat isn’t going to save you from foes that are normally doing upwards of 15 damage per swing. It adds up yes, but it’ll rarely add up in my personal experience.

Take this feat on a Variant Human at level 1 if you’re doing a level 3 one shot, just to be an asshole.

2/10

Lightly Armored

Gain proficiency with light armor.

?????

Mage Armor exists. The only classes in the game that don’t get proficiency with at least Light Armor are Sorcerer and Wizard. You can afford to lose a spell slot for Mage Armor. Seriously.

1/10

Moderately Armored

Gain proficiency with medium armor.

The best of the “armored” feats because (hot take time) Medium Armor is the best armor in the game. It requires the least investment which makes it the most easily accessible armor in the game. If you have a 13 in DEX I’d highly recommend grabbing this feat. If your DEX is at a 16 (+3) or higher I’d honestly maybe just recommend Light Armor / Mage Armor instead?

8/10

Orcish Fury

HALF-ORC EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Get the ability to choose to roll an additional damage die once per short rest. Additionally, you can use your Reaction to make a weapon attack after being knocked down to 1 HP via your racial trait once per short rest.

Anyone find it amusing that this feat is only available to Half-Orcs but not full Orcs? Anyways: having the ability to essentially crit on-demand is nice. Having the reactionary attack after being knocked to 1 HP is situational, but still alright. I think if I was playing a Half-Orc and I needed to round out either my Strength or my Constitution (more likely my CON since there are far better feats for STR) I wouldn’t be upset taking this. Is it worth playing a Half-Orc just for this feat? Not by a long shot lol.

6/10

Piercer

When you deal damage with a piercing weapon you can reroll one of the damage die on one attack per turn. When you crit you can roll an additional damage die.

Savage Attacker as a half feat, proving that Savage Attacker is a bad feat lol. I’m actually going to talk more about this feat when I go into the Dexterity section which makes this the first feat where I’ll actually rank it lower for a specific Ability Score.

3/10 (if using STR)

Resilient (STR)

Gain proficiency with Strength saving throws.

Strength saves are common and pretty bad, but not as bad as Wisdom or Dexterity. What’s more is that most classes that will be forced to make Strength saves have proficiency in Strength saving throws already. If you have an uneven Strength score this isn’t the worst way to round it out, but I’d sooner get a stronger feat for another ability.

3/10

Revenant Blade

Essentially Dual-Wielder for the Double-Bladed Scimitar.

A very specific feat to the Eberron setting, and even though I use Eberron content frequently in my builds I’ll be honest: I know very little about the setting. The DBS honestly just seems worse than uh... wielding two scimitars? 3d4 damage is about on-par with 2d6. This feat is something you take more for roleplay than actual practicality with your character, though I have played with people (outside of Eberron lol) using a double-bladed scimitar and it seems like a cool weapon. Dual Wielder is also a good feat and it seems you can use the DBS without grabbing the Dual Wielding Fighting Style.

5/10

Skill Expert

Learn a skill and gain expertise in a skill.

A very good skill to round out any build. Expertise can actually shape your character quite a lot, as it allows you to be good at things even if your Ability Scores are bad. A good go-to feat to round off any uneven Ability Score if you have nothing better imo.

7/10

Slasher

Slashing weapons lower the speed of the target hit by 10. On a crit the target has disadvantage on all attack rolls until the start of your next turn.

Easily the worst of the weapon damage type feats, which is a shame because I like slashing weapons. The slowdown effect is rarely useful: the only class which I really think can use the slowdown effect well is hit-and-run Rogues, but Slashing weapons are heavily restricted from Rogues for some reason. The crit effect is nice but you shouldn’t be banking on crits, even as a Champion Fighter. This feat at least has a niche if you plan to play a Whip Rogue but that’s about it.

3/10

Squat Nimbleness

Increase your movement speed by 5, gain proficiency with Athletics or Acrobatics, and gain Advantage to escape grapples.

It is actually goddamn hilarious how good this feat is. +5 movement is already nice (especially if you’re playing one of the later-added small races [or a Homebrew race] that has 30 feet of movement) but you also get a free skill proficiency in either of the two most commonly used skills in the game, and to top it off to my knowledge this feat is the only way to gain a bonus to escaping grapples. (Outside of like, the Freedom of Movement spell.)

Take this! Good lord take this! If you have an uneven ability score and are small don’t even hesitate!

10/10

Tavern Brawler

Gain a d4 unarmed strike and proficiency with improvised weapons. After striking a creature with an unarmed strike or improvised weapon on your turn you can grapple them as a bonus action.

This feat will either be the best or worst feat you take depending on your DM. If your DM lives up to the Dead Rising promise of “anything is a weapon” and lets you pick up a stick off the ground and use it as an improvised weapon: congratulations your Wizard now has an infinite supply of short swords!

The grapple after making an improvised or unarmed strike is... interesting. I’ve expressed my distaste for grappling in the past but on its own at lower levels its not the worst option. The main problem is really just that the Grappler feat is bad, but if you want to keep an enemy from running then grabbing them isn’t the worst option!

5/10

Weapon Master

Gain proficiency with 3 weapons.

Just take a single level in Fighter. Honestly upgrading your weapon’s damage die isn’t worth losing the ASI. Even in the most extreme example of upgrading a dagger (d4) to a rapier (d8) you’re only getting +4 damage potential max.

The only application I really think is worth it for this feat is Rogues, because for some stupid reason Rogues don’t get proficiency with either Scimitars or (more importantly) Whips. So if for whatever reason you want to play a Reach Weapon Whip Rogue but still get Stroke of Luck from the 20th level of Rogue then I guess Weapon Master has some use? But you could just as easily grab the Mobile feat to reap similar benefits without being forced to use a d4 weapon.

1/10

DEXTERITY

Athlete

See above.

Elven Accuracy

ELF / HALF-ELF EXCLUSIVE FEAT.

Roll 3 d20s instead of 2 when you have advantage and are attacking with DEX or a spell.

Otherwise known as “why Elf Samurai is secretly overpowered.” If you have a reliable way to get Advantage this feat is absolutely nutty. If not well... It’s still a nice way to round out an uneven Ability Score, and it works with spell attack rolls too which gives it plenty of versatility!

Basically if there’s any semi-consistent chance that you’re going to get advantage I’d take this feat. If not? There are better half feats out there. Really a shame this doesn’t work with STR attacks but I guess they didn’t want Elf Barbarians to be the most overpowered shit in the game.

8/10

Fade Away

GNOME EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Use your reaction to become invisible after taking damage. You remain invisible until the end of your next turn unless you perform an aggressive action.

Invisibility is never a bad thing. This feat gives you what is essentially a stronger version of the Shield spell once per Short Rest since (rules as written) enemies can’t target you if they can’t see you. Now of course a lot of this depends on your DM (how many enemies with Blindsense are around, and if enemies will swing where you just were because metagaming) but this feat is almost exclusively why you should play a Gnome as opposed to something else.

This feat plus Squat Nimbleness is honestly worth losing an ASI for. Fade Away, Squat Nimbleness, and Moderately Armored combined can be three very good feats for a Gnome spellcaster who already has a high casting stat.

9/10

Gunner

Crossbow Expert for guns.

Crossbow Expert for guns. The only part of this feat that affects non-firearms is the lack of disadvantage in melee range which I mean... if you’re not planning to use crossbows it might be useful? But I’d sooner take Piercer, Elven Accuracy, or another more useful feat.

GUN/10 3/10

Lightly Armored

See above.

Piercer

When you deal damage with a piercing weapon you can reroll one of the damage die on one attack per turn. When you crit you can roll an additional damage die.

The first and probably only feat where increasing one Ability Score is far more useful than the other! Let’s start with the obvious: Savage Attacker doesn’t work with ranged weapons, but since all ranged weapons (minus the Sling) do Piercing damage this feat affects them! For most ranged weapons this isn’t that big of a deal but if you’re using one of the ranged weapons with a bigger damage die (Longbow / Heavy Crossbow) it’s still nice to have, especially if you have multiple attacks and will henceforth have a higher chance of rolling low for damage.

The triple damage effect on a crit is also very nice for a ranged weapon, and lets you live out that sharpshooter fantasy. But again banking on crits is unreliable. Overall this feat is a very nice way to increase an uneven Dexterity score and get some benefits for your ranged weapons. It’s not something I’d go out of my way to get but it does feel very good to grab.

7/10 (if using DEX)

Moderately Armored

See above. Slightly better when increasing DEX because DEX is more universally useful than STR.

Resilient (DEX)

Gain proficiency with Dexterity saving throws.

Dexterity saving throws are some of the most common saving throws in 5e. Being able to halve the damage of a Fireball is always worth it.

9/10

Revenant Blade

See above.

Second Chance

HALFLING EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Force an enemy that’s attacking you to reroll their attack once per combat.

This feat interests me because (to my knowledge) it’s the only feat that replenishes when you “roll initiative at the start of combat.” But regardless: being able to force an enemy to reroll a hit on you is really nice, but mind you that there is the chance to turn a regular hit into a crit.

If your class already has reactions this really isn’t worth it. But if you’re playing something like a Fighter this can be a nice way to shrug off a hit or two over the course of the day. A good way to round out your stats and give yourself some safety, but not something I’d go out of the way to get.

7/10

Squat Nimbleness

See above.

Skill Expert

See above.

Slasher

See above.

Weapon Master

See above.

CONSTITUTION

Aberrant Dragonmark

Get one Sorcerer cantrip and one level 1 Sorcerer spell. Constitution is your spellcasting modifier for these spells. Additional effects when you cast your level 1 spell.

Veterans of this blog will know how much I love Aberrant Dragonmark. If you’re taking Magic Initiate to have a ranged attack then Aberrant Dragonmark is pretty much just universally better than Magic Initiate. The only real flaw with this feat is that you can only take from the Sorcerer list... oh and that it’s very Eberron specific. It’s unlikely that you’ll be allowed this feat, but I would recommend it for just about anyone who needs a ranged backup. Constitution becomes a lot more exciting when it’s used for more than just health.

8/10

Chef

Allies heal more during short rests. Prepare treats allies can use to gain Temporary hitpoints as a Bonus Action.

Song of Rest? Never heard of her! A fairly mediocre feat on its own, though admittedly fun for roleplay. The treats are actually not that bad to give allies a tiny bit of bulk. The definitely-not-Song of Rest feature is also good in its own right.

It’s a nice way to round out your Constitution or Wisdom if it’s uneven, and is very fun for roleplay. But it’s not the most impressive in terms of utility.

6/10

Crusher

See above.

Dragon Fear

See above.

Dragon Hide

See above.

Durable

Add double your Constitution modifier to rolled hit die while Short Resting.

I mean, it’s nice? But the only real use I see for this is for a Barbarian. It can definitely allow you save up on your hit die but unless you have a 13 in CON (14 with this feat) I wouldn’t recommend it. I’d much rather not take the damage in the first place: an ounce of prevention beats a cure!

5/10

Dwarven Fortitude

DWARF EXCLUSIVE FEAT

When you take the Dodge action you can heal with a hit die.

Otherwise known as “Dwarf Monks are super legit for no good reason.” It’s a very interesting feat that allows you to tank in interesting ways, and it’s particularly good if you know your DM doesn’t let you frequently short rest. It can be nice to heal in a pinch, but much like with Durable I’d rather negate the damage than heal with hit die.

And if your DM allows frequent short rests? This feat is objectively worse than Durable, since it doesn’t really matter when you heal with hit die.

5/10

Infernal Constitution

TIEFLING EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Resist Cold and Poison damage, and gain Advantage on saving throws against Poisons.

You already resist Fire damage, which is extremely common. This feat adds two more common damage types to that list, and also helps you against a common debuff. This is just a very good way to give your character more bulk! Of course if you aren’t fighting a lot of poisonous or cold enemies this feat won’t be too practical, but in a standard campaign with varied foes this will quickly carry its weight!

7/10

Orcish Fury

See above.

Resilient (CON)

Gain proficiency with Constitution saving throws.

Constitution saves are extremely common, most notably for Concentration checks. Other people have done the math that Resilient scales better than War Caster to help with Concentration checks. This feat is a must-have for spellcasters, and very good all-around.

10/10

Second Chance

See above.

Skill Expert

See above.

Tavern Brawler

See above.

INTELLIGENCE

Elven Accuracy

See above.

Fade Away

See above.

Fey Teleportation

HIGH ELF EXCLUSIVE FEAT

Learn Sylvan. Cast Misty Step once per Short Rest.

Otherwise known as LITERALLY THE ONLY REASON TO PLAY A HIGH ELF. Holy shit if you’re playing a High Elf take this feat! A free language is nice and all but Misty Step is one of the most useful utility spells in the game, and you have near-constant access to it!

10/10

Fey Touched

Learn Misty Step and one additional first level spell from the Enchantment or Divination schools. You can cast both of these spells once without using a spell slot.

Misty Step is one of the strongest spells in the game: if your class doesn’t normally get it I’d definitely recommend Fey Touched just to get Misty Step. Being able to grab strong first level Enchantment and Divination spells like Hex, Hunter’s Mark, Bless, Heroism, and Detect Magic are also very useful.

9/10

Flames of Phlegethos

Reroll 1s when dealing Fire damage. Surround yourself in Fire when casting a Fire damage spell.

Otherwise known as “Elemental Adept lite.” Only really useful if you’re planning to consistently be in close range, but very fun and flavorful if you are casting fire up close.

I honestly wish this feat wasn’t Tiefling exclusive because it’s cool as shit but so situational: I’d love to see a version of this feat that’s damage type exclusive and race exclusive. Hm maybe that’ll be a Homebrew project of mine.

7/10

Keen Mind

Know some information you should probably already know.

Otherwise known as “hey mister DM I forgot to buy a compass or a watch in town, and I’m too stupid to take notes.” This is the feat for bad players, and most DMs will ignore it even if you do take it.

1/10

Linguist

Learn 3 languages. Write cyphers.

The languages are honestly useless: Comprehend Languages is a first level spell, and Tongues is a third level spell. The cyphers are a lot more interesting, but they’re admittedly extremely situational outside of specific campaigns. It also really sucks that your feat can be undone with the Comprehend Languages spell, which can be cast as a ritual.

4/10

Observant

+5 to Passive Perception / Investigation. You can read creatures’ lips if you understand the language they’re speaking.

The ability to read creatures’ lips is honestly really interesting for espionage, but let’s be real: you picked up this feat for the increase to Passive Perception. Honestly if you don’t want to be ambushed just take the Alert feat.

7/10

Resilient (INT)

Gain proficiency with Intelligence saving throws.

Intelligence saves are rare. Devastating when they occur, yes. But I’d sooner take Observant, Linguist, or one of the Tasha’s feats over Resilient.

5/10

Shadow Touched

Learn the Invisibility spell and one additional first level spell from the Necromancy or Illusion schools. You can cast both of these spells once without using a spell slot.

Invisibility is less universally useful than Misty Step, and Necromancy / Illusion spells are weaker than Divination / Enchantment spells. (At least if we’re talking first level.) There are some nice ones like Disguise Self and Inflict Wounds but generally speaking mobility is more useful in my humble opinion.

7/10

Skill Expert

See above.

Telekinetic

Learn the Mage Hand cantrip. If you know it already, increase its range by 30 feet. You can make the Mage Hand invisible. Additionally, you may shove a creature 5 feet towards or away from you as a Bonus Action on your turn.

Mage Hand is one of the best cantrips in the game and being able to make it invisible was a subclass feature restricted to just Arcane Trickster Rogues previously. Having an invisible grabbing arm is insanely useful, and extending it to 60 feet is even better.

And that isn’t even the best part! Being able to shove people around isn’t necessarily the most overpowered thing but it still gives you a way to use your Bonus Action every turn! If you play on a tabletop you can use this feat to push enemies back into AoE damage abilities or pull allies away from danger! In Theater of the Mind however this feat isn’t as strong and I wouldn’t recommend using the shove too much as its liable to annoy your DM.

8/10

Telepathic

You can speak telepathically to a creature within 60 feet of you. They have to understand the language, and don’t gain the ability to respond telepathically. Additionally, you learn the Detect Thoughts spell, and can cast it once per Long Rest without using a spell slot.

Detect Thoughts isn’t that great of a spell, though granted this is just my personal experience. That being said having telepathy is extremely useful, and this is speaking from experience!

I will say right now: take this feat if you are a Druid. Unless your DM is a real stickler for the rules this will let you speak to people while Wildshaped! This opens up a whole world of possibilities for your Druid! I unironically consider this feat mandatory for a Druid, and fairly useful for any other character who wants to speak quietly and stealthily. And you know: doesn’t have access to Message.

8/10 - Mandatory for a Druid

WISDOM

Chef

See above.

Elven Accuracy

See above.

Fey Touched

See above.

Observant

See above.

Resilient (WIS)

Gain proficiency with Wisdom saving throws.

Wisdom saves are very common, but most Wisdom classes already get Wisdom saving throw proficiency. If you have an uneven Wisdom score it can be worth it to get the proficiency, but Wisdom saving throws are arguably the most common saving throw to be proficient with.

7/10

Shadow Touched

See above.

Skill Expert

See above.

Telekinetic

See above.

Telepathic

See above.

CHARISMA

Actor

Gain advantage when pretending to be someone else, and become capable of mimicking someone’s voice after listening to them.

A very good feat if you plan to do any infiltration or other political intrigue stuff. With the Disguise Self spell this feat can be used by just about anyone, but the real value comes for Changelings. Having Disguise Self as a racial trait means the “be better at fooling people” feat is insanely useful. Inversely this feat isn’t as useful for Kenku since you can already mimic voices more-or-less perfectly.

This feat is inherently situational but it’s beyond useful for the campaigns where it can be used. And again: it’s near-mandatory for a Changeling or a Warlock with the Mask of Many Faces invocation (or anyone who takes Eldritch Adept for Mask of Many Faces.)

7/10 - Mandatory for Changelings

Dragon Fear

See above.

Dragon Hide

See above. (How the hell this feat increases Charisma I have no idea.)

Elven Accuracy

See above.

Fey Teleportation

See above.

Fey Touched

See above.

Flames of Phlegethos

See above.

Resilient (CHA)

Gain proficiency in Charisma saving throws.

Charisma saving throws are extremely rare, and more often than not they’re more of the “don’t get to play the game” variety and less “die super bad and become a living vegetable” like Intelligence saving throws. Even if looking to round out uneven ability scores feats like Skill Expert and Telepathic are better.

3/10

Second Chance

See above.

Shadow Touched

See above.

Skill Expert

See above.

Telekinetic

See above.

Telepathic

See above.

HELPFUL CHART OR SOMETHING

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd guide #dnd feats #feats #half feats #tier list #list

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korra-the-red-lion · 4 years ago

Text

Unnatural Affairs. Chapter 1: Move In Day.

(Ally)

The first day of university was one of those exciting yet absolutely terrifying things. Luckily, it was just move in day and that gave me a week reprieve before I actually went to my first class. Still, the anxiety of moving away from home was something you couldn’t help, even if you don’t always get along your parents. Being on your own, expected to fend for yourself alone. That made me shiver to my core.

The car bumped along the road as we approached the campus. My dad said something to my mom under his breath, for her ears only. I didn’t mind, too busy focusing on the school buildings coming into view. It wasn’t a massive campus, but that fit me just fine. I grew up in a small town, so a smaller university was the least overwhelming choice for me to pick. I originally got accepted into Chester University, but with a student population of 45,000, I could feel my heart rate increase just reading about it. My dad was disappointed that I didn’t go to Perkins, his alma mater, but it was just so far away and quite frankly, had a reputation as a party school. No, not for me, thank you very much. I liked that Mount Seamus had a small student population (only 3,000) and was close enough to home that I could go back if I needed to (only an hour and half drive).

“Alexandra,” said my mom, looking over her shoulder, “how are you feeling?”

I tore my gaze away from the window. “A little nervous, if I’m being honest. Excited too, but mostly nervous.”

She smiled at me. “Perfectly normal. I think you’ll be great, sweetie.”

I smiled back at her, before returning my eyes back to the window. We were rolling up to the drop off spot for students. My parents would drop me off there and take my things to my room. I was happy for a chance to be away from them for a short time. I loved them, but sometimes they could be a tad bit stifling. It will be nice to be able to explore on my own for awhile before having to do the whole tour with them.

The car bumped to a stop. I undid my seatbelt, breathing slowly through my nose. I could feel my nerves trying to get the better of me. My mom reached around and placed her hand on my shoulder, giving me an encouraging nod. I nodded back to her and opened the door, the warmth of the August air hitting me.

“We’ll drop your stuff off and meet you at the student services building, okay?” said mom.

I nodded, not trusting my voice right now.

Mom reached out the window and kissed my hands, filling me with warmth, calming me down a little. My dad looked over and mumbled out a ‘good luck’ before they drove off. My dad wasn’t a man of many words, and it was having a hard time with me moving out. I just hoped that he’d open up a bit more before we got here, but clearly that wasn’t happening. Still, there was still time.

The sound of music and people cheering drew my attention. They were holding up signs that welcomed the new students, signs pointing people in the right direction, and just general fun vibes coming from that direction. That’s where I needed to be, so that’s where I went.

The music was a little too loud for my liking, but I just dealt with it. I didn’t have to be at this spot for too long. A student spotted me and waved at me to come over. She grinned as I approached, high fiving her friend. She had her hair tied up in a high ponytail. The colours of the school were painted on her cheeks, nearly hiding the smattering of freckles that spread across her nose and maybe her cheeks. Her friend was a bit shorter, with her hair done in a messy bun and wearing matching face paint.

“Hey-o, welcome to MSU, frosh,” said the freckled girl excitedly. “Is this your first time on campus?”

I nodded shyly, trying to not take a step back. The anxiety was trying to overwhelm me again.

“Nice! I’m Lyn, and this is my buddy Loryn!” she indicated the girl next to her. “We’re here to show people around and help out with anything you need for today.”

“If you want it, that is,” added Loryn quickly, maybe noticing my discomfort.

“Yes, totally!” Lyn looked back and forth between us, frowning slightly for a second before grinning again. “This is not mandatory by any means. It’s more like, uh, a more personalized tour? Some people find the whole group thing super overwhelming and shit, so we do this so people can just have some one on ones.”

“I would like that, actually,” I said with a smile. “If you don’t mind showing me around, Lyn, that would be lovely.”

Lyn winked at Loryn before coming around the table. “Hehe, another win for me, Loryn. If you don’t pick it up, cleaning the locker room sure is gonna suck for you.”

“Shut up and just show the poor girl around. Oh, and try not to be too loud, Lyn.”

Lyn rolled her eyes and indicated me to follow her. She was tall, probably around 6ft or something close to that. I didn’t notice it before, because I was distracted by the blue and white painted all over her face, but she had stunning electric blue eyes. The kind that most girls envied. They really popped against the paleness of her skin.

She must have noticed me looking as she turned towards me a little bit more, her eyes searching mine. Her face softened and she said to me, “You must be really nervous, huh?”

“I am, yeah…” I tucked my hair behind my ear. “It’s my first time away from home, from my parents, you know? You dream of moving out and being on your own for so long, but when the day comes, all you want do is go back home and wish you can just live there forever.”

Lyn nodded. “I get that, totally. Hopefully you’ll adjust here quickly, but girl, don’t feel bad about homesickness. Most of us feel it.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry! I’m Ally, by the way,” I said quickly. It totally slipped my mind to introduce myself earlier, but it occurred to me when she called me ‘girl.’

“Ally, huh? That’s a nice name,” she smiled at me again. “Okidoki, let’s get down to business, shall we? This is here is the main campus, where you’ll find all the classroom buildings and the library. The residence buildings are all located around the main campus, but no building is longer than a 10-minute walk around here. Food hall is over on the east side, over yonder,” she pointed to where I assume the meal hall was located, “so it’s nice depending on which res you’re in. I was in Lukas Hall, which was close to the AC but across from the food hall, so I always had to pack snacks for after practice in case I couldn’t grab something before class.”

“Sorry, but what’s the ‘AC’?” I asked, tilting my head to the side.

“Shit, sorry, you’re new. It’s the Athletic Centre, where I spend most of my days.”

I bite my lip in thought, looking her up and down, trying to guess what sport she played. She was tall and had lean muscle. She was wearing flip flops and track pants, her toes had chipped nail polish on them. She was wearing a university t-shirt, but it gave no indication to which team she was on. She was smirking at me with her arms crossed over her chest, knowing I was trying to guess.

“Okay, um, basketball?” I guessed.

She laughed with a gentle shake of her head. “Nope! I’ll let you guess one more time.”

Damn, okay. She wasn’t too bulky, so I knew basketball was a risky guess. I think volleyball is wrong too. There were no scraps or bruises on her knees and legs to indicate that she played soccer or hockey.

I smiled brightly when it came to me. “Swim team!”

Lyn broke out in a huge grin. “Damn, yeah! How’d you guess?”

“Well, I didn’t notice any bruising on your skin. So, it kind of eliminated contact sports. I did think maybe you did cross country or swimming because of your build. You’re muscular, but it’s not heavy muscle like other sports. It’s the kind of muscle required for endurance. But then I saw your toes…for the most part they look fine. I feel like a runner would have more calluses and swelling down there. Therefore, the logical conclusion had to be swimming,” I explained.

Lyn gave a low whistle and shoved her hands in her pockets. “Well damn, Ally. That was pretty freaking good. You wanna be a PI or something?”

I blushed as I shook my head. “Not really. I just always had a knack for noticing details.”

“Well, that’s a pretty cool knack. I’m shit with details, so there’s no way in hell I could have guessed that just from sizing someone up. Come on, I’ll show ya the rest of the campus and we’ll head over to the meet up spot. I assume your parents are meeting you there?”

I nodded and we were off again. Lyn was honestly not great at explaining where things were, since she would just vaguely point in the direction and tell me the building names, even though I didn’t know much about them. But, she was really nice and friendly. I actually ended up forgetting about how anxious I was about this whole thing and ended up really enjoying the tour. I knew I’d end up doing it with my parents again anyway, so I didn’t mind that this wasn’t the gold standard tour given out by the university coordinators.

Eventually we ended up back to where I met her and Loryn, who was now gone. Maybe she was giving someone else a tour. Lyn directed me to where my parents were waiting for me. My mom was checking her phone, and when our eyes connected, I realized I never took it out once while I was with Lyn. I guiltily pulled it out from my purse and saw that I had three missed texts and a missed called from her. If I was anxious about moving out, my mom was way worse.

Of course, I understood why. Ever since I was a little kid, I noticed things that other people didn’t. At first, my parents chalked it up to youthful imagination but after great grand dad passed away and I told Nana that he wanted to apologize for how he treated her and Betty when they were growing up, my parents came to the conclusion that there was something wrong with me. There isn’t, in the traditional sense. It just seems as if I could connect to the supernatural aspects of this world. It wasn’t normal, and it really upset my dad quite a bit. I tried to make sure I never talked about it once I got old enough to understand how they felt about the situation, but there were times that it slipped. Like at Kat’s 13th birthday bash, which I ended up having a panic attack at because I swore that I saw some sort of demon crawling out of the garden shed. I think my mom just didn’t want me to feel like an outcast again, but university is supposed to be a new beginning, right?

“Sorry, mom. I was talking to someone and just forgot to check my phone,” I said, a wave of shame washing over me.

My mom, a human scanner when it came to people I was with, looked Lyn up and down before nodding slowly, meaning she approved. My dad, however, stared at her for a solid minute of silence. Lyn shifted foot to foot uncomfortably and tugged at her ear.

“Did I do something wrong?” she asked under her breath.

“No, you didn’t. My dad is just very overprotective and tends to do this stupid act to scare people away,” I muttered back.

Finally, my dad clicked his tongue and nodded as well. “I’m glad that you found someone to show you around,” he said slowly.

“Yes, Lyn was very nice to do that,” I said. “The campus is lovely, and it will be nice to have a familiar face to see.” This drew a smile onto Lyn’s freckled face.

“Your daughter is super awesome,” she said to my parents, “but I can’t stick around much longer, unfortunately. Gotta go back and see if there are any other frosh who need my attention, you know?” She spared me a goodbye wink before sauntering back over to her table, where some guy was there instead of Loryn.

I found myself staring over at her before my attention was drawn back to my parents, especially my mom. She had a map of the campus and started asking me where everything was and how close I was to the major buildings (those being meal hall, the library, and the student centre in case I needed campus security for any reason).

I had a feeling this second tour was going to be much longer than the one I just had.

XXX

My parents helped me set everything up in my room. It wasn’t a big space, but that was to be expected. I’m an only child, so the real adjustment is learning how to share the space with another person. She wasn’t here at the moment; she went to supper with her parents. My mom offered to go picked something up so we could eat it here, leaving me alone with dad.

My relationship with my dad was…complicated at best. He was loving and looked out for me, but it was also difficult for him to come to terms with the more… how to say, unnatural aspects of my personality. He grew up as a devout Catholic, so these kinds of things just made him uncomfortable. I remember when I was 9 years old and being told I wasn’t allowed to go over to Chris Parks’ house anymore because his older brother used a Ouija Board during a Halloween party, and my dad was convinced the house was filled with evil spirts since.

So yeah, sometimes it was hard to get along with him. It didn’t matter how many times I explained myself to him, he was always harsh with judgement. It’s not like I woke up one day and asked for this. Trust me, if I had the choice, I’d be much happier living in a world of naivety like the other kids. I’ve had to go to therapy and be prescribed meds to help control my anxiety about seeing dead people and demons. That kind of shit scars you, doesn’t matter what age.

I was humming a tune to a song that helps me stay calm while making sure my poster of Supergirl was straight when I heard my dad clear his throat. Dropping my shoulders in anticipation, I looked over with a frown.

“Yes, dad?”

“Take a seat, I just want to chat before your mom gets back,” he said, patting a spot on my bed next to him.

Wary of what was coming next, I sat with my shoulders curled into towards my body. I fiddled with the arm of my glasses and waited for him to speak. There was no point in rushing him when he got like this.

“Alexandra, I know that growing up, I was harsh with you when it came to…” he waved his hand at me, “…you know. But, it was only for your own good. This here? This is a new chance, a chance to start fresh. No one here knows about your…you know. You can make friends, maybe even get a girlfriend. But baby girl, promise me that you won’t go looking for those kinds of dark things. Promise me you’ll just be ordinary, okay?”

There it was. Ordinary. The word was like a punch to the face every time he said it. I could feel my face grow hot with shame and anger as I got to my feet. “I- dad…you know I hate it when you say it that way…” my voiced cracked as I tried to keep it together.

“I’m not trying to make you feel bad, Alexandra. I just want you to have a good time here and not-”

“What? Not screw up?” I turned away from him, feeling the tears welling up.

“You know that’s not what I meant.”

“That’s how it sounded to me!”

Dad got to his feet as well and try to put his hand on my shoulder, which I shrugged off, not wanting him to touch me. I hated that he made me feel dirty about this.

“Listen, Alexandra, just…I’m sorry, okay? I just want to know you’ll be safe while you’re here.”

I rolled my eyes and forced myself to take a deep breath. “Okay, whatever dad.”

Whatever dumb thing he was going to say next was interrupted by mom coming in with the food. I quickly wiped at my eyes and forced myself to face them both. My mom’s eyes were red and puffy, clearly from crying in the car. Well, there I go too. I burst into tears and pull my mom into a tight hug, trying to take in her everything. I was ready to get away from home, I swear. But leaving my mom was harder than anything else in the whole world.

There we stood, sobbing onto each other’s shoulders while the food got cold beside us.

XXX

I stood on the corner as my parents drove away, my mom waving to me from the window. I had no more tears to spill, so I stood there in painful, hallow silence. Finally, when the bugs started to get too awful for me to deal with anymore, I made my way back to my residence. MacGavin hall was considered one of the better residences on campus, which is why my parents insisted I stayed there. I wasn’t going to argue with them, since they were paying.

I swiped my student card against the reader and pulled the door open once it beeped green. I made my way back to my room in miserable silence. There was already music blasting from someone’s room, and some of the students were sharing alcohol in the hall. Obviously, the RA was either a party person themselves, or they just didn’t care. To be honest, I didn’t care myself at this time.

I opened my door and saw that my roommate, Sarah I think, was sitting on her bed, headphones in. She rolled over with similar puffy eyes and smiled weakly at me.

“Same boat, huh?”

I nodded with a laugh. “Uh, yeah. That was way harder than I thought it would be.”

“Right?” She sat up, rubbing her face. “I was like, so excited to leave home and be like, independent from them. But then when it like, occurred to me that I wouldn’t be waking up in my house tomorrow… it sorta just like, hit me so hard. I ended up snotting in my salad.”

Okay, that made me genuinely laugh. I sat down on my bed and we ended up sort of just talking through the rest of the night, until we both fell asleep.

Maybe the first day of moving away from home was exciting and the start of a new journey. But those movies and books never talked about how hard it could be to let go. They never talked about the tears and the empty feeling of knowing that you just left everything you knew behind. It never talked about the fear that came with being in an unfamiliar place. As I drifted off, I knew I would be okay, even if it took a few days. But man, did my heart ache.

#unnatural affairs #original fiction #original story #writing #ally holland #lyn hart #mystery #paranormal #romance #wlw romance #sapphic lead

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nightklok · 4 years ago

Note

28 Chickles?

76 Kiss Prompts [Open]

Is it cheating if I use an old prompt meme to complete today’s prompt? Probably but I had a majority of this written out so might as well finish it! Thank you for requesting this and sorry it’s a bit late! :O

Kloktober Prompt: Day 14-Preklok Whumptober Prompt: No 27-Power Outage

28. First kiss

It was the first band Pickles joined a few years after Snakes N’ Barrels disbanded. It was a band that would disband not long after being signed and before they could even produce their first album. The genre didn’t felt like it belonged to him compared to his previous band’s genre and it felt more like a job than anything else. However, it paid the bills and got him to at least work with music once again. Even if it felt like he was once again working from the bottom up, at least he wasn’t entirely lost and was knowledgeable on how the music industry was. He hadn’t really tried to get back into making music after Snakes N’ Barrels disbanded. Despite the offers from various groups, he had ignored them all without even giving a response. He ended up shifting from a music-related job to a non-music related job and dealing with the horrible addictions that never left his side. As if by fate, it took one DUI related charge to end up having Charles Foster Offdensen, a freshly graduated law student, to take his case. Somehow, he ended up winning that trial and Charles asked for no money but simply to be his manager and lawyer. It was honestly laughable. He hadn’t worked with bands or even gone solo so how could someone even want to risk their career by being associated with him? He was serious and spoke in a way that meant he looked at every outcome and wanted it regardless. It took a few days of convincing and Pickles agreed even though he was sure he was a lost cause (pun intended). His new manager proved his worth and got him band auditions fairly quickly as a lead singer. As quickly as they happened, they quickly ended successfully with tons of accepted phone calls. Pickles never really did felt like he fit in with any of them, however. There was no spark he felt playing with them like with his previous band and he was wondering if it was worth straggling in some newly licensed lawyer to his troubles. Charles never did judge him though unlike his previous managers. He listened to his complaints and how he felt with an open mind and tried to adjust the best he could. However, he had a feeling that most likely the ‘heavy’ sound Pickles was looking for wouldn’t be available or at least for the moment. At the advice given, he had accepted the offer from the next band he passed the audition for. It was a rock band that was a bit heavier sounding but it was better than the other bands, and he tried to make his peace with that. It didn’t take long for them to record a single, send it to record labels, and soon get signed. He thought he would be happy that a record label signed onto their band so quickly but he found himself not feeling that euphoria once felt when his first band was signed. The moment he signed his name on that contract, it felt like he was just signing up for a job above all else. The fear that perhaps he just simply overstayed his welcome and would never be able to make music again was running through his head. If not music, then what else was there for him? As the other band members began pestering the poor secretary for directions to the nearest bar, Charles trailed behind to keep up with Pickles. He wanted to say something; he could tell he didn’t seem happy but the only words that came out of his mouth were, “Well, ah, how about I buy you a drink? To celebrate?” That seemed to be enough for Pickles as he turned to look at him with a small smile, “A free drink and getting signed? Sounds like a good day to me.” ____ If Pickles had to be reminded further that the band most likely had the same behaviors as his previous one, it was their excessive drinking and somehow finding someone to buy coke off before the drinks even arrived. Within minutes, they were already high, and trying to out drink the other. Even for Pickles’ standards, they weren’t worth trying to keep up with. Pickles sat alongside him, taking advantage of the free nuts that were provided as he drank his beer. He was surprisingly quiet for once; he barely spoke a word since they arrived and mainly just asked the bartender for more drinks. Charles didn’t say anything either. Not that he didn’t want to but what could be said when he’s forced to watch his new clients already drink their first potential paycheck away? Like watching the same movie for the umpteenth time, unsurprisingly came the women and men. He found himself not even surprised when one by one his new bandmates began leaving with said people. They were either making out with them, taking them to one of the bathrooms, or leaving the bar altogether to some nearby hotel or something. That didn’t mean he wasn’t asked to go along. An occasional bandmate would remember he existed or one of the people drunkenly recognized him and asked him to join. He was reminded way too much of the nights spent in shitty hotels with people whose faces he’d barely even remember. It felt like as he aged those memories became less and less positively memorable and only left a bad taste in his mouth. He politely declined and watched his last bandmate leave the bar with some girl close by him. He was ready to leave to go home himself, “I guess we should call it a night,” He finished his beer quickly, ready to pull out his wallet. “I did say I would be paying,” Charles answered as he pulled out his own wallet, “And if you’d like, we can go to my place. It’s quieter and we can discuss a bit about the meeting with the record execs tomorrow.” “You did say it was for only my drink. Not the rest of the guys,” He grinned at him as if having won some game of thinking one step ahead, “But sure, could use some company.” There was a slight back and forth over who was paying the tab but eventually settled on a compromise that they would pay for half of it as they both knew the other bandmates would never pay them back. Hopefully, the revenue from the new album would be more than enough to cover that expensive tab. The two walked out of the bar and into the pouring rain that almost came out of nowhere. And unfortunately, Charles’ car was parked at least four blocks from the bar. Even though he had offered to make the run himself and drive back to get him, Pickles went with him. He hadn’t drunk himself to oblivion and at least didn’t slip on the mud or complain about getting wet. By the time they reached his car, they were soaked to the point where air-drying wasn’t much of an option. Charles had to turn on the AC to prevent the windows from fogging up. The cool air, even if it was as low and away from them as much as possible, did nothing to help relieve them from being soaking wet and cold. He didn’t have a blanket or anything with him, so he had to hope for the best that a near-half-hour drive wouldn’t result in them getting sick, “Sorry, I have to keep the AC on for a while.” “It’s fine. Do you have clothes I can borrow when we get to your place?” “Of course.” Between the sound of rain hitting against the car, the windshield wipers, and some Creedence Clearwater Revival song playing from the radio, it filled the silence when they didn’t talk. What they did talk about was trivial things or light jokes about getting sick. It had eventually died down when Pickles quietly dozed off. They reached the apartment a bit longer than usual because of the rain and sudden heavy traffic. Pickles had woken up just as Charles was beginning to park his car in the lot. He stretched as he got out of the car, adjusting his wet clothes that must’ve stuck to his skin like glue. To say he was cold was an understatement but the beers he drank thankfully didn’t keep him from freezing. The elevator was working this time and there was no one else there or when they reached his floor. It was as silent and eerie as walking into some unfamiliar hallway at night could be. The sound of wet shoes and socks against the floor was audibly heard, squeaking against the floor but was muffled by the bolt of lightning that came by. Even though it wouldn’t make much of a difference aside from mud, Charles told him to take off his shoes and leave it by the doorway when he unlocked the door to his apartment and let him in. As directed, he took off his shoes and left it to the side as the other did the same. His apartment was as ordinary as it looked for a lawyer just starting out. Nicely put together furniture and decorations that did make the place look a bit more put together. Maybe it was all Ikea furniture or something, Pickles wasn’t really one to keep track of furniture brands and shit. Either way, it looked nice and inviting to him compared to his own shitty studio apartment. He followed him to his bedroom where he had shown him a drawer that was full of warmer clothes. He found an old college sweatshirt and pants to go with. It’d probably be loose on him but anything was better than the wet clothing that was only reminding him further of how cold he was. Charles showed him where the bathroom was to change, “You can leave the clothes by the sink, I’ll throw them in the wash. Make yourself at home,” He told him before he went to his room to change. He put on whatever casual clothing he had and towel-dried his hair as much as he could. It was still damp to the touch, but he could live with that. He did see the bathroom was open when he stepped out, grabbing his clothes and putting them in the hamper. He’d take them to the washing machines downstairs when he got the chance. He went to the kitchen, grabbing two glasses, and poured brandy in both of them. Coffee or tea was his usual go-to when he had guests over but he knew Pickles enough on what he would prefer, and that was neither most of the time. He found Pickles in the living room, staring at the collection of law textbooks and framed awards that were either in the bookcase or framed near it. “You did fencing in college?” He asked as he looked at one of the plaques on the wall. He took the brandy Charles offered with a quick ‘thanks’. “Yes, actually. I was president there for the last, ah, two, or three years of college.” “Wow. You’re really full of surprises.” He laughed. “How so?” “Well, you’re some lawyer who wants to be a manager and for a has-been like me. That’s gotta be costing you more than if you just stayed as a lawyer. Recording that single must’ve not been cheap. And that bar tab either. ” “I’ll admit these expenses weren’t cheap but I have had money put aside for it. We’re signed now, so I’ll be getting that money back soon.” He answered. “You’re a little too optimistic about this, chief. You’ll be lucky if we even get a hit single.” “Well, it’s a risk, isn’t it? Working at an industry like this is a risk and I’m well aware of that. I might get that money back. I might not. We’ll see.” He answered, “but I suppose that’s where you come in if you want me to get my money back.” Maybe, it was the beer, brandy, and the eventual sickness looming over but it was hard to take him seriously, “You’re really putting so much confidence in me that it’s funny, really. Y’know there are people I know that do what you’re doing and before you know it, they’re stuck working at 9 to 5 jobs down at Santa Monica instead of retiring. At least you’re...like the same age as me? I won’t fuck your life up that much.” “You’re not gonna fuck up my life. I have a plan for this, Pickles. If the next band doesn’t work out, we can try another. You still have a name-” “A name?” He laughed bitterly, “What name, Charles? The one where the news talk about me with a DUI charge? Or a drug overdose? Or the one who sang for some stupid band with a stupid genre that’s clearly a joke now! Hair metal. that’s what they call it now! What kinda person would take someone who sang for hair metal seriously?” Charles knew he was right. His name in headlines was almost never for anything good. But all it took was one look in him to see that he still had...something. Something that not a lot of musicians had and something he’s probably yet to discover himself, “But you still have a chance, don’t you? You still have a voice to sing with and that should be more than enough to make a new name for yourself. The only person isn’t really believing this is you.” “What do I have to believe in myself for, Charles?” He shook his head as if he had mentally answered his own question, “God, I’m such a fucking idiot. I shouldn’t have let you get dragged with me. I should just go and quit or something. I’ll be saving you a lot more time and money if I just-” The lights flickered for just a moment but a clap of thunder quickly shut them off. Charles cursed under his breath as he went over to one of the switches to flick them on and off. It was completely off, “Guess we’re stuck like this for a while.” “Just fantastic,” Pickles muttered. He finished the rest of his brandy, “Look, I’ll just go. Save yourself the trouble-” “It’s literally pouring out and you’re drunk. I’m not letting you leave,” He answered. He watched his expression and sighed, “But clearly...there are things that you need to talk about, right? I mean...if you really did want to quit music altogether, why did you say yes when I asked to work for you?” He wanted to say it was just because he wanted to humor him. But even then, was it really the answer? He looked down as he shrugged, running his hand through his hair, "I dunno. I guess I thought I was getting a second chance. Some good job I’m doing at keeping that second chance, aren’t I?"

“I think you’re doing well with what you can do. It’s just hard to find a good band to blend with nowadays I suppose,” Charles said. He approached him closer. He wanted to help him but he was scared of having him run off when he was so close to having him open up to him, “But you still have the same potential as you did when you started in the band.” But you clearly need to work out whatever you’re going through just let me help you-

Pickles at least didn’t try to leave and instead agreed to coffee. He sat in the kitchen chair as Charles boiled water on the gas stove. There was a comfortable silence between them as they didn’t say anything and only listened to the relentless rain hitting against the window and the thunder that occasionally sounded. He poured the water and instant coffee to two mugs, letting him use the milk and sugar to his liking which was borderline sweet.

Charles used the rest of the milk for his coffee and threw the carton out. He sat in the chair opposite him, taking a sip of his coffee that quickly warmed him up. Pickles didn’t say anything and he didn’t want to pry so he didn’t say anything either.

“Can I ask you something?” Pickles asked as he stared at the mug. He couldn’t meet his gaze.

“Sure.”

“Why did you wanna work for me? Any other band or celebrity with a cleaner record could easily take you in.”

It was a question that Charles knew would come up inevitably and he had prepared for it in advanced. Prepared professional and cordial sentences that might not mean much but would at least mean something meaningful to Pickles. Though, that was with the implication that they would’ve been in some professional setting. Not in his apartment with Pickles wearing his old clothes and after he had probably poured out more of his feelings than he had intended to. It was only fair he did the same, “Well, to put it bluntly, your music saved my life and I only wanted to return the favor I suppose.”

Whatever Pickles had expected, definitely wasn’t that. He looked up to meet his eyes, green eyes somehow illuminated by whatever light the window gave. “What do you mean by that?”

“I was a teen too when you started with the band. Probably just as angry and misunderstood as you were. Didn’t have a family or really anybody to turn to or much hope for my future. I just never understood when people said that music saved their life. Until I came across that first album and I really understood the feeling. It was made me decide to go into music business though I honestly admit I didn’t expect to ever be working with you until I was assigned your case.”

“And I’m guessing you took it as a sign or something?”

“Something like that. I mean, I would’ve been working for someone who basically shaped my career. It would be ironic, wouldn’t it be?”

Pickles was silent afterwords for a good while. Most likely to take the words in and realize just how much Charles meant it when he promised him he would find him a band and get his career started again. Charles was legit. Charles wasn’t saying this to get something out of him. He was being genuine and it brought in a whole new swarm of thoughts he hadn’t thought of in a long time. He looked at him with a sad smile that told a thousand words even if he said only ten, “I wish we met earlier. We could’ve had fun together,”

He must’ve been lonely, Charles quickly realized. And it was for good reason too; his band members were nearly a decade or so older than him and he most likely never talked with people around his age. As fun as it must’ve been getting to feel like an adult talking with adults, it could get tiring too and sometimes makes one wish they spoke about bullshit to someone their age. He knew that all too well, “Me too. But, at least we know each other now and I promise that it’s only going to get better from here.”

“You really believe in me, don’t you?” Pickles asked.

If the months and money and time Charles did wasn’t enough, he didn’t know what would. He knew that sometimes words just confirmed the actions so he nodded, “Of course I do. I wouldn’t be taking such a risk if I didn’t.”

What he didn’t expect to happen though was for Pickles to being to cry. He had his hands on his face, elbows on the table, and tried not to show he was crying. But his sniffles and tears seeping through his hands easily gave it away. The tears weren’t of sadness and Charles knew that well enough. It was enough though for him to still go over to him and hold onto him tightly. He felt him wrap his arms tightly around him as the cries turned to sobs as he let however many years of pent up feelings and loneliness finally resurface and wash away like the rain.

Eventually, they pulled away. There were no other words that really needed to be said. It was just one look that said what they wanted to say but neither had the words to say it. It was Pickles that kissed Charles. It wasn’t those kisses that were meaningless and full of absolute desperation and hastily made to get on to the point. It was full of a tenderness and warmth that neither hadn’t felt before or for a long way. It was warm and against the coldness of the apartment from the rain and darkness, it was enough.

____

They lied down in Charles’ bed with a blanket covering them. Even if the room was a bit chilly, the warmth from the blanket and each other was more than enough.

“You could always go solo.” Charles said as he stared up at the ceiling.

“I guess...but I’m kinda tired of being in the spotlight. I mean, I like it and all but being at the center of it? Gets exhausting.” “Hm, there’s guitar auditions you can always do. You can always do that,” Charles pointed out.

They know it’s not gonna last. The band, that is. Most likely the band would fizzle out into obscurity and never be remembered within a month.

“True. Probably still have my Les Paul in my apartment somewhere.”

Charles honestly wished he could make him actually be happy. He did know that this was a problem he couldn’t exactly fix. As much as he wished he could be, there was a limit and he was sure he already was nearing it. He could only help as much as he could and be content with it; convincing Pickles to get back into music and letting him take direction in how he wanted to pursue music was one of the only things he could do. Being there for him, not as a manager/lawyer, but as someone who cared for him on a personal level also was something he could do. And he could do both; he was great at multitasking. “For the next band, I wanna play drums. I wanna be in the background this time,” Pickles murmured sleepily as he wrapped an arm around him.

“I’ll look into drum auditions tomorrow,” Charles answered. He would’ve protested at them breaking boundaries, it certainly wasn’t professional, but who conducted meetings in bed anyway? He held onto him, feeling the slight dampness of his dreads that were still not completely dry but didn’t care. Mentally, he reminded himself to find that newspaper he looked at the other day. He vaguely remembered an ad trying to find a drummer for some metal band. Hopefully, they wouldn’t be too late and that they would need a lawyer or manager as well.

The rain was still pouring and the power wouldn’t come back on until just a few hours later. But for at the moment, neither of those things really did matter. They held each other in silence, listening to the rain as eventually they fell asleep.

#kloktober #Caffeinated Insomniac Writings #chickles #metalocalypse fics #Thanks again for requesting this!!!#whumptober #fic #I will post this to AO3 later for now I write something else-#wumbo-calling #pickles the drummer #I had to rewrite some scenes because I completely forgot about the first kiss holy shit how stupid am i #I will refix this in AO3 but for now just enjoy the hastily added paragraph

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citrineghost · 4 years ago

Photo

@overcomplicatedxoxo

Hey there! I saw your question on a pride post and thought it probably didn’t belong there but also wanted to make sure you got an answer

Answer under the cut

There are quite a lot of reasons why people can lose their sex drive and the reason doesn’t necessarily have to mean that they’re ace. For instance, many medications for depression and anxiety can cause a loss of sex drive. Depression and anxiety themselves can cause a loss of sex drive. So can stress and a myriad of other things!

Because there can be so many causes outside of sexuality for this, I would recommend talking to him about it, but going into the conversation with a willingness for the reason to be something other than you suspect (I know I sometimes have trouble when I latch onto an idea and I want that to be the answer and I can kind of get pushy about it by accident). If this is something that is notable to you in any way shape or form, it’s definitely worth talking to him about.

If it was me, I would brooch the topic by, first, telling him that you had a question for him and would like to talk for a few minutes, reassuring him that you’re not upset, just had something on your mind. Make it clear during conversation that you’re not fishing for him to change and accommodate you, but that you’re interested in making sure he’s comfortable with the current arrangement.

Tell him you’ve noticed a change in how frequently you two have sex and wanted to double check if it was something he was uncomfortable with, if he’s had a change to his mental health, etc. Personally, I would check in with those things before suggesting any sort of sexuality possibilities. If it is easily explained by one of the first things, you won’t even need to dive into sexuality, which can save you both a lot of emotional energy, because if he’s not on the acespec, being told he might be could potentially make him defensive and embarrassed about the fact that his sex drive has dropped.

If he says he’s not had any change in his mental well-being, isn’t stressed, isn’t on new meds, is completely comfortable with everything you two have been doing, etc., then you could potentially brooch the topic of sexuality.

I would definitely approach this from a curious and tentative angle. Don’t say, “I think you might be asexual.” That’s a great way to shock someone and make them want to defend their current perception of themselves because, even if well-intentioned, it sounds accusatory.

Try something like, “I recently learned a bit more about asexuality and it made me think of you. Have you heard of that?”

If the response is something indicating he hasn’t, you can go on to explain that asexuality covers various sexualities that involve a lack of attraction. If the response is something indicating that he has, but that he thinks asexuality has to be all or nothing, so he can’t possibly fit into it, gently inform him that it’s actually a spectrum and that there are certain parts of it that he might relate to.

There’s no perfect way to have this kind of conversation. I think the most important part is to go into it gently and with a lot of patience. Let him do most of the talking, give him gaps of silence to think and buffer his responses. Make sure you don’t push too hard. If he says he’s not on the ace spectrum, you have to let the topic be, or you’ll push him away from even considering it, even if he is acespec.

And now, for you to go in knowledgeably,

A crash course on asexuality

The first thing to remember when talking about asexuality is that asexuality isn’t necessarily correlated with sex drive. A low sex drive does tend to be more common in the ace community, but that doesn’t not have to be the case.

Asexuality is about attraction.

I don’t know your sexuality, so I’ll use a hypothetical straight person as an example. A straight person is someone who is attracted to someone of the opposite gender. So, if a straight man with a high sex drive sees a woman that he finds attractive, he is likely to get somewhat turned on. This reaction from his sex drive is caused by his attraction to women. A straight man with a low sex drive may see a woman he finds attractive and merely notate in his head that she’s attractive, without having any physical reaction. He is still straight, because he doesn’t have the same attraction to men - only to women. This same man might be easily able to get aroused if he were alone in his room and decided to dwell on her appearance more. His predisposition for arousal is his sex drive. Sexual attraction interacts with sex drive and encourages it, but is not the same thing.

So, lets see how that works with ace people. Let’s say we have an asexual person with a high sex drive (those DO exist!) This person may look at any person in the world and not have any reaction from their sex drive. However, they may lie in bed at night and suddenly be too turned on to sleep. Thus, the convenience of masturbation. If this ace person has a girlfriend or boyfriend who they’re romantically attracted to, they may even be just fine with having sex, even if they feel no sexual attraction. Sex is a great outlet when you have a sex drive, even if it wasn’t sexual attraction that caused the arousal.

Ace people with sex drives may also get turned on by random things. A really good song, a sensation, etc. can all turn ace people on if they have a sex drive. Everyone is different. (This is why ace people can have kinks, which is a heavily controversial topic, and not actually relevant right now, so I won’t get into it.)

The same way that a straight man will not get any interaction between looking at a man and his sex drive, an ace person will not get an interaction between looking at any person and their sex drive. It’s as simple as that.

There’s more to the spectrum

The information listed above is what we would call standard asexuality. If someone says they’re asexual, they may be using asexual as an umbrella term for the whole spectrum, or they may be using it to describe this standard. However, this standard is only the most common type of asexuality. There are three other notable subcategories (one of which, I believe, is fairly new (or just new to me anyway))

The first one is grey asexuality

Grey asexuality can be a very diverse label. It encompasses all types of asexuality that involve any level of sexual attraction. It’s called such because it’s a kind of grey area. People who identify as simply grey asexual may experience sexual attraction very rarely, under only specific circumstances, etc. The fact is, they experience it sometimes, but not enough that they can be considered allosexual (someone who is not asexual). Someone who is grey ace relates more with the lack of sexual attraction than with the sexual attraction. As someone who is ace spec myself, there really can be quite a stark divide between ace and allo experiences.

Next up is Demisexuality

Demisexuality is under the grey ace umbrella. When someone is demisexual (like me!), they don’t feel sexual attraction unless they have a deep emotional connection with someone. There is frequently argument that this is ‘just what normal people are,’ but far from it.

Allosexual people experience sexual attraction all the time. One does not have to act on sexual attraction to experience it. The belief that demisexuality is what allos experience is based entirely on the misunderstanding that asexuality is a form of celibacy (the choice not to have sex) rather than attraction.

When someone is demisexual, they will feel no sexual attraction at all until they form that really really close bond with someone, and then suddenly, it’s like a switch has flipped, but only for that one person. To be sexually attracted to only one person in the whole world is FAR from the average experience, even if it does include sexual attraction. This is what makes demisexuality an ace identity.

And last, but not least, fraysexuality

This is one I only heard about recently! It’s kind of the sibling of demisexuality in that it’s exactly the opposite. Fraysexuality is also under the grey ace umbrella. When someone is fraysexual, they can only feel sexual attraction to people they aren’t close with. If a fraysexual is sexually attracted to someone and then gets to know them, their sexual attraction fades away.

This can be especially difficult for couples, especially when the fraysexual doesn’t know that they’re not allo. It could appear similar to your relationship, op. It may look like the fraysexual partner is losing interest when, in fact, they have just lost their ability to be sexually attracted. This wouldn’t necessarily affect their sex drive, so a fraysexual may still be open to having sex with someone they’re close too, but not because they’re sexually attracted to them.

I hope this helps with your situation and sheds some light on what may be going on. Remember, your boyfriend may not be ace but, no matter what’s going on, I’m sure he will appreciate that you cared enough to check in on him.

#ace #relationships #relationship advice #rainbow #sexuality #ghostlyadditions #ghostpost #demi #fray #grey ace #overcomplicatedxoxo

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darlinrogue · 4 years ago

Note

the first time kota and adam hugged, kota swore that he felt anything but fear.

Ibushi

Kota and Adam || @lavmisc

The alarm clock displayed an ominous, crimson red, 1:34 AM. The ceiling fan turned in lazy circles and churned the humid night heat. Sirens blared on the streets outside. Strips of headlights playing on the backs of the curtains. Cheek wedged against his pillow, Adam stared at the numbers and then gave-up. He rolled out of bed and left behind disarrayed sheets. Adam yanked on jeans and a t-shirt. He left his hotel room in a stupor, stumbling down the hall. Around the fifth landing of the stairs, his brain caught-up with his feet. The frontal parts of his brain cussed-out the back parts of his brain as he merged into the hotel lobby. The lights were dimmed and a clerk lounged behind the desk with a magazine. Adam hung a sharp right and pushed through a glass door leading outside.

Earlier, when he checked-in he had noticed a seating area outside. A small veranda connected to the pool area with wicker furniture and dainty, thin leaf decorative ferns. It was a space that wasn’t his hotel room, with its nauseating beige walls and too-soft bed. Water lapped at the side of the pool and a cool, gentle breeze brushed through the ends of Adam’s hair. Gold light spilled from the hotel lobby, contrasted with the pale blue glow from the water. Adam closed the door behind him. The latch turned and clicked. Someone sat on the stone steps leading down to the sidewalk. They sat hunched over, shoulders rolled forward, and elbows braced against their knees. A t-shirt stretched over the defined muscles of their back. The soft, red color of Ibushi’s hair sparked recognition in Adam. Adam let his hand fall off the door handle and for a moment too long he stood there, staring.

It wasn’t that he was afraid of Ibushi but something burned in his chest whenever he saw him. It was exhilaration and hesitation and hope all rolled into a blanket of uncertainty. A couple weeks ago they had drinks at a dive bar, alone, and Ibushi had held his hand in reverence. Then he was there, with Kenny, early in the tournament, kneeling over Adam with a face twisted in concern. The run of his fingers over Adam’s skin ran tingling paths of warmth. Adam had gazed-up at him, haloed by the spotlight, not quite sure why he was there. And now here, alone, way past their bedtimes— Adam was uncertain of his welcome. He and Ibushi drifted on an uncut line, with no hard boundaries, no destination. It was limitless and perilous. There had to be a hard stop, a wall of some sort, and it was going to hurt like hell whenever Adam ran face first into it.

He took the first step and Ibushi twisted over his shoulder to look. Ibushi blinked, eyes adjusting to the dimness of the veranda. Then, even in the soft light, gold and blue playing on his angular features, Adam saw him smile. Ibushi nodded and Adam took that as a beckoning gesture, a subtle, ‘come hither.’ Emboldened by the not outright-rejection, Adam walked over. He sank down on the stone steps beside Ibushi, grumbling as his knees clicked. Adam rolled out his shoulders and twisted to pop his back. A couple small stretches to wash off the dredges of his stiffness. Then, he settled back, draping his forearm over his bent knee and looking with Ibushi at the dancing water in the pool. In the distance, another siren screamed and then faded.

“Can’t sleep, Page-san?” Ibushi asked.

Adam glanced at him, hearing the unfamiliar English fall from Kota’s lips. Ibushi tilted his head at a slight angle, his dark eyes earnest, as if Adam burning the midnight oil was a legitimate concern of his. Which was absurd, if kind of adorable. Ultra did a similar head tilt when he was concerned or confused. It was very endearing, very —and the thought hit Adam like a freight train— cute. His mind dismissed that thought alongside the idea that Ibushi actually cared that much.

“Yeah, no, just got too much on my mind, I guess,” Adam admitted. He glanced down at his hands, resting between his legs. “I mean, I got a match tomorrow, so maybe I shouldn’t be out here but, uh, here we are.”

Ibushi made a grunting noise in agreement, nodding his head. He said, “I came here to clear my head, to focus.”

He spoke in Japanese now and by instinct Adam tipped forward to listen better. He’d been drilling Japanese like a madman and his immersion over the past couple weeks had helped. Adam also heard how Ibushi slowed his speech, annunciated better for him. A sharp contrast to the quick and dizzying pace he usually set with Kenny. Part of Adam was grateful for the thoughtfulness, another part of him felt guilty for making Ibushi talk so unnaturally.

“You want me to go?” Adam asked, he pointed at the door. “I can leave—”

“No, I like you here,” Kota said, such a simple phrase but Adam struggled to comprehend it. Kota placed his hand on Adam’s arm, a physical barrier to keep him from getting-up. “Please, stay, the company is nice.”

“Sure,” Adam breathed.

Kota hadn’t moved his hand and again his touch burned. There had to be something wrong with him. Kota gripped his wrist, and squeezed. Ever so slow, hesitant, as if Kota was a timid squirrel that’s scare away at a quick movement, or something, Adam turned over his hand. He watched with open fascination as Kota slid his hand down until their palms caressed. Adam didn’t move, didn’t dare even breath, until Kota had interlaced his fingers with his. It was picture perfect, the way they locked together and Adam couldn’t believe this was the guy he hated a handful of months ago.

Laying in bed for three hours, Adam’s thoughts had been topical. From worries about his family and the chores he had to do when he got home. About the matches on his card and the string of losses he left behind him in the G1. Before he came to Japan this whole month hung together like a painting on the wall, the colors crisp and the ideas clear. Now, the paint muddled and the nails gave way, the frame cracked. Topped on all of that was Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega, his two travel compatriots— relationships unchaperoned by Cody or the Bucks for the first time. Wound together with the history of the past year and tangled with how much Adam didn’t know them, was Adam’s point count compared to Ibushi or Kenny. Night and day, loser and winners, and all Adam could think about was that he didn’t deserve to be on this tour. He was waiting for the other boot to drop, for Ibushi and Kenny to turn around, drop the pretenses, and tell him to get the fuck out.

Instead, he looked down again. At Ibushi’s long, slender fingers, tangled with his own. Pale blue veins ran over the intricate bones of his hands and knuckles. Ibushi tipped over and leaned against Adam’s side. His cheek pressed against Adam’s shoulder and Ibushi hummed, low in his throat. It was as sweet and content as a cat’s purr. Then, Ibushi straightened, but he didn’t move away, so they were hip-to-hip, rib-to-rib, knee-to-knee. Bone-to-bone, like Ibushi was trying to sink into Adam’s veins and wedge his way under his rib cage. Dig at Adam’s heart where all he’d find is charcoal, ash, and dust; bitterness, jealousy, anger, frustration—

Poison.

Tanahashi, was the Ace of New Japan, and for some reason, when Adam looked at him, he saw all the things he could never be.

“What’s on your mind, Page-san?” Ibushi asked. Adam felt his eyes drill into him but he couldn’t look back. Adam swallowed hard, and couldn’t stand how soft Ibushi’s voice was, “What’s wrong?”

“It’s— it’s nothing,” Adam admitted. Skin-to-skin, his hands burned where he touched Ibushi but he couldn’t snatch his hand back, just withstand the intensity of the heat. He dismissed Ibushi’s concerns but the next time he opened his mouth the words all spilled-out in a rush, like he couldn’t barf them up fast enough. “I mean I, I was just thinking, about the match today. I thought Tanahashi was mine, I really did. We’d fought before, you know, and I may’ve lost then but I could feel it— he was in reach. I just— I just feel like the only reason I lost was because I let it slip my grip. I let it go, I fucked it up—”

“Page, you can’t let one loss take up so much space in your mind,” Ibushi warned. He slipped his hand from Adam’s and Adam’s hand felt so much emptier for it. Ibushi pressed his palm to Adam’s shoulder. “There are other matches in the G1, other chances. You’ll get yours, I know it.”

“It’s not just one loss, though,” Adam protested. “Right now it’s three, in a row, I if I don’t get some points soon, I’ll be out altogether—”

“Page, those losses?” Ibushi began. “Did you learn something from them?”

Adam gaped for a moment. He ran his tongue over his lips and then admitted, “Yeah, yeah I did.”

“Then they aren’t losses,” Ibushi stated, simply. “They’re victories, because through them you grow. Maybe, maybe you don’t win another match in the G1, maybe you do— but next year, next year will be better. Because you’ll have learned and you’ll be ready. Growth is hard Page, but you’re strong, I know you can do it. Keep going!”

“Kenny won his first G1,” Adam said. His head ducked and he braced his elbows against his knee, like he was propping himself up.

“Kenny is eight years older than you,” Ibushi retorted.

Even Adam had to laugh at such a dry reply. It was true, he was holding himself to an impossible standard— but if he didn’t drive himself, if he didn’t try. Ibushi reached between them and he turned Adam’s face to look at him. Like, he knew Adam’s thoughts were wandering and wanted to reel them back in like fishing line. Adam’s breath trembled, locking eyes with Ibushi.

“I’ve stood against you in the ring,” Ibushi said. “I know you’ll go far.”

“Why couldn’t you sleep?” Adam asked, because he had to change the subject in the face of such unwavering faith he didn’t deserve.

“I was thinking about us,” Ibushi admitted. “You, me, and Kenny, being with you, makes me happy— I hope that after the G1 we can stay like this.”

“Is there a reason we couldn’t?” Adam asked, his brow furrowed, and he hated how helplessly, stupidly optimistic his voice sounded. It was almost a childish question. The soft smile Kota gave him, didn’t reassure him. Kota tugged on Adam’s elbow and they stood together.

Kota hooked his arm around Adam’s shoulders and tugged him in. Adam froze, muscles tensing, hands hovering by Kota’s sides. Japan had twisted Adam into a knot and now Ibushi dug his fingers in to unravel him. He relaxed and Adam ducked his nose to Kota’s throat. He breathed in hotel soap, fresh linens, something floral, and a hint of sweat. Kota ran his hands along the ridge of Adam’s spine, like a spark of fire and gasoline. Adam wrapped his arms around Kota and twisted his fingers in Kota’s shirt. Kota was soft and warm, in a way life hadn’t been for a while. What if they spent hours like this, holding each other together, and what if Adam tugged Ibushi to his hotel room, and they stayed together in their ‘can’t sleepness.’Then, Adam realized what he was doing— and he let go. He stepped back, hands falling to his sides, expecting that hard stop and reprimand. Adam forced himself to meet Ibushi’s eyes but didn’t find his hesitation mirrored.

And that terrified Adam.

Like, Ibushi had seen something Adam’d been trying to hide.

“I should uh, go to bed,” Adam stuttered, he ducked his head. He managed a weak laugh, “I have to fight EVIL tomorrow so I’ll definitely need my beauty sleep.”

“Sleep well, Page—san,” Ibushi suggested.

“Hey, uh, you too,” Adam smiled.

Another step away from Ibushi before Adam turned tail and fled back into the hotel. On the elevator ride back to his room he stared into the reflection of the metallic walls. His own eyes stared back and Adam couldn’t decide if he liked what he saw. Or, if his skin just crawled like he didn’t belong in it.

#lavmisc #‘The Hangman’ || Adam: IC #‘Deals with God’ || Adam: Verse #;;

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grailfinders · 4 years ago

Text

Fate and Phantasms #173: Sherlock Holmes

Yes we’re going out of order, but I have a very good reason for this! ...Well, not really. We were already in the geniuses section, and any excuse to not think about summer while it’s still 40 degrees out is one I’m going to take.

Anyway, today we’re making the man famous for discombobulation, Sherlock Holmes! Track down mysteries, show up everyone else in the party, and kick ass with Baritsu. Easy stuff.

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

Next up: Chaldea’s other resident genius.

Race and Background

There are some theories about Sherlock’s race, but for simplicity’s sake we’ll call you a Variant Human, giving you +1 Dexterity and Wisdom. You also get Sleight of Hand proficiency for some close-up detective work, and the Keen Mind feat, giving you +1 Wisdom, the ability to always point north, perfect time telling, and the ability to recall anything from the last month in-game, a.k.a. the DM’s nightmare.

You know a lot yourself, but you also know how to build and maintain an archive, so the closest background to match would be the Cloistered Scholar background, giving you proficiency in Nature and Religion. Arcana and history would suit you better, but I’ve got something in mind for that, and good things come to those who wait.

Ability Scores

As you’d probably expect, your Wisdom and Intelligence are pretty freaking high. You are Sherlock Holmes after all. You’re pretty strong, but the reason you’re so scary in a fight is because of your technique, so we’re going with Dexterity here instead. You snort cocaine like it’s going out of style, so your Constitution has to be able to keep up. This does mean your Strength is a bit low, but you’re practically an anime protagonist, there are some things we just can’t get in a balanced build. Finally, dump Charisma. Half the reason you drag Guda along on your cases is to talk people out of thinking you’re the murderer, honestly it’s kind of embarrassing.

Class Levels

1. Rogue 1: You’re a skilled guy, and rogues get skills for days. You get proficiencies in Dexterity and Intelligence saves, as well as four skills- Deception for disguises, and Insight, Investigation, and Perception for cases and clue-catching. You also get Expertise in two skills, doubling their proficiency bonus. Right off the bat I’d suggest Insight and Investigation so you can hopefully get to the bottom of things quickly. Foiling a plan at the last second is thrilling and all, but utterly shutting down a villain is so satisfying.

To help with that, you can use a Sneak Attack once per turn if you’re using a ranged or finesse weapon and either have advantage against a target or a friend within 5′ of them. You also learn Thieves’ Cant, it’s a language that will be especially helpful when you have to navigate the criminal underbelly of a city.

2. Monk 1:None of that was Baritsu though, so we’re bouncing over to monk for some Martial Arts. You can use Dexterity instead of Strength on monk weapons (this does not make them finesse), and spending an action to attack with one also lets you make an unarmed attack as a bonus action. Your unarmed and monk weapon attacks also do at least a 1d4 of damage.

You also get Unarmored Defense, making your AC 10 plus your dexterity modifier plus your wisdom modifier. I don’t care how hot it looks, that corset isn’t armor.

3. Cleric 1: Last multiclass, I swear. Since you can literally make clues appear like magic, we kinda need a bit of magic. Clerics get Spells that they cast and prepare using their Wisdom, which you might have noticed is becoming a pretty important ability for you.

If you want clues, you’ll need knowledge, at least enough to know that the Knowledge domain can help with that. At first level you gain the Blessings of Knowledge, making you proficient in History and Arcana and doubling those proficiencies as well (hey, see what I said about waiting?).

You get three cantrips for joining the clergy, Light gives you some of those cool magnifying spotlights you carry around, Thaumaturgy for some parlor tricks, and Guidance for when you really have to focus.

For first level spells, Command gives you a basic command spell, and Identify teaches you all about the magic affecting an item or creature. Normally that would be more of a research montage, but some times you’re in a hurry.

As far as actually prepared spells go, anything with “Detect” in the name is a good pick.

4. Rogue 2: Now that we’ve got our spread, let’s build some of these classes up. Second level rogues can make Cunning Actions, Dashing, Disengaging, or Hiding as a bonus action. If you already spent your action rifling through someone’s files and they’re about to burst into the room, you’ll thank me.

5. Rogue 3: There’s really only two possible picks for your subclass, and we’re saving the Mastermind for Moriarty. As an Inquisitive, you have an Ear for Deceit, giving your Insight rolls a minimum of 8 on the die. On top of that, your Eye for Detail lets you make Perception and Investigation checks as a bonus action, further speeding up the process. On top of that, your Insightful Fighting uses your bonus action to make an Insight check versus a creature’s Deception check. On a success, you don’t need advantage to make sneak attacks against that creature for up to a minute. Finally, your Steady Aim uses your bonus action to get advantage on an attack if you don’t move that turn. I’d just use your insightful fighting, but your rival might push you to your limit.

This is a lot of stuff to do on your bonus action, and it’s only going to get worse from here.

6. Monk 2: Back at the school of Baritsu, you gain Ki Points that you can spend to make two unarmed attacks, dodge, disengage, or dash as a bonus action. Doing either of the latter two also doubles your jump distance for the turn. You also gain Unarmored Movement, increasing your movement speed by 10 feet while not wearing armor.

7. Monk 3: We need the most technique in the fewest levels, so that means we’re turning to the Way of the Open Hand once more. Your Open Hand Technique gives extra benefits to your flurry of blows. On each hit, the creature either can’t take reactions for a round, must succeed on a dexterity save or be knocked prone, or must make a strength save or be pushed 15′ away.

You can also Deflect Missiles as your reaction, catching an incoming attack and reducing its damage, possibly sending it back at the enemy if you bring it down to 0.

8. Monk 4: Our first Ability Score Improvement will instead be used to make you Observant, bumping up your Wisdom by 1, giving you +5 to passive perception and investigation, and allowing you to read lips. You can also Slow Fall as a reaction to take less fall damage. Hey, any help to survive the Reichenbach is well appreciated.

9. Rogue 4: Back in rogue now, your second ASI is going towards your Dexterity for stronger and more effective attacks, as well as a higher AC. 17′s pretty good for a corset.

10. Rogue 5: Fifth level rogues get an Uncanny Dodge, allowing you to react to an incoming attack and halve the damage.

11. Cleric 2: You didn’t think we forgot about this one, did you? Knowledge clerics get two Channel Divinity options each short rest. Turn Undead is your bog standard option, or you can gain the Knowledge of the Ages, spending an action to gain proficiency in one skill or tool for 10 minutes. Protagonist powers, activate!

12. Cleric 3: Third level cleric, second level spells. Suggestion is a more open ended command spell, and Augury is more “telling the future” than deduction. That being said, you do get Calm Emotions to keep your cool, as well as Find Traps, Locate Object, and Zone of Truth.

13. Rogue 6: You know I’m a sucker for quadrupling things, so for this round of Expertise double up on History and Perception. You’re good at everything, but especially current events.

14. Rogue 7: At this level you get the powerful Evasion feature, turning your failed dexterity saves to avoid damage into successes and successes into no damage at all.

15. Rogue 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Intelligence. It’s a shame we had to wait this long for it, but better late than never.

16. Rogue 9: Your Steady Eye gives you advantage on perception and investigation checks as long as you’re moving at half speed. Unless your DM’s really keen on mapping out rp situations, this is pretty much permanent advantage.

17. Rogue 10: Another ASI, another bump to Intelligence. Does it really do anything? Probably not, but you can feel smug about it regardless.

18. Rogue 11: Your Reliable Talent means you skill rolls are always 10 or greater on checks you’re proficient with. And thanks to your knowledge of the ages, you can be proficient in just about anything.

19. Rogue 12: Use your last ASI to max out your Wisdom for more AC, stronger spells, and more skilled Baritsu.

20. Rogue 13: Your capstone ability is your Unerring Eye, an action to sense illusions, shapechangers, and the like around you. You can sense something’s off, but will have to investigate yourself. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your wisdom modifier.

Pros

Your minimum rolls in Insight and Investigation are 27 and 26 respectively, making you an ace detective. Your ability to root out lies, plus your photographic memory, will make any mystery you play through a breeze. (You the player still have to connect the dots, though.) Also, literally being able to see through illusions is a big plus.

Maxed out wisdom also means your open hand techniques are as strong as possible, giving you a good amount of battlefield control to beat down enemies and push them around.

Knowledge of the Ages plus Reliable Talent equals you being really good at everything when you need to be, and you’re much faster a switching things up than Hundred Personas.

Cons

Since we only splashed into monk, your baritsu isn’t that great an option for damage. It also comes with the caveat that you can’t use your sneak attack unarmed, so you will have to carry the murder weapon around with you.

Despite being a melee fighter, your hp is pretty low, making straight confrontations a bad idea.

We really wanted Unerring Eye, but as a consequence we could only get a couple levels of the other classes. This means your ki points and spell slots are rather limited. But I mean, you’re Sherlock freaking Holmes, you’ll know when you need to use them and when you don’t.

#Fate Grand Order #fgo #D&D 5e #Sherlock Holmes #Fate and Phantasms #Rogue #Monk #Cleric

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nobody-knose--archive · 4 years ago

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hi everyone it’s me, local lemon demon & tally hall fan, posting about a band that you’ve never heard of and is only tangentially related to lemon demon & tally hall but still more related than i ever expected to be. the fullerenes, and their final ep, the temporary boyfriend ep. enjoy

-two disclaimers i have to get out of the way. the first is that this isn't my first time listening to this album, that was earlier today, and i'd even listened to a couple songs on their own before then. the second is that 90% of this is just going to be me gushing about how fantastic this album is because holy shit it's good like the mixing is amateur the lyrics are about cishet love but i don't care i love this goddam ep

-bassline. piano. dischordancy. what's not to goddam love

-the story of this song is some guy being in love with a with an androgynous name (& is not referred to with any gendered language!) whom he's never spoken to, only like bumped into once some time. i don't hate it because i know exactly how much worse it could be. that's my stance on all of the fullerenes' love songs honestly

-i bring up the androgynous name because i will hc adrian as enby to the death. i'll do this with any fictional character honestly

-alright back to the song. fast-paced as any fullerenes song will be, but the piano riffs/melody have barged into my heart where they pay rent & tip each week, more than making up for anything lackluster in the drumming/guitar aspects

-as if there would be any

-unfortunately i'm going to have to pause like. a lot. even more than i usually do with an album. because the songs are fast paced & go by quickly & i can't quite keep up with them

-that bass riff. i can tell there's some real musical knowledge behind it. and if you're going to put your musical knowledge anywhere the bass is like the 1st best place for a rock band & the 2nd best place for an ann arbor beginning of the 2000s quintet that dresses smartly with matching ties at live performances & is traditional rock with a keyboarder and other miscellaneous instrument useage/experience. what's tally hall

-ok to completely ignore the last thing i said this soft guitar arpeggio combined with the vaguely harmonious feedback was a 2-hit combo of tally hall flashbacks (i know it's just the same & two wuv, respectively) the first time i heard it and i don't know how long it'll take till that goes away

-good lord the lead singer isn't the most skilled person in the universe but these harmonies! they kick me in the head and save my soul i want to get lost in this rock & roll

-by far the most emo song on this album, broken down, and who doesn't need a little emo. by which i mean the lead vocalist screams sometimes there's not a whole lot more angst by comparison beyond that

-the hooks. this song's got a hook. and the keyboard. the keyboard. watch me fill up this whole liveblog with just mentions of the instruments & musical components

-practically the only thing pushing this song past the 2 minute mark is the guitar/keyboard solo & i sure as hell can't complain about that it slaps

-i won't lie this bit with the vocal filter is a very silly reminder (to me) of lemon demon's first 2 albums. i mean. i think this ep & those albums came out about a year apart. and neil was a fullerenes fan. so maybe my remembrance is based in something more

-temporary boyfriend the song itself. i literally haven't listened to their full discography but if i had to pick a song to introduce people to the fullerenes & it couldn't be little fits then it'd definitely be this one alright

-it's got the most typically pleasant vocals, keyboard accompaniment the whole way through, gentle & groovy guitar, very well done vocal harmonies, lyrics aren't alloromantic shit, it's the perfect intro to this band

-also, i can already tell it's going to be stuck in my head for goddam ages & i'm only listening to it for the 2nd time

-i wonder if this band's anywhere on spotify? or any other music platforms? i would bet money against it honestly i only found it through a hella deep rabbit hole, their yt channel is tiny, and they aren't selling the album for any money on bandcamp. if anyone's still into logan whitehurst & the jr science club today maybe they'll find their way towards it but otherwise you'd probably have to encounter it a. the same way i did or b. through me specifically

-because i've only had the fullerenes for half a day but if other people don't start hearing about them i'm going to make their life hell

-that meme doesn’t translate well directly onto text. especially when you don’t want to bring up su*cide. moving on

-yknow. if you've seen my deporitazposting then get ready for that part ii except now there's even even less people who care about this defunct 1998-2002 music group (put group in quotations for deporitaz's part)

-oh and onto the finale. this is the song i've heard once or twice before the album and like. it's fast paced angery breakup song but in a vague bubblegum rock style.

-sure the love song aspects aren't my favorite but i enjoy these hooks and the power chords are tight. can't hate it!

-catch me, an ace/aro, never intend to & never have been in a ~committed relationship, belting the lyrics to this one at the top of my lungs at 4pm on a monday

-shit i need to update my "no love song writers are allowed in the alloromanticism" meme with. whoever's the lead songwriter for this band. is it ryan? ryan something? i don't entirely know yet but in my defense the fullerenes have a practically nonexistent internet presence, let alone general multimedia (non-musical) presence

-i had also listened to the love me true demo before going through the whole album and i've gotta say it doesn't sound a load rougher than the average fullerenes song. which could either show that a. fullerenes songs aren't terribly studio finessed, b. this demo is really well done, c. i have low standards, or d. i don't know the fullerenes' style well enough to point out how this is unfinished

-the vocal harmonies are on full display in this track- far more than the other ones even, i think.

-i guess you could say it's on ~fullerenes display haha

-oh the album's over. yeah it's only an ep & the songs aren't too long. the other ones have a shit ton more tracks at least. good times!

#the fullerenes #it is wack tagging them let me tell you. a shit ton of this stuff's wack honestly especially for yall. it's wack for me too but i don't need #to talk about that round here i've got better places than these tags #loolin liveblogs #but genuinely this is the first time y'all are seeing me really really actually truly liveblog something new. in the past it's been #something i know really well or with commentary. and then it was things i know very well but in a different format which is something #and i guess here even i did listen to the album before liveblogging it. but still it's a totally new group to me & to y'all i'm sure #y'all get to see me fall in love with something brand new of my very own as it's going down. this is going to be fun #tis i #anyway blease listen to the fullerenes their albums are pay-what-you-want on bandcamp & nobody else even knows about them i beg you /lh #to the world and back again

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