#look i originally wanted to do this set with only my core party but then i realised that apart from gale i love all of them too

[thydungeongal]

Hi, same anon obsessed with morality.

Okay, I admit that my ask was a bit too emotional because non-evil original roleplaying games exist even in sword and sorcery style (World of Dungeons and Oracle are some I would recommend), and existence of Gondal setting testifies that it's not a male thing in any way.

However, my probably naive concern goes a little further - I don't play D&D, but I use it for monsters and settings. It's hard to invent absolutely everything from a scratch, you know? But this leads to an ethical concern I have - doing this is still feeding into D&D hegemony and embracing Gygax's and Arneson's rotten legacy (though I am starting to think that Gygax was a lesser evil, holy fuck). And let's not fool ourselves here - derivative games like Pathfinder or Knave are still their legacy (though maybe Cairn isn't, I am not sure).

So like, what are options of games that are generic fantasy that have a lot of monsters and settings to steal and that are also both not "D&D but different" and aren't objectively evil?

I know literally a handful of candidates, so I am asking your followers to share. And no, Warhammer isn't such game.

What I remember is:

Fantasy Age is not without a sin, but it's presented as "you can depict these demi-humans as equal people or you can be a hitler, it's up to you", so progress I guess?

Jackals is built on OpenQuest and is pretty generic if you exclude it being about bronze age, but I remember some potentially creepy details of how it treats demi-humans

Blue Rose looks the most morally fine, but it's not exactly generic

Lightmaster is ugh, because it doesn't have inherently evil demi-humans, but it has inherently different demi-humans who are always savages, so it's a thin ice (though otherwise it's a blast)

D6 Fantasy doesn't really have monsters in core book, but there are probably third-party bestiaries that may even not be vile

GURPS does have bestiaries of fantasy creatures, but I don't know anything about their morality

IDK about rolemaster, but you said that it's not good.

So like, which extremely ethical non-OSR heartbreaker that was published ever am I missing? Should I look into Das Schwarze Auge, or does it suck the same way?

Ultimately I think you're thinking about this too much to your own detriment. It's good to be aware of the fact that lots of (especially older) fantasy stuff does carry some fucked up expectations and approach it with a critical eye so you don't end up replicating it, but if you become single-minded in your pursuit of the perfect, unproblematic fantasy RPG you're not only setting yourself up for disappointment but also denying yourself a lot of stuff that's good but flawed.

Anyway, not a game but a supplement for OSR games, but Skerples' Monster Overhaul is pretty good in this regard and does this via simply accepting the revolutionary paradigm of "orcs are just some guys."

Another game out of the left field, Chivalry & Sorcery is really surprising in this regard, because it's the sort of game that gives off vibes of being written by "the presence of women in a medieval setting is extremely inaccurate" types, but the authors actually make a point of saying that player enjoyment and comfort should always take precedence over adherence to historicity when it comes to issues like players wanting to play women or queer characters. But it's in its treatment of orcs and trolls (and as far as I've understood, dwarves and elves too, but I haven't read that supplement yet) where it gets really cooking. Chivalry & Sorcery is a game written by medieval history nerds and they wanted their game's worldbuilding to adhere to a medieval European paradigm. So when it came to adding orcs into the game the authors asked "how would orcs fit into the worldview of a medieval Christian?"

The answer is that just as medieval Christian philosophers mused that if cynocephali or those guys who only had one big foot were to exist then surely they must be just some guys, orcs would also have to be just some guys. This means that they would be human in terms of having been created by God and tracing descent to Adam and Eve and also could receive the eucharist and be saved.

Anyway, all of which is to say that the middle ages were woke,

[jinxquickfoot]

So I finished my Age of Ultron rewatch. It's been a couple of years since I last saw it, and here are some random thoughts I had on it:

Things I will maintain I like about this movie:

It has some of my favorite jokes in the MCU, and they're usually the little moments. The little nod of validation Rhodey makes after getting a laugh at his "Boom! You looking for this?" story. Clint telling Steve he's no match for Ultron and Steve replying with, "Thanks, Barton". Clint's "Yeah, you better run" after Pietro has long since disappeared with Wanda, there are loads of them.

I like Vision, Wanda and Pietro. Despite being secondary characters with not a huge amount of screen time, Wanda and Pietro feel like real people with real backstories, and Paul Bettany is wonderful the first time we see him as Vis.

It's the only movie we get to see the Original 6 hang out as friends.

I love that Fury randomly shows up in the middle and is like "let me make a sandwich while we discuss how not to let the world end also by the way hi Tony I really care about you"

Other casual appearances of other MCU characters, something that is so lacking Phase 4 onwards. Sam being at the party and Thor going to Selvig for help makes the world feel lived in.

RDJ's never dropped the ball as Tony but his performance really stuck out to me here, god he's good

Steve and Thor have multiple moments of teaming up and working together, what an underrated duo

Hulk vs Iron Man suit inside an Iron Man Suit fight

The Avengers do their best to evacuate Sokovia before Ultron attacks, which does not excuse the amount of damage caused there, but I do think is a plot point everyone forgets about (myself included)

And things that annoy me (skipping over the stuff everyone talks about like the Natasha/Bruce plot):

I hate how Joss Whedon writes Steve, both here and in Avengers. He only feels like Steve when he's being given jokes, otherwise he is so self-serious and stiff, the core of Steve is his heart and it is nowhere to be found in this movie

The movie spends so long setting up character arcs that feel promising and have no payoff. What is the point of Laura telling Clint the Avengers need him if he's going to retire at the end of the movie. Steve has several references to finding home in a way that doesn't go anywhere (Until Endgame, I guess). Don't get me started on Natasha.

It's trying so hard to have a theme but it never says anything unique. Bruce, Tony, Natasha and Vision all refer to themselves as monsters. Ultron decides that the Avengers are the bad guys. Steve has a speech all about proving they're not the monsters Ultron says they are. Based on WHAT? What is the message of this movie?? That the Avengers are better than the evil AI who wants to kill everyone?

(I half-feel there was a previous draft where Clint was their heart, or something, or he died and they were like whelp Phil Coulson 2.0 let's go avenge him, and the random pieces of that are still floating around the script with nowhere to go)

NO ONE is remotely concerned enough when their friends are getting hurt (maybe just the hurt/comfort lover in me, but still.) Natasha comes across as the only person who cares when Clint sustains a life-threatening injury. No one seems to be bothered that Natasha is being held captive by a psychotic supervillain. Tony shows more emotion over a fictional future where they die than when someone is actually in danger.

They really could have had a premise where they weren't allowed to access technology at all and could have gone retro with everything and they didn't and that just feels like a wasted opportunity. Clint and Natasha digging out old spy tech. Steve being like "Yes! This is familiar! I got this!" Tony making genius inventions out of tech from fifty years ago. Come on, it was right there.

[histrions]

hi! ♡ this is neve ( she/her ) and i've brought to you blush boutique's owner, nam yeonji. since she's been in ansong for twenty five years, you best believe she has done a lot of things since then! feel free to read her about and memories here. more ( like, a lot more ) details on her can also be found under the cut. and before i forget, drop a like on this post if you're up for some plotting! ( ps. i'm so happy to be here and please do expect me to be very annoying in your ims soon! )

ansong

tried dropping all of her items down at the building's lost and found. sure, she had that familiarity in her heart but what the hell would she do with a children's make-up kit? bffr.

she spent ten whole years studying at ansong university, majoring in fashion design, creative writing, then visual arts. still likes painting and reading to this day. (her subconscious was probably pushing her to do so because she barely graduated high school in her waking life.)

about fifteen years ago, she opened blush boutique and the rest is history. thanks to it, she was able to unlock her first core memory too. (her first collection was inspired by the color palette of the aforementioned children's make-up kit.)

purposefully moved to floor #09 unit #09 to try and figure out what her "nine" notecard means. (spoiler alert: nothing good.)

for now, the only thing she remembers of her past is that she was very close to her grandmother.

personality

looks like a bitch, sounds like a bitch, is a bitch. i was originally going to make her less complicated but where's the fun in that!

success has always been the most important thing to her and it's no different now; take a look at her degrees or her boutique. pushes herself hard and pushes others even harder.

the beautiful thing about her is that no matter how cold or intimidating she may be, she mostly just doesn't know how to interact with people. she doesn't necessarily want to be rude, but she also doesn't care enough to apologize and try harder when she fucks up... so, you know. she sucks but not that much.

on the bright side, she's nice to party with! just don't work at blush or get too close to her and you will be fine! i think.

in my head, she has the same energy as that one annoying coworker who comments on everything you do and spreads gossip for fun. i support women's rights and wrongs.

another slightly concerning thing she does is people-watching. doesn't try to be subtle about it either. if you think she's judging you, she most likely is.

but she's not all bad! (please don't give up on her pleaseplaeasepelapselease)

very creative. puts a lot of thought and effort into everything. extremely loyal, both to her craft and to those she loves. doesn't lie or pretend; always very straightforward about her intentions. if you're her friend, you will never feel unappreciated! you will be showered in gifts and that's a threat. just don't expect words of affirmation from her because she doesn't have the slightest idea how to do that.

connection ideas

any antagonistic plots, obviously! she called your outfit ugly, stole your cat, hit on your boyfriend/girlfriend at a bar, etc.

rivals. maybe another business owner who gets on her nerves.

that one unlikely friend who is all "i can fix her" and it grosses her out.

if you need a low maintenance friend, you have found her! your muse could ghost her for years and she wouldn't even notice.

anyone who is into art in general! if you nerd out with her, you might see a better side of her, just saying!

let's give her another weird ex! she can't remember the one from her waking life so it's okay. <3

or anything else you want. i'm all ears!

and now, onto the part you're probably curious about!

trigger warnings: brief mentions of abuse (child, domestic, and alcohol), depression, suicidal ideation, and murder.

life and death

let me set the scene: late 70s, jeju city. baby yeonji's parents, living their best life thanks to grandma yeonji, so much so that they even named their only child after her. thing is, her grandmother was one of the most successful actresses of her time, which allowed the family to live luxuriously.

naturally, this privilege also came with its own set of expectations. her grandmother and mother were both adamant that yeonji goes down the acting route herself.

(this was mostly to make up for the fact that her mother never succeeded as an actress. passing down generational trauma, the tragedy of being a daughter, etcetera. you know how it goes.)

so yeonji became a child actress, constantly missing school just to keep up with her work. by her early 20s, she started to win awards of her own. acted in a lot of romance k-dramas, which she absolutely hated.

her then boyfriend (who is unnamed for plot purposes but also because i hate his ass) proposed to her at an award ceremony (way to make it about yourself, buddy) and the two got married soon after.

long story short, their relationship turned really abusive and yeonji started drinking. she would also frequently call suicide hotlines as she felt like she had lost control over her life. (or that she never had any to begin with.)

just a minute before the clock struck midnight on new years' eve in '99, yeonji had an argument with her husband and was pushed off a balcony. (not so fun fact: the nine notecard refers to the year and the number of floors she fell down.)

currently thinking about how both her grandmother and mother outlived her but.. that is a heartache for another day..

if you read this far, have this lore accurate yeonji depiction:

[dededaio]

alright, so, to go along with my battle system concept for a kirby rpg, i also started thinking the story. it was pretty much inevitable. so what do you think i cooked up?

i think it's inevitable that first kirby rpg should tackle the mirror world. it's going to be either a completely original story (pretty plausible move) or something that has roots in concepts from the mainline series but also can stand on it's own without confusing new players.

the mirror world is perfect for this because while it has just enough substance and history to provide decent backstory for some stuff in an rpg, it's also underdeveloped and vague enough to work as pretty much original setting and source for new characters. it will please nerds like me and you who care about kirby canon, while also will be accessible to newcomers, since it's easy to "reintroduce" such in-depth concepts in more story-driven game without it feels obtrusive or pace-breaking.

at any rate, my idea for the story of the game basically lies in two distinct halves. one of the main appeals of the kirby narratives in mainline platformers is that they always have some sort of twist, and i don't want an rpg to be an exception to this.

game's initial conflict is centered around dream land and surrounding areas on the planet popstar being invaded by the inhabitants of the mirror world. the game begins at the celebration of the day of kirby's arrival in dream land. this is where kirby, while relaxed, can interact with a lot of future party members and important npcs. one of the visitors at the party is taranza, who brought some sort of gift to the occasion.

only it turns out that this is not actually taranza we know and love, but DARK taranza, an evil doppelganger of the spider we all know and love, who brought an elongated version of the corrupted dimensional mirror. it just so happens that all cast members and a lot of minor and major npcs happen to look in the mirror which turns out to be a huge mistake... they all get reflected and their shadow, dark counterparts emerge, with the only goal in mind: to replace them in the world that isn't corrupted the same way the mirror world is.

dark taranza and his cronies (which include the likes of dark meta knight, shadow dedede (shade) and dark bandana dee to name a few) seem to be the main antagonists of the game and they pretty much are for the first half of it. but as you liberate areas the shadow folk from the mirror takes over you slowly but surely learn that truth, that they are being manipulated. a lot of shadow people aren't actually as bad as the first impression might've suggested, they are deeply flawed and broken people, but they do still have some compassion and goodness deep down inside of a lot of them.

truth comes out, shadow and dark versions of the characters aren't inherently "evil", they simply reflect their worst qualities. but just as the main versions could grow past them into better versions of themselves, so are shadow versions. after the fight with dark taranza, we learn an awful truth, he's been manipulated by greater evil.

the corruption in the mirror materialized in the being far worse than even dark mind from kirby and the amazing mirror was, turning into the lord of judgement, person who embodies all sins of people who ever looked into the mirror. he set his sights on taking over the world beyond what being trapped within broken magical mirror could offer, so he used vulnerable shadow folk as his pawns. however, it's too late, everything is played right into his hands, a lot of people on popstar looked into the mirror, feeding him their worst qualities and sins, making him stronger, he gets out of the mirror and slowly but surely starts taking over the planet, corrupting it bit by bit.

the only way to reverse it is to go into the mirror world proper and destroy his core, this way, the mirror's corruption and the lord himself might go away forever. there is however is also danger of the shadow folk disappearing too, as they are also by-product of the mirror's corruption.

basically, yeah. something like that. basic crux of the plot not mentioning all character arcs of the main party, side-quests and other details. this is just to get the gist across.

[gobs-o-cs]

"We have to get back... We have to warn them! We can't be too late! ...Please. Please tell us that this was not how it ends!"

Malachite

(He/Him)

Warforged Warlock, Great Old One Patron, Pact of the Talisman

Neutral

Courtier Background (Emissary)

Prior to the Backstory Event that Led to Making a Warlock Pact:

Cuprite

"On behalf of the esteemed City-State of Hells'-Haven, I thank you for your hospitality in receiving this envoy and express our most sincere wishes that we can together forge an enthusiastic, efficacious, and enduring partnership."

Dice Set #74 - Oxi-Copper

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

What can I say? Inspiration is a fickle thing. I'll take it when I can get it, but I've definitely been slacking on making characters or minis. Definitely fell deep into a jigsaw puzzle vortex.

But, anyway, a post on bluesky inspired me to go back and remake a character's mini into a nice, proper one with all of the new features at my disposal.

Malachite's a character who in some form or another has been rattling around in my head for, like, something like 15 years now. I originally made the Warforged Warlock for 4th Edition - He was actually a counterpart of sorts to Morana.

For my 4th Edition characters, I was putting together the vague idea of them all being on the same team of mercenaries - If I were to ever DM a campaign, they'd be available for the PCs' party to hire/bring along for missions to shore up any weaknesses they had, to act as quest-givers (especially side-quest-type stuff), and in-general to give them NPC friends to care about (the plot hook I had in-mind would begin with the party being recruited into this merc group).

Actually, if I ever do run a campaign instead of just writing a story, I think I might still approach things with that whole setup in-mind.

Anyway, a trope I'd noticed in many media is that groups/teams/parties only ever seemed to have one member of each type/class - Maybe a beefy-type-fighter and agile-type-fighter, but that was the most overlap that seemed to exist, and usually that'd be more like a fighter and a ranger, or a fighter and a barbarian.

So what I wanted to do was have two Warlocks both as part of the core crew - Because the mercenary group liked each other and wanted to work with their friends, rather than shrewdly looking at their roster and rejecting someone because "they already had one of those".

While HeroForge still doesn't have the very niche ideas I have in-mind for the ultimate vision I have for Mal, the new options are certainly a step up from my first attempt at making a mini for him back in 2020.

In my vision, he doesn't have normal-looking horns, per se - He's got two metal slats attached to his faceplate, in place of horns - The Tieflings that made him did make him to resemble them, but still more stylized. Also, the green "hair" on his head is meant to be an accumulation of Old Man's Beard lichen, which started growing on his immobilized body while he was stuck in involuntary stasis, caught halfway in a time-bubble (hence the patina on his right side)

The reason for his making a pact, and the reason for his persona change is that he spent over 20 years stuck with his body and mind half-in-half-out of magical fallout, basically. And the source of the eldritch magic eventually reached out to his literally-fractured mind, and that aspect of his personality - An embodiment of his utter desperation and outrage, was the one to form the pact.

Finally freeing himself from the stasis effect stabilized his mind for the most part, but in terms of which facets of himself that are driving the actions now, there was a shift from his normal self to the part of him that made the pact. It's not a clear distinct-personas Dissociative Identity Disorder thing - There's no different-alters-taking-control-at-different-times switching - Malachite and Cuprite are the same person, just two of many voices that would debate ideas back and forth in his head, same as pretty much anyone else does. Malachite ultimately isn't any less reasonable than Cuprite - More guarded and paranoid, more affected by trauma, certainly. But still essentially Cuprite.

Nevertheless, learning that he was framed for causing the explosion of the strange magic that trapped him and destroyed a fortress, and that this incident was used by the other nation as a justification to invade and destroy his home City-State will definitely not sit well with him. His people - Both in the sense of the other residents of Hells'-Haven in-general, and his Warforged kin - Those who survived the invasion have once again been scattered to the winds. Hells'-Haven was a center of invention and research, and they had found ancient Warforged in tombs and revived them from their dormant states, which led to the development of techniques for creating new ones. So, the Warforged had their new home amongst the exiled Tieflings (and others) of the Haven.

He wishes to return to his service as an emissary of his people, which means finding whatever surviving leadership he can, if there's indeed anyone left to find. All the while his new "friend" whispers promises of vengeance justice in his mind.

[infectedhau]

So there's a new Dragon Age coming out, and as someone who's owned the first three for literal decades at this point without ever touching them, I figured I'd get caught up

My broad thoughts: this is the first time I've seen a franchise go through puberty (disclaimer, I don't actually know anything about the development history of Dragon Age, these are all just my impressions from my mostly blind playthrough. I didn't look up anything story wise, but I did do a little research into builds just to make sure the combat got a fair shake)

Starting Origins, you can clearly see that it wants to be an ARPG, but was realized by a bunch of guys that had only done CRPGs up to that point. You've got these flashy cinematic finishers, a camera that can technically be zoomed out to a more traditional top-down view but prefers to sit over your shoulder, and a tactics menu that basically means you don't have to micro your party at all if you don't want to (maybe you do on higher difficulties, idk, I went through on normal because the thing kept crashing and didn't wanna have to deal with constantly redoing fights). I can feel the Baldur's Gate energy in it, but I can also feel some guy saying "and we want it to be more dramatic and dynamic" while a copy of Dragon's Dogma floats over his shoulder like a stand. Lore-wise, it's a darker, lower-magic setting, which I honestly think works pretty well for it looking the way it does. You've got your occasional crazy armor or fantasy-ass sword, but everything else was pretty grounded, and I definitely got the feeling that I wasn't all that stronger than the enemies, despite being a diet witcher. That being said, it's an older game, so it's pretty easy to break. I played a Blood Mage/Arcane Knight build, and basically every single encounter was solved by stunlocking the entire room to death, which somewhat ruined the immersion of these guys being an actual problem. Maybe if the Templars weren't such dicks about it this would've all been solved sooner.

On to Dragon Age 2, and boy oh boy can you tell this game was made in the early 10s. Everything has gotten spkier and edgier, you've got more impractical armor and weapons, the opening shot is your sister's tits bouncing around as you run through a battlefield, and the game tries to start you as an unremarkable white guy with a goatee and a shitty haircut (I shut that shit down real fast, though I didn't really customize lady Hawke either since from what I understand the customization doesn't carry over). You also see it crawling a bit further towards ARPG territory, now even your auto attacks are flashy and stylish, especially if you're a Rogue, but the bones are still basically the same. You still attack on a timer, you can still click to move, and there's still a pause button. The AI has also improved, I don't think I even looked at the tactics menu and I still got through with minimal difficulty. Also, they retconned a wholeass race, with the Qunari graduating from "humans but bigger" to these cool gray horned dudes. Definitely an improvement, no I am not at all biased, don't look at my Qunari inquisitor lady and my Dranei Death Knight lady and my Au'ra Mahcinist Lady this ain't about her. Also turning the duelist trainer from Origins into a slutty pirate lady was... a choice, but honestly I liked her character, and her, Aveline, and Merrill were my core party members through most of it (still though, put some pants on girl, cmon). This is also where my first actual complaint comes in, that being that they seemed to think the best way to add difficulty was to just swarm you with guys. I don't mind big fights, but having to chew through two or three waves of enemies with every single combat encounter got a bit old by the end.

And now, Inquisition, where we're almost there, it's so close I can taste it. You finally click to attack, you have a jump button, the tactics menu is basically gone, but it's still clinging to its CRPG roots, the pause button haunting your hotbar like a ghost of real-time-with-pause past. I haven't noticed any dramatic changes lore-wise like I did with 2, but they did manage to find some (slightly) more reasonable armor designs and thus far none of my party members are running around half-naked. An overall improvement, and while I'm not done with this one yet I've been enjoying it so far. From what I hear, the new one is finally a proper ARPG, and all I can say is holy hell it took them long enough

[c0rvidfagg0try]

No one will out do The Gonch, but I am thinking abt Zepotha and how good it could’ve been.

I think the concept is interesting removed from the original way it came to be. I really love the idea of like a campy late 70s-early 80s slasher movie. So in an effort to take this and actually make some sort of like lore for it I want to like talk abt characters and settings and stuff

Characters:

So far the only characters I’ve seen consistently pop up are Alaine, Maxine, Danny, and Cole

-Alaine: our deuteragonist with Maxine, good Christian girl stereotype, homoerotic undertones with Maxine, severe anxiety and paranoia issues (tragically unexplored by the movie), definitely very buttoned-up look (glasses, sweater vests, the like), turns into our tragic hero for the film, ultimately killing the killer but dying in the process

-Maxine: our other deuteragonist, bad girl stereotype, also homoerotic undertones with Alaine (definitely more obvious tho) (very Jennifer’s Body w/the 2 of them), very goth-y vibes, sort of eggs on Alaine’s anxiety, smoker, sort of a temptress figure for Alaine

-Danny: Our killer, part of the friend group with the other 3 characters, comes off as sort of this cool jock (footballer) guy and is mainly friends with them cuz he’s Alaine’s childhood friend (the forced heterosexuality between them is tragic), a bit annoying and overbearing, kills mainly due to the fact that Alaine won’t like him back (and the internalized homophobia he’s dealing with but they don’t talk abt that even tho it’s so obvious)

-Cole: stoner stereotype, him and Danny have something gay going on between them (also tragically unexplored) mostly chill guy and our doubter for the film (doesn’t believe that this is actually happening until it’s too late), tragically dies in Act 2 (Danny not realizing who he killed until it’s too late)

I like to imagine it’s very Scream-esque, so masked killer, killer is part of the friend group, takes place in high school, etc.

Settings:

I think building off some of the scenes that ppl talk abt is a good idea cuz some sound interesting to me

-High School: the main setting of Act I, where we meet the core characters and see multiple character interactions of the 4 discussing the killings, very stereotypical high school

Subcategories if this setting include: Hallways (specifically next to the lockers), Under the Bleachers, a Classrooom, and the Lunch Room

-Alaine’s House (specifically her Bedroom): her bedroom is very pink and child-like to represent her naivety, but is usually cast in a yellow light to emphasize her paranoia and the looming threat, we see this a couple times, but mainly in the scene where she’s getting ready for the party

My favorite scene from this is the scene where Maxine comes through her window to pick her up for the Bonfire, and ends up tempting her with a cigarette as she sits on the bed, Alaine comes over and takes up her offer, in an effort to relieve her anxiety/paranoia, and we see Maxine shotgun smoke into her mouth, until Alaine starts coughing it up, breaking the (homoerotic) tension

-The Bonfire/The Woods: the main area of Act II, where the infamous woods scene comes from, the core four r invited to the bonfire (Danny gets the invite for them since he’s popular) and there, the first body is found in the woods, hanging from a tree, stomach slashed open, and organs spilling out, as screams pierce the air, rain starts pouring in and the bonfire is doused, leading to ppl scattering in woods, including Maxine and Alaine together, and Cole, separated from the 2

A tense chase through the woods ensues, following each of them separately not knowing who the killer is following. We see the bodies of a handful more bodies scattered throughout the woods as the groups stumble upon them, various arms, legs, and heads severed, and always the stomachs slashed. We also see other ppl who look like they’ve been beaten, as ppl started attacking others, not knowing if they were the killer or not (emphasizing the paranoia themes)

The best scene is when we finally see the killer catch up to Cole, where they start fighting (and the killers chainsaw gets tossed to the ground) and it seems like Cole is winning until he’s stabbed in the stomach. We see the killer get up grab chainsaw to finish the job, but as he comes back and the rain stops, clouds parting to reveal moonlight, Danny recognizes Cole, breathing out his name, dropping the chainsaw again, and desperately trying to stop the bleeding. Recognition flashes in Cole’s eyes and he reaches up to cup Danny’s face, bringing it close (as if they’re abt to kiss), and he whispers ‘Danny?’ Before the light fades from his eyes 😩😩😩

-The Carnival: This is where the final Act takes place for the most part, this is a handful of months after the bonfire/woods scene (set nebulously during early spring) Danny invites Alaine for a date there and she says yes, but ends up showing up with Maxine, he is enraged, but ultimately still tries to take her around. There’s a bit of a montage of the 3 of them doing things together, mainly Alaine and Maxine, while Danny sulks, but eventually Danny gets Alaine to go on the Ferris wheel with him alone and tries to kiss her, which she rejects, and runs away from him with Maxine

He ends up going to the car and getting his murder gear intending to kill her (and various other carnival goers). He kills the Ferris wheel attendent first, spurring a mass panic. He searches for Alaine and Maxine, killing multiple ppl on the way and find them where they fight and the 2 escape to the games corridor and hide behind one of the stalls.

This part killed me, when Alaine grabs the bat from the stall and tells Maxime to wait there, kissing her on the cheek!!!! And then she goes after him in the House of Mirrors and starts smashing the glass as she sees him in like a culmination of her paranoia!!!!! And then Danny over powers her and slashes her across the stomach like everyone else and says ‘You should’ve loved me, not her, i could’ve saved you from all this.’ But she fucking grabs a shard of glass and like stabs him in the heart and says ‘It would’ve saved you too??? LIKE???? And the directors say it’s not canon smh,,,

But it gets even worse cuz like Maxine comes and find her and Danny’s body and like cradles her and like Alaine softly touches her face one last time and fucking does in her arms 😩😩😩 AND THEN IT ENDS??? Insane behavior

I Hope y’all enjoy my insane ramblings I hope this sounds like interesting and feels more plot like an actual thing??? Yeah I had a lot of fun with this like

[browniefox]

The Final Crisis Core Playthrough Post!

Might end up making a video or something that kind of puts all my thoughts on the game together, but I'll leave it as this for now.

I feel like I'm always harping on the same things, but this game is always trying to get me to care about characters that it hasn't set up well before hand. I think there's something interesting about Cissnei, but there's not enough interactions with her for me to really care about her, and them trying to be like 'hey, don't you care what her read name is???' just makes me dislike her more tbh. I appreciate she's looking out for Zack, but there's just not a lot there for me. Who knows, maybe she'll end up being super cool in Rebirth.

It's also funny to me that she's like 'wow Zack, coming to Gongaga? Of course they're looking for you here' but Zack makes it sound like he kind of came here by accident.

Hollander and his dumb ass little wing. Also, in this light, Genesis is doing pretty well for himself, all things considered.

Genesis' goal is just... It's all over the place. I was sort of beginning to understand him, but this last section of the game I just stop being able to get a read on him. What I hate most is the lack of feeling like anything has changed for him. It's been four years, and sure Zack's life was at a standstill, but the rest of the world shouldn't have been. I'm glad the game let me finally kill Hollander, though, I've been wanting to do that for hours.

And I guess right now they've decided they need Cloud's S Cells? Why do they think S Cells will work? Are they just grasping at straws? I think they are.

How has nobody talked about Lazard???? I thought what happened to him was a mystery bc I've never heard anyone mention that apparently he became an Angeal copy to survive or whatever the purpose was again. It's so weird to see him with Angeal's face.

I think there's something interesting, though, with us finally getting to learn a little bit more about the connection between the copy and the original, with Lazard mentioning he's been feeling some Angeal emotions or whatever. We never get to hear what his deal was though. I know it's implied he's a Shinra bastard, but I guess I think it would have hit better as text rather than subtext.

I do think it's cool that the shelling of Banora was one of the first things to happen in the game, and now we're back here and we get to see the fallout. At least it looks pretty. I think there's only one Banora White tree left, from the looks of it? I'd love to be able to come here in Rebirth, though I have a feeling we won't.

Are you trying to tell me that Genesis was the first person to think of making apple juice??? Yeah, sorry, don't believe it. This party just feels... weird. Like, I think it's supposed to hint to something? Like, something about the juice? I was just too caught by surprise by Genesis the Apple Juice Inventor.

I realize he didn't invent apple juice but just, uh, was the first to decide to juice Banora Whites? Was there something stopping them from doing so before?

The dungeon in this section also does not have to be this long. Bull shit dungeon.

Okay, so now there's a weird statue that was under Banora. Okay. I believe it's said or implied that whatever this thing is is what gave Banora White's their special taste or whatever or special properties, I wish it was gone into before. Is that why the trees were fruiting at weird times of the year? At least Genesis seems to believe this is what he was looking for.

It's sort of interesting that Genesis looks and Zack and goes 'Ah, you have both Angeal and Sephiroth in you, and thus we are all reunited', but like, that makes it seem like Zack will then get some part of Genesis to me, but that never happens.

The armor looks cool, but it made me expect a much cooler fight than I ended up having. The fighting in this ends up being just spamming spells, which isn't all that fun tbh. I like that Genesis' face was kind of cracking as he was getting the power of the Goddess, but then he's totally rejuvenated after this which is soooo lame.

Why and how does he claim this power anyway? It's one of the more minor questions, tbh. This is going to sound weird, bc god I could not get thi guy to stop talking about loveless, but I wish there was more Loveless? Like, that we could get a better understanding of the epic to better see how it fits the story of Genesis, Angeal, and Seph.

I do kind of like that Genesis at this point is still fighting. Like, he doesn't seem to understand when to throw in the towel - it's why he's been trying to find a cure this whole time. I kind of see it as what was probably once one of his best qualities, but now has become one of his worst.

I think this is supposed to be, like, the Goddess from Loveless, right? But, is that the same as the Planet? Is she some Ancient from long ago? Something else? These aren't questions that I necessarily need answered, but if would be nice to know if, you know answers to them did exist. I do think this whole scene is very pretty at least, and you get the idea that Genesis might even be coming to some sort of revelation about like, his life and what all of this is, and I for sure thought he died here.

I also think it's sad that Zack keeps getting into this situations where people are essentially using him as a form of suicide. How mean, he's just a nice little guy! Stop being mean to him :(

Wow, reunion of the Firsts. You have Lazard as Angeal, Genesis as himself, and Cloud as Sephiroth, how touching. I just, ugh, I was so done with this story by the time I got here. Like it’s a nice picture, and you get the idea they’re going for something, but it falls flat to me. Also,  Lazard says that they were attacked, and I realize it would have been more work, but I wish they would have done something to the area to look like there had just been some sort of fight here. I could easily believe otherwise that Lazard just fell down and died bc he looks that shitty. No offense. Also damn, the dog dies too :( 

And also we all get to eat an apple? Do the apples have something special going on with them or not? I got the impression they do from what I’ve heard other people say, and maybe I’m just not picking up on it bc I’m going through the story too quickly or something, but the pieces are just not coming together for me. I’m planning to watch both the CC and CCR cutscenes after this to get some other opinions and also to try and get a better grasp on all of this, so hopefully that will help…? 

Oh my God, I do kind of like the detail that Zack had no idea it’s been four years. I mean, why would he know how long it’s been. That being said, however, why hasn’t anyone else mentioned how long it’s been? Maybe they don’t realize he wasn’t able to account for that time or something, but still. It does break my heart that Aerith has been writing letters this whole time, but just now she’s finally giving up. 

Bye bye Genesis, see you in Dirge or whatever. For some reason I thought it ended with him, like, encased in crystal? I realize that that Zack really only has room for one comatose friend, but you couldn't have put Genesis somewhere a little better? Then again, he is a little bitch, and where else would he want to be than as close to home as possible? Not that he stayed there very long, of course.

Again, we see that the Turks care at least somewhat for Zack, and not just Cissnei. Either it’s because Tseng likes Zack or because he cares about Aerith, and tbh I’d take either answer. I think it’s nice that he’s been holding on to the letters she’s tried to send to Zack, that Tseng hasn’t thrown them away but clearly has always planned to give them to Zack, should he ever turn up. I do like Tseng a little more after this game, at least. 

I know that this game expects you to have played FFVII before hand, but I wish some of the repeat cutscenes were done more justice, like this one in the back of the truck. For a game that deals with the time between Nibelheim and Midgar, I kinda was hoping for more of these moments between Zack and Cloud. 

Ugh, this moment is good though, Cloud reaching out for Zack, probably the most he’s moved in years, but Zack has his back turned and is walking away. We all know what’s coming. 

I didn’t take a lot of screenshots during the fight. I wish it had let you fight them until you couldn’t fight any longer instead of ending it earlier. The way the DMW breaks down over the course of the battle is heartbreaking! I think it’s cool to interpret it as, like, Zack losing faith in those people, his loss in hope of what they thought, they believed, or maybe losing the values that they thought were important or something. And the way that Aerith’s DMW held on so long. When I tell you I screamed the first time he’s came up, and I almost cried when the it finally disappeared. And that grueling end fight! Where it’s you against three simple infantrymen, but Zack at this point is so tired and exhausted he can barely lift the buster sword. Oh my god, at least they did this part super well. 

Okay, my switch wouldn’t let me take screenshots of the ending cutscene, boo, but here’s my thoughts on that. 

God that last scene is so brutal.

Zack bleeding out and dying, and it not shying away from showing the blood and how painful and sad this is. And Cloud, managing to crawl over. I already knew this scene, but it still hit super strongly. Like, how relieved must Zack hae been to hear Cloud talk for the first time in ages? To say his name? Confirmation that Cloud was still in there and still cared about him? And all he can offer him now is a purpose and a weapon to carry on. And the way Cloud SCREAMS at the end! And Aerith looking upward, and you know that she can feel that Zack is dead. I have just have one problem, and that’s that it becomes a music video??? Like, why the hell would you do that? 

I also like the detail that the post-credit scene is the opening to FFVII. Very nice touch in my opinion. 

In summary, I like a lot of the ideas and themes that Crisis Core says it's going to deal with, and most of the ways that it expands the FFVII universe, but i wish it was better and more thoughtfully written. Everything feels so rushed, and like it's going a million miles an hour, and I don't get the chance to get attached to people as much as I wanted to.

[hildred-rex]

this pinned post is permanent now too...

Alright, the temporary blog image has grown on me. It's a cropped square from page 31 of A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne (1635) by George Wither.

The header image is Monhegan, Maine (1922) by Nicholas Roerich. Everyone should go look at more Roerich artwork immediately; his are some of the most consistently beautiful paintings I've ever seen.

Anyway...

I'm:

Cinnamon or Hildred by name, accurately referred to with any pronoun set other than he/it.

@/voidblue on pronouns.page.

Generally, my thematic color is blue and not yellow, but it doesn't make sense for Hildred Castaigne to be blue. In fact, I think he'd be somewhat offended. This makes making this account look like me... somewhat difficult. (Update: I've given up entirely. This is Hildred's blog theme now. The Imperial Dynasty of America was secretly the Imperial Dynasty of Tumblr User @hildred-rex's Blog Theme.)

Under the readmore: a list of fandoms I partake in, more detail on my exploits in gothic literature, a noncomprehensive list of other things I've enjoyed, and a "last updated."

Fandoms:

The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers. Please ask me about it. I will talk for hours.

gothic literature (predominantly horror) in general; this gets its own list lower down!

The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk.

Arthur Machen (have not read everything yet!)

Dracula by Bram Stoker.

The Parties are for Losers series by Ferry. (I don't want to give them a random notification for no reason, but they're nopanamaman on tumblr.)

The rest of Ferry's songs are also very good!

previously reading Homestuck due to a D&D campaign (I promise this makes sense in context)

[more when I remember them]

I decided a few years ago that Lovecraft was seminal to the cosmic horror genre and that therefore I should read all the fiction he ever wrote; to my recollection I've read everything listed on Wikisource except "The Street" and "The Rats in the Walls," provided it's extant. (Not sure this counts as a fandom?)

I'll have to come back and add a "music I enjoy" section later.

More on Gothic Literature:

(Listed = I've read it; bolded = I can probably do analysis of its characters; italicized = I don't remember it well; underlined = I really want to reread this and will when I have the time. Small is notes and commentary.)

This is only what I've dredged up from my brain at the moment and I have probably read more; this'll be updated as I read and/or think of stuff.

The King in Yellow (1895) by Robert W. Chambers. (Bolding only goes for the weird stories, including "The Demoiselle d'Ys," and is strongest for "The Repairer of Reputations." I've found myself unable to get through a few of the romances & cannot make heads nor tails of "The Prophet's Paradise" except that it feels like someone accidentally published his sheet of idea-collection paper. Admittedly, because of that it makes a pretty good transition between the weird stories and the rest.)

Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker. (Curiously, I've never actually done Dracula Daily.)

The Three Impostors (1895) by Arthur Machen. (I utterly adore this book.)

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson. (I really loved reading this one, but was very sad by the end. I had Opinions on most of the characters and will again when I reread.)

The Great God Pan (1890) by Arthur Machen.

The Inmost Light (1890) by the same author. (Hello Dyson!)

Jane Eyre (1847 originally; I think Dover reproduced from the third ed.) by Charlotte Brontë. (Worth reading, but GODDAMNIT JANE. She's the closest I've found to a fictional representation of how I think, especially about making complicated decisions, which (a) made her very relatable and (b) made the end of the novel all the more what-the-fuck. Also GODDAMNIT CHARLOTTE because of the authorial racism and also the not realizing how unhealthy the core relationship is.)

The Vampyre (1819) by John William Polidori.

The Shining Pyramid (1923) by Arthur Machen. (I didn't like this one when I last read it; Dyson felt off.)

The White People by Arthur Machen (has the most cursed name of anything ever).

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1831, not yet 1818) by Mary Shelley.

The Red Hand (1895) by Arthur Machen.

[Am currently reading more Machen.]

Miscellaneous Things Enjoyed:

This time in alphabetical order.

The Anatomy of Tobacco by Arthur Machen. I feel I must clarify that it's a comedic work that I'd estimate to be of novella length. Reader beware, this book contains random untranslated and even untransliterated faux-Ancient Greek.

At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H. P. Lovecraft. It feels like reading a textbook with a central plot besides the advancement of history (and with a nicer writing style). Content warning for racism and off-handed mentions of the colonial American slave trade.

Fourteen by Peter Clines. This book gets in one's head and doesn't leave.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and its ensuing five-book trilogy, by Douglas Adams.

Impossible Landscapes by Dennis Detwiller. Worth a read even if one doesn't intend to run it.

Last updated 2024-12-26, YYYY-MM-DD. Created sometime in late-ish November 2023. Edited 2023-12-07, 2024-03-31, and 2024-07-03. Backdated to Louis Castaigne's birthday in a year that would make him 42 years old at the founding of this blog.

[pixelwixard]

Store Trek: Halloween to Holiday

Well, I went ahead and did it. I already posted the AO3 listing for it, but just in case you don't do the AO3 thing, here is the first chapter in all its glory. My original document, and what I posted on AO3, used left and right alignments to differentiate who was texting, but I don't know how to do that on Tumblr, so in this post I just labeled each text or group of texts. Read more under the cut!

Summary:

It's Halloween. You know what that means? TIME TO PUT UP THE WINTER HOLIDAY DECORATIONS! That's retail for you, dudes. Carol Freeman, the manager of Storefleet #2380, texts her daughter Beckett Mariner to come in for an overnight shift. Corporate wants those holiday decorations up YESTERDAY. Seriously, they didn't even want to wait until November. Beta shift is their only hope. This is the beginning of Store Trek.

Notes:

Okay, this is my first attempt at an AU. They say write what you know, and I know retail, and I love the show Superstore, so why not use some of its DNA to alter Star Trek Lower Decks according to my whims? Let's see how long I keep this series going. I'll do my best! This is in the form of a text chain, and I tried to format it accordingly. I hope it comes through okay.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Freeman gathers Beta Shift for the Overnighter

[The text chain between Beckett Mariner (Department Lead) and Carol Freeman (store manager of Storefleet #2380), began 8:13 PM on 10/31/20XX, retrieved from Mariner's phone]

Contact: Mom-Ager

Freeman:

Can you come in for an overnight shift  tonight?

Mariner:

Ooh, sorry, can’t. Out of town.

Freeman:

I saw your Instagram post. You’re at  Jennifer’s Halloween party. She lives two blocks from the store.

Mariner:

Fine. Ooh, sorry, can’t. Don't want to.

Freeman:

Beckett.

Let me be clear.

You’re coming in for an overnight shift tonight.

Mariner:

What could we possibly be doing that  needs to be done tonight?

Freeman:

The holiday decorations need to be  put out.

Mariner:

Are you freaking serious? It’s not even November yet.

Freeman:

But it will become November during your shift. Hence why you’re putting out the decorations.

Mariner:

See, this is why I hate the holiday season.

No time to breathe.

You should be able to enter a turkey coma on Thanksgiving, THEN wake up to the holiday crap.

Freeman:

Look, I’m not saying I disagree with the spirit of what you’re saying. It’s not up to me. This is from Corporate.

Mariner:

Can’t someone else do it?

Freeman:

Everyone else who isn’t already coming in is at Halloween parties.

Mariner:

I’M at a Halloween party!

Freeman:

MARINER

You’re a Department Lead now. That  means more responsibility. Sometimes, you’re going to have to leave the party early like an adult.

Mariner:

UGH

FINE

But I’m gonna be wearing my costume

Freeman:

I couldn’t care less what you wear. Shift starts at 11. You’ll have Boimler, Tendi, Rutherford, and T'Lyn with you.

Mariner:

You better be bringing us donuts when you open the store tomorrow. Proper bribery is the least you could do.

Freeman:

We’ll see. You look great in your costume, by the way. Just like Uhura.

Mariner:

Shut up, I know it.

End Notes:

You made it to the end! I'm so proud of you. I originally wrote Mariner's text grammar as much looser, as I think her text style would actually be. She has no time for capitalization and punctuation! She's too busy kicking ass and secretly hanging around the warp core. Even though that makes sense, I changed my mind and just made everything grammatically correct, for the most part. It's just how I prefer it. If you want to imagine a few emojis thrown in there, I won't stop you. A note for the future: I am not completely sure how I'm going to be handling aliens or other normal Trek stuff. Part of me WANTS to just have a bunch of aliens in an otherwise normal setting. Maybe that's what will happen. We'll see. I am leaning towards this because I really want to have a convenience store called FerengiMart, and I'd rather have it staffed with actual Ferengi.

Series this work belongs to:

Part 1 of Store Trek

[delayed-affection]

Chapter ten

Back   Navigation   Season 3

��Dude! Come on!” Y/n shouts at Dustin

“I’m coming!” He yells running to the front door, “You can’t rush perfection.”

“I don’t know about perfection but sure.”

“I’ll have you know that I am the best looking one in the party.” He argues following you out.

She stifles a laugh and get in the car, “What about Harrington?”

“Steve doesn’t count, he’s basically an old man and he’s not in the original party.” He states slamming his door shut.

“Steve and I are the same age.”

“Exactly you guys have one foot in the grave already.” He answers looking out the window.

“You know if those monsters come back one day, I’m going to let one of them get you.” She jokes in a serious tone.

“That’s like saying It doesn’t take a photon up to 40,000 years to travel from the core of the sun to its surface, but only 8 minutes to travel the rest of the way to Earth.”

She rolls her eyes, “Okay you nerd.”

Pulling out of the driveway she starts up a new conversation.

“So are you ready for nerd camp?”

“It’s not nerd camp, it’s camp know where and it’s going to teach me more about science and technology.”

“Nerd camp.”

~

“Dustin!” The boys exclaim at the sight of the car.

Before Y/n can even park the car he’s jumping out of it and rushing over to large group.

“If it isn’t my favorite and least favorite Henderson.” Steve greets pushing himself off of his car.

“If it isn’t my favorite Harrington.” Y/n says getting out of the car.

“I’m the only Harrington, y/n.”

“Exactly.” She states

“You are quickly becoming my least favorite Henderson.”

“Are you saying I wasn’t your favorite?” Dustin asks slightly offended.

“Talk to me when you can do cool things with your mind.” He answers tapping the side of his head.

The sound of a loud engine makes them all fall quiet. Billy’s blue Camaro comes zooming into parking lot.

Max quickly hops out with a huff and he wastes no time leaving.

She makes her way over to the group, “Bunch of losers standing out here, come on.”

The boys follow her inside the newly built mall with their siblings following.

“Jonathan and I are going to go look at Daltons Bookstore.” Nancy announces grabbing his hand and pulling him away from the group.

The now shorten group walks further into the mall not making it too far from where they started.

“There’s an E.B.” Will squeals making them all stop “I wonder if they have Spy Hunter.”

“We gotta go.” Mike comments

“Y/n can I have some money please?” Dustin begs

“Didn’t mom give you some before we left?” She questions

“She only gave me a ten, please just a dollar or two.” He whines with pleading hands

“Only a ten.” She mocks pulling out her wallet and grabbing a five, “Meet us here or at the food court at four.”

He takes the money with a rushed thank you, Will, Mike and him take off towards the store.

“You guys aren’t going?” Steve asks Lucas and Max

The two share a look and dash off to the store.

“Looks like it’s you and me, Harrington.”

~

“Yo, Dustin!” Lucas calls out catching up to them, “I think Harrington has a thing for your sister.”

He quickly turns around, “Ew. No, he doesn’t, why would you say that?”

Max nods, “He didn’t want us hanging around with them.”

“He basically told us to leave.” Lucas adds

“Don’t listen to them, Dustin. They don’t know what they’re talking about.” Mike assures

“Come on think about it, he said she was his favorite.” Lucas argues

Dustin quickly looks around before answering, “Yeah because she has powers and they’re friends.”

“He dated Nancy for god’s sake. what makes you think he won’t date her?” He questions

Max hums, “Girl code says you can’t date your friends ex.”

“Girl code? what’s girl code?” Will asks

“It’s a set of rules that apply to all girls. They’re not written down or anything, it’s just like common sense.” She replies

“Look, he’s not going to date my sister and there’s no way in hell that she even likes him.” Dustin states

Something catches Max’s eye, “Isn’t that Keith?”

They all follow her gaze over to the Cheeto eating teen.

Lucas’ eyes grow wide, “We have to go.”

“What? Why?” Mike asks

“I may or may not have promised him a date with one of your sisters and that date may or may not have happened.” he quickly confesses

“You did what?” Dustin and Mike exclaim

“Look I’ll explain later but right now we have to leave.” he tells them

~

Steve throws an arm around Y/n’s shoulders, “You feel like ice cream?”

She goes to answer but he cuts her off, “I don’t care we’re going to get some.”

He basically drags her by her neck over to the food court, “What are you gonna get, personally I’m more of a vanilla guy.”

She chuckles, “Your choice in ice cream is as bland as your personality.”

He drags his free hand through his hair, “I have a great personality, what are you talking about?”

“What are you talking about?” She asks trying to get out of answering.

“Okay, what are you going to get then Ms Spectacular personality?”

She shrugs, “Probably cookies and cream.”

“Oh because that’s so much better than vanilla.”

“It is.” She argues, “Who wants plain vanilla ice cream?”

He puts both of his hands on his head, clearly stressing, “Your choice is vanilla ice cream with Oreos in it! You can’t be serious?”

The two of them make it to Scoops, two workers dressed in sailor uniforms greet them with an ‘Ahoy’.

They order and find a place to sit in the somewhat crowded parlor. The silence between them doesn’t last very long.

“So.” He drags, “Are you leaving for college soon?”

She shakes her head, “No, with everything that’s happened I’m not leaving until Dustin goes off to college. Are you leaving soon?”

“No, I uh…” He pauses, “I’m taking a year off from school. Might get a job, make some money of my own. Not sure on where to work though.”

“You could apply here, they’re still hiring.” She says pointing to the help wanted sign.

He shoots a quick look to the workers, “I don’t know, don’t you think the outfits are kind of dumb?”

She shrugs, “Kinda, but you, King Harrington, you’d look cute in it.”

Her saying that boosted his already inflated ego, even if she was kidding.

“Oh yeah?” He smirks “Well if I apply will you do it with me?”

“Sorry to break it to you but I already have an interview with Sam goody next door.”

He gives her a bewildered look, “What? When did you apply?”

“Yesterday.” She answers

“You were here yesterday?”

“This might surprise you Harrington but I have other friends.”

He sits back in his seat, “And I thought I was special.”

He then pushes him back towards the table, “Okay, how about a game of rock, paper, scissors? You win then you don’t apply but if I win then you have to apply with me.”

She gives it a short thought but agrees, “Alright let’s do it.”

Rock, paper, scissors. She lost.

“Best two out of three.”

Rock, paper, scissors. He lost.

Rock, paper, scissors. She lost.

“Alright Henderson I’ll be right back.”

He leaves the table and goes to the counter. She questions if she has time to run, not wanting to dress like a sailor if she were to get the job.

She runs out of time when he sits down in front of her with the applications and two pens.

He slides them towards, “Your pen and paper m’lady.”

They finish their ice creams and start on the applications. She thinks of writing down gibberish but it might be cool to work with the boy.

The two of them sit in comfortable silence, listening to those around.

The soft music playing behind the loud conversations.

Chairs scratching the floor as they move back and forth.

And Steve, who’s tapping his pen on the table after every question.

He sighs and glances at her, “Is little Henderson still going to that know it all camp?”

“Yeah, he actually leaves tomorrow. Why are you going to miss him?” She teases

“What?” He scoffs “As if, I’m happy I don’t have deal with the little shit for a while.”

She gives him a serious look, “Hey, that little shit is still my brother, asshat.”

“Sorry. But come on, me? Miss him? Let’s be serious now.”

“You don’t have to lie Harrington, I know you have a soft spot for him.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you done filling that out? Cause I’m done, here I’ll take it up for you.”

He hurriedly gets up, grabbing the papers and pens. She’s glad she had finished and that he didn’t rip it away while she was still writing.

He comes back and huffs “Can we go to radio shack? I need a new Walkman.”

“Why what happened to yours?” She asks getting up.

He leads her out of the scoops, “I might have… lost mine.”

“That two this year alone, Steve.”

“Okay and this will be the last one of the year.” He states but mumbles “Hopefully.”

“Well then lead the way.”

~

Y/n and Jonathan sit on a bench outside of the dressing rooms, watching as Nancy and Steve try on an endless amount of clothes. For the past three stores it’s been them trying on random pieces of clothes and them two shaking their heads or nodding.

Y/n checks her watch, “Okay Wheeler, Harrington, we have to go.”

“What?” He says from the fitting room.

“We can no longer watch you guys try on clothes. It’s 3:55 and we have to meet the kids on the other side of the mall.”

“Okay, okay.”

Everyone in the store can hear him flailing around in the room, trying to get out of the unwanted clothes.

Nancy throws open her curtain, “Wait, does this dress look good? I don’t know how I feel about it.”

Y/n looks over to Jonathan who’s basically drooling on himself, “Can you do a little spin?”

The two watch as she slowly spins, showing what the dress has to offer.

Y/n nods, “I like it, I think you should get it. What do you think, Jonathan?”

He blinks rapidly, trying to get his mind back on track, “Uhh.. y-yeah. Y-You should get it.”

She smiles and closes the curtain to change.

Steve eventually manages to put his clothes back on, “Okay, I’m gonna pay for these and I’ll meet you guys at the front.”

Nancy is quick to change, “Let’s get a move on people.”

They all walk their separate ways, but it doesn’t take long for them to meet at the front.

“We’re following you Henderson.”

Walking back to the food court they run into Mike.

“Why are you alone? Where’s everyone else?” Y/n asks

“I was with Dustin and Will.” Mike informs, “They should be somewhere around here, Dustin was thirsty.”

“What about Lucas and Max?” Steve asks

“Will said they went to Wicks n sticks for Max’s mom.”

They wait a bit for Dustin and Will, Will spots them first, running over leaving Dustin behind to catch up.

“Is it time to go already?” He questions

“Yeah, we just have to find the others.” Y/n answers

With more than half of the group found they make their way back.

Dustin drones on and on about what he’s going to be doing at camp.

Steve’s not able to keep up with him, so he chooses to stay quiet after having them explain one too many things to him.

Will excitedly listens to Dustin, asking questions about what he’s going to be able to do and learn.

Mike shows his interest in the conversation but keeps quiet for the most part.

Y/n’s only half listening to him, knowing that she’ll be hearing it until he leaves and all about it when he gets back.

Steve falls back and Y/n watches as his face scrunches up in confusion.

“What are you looking at Henderson?”

She squints her eyes at his hairline, “I think you’re balding.”

His hand flies up to his head, “What? No I’m not!”

“You’re not but I made you worry.”

“You’re a dick, you know that?”

She laughs, “I know.”

Nancy loops her arm with Y/ns, “Are you doing anything tomorrow?”

“No, why?”

She smiles, “How would you like to go swimsuit shopping, I saw some cute ones and I feel it would be fun with just the two of us.”

“Sounds like fun.”

~

“Y/n! Can I ride with you back to your place?” Max asks running up to her.

“I don’t see why not.”

“I call shotgun!” She yells dashing to her car.

“What? So not fair!” Dustin shouts running after her.

Lucas follows, “I’m coming too!”

They all race to the car, shoving one another and calling each other names.

“Well I’ll see you guys at my house.” Y/n says to others before following the bickering kids.

“Our house!” Dustin corrects

~

Hopper takes a deep breath and knocks on Hendersons front door, to his surprise Nancy opens it.

“Hopper? Is something wrong? Would you like to come in?” She asks

He shakes his head, “No… no. Is y/n home?”

“Yeah.” She nods, “Let me go get her.”

She leaves him at the door and goes to find her.

She finds her in the kitchen with max making pizza, “Hey, umm… Hopper wants to see you, he’s at the door.”

She quickly wipes her hands off, “okay, can you help her finishes these while I go talk to him?”

She nods and takes her place.

Hopper doesn’t even til she’s full at the door to ask his question, “Is your mom home?”

“No.”

He motions her to follow, she follows him to his truck where El stands.

El immediately runs over to her and pulls her into a hug.

He sighs, “I’ll be back to pick her up after my shift. Make sure she eats something other than Eggos. And if anything happens call me first.”

Pulling away from El she swings her arm around her shoulders, “She’ll be just fine here.”

He gets in his truck and slams the door, “And keep her away from Mike.”

She nods and lead her inside, “No promises on the Mike part.”

~

“You’ll never believe what Steve did, Dustin?” Will laughs

He stomps his way back into the living room, “What did you do?”

“He sold us your railroad.” Will answers high fiving Y/n.

“Why would you sell our railroad?” He exclaims sitting back down.

“They were very persuasive, I thought it was good deal.” he argues

He points a finger at his sister, “Did you use your powers on him?”

“What? No!” She replies

“How much did they give you?” He questions

“Forty five and Mediterranean Avenue.”

Lucas stifles a laugh, “That’s the lowest paid spot.”

“Rent is only ten bucks.” Mike chimes

“El’s never played and is still doing better than you.” Y/n laughs

He sighs, “This game is going to take forever.”

“Not with the way Steve is playing.” Nancy comments

Jonathan chuckles, “You guys will be the first to bankruptcy.”

“Why did I pick Steve?” He mumbles to himself

~

Y/n and Nancy sit in her room painting El and Max’s nails. El has yet to open up to Max, she’ll act civil but won’t actually talk to her. 

Max looks over to Y/n, “So, you and Steve a thing, Y/n?”

“No, why?” she asks

“L- Lucas was just spreading rumors around and I thought I’d ask.” she sputters

“Why would he do that?” Nancy asks

“He said it’s because he thinks Steve wanted some alone time with her earlier. He then followed that up with ‘He dated Nancy what makes you think he won’t date her.” she informs

“Do you like Steve?” El chimes

“As a friend, yes.” Y/n answers

El looks up from her nails, “Like how I like Mike?”

She shakes her head, “No, the way you like Mike is different from the way I like Steve. You like Mike like the way Nancy likes Jonathan or how Max likes Lucas.”

A better example pops into her head, “You like Mike the same way you like Eggos.”

~

Dustin stands over Steve, beating him with a pillow, “You made my sister apply with you! You wanted alone time with her! You already spend too much time together!”

Steve tries to block the hits, “We’re friends that’s what friends do.”

Jonanthan stands in the corner of the room not wanting to get involved but the other boys are loving the live entertainment.

“Get him, Dustin!” Lucas shouts

“Should we stop him?” Will asks

Mike laughs, “No, I’ve been thinking about beating him up for a while. It’s better that is Dustin, he won’t get in much trouble.”

Dustin’s hits become harder, “Stay away from my sister, asshole!”

“Y/n!” Steve yells, “Help me!”

Dustin smacks him in the head, “Leave her out of this.” 

Dustin’s door slides open and all the girls entire his room. 

“Y/n! Get him away from me.” Steve pleads

“It’s a pillow, Harrington. Just take it from him.” She tells him

He huffs and grabs at the pillow, pulling it away from him. He stands up and goes to smack Dustin back.

The pillow flies out of his hands and over to Y/n, “I said take it Harrington, not hit him with it.”

Dustin stands in front of his sister, “Y/n, tell me you don’t like that asshole.”

She smacks him in the head with the pillow, “I don't like him.”

“Why did you smack me?” 

“Well for one you were smacking the shit out of Steve and two... well I just wanted to.”

He yanks the pillow from her and hits her.

The pillow from his bed lands in her hands and she whacks him with it. They go back and forth, just smacking each other. Max runs out of the room and grabs all the pillows she can. She hands them out and it turns into a pillow fight, then to a hit Steve party.

[sweetmage]

Just some long-winded rambles about Sebastian and my OC Celestine and the timeline/progression of their relationship

Originally this was on a photoset of her, but I got a little self-conscious of all the text so I decided I'd make it its own post lol. You can read under the cut, if you're so inclined!

Celestine is, at her core, a very gentle and compassionate woman. She has a hard exterior, rough edges, and is majorly introverted beyond the party-girl mask she used to wear. Above all she mostly longs for a quiet life where she'll be more or less left alone.

She was the only daughter to an Orelsian-Starkhavener noble family, though she intentionally destroyed her social status by way of many scandals and uncouth behavior, hoping to avoid being married off.

Sebastian, in my canon, carelessly destroyed his reputation with scandals of his own like uhhh... marching on Kirkwall (badly. soldiers wiped out, nothing gained, and he looked like an incompent and impulsive fool to the public), being really bad at his job because he was never prepared for it, abandoning his position impulsively for a quiet life with a friend (a servant he became close to, later a romantic partner) only to shamefully slink back to throne when it didnt work out, etc.

Celestine was nearly successful in avoiding marriage until a certain pathetic prince, upon returning after his failed elopement (or what have you), became an eligible-but-not-very-desirable bachelor and her parents started rubbing their greedy, power hungry little hands together.

Through marriage, Sebastian intended to produce an heir and quickly before someone decided his head would look lovely on a spike and the Vaels were no more. However, he obviously had some... hang ups about the process. Likewise, Celestine also did not want this strange man within 50 feet of her, obviously.

On the night of their ceremony (which was only the second time they'd ever met), the reality of the situation set in and he decided then and there that this marriage was a terrible and immoral mistake and he could never ask her to do something like that (much to her relief because she did not want to).

However, she was rightfully bitter about the marriage to begin with and she really let him have it. She told him bitterly that this never would have had to happen if he didn't make so many foolish mistakes (which she was happy to list off in lurid detail).

She seemed quite knowledgeable and, much to her whiplash, he didn't respond poorly to the scolding but instead accepted her rant as justified. In fact, wanted to be told more about his shortcomings so that he may learn to correct them.

She wasn't a leader herself, but she had lived her whole life as a noble in both Starkhaven and Orlais, so she was more immersed in the politics and culture than he was.

From there, a plan began to form.

In lieu of producing an heir, they began to explore the possibility of restoring his image so that people might want to overthrow him a liiiittle bit less.

She agreed to help, but asked for an annulment of their marriage when they were through, which he was happy to oblige her with.

She did a lot of the actual leading from behind the scenes including compensating the families of soldiers he'd sacrificed as well providing aid to Kirkwall. Beyond that, she, alongside a group of handpicked advisors, acted as a buffer for his ideas and worked to educate him on proper leadership and restoring his image.

She came to realize that man she once assumed to be an egotistical idiot was actually surprisingly humble, charming, and polite. Moreover, he had been working tirelessly to address his grief heslthily, make ammends for his actions, and prevent any repeats. Moreover, he seemed to take those matters serious beyond simply restoring his image.

Over time, they sometimes found their lessons devolving into conversations about their lives, idle gossip, or amusing stories from their paths, sometimes getting lost for hours before remembering the task in front of them.

As the months became a year and he was finally coming to competency, she found herself dreading the end of their time together.

Resultingly, she began to find more and more reasons to insist that he still had much to learn, despite him reassuring her that he had it under control now and she was free to leave.

He was not totally oblivious to her intentions to stay, though he believed that she was worried about having nowhere to go or facing backlash from her parents. As a result, he offered to take the public blame in their annulment and arrange her stable living conditions.

With this offer in front of her, she had little option but to accept. She packed the few belongings she had and prepared herself to leave by the end of the week.

With their lessons concluded, she saw a lot less of him, which saddened her.

On her final evening, however, he joined her on the balcony where she stood overlooking the garden (which she would miss greatly). The spoke a bit then, though it was stilted and they both seemed to dance around the topic of her departure.

At last, he went quiet, becoming withdrawn so, naturally, she asked him what was wrong. He was reluctant to tell her, telling her instead not to trouble herself. When she pressed, he insisted that it was the very sort of selfish thinking he was hoping to overcome, something he didn't wish to subject her to. And when she pressed further, he finally admitted that he was sad to see her go.

He reiterated that he never had any intention of keeping her there, but a part of him had enjoyed her company, especially seeing as she was his only companion.

She responded with the same sentiment, though assured him that she would not remain to burden him longer or distract him from his duties.

To that he was... confused. Both of them were confused. But when it clicked for them... laughter, tears, dumping everything out of her packed bags, tossing their annulment papers into the fire, kisses, etc.

They would later go on to renew their vows, a more genuine and happy affair this time. She receives the quiet, peaceful life she longed for, away from the public eye, and enjoys the safety of knowing she has not lost her autonomy in this relationship.

They do eventually end up having two children (Elthina and Finneas) with their son being a mage that travels as a missionary and daughter being the one to succeed Sebastian when he, then in his 50s, steps down for health reasons. Though that is a post for another time!

[tactician]

1, 2, 6, 7, 37, 48, 61

(pointing at you) thats my dm. everyone clap for him RIGHT NOW

1. what drives them? what’s their ultimate goal? oh god it has evolved in so many fun ways over time. i think reides still really values his own personal pursuit of knowledge so that's still a core goal of his. he wants to learn a ton about the world and that will never change. in many ways i think that curiosity has been his major, constant 'drive'.

but he's also learnt a lot about like. forming lasting connections with other people? like when i think about how he was prior to the campaign, he was extremely caught up in his own head. the stuff that went down with his family and him believing he was rejected / disowned / a pariah to his home compounded that a ton, too. so he gained an approach to looking at his life as like... something that belonged to himself and himself alone. i don't think he was necessary selfish but he was definitely careless / distrusting when it came to how he viewed other people. it was a freeing but really lonely mindset. now he has a lot of things outside of himself that he cares about, like, TREMENDOUSLY. he has friends in the form of the party (including past party members ofc), and those are SOLID friendships; not just fleeting kind encounters that he eventually just fluttered away from. he has aske and is in a good spot with his family / home now, too. so he's definitely not driven solely by his own quest for knowledge anymore. as corny as it is, he is absolutely powered by love too, and he wants to keep those he loves safe. that connects to his duty as a prince-slash-ambassador and makes him take it all the more seriously. like... at the end of the day, once they're safe, he's meeting his goal. if he has to face threats targeting the whole world in order to keep them safe, he'll do it.

of course, love isn't all sunshine and rainbows; it's a dangerous thing and i try to reflect that in how willing he is to approach enemies now. reides of the past would shy away from killing his enemies even if they tried to hurt his friends (especially after everything that happened with tyrian LMFAO), but now he's significantly less merciful and definitely not a pacifist. that darker side of him only comes out when prompted though. if they dont try to hurt his beloveds we're all good :)

2. what was your original concept for this character? how did playing them change that concept? MY ORIGINAL CONCEPT WAS LITERALLY JUST 'I WANT TO PLAY A WEIRDO' then rachel showed me tritons and i was like 'I WANT TO PLAY A WEIRDO TRITON' FLGKHKFGH IT'S SO SILLY... i was also really interested in playing a high int / low wis character - even if reides is average wis-wise, i still have a lot of fun with that. originally i wanted him to be a druid but i was absolutely not willing to sacrifice my high int / low wis fantasy. now i'm on that evocation wizard grindset and i really am enjoying it a lot so i think it worked out for the best :-)

as for other changes, i was definitely really surprised by reides' growth over time... i should've known better bc Everyone Grows but when i went into dnd i was really set on him just staying mega flighty, ditzy, lalala freedom journaling studying sillaying lala... i'm just reides i'm a fun little guy there's nothing going on with me no siree i am not a runaway prince who may or may not be exiled from my isolationistic empire, whatever gave you that idea? :)! i knew some of the darker aspects of his character would eventually come to light but i didn't think he would like... change as much as he did?! like he became a lot more serious when the situation(s) surrounding him became more serious. his view of his homeland also became A MILLION TIMES more complex over time, which i really, really enjoyed (and continue to enjoy). i don't think he's like, NOT DITZY or anything now because he totally is, but he has honestly grown so much that i get emotional when i think about it. this guy who was extremely preoccupied with running away from anything that he felt threatened his personal freedom is now turning around and facing stuff with his head held high... secure in who he is and the person he wants to be... he will take his own freedom with his own two fucking hands it makes me feel all mushy :)

tying into all of that, i also went into the campaign wanting to play a mega deflective character and i tried SO HARD to stick to that LMFAOOO i think it worked out super well though because his big, impactful character moments have been extremely fulfilling to me and hopefully fun for others at the table too? so that wasn't really a change per se but i didnt expect some of the challenges that arose from it and im very happy they did. :3 reides is also still plenty deflective right now and i'm currently trying to like. re-adjust how guarded he is. bc i think he has attained a level of confidence / aptitude which is a bit at odds with that previous deflectiveness, if that. makes sense. LDFKGDFG but i'm not too worried about overthinking it because i think reides, himself, is struggling with it a bit too. it's a fun little zone to be in! :D

6. how have they changed in the last year? how about the last five years? ok i feel like i lowkey answered this during those previous questions but YOU KNOW WHAT... to summarize, i think he cares a lot more about other people!!! he has seen a lot of shit and has experienced a whole lot of loss and that has only fed into how much love he has in his heart for the world. it's not like... an abstract love anymore, either. LIKE HE HAS SEEN A LOT OF SHIT!!! so now he wants to use his own abilities to play a role in protecting the world and the ones he loves. he also has embraced his inner chaos way more; he's not ashamed of being the storm prince, it's a title which gives him strength - and he, in turn, is more willing to muster the strength to accept his duties. he's a whole lot braver!!! and like i said before, significantly more cutthroat!!! willing to lean into his power!!!

7. there’s a magic item (or technological innovation, or special resource) made just for them—what is it? legendary froggy boots... for splashing in puddles... ;LKFGHLFGKH NO UMM honestly i'm not sure. i feel like something that bridges his experiences on the surface with his experiences in the depths would be ideal for him... not sure what that 'something' is or what it would do per se, but just something to quell that constant 'i'm missing someone right now' feeling he tends to be plagued with LMFAO. alternatively something cool and linked to sea-storms since that's his schtick.

37. if they’ve had one, what was their first kiss like? nothing of big note tbh! reides is absolutely not the type to care about that sort of thing. it was casual and fun; one of those fleeting little special encounters from the past... but it definitely didn't happen back when he lived in aquos LMAO it was sometime shortly after he arrived in port valor. he doesn't remember the name of the guy and he definitely didn't even tell the guy his own name. they were also probably both pleasantly drunk and caught up in some tavern wildness LMFAOOO

48. do they relate to anyone in their group? conversely, which person do they relate to the least? ough this is a tricky one... i think he relates to everyone in the party in particular ways, though he's also very, very different from everyone as well LMAO. i/t he probably relates to ashara the most in terms of her interactions with the world - her being puzzled over how much has changed in modern times definitely reminds him of how the surface world puzzles him. he's FAAAAR from self-concious over his Sense of Wonder re: the surface, but it's still comforting to see someone else experiencing fascination over the 'mundane.' i also think he relates to erak a LOT because the two of them have a similar sense of humor / similar morals as a whole. erak came so close to getting the prince reveal AGES before anyone else in the party because reides just like... feels so seen with him, you know? it's ironic considering that erak TECHNICALLY doesn't know reides' whole deal right now but i'm sure he will someday :D

as for who he relates to the least... i think probably slumberjack wins this by default but only because neither of them were all that honest with each other during their time together. he still cares about them a lot, of course, but it's hard to relate to someone when most of what you know of them is a lie and when most of what they know about you is a lie, too. tbh, i think the regret reides feels over how All Of That went sort of fueled his like... willingness to open up to the rest of the party? he realized just how damaging having secrets can be to others and also realized just how much he cared about his friends (sj obviously included). but as i write this i feel like that means he relates to sj a SHITLOAD especially in hindsight so you know what, i have no idea who he relates to the least. HAHAHA

61. is there an in-game moment of theirs you think about and just laugh? AAALKDFDGK I ANSWERED THIS ONE BEFORE BUT LUCKILY I HAVE A WEALTH OF THESE MOMENTS SO HERE IS ANOTHER: i loved when viglis warned him not to get any splinters in the shipwrecks near aquos and reides was like I Didn't Get That Many As A Kid!!! and viglis said that he'd have one for each finger and reides insisted that ten splinters wasn't that many. i think that moment was like SO SWEET and it was prob the first little like... sweetsibling moment that the two of them had in a LOOOONG time. it was really cathartic somehow and i remember thinking 'ok this bridge isn't burnt after all' when we rp'd it, which was super cool :)

💌 sixty-nine questions for your ttrpg characters!

[kalianos]

The best ttrpg players are people who do not treat tabletop games like video games.

This has not changed.

The best DM's are ones who can create any world and make it engaging for their table.

Things I remember when randomly in conversation another fellow DM on call was practically gushing about taking a player for a solo session. Classic Monster is killing our animals scenario.

Player who rarely played tabletop games proceeds to: Ask around town, gather information. Figure out when it strikes, where it goes.

As a ranger. Goes out to the field it targets, holds up in a tree and ambushes the monster.

....I haven't seen any player do something like that in years it feels like.

I would kill to have players like that.

Then there was the conversation about the nine layer lasagna that another party is climbing through to get to fight Garfield at the end who trapped them in it before the lasagna cools trapping them in it. But you know that's just table top games and I was still reeling from knowledge that those players still exist.

I'm starting to look at the things my players do and wonder if I'm the problem. After years of dealing with people who do not want to engage in the investigation, only want combat non-stop no stop no roleplay want to roll dice never stop to think about our actions. Too scared to make moves as...people.

Last night went over all the ttrpgs I own now.

I own: DnD 5e with Humblewood, Eberron, Crit. Role settings.

dnd 3.5, Mongoose Traveller 2e, Lancer, Savage Worlds adventure edition: Deadlands, Savage worlds adventure edition: Super Hero's, Little Fears, Monster of the Week, For the Dungeon!, Cyberpunk Red, Paranoia, Pathfinder 2e, Starfinder, Konosuba TTRPG, Call of Cthulu, Sea of Thieves role playing game.

:V Brought it up to a friend last night how I keep colllecting these tabletop games. He asked how many have I actually played. He is one of my players so I counter-asked him how many has he joined.

When he couldn't answer I told him two technically three. DND, Deadlands, Monster of the week.

I said as I was flipping through Lancer's core book which I just got two days ago.

Made a few non-commital noises and said something along the lines of not really being into tabletop games. -_- Like yeah I figured when you never engaged in anything we set out for you and you were basically dragged by your older sister to join in.

....I should remake my solo intro scenario for new players.

Its been almost ten years since I ran the first players through it.

Sides one of my players has been talking about for almost a year how much they want to play dnd again so maybe. Though Last week during our friendsgiving did get him to make a character in Traveller real quick using the munson character generator. He really liked it.

*side glances bookshelf of all the money spent on Traveller alone*

...man I even bought a cd containing pdf's from the original company with a set of adventures to convert to the newer edition of Traveller.

Truthfully I feel like I am turning into an old man with a hand made cane sitting in the courtyard of his slowly decaying palace watching the few apprentices who made it and become dm's going off and spreading the joy of gaming.

Not sure I deserve even that much but oh well.

My GF joked this morning that if the apocalypse happens and we lose all electricity at least we'll have entertainment. >_>;

(Also I am planning on driving out to the bigger city to an old rpg shop and possibly seeing if I can buy Pulp Cthulu or Mouseguard if they still have it.)

[pendragony]

Thanks to both of you for interesting and insightful responses, and to jinkies for un-derailing the thread.

The take that started me on all this was one that saw Sam as the wronged party and Dean as the perpetrator of that wrong vis a vis Amy. The gif set I originally reblogged (and thanks to scoobydoodean for great editorialising in putting it together) was highlighting the thing that I think we are all agreeing on - while Dean may have made a morally questionable call that resulted in someone’s death, Sam has done the same many times. Both brothers show that they feel guilty about such occasions (although, per Dean canonically, he feels guilt about not telling Sam he killed Amy, rather than for actually killing her), and continue to ask themselves whether they did the right thing.

I think the question of what makes a person a monster is one of the biggest themes of the show, and what makes sense of the Amy storyline is acknowledging that both brothers are in murky waters while examining this issue. Is it monstrous to allow and condone a monster preying on people if they only kill people you think are bad? And what makes you the sole arbiter of justice in that scenario? Is it OK to kill people who we think are bad? Is it OK to kill someone who you know for a fact has killed people and will continue to kill people? But what if they are obliged to do so for their own survival and have done what they can to minimise the impact?

I think (though correct me if I’m missing stuff) that Sam is the one who consistently looks at scenarios like this and says “We’ll find another way”, while Dean is the one who insists that the buck stops here and action should be taken to prevent something from getting out of hand. Dean’s characteristic response is pessimistic and dutiful. Sam’s characteristic response is optimistic and constraint-rejecting. In the trolley problem, Dean would make an instant decision and live with the guilt; Sam would find a way to derail the trolley at the last minute. (Another theme of the show is, of course, free will vs destiny, and what you do with the hand that is dealt you.)

I think the other important character lens here is that of agency. The core conflict between Sam and Dean is to do with the big brother/little brother inequality, with Dean unable to trust Sam to do the right thing and to stay safe, and Sam unable to trust Dean to accept his autonomy and independent decisions. If we are to accept Dean as the wrongdoer and Sam as the wronged party here - and I’m not sure I do - I think it’s important to remember (as ani did in her episode fic) that Sam is not entirely in his right mind at this point in the story. Dean’s hallucinating, delusional, sleep-deprived little brother, who just had his mental walls broken (thanks, Cas) after a subjective 80 year stint being raped in a prison cell, has decided he doesn’t want to kill the man-eating monster because she’s his friend. Dean says, “OK, Sammy,” and goes to quietly deal with it. Like buying a second hamster so the kids never find out the first hamster dies, it’s a kindness towards a vulnerable person, to shield them. The problem lies in Dean seeing Sam that way, however circumstantial justified, because Sam’s decision was a reflection of his rational intellect, personal morality and sense of honour, rather than of his temporary mental instability.

Anyway, sorry if this is all old hat for you guys! As a new fan (only watched for the first time last year), I appreciate finding anyone willing to talk meta with me at all! I’m still working out a lot of my opinions, so am pleased to take on board your thoughts.

I am not hijacking yet another one of scoobydoodean's posts for an Amy discussion (been there, done that), so I'm copying the whole thing over here:

@pendragony Thinking about the conversation in the comments of the latest instalment of @ani-coolgirl ‘s awesome ‘Every first time’ wincest project re Dean killing Amy. The thing about Sam is, for all the puppy dog, baby girl, uwu vibes, that man is also a stone cold killer who is capable of going right off the reservation without his brother acting as a moral compass. And Dean is used to clearing up his family’s messes. So, while there’s a lot of other stuff to consider, Dean quietly going to do what his mentally ill and morally questionable brother couldn’t, and then trying to ensure his peace by not telling him stuff that would hurt him, is also classic big brotherism on Dean’s part. It reminds me of his reaction to the Meg possession and finding out Sam killed a hunter - tidy up after little brother, and nobody needs to know. Both brothers are willing to monster themselves in order to save the other. @jinkieswouldyoulookatthis @blue-chimera

Do I understand why Dean killed Amy? Yes. Do I agree that it was, in their world, something that needed to be done? Yeah, I guess. Do I understand why Dean felt like he needed to do it behind Sam's back and then lie to him about it? From Dean's pov? Yes, but it still makes me want to shake him. Narratively, I get it. But there is a very loud voice in my head that goes, "Dude, that was an asshole move."

Like, Amy basically was what Sam had briefly suggested they become way back in Time is on My Side (3x15). She killed only to save the life of her son. She made an effort to kill those she considered to be bad people, trying to make the act feel less bad. But otherwise she had structured her life around not killing humans, finding "ethical" ways to source what she and her son needed. This is basically what Sam was thinking about when considering if they could somehow use Doc Benton's methods to loophole out of Dean's deal.

One of the things that I really like about Supernatural's story is how the boys are constantly dancing along a knife's edge of becoming the monsters that they hunt. And for the first half of the series, Sam was most often the one in danger of slipping, and his innate morality is less clear cut than Dean's so he relies heavily on Dean to help determine the right course of action. But as the series goes on, as Sam better figures himself out (has the pride beaten out of him by the story), Dean becomes the one losing his way. The Amy situation, happening at the beginning of season 7, is around the tipping point for this shift, and I think that may be part of why it stands out and causes so much passionate discussion.

But, I don't know, as always, I just wished they'd talk to each other about shit, lol!

[alithographica]

Okay I've been offline for a few hours since the original deviantArt DreamUp kaboom happened so I'm trying to piece together the myriad of things that happened in the meantime. I'm now seeing people call everyone who got mad about the situation "overreacting" and "defaulting to outrage" and I don't think that's quite right. I think perhaps a few people misunderstood some wording or didn't get the full picture, but that the overall anger was entirely well-placed.

I might not have everything 100% correct here because I was offline for a bit of the action. If that's the case, let me know—I'd like to get the full picture because I'm still deciding what to do about my dA accounts too.

Disclaimer: This is not a discussion of whether AI art is art or is good or worthwhile. This is just about the dA situation.

(Long post under the cut)

The events as they happened until this afternoon:

AI generators have long been scraping dA, among other art sites, for images. Artists widely regard this as shitty. dA had no say in this either.

dA announced that an opt-out is now available (though everyone is opted-in by default, and opting out is a tedious manual process)

dA also announces their own ethical-er AI that credits artists

From that point I went offline for a few hours. I return to

News that the dA Twitter team was awful to some artists who were voicing concerns about this

People insisting it was an overreaction and dA isn't being scummy (the Twitter team sure, but not dA's site team) and

As a result of pushback, dA has now made all work default opted-out.

From where I'm sitting now catching up on the developments...I don't think we really misunderstood dA's original intentions? This sucks? I think some people are being too quick to defend dA here and point fingers at us for being reactionary.

Yes, our images were being used by 3rd party sites without our consent prior to this. Yes, it's nice that we can now opt-out, and I appreciate dA's efforts here. Genuinely, I do. I also appreciate the labeling of AI art and allowing users to choose whether they see AI art or not.

However, it blows that this was originally launched as default opt-in. Several people said "easier opt-out is coming, you're all being dramatic" but I think this was disproven by just how quickly that opt-out came. If they had always intended to make it default opt-out then they should've waited a few more hours or days for that to be done before launching this project/announcement.

I think the default opt-out only came because everyone spoke up and said "hey, wait—we knew AI engines were scraping us without your consent, dA, but now you've just said they DO have consent unless we say otherwise."

To repeat: This blows, and people were right to be angry! Even setting aside how long it would take some people to mark every one of their works as opt-out, even setting aside a single mass opt-out button, having it be default opted-in means that inactive and deceased artists are fair game, just because they didn't say no to a technology that popped up years after they uploaded their work.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate when someone says "mea culpa, we listened and corrected ourselves". We should adjust to new information! But I think it reveals their intent, which is still the core problem here. Prior to the backpedaling, why were things launched like this?

My guess: If I take dA at its word that deviations were not directly used to train DreamUp, then we have to look at how DreamUp WAS trained. dA confirmed it was trained off of Stable Diffusion which was trained in the usual way (that is to say, unethically by dA's own standards!) and dA was just telling us "hey we've been doing this anyway and now we're letting you know kthxbai".

dA wanted things default opt-in because—again, I'm guessing but it tracks—if they made things default opt-out, the field for future AI training (including updates to Stable Diffusion and therefore DreamUp) would thin, and they would come under fire for using so much provably-opted-out material in their training already (which has happened anyway with the new default). They were ensuring the field would continue to be seeded rather than making a very safe guess about how this would go over.

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I think it's fair to call that hypocrisy.

I appreciate that dA is trying to shift culture towards an ethical AI model that credits artists...though I believe only certain things will be credited, like if you were explicitly named in a prompt, so...ethical-lite, really. Despite that wrinkle, yes, I think other AIs should do this.

However this ignores the issue that I suspect many, many deviantArt users do not want their art being used in AI at all, even if credited. deviantArt saying "we're protecting you from outside AIs!" does not fix that the call was coming from inside the house this time.

THAT is what people are mad about.

Speaking of, how DID they think this would go over? dA dipping its toes into the AI scene with their own AI, a famously controversial topic amongst non-AI artists? Can't ignore that DreamUp is pay to play too—dA is making money off of DreamUp, just like the other AI engines.

If we shake dA's hand for speaking up for us, we also have to recognize that their other hand is going behind our back and taking a piece of the pie. If you can't beat 'em, monetize 'em I guess.

Also, you may see another opt-out form floating around: You can apply to opt out of having your specific name(s) allowed in DreamUp prompts, though it's heavily implied that they'll only be removing big name artists...Which I suspect is because those are the artists who are already in the unethical training set. Basically, "hey you might appear in this—let us know if you don't want that! But we're not going to tell you who's in there and who's not so just let us know if it might be you."

In my eyes this is (1) admission that yes, dA artists ARE in that set because of how it was originally sourced and (2) allows them a little wiggle room with that nasty default opt-out, because these artists were violated prior to the opt-out and are, in fact, what a substantial portion of the AI model is based on so any AI engine (including an ethical one!) would be reluctant to remove them.

Am I misunderstanding anything here? Because I'm seeing one clear fool at fault who was only cowed by the backlash.

As a final note, there's still one sticking point that is likely outside of dA's control: I suspect the new "noai" command, while a clear mark of non-consent, does not actually prevent 3rd party AIs from continuing to scrape deviations. It now violates dA's ToS to use a noai image, but does that have any teeth? Will dA go to bat for us if other AIs don't respect noai? (I don't think we have the answers to this right now, but it's something to keep an eye on.)

Anyway, I'll stop talking for now. Really feeling like an old timey blog here on tumblr dot com.