#necro dimensions

[gabrielsellesty]

WIZARDTHRONE

O.w.

My new obsession ✨🔥 crazymathematical wizards are slaying the windstorms of Thyraxistic plains🔥 aka if u like Symphony black metal.... LISTEN IT ✨✨

HYPERIAX

ARCHISTRATEGOS

WIZARDTHRONE

XAVICULUS

[lucyfrostblade]

thinking about a TLT-inspired d20 campaign. it's all i think about. it's ruining my life

[necromancy-enthusiast]

Me: Haha, I'm doing so good in Project Zomboid, maybe my streak of shitty luck will end and this character will last longer than a day!

The UI: *starts showing that I have symptoms of being infected by a scratch from a zombie, which has a 7% chance of infecting you vs bites having a 100% chance*

Me, gathering all of my useful stuff into my bag and leaving it in the hall so my next character can easily pick it up, locking myself into a small room, and pulling out the bleach: ahaha, okay, better luck next time, I guess,, :^)

[starberry-cupcake]

I'm back! Thank you kindly for your patience, we're done with Act III! It was probably a terrible idea to wait because this is so long, I'm so sorry.

previously, in harrowhark! a vagrant the ninth:

this happened

also a couple previews that will show up in this but are in the tag

currently, chapters 24-31 (END OF ACT III!!!):

harrow wakes up after sleeping a sensible amount of hours in yandere twin's room

yandere twin, who's into chomping cavaliers, complains about having had some harrow soup

they have a sort of tender moment, I guess

they have a complicated dynamic

harrow falls asleep again

she's in the bed and yandere twin is sleeping on the floor

and harrow is woken by the sound of self inflicted pain and torture

harrow gets tired of this and decides to just rip yandere twin's arm off

@lady-harrowhark reminded me that I called this (!!!) in this recap

I had absolutely 100000% forgot I said that but congrats past me!!!

so, there's this scene in which harrow rips yandere twin's arm off and puts a new bone-y one in there, remade with her own parts

like this

some people have told me in the replies that it's a sessual sort of scene, and I get that, I suppose it was the vibe it was going for

total respect to that

but I'm gonna be honest here

it felt like I was witnessing a birth and harrow was the midwife

so harrow lets yandere twin know that she's been improving her necro powers via studying and practicing to try to make up for her being "lyctor lite"

harrow and alleged gideon aka ortus are the only people here that seem to be getting any work done tbh

so now, with the new arm, inner chad can use the sword again

and yandere twin is happy because she's now a proper lyctor and has senior chad aka augustine's approval

harrow is proud of herself for doing nice necro things like chopping and reconstructing arms

as a thanks, yandere twin agrees to help harrow to kill alleged gideon the first aka ortus

nobody asked you, but ok

I actually have no qualms with alleged gideon aka ortus

because he's at least direct and honest about it

everyone here has an agenda, at least this guy's like directly trying to physically kill harrow

at this point, I respect the direct approach

augustine and emperor reverend professor john can go fu—

WELL, ACTUALLY, WE'LL GET THERE LATER

CHAPTER 28

we're back at gideon-less canaan house

canaan house isn't safe in any universe, all the trails lead to death

everyone who's alive or accounted for is having a sleepover

there's a bunch of people unaccounted for, actually

the kiddos from the fourth are allegedly hidden elsewhere

who knows, at this point

I don't trust anyone

there's a fog and rain and water rising still

which reminds me of the movie identity, in which they all were trapped in that motel because it wasn't actually a motel and they weren't actually alive per-se

magnus and abby say that protozoa should have decked mayonnaise uncle

which is one of the reasons why the gideon universe is superior

aside from the presence of gideon and camilla

I miss them so much I'm gonna start biting cavaliers

anyway, where in the hell is duracell bunny nephew???

he wasn't with mayonnaise uncle when he yeeted himself

his soul, which got detached from his body in the gideon universe, is still flying like a balloon across universes and dimensions, I guess

abby didn't expect regina george twin to die, apparently, and says "if she's gone, then perhaps that means..." but doesn't elaborate

nobody ever elaborates

abby also makes harrowbean read another one of the "harrow texts"

I can't keep adding them all together in recaps because this will end up being super long but here goes the new one

"I will remember the first time you kissed me —you apologized— you said, I am sorry, destroy me as I am, but I want to kiss you before I am killed, and I said to you why, and you said, because I have only once met someone so utterly willing to burn for what they believed in, and I loved him on sight, and the first time I died I asked of him what I now ask of you. I kissed you and later I would kiss him too before I understood what you were, and all three of us lived to regret it—but when I am in heaven I will remember your mouth, and when you roast down in hell I think you will remember mine"

so yeah, we've got a triangular situation, I suppose

I need to put all of them together to continue to draw connections

my though was that this could be ice cube barbie aka annabel lee, because of the long-lost sun, but I'm unsure still

I don't think the timing fits the other side of the 3d model that's the gideon's mom and rebel leader situation

inconclusive still

abby suggests harrowbean she might be haunted

which might also fit with ice cube barbie??? maybe??? idk

CHAPTER 29

harrow says she doesn't remember shit about chad

get perpetually owned, chad

mercygirl asks harrow things about her necro process for the arm reconstructing and the last thing she asks is "what is the name of the saint of duty?" to which harrow says "ortus the first" and mercygirl goes

me and my "alleged gideon" theory are very happy about this

the hill I will die on

mercygirl continues to use onomatopoeias to express herself

I do not want to think about what that would imply in a later situation I don't want to dig into

"you read unholy omens in the way people say good morning" that's what these recaps are, thank you very much harrow

that's our tagline over here, that's our brand

"how you loathed any sentence beginning with augustine says" SAME, BESTIE

I HATE THAT MAN

he can go fu— ANYWAY

harrow and yandere twin are having sleepovers so that harrow isn't murdered in her sleep

apparently the nudes are cyrus and his cavalier and yandere twin likes that energy

they gifted them to others as souvenirs too

it's like if you had a university classmate who sent nudes to the groupchat every birthday

yandere twin says augustine the asshole has agreed to help kill alleged gideon aka ortus the first

I don't trust any of these lyctors if they're willing to kill each other this easily

how do I know they've got my back in combat if they don't have each other's backs—

I CAN'T EVEN ARTICULATE MY THOUGHTS AND NOT SOUND TERRIBLE NOW THAT I KNOW WHAT HAPPENS LATER IN THE PARTY

ANYWAY

yandere twin reminisces about not having been apart from regina george twin much in their lives and hoping she's sleeping well wherever she is

I also don't know where she is

yandere twin tells harrow that she was more farsighted than her

which I'm sure she was, but she doesn't seem to remember shit about it, and the letters remain unopened

harrow thinks it's kinda gross that the cyrus lyctor murdered his cavalier to become a lyctor and then took all of their nudes to the emperor's bolthole

none of these lyctors are operating from a place of common sense, harrow

"you were lucky that the memory of your own cavalier did not hurt you—except sometimes in the form of a sick headache in your temples, or in words stuck on repeat in your head"

so, augustine's plan involves dinner

harrow, hearing that, is like this

they look for clothes in the cavalier's things

yandere twin says "valancy trinit was my height, weighed more than both of us put together, and —judging by her portraits— had a body that did not quit"

I sure hope she's a thick girl, because I've had enough disappointment with the gideon cover not letting her have the arms she deserves

I hope valancy trinit looks kinda like this

ANYWAY, here's the makeover vibes, as previously shared

apparently chad could embroider, which I have to admit is a good quality

hate giving him any props, but I must be fair

harrow painted the less cute skull in her repertoire and we respect that

they went to augustine's room and he's still an asshat

I don't like how he treats yandere twin tbh

I feel like yandere twin has a thing with validation because of how her life has been and he uses that

augustine justifies his betrayal to his fellow lyctor saying that he "caused more pain over these last scant forty years than I dare to admit"

mercygirl is also here for the party, all dressed up

SO HERE'S THE THING

I am so embarrassed I didn't pick it up on the fly and it took me the whole chapter to put it together

augustine tells her "dios apate, minor"

at the time, I didn't remember what it meant, and when I finished reading the thing, I was like "oh, it's exactly like the deception of zeus"

I forgot that's what it was called

I mean, I got the "dios" part, obviously, but forgot the "apate"

my ancient greek professor is going to come back into my life to shoot me at my doorstep

to be fair to myself, it was a long while ago that I took ancient greek

AT LEAST I PICKED THE REFERENCE UP AFTER, OK????

god, I'm so embarrassed

palmolive, I'm so sorry, I promise I figured it out eventually

mercygirl punches augustine in the face, which is great

he insists on it being "minor", which idk where the line is there and I'm not gonna ask

idk which things are or aren't...involved in a minor form of zeus's deception

mercygirl says she's not wearing the right dress, I don't think it matters, it worked just fine

CHAPTER 30

everyone gets drunk except for alleged gideon aka ortus and harrow, because they're the only people in this group project who are doing the work

augustine and mercygirl start fighting about something their cavaliers did back in the day

they start toasting for cavaliers and talking about how "hot pyrrha was"

there is no respect for the dead in the emperor's bolthole

there's about to be something else in the emperor's bolthole in a minute though

I was excited about them drinking, though, because that's when people start spilling some truths

the lost commander of BOE is a "she", her name is/was Commander Wake, she almost killed alleged gideon aka ortus

I'm still spinning with the gideon's mom theory

and the background telenovela I've got going on

BOE found a Herald, killed it and turned it into weapons against these clowns

good for them, tbh, kill these drunk irresponsible bastards

emperor reverend professor doctor john thinks it's narcissistic of him to toast to himself

I want to murder him in cold blood

I hate this man so viscerally I want to rip him apart with my hands

the twist in this book is that I'm gonna reach to his murder and it's gonna be me

it's like bastian reading the neverending story but it's me killing this man

his full name is john gaius but I had been spoiled of his name by people not tagging their posts

he also does a "your mama" joke because he's my villain origin story

"part of your brain temporarily calcified into atheism" I'M GLAD, HARROW

so, they start to make out, all three of them

I finally caught up about zeus's deception and all about here

emperor awful is sandwiched between mercygirl on a table and augustine behind him and they forget there are children in the room

well, not children, but same difference, they're a million years old

harrow and yandere twin get the hell out of that display

CHAPTER 31

yandere twin wants to kiss harrowbean before she leaves to kill alleged gideon aka ortus, but harrow doesn't let her

harrow says "my affections lie buried in the Locked Tomb" to which yandere twin responds "Somebody might even exhume them for you"

when harrow mentioned not wanting to be touched while sleeping beside yandere twin, I remembered the pool hug and all that, that was a nice time

people were being killed left and right but it was a nice time

ANYWAY

harrow has a whole plan and has it all figured out, it's a really good plan, it works very nicely, but alleged gideon aka ortus isn't where they told her he was

sometimes, life works that way

the man you plan to kill isn't in the training room and all

she goes to look for him in not!dulcinea's crypt or whatever

and she sees this

and the spear

she follows the children's hospital trail of blood to the incinerator

alleged gideon aka ortus is inside the fire thingy and not!dulcinea is operating the controls

I wonder who could have predicted that this woman could still be an issue even after death

me, it was me

anyway, no time for I-told-you-so's because harrowbean decides to help him out of there

I'm very happy because I need him alive

he knows things and he's less bad than everyone else around here

because he's upfront about the killing

he tells her some things while he's kind of out of it

like to use blood wards instead of bone ones

that it will make her safe from "us"

"I know you're there. Kill me all you like. I would know you in the blindness of my eyes" he says and, among other things "Just tell me—back then—why you brought along the ba—"

WAS HE GONNA SAY BABY???? WHAT IF HE WANTED TO SAY BABY???

I'm still on my gideon agenda, sorry if it's embarrassing to read

of course emperor dickhead stops him before he can finish it

alleged gideon aka ortus says he doesn't remember shit afterwards and harrow sees her own mental state reflected in his

they can't find not!dulcinea, apparently

she's probably operating heavy machinery elsewhere

harrow is putting up her blood wards when she hears augustine and mercygirl argue about the whole zeus situation

the incinerator alarm apparently interrupted their plan of letting this happen

whether or not they had a hand on the not!dulcinea thing idk

mercygirl says she didn't move her

we end this act with ice cube barbie maybe annabel lee saying "The water is risen. So is the sun. We will endure."

obligatory yearning for camilla moment

That is the end of Act III and of my commentary because this was way too long and I need to make less chapters at a time istg

[wearepurplejackets]

Previews for 9 and 10 episodes of Wakfu season 4

Beware

the

Spoilers

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I'm thinking about, how our eliatrope short king had a digievolution into his hottest adult version but also his clothes changed so much.

If he is trapped in the necro whatever dimension right now as we saw in episode 8, maybe he gets to reach the Inglorium with his mom and family again in the end? So he can dress again? What is that energy/power sphere??? (A portal maybe or... Well he seems to be in the Inglorium tho, or the Cenit ship but...)

What do you think?

Do you think he will be forced to age due to the wakfu being sucked from his body as what happened with Nox in season one? (Yugo already kind of died and his hair turned white and such.)

Do you think a lot of time is going to pass in that dimension while the world of 12 is being destroyed to the core?

Do you think he will be able to return all by himself and escape of this dangerous kingdom due to a power up of eliatrope magic testosterone or maybe some heroic character will come to the rescue of this blond princess in need? And if you believe that last one...

Which character would you bet on to achieve such a feat?

(Finally, after years of bullying, Yugo will finally be... taller than someone. And what with that penetrating look? He has grown so much... We won Lisa, we won.)

[ignylinn]

TLT and actual science

Some time ago I posted some questions on the first resurrection and science here and had a wonderful discussion with @stranded-cryptid

We got stuck cause none of us knew enough physics :) so if anyone understands it better, I would so like an input or commentary.

But the ultimate question that came out of this discussion for me is:

Can TLT space necro magic be somewhat explained within the scope of our current scientific knowledge?

Or, can TLT be more or less hard sci-fi?

I know it can be so. Simmons explained religion and mysticism through science, and science through religion and mysticism in The Fall of Hyperion. The whole thing looked like err.. abrahamic space fantasy, right until the last part of the second book. And TLT can also be categorized as abrahamic space fantasy.

So, what do we know:

John DID have a scientific explanation for what was going on with thalergy/thanergy. He was going to write down his theory and to get it published. He turned it into a magic and a cult later because of circumstances and pressure. At least, that's what he says in Nona.

Thalergy, as far as it looks, is not directly connected to life. Jod murders completely lifeless planets in Solar system, and still gets his thanergy and Resurrection Beasts.

No thalergy/thanergy comes from moons, no Resurrection Beasts there.

Sun is not involved in thalergy/thanergy, there is no Sun Resurrection Beast. I suspect it applies to all stars and also to black holes.

Thanergy is somehow connected to wormholes (the River, might be also steles)

No necromancy in space. Yes necromancy on a planet.

Necros are able to produce additional mass out of nowhere (constructs made out of a single bone)

It does not add up for me, because I do not have enough knowledge, but what I think:

John and his team were working in cryogenics. I think they accidentally discovered not a solution for cryogenic, but some thing to keep thanergy (and possibly thalergy) within the body, when naturally it just dissipates. Prolonged exposure to thanergy is what gave John his powers. This also might explain why Augustine, Mercy and Gideon became necros - they were working with John originally and for a long time, and Alfred, Cristabel and Pyrrha did not - they joined much later.

I also think that thalergy is connected to gravity somehow. I mean, this explains lifeless planets but not moons - planets are gravitational centres of satellite systems. Stars are either too massive or maybe it is because of fusion in the core, or maybe it is cause stars a results of gravitational collapse, or idk. It also might explain why the Houses have artificial gravity. I mean, John is our contemporary or very close, and it looks like all resources were poured to FTL fleet. I mean, if they had artificial gravity and could build sustainable structures in space, why would they even consider leaving the system. Sounds cheaper to start terraforming Mars or just move to space.

River as a wormhole. Might be an actual wormhole and humans experiencing fifth dimension. We are not suited for 5th dimension. Mind just produces some supplement puctures, and that is why everyone sees Ressurection Beasts differently. But death-connected rivers or bodies of water is a very universal picture. Also, River is a cultural convention by this point. Also might explain why John was able to look into the body of other person and to easily change something in it.

Why thalergy is connected to life? Anoher theory I have is that it is connected to complex and developing structures (like, babies have more thanergy than an adult, and cancer is also), and thanergy is connected to enthropy?

Also, on thalergy/thanergy, it looks like thalergy is some form of particle, and thanergy is the decay?

So, all in all it just might look like some poking into fundamental interactions and theory if everything.

[cherry-blossom-qf]

(to blind, prince, and necro) sooo thoughts on super hell another dimension and dream kingdom?

🦋: "Well, I couldn't see most of it, hehe!!" (blind joke)

👑: "Hell is now my home and my kingdom, the kingdom is now my place of business~! Suck it!"

🩸: "I'm just glad I'm save now. That is all."

💙: "I don't think the artist running this account has ever said this publicly, but I have in fact been to Another Dimension during the first few months I got my monster form. But, that's a looooong story that is probably gonna be told another day!!"

[th3-0bjectivist]

Dear listener, every year I run a fine-tooth comb over the internet to discover one ‘new’ type of music that is without a doubt… good batshit. I have long maintained that there are two kinds of bat guano in music: good batshit and bad batshit. If it’s passionate, experimental, entertaining, bizarre, and scares the piss out of modern puritans… that’s nutrient-rich good batshit! If it’s totally derivative of other acts, openly preachy, and flat-out boring all while desperately trying to be edgy… that’s a festering pile of bad batshit. This week, I’m going to expose you to music by Machine Girl. Smash play on the track just above, it’s a music video for their song Ginger Claps on their 2014 album Wlfgrl. If it doesn't freak you out too much, join me down below for more!

In 2024, I've been looking for gym jams. Y'know, utterly chaotic music you can listen to at the gym that makes you work out harder and longer than usual!? I happen to work with a group of young guys, and they always have the weirdest music playing in the workstation area. Being an old man compared to the pups, I often laugh or cringe at their screamo, emo violence and metalcore garbage. In just the last fortnight or so, I was passing through the workstation area and heard a very peculiar and strangely attractive sound. It reminded me of a hybrid between Aphex Twin and KMFDM. So, I memorized the band name, showed up at the gym to sample their tracks, and ended up staying on the treadmill for an extra hour as my ear canals climaxed at this fast-paced new sound. Their tunes made my body move, and how! I basically just started listening to this duo from Long Island, NY, so I'm hardly a subject matter expert, but despite my best efforts, I just can’t stop sampling this eery and tasty batshit! I can plainly state I have not heard a single other musical act that sounds exactly like this, and as of this posting I will declare it to be the most chaotic music I’ve ever installed on my blog. But there is an order to this chaos, as it is fundamentally rooted in the structures and schools of punk, digital hardcore, rave and industrial. Talk about a messy emotional ride; in some instances, their individual tunes are like listening to 10-20 soundscapes mashed into one 3-minute track. Apparently, if you listen to their tunes deep enough, you’ll find themes of gender identity, sexuality and a criticism of capitalism. So, if you’re into those themes, have at it! Me!? I'm just here for the extremely crazy breakbeats and the total experimental experience they have to offer. Just below, you’ll find Necro Culture Vulture from their 2020 album The Ugly Art. Especially if you’re a fitness-inspired gym rat like me these days, try this batshit on for size when you’re on the tread, it’ll all suddenly make sense if it hasn’t already!

This year, this is the most creative and inspiring new-to-my ears music I’ve had the good fortune to stumble across. I commend them for their explosive tracks that rapidly ascend into something akin to an epic score right out of a modern AAA video game. It’s music that literally sounds like it was produced by extraterrestrials from another dimension. Fuck-to-the-yeah! Image source: https://www.revolvermag.com/music/machine-girl-alien-music-duo-spitting-blood-mashing-genres-transcending-self

[elvencantation]

after reading the description of the rooms ianthe is staying in on the mithraem and then that harrow’s were empty i was like- wait did they put her in the ninth house rooms? cause i remembered that anastasia never became a lyctor

then i went to the dramatis personae and proceeded to figure out which house each necro/cav pair founded. some were pretty simple

quinque- five

oct- eight

dve- that one gave me pause. until my friend looked it up and was like. it’s slavic. and i facepalmed. dva is two in russian but dve is a conjugated form used to refer to things, so i didn’t even recognize it

shodash- from sanskrit for sixteen. also we already knew from nona that cassiopeia was sixth

trinit- three (like yeah what i remember about the vibes of cyrus and valancy, they would have painted nudes of themselves. very third)

tetra- this one stumped me for a bit. cause that’s also a root for three. until my friend pointed out that it’s in three dimensions. a pyramid. which has four sides. i stand corrected it does mean four. no idea why i associated it with three so definitively

also this seems to be the only name that’s rooted more in math/geometry instead of language/culture, fitting since ulysses and titania were created by john even more so than the others (something something they didn’t have as much dimension as the others cause at least the others were based on real people john knew before he fucked everything up)

heptane- i could remember from somewhere that hept meant seven

novenary- we’ve heard so many ninth names at this point that even without the root we’d be able to recognize that as ninth

and since we know that god renamed them all after resurrecting them and wiping their memories, i assume he did this all on purpose. did they guess? what did they think about being named arbitrary numbers that didn’t even have to do with their order of ascension? or were they even able to think about it? did they just think it was normal? or some big coincidence?

“i understand the houses have crystallized into… types” do you think that happened as a result of what john remade the lyctors into? did their personalities automatically carry over when he resurrected them or did when he reworked their memories he had to remember enough about them and just didn’t, thus starting the archetypes?

[rotteneldritchhorror]

WhendaybreakSCPic

A gender related to the SCP-001 proposal “When Day Breaks”.

May also be related to suns, end-of-days beliefs, body horror, gore, melting, world ending events, etc.

WorldgonebeauSCPic

A gender related to the SCP-001 proposal “The Worlds Gone Beautiful”.

May also be related to nature, blooming, spring, flora, utopia, the idea of ‘the calm before the storm’, joy, contentment, peace, etc.

PatternscreamerSCPic

A gender related to pattern screamers, notably mentioned in the hidden SCP-000.

May also be related to multidimensional beings, non carbon-based beings, the feeling or sound of screaming, the spaces between dimensions, shadowy creatures, endlessness, etc.

DNI: bigots, radinclus, radexclus, pro-endo, if you’re going to try and argue with me on any of these points, if you demonise mental illness, pro-transid (eg; transabled, transage, transrace, etc), proshippers/anti-anti, MAPS/NOMAPS/necro/zoo

[haphazardlyannotated]

The Locked Tomb/Steven Universe Crossover

This crossover was inspired months ago by the random thought "Hey, Pearl would definitely want to be Rose's cavalier" and hasn't left me alone since. So here you go, niche audience of one! (It's me. I am the audience)

First of all, yes, Pearl has to be Rose's cavalier. Not only does it neatly align with Pearl's knightly devotion and the institutional power imbalance they're both trying to ignore, Pearl absolutely is the kind of person who would take "my not-wife refuses to kill me and eat my soul in order to attain immortality" as a terrible rejection.

She's so insane about Rose, she'd fit right in in this universe (pun not intended). Also, the cavalier-necromancer romance taboo works excellently for Pearlrose. For one, of course, the forbidden romance. Cav!Pearl confessing to necro!Rose that she's been dreaming about running away from the Houses together to live in domestic bliss on a nice moon somewhere has the exact same vibes as su!Pearl's confession in Now We're Only Falling Apart. But more importantly, cav!Pearl giving Rose's suitors a "You may have caught her eye, but I am her cavalier; she swore an oath to me; our fates are entwined till death do us part" speech only to go to her rooms and wallow in how the very position that ensures she'll be by Rose's side forever is what will forever keep her from pursuing her true feelings is too good.

Meanwhile Rose is in the next room going "Oh woe is me, for I am a cruel, selfish woman, to keep the love of my life from the glory she deserves! Alas, I can't bear to let her go, even though I know in my heart that her care for me is only the rightful, proper care of a cavalier for her necromancer! The least I owe her is not to take advantage of our pure, sacred bond, so I shall go and drown my sorrows in another fleeting affair!"

Writer's choice whether they miraculously manage to communicate before Rose gets herself killed in one way or another, but ironically the dystopian 50% character death rate tlt verse is much more likely to give them a second chance than pastel redemption arcs su, because Steven Universe is a story about healing from trauma with the power of a supportive network of loved ones while The Locked Tomb endorses attacking the cold unfeeling universe with teeth and fingernails until it returns your girlfriend, and both of them are so valid for this.

In this case however it means, that instead of slowly healing, Pearl absolutely refuses to accept Rose's death to a Harrow and Camilla extent. Does she threaten to stab whoever takes Jod's role in this AU? Does she try to break into the Locked Tomb because to hell with the Houses, she's getting her wife back? Both? In any case, tlt rules demand that she succeeds.

Anyway, I put them in the Seventh House because roses.

As for the supporting cast:

Ruby and Sapphire are the Fifth House wholesome married couple who make Pearl and Rose stare in longing for what they cannot have.

Garnet is Paul. Obviously. Cue another, different kind of yearning for what could have been from Pearl. Poor Garnet has just come into existence. She doesn't deserve having to be everyone's emotional support already.

I struggled with figuring out a role for Amethyst for a while until it hit me: Wasn't it fun when Amethyst experienced self hatred over how the life was drained out of her planet to make her? Try being the result of two hundred child murders! Don't the inadequacy issues gain a delightful new dimension when your entire generation has been killed off in anticipation of your abilities? Guys, I think Amethyst is Harrow Nova.

I have no idea what plot has to happen for Rose to end up with Jod's baby, but that is the only role for Steven I will tolerate. And Connie is his cavalier. Obviously.

Peridot is sciency, Lapis is the quiet OP lady, and they're in a QPR. There was no way I wasn't going to make them the Sixth. HOWEVER. Due to how extremely OP Lapis is with an element manipulating power specifically. I decided that she's the necromancer and Peridot is her incredibly academically talented BFF who they're pretending is the necromancer so she can be along for the ride. This would be plot relevant if this crossover had an actual plot instead of self indulgent vibes only.

Jasper gets Judith's role. Completely loyal to the ethically dubious regime, absolutely convinced that she's the only one who is doing the right thing and everyone else is just not strong enough, ends up corrupted possessed by a Resurrection Beast.

Bismuth is a Blood of Eden commander. She would like to fist fight every single Uppercrust zombie, however, just like su!Bismuth, she is easily won over when a former Homeworld gem House zombie shows up on her planet and announces her intent to fight the Diamonds Jod and his Lyctors and/or bust into the Locked Tomb.

[kizashige]

tbh I think arguing whether morishige is a necro or a gore fetishist or not is a mute point because the eroticism of his character is one of the most interesting things about him. it just feels like trying to downplay the weight of his character when sexuality as a theme has always been present in the horror genre; both as subtext paralleling real life ostracization, but also outright depicting violent, abnormal fetishism. and morishige is a prime example of both.

he is a depiction of having internal conflict over an erotic desire, and a large part of it coming from seeking control over others. literally, he takes sadistic pleasure in the gore he sees throughout heavenly host. it can also be read as an outlet to express his resentment of how he was treated in the real world and the corpses he comes across is a replacement for the people he was neglected by; there is absolutely a societal component to it that still does not negate the eroticism of it.

a lot of the argument is also whether he was messed up or not outside of heavenly host, and I also think that misses the point. heavenly host is both a literal dimension that in the narrative the characters are sent to, but it is also a physical representation of emotional baggage and trauma that is shown through the environment and the darkening. and other characters who undergo the darkening have their desires manifest in similar ways (e,g. ayumi killing naomi in her fit of jealously is obviously related to her crush on satoshi, but it also speaks to deep-seated feelings of inferiority that she struggles with in a lot of aspects of her life, such as her aspirations and her family. that's why she is also so stubborn of a character. she just wants to prove something of herself.)

so I just don't care about whether morishige is X or Y or not. that want to have control over his life both in and outside of heavenly host and acting out as a response for it is integral to his issues with his social image, his family, and himself, and that it delves into that level of perversion only makes him even more of a very unique, layered character

[infacheezit]

Fuck it, let’s do another one.

So my world is pretty much a random variety of multiple things I like crammed into one. For example, one area is a technologically advanced super city that I hope to talk about later while the other is an abandoned hospital in the middle of a frozen mountain. Another is the depths of Hell turned into a 9-5 punishment in contrast to a fungal rave happening in the middle of a forest that has giant crystals that show different possible timelines. Essentially no rhyme or reason as to what can and can’t exist.

The entire story takes place on a planet called Terra and a land known as Pangea. In this world gods control certain areas of the world to watch over humanity. These areas are called Domains. Each domain contains 2 gods, each being one contrast to the other (as an example, Nightmare has his brother Dream, a god called Panacea has Miasma, and a god called Fate has Chance). The whole story takes place on the domain known as Enigma, this being Nightmare and Dream’s domain.

As a quick note, the world does change over time, I have 3 acts planned out and each introduces new areas, for now though I’m just gonna name random important locations for act 1:

Traveler’s Beginnings - small intro town that has a variety of shops and random buildings

Traveler’s Trials - behind the TB is a forest that is essentially a maze. Holds a variety of locations that are important to random other things

Adventurers’ Guild Base - place for adventurers to get licenses and quests from random people (similar to the HxH, I actually wrote this concept in 2020 before I even knew about HxH funnily enough)

Back alley pawn shop - hidden near the outskirts of both the TB and TT is a pawn shop, it’ll be important for a lot of reasons. Stay tuned lol

Kopperlin - a kingdom made of copper, steel, and random other metals. This place is technically the first real outside location I ever actually wrote about besides TB and it’s neighboring locations

Technopolis - an interestingly high tech area that apparently only mortals can see. Nightmare can’t see it… probably for the best

Seaside Port - generic port that has no use until act 2, for now just know that the sea is a scary place and this port is soon to be very scared of the creatures resting at the bottom

Hands of Time Desert - a biome that’s filled with giant mechanical hands that occasionally jerk and creak about. The sands hold many secrets, only time will uncover what those secrets may be

Snake Eye’s Casino - an enigma of a casino owned by a man who know one knows the face of. Maybe a little time to relax wouldn’t hurt a bit

The Grim Corporation - a conglomerate company and plane of existence that acts as an afterlife in which people have to pay life debts to get to be reincarnated. Multiple types of afterlives exist, but that’s a different topic for now

The Astral Plains - a different dimension ruled by magic and the unknown possibilities of it. Anything can happen here, best to not stick for too long though lest you want to be met by some not so friendly entities

The Junkyard - a different dimension ruled by the Titan of humanity’s stories and evolution: Progress. Anything that gets lost or forgotten ends up here, Progress just likes to collect stuff honestly

Finally is the Necro-Bard’s stage - a town and it’s neighboring forest that holds nothing but dead corpses of those who got caught and turned by the Necro-Bard’s army. Filled with dark purple crystals, the sound of screams, and corrupted looking trees, this area is nothing more than a dead wasteland.

That’s basically all the main important areas. If there’s any questions feel free to ask!

[starlytenight]

Sorry if this has been asked before. But how was it like for Necro growing up? It must have been a, I'll go with interesting, experiance. And how did Morpho suddenly feel having to raise a younger verson of themself? It most have been some interesting years for the god because they pretty much got to feel the 'parent experience' as it's called with Necro.

Oh, it's a bit more complicated than that. Morpho didn't really... do that.

He just told the small fragment not to be afraid because if someone dared to try anything he'd step in. Necro was on his own, basically.

Morpho would be kind enough guide him around if he asked for where, say, food was or something like that. Anything life-threatening he couldn't handle himself, but beyond that, Morpho was very hands off! He really wanted to see what would unfold. He didn't want to interfere much since this was new and exciting.

This kind of led to some problems, like Necro being unable to control his disgustingly powerful fire and leading him to being often called a "Demon Child" for accidentally burning down villages and the like. Several others tried to control his fire or outright unsubscribe him from life but they all failed miserably. Necro sort of renamed himself "Necro" in reference to the death, or the "Necrosis" he wrought to unlucky souls. He didn't want to be affiliated with the name "Valkyrie" since he didn't think he fit it and he didn't like the natural uneasy aura being part of Morpho granted him.

He kind of started just accepting the nastiness and unwillingness from others as a given. Most can sense the deadly deity in him and naturally feared him as most folks fear death and judgment, so 99% of those he encountered were very unkind toward him. From what he can still recall from being part of Morpho, most worlds were like this. Ruthless, cold, and horrific. They usually paid for such sins later.

But... in his travels he finally found someone who wasn't exactly like most.

Someone who was actually willing to try and show him, and couldn't get burned by his highly powerful holy fire. A silly little blacksmith Jambandran who offered to forge him a sword and armor that wouldn't melt from his might, and a lady that gave him somewhere to call home and absolutely drove her parents mad with this man in their vicinity.

Sis was the first kindness he had ever experienced, and the first reminder of the goodness within this dimension.

[dark-arts-and-crafts-universe]

A Dying Art (Chapter 17)

A Dying Art

Lorcan Verdigris is a time wizard, a misanthrope, and a single father to a household of magically-sentient furniture.

Lorcan Verdigris is not a necromancer. Anymore. But when the leader of the  local necro coven comes to him with a request he really, really can’t  refuse, past collides with present and he finds himself back in a world  he’d tried to leave behind. Someone is trying to steal a powerful  magical artifact, one whose destruction could unleash chaos upon the  city. Or save it from an even greater danger. Or do nothing at all. Who  knows. See, this is exactly why Lorcan stopped messing with the stuff.

Unfortunately,  one way or another, Lorcan’s the one stuck dealing with it. He’d like  to say this is a challenge that will take all his magic and his  ingenuity to overcome, but let’s be real, stopping this threat will take  something even more dire: actual effort. At least he’s getting paid  this time…

Previous | Table of Contents

Chapter 17: What Remains

Word count: 3,618

Content warnings: no major content warnings

So this is the last chapter of A Dying Art! I’ve been really nervous about posting this, wanted to make sure it was as good as it could be to end the story strong. I do plan to write more with these characters and universe (because wow is there a lot more story to tell) but this work represents the first major chunk of Lorcan’s arc. If you’ve stuck around until the end, thank you so much! I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it.

-

Osiris did live up to their promise to pay him if he survived. They even threw in extra to cover expenses. Lorcan got the letter in his mail five days after the mall battle–he almost didn’t check until the kids pestered him about it. Alongside the cash was another message. It read: Darken my GameStop one more time, Lorcan Verdigris.

The normal people were definitely staring when Lorcan entered the mall. He couldn’t blame them–he’d found a big stick in the small patch of grass outside and was regularly jabbing it into the walls on the off-chance something started breathing. He tossed five rocks onto the escalator before deciding it was (probably) safe.

Of course, if the mall was still evil and liminal, his time sense would be killing him again and everything there was comfortably usual. So. His slipshod plan had worked, then. The scenesters hadn’t connected the mall dimension back to their plane of existence, and Osiris hadn’t taken the space for themselves. Maybe this incident wasn’t entirely over, but some things were back to the way they’d been.

“You did not bring your familiar this time,” Osiris’s voice greeted Lorcan as he stepped into the shop.

“Well, fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice and I really will irradiate you to death.”

“We see,” they said, then: “That was not Dexter’s death curse.”

If Lorcan was a little bit snippy, it was because he was still catching up on sleep from the week before. He ran a hand through his hair, then asked, “Did you summon me to your shop to say things we both already knew?”

Because, duh. Dexter Young would never bury anything important in a place he and Lorcan had explored together. His trust extended just far enough to let him help with the mostly-useless first attempt, ten years ago.

But, “The prototype looked close enough to fool the others.”

“Not us, however.”

Yes. Osiris had all of Dexter’s memories. That was how that worked.

“I didn’t need to fool you,” he told them. “I just needed to get you in a position where it benefitted you to play along. The fight had been going long enough I figured you’d want it stalled, if nothing else.”

And they nodded slowly, like Lorcan had given them something they needed. “An intriguing gambit.”

There was almost a note of respect in their voice–exactly what Lorcan had hoped wasn’t going to happen. Aside from the ethical implications…he’d only been able to get the drop on Osiris because they’d underestimated him. He would bet that wasn’t going to happen in the future.

“Not without its consequences, of course,” the Crown said, probably thinking the same. “What you gained from the ploy must have been worth the risk.”

Not this again, Lorcan thought, pretending very suddenly to be interested in one video game on the shelf in front of him about…cars? “I thought my demands were clear enough. My son, and the petty, fleeting thrill of victory symbolized by a pair of overpriced shoes.”

Osiris let out a hum.

Before that hum could turn into a barbed comment, or worse a question, he added, “So I guess you won the fight, then? I mean, this place looks less hell-dimension than last time.”

He couldn’t say things seemed entirely normal–he was studiously avoiding the new, very artistic posters the Crown had added to the decor since last time–but it was still Osiris’s store, so he had to assume things had worked out for them.

“More or less,” they answered, with a tilt of their head. “After your…outburst, you could say the adrenaline of the moment had dimmed. The Dominion sought respite for their injuries–”

“Who the fuck is the Dominion?”

“The ‘scene crowd’. Their collective nom de guerre,” Osiris told him. They frowned. “They had a monologue about it when the fight began. Were you not there for that?”

“No, I was busy being left for dead,” he said.

“Ah.” They gave it a second’s thought and moved on, “The Dominion broke to in-fighting soon after you left–petty complaints about being ‘frightened’ and ‘dying’. It was as if they had not yet considered murdering a powerful necromancer might involve some degree of personal consequence. We know that you would never be so foolish.”

And Lorcan flinched at that, because it was true in exactly the way he didn’t want Osiris to think about. “They seemed pretty young,” he offered.

“In years, they did not differ much from you. In maturity…” They nodded once. “Their worldview is very much marked by youth: the old is worthless, everything must be fresh, new.”

“...like the New Osiris?”

A scowl. “That was part of the monologue, yes. A quite vainglorious sobriquet–the name Osiris is not for any common ruler to claim. It belonged to a truly admirable individual.”

Lorcan did not resist the urge to roll his eyes. “You know,” he drawled, “some people would pretend to be humble.”

The look of unamusement on Osiris’s face was expected. But it seemed different from usual. Somehow more solemn. “We mean the first Osiris. Contrary to popular belief, we chose the name out of respect.”

He turned that over in his head. The first necromancer in the area to call himself Osiris was before Lorcan’s time. But he did know the stories. “He convinced his enemies to merge their covens together,” he said, working through the thought. “No enchantments–supposedly–no shows of force. Just words and charisma.”

“Osiris the First achieved through will alone what for others required powerful magic.”

“And you…admire that?” he had to ask. Osiris (the Second) did value hard work, and skills separate from magic. The GameStop was proof of that.

What Osiris (the Second) didn’t bother with was charisma. Needing people, trusting people–Lorcan had seen their lip literally curl enough to know their disgust at the thought. The necromancer souls that made up the gestalt had needed people, and they’d failed to achieve anything close to the first Osiris. He’d think, with their ego, that would more likely lead to envy.

“You admire someone,” he repeated.

“We do have a heart, Verdigris,” they said. “On occasion it is capable of positive emotion.”

“So is this–” Lorcan pointed at himself, then the Crown, and the store. “--one of those rare moments of gratitude, then? Because I saved your ass back in that fight?”

There was the lip. “Whatever minor assistance you rendered was, truly, unnecessary in the grander scheme of things.” They paused. “But, as the opportunity did arise, we decided acquiescing to a momentary stalemate would allow us to allocate our remaining stamina for this upcoming shift. Besides which, the ritual circle had been damaged in the battle somehow.”

“Oh?”

“The liminal death dimension still exists,” Osiris explained, “but its connection to our own plane has been frayed. A new bridge would need to be built before the space is again usable.”

Little victories, Lorcan thought.

“As for the physical Spirit Halloween in this mall,” they continued. “It has vanished as quickly as it appeared. A front the entire time, we assume.”

Osiris let out a small huff of breath, not quite a sigh. It was still more defeated than Lorcan had ever seen them. “A clean victory would have been preferable, though it seems this time that was not quite possible.”

And for a moment, Lorcan could feel a sense of kinship with the wistfulness in the Crown’s voice.

“Things keep happening.” He looked down at his hands. “You don’t want to be the one who has to handle them. But you’re the one who’s there and that means it’s up to you. It sucks.”

“Indeed. ‘Uneasy lies the head that wears the’…” They trailed off mid-quote, and pointed to their crown upon their head. A soft, halfway-chuckle slipped out of their mouth. “True rest escapes us still. The Dominion’s fiendish accountancy knows few bounds.”

“I thought you’d have dealt with that by now.”

“You know as well as we that the advent of online shopping was the dagger in the metaphorical intestine of the American mall,” they informed him. “It bleeds slow, but death is certain.” Sad silhouettes of signage flashed into Lorcan’s mind. Empty halls and dusty floors.

“The only locations turning a profit at this complex are this GameStop and–” Osiris let out a disgusted shudder. “--the Hot Topic. Pre-orders alone may not be enough. We will likely need to devote even greater attention to this job simply to hold the line. We may even have to cut down on our extracurricular murders.”

Hm. “That’s rough.”

“Yes. We must all make sacrifices in this trying time.” Then, after a pause, “Or rather, some of us must make fewer sacrifices. But the time of separating business from magic, at least, is at an end.”

Lorcan wouldn’t say no to less extracurricular murder, but it was overall a somber statement. A lot of necromantic status quo in the area was going to get upheaved. It might, emphasis on might, work out better for the locals for a new enemy to distract Osiris’s attention. But there was a lot of new room for innocents to get caught in the crossfire.

It had been the same way back before the Crown had merged into a necromantic gestalt, and Lorcan didn’t know what he, as one mid-tier wizard, could do to stop it.

“You did not answer our question, Verdigris.”

They were doing this, then? They were really doing this. “I’m pretty sure I did, actually,” he said. Argumentative, but there was no helping that.

“We wish to hear why you did what you did that night.”

“You know damn well why,” Lorcan snapped. “Is it really so confusing I might want to protect my children? My children who I love?”

“Perhaps.” Osiris raised an eyebrow. “It is such a feeble, human emotion, after all.”

Yeah, he didn’t buy that. “I’ve heard you do have a heart on occasion.”

It was too easy an answer: the evil, inhuman villain who does evil things because they don’t feel love. Better than admitting your old friend had just stopped caring. No, for all Osiris insisted they were no longer mortal and weak, their evil was human enough. Something about the specifics of Lorcan’s family did seem to be tripping up their inestimable wisdom. But it wasn’t that.

Osiris liked to avoid emotion. Lorcan knew firsthand that didn’t stop you from feeling it.

“And you know what,” he threw out like a challenge, “you never answered my question: did you call me here just to talk about things we both already know?”

The words were more confident than he felt, and Osiris stared at him, eyes piercing, stance sure. Lorcan tried not to shift, not to fidget. Whatever they were looking for, they were only going to see what he’d already explained. For a moment, he could see hesitation flickering in the dark of their eye.

When the Crown finally spoke, they said, “Dexter was surprised when you began calling yourself a father.”

And how could Lorcan respond to that except, “I was, too.” It was a vulnerable admission, and for once, Osiris didn’t press their advantage.

The feeling in the silence that fell prickled at his neck. It was almost like…uncertain smalltalk back in Belial’s tattoo parlor. A kind of verbal joust he still didn’t know the rules for. He was missing something big, he just didn’t know what. So there was a moment of relief when the door to the back of the shop opened, enough that he didn’t think to question who could be coming out of it.

There had to be wards hiding Jennifer Lynn’s shimmering spectral form from non-magical eyes. Even in a dying mall, there were too many people who would notice a translucent woman carrying a stack of games to the shelves like she was any normal employee. It was a sign of the upheaval Lorcan had been the unwitting architect of, he thought with a sinking heart. The days of the Crown Osiris’s GameStop being a place safe from magic were over.

Then he saw the person standing behind Jennifer Lynn.

Necromancy made a lot of common idioms hard to say with a straight face. So for Lorcan to say that spotting Kyle, in the flesh, carrying a stack of video games was like ‘seeing a ghost’--well, there was a ghost right in front of him. This was more shocking.

“You are staring,” Osiris noted.

“I’m just surprised to see him still–” Alive. “–employed.”

“Clearly we overestimated his ability to lead independently of our instruction,” they said. “It does not matter. We have long been in need of a footman whom we can provide with much firmer management.”

“And how’s Kyle feel about that?”

“Kyle?” Osiris asked him.

“Super grateful for not being dead, um, your royal magic-ness Opal ma’am!” The kid had a plastered-on smile that looked only halfway fake. “I mean, the new hours suck a bit, but it’s better than food service. Also being a, uh, footman comes with health insurance?”

It sounded more like a question than a statement. Lorcan glanced back at Osiris.

“We bound a wraith into the fabric of his soul to ensure his body will not expire before our use for him has,” they said. “That counts. Honestly, we would not have bothered in the first place,” they added with a wave of their hand. “But Jennifer Lynn saw potential in him.”

The realtor’s shade hadn’t looked at Lorcan since she walked out, almost pointedly ignoring him. It wasn’t until the split second where Osiris turned to examine a display that she met his eyes.

Huh, he thought. How about that?

Lorcan wasn’t going to insult Jennifer Lynn’s intelligence by letting slip any more than a single nod, barely more than a twitch of his neck. But when she pivoted back to her work as if nothing had even been communicated, he thought she got the gist.

It was a bigger favor than Lorcan thought he could ask for. The situation Kyle was in was not ideal by any means. It was a lot of trouble Lorcan didn’t know if he could get him out of. But more achievable than full resurrection–he wasn’t that good a necromancer.

“You will need somebody to keep the shop running,” he said, because anything that kept Osiris from doubting Jennifer Lynn’s judgment was good. “Even if you black-market-gem your way out of debt, the customers are what keep the mall alive in the first place.”

Osiris disfavored him with a sour look. “Why should we surrender our own wealth to fix others’ inadequacies? No, we have found a more ingenious solution to our budgetary distress,” they pronounced, eyes glittering. “We have garnished Kyle’s pay.”

Lorcan glanced over to Kyle. “Hooray for capitalism,” he said.

He shouldn’t even be surprised anymore. Osiris was who they’d always been. As Dexter, as Opal, as the full gestalt. These were all people who would do anything to never need anyone.

Kind of like Lorcan. He took a deep breath. He was trying to be better. “Look, Osiris. This might be out of hand–”

“Then do not say it?”

He pressed on, “But you could consider giving a little more recognition to your underlings. There’s stuff they’re doing that you can’t, or won’t, and it doesn’t hurt you to let them pick up that slack. And maybe,” he added, “if you happen to owe someone for past services rendered, just pay them? I cannot stress enough that you’re a rich person who can do that.”

Osiris hummed to themself, seeming to consider it. “What you are saying is that re-investing in our minions now is the opportune moment to secure more unwavering loyalty in the future. Achieve our goals through mundane manipulation, like our predecessor.”

“No,” he said. “No, do not take this and turn it into a necromancy power grab. I’m trying–I am trying to be nice here, goddammit.”

“We know. It is a strange gesture. It hardly suits our working relationship.”

He sighed. “Yeah.”

“And yet you slave to the impulse in your mortal mind to meddle so. Our nigh-infinite wisdom is at a loss to explain it.” Their voice lilted for a moment, like it was a funny joke. But if they had seemed amused at first, their next words made it clear they were very, very not: “One would think the collateral damage alone from your interferences would deter you.”

Lorcan’s heart stuck in his throat. “Is that a threat?” he asked, and tried to sound confident.

“To your, ah, children? No, we have resolved that to attack ones so frail and helpless no longer befits the dignity of our gestalt. Consider it a courtesy after all you have done for us.”

Sure, he thought. That was the reason.

“No, it was,” and Lorcan knew exactly what the Crown would end that sentence with, “a simple observation. You must know by now that your nature is a poison, rather than a balm. Look at what you have wrought in the last week alone–was any of it ‘good’?”

He didn’t react. He didn’t let himself. His very breath stopped. Osiris was looking for a reaction, and he would not give them the satisfaction.

They smiled, and it was as unkind as anything Lorcan had ever done. “Some people were not made to be helpful, Verdigris. Remember that if you seek to interfere in our affairs again.”

Message received, Lorcan thought, mouth suddenly very dry. “Right,” he said, mechanically. Going through every motion. “It’s been real, Osiris. Corporate must love your progress reports.” He turned to go.

But this time, they didn’t let him leave with the parting shot. “Do you know how a conflict between us would end, Lorcan Verdigris?”

This again? “Yes,” he said tightly.

It was an obvious, obedient answer. So it sent a chill shock through his system when the Crown told him that, “We are no longer so certain. But if need be, we will put the question to the test.”

If there was one thing Lorcan had learned about Osiris, the thing that was new and strange about this person who was almost an almost-friend, it was that they liked their labels. It was their way of making the world predictable. Life and death. Work and magic. Threats and fools.

And if there was power in breaking boundaries, Lorcan might have done the worst thing he could in the long run by establishing himself as a threatening fool.

The unsettled feeling stuck with him all the way back to the apartment. “Hey, you’re still alive,” Vulk said, watching TV.

“Yeah.”

<But it’s done.> Frank flickered his light, letting out a satisfied creak.

“...Yeah.” He looked over to the desk, where Loretta’s light shade had swiveled to peer directly at him. “Loretta. Could…” He trailed off.

Going back to a lazy schedule meant he didn’t have to wear himself down thinking over everything that had happened. It meant he had plenty of time to do it anyway. And some thoughts were less avoidable than others.

His nature…a crafter’s art and their magic reflected who they were. It wasn’t supposed to be as simple as ‘good’ and ‘bad’ types of magic. But maybe Lorcan was just an unlucky jerk with nothing below the surface.

If he was a little nicer, would he have ended up with magic like Kryptonia and her friends, something that created instead of destroyed? A seer knew, at least, what it was they were supposed to do. Whether their actions would help or hurt. He could admit he envied that.

When Lorcan first saw the vision of red, he assumed it meant blood. The consequences of a bad choice. Frustrating, vague, and in the end it had been a clue to something else entirely.

No, despite the hint Lorcan was all alone, making his own choices the best he could. And look how that had gone.

In one week, he’d injured several people in a magic fight, gotten a hapless GameStop employee near-permanently subjugated, and threatened to destroy an entire mall. He’d potentially maneuvered the Crown Osiris into a position of even greater strength if they managed to win this necromantic power struggle. Vision or no, maybe there was going to be blood on his hands after all.

“I need a little more light in my room,” was what he said.

Loretta tilted her lampshade. “Sure thing, Dad,” she replied. “You’ve had a rough day.”

Lorcan took her back into his bedroom and plugged her into the outlet by his bedside table. Once he had, it felt like all the fight drained out of him; he slid down the edge of his bed to the floor, head resting against the table.

“Mad and sad, you said?” he asked softly.

He heard a squeak of metal hinges, then her voice in his head. “You did what you had to.”

“I did,” he said. “I don’t regret it. I’d do it again, if any of you needed it.”

“I know.”

His hands were shaking, and he could still feel the mall’s deathly chill. “I just wish--if my magic wasn’t like this--anybody else would have had other options.” His voice was pathetically weak as he asked, “Why me?”

Loretta didn’t answer, and Lorcan didn’t expect her to. He closed his eyes.

When he woke up hours later, his children had crowded their way into the bedroom, entertaining themselves with soft conversations in hushed voices. Loretta was watching over him, Vulk’s cord gripped his wrist, and Terry was wrapped around his shoulders to keep him warm.

Some things in Lorcan’s life were predictable. And despite everything, it was good.

[maplestoryseaplayer]

Suspicious Cube (from Normal Ranmaru) - Recommend not to sell, to use for own characters' use; Dimension Fragment (from Zero - Mirror World dungeon monsters); Necro Warrior Lucky Item Scroll 50% (from Normal Hilla) can be sold for 2,750 Mesos each.

Spell Trace can be sold for 1,499 Mesos each - Remember to keep a backup for own characters' use.