#not that i think other people are like rolling over for lore they're not into but most other players have talked about letting admins

[atthebell]

i want cellbit to come back not just because i love him and he's my guy but also because he's so bossy and direct about what he wants out of his personal lore that i know at least that will get somewhat rectified

[sant-riley]

Yeah but like what if one day Gaz walked into a room and saw Y/N FNAF lore dumping to Ghost

[Infodumping the boys]

(Mostly Platonic tf141 x gen neutral! reader, hints at Ghost bc it’s me and I’m biased.)

Summary: Teddy aka You, decide to gather the gang and tell them about five nights at Freddy’s before the movie comes out.

Word count: 800 ish

Warnings: Possibly of for the boys (idrc tho lmao), Teddy is this readers callsign, reader is implied to be at least early 20’s, I can’t think of anything else tbh but lmk if this does need something tagged!

It wasn't uncommon for you to infodump your teammates, they're all older than you and have significantly less screen time than you (it ties into being older). Most of the information you give them is something they take as fact, this is no different.

Gaz of all people knows your interests best, you two being the closest in age means you both realistically grew up with the internet and its most popular series.

The last thing he expected walking into one of the many meeting rooms on base, was you at the front of the room, your laptop hooked up to the projector and Price and Soap sitting down, dutifully listening with varying degrees of attention.

Price is to your left, staring down at mission documents that no doubt need to be turned in by tomorrow. A glass of some liquor next to his stack, a cigar box that's propped open right by it as well.

To anyone else, it would seem like Price isn't listening and he's just here to keep you from bothering him to come but Gaz can see the Captain's eye flick up every so often, his eyes softening when his gaze falls on yours, listening for a few beats, a miniscule upturn of his lips until he's looking back down again, grabbing a pen to make a correction.

Soap on the other hand is sitting next to Cap, a hand resting under his chin, the other flipping around a pen in his hands. He's nodding and asking questions as you flick through. Below him is a notebook that seems to have scribbled in it, if Gaz walked in further he could see little drawings of Monty Gator and Soap himself, a Venn diagram with a large red writing saying "Mohawk!!"

Ghost being there probably should be a shock but it isn't. The man is known to follow you around like a shadow, he humors you arguably the most out of the four men, letting you drag him to and from places with minimal complaint. He bets Ghost is gonna be the one to take you to the five nights at Freddys movie premiere.

Simon's dressed down to just his hoodie and his balaclava mask, attentively watching you as you speak passionately about each character and their role in the series. his dark eyes flicking around to stare at the drawings you inserted so everyone could see what the animatronics and others looked like.

You would've thought this was a mission debrief with how focused he was on your words.

Gaz lets out a fake cough, announcing himself to the room and he watches as your eyes immediately latch onto him, he ignores how his heart skips a beat when he sees the crinkles of your eyes, seeing you shoot a glowing smile his way.

You always look at him like that but he never tires of it.

"Gaz! Finally, you're here!"

Rushing over to him, you grab at his hand, quickly intertwining fingers, and start dragging him to the seat next to Ghost. He sits down with a huff, amusement swimming around his eyes. You move to go back to the front of the room, gleefully rocking on the balls of your feet as you look at them.

"What's all this about?" He questions, after getting nods in acknowledgment from the other 3 men in the room.

"Teddy here is tellin' us about five nights at…Frankies?"

"It's Freddy's, Johnny." You roll your eyes playfully.

"No shot you're making Ghost and Cap listen to this."

"I'm not making them do anything, they're here of their own free will, thank you very much." Sticking out your tongue, moving to click to the next slide.

"Is that true Cap?"

"It's background noise," John murmurs with a shrug, taking a swig out of his glass. He leans back in his seat, seemingly taking a momentary break as he looks around at the table.

"Got nothin' better else to do," Simon answers easily, looking at Gaz from the corner of his eye.

"You ain't gonna ask me, Garrick?"

"Nah, you of all people would enjoy it."

"What's tha-"

"Boys! Shut it! We're getting to the good part!" You clap your hands together and Soap immediately cuts himself off, looking back at you.

With all the boys' eyes on you, you clear your throat and push a button, there, from when Gaz remembers, is Michael Afton in all his purple nasty body glory.

"Fucks wrong with him? Why does he look like that?" Simon remarks, an eyebrow shooting up.

"I'm so glad you asked, you know actually the more I think about it, You and Michael actually have a lot in common.”

"How so?"

"Asshole dad, the oldest brother, daddy issues, I can keep going if you want."

Ghost just grunts in acknowledgment, raising a hand to his head and rubbing at his temples.

Price chokes on his liquor, coughing as it goes down the wrong pipe.

Soap audibly drops an "oh."

And Gaz just stares, truth be told, yeah. Yeah, he can see the resemblance.

[remidyal]

What is Fig Doing? - Mechanical Discussion edition

So! I know a lot of people who watch D20 are relatively new to DnD, or may not have much experience with the game itself at all, and as a lover of exploring weird and mechanically ineffective multiclasses I thought I might dive in in advance of whatever the hell Emily's about to do to Fig's character sheet following episode 7. Spoiler alert: Weird it may end up being, but this is absolutely NOT going to be anything like an ineffective multiclass.

First, here's Fig's character splash screen as of episode 7:

In addition to the information shown here, we know that she's currently subclassed into a Hexblade patron and into being a Lore bard. The Lore bard part is less important, but Hexblade is an incredibly common subclass for multiclassers into warlocks and might actually be the most common multiclass subclass in the entire game for reasons we'll get into.

There is a very small elephant in the room: Multiclassing into or out of Barbarian would, by the rules as written, require 13 strength; multiclassing into or out of Paladin requires 13 strength and 13 charisma. The charisma Fig has in spades, but she's short on strength, and in fact I would actually argue that Fig's overall stats are the worst of the entire party - she has a whole lot of 0s or +1s, where most everyone else either has multiple +3s or higher or has almost all +2s past their primary. However, the multiclass requirements have been consistently ignored in Dimension 20 as a whole and have been ignored in Fantasy High in particular in the case of Gorgug going into Artificer back when he was at 8 int; I think it's safe to say that if Fig/Emily wants to add Paladin and/or Barbarian that either they'll move around stats to allow for it or just ignore the requirement, because that strength stat is, in fact, completely irrelevent to this build.

So let's get to the meat of this: There is almost no combination of bard, paladin, and warlock that Fig could end up with that is not going to be an incredibly effective build, as long as she has pact of the Hexblade and is at at least two levels of Paladin for access to Smite (the first level of paladin gets her almost nothing). There are some that are going to be better than others, but mostly it's going to reflect different strengths and focuses, and the reason for this is this little section of the Hexblade level 1 abilities:

The influence of your patron also allows you to mystically channel your will through a particular weapon. Whenever you finish a long rest, you can touch one weapon that you are proficient with and that lacks the two-handed property. When you attack with that weapon, you can use your Charisma modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, for the attack and damage rolls. This benefit lasts until you finish a long rest. If you later gain the Pact of the Blade feature, this benefit extends to every pact weapon you conjure with that feature, no matter the weapon’s type.

Fig is a one-trick pony, statwise. Being a hexblade allows everything she would want to do in combat across all of these classes to use that trick. She'll have dials she can tweak across the three classes, and they're going to impact just what she can do, but if she's really decided to leave being a Bard behind it wouldn't surprise me to see her ditch Bard levels for Paladin and Warlock ones over the course of the season.

For those dials, one key thing to consider is the spell slots she'll have, which are WEIRD to calculate for any warlock multiclass with another caster. For every other caster class in the game, there is a pool of spell slots that go up as you level any of them that refresh on long rests. Warlocks, however, have a seperate pool from any of those, so her warlock spell slots are seperate and refresh on short rests. If she stays at level 2 in warlock, this pool will be two slots of first level. If she levels in warlock, the level of these spell slots go up but the number of them doesn't (unless she somehow were to end up at level 11, when warlocks finally get a third slot.)

The paladin and bard combo is a little simpler to look at - she's going to have spell slots from the table that a primary caster would have at the level equal to her bard level plus half her paladin level. Just as an example, let's say she by the next combat were to drop two bard levels for two paladin ones and she were to end up 7 bard/2 paladin/2 warlock. She would end up with the two warlock first level spell slots that refresh on short rests, and 7 + .5*2 = level 8 from the primary caster spell slot table. (4 1sts, 3 2nds and 3rds, 2 4ths). A very deep pool for using Divine Smites - a full paladin wouldn't be able to match this until level 16, and that's not even counting the warlock first level spells!

Key level breakpoints that might be worth looking at: At level 5 of Paladin, she would have multiple attacks; at level 6 Paladin gets one of the best abilities in the entire game, an aura where she and allies within 10 feet get her charisma mod as a bonus to ALL saving throws. In Fig's case this is an absolutely incredible +5 - at their level, this is a bigger boost than being proficient is! If she really wants to guard her president, this would allow even Kristen to have a +2 on dex saves! I'm not certain I could overstate how good this ability is in general; with a +5 it's completely insane.

She can also get multiple attacks through either Bard or Warlock, but neither is automatic. For Warlock, she would have to choose to take Pact of the Blade at level 3 (warlocks have, somewhat confusingly, two more-or-less subclasses, and Hexblade and Pact of the Blade are in fact different things) and Brennan has been HEAVILY hinting at wanting her to take Pact of the Chain so that Baby can be a class feature instead. She'd then have to get to level 5 in warlock and take the Thirsting Blade eldritch invocation, which are sort of little bonus powers warlocks get. I think this is the least likely path to multiple attacks but it is there. (Mechanically, while it's all still fine, I also think leveling warlock would be the worst of the three in a three-class build.)

Bard CAN get multiple attacks at level 6 but Fig would need to change subclasses to either Swords (which is what Fabian is) or Valor (which is, frankly, a worse version of what Fabian is, though it's still fine.)

Getting multiple attacks is a really big deal - Paladins can smite multiple times per round, and given being able to lay on mid to low level spell slots for ages Fig would likely want to.

I have no idea what Oath Fig would pick for a paladin if she gets to level 3, but honestly the level 3 subclass features for Paladin are mostly not that big a deal; she'd need to get to level 7 for the subclass aura for it to really matter all that much.

You'll notice I haven't been talking much about Barbarian above. If Fig dips into Barbarian mechanically at all, it's almost certainly just for one level given how spread thin she might be. This is a level she won't get any spell slots for, but she will get two rages per day, which will add 2 to damage rolls if Brennan allows it (technically it wouldn't apply normally because it does specify only to rolls made for attacks using strength) but much more importantly will halve quite a lot of incoming damage - bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage, more or less all of the physical attacks in the game.

Barbarian is a massively bad combination with caster classes in general because you can't concentrate on spells or cast them while raging; there's been a lot of in-character noise made about Gorgug's multiclass being unique and a bad fit together for exactly this reason. The exception to this, as Porter demonstrated to Fig in their last scene together, is that Smiting things is burning through spell slots but is NOT casting and you CAN do it while raging.

So, if by the end of the season, we see some wild 6 Paladin/5 Bard/2 Warlock/1 Barbarian build, know that it's going to be an absolute menace. And if Fig and Gorgug keep trending the directions they are, where she's adding heavy hitter abilities and he's shedding Barbarian levels for Artificer ones, don't be surprised if on the last boss she's the one up on their face and he's casting spells next to Adaine or casting the key Revivify.

[tpwrtrmnky]

pills that give you wheels.

(we are sure you know we think this but it's so cool to read ptmyg for the trans stuff, humor and the lore and worldbuilding you're putting in it's very moving and feels so good to read)

text for accessibility:

first panel:

grayscale stick figure person: "I thought you said you were lime. How can you- how can you be all that at the same time? You're not chromefluid or shapefluid? Why does a sword or wheels matter to you as a chrome thing?"

polychrome (mostly green, lime, and orange, with a building block head of rectangles, triangles and circles, and a pink arm with a cyan sword facing on one side of the head. the arms are broadly squarish, and they have wheels for feet) stick figure system's pink arm, looking at a purple saber, thinking: oooo sword

polychrome stick figure system: "For starters, I'm polychrome. Second, here's an analogy, chrome is actually assemblage, like building blocks or LEGOs. You literally put together how you want from contexts generated from the world and yourself."

grayscale stick figure person: "Okay… I guess for chrome expansive people that makes sense…"

second panel:

polychrome stick figure system's shapes in the head change, with colors and shapes changing slightly, some rhombuses and an infinity sign among them, and even some tiny grayscale shapes. the rightward lime rhombus thinks: thank you! as a second pink arm passes them the purple saber. the system's feat are now a tank tread and a shape somewhere between a rocket ship and a grasper claw.

meanwhile the orange shape headmates reply to the person: "Actually I was talking about everybody. Consider your own life-sure you were assigned grayscale but you've picked up ideas and experiences along the way, and even if you don't consciously question what grayscale means to you, you have your own assemblage of that that is unique, that you can navigate more deliberately if you want without being green."

the grayscale stick figure person now has a gardening fork in one hand and a videogame controller in the other: "Well I like gardening, and videogames... they're what I do usually when I have spare time. I was being raised to be a corporate vulture as a kid and it wasn't for me, it always felt- I don't know, not what grayscale is supposed to be about. It wasn't, even, before capitalism. I want to be myself. But, green is new right? chromatiness is just around 150 years old..."

the orange arms of the polychrome system reply: "See! You get it, that's really nice it's hit or miss when I say we all have that. Regarding green, you can find older words all over the world like arqūtu, ghelwos, harā, verde, and so on. Green is just a new variation for something that is part of the sapient condition, that has always been with us. And the same goes for square, triangle, rhombus, stars, and so on. And sometimes new technology, other forms of life, and stories helps us know a part of ourselves that we couldn't quite explain before."

the third panel is a closeup on the singleton and system's heads, the green-orange-lime-pink polychrome system shapes continue to change, the top of the head is now a partial wheel, and a plane flies over a boat town near a tree and lime square, whose arm has the saber close to the pink arm with the sword.

grayscale stick figure person: "So you see rolling on wheels and flying as lime, green, and orange to you?"

g-o-l polychrome system orange boat with lime buildings headmate(?s?) replies: "For me personally as part of my body yeah. I know primary moss folks who do too and same for the whole spectrum. Even some grayscale folks, but that's less common proportionally."

grayscale stick figure person: "How do you feel all that at the same time? I see a tree and a boat town now."

g-o-l polychrome system: "Some persons do and it's a beautiful fusion of feelings, and we do that individually too, in our case we're also plural, also a new understanding for something primordial which there aren't enough comic panels for here."

grayscale stick figure person: "It would be bad if I insisted that multiple people can't be in one brain or treated you as disposable or a bad green right?"

g-o-l polychrome system's pink arm headmate replies: "YES IT WOULD."

woa

[zerogutzz]

yeah im going all in

Bunch of insane lore rambles under the cut LMFAO

During the GOLB invasion, the veil between worlds became it's THINNEST. The world Max came from already had dimensional rift problems, it's the very things she was set out to study along with whatever happened to come out of them.

As we all know, Sadness attracts Madness, never did Max think that a rift would pull her in. A good 12-15 years is where she ended up getting spat back out after GOLB fused with Betty and fucked off.

She was lost for 3 months. Zero human contact. Only dangers and monsters and the occasional talking animal to point her to the human city.

She DOES eventually end up making it, stumbling on to the small ferry and falling flat in to the city. These citizens were humans, yes, but Golb knows that these aren't the same humans she's used to. They're all strange, wear strange clothes, and say strange phrases she only barely understands. You can imagine the wave of astonishment and relief she felt coming up on a giant sign that read "20TH CENTURY MAN IN HIS NATURAL HABITAT"

She's from the 22nd century, but goddamn if it wasn't close enough.

Following the curious crowd, an older gentleman stood in a dollhouse-like enclosure that mimicked that of an old fashioned home, decorated in familiar items and décor. The future-humans took their turns asking very.. Dumb. Questions. Most of the time repeating the same one in different ways. For some reason they're very focused on the different lamps. It was increasingly obvious that the gentleman acting as the 20th century man was just about ready to lose it if another comment was made about how light 'bulbs' are supposed to be pronounced light 'balls.'

"Excuse me." Max spoke up over the crowd. Simon glanced over at her from between his pinched nose bridge, pausing. It looked almost as if his shoulders relaxed. The way Max presented herself was something he hasn't seen in a very, very, very long time. Familiar clothes, cadence, and energy. "Could I talk to you, um, whenever you're done touring your.. Museum." Max asked. She was trying her very best not to make it sound urgent, despite the desperation she felt in her chest. "Oh, no, yes of course." Simon stumbled over his answer, nodding quickly. "We could talk now, if you'd like. It wouldn't hurt to close early."

The other people in group either huffed, rolled their eyes, or wandered off at the suggestion. Simon rubbed at the back of his neck, motioning Max to come inside. "Walls down." There was brief confusion, but it subsided as soon as the walls to the enclosure closed down like garage doors. Simon sighed heavily, turning to the new face in town with a tired smile. "What was it that you wanted to talk about, miss..?"

"Maxine Stronghold." Habit took over, flashing her detective badge and pocketing it in a single motion. That put the man on edge, his smile faltering. "Ah, you're not in trouble. That.. Sorry. Old habit. I was actually just here to ask if you actually were from the 20th century?" He perked back up. "Wha, why, yes. Are you not familiar with- Oh, my goodness I never actually introduced myself." Max's thick brow quirked up at him, his hand extending to her form. "Simon Petrikov. I, ah, used to be the Ice King. Difficult to imagine, I know, but rest assured-"

The increasingly confused look on the woman's face brought him to a stop. "... Sorry, did I say something wrong?"

"No." She answered slowly. "I just .. Um. I don't know where I am. Or how I got here. Or how there are wizards and talking food. I haven't had any genuine human contact in months. I was kind of hoping you'd be able to help me."

A moment of silence befell the two of them. A growing realization creeped on to Simon's face, putting his hand over his mouth and mumbling, "Oh my God." before putting a hand on her shoulder to have her sit down.

"Tell me everything."

[olenvasynyt]

I don’t listen to Taylor Swift but here’s my analysis of Guilty As Sin? being Elucien coded

I am not saying SJM posting this song on her story is a sign that Elucien is endgame or that Elain’s book is next, this is just my interpretation of a song and it is not based in fact!  I also don’t know TS lore or her dating history, I only know about the football guy, and Matty Healy because I’m ex-The 1975 fan

Drownin' in the Blue Nile He sent me "Downtown Lights" I hadn't heard it in a while

Downtown Lights by The Blue Nile is one of Matty Healy’s favorite songs and a verse from that song is this:

“Sometimes I walk away When all I really wanna do Is love and hold you right There is just one thing I can say Nobody loves you this way It’s alright”

If I were to relate this to ACOTAR, this is reminiscent of the stairs moment when Lucien is leaving to find Vassa and an army and we can see this longing and affection for Elain but he walks away.  Sometimes I walk away when all I really wanna do it love and hold you right.  I think we are going to see her POV of that moment and I feel like it is going to be very prevalent in Elain’s book because Elain takes a half-step.  What does that half step mean?

My boredom's bone-deep This cage was once just fine Am I allowed to cry? I dream of crackin' locks

This could be about how Elain is being kept in a box in the Night Court, about how she might have been trying to love it before but she wants to get out, it’s not the right place for her.  She does not fit in the Night Court, we see this when she wears black and it sucks the life out of her.

Crashin' into him tonight, he's a paradox I'm seeing visions Am I bad or mad or wise?

Elain sees visions.  And people also suspect that she could be seeing visions of Lucien.

What if he's written "Mine” on my upper thigh only in my mind?

Mine is a song by The 1975 and this song is about commitment and questioning what’s right and having this assurance that love is right.

Looking back on 2009 When people said that it was raining all the time I see sunshine 'cause I know that you are mine

“No, we saw rain, you guys weren’t right for each other, but he still sees sunshine, because I know that you are mine.”  This also reminds me of when Lucien says in his head “I am yours and you are mine”. 

I'm slippin', fallin' back into the hedge maze Oh, what a way to die

This could be about Elain struggling to navigate her thoughts and the visions she is probably still having but pushing down.  She might be better at controlling them but her control is slipping.

I keep recalling things we never did Messy top lip kiss, how I long for our trips Without ever touchin' his skin How can I be guilty as sin? I keep these longings locked in lowercase inside a vault

Again, as I and many people talked about before, Elain could be having feelings of attraction and affection towards Lucien, her mate, but she is shoving it down.  

We've already done it in my head, if it's make-believe Why does it feel like a vow we'll both uphold somehow?

People often headcanon that Elain is having sexual feelings and maybe even sexual visions of Lucien.

And the vow is the vow of accepting the mating bond and she feels guilty of that.

My bed sheets are ablaze I've screamed his name Buildin' up like waves crashin' over my grave Without ever touchin' his skin How can I be guilty as sin?

Again, we get this idea that Elain could be having attraction towards Lucien.  And we got fire imagery too!

What if I roll the stone away? They're gonna crucify me anyway What if the way you hold me is actually what's holy? If long-suffering propriety is what they want from me They don't know how you've haunted me so stunningly I choose you and me religiously

It’s people saying “you guys are wrong for each other.  You are wrong, you guys don’t fit together”.  We see this with Feyre questioning why her and Lucien are mates, Nesta yelling at Lucien, saying “we’ll decide what she needs”.  A lot of people don’t think Elucien are right for each other but Elain could be thinking “we are right” but she is too influenced by other people’s opinions that she doubts herself.  “But what if she chooses him?  What if she rolls the stone away, officially bringing to life the feelings she could have for Lucien?

They don’t know how you have been haunting me so stunningly I choose you and me religiously

Lucien has been haunting her, and Elain decides to choose him.

[theycallmeratt]

Got into discussing headcanons on discord and realized it might be fun to put my part out here and see what others think? So...

Tiefling Headcanons

(specifically related to toddlers and babies)

Like this but with more kids hanging off a tail:

(don't take any parenting advice from this please) (no discussion of pregnancy/labor) (maybe not lore friendly but whatever)

Tiefling traits can appear anywhere from birth to puberty, leading to a wide range of experiences for parents (even between their first and second kids!), but all of them come out with tails

None have full horns on birth, but they may have nubs

Teething

Some tiefs grow fangs as toddlers, some only get them with adult teeth, some have a special extra layer of teeth that come in and some never get them!

Babies chew on the flats of their tails. Tiefs wrap the tips in cloth to protect them when they're teething. Sometimes you get an older parent who's like, "put some whiskey on it" and the younger ones are like, "we don't do that anymore"

Also, while blunt-teethed toddlers can use coral, wood, leather or even specialty fungal teethers from the Underdark, tiefling babies have to use well polished metal because other materials splinter or shred. If they decide to use leather, it has to be changed often

(an aside: IRL porous materials aren't recommended for teethers)

(A real teether, 1835-6)

Baby Wearing

Tieflings incorporate their tails into baby wearing (on their backs). They wear their babies a little lower than most people because of their wing spurs

There's a joke that you can tell who's a new parent, because they always wrap their tails around a worn toddler to be extra careful

There are also horn carriers that strap to the horn! But people usually don't use them once the child is rolling over

Baby/Toddler Gear

A joke gift for parents with multiple kids is a flask or small box of sweets that attaches to the horns (the only place the kids can't get to!)

A common gift is a small weighted and waxed blanket to hold the baby's tail down during a diaper change

Sometimes leather nipple guards are made for nursing, but generally these aren't needed—tiefling babies learn very quickly not to bite, and their first teeth are usually blunt

Unlike the parents of human babies, parents of tieflings don't bother with blackout curtains

Everyone knows not to hold a baby by the tail, but some parents swear by tail leashes for kids

Tails are also super helpful to help the kids learn to walk! Tiefling babies walk at the same time as human babies, but they go right into running and climbing in a matter of days

Another joke gift is to never congratulate a parent of a tiefling who's toddling for walking, you only apologize for the running.

In tiefling heavy places, tiefling parents are adept at catching toddlers sprinting around and they all work together to watch the kids

Baby Toys and Comfort

Baby tiefs have the grab reflex with their fingers and tails, leading to them grasping everything

Adult tieflings also have mobiles and other toys they hang from their own tails and horns

Tiefling dolls are so uncommon that gifting a tiefling baby a toy that looks like them is a big, exciting thing. Their toys often look like real people in the baby's life

Tieflings modify rattles and toys to go onto baby tails and horns

Bells are very popular tiefling toys

(as an aside I found this picture and this... Does not look comfortable)

Babies cuddle their tails like stuffed animals.

They cuddle their parents tails.

There are huge pillows (like tail-sized pregnancy pillows) that people without tails can use to give their tiefling kids the cuddle experience

These huge pillows are also used to help toddlers sleep alone. Newer generations of parents worry this is unsafe

Baby Clothes

For babies with claws, leather mittens are a must

Babies wear tail covers for chewing, to protect the tail or just because they're cute

Tail covers are often a "one size fits most" and parents use belts to help it stay. They also might use ribbon wrapped around the tail, but again, new generations of parents are wary about this practice

If a baby has wing spurs, the spurs are delicate. Tiefling parents often patch the back of a baby's shirt to protect their spurs

There are also little mini shirts people put under the clothes for protection, if they don't want to patch them

A lot of earth baby clothes have extra mitten fold downs/leg extensions. Tieflings add little buttonable vertical opening in the rear to allow for a tail hole that adjusts in height

Tieflings invented the wide baby neck to assist with taking baby clothes on and off

(the video the second image is from to help you visualize)

Preparing for Babies

Because so many tieflings might be the only tiefling in their villages, groups of dedicated people maintain reading resources and in-person classes for areas with large tiefling hubs.

They work closely with worshipers of Shialla, often housing them in exchange for information about who in their community might have the next tiefling child, and for assistance during labor

They also maintain a library of tiefling specific baby clothes and other tools to lend to parents. Sometimes they pair with a clergymember of Shialla to deliver supplies to new parents

When human parent has a tiefling, they're welcomed into these groups and rely heavily on them for at least a few months

These scholars often argue about old school parenting hacks vs new school. One big old vs new is whether to harden a child or not. The old way says children (especially tiefling children) need to be tough to survive in a cruel world. The new way says it's extra important for children to feel loved, so when the world is cruel they can fall back on that

"She cries when I burp her!" Tiefling parent, wincing, "You're hitting her wing spurs"

Even if their tails aren't perfectly prehensile, an extra limb with a baby is very useful. Part of baby prepping is adding tail friendly loops to doors and drawers, purchasing (or borrowing) jugs with enclosed handles, and investing in tail belts and hooked bags—belts with loops for hanging things off, to keep useful things close

Most of these additions aren't mainstream, so a growing tradition in places with large tiefling populations is to get together to make these items and prep the house

They also sing a lot at these parties, passing on lullabies and love songs for the new arrival. Most of them are about never letting the baby go or always loving them

Another part of baby prep is getting together to make clothes or tweak existing clothes. Tiefling hand-me-downs are invaluable

Another is the doll making, although usually that's around the tiefling's first birthday

Tiefling parenting resource guides always include patterns for knitting/crocheting hats with horn holes and tail covers for cold days

[pyromainiacc]

In Defense of Magnificus

A very very long rant by me. Originally from a rant I posted in a discord server in 2022, modified to be a little more concise. I have to apologize if some of this stuff is incredibly outdated, I haven't really bothered to catch up with newer stuff about the game outside of the game itself yknow... Like twitch streams from the dev and such.

I saw a theory that Magnificus was originally intended to be the villain of the original, in lore Inscryption, but through the rush of making the game as a coverup and developers like Kaycee not making much progress on the development because of said rush, he didn't get finished. And I think if you really analyze his character, everything about him FEELS unfinished.

His character design is super simple compared to the other scrybes. His deck is weak; there are not a lot of hard hitting cards aside from the Stim Mage, and the Magiks system itself feels wonky, as if they didn't have enough time to balance it out. His tower feels empty (Specially that damned bathroom. It haunts me.) His letter stops before its completed, he suddenly disappears mid-sentence... He's the only scrybe to not get a proper 3D version, as the game was mostly deleted by the time we got to him in Act 4, and he might've been the only scrybe that never became hegemon. We don't get to finish his battle, and he doesn't even get a handshake.

And going back to originally being a villain? Maybe that's why he was made to be so cruel to his pupils. P03 is also mean to his subordinates, but they're robots, they're not mean to gain as much sympathy from the player. Meanwhile, Magnificus is established to be mean and perhaps downright evil by the dialogue we get through Act 2. Rebecha speaks about him by saying he's mysterious, stating "Some say he wants... No, it's too terrible to say." But we never know what that refers to, and if it's coded dialogue or her own speech.

Outside of the CODED IN lore behind his pupils suffering, we don't see him being evil AT ALL. In Act 1 he is practically our savior; his throughout preparing was able to get us the film roll, and if we take too long he sends the player VISIONS to guide us in the right way. In Act 2 he attempts to warn the player about P03, his paint leads around to secrets to clue in about the OLD_DATA as well as perhaps serving as warnings for it. At the end of the game he is the only one who is distraught about everything being deleted; Grimora and Leshy accept their deaths, but Magnificus REFUSES to.

But wouldn't a villain rejoice about people dying? About, in his own words, an entire world being destroyed? It's like the original plan for his villainy was there, but he doesn't WANT to be one.

Now as to why he seems to continue to treat his pupils badly. I think it's just.. guilt. I believe he didn't have a choice in making them suffer, they were all just coded into what we know of Act 2. They were all created with the pupils being in torturous states and the game code telling them "It's Magnificus' fault". I think he himself believes this. I believe he could have tried to fix it before. But the thing is that, even if he ever did fix it, if he stopped their pain, it would all be for nothing... because the game resets. The only times it doesn't do this is when a scrybe takes over, which is something he has supposedly never been able to do. And if he were to help them outside of being hegemon they'd just go back to their original state once the new game card was used. I think he simply gave up upon realizing this and instead chose to bury his own grief that comes from it by playing into the character he was originally meant to be; the villain. That, and I think he just doesn't want to look at them... It hurts him to. I believe this is why he painted bleach over Goobert's painting.

I think him being originally an unfinished villain plays into him always being prepared. As I stated before, people often forget how helpful he is- it's due to his preparations that we are able to leave Act 1, he warns about The Great Transcendence in Act 2, warns Luke about the OLD_DATA, and warns him about the fate he'd encounter if he looked upon it. I think Magnificus wants to make up for his "villainy" by being the one the other scrybes and npcs can rely on in a time of need, so he spends every hour of everyday getting ready for the worst, and foreseeing what is gonna happen next.

Thing is that, he never stops anything from happening. He prepares a way out of Leshy's hegemony, but he can't stop it from happening in the first place. It's very probable that he was the one that planned how to stop P03 in Act 3, as we see he has been preparing since at least Act 2. But not only does the P03 hegemony happen, but he is ultimately unable to stop the Great Transcendence once it is in progress. Same thing for the game's deletion, which I believe it is at that point he truly panicked, because he couldn't foresee it or plan for it beforehand. It all feels like... An unfinished character arc. He never got to do anything he wanted.

I think he feels powerless.

Magnificus is often regarded as the worst scrybe. But in a sense, there's no real reason why that should be the case, at least not compared to the others. Like... Leshy took over the game and put the other scrybes into cards. He had good intentions, sure, but that doesn't mean his actions were good. Magnificus lost his eye, Grimora lost her memory, P03.... Was having a bad time...

Hell, the reason people hate Magnificus so much so often is because of the treatment of his pupils... But Leshy isn't all innocent there either. He puts Goobert in a bottle (At least, maybe he does. It's not clear whether it was him or Mags), which we know Goobert REALLY doesn't like, and he also put Goobert's description in the rulebook as "Failure". He also threw the bottle into the river as stated by himself in Kaycee's Mod.

P03... I don't gotta explain this one we know it is an asshole.

...And Grimora deleted the game, which basically killed everyone in it. While she had good intentions, it really only led to the discovery of the OLD_DATA and the subsequent assassination of Luke.

Now, what did Magnificus do? Nothing. Like... Really. He didn't GET to do anything. People dislike him because of his treatment of his pupils, but as I talked about before, I really don't think he can do anything about that, even if he wanted to.

So why do people so easily hate him? Circles back to the theory: Because he's unfinished. Everything about him is unfinished. The other scrybes are loved because we got to finish their arcs... We get to know why they each do what they did.

P03 not so much, but... P03 is a villain of sorts, people like villains and don't need them to be "good" to like them, which I agree with cuz villains are fun! P03 does have some sympathy points somewhere, though, which I'm not gonna go into here.

I'm gonna focus on Grimora and Leshy instead. Their farewells were perfect closure:

Grimora spoke about why she chose to delete the game, and we as the player come to understand her. It was right after her doing it in the first place, so we didn't even get to really build anger towards her. She talks about it being a necessary action- perhaps something we can agree with after knowing everything about the OLD_DATA. She laments not being able to play more with us, but she accepts her death and says goodbye.

Leshy talks about just.. wanting to play. That's all he wants, he just wanted to give us a good story. The original Inscryption is rushed and weird- Act 1, his hegemony, was his attempt to make it better and enjoyable (Which, considering it is the Act people love most, he succeeded.)

The player probably misses him by this point- playing cards with him feels somber, sad, and nostalgic. At this point we consider him a friend. And then he gets deleted after complementing our past deck, speaking about how much he enjoyed his time with us, and saying farewell. It's not something that leaves us with any possible anger towards him.

Magnificus though... He doesn't get that. We never get to talk to him properly, he never speaks about how he feels or why he does things. In Act 1 he spends most of the time in the clock, in Act 2 he gets cut off when trying to speak to us, Act 3 he only speaks a few sentences, and in Act 4..

His farewell is different than the other two. Leshy and Grimora accept their deaths... Magnificus doesn't. He doesn't talk about his feelings or justify his actions, because if you have been holding in your feelings, that is something you do when you can no longer do so. You let them go when you know you're going to die soon.

But he doesn't want to. He doesn't want to die, he can't accept it.

The game he played with us wasn't complete- the scales were gone, so we weren't even supposed to play against him. It was his opportunity to just say what he needed to say before he was gone, but he refused to accept his upcoming death. So instead he tried prolonging the process by using unrealistically high numbers instead of scales (The bigger the number, the longer the game will take, right..?). Even as he felt himself getting deleted he refused to end the game, or even talk to the player properly. For once, he couldn't prepare for the worst, and he was in denial- he was completely powerless and he didn't want to accept it. Instead, he speaks to us about the game deleting. He blames the player for it. He tries to guilt us; "You even allowed my goo mage to get deleted... I thought you two were becoming friends!"

And he doesn't get a handshake. He tried to push his deletion away for so long that he ended up not even being able to finish the match or get the same, proper farewell that Grimora and Leshy got.

I think by now I've said what I needed to say, but I wanna add that... Yeah, I think he's one of the most tragic characters in the game. I think he spends a lot of time being anxious- we don't get a clear answer on if he can see the future or if he is just able to predict it, but either way he lives with a lot of anxiety because of it.

I think the worst part is the deletion of the game and his farewell. He isn't able to let go because he's scared to, and because he has spent his whole life trying to prevent bad things from happening; trying to help his friends to get out of bad situations they caused themselves. But this time he's not able to, he can't do ANYTHING about it, and he's terrified because that means his whole existence and work is just... Gone. He spent all his days preparing for the worst scenarios, only for it all to be thrown away. He WASTED his life for nothing. And it hurts me that the fandom never saw that.

Or maybe I'm overthinking all of it. Maybe this has all already been directly disproven. But I still wanted to share this.

[thefirstknife]

Ishtar updated so some stuff is on there finally. Didn't want to spam with too many huge posts with just walls of text.

Absolutely losing it about Chivalric Fire seasonal sword. We finally have a canon reason for ornaments from each vendor. It's becuse they argue what the weapon should look like.

"It should be elegant," says Zavala, striking his breastplate with a fist.

Shaxx isn't having it:

Shaxx's firm gesture of denial drives the side of his hand into a shelf. An Omolon-branded canister falls off and rolls across the floor. "It must be an unstoppable force in sword form! It should spit fire! Also, it should be red."

And then Drifter:

"No, no," the Drifter says from the doorway. He kicks the rolling canister away without looking down. "I'm a law-abiding citizen. I pay my taxes. You can trust me. It needs to look mean. You want people thinking: 'They're madder, badder, and hungrier than me. I'm not tangling with them.'"

I'm losing it over him emphasising that he's a law-abiding citizen. It makes him least likely to be a law-abiding citizen. Then poor Banshee is like can you guys settle on a single design and they continue arguing. Absolutely incredible.

A lot of people already posted about the exotic sparrow Nostos. It's about Eramis reminiscing about her wife Athrys and their children and thinking where she might be now. And then she just basically more or less decides to go to them:

It was the same map that Eramis's mate, Athrys, had followed out of Sol. It even included the habitable zones she'd tabbed as potential landing sites. By now, Athrys might be Kell of her own settlement, living happily alongside their grown hatchlings. Or they might all be long-dead. In truth, Eramis hadn't wondered at either possibility for decades. But ever since she saw the Witness disappear into its portal, Eramis could think of little else. All her prior aspirations were made suddenly small. Eliksni solidarity, revenge against the Traveler, enmity with the Humans… they were all irrelevant. If a second Whirlwind was her fate, Eramis would suffer it as she had the first: with Athrys by her side.

Btw, "nostos" is a theme in Ancient Greek stories, about a hero heroically returning home.

Gloaming Journeyer has also been posted by pretty much everyone. It's about Drifter and Eris sharing an incredibly tender moment and finding peace with each other. Just read it.

Wyrmguard seasonal arm piece has a devastating update on Shaw Han's lore in which it is revealed that the Ahamkara exotic he wears is what he made a wish to. He wanted to have his own fireteam. At the end, he gets a call from "Caster-3" aka Cas, one of the members of his fireteam (alongside Maeve) that ended up dying to Navota. The backfire of a wish. Man.

And one more funny for the end, for Dragon's Breath. A return of Marcus Ren and Enoch Bast! They're doing fine and they're being dumbasses together with their friend, Ariadne Gris. Ariadne might be familiar to people who remember obscure lore from the vanilla sparrow lore Dinas Emrys in which Ariadne was called to the Vanguard to explain why she has a dragon symbol painted on her sparrow. She was being suspected of having an Ahamkara. Ikora found this whole thing ridiculous and Ariadne defended herself by saying a dragon painted on a sparrow was "cool."

And she's back at it again in Dragon's Breath, offended that it's called Dragon's Breath but not having a dragon painted on it. Enoch and Marcus then get a deal with her: she'll race her sparrow against the speed of the rocket. What happens next will shock you. Also, important:

Enoch says. At his side, Marcus studies the case.

Not beating the allegations that they're partners.

[songhunter]

trans allegory in mystic fragrance and forbidden rain

aka: the essay no one asked for

Content warnings for: Discussions of homophobia and transphobia, and brief mentions of suicide.

If you guys have any other comments on this topic (especially KnightsPs, I'm an UNDEADP so I'm less familiar with their lore) please comment or rb or drop an ask or anything! I love talking. It's also been a hot minute (3 or 4 years) since I last took an English class so my analysis is a little rusty.

Part 1: UNDEAD's "Monster" and Queerness

Every UNDEAD song (with one exception) has the same premise — the singers are the impure, immoral monsters who are singing to a pure, human audience. There are two genres of UNDEAD song:

“I’m a monster seducing you into the darkness, give into your desires because I know that secretly you want it too” — Immoral World, Savage Love Affair, etc.

“I’m a monster and I’m so badass” — Darkness 4, Nightless World, etc.

Darkness 4 lyrics, translation by Shirayukin on Fandom wiki.

The “monster” in UNDEAD’s music is shorthand for anyone that exists outside of a pure society. By joining the monsters, you become tainted and can't return to society, but that’s the only way you can possibly live as your authentic self. In this way, the "darkness" is a safe space that these monsters have created for themselves.

This is, of course, a reference to Rei and how he feels ostracized from society -- the whole reason why Koga began UNDEAD was as a message to Rei that if Rei felt like a monster, he shouldn't roll over and die, but live with them as an undead. However, the concept of the queer monster is incredibly applicable imo. Historically, lots of villains in horror media were queer-coded as a way of eliciting disgust or a fear response, as a way of making its villain seem strange and, well, queer. (Oh, no! Look at all these horrible people ruining life for the law-abiding families!) The link between queerness and horror has been analyzed to death.

But queer people also love the misunderstood monster who's shunned by "proper" society. The gothic novels that originated the horror genre in the 1800s, like Dracula or the Picture of Dorian Grey, were written by queer authors and/or contained scores of queer themes. Do I need to go into why werewolves, shapeshifters who had to go deep into the woods to hide their wolf form, can be read as queer? Do I need to go into why Frankenstein, someone abandoned by his own creator and shunned by society by the nature of his existence alone (something out of his control), can be read as queer? Do I really need to go into why the modern-day vampire is queer? Vampires? Of course queer people will love these monsters, because they see themselves in the monsters, more so than the victims. (Also, nothing more in line with the queer experience than seeing a monster and going “ngl they're kinda hot actually.”)

In summary: It's very easy to read UNDEAD songs and UNDEAD's conceptualization of the "monster" through a queer lens. The monster is queer, and the monster welcomes you into the darkness and invites you to also give into your desire to live freely.

Immoral World lyrics, translation by Mandy on Fandom wiki.

Also, shout out the love you tried to hide, huh? Show me your truth? Show me your pride?

Dude.

Dude.

Sidenote: The one exception to this “monster” theme is of course the elephant in the room, Sustain Memories. I think it plays well into UNDEAD’s image — at least in !-era, Rei, Adonis, and Koga have always been the monsters, while Kaoru is the human that joined them (see: their Halloween costumes in !-era). So Kaoru doesn’t sing of monsters, he sings of a human love. There's also something to be said about Kaoru being the one member of UNDEAD who tried so desperately to appear cishet and experience a "normal" love in !-era. But also, it's a wedding song because the anime boys look cute when they sing about weddings.

Part 2: What about Forbidden Rain?

Here's the thing about UNDEAD's other monster songs -- they're always proud of being monsters. They're not ashamed, and they want the audience to join them in their freedom.

Forbidden Rain lyrics, translation by @/snaketaper on Twitter.

On the other hand, the singer in Forbidden Rain sees themselves as a "beast" who can never be forgiven, someone who's slowly poisoning their pure lover. They love them so much that they apparently have to let go of them, for their own sake. It's the first song that actually contains references to genuine love (usually UNDEAD is just horny).

The song remains sort of ambiguous about the nature of the relationship between the singer and the audience. It's clear that the audience does actually care for the singer, since they do reach out a "gentle hand" that the singer can't take. But the singer says, "Let's end this thing that never even began" -- are they even together in the first place? Maybe it never began because they were scared of the "beast." Or maybe it never truly began because the relationship was built on a lie. They sing about a beast inside them that they have to hide, and says that their current self -- the one they show to the audience -- is a fake. And this is something that cannot be forgiven.

It's not hard to read this in the context of queerness. Maybe it's about a gay singer who doesn't want to reveal their feelings and tarnish a platonic relationship. Or maybe it's a trans singer who's wracked with guilt at keeping their identity under wraps and hasn't come out to their heterosexual lover, so they want to break off things before they come out and taint their previous relationship.

In Love & Beast, the "source material" behind Forbidden Rain, Inogari (Adonis' character) is soft-spoken, protective, and kind. He saves the main police character in the very first scene. He's an ambassador and a respected enough member of society that he's part of the Sakurayama (Rei's character) social club. He uses "watashi," which is even more polite than Adonis' "ore." He literally faints at the sight of blood. He's the picture of innocence and goodness and all that society approves of. But in a Jekyll and Hyde-like twist, he ends up secretly being the killer Beast. In the end, the Beast is finally caught when Inogari realizes the truth and chains himself to a wall so he can be caught by the police in an act of sacrifice.

Inogari is the picture of propriety, but he keeps the Beast repressed, and eventually this Beast destroys him. Even if you try your best to act as part of proper society, you'll never really fit in.

Silent Oath lyrics, translation by royalquintet on Fandom wiki.

Another note: Forbidden Rain has a lot of the same themes of self-sacrifice, repression, and pure, romantic love that Knights songs do. Knights, in game, is a much more traditional idol unit than UNDEAD is. Forbidden Rain thus attempts to align itself more closely with the socially acceptable Knights, but it's still an UNDEAD song at its core. The monster is inescapable.

Part 3: Mystic Fragrance and Trans Allegory

This thread by @/pretty5P on twitter (https://x.com/pretty5p/status/1625958198623539200?s=46&t=lm_x5Uw5f8pKXHUoLzYksw) is a really cool analysis on the perfume symbolism in the song and how it relates to Arashi's gender identity (go read it!!), but if you don’t want to give Elon Musk ad revenue, the gist of it is this: Odette is her "masculine" initial impression, the impression others have of her, and the impression that fades most quickly. Odile is her lasting "feminine" self and the true self that remains when the top notes fade away.

Over the course of the song, the singer (Odette/Odile) grows more and more tainted, going from a pure white dress to a multicolored rainbow dress to a pitch black dress. The final perfume note is desire, the desire to live as themselves, the desire to be with the person they love.

Mystic Fragrance lyrics, translation by KYM2020 on Fandom wiki.

While the song does focus on a pure romantic love, just like Knight's songs, the symbolism of wanting to be Odile is far more similar to UNDEAD's monster. The idea of a "hidden desire" lying in wait beneath pure feelings is explored in almost every song, as is the symbolism of a dress that gets tainted by desire:

Savage Love Affair lyrics, translation by Nina on Fandom wiki.

And just like UNDEAD songs, the "tainting" of the pure is never presented as a bad thing. Note the references to the moon in both -- it's only in the dead of night, in a midnight ballroom, that one can "spread their wings" and reveal their true self. The darkness, the space of monsters, is a safe space, and in the light of the truth-seeking moon the singer of Mystic Fragrance says that their audience is beautiful.

In the original Swan Lake ballet, Odette is a beautiful woman who falls in love with Prince Siegfried. She's cursed to transform into a swan in the daytime, a curse that can only be broken if someone who has never sworn their love to anyone swears their love to her (in other words, someone untainted). Unfortunately, the evil sorcerer who cursed her turns his daughter into Odile, the black swan who looks identical to Odette, and Siegfried mistakenly confesses his love to her. Knowing that the curse can never be broken, Odette throws herself into the lake rather than live the rest of her life as a swan, and Siegfried joins her.

Mystic Fragrance isn't tragic, however.

Part 4: Living your truth

The endings of Forbidden Rain and Mystic Fragrance are where they differ. Both of their source endings are tragic — Inogari is unable to control the Beast and shackles himself to a wall, waiting to be arrested. Odette and Siegfried leap into a lake and drown themselves, because the only way they can be together is in death. Forbidden Rain ends with the singer holding their loved one close to them one last time in the rain before they leave.

But Arashi rejects her source material because she chooses to embrace the monster. She becomes Odile. She decides to live her truth, and as the top notes and heart notes fade away, all that lingers is her true self. That's why Mystic Fragrance has a happy ending.

There's a lot of symbolism in the Mystic Fragrance music video with respect to the person who loved Arashi during the war era and who killed themselves. She spreads her arms like the wings of an angel and sings in front of a setpiece that looks like the cenotaph. Her outfit contains anemones, symbols of a lost love and grief (and, coincidentally, the flower that Adonis in greek myth turned into when he died). Her greatest regret was that that person couldn't love themselves the way Arashi now tries to love herself. In this way, Mystic Fragrance is like a message to that person -- live your truth.

[finnitesimal]

you reblogged that old ask about pissa ever going anywhere with their relationships and i've had some thoughts about this topic and it's probably gonna become a little bit of a rant so no pressure answering or even reading it's your askbox of course. so firsts things first jusr as you said the the answer to that task missa would definitely have to be more present on the server for this to not fall flat and feel very surface level. that being said the ender king stuff that's been going on with phil could potentially be a catalyst for things to move forward but personally i don't know if i like this idea 100%. while it is crucial to phil's character because well it's his lore! i presonally wouldn't like missa to become just an extension to him and a plot device for his story. i'd love missa to have more developement on his own or with other people first because as you said yourself a lot of the times when he's on the server him and phil barely leave each other's side.

the thing with phil ignoring missa's feelings in a way is that it could be easily attributed to him being a repressed old bird, which well, he totally is. and the threat of the ender king constantly looming over him and his loved ones definitely doesn't help with opening up to people these days. but that's where a lot of developement could happen for him and he's already been talking more to his eggs so hopefully he can exchange that trust and honesty to missa soon. and if it takes the ender king to do it then so be it i have more faith in missa being open about things on his own accord than this guy.

honestly i think i saw a post similar to what i'm going to say but i really hope the prison kiss will push some unspoken boundary between them that makes them perhaps question some things or move forward. i'm personally any type of pissa enjoyer but i just hope they can confront each other at some point and talk about how they feel. there's a lot of potential for a very sweet story here it would be a shame if nothing ever happened with it. i know it's probably wishful thinking but hey i can dream.

also we don't really know how the server is going to look and to what extent it's going to be reset but it could be a good chance for them to hang out more if let's say some bases get yeeted or they need to gather resources. or even if the bases are untouched it feels like a good moment for less active members to join since there's been a little bit of pause. what i'm saying is missa please log on more it's really crucial to this.

WOOHOO

i do agree that Missa should get to write his own lore whether it coincides with Phil's or not, he doesn't seem to be into scripting interactions with the others he's more likely to just start playing a bit and then bouncing off that for his cubito's story (spreen's betrayal and him leaving roier's house for it, kidnapping by wolves, being in love with phil, fortnite cheese putting him in prison) overall there's no evidence missa's gonna be involved in the ender king plot in canon unless he and Phil have talked about it

definitely think having a lot of new untouched space could take most of the pressure out of just walking around and seeing everything expand so quickly and being worried about building somewhere someone might have already claimed or on someone else's grounds

canon romantic pissa is still up in the air but ccphil and missa are most definitely aware that they're playing into a traditional romantic love story, theyre gonna have to decide if it'd be better or funnier to keep pivoting around the subject and drive everyone on the island insane or to get the ball FUCKING rolling

I'm going to Have Faith that he will log on more. I'm going to Hope and Pray. Calacaland will prevail

[olderthannetfic]

Seeing some of the End OTW Racism supporters fall for the "racebending is racist, you should make new characters, not make canon ones non-white!" shit that I hear spewed out all over the internet is exhausting. Telling other POC in fandom that the things they're writing are bad when they're just trying to write stories they want to see with people in them who look like them is gross. Telling people, "No, you don't get to be Tony Stark or Batman. You can be a new hero but you can't be one with lore and love interests and big grand storylines." is not progressive.

Two things can be true. We can write OCs who aren't white and also racebend characters to be something other than White Hollywood Chris #59. We can write ourselves into old stories and also write new ones. Batman can be black, Tony Stark can be Vietnamese, I can write an Nepali heroine, someone else can write a First Nations hero. This isn't a case where one group is 'doing it wrong' and needs to be stopped or corrected.

Nobody wants to hear this but ending racism in fandom means not coming down hard on POC over doing something you personally don't think is the best option. We get enough shit from racists as it is in fandom spaces. We should be supporting one another. Let that kid go write his fave as [fill in the blank] like him. He's not hurting anyone. He's not doing anything wrong. You don't have to read it or like it but you should really ask yourself what purpose being rude to him serves.

I really think we need to stop eating our own. It's 2023. Shit is hard enough without punching sideways. Punch up.

--

One really has to roll one's eyes at the idea that omega Tony Stark is more plausible than black Tony Stark. Has no one heard of an AU?!

The main trouble with "punching up" is that people want to do it within their own fandom spaces, and nobody nearby is 1. identifiable enough or 2. powerful enough to be sure you're actually doing that.

[zeephyre]

CR3: EPISODE 63 SPOILERS

I'm literally losing my mind rn guys

i haven't even finished the episode yet as im typing this, currently ashton is holding laudna as she cries on their shoulder after she sucked the life out of bor'dor.

i always had the suspicion that bor'dor wasn't telling the truth or telling a version of the truth, but i never really talked about it cause everyone was throwing out theories. i had an...inkling that he was connected to ludinus or just ruidus in general, and i was right in a way.

him being ruby vanguard is devastating but not surprising. it connected so many things that i chose to brush off cause i didn't want to seem paranoid. a specific moment being bor'dor killing the angel of the dawn father. during that scene, the way matt described the look in that angel's eyes as it died did not match the way that bor'dor retold it and i thought i had just...forgotten how the actual scene played out. now that i know, even tho i haven't rewatched that episode, i have a feeling that the hatred and righteous judgement i remembered was the accurate version.

i don't think bor'dor is bad, simply because i have no way to come to that conclusion when i know how easy it is to let fear and pain and anger drive you to vengeance -- the hellians are feeling it too, and i feel deep compassion for them so i feel for bor'dor too.

for all of ludinus' preachy bullshit he never gave me the impression that he gave a single fuck about the people who followed him or about the lives he ruined to accomplish his goal. i don't think bor'dor was some big wig, i think he was just a kid who was vulnerable and powerful and easily coerced. i do not think he is without blame -- his actions with the ruby vanguard have led to incomprehensible repercussions for everyone on exandria and outside of exandria too. (bear in mind, we don't even know how the apple bee's soul cycle has affected the fey realm -- or any other realms for that matter).

i think that there was no way bor'dor could have survived this night with the way it went. i don't think there could have been a moment where he snuck away. if he got a lucky roll, maybe. i don't think bor'dor died because /he/ was an unforgivable monster.

he died because laudna, ashton and orym were at their breaking point and none of them wanted to pull each other from that place of hatred and anger. they've spoken about feeling powerless -- terrified and angry at the situation they were forced into when they truly have nothing to do with ludinus' anger at the gods. orym, especially, has been struggling with his grief and his stubbornness, and this moment will have effects on all of them for these upcoming battles and hardships.

laudna. jesus christ. im so upset that delilah is back. or at least pieces of her are thriving inside laudna, seemingly every time she uses her necrotic magic. for a single moment, she felt delilah's complete control over herself and other people in a situation where laudna had no idea what to do and how to get shit done, and as soon as delilah had nothing left of bor'dor to scavenge off of, laudna was back to feeling weak.

i can't even process the lore drops of ashton's heritage and his father and the history of the hishari and the fact that abadina WAS an hishari ???? they need to go that cursed town soon or im gonna lose it. hell, maybe they're already headed there.

deni$e might say she didn't care whether bor'dor lived or died but i know that isn't true because she was a) the only person who didn't actually hurt him and b) she was trying the entire time to get the others to at least interrogate him. i don't think that would work for multiple reasons. bor'dor was yeeted to kingdom come so bor'dor would likely not have anything useful for them atp, and also bor'dor is absolutely not nearly as important to ludinus as they need him to be.

im gonna miss utkarsh 😭

i think that maybe if bells hells was together, he'd live. but ashton, laudna and orym are too... there's something dangerous about these three being separated from their people. dangerous for themselves mentally and for anyone who stands in their way. i NEED bells hells to be reunited again.

it's sad that the characters with such a strong history of loss and betrayal and abandonment and grief and loss of control would have the traitor amongst them. there is nothing that bor'dor could say that would lessen the pain orym feels having lost his husband and his father, of him and his friends being killed by a cruel, vicious comrade of ludinus', of the tempest being trapped /because/ orym was the one who led her straight into it. the gods are all good and well, but i don't think it will EVER be about the gods for orym. i won't say he's correct or in the right for his narrowed vision and hardened heart. he took that locket for a reason, and throwing it aside is a calculated disposal of that inherently inconvenient empathy orym has for people around him. he can't afford to feel. not now.

[dearestspirit]

comfort

-> scaramouche x gn!reader

-> fluff, takes place when scaramouche was still a harbinger, reader is also a harbinger

-> wc: 1038

-> note: this is probably ooc, i just like thinking about scaramouche having a soft spot for reader and this is how i (sorta) think he'd act! also if i got any fatui/harbinger lore/timeline stuff wrong, sorry <3 also i'm considering writing a part two for this that takes into account the sumeru lore for him? not sure yet!

the door to your office suddenly bursts open, whacking against the wall and nearly coming off the hinges. in shock, you leap from your chair and wince as it clatters to the floor. scaramouche storms in, face red and fuming. steam practically billowed out of his ears. his fists were clenched at his sides, and you were sure his nails were digging into the skin of his palms. strongly exhaling through his nose, he slammed the door shut behind him. a few moments of silence pass, scaramouche staring at the floor as he tries to ease his breathing.

"scaramouche, what's going on?" you ask, keeping your voice gentle so as to not disturb him further.

it wasn't odd at all for him to come into your office like this– somehow, despite his discontent about it, you two had gotten close during your time as harbingers. while he had never vocalized it, you knew your presence had a calming effect on him.

"these harbingers, they're worms beneath me," he spits, words sounding lethally venomous. "dottore's lucky his work is important to my goals, otherwise this pitiful organization would be another pile of ash in my path."

"okay, that doesn't quite answer my question," you sigh, taking a few steps towards him. "how about you take a seat?"

scaramouche exhales again, anger in his eyes. he opens his mouth, locking his gaze onto yours. something in his eyes flicker, intensity waning. scoffing, he closes his mouth, shuffling over to one of the couches in the room. with a grunt, he slumps into the cushions. arms crossed and legs spread, he sits with a sort of arrogance– and hesitance– to his posture. shaking your head, you go to stand in front of him.

"let's not forget that without this 'pitiful organization' you would have only a fraction of the power you do now. look, i know you don't particularly like working with the other harbingers or our agents, but… you're not getting anywhere alone. how many of these missions could you have completed alone?" you tell him, tapping your foot.

scaramouche rolls his eyes, turning to look away from you. tipping the brim of his hat, he covers the upper portion of his face so you can't see his eyes. "if anything, it's the opposite. those harbingers, those agents? they'd be lost little puppies without someone to boss them around. you're too… soft." he squirms uncomfortably in his seat, as if you had read right through him. as if he wasn't sure if he really believed what he was saying.

"we all come from rough backgrounds. being bossed around isn't the only way to get through to people," you take a seat next to him, forcing him to take up less space on the couch as he scoots his leg to the side to make room for you. it's a small gesture, but it makes you smile that he tries at all to accommodate you. you rest a hand on his shoulder, and surprisingly he doesn't flinch away from the touch. "i know things aren't easy for you, but when are things ever easy for anyone? there's more to life than just… power."

"whatever," he tsks. "why are you even in the fatui if that's how you feel? you must know that the rest of us are all here for some scraps of power and control."

"sometimes people don't have anywhere else to go," you mumble, eyes downcast to the tiled floor. "when you can't find anywhere else that wants you, you sort of resort to wherever you can make yourself useful."

scaramouche turns towards you, a hint of surprise in his stare. "you…" he clears his throat, the sentence feeling strange in his mouth. "you shouldn't talk about yourself like that. it pains me to even consider saying this aloud, but you're one of the only capable harbingers here. you'd be useful anywhere." he can feel the very distinct sensation of warmth prickling up the length of his neck, hoping that any redness isn't visible to you.

"that's… actually pretty sweet, coming from you," a chuckle leaves your lips without you even thinking about it. "can i tell you a secret, scaramouche?"

"do you expect me to keep it?" he squints, trying to decipher your motives.

"i guess you can do whatever you want with it when i tell you," you shrug. "i know you aren't fond of doing what others say, and i'm not expecting you to care about my personal feelings."

scaramouche's squint deepens, turning to look out the windows. "if that's what you'd like to think. tell me, then."

you nod, leaning a little closer into his side so you can whisper. "i don't really want to be part of the fatui." you tell him, voice hushed.

he's quick to turn and face you, eyes wide. he was certain that you saying something like this– and him knowing– was bound to get one or both of you in trouble somehow. still, he's able to mask his expression almost instantaneously. he twists his body, now sitting cross legged to face you. "i will keep your secret. on one condition."

"okay… what's the condition?" you question, voice full of uncertainty.

"when i'm granted the power i rightly deserve," he says, slightly hesitant. "you'll join me, and we'll leave."

"what?" you ask, shocked.

"tch," he clicks his tongue, standing up in a rush. "forget it."

"no, wait," you leap up, grabbing at his wrist. "i want to! i want to go with you. the only reason i haven't figured out some way to leave yet is, well, you." your voice trails off, a sudden shyness overcoming you.

"i'll give you more details when i can, then." he wriggles his arm out of your grip, though his fingers graze at the skin there, as if to savor the touch. grumbling, he shakes his head. "just… keep doing your work, or something. i'm leaving."

"sure, scaramouche." you chuckle, watching as he hurriedly steps out of the room. closing the door behind him, you sigh with a smile.

whether or not he'd keep his word was to be seen, yet you couldn't deny the sense of warmth and trust you felt for him.

[pastrypurgatory]

Can u tell me about your Moss/Creeper lore

absolutely! so basically my idea is that on EMC, (Earth of Meters Cubed, the name the Minecraft planet has in my convoluted quadruple-crossover fanfiction,) there is no such thing as moss, like what grows on sunny rocks and forest floors and just sits there (side note: I'm not sure why I came up with this when mossy cobblestone and lush caves... exist. just roll with it.) instead, all species of moss are sentient creatures called Mosses.

their bodies are pretty much clumps/tangled strands of moss, aside from things like eyes and brains and stuff, but it's all still plant matter. Mosses also don't have any more explosive capabilities than their real-world equivalents.

from there, the place where Creepers come in is not a far leap in logic away:

Creepers are just undead Mosses. some, but probably not species can explode, probably from some kind of combustible substance produced during decomposition, or maybe pressurized gasses or sporophytes or something.

Mosses generally live in warm, shaded places, sometimes in underground burrows, and practically never interact with other intelligent races. they're seen as some kind of wild people, I guess. (at least until the quadruple-crossover part of the story happens.)

uh. I think that's just about all. they have arms? kinda? it's more like they can control individual strands of their bodies. like this:

whatever strands they regularly use as limbs, they usually keep tucked into the tangle.

well anyway that's probably enough Moss lore to tide you over for now. thanks for the ask! I do enjoy talking about my imaginary guys (〃＾▽＾〃)

[rawliverandgoronspice]

Ok so weird thing: Puppet Zelda. I mean, it was pretty obvious as a player Imo? But what I don't get: The tears show her ONCE! and it's the scene right before Ganondorf gives Sonia a backbreaking back massage. It's alluded to that she (he) did some other weird stuff to mess up for Sonia and Rauru, and it's not expanded upon at all. I was so put off by that, because it feels like that would have been a big chance for ACTUAL character development for ALL the characters from the past. What did P-Z do? Where was Ganondorf? Was he hidden, or was he inside the castle? How did Sonia react to it? How did Rauru react to it? How did Sonia catch on? Why was it only Sonia and Zelda confronting P-Z? Why wasn't Rauru somewhere hidden as well? I doubt Rauru would have dismissed such a serious accusation. Sonia confronts P-Z, Zelda comes out, then Rauru lies in wait to check for extra danger. The time it takes for Rauru to arrive also kinda makes me think he wasn't that far away? P-Z is a cool concept, but I'm still just so baffled by the absolute "non-story" they built by alluding to her bullshit.

Okay so. Yeah. I completely, 100% agree, and I want to use the opportunity to air out a very particular complaint I have not really seen a lot of people talk about, because I just rewatched that scene and I am shocked all over again.

The teacup scene, after Ganondorf submits, is, in my opinion, horrendous. Like not because of secret Problematisms (though yes also this, we just saw them asking their enemies to kneel and the very next scene they're having a little tea party with cake between royals while armed guards protect them and it's not supposed to be a red flag and it's wild to me), but because the actual writing, at a craft level, reads like a first draft at best. There are three narrative information beats that matter in this entire scene:

The war has stopped

Zelda wants to help her ancestors and not only return to her own era (??? okay, she already did and the problems are technically over already as far as they know??? and it's not a choice she's making since she still can't master her powers and never learn to btw)

Rauru learns Link's name

I'd argue the only real important thing is that Rauru learns Link's name, and it could have been done in a much more interesting and dynamic way.

Instead the scene just goes on and on with lore dumps that never go anywhere, reiterations of the bond between Zelda and Sonia we had already established, dialogue that is... shockingly bad...

Actually, let's examine just one case: "Ah. I can see that you have absolute faith in him."

Like, just, general pro-tip: if you use "I can see that X" in dialogue and it's not ironic or used as de-escalation and just there to reiterate what we have just immediately established, cut that line. It's doing nothing, it's dead weight, it's just grinding the pace of a scene to a halt for no reason (unless you want it to be about stagnation, like I could see a David Lynch dinner scene where every character restate each other's actions by saying "I can see that you really like the gravy." over and over but it's not.... very applicable to more generic situations). This is writing 101, and the scene is full of these nothing sentences that go nowhere and establish nothing about the characters or the world and set up nothing and pay off nothing and it's driving me wild!

(also it does my least favorite thing in game writing aka the game praising the player character for an unreasonable amount of time, but I realize this is a pet peeve and not as important but it always makes me roll my eyes incredibly hard when it's not earned and it wasn't earned or useful here, the fact that the scene ends on everyone being like yaaay link!!! is... completely disconnected from the actual story happening in the past and shouldn't be the focus of the characters at that moment --it would be more powerful if Zelda used Link as an image of strength to inspire Rauru after Sonia's death later, for example)

It's a scene that completely undermines the tension built in the previous memory, makes the timeline of events confusing, and it leaves a ton of questions open, like: where the hell is Ganondorf? What is he doing? What did Rauru mean by "keeping him close", if he isn't actually close? Do they think he returned to the gerudo lands while he actually stayed hidden in their palace to do his Puppet Zelda shenanigans? I don't know! There is no way to know, because we're being told about teacups and how Link is amazing instead of anything relevant to the plot!

So yeah. Would have *gladly* done away with that teacup scene and focused more on a very tense moment of Sonia and Puppet Zelda where she acts very suspiciously and maybe aborts a first attempt at stealing the stone that goes nowhere, and this is when Sonia catches on that something is off? Honestly, I would also have killed for an actual scene of tension between Zelda and Ganondorf where they, like. Talk to each other. Instead of this actual current version of the story where they never do. And maybe this is how he realizes that she has a special connection with Sonia and it's how he tries to get her.

But yeah. Sorry, I kind of hijacked the ask into a "this damn teacup scene!!!" *shakes my first at clouds*, but I think it mirrors the thought that priorities were not given to the actual tension points laid down in the story. Puppet Zelda inherently calls upon ideas of fear of imposture, of abuse of power, of insecurity, of a twisted version of what Hyrule *could* be, which is so interesting and ripe with conflict and counterpoints.

I would have done unruly things for a Zelda arc where she is struggling to be a ruler and she's still very insecure and wrecked by guilt over the Calamity thing and feel disconnected from the land because of the whole "being locked 100 years away fighting a demon" thing and her daddy issues, and this is this insecurity that Ganondorf picks up on and preys on by trying to dismantle Hyrule using her very image as he plans his Big Comeback, and our role is to unite all of Hyrule against this weird nasty caricature of her created by an envious man who was furious to see his rule rejected and his rebellion considered less important than peace, then go to her acknowledging the immense and unjust sacrifice she made becoming a dragon and being like "hey Zelda we all love you and we will all fight for you because we made the choice to believe in the future you want to build" and it would have been soososo powerful and I would have perhaps shed a tear or two or ten. ;_;