#nothing but debuffs baby

[fungerhead]

got inspired by vampireghostlawyer to revisit and finish my fungersona! it was fun to attempt to replicate the art style in termina no moonscorch yet because i have no idea what i want the concept to be

OPs pronouns are They/Them

[weebsinstash]

Do you think Nolan or Thragg would ever be a GirlDad (TM)? Like, I can imagine Nolan finding out his wife is pregnant with a girl, and he thinks he's going to treat her the same as Mark, but then he holds her in his arms for the 1st time and all of a sudden she's Daddy's Little Princess and he's teaching her how to subjugate her enemies during her "princess tea parties" and they're both wearing tiaras cuz "Please daddy?" with puppy dog eyes.

Hooting hollering howling and slapping my knee because I never finished the goddamn post but if you take a gander over here in my drafts

SAME BRAINCELL WOO WOO

That gif is his response to you asking when you get to date lmaooo

I almost wrote like something short for it, and I kind of am constantly bouncing around between "Do I want this to be short or long or what" but I can just imagine daughter Reader and Nolan going at it "you just don't want me to date because you want me to save myself for a VILTRUMITE man, don't you?! Humans aren't good enough, huh?! I'm 'too good for a human man'?!" And he just loses it and shouts back "you're too good for ANY man, you don't NEED any man, I'M the only man you need, I'M your FATHER!!" Like. Nolan is one of those super dare I use the term emotionally incestuous yandere dads

Like. Ok I guess this is a throwaway spoiler because I would be absolutely fucking shocked if they bothered to animate this, it's such a small deal, but like. Idk. Idk. How do I phrase this. "There's another character in the series who also has to deal with their daughter wanting to have A Ho Phase and Daddy Doesn't Like It" and for the love of fucking god Nolan and Thragg wouldn't let you date for absolute shit. No dating, no fucking, you are, their pure innocent sweet but also savage little fierce warrior princess and you are untouched by no man like the goddess Artemis to them.

God. Having a yelling screaming argument where you're just so upset, "OH YEAH WELL YOU KNOW YOUR CHANCELLORS SON, THE ONE I MET THE OTHER WEEK? YEAH, YEAH, I FUCKED HIM, I FUCKED HIM IN MY BED, IN THE HOUSE YOU PROVIDE FOR ME, HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, DADDY" and that's like OH MY GOD you've cut them so deep it's like actual fucking sacrilege to them. The EMOTIONAL DAMAGE. Fists are nothing knives are nothing bombs are nothing BUT HEARING THAT THEIR BABY GIRL GOT DEFLOWERED? It's like a fucking DEBUFF. Imagine you scream at Nolan about how you sucked off a Viltrumite HIS AGE and he just PHYSICALLY STUMBLES, HAS TO REGAIN HIS BALANCE, HAND OVER HIS HEART

And Thragg is, obsessively hollering about how you're the Grand Regents daughter and you're of too high status for any of these males, just screaming at you, "WHY DID I CATCH THAT MAN'S TONGUE IN YOUR MOUTH? HE IS BENEATH YOU" and you hit him with "YEAH HE WAS BENEATH ME, AND BEHIND ME, AND ON TOP OF ME--" and Thragg gets so fucking RED, I feel like he's one of those wall punching dads. He won't ever hit you but he might manhandle-grab you and physically intimidate you at times. Thragg can just give you The Look and you INSTANTLY know you're in for a punishment, or that he's absolutely furious, and you're on your knees, "Please Daddy I'm sorry I didn't mean it, I was angry, please don't be upset with me, i-i-i just dont like you being disappointed in me, i love you and i want us to get along 🥺" and like. Obviously it works. But. He's not mad at YOU, he's mad at THE GUY, so, as cute and effective as buttering him up or even just genuinely being afraid and pleading earnestly is, you're not his target. The guy's still getting, tortured and maimed or something. But thanks for telling Father you love him, that'll perk him up during his next planet raid ❤️

BUT NO LITERALLY ACTUALLY Nolan with his knees bent in a little tiny plastic chair nearly on the ground with his little fake cup of tea as he sits there having "tea" with you and your Princess Ladybug doll and he's all, "now sweetheart, what did we learn today?" "That if we defeat our enemies, we should also take out their family and their allies, so they don't come back for vengeance?" "Yes sweetie, that's so good, you're so smart 🥰"

Nolan/Thragg getting in a physical fight and they could be getting maimed and disembowled or taking punches and it's like whatever, they're still chilling, but, do some shit like, knock their treasured keychain out of their pocket that you gave them or an embroidered handkerchief or just a little personal photo of you they keep on them gets ruined in the scuffle, oh, oh, NOW they're fucking pissed, NOW they've got some serious unfinished business in this fight and their opponents get DEMOLISHED and they're sitting there pouting with their broken/ruined thing you gave them because even if they got a new one from you, this one still had memories and sentimental value

I feel like similar to parents keeping baby teeth, Thragg would keep things like, first weapon you ever trained with, memorial photo of your first spar with another child that you won, your first flightsuit, a toddlers toy that was crushed on accident because you suddenly got your powers and had far too much strength than you knew what to do with. And Nolan, if he's raising you on Earth with Debbie, he's at all your school functions, whether it's dancing or sports, and if you aren't in those things, he encourages you HEAVILY (it totally isn't. Training or anything or making sure you're staying fit and active for anything in the future hahaha). He's taking photos and cheering in the crowds. He wants your art in his office. He wants to play games with you once you get your powers. He buys a case for any medals and trophies to proudly display.

Also like do you have any idea how much of an actual phenomenon it is, I've seen videos of it, where dads basically have infinitely more sympathy for their new daughters when they already have sons. I distinctly remember a video where a man was holding his second-born, his first daughter, and he was like weeping because he was feeling intense empathy for his infant daughter because she was crying and looking at him as he held her, and the wife was filming and it was captioned "he never did this with our son" and like. LMAO, THAT'S NOLAN WITH YOU WHEN YOU CRY. THAT'S THRAGG SUDDENLY GIVING A FUCK ABOUT ONLY YOU SPECIFICALLY AFTER LIKE TONS OF KIDS.

Daughter Reader would definitely be their spoiled little princess but you're also their spoiled little princess under very specific terms of CONTAINMENT AND SURVEILLANCE. You've got curfews, they need to know who your friends are, what families do they come from, what do their parents do. They'll treat you like a princess but they'll also socially isolate you from others and. Basically control your life. And if you ever try and pull away from Dear Old Dad, well. Viltrumites can have some pretty extreme reactions. Will Nolan have to disfigure that boy you won't stop talking to? Will Thragg have to build a pretty little cell so that his adult daughter doesn't sneak out to drink and fuck unknown men? That's up to how much of an obedient faithful daughter you want to be. Don't make them do something only you will regret ❤️

Jfjfkfm EDIT; I ALSO TOTALLY MISSES YOU SENT THIS

No but absolutely you're sitting there in your little costume jewelry as you twist a barbie doll and wring her like a towel "for disobeying High Queen Princess Barbie" and here's Thragg, "that's very good. The chain of command should always be respected" and you just happily start chattering away in that "im a small child and I don't know how to keep secrets or lie" kind of way

"Then Teddy Mason from down the street chased me into the woods and I kept telling him to stop but he kept using a stick to pull up my skirt so I grabbed him by the leg and threw him up into the air so he went SPLAT when he came back down!!" And you bang your little hand down on your table and Thragg is nodding in approval and Nolan just comes in looking mortified because he has no idea why Thragg is there until he. Sees that you're putting all kinds of stupid plastic hair clips in the man's hair and even his mustache and giggling and putting stickers on him And Thragg Is Just Totally Letting It Happen. Just totally casual, "Ah Nolan, you're finally here" and stands up to talk to Nolan with you in his arms or on his shoulder or just, hovering around him continuing to play with all the hair clips while your very horrified father is wondering what alternate dimension he just stumbled into to see the Grand Regent so. Calm.

The two men go into the other room "to have a grownup talk" and are they talking about the invasion? About Viltrum? No, Thragg is demanding to see all your baby photos as Nolan starts pulling out all his photo albums with absolute glee

[undead-cypress]

More p3r livebloggin/shitpost thoughts. Sorry for the crunchy pictures, literally I'm just too fried to import pics from my PS4.

Because I'm the way that I am, I noticed the paintings hung in the Hierophant/Lovers boss shadow building are real paintings. One on the left is a crop of Liberty Leading the People by Eugene Delacroix, and on the right is Le Cyclops by Odilon Redon. IDK why they picked these paintings because. Why would a painting of the French Revolution be in this kind of hotel but I have some theories?

The hotel they're in is pointed out to have a French title and modeled after French design, for some reason. Les Champs de Fleurs is pointed out in the game meaning a field of flowers. Now -

Liberty Leading the People is a painting about the July revolution that overthrew the French monarchy. The boss event is in July but there's more -

Le Cyclops is about the play(s) about Polyphemus (the cyclops from the Odyssey that Odysseus blinds and tricks) and his love of the sea nymph Galatea, and the drama that ensues. There's many versions of the play but in classic fashion most of them don't end well, with Galatea rejecting him in favor of someone else, and Polyphemus killing them both. This painting in particular is basically Polyphemus creeping on Galatea as she sleeps on a hill of flowers.

I THINK these paintings are meant to represent the reverse hierophant and lovers. Overthrowing of the corrupt hierarchy, and rejection of choice. Also French.

There's one more painting but I have NO IDEA what painting it is

So many paintings have winged babies in them I can't go through them all 😭

Oh yeah linguistics bonus - the boss event takes place on 7/7, aka Tanabata. Some might know it as Japanese Valentine's day. Story goes Orihime and Hikoboshi, lovers separated by duty and the milky way, can meet during this festival as a flock of magpies make them a bridge over the milky way. Milky way, in Japanese is Amanogawa 天の川, literally "river of heaven". An older version is also sometimes used, ginka 銀河, derived from Chinese meaning "silver river". And here is where we get the name of Shirakawa Blvd. 白川...... White River Blvd.

I THINK that's why they named the hotel Champs de Fleurs. The classic Greek mythology of heaven is Elysium, basically a field of flowers in the sky. Kinda as the companion to the river in the sky. Not to mention it's a reference to the famous French street Champs Élysées, literally "Elysian Fields"

Imagine me standing in front of a conspiracy wall covered with red string. That's me all the time with p3

Ok back to shitposting

This is the most emotion I've seen the Mc make all game so far 😂 7 meals back to back will do that to ya. Name I picked was Dank Hour, so I guess it kinda fits. Munchies will do that

Those are her hooves!!

OH MY GOD. HOLY SHIT HANG ON

These puppets are massive

Gameplay thoughts -

- I miss the fatigue mechanic ok. Now there's NOTHING stopping me from spending five hours in Tartarus getting massively over leveled. Also miss it thematically and an excuse to go drink Edogawa's potions for courage boosts

- RIP shuffle time. The new one is good with the variety of cards but man make them fly around again that was fun

- Tartarus looks good. I was skeptical of how they're gonna make a randomly generated dungeon look good on current consoles but. It looks really good and plays well. And I love the added bonus bosses.

- I do miss being able to actually stealth around with different weapons and hunting rare shadows with a bow though. The unstable formations in p3p around half and new moons were also something I wish they incorporated, but maybe it'll come up later? Because the new Tartarus environment would be perfect for some stealth mechanics.

- I don't know if this is because I'm p3 Georg and an outlier that should not be counted but I'm playing on merciless and it's SO EASY???? I'm almost to August and I've ONLY died three times. I'm playing with a 3 people party as a debuff because it's too easy otherwise.

- ailments kinda work different than they used to and I still haven't figured out... What they really do yet. Distress used to guarantee criticals, now I'm not sure what it does???

- the theurgies are broken as hell wtf. This is too much power. I was really hoping they'd bring P2/dds style fusion spells back

General thoughts:

- they still haven't invented weather yet lmao rain was invented in 2011 I see

- Pleasantly surprised by the added cutscenes and hangout events in the dorm. They're actually pretty thoughtful and reflects on the character growth throughout the game instead of just ill humored filler (cough p4 cough). They really nailed it this time.

- Aigis trying to talk to plants and bugs and the meaning of lifeeeee 😭

- the club is simultaneous hilarious and terrifying in the way that they didn't animate the dancers. I get why, but it's so funny. It's just a room of statues with blank faces. At least there's more than five people there

- there's two poster of the Foo Fighters in the station outskirts. Why them specifically? Also if the movies at the theatre have hidden meanings I WILL find them.

- Mitsuru just stands like she's posing for the camera all the time and her idle AND angry animation being a hair flip is so funny. Hello. Flips hair. Come to the command room after dinner we have new mission. Flips hair. I'm going to execute Mr Ekoda for his despicable inaction. Flips hair

- Idk where else to put this but that scene on the roof with the watermelon hits different when you know a watermelon that size in Japan is, depending on the season and economy, at least $50. Junpei really splurged there to cheer up Ken 🥺. That entire scene was great. Why DON'T we watch Akihiko punch the melon open, what an inspired suggestion

- speaking of fruit, if you look at the care package Akihiko got from his parents there are mangoes in there. Mangoes that size and color are like $30 each.

- the dorm. Could be modeled better. Idk if it's the lighting or the textures but... It looks unfinished.

- they kept the little overworld icon that travels between locations to not go over the bridge even though it'd be a shorter route. Nice. There is an instance where it does use the bridge, when you first go to the police station and Junpei is following you around. Also very nice touch. Whichever dev is responsible for this detail I see and appreciate your work 🫡

- was not expecting even the NPCs to be fully voice acted. They're all so charming!

- at the beginning of the game it tells you to put your things away in the closet. Highlighted. But we can't open or interact with the closet in any way??? Why was closet highlighted??? Did the game do that just to call us gay??

- and also where's my silly outfit???? Everyone has gotten butler and maid outfits except the mc. Where's my goofy outfit I want one too.... Where's the clown outfit from the dancing game.... Where's the maid outfit.... Once my pc arrives I'll absolutely be installing the emo mod. Let my besties reveal their true 2009 forms

[galesdevoteewife]

i mean, maybe the mystra hate is disproportional, but from tav's pov, she did ask tav's wizard to kill himself? to take himself away from tav and remove any future they could possibly have together? to discard their connection? can one stay objective about the non-humanness of gods, when the gods are asking for your soul, your home, your love? gale, experienced with mystra as he is, maybe could, but a tav?

First, thanks for the ask!! How I love questions that let me dive into fantasy and imagine how things feel <3 I will answer in both my Tav's and player's POV. It’s going to be purely personal since every person/Tav has a different background and a huge variety of personalities.

Short answer: Mystra ASKED, but she didn’t TAKE. so my Tav was fine with her.

[Act3 spoiler and datamine ahead]

Still, I can certainly see how Mystra's martyrdom request could deeply hurt Gale. He was unsure if they might still be in a relationship, and ordering him to kill himself was definitely a shocking, heartbreaking, world-shaking breakup for him...Mystra was not only his lover, also his guidance: 'teacher and muse', the exact wording.

Astarion: So, do you have loves waiting for you once this is all over? Gale: You know what - that is not the easiest of questions for me to answer. In my opinion, Gale only really made moves in romance after he was certain that his relationship with Mystra was over, which happened after meeting Elminster.

| My Tav's POV A bit of background: My canon tav is a Lolth-sworn drow spider baby, named Zilvera. Where she comes from, humanoid sacrifice happens all the time and no good reason needed. I couldn't imagine she made too much fuss about Elminster saying some words. (even came with an orb stabilizing spell, that's nice) She would, however, be furious if Elminster was sent to snatch her wizard. 1) Zilvera had fallen for the wizard much earlier. She saw it as an opportunity: "They officially broke up, and he feels cold towards her now? Great, that’s my chance! I will treat you so much better, be with me instead!" 2) She didn't plan to let Mystra take the wizard from her, she wanted to find the wiggle room in Mystra’s words —"Use the bomb to destroy the heart of the Absolute." She wouldn't mind playing Mystra's riddle game, but she wanted to win. Overconfident and arrogant as it might seem, yet that's her.

"So, she didn't specifically ask for his life. Good." "Is it possible to trigger the orb another way?" "We need to find out what the heart of the Absolute is." "Would Raphael be able to do something about it?" "Can I resurrect him afterwards?"

3) She sees Mystra as 'useful.' My Tav is the worst cleric material. Deities are nothing but a source of power and favor to her. She was impressed by the stabilization spell, and she wondered what else Mystra's favor could provide for her purpose: the well-being of her wizard. As far as she's concerned, the orb needs to be cured; it’s making her crush unwell and sad. Later on in Act 3, she even grew to like Mystra because the goddess offered an actual cure. What's even better was that what Mystra wanted already aligned with her agenda: kill the Netherbrain. It's two birds with one stone. Mystra seems to be a high-ranked goddess who takes bargain and gives practical boons. Zilvera likes her for those. | My POV, as a player

I, who obviously lost my mind for the fictional wizard, wasn't annoyed much because Mystra wasn't being pressing. Meaning:

Mystra didn't send Elminster to kidnap/mind-control my wizard from camp and use him as if he was just a piece of tool. Elminster is very powerful and likely capable for such task.

There's no threat. She didn't sneak a hidden feature into her spell, and trigger the orb without Gale's consent when he was convinced to live in the colony. She didn't say anything implying that defying her orders would result in harsh punishment. Unless Gale is up for challenging her, that would be a different story.

There's no debuff, ability, or item lost when you defy her/simply being rude. Some conversation options were really rough! xD But she seems chill.

She didn't insult my wizard. In fact, she held him in high regard, trusted the future of magic/world in his hands and wisdom. Certainly much kinder than Gale's university assessment.

In my gameplay, the in-game actions Mystra has ever taken include (1) ghosting Gale for a year, (2) sending Elminster twice, (3) chatting, and (4) providing buffs if you burned the shadow weave in the cursed land. It's not even difficult to convince her at the shrine meeting. She was like, "You don't want to die, fine. But the Netherbrain and the crown must be removed. I will help you as long as those are taken care of." — and that was when the goddess wasn't exactly in a good mood.

"...the 'orb' sleeps is because I have allowed it to feed on the true Weave..." She is the weave, aka she is feeding the orb with HERSELF, and she didn't like that. It's the piece of information hinting she didn't just wave her hand and make all the problems go away — it cost her too.

Hope I am not missing anything. Please feel free to ask me anything if I do!

I tried to approach the subject with a more general term without sidetracking too much with my own Tav's setting, but I find that really hard since everyone reacts differently to things. I mean, I could totally see a Mystra cleric being shocked, or a warlock mocking how little differences there are between a god and a devil. All narrative is valid in my opinion. So here I am, indulging myself to unleash my overly invested Tav story xD Do keep in mind I am just chipping in my iteration though <3

[quitealotofsodapop]

And since he's immortal he could theoretically be there right up until MK is born, but he'd honestly rather not be buried that long because A) that's what happened eith him and it really messed him up and B) he just doesn't want to imaging how painful a fully grown and overbakrd baby would be

Wukong's willing to "bake" for 500 years because the books he stole borrowed from Gold Star and Lao Tzu/Laozi said thats the time required for a Stone Monkey buried underground needs to generate a whole Stone Egg without the parent unknowingly turning their surroundings into a desert (buried too shallow) and/or stealing the life force/dao of another creature or many creatures (being awoken "early").

Its like a more dangerous version of the parental debuff in the TMKATI au. Some magical energy is required to make the body out of "nothing".

If he didn't bury himself deep enough then; 1: FFM would resemble a barren rock stripped of all life force, and 2: His egg would unknowingly grow to a size so big as to rip him apart like he did to his parent. And the kid would be fully grown adult like he hatched like, adn he doesn't want to give his kid that kind of baggage.

But if he woke up "early" without a powerful regenerating source of life energy (in nature it would have been provided safely by being surrounded by the parent's family members/troop); he'd turn to a super-deadly conduit of life-draining aura that could kill a lot of creatures - including his monkeys!

So 500 years slow-cooking it is. At least his kid will be ready to pop out toddler-sized the moment he's woken up.

So of course things don't go according to plan and Wukong gets woken up almost 20 years early, forcing him to carry the Egg for a while longer like a furiously-overdue pregnant person. He's munching on any source of food in sight to avoid actively draining mortal beings of energy.

[arvensimp]

Could i request a part 2 to Green Eyed Tera?? It was so well written omg i also love the concept of N going to diff regions to see pkmns relationships:)) (bonus points if you make it a kinda love triangle thing with N Reader and Arven bcs as much as i love arven I’ve loved N since i was little🧎🏽🧎🏽)

Hi!!! So this absolutely isn't the end to this fic. It's just getting a little long and I wanted to get something out for it. I hope this is okay?

-

Green Eyed Tera-Type Pt. 2

Jealous!Arven x Reader, ft. N, CW for some violence/gore. Nothing terribly graphic just be aware that reader does get injured.

--

So Arven isn't thoroughly pleased with you. He doesn't really say it, but you can tell. He's grumpier, y'know? More curt. Sure, he's still making you delicious food and looking out for your well-being, but you think you pissed him off in a major way by inviting N out to lunch with the two of you.

He won't talk about it, of course. He says he just gets a bad vibe from the guy and leaves it at that, says he doesn't wanna talk anymore about it, so you don't.

The two of you keep traveling together, so he can't be that mad, right? You're surely not a lost cause in his eyes or heart.

Arven dutifully waits for you outside every crystal cave you enter. He sees you off with a pat on the shoulder and a "Be safe in there!" Then he plays the waiting game for the next hour or so while you quell whatever monster is inside.

Most times you're back way sooner than any of that, a cheeky grin on your face, spouting "It was easy! The thing was just like a little baby!"

Sometimes, more rarely, you look more tired, or your chest is heaving a bit. "The fucker was strong." There's a bit of a feral, frustrated look in your eye.

Those are the times Arven worries about. That's why he sticks around. You might need someone to patch you up if you get hurt, y'know? He tells you as such.

This particular day, you're heading into one of the black crystals crackling with red electricity. It makes your hair stand on edge, and you feel Arven bristle next to you.

"Y'sure you wa--"

"I'm going in there." You tell him. "Whatever's inside probably isn't happy."

Arven sighs and drops his bag to the ground. "Well alright." He claps your shoulder. "Be safe. I'll be waiting here for you. I'll get some food ready, too."

You smile and nod at him. "Be back soon."

And then you're gone.

On your way to the heart of the cave, winding and twisting through the different corridors, you run into N again. He lights up at the sight of you.

"Hello!"

"Hey," You greet him warmly in return. "Ready for another battle?"

He nods.

As it turns out, the two of you will be going toe to toe with some kind of weird fighting type rabbit pokemon from Galar. As you wait for more team members to arrive, you quietly strategize. N decides to bring in a slowbro, while you'll rely on your espathra. Eventually you have a team assembled and a plan in place, so the eight of you head into the fray.

The Cinderace, as you learn it's called, is no joke. It buffs its attack and defense immediately then starts throwing attack after relentless attack to the point that your poor pokemon barely has the chance to debuff it, much less throw in a lumina crash of her own.

No one on the team can make even a dent on it before each of your pokemon has been sent to the ground. As you heal up, you can tell the Cinderace is getting ready to blast you all out of the cave. You yell to everybody to brace themselves. Your pokemon are all sent back out to defend you for this last onslaught, but one of your teammates, some rookie, accidentally commands their confused pokemon to attack Espathra instead of the Cinderace. It's not the kid's fault. Or the Pokemon's, really. It was confused, and the kid couldn't help where the move was hurled, but it hits your girl hard. That on top of a fast pyro ball from Cinderace has her crumpled in a heap before she'd even been able to throw out a defensive reflect.

She returns to her ball, and you take a moment to rifle through your bag to grab a revive, but that's when you hear the piercing screech from the rabbit. The earth beneath your feet rumbles as the pokemon releases a massive blast of energy, energy which was meant to have been directed toward your pokemon and is now instead hurtling toward you faster and wider and taller than you could hope to dodge.

All you see is white.

All you hear is the pokemon's deafening cry, rattling your ear drums.

All you feel is searing pain as debris slashes across your face. A particularly large stone slices through your jersey, tearing open your torso.

From there, nothing.

-

N watches in absolute horror as the energy the Cinderace releases lifts you up and crashes you back down to the floor of the cave in a heap.

The other trainers fled already; they missed it, but N couldn't look away. He couldn't do anything to stop it...but he couldn't look away.

As soon as the Cinderace seems to have fled the vicinity, N picks himself up and tears over to you, nearly tripping over ragged earth and crystal along the way.

Oh no oh no oh no oh no...

All that blood is definitely very not good.

He leans in...you're still breathing. That's something, but he needs to stop the bleeding fast. He rips off his white overshirt and grabs a potion from his bag. If he can wipe some of the blood off, then maybe disinfect the wound with the potion? Just for now. Then he can get you somewhere safer and get you looked at.

He wraps his shirt tightly around your wound and tries to ignore how quickly it stains red... This has to be better than nothing.

N hauls you up and releases Zekrom from its ball.

"Please get us out of here." He softly says to the dragon as he climbs up onto its neck, trying to keep you in his grasp the whole time.

You murmur and grumble painfully as you're jostled. "Bag..."

N nearly hits himself. "Zekrom. Grab the backpack, please."

As Zekrom zips out of the cave as quickly as it can, it snatches your bag up in one of its claws, ensuring the safety of your pokemon and things.

N holds tight to both you and the dragon as you make your way back to the outside. Unfortunately for both of you, the outside just happened to be in an isolated area near the top of Mount Glaseado where a snowstorm is currently raging.

Zekrom really does not care for the ice and is getting buffeted every which way. Neither it nor N can see anything in any direction, no buildings, no pokestops, no signs of life beyond an avalugg or a cubchoo here and there.

N swears softly under his breath.

"Can you find a cave or something, my friend?" He asks the dragon, pulling you tighter to him. You hiss in pain. N looks down to you and speaks in broken Paldean. "I'm sorry. I'm to helping... Calm."

You groan but otherwise don't respond.

Eventually, Zekrom is able to find a small cave that gets you all out of the worst of the storm. It's small and still bitterly cold, but at the very least it's dry, and the ground underneath is dirt rather than ice.

N sets you down against the cave wall as gently as he can

"You're safe." He tells you, brushing back some of your disheveled hair. You stir lightly. He motions to his shirt then to the one wrapped around your torso. "Clean...um..ouch?"

At this point he can tell you're still swimming in and out of consciousness, which really isn't great, but he'll have to make do as best as he can. He'll get your wound cleaned up, rewrapped, then go from there. ...Maybe there's a Chansey nearby? A Chansey should be able to help, right?

-

Arven's sitting at the picnic table not far from the crystal cave, looking back over to it every few minutes.

Sometimes he really hates the part of you that's so self sacrificing and willing to jump into danger to go up against rampaging pokemon like that.

Well...except for the fact that that part of you is what helped him save Mabosstiff so long ago, but still!

He knows you'll be fine. You're basically the strongest trainer in the region. His job is more or less to keep you fed and make sure you're cared for when you're trying to care for the region.

And he kinda loves that job for himself.

He just wishes...

He wishes...

Ugh! He doesn't know. He was stronger? He could protect you? You don't need protecting. You need sleep and food and reassurance that you do enough for the world around you.

You might also need forehead kisses and to have your hand held, but Arven isn't quite ready to ask you about that...

So he does what he does best.

He makes you food.

The picnic is all prepared for when you inevitably return, victorious or otherwise. He's got some delicious sandwiches and even some tasty sides and drinks ready.

He looks back to the crystal... It's definitely been a minute. Well. Over an hour. The red and black ones like that are dangerous, he knows, so that's to be expected, but still, it makes his stomach roll uneasily. Any other time he'd probably be picking at the food. For now though he can't really bring himself to eat.

He twiddles his thumbs, checks his phone, and pets Mabosstiff for a bit, trying to distract himself, but his eyes keep getting drawn back to the cave.

His mind wills your form to exit from it. He imagines you emerging in every kind of emotion he can think of...victorious, dejected, cheerful, surprised, angry. He pictures it, tries to conjure it up, manifest it.

Then the cave is gone in a puff of glittering silt that drifts away in the wind.

Arven's heart sinks to the pit of his stomach, and he feels himself go cold.

You're nowhere to be seen.

He jumps to his feet, hands smacking flat against the table and calls your name out in the open air.

Nothing.

He tries again.

Silence.

He grows frantic, calling again, louder still.

Not even a pokemon responds to his cry.

He can feel pressure building behind his eyes, and his vision is starting to go pinpoint-y. Not dark. But like...everything is somehow further away.

He wills himself to take a few deep breaths. Panicking will not help. First thing's first, he grabs his phone and tries to call you.

It rings...again, again, again...

"Hey!"

"Oh my God--"

"--Sorry I missed you! Leave a message after Skeledirge's cry-- WAAAAAAGH"

Arven falls to his knees.

"Uh. H-hey. You didn't...come out of the crystal... Where are you?"

He hangs up.

What the fuck is he going to do?

-

In the past however-long, N has managed to get quite a bit done.

1. Escape out of the crystal cave with you safely.

2. Find shelter.

3. Redress your wound (poorly. He needs bandages).

4. Start a campfire.

5. Eat a bit of food (berries count as food).

6. Find a Chansey to help look after you.

That last one took a bit of convincing, but he made it work. Currently the Chansey is using heal pulse, he thinks. She stands over you, mumbling softly to herself as she places dainty hands (paws?) on you and pokes and prods as gently as she can.

N chews his thumbnail to a stub watching the whole thing. You're certainly groaning less...and he thinks you're still breathing. Chanseys are good caretakers! ...So this should be a good idea, right? A pokemon can care for a human in distress. That can't be that unusual.

...or maybe it is? He certainly wouldn't be the best human to reliably know.

He doesn't want to hover, but he does want to hover. But the last time he started hovering, the Chansey shooed him away.

You need bandages.

Bzz bzz, bzz bzz, bzz bzz, bzz bzz

N gets distracted from his nagging anxious thoughts by a vibration coming from your bag.

It would probably be rude to dig through it, but...this really doesn't seem like the time to hold decorum to its usual standards. Right?

Or maybe Paldeans are different from Unovans?

N really needs to spend more time around humans rather than pokemon.

He decides to find your phone. Better to let someone know where you are. Right?

Before he answers, he sees the contact picture. It's you and that guy he met when you took him to lunch way back when.

It looks like you're eating sandwiches together and making exaggerated faces about how spicy the food is?

N answers the call.

"Arven?"

He hears Arven, very confusedly, call your name on the other end. He can probably tell that N's voice is very much not yours.

"Uh... N-No. My name is N." He winces at his stupid accent. He also knows that he wants to say 'no, it's N. I'm lost in the mountains with our friend who needs help badly.'

Instead what comes out is. "We're, uh... Ouch. Bad ouch. To need to help. Cold? Rain and snow."

Arven on the other end is quiet for a moment. "What?" He then immediately fires off speaking in rapidfire Paldean that N absolutely has no hope of understanding.

"Slow, please?" He asks, desperate, when Arven pauses for a breath.

"....Where. Are. You." Arven's tinny voice sounds like he's speaking through his teeth.

"Uh..." N closes his eyes, wracking his brain for the translation he needs.

At that moment, Chansey seems to have struck some kind of nerve with you because you jolt upright with a loud cry of pain as you double over, reopening the wound in your torso.

"Was that--" Arven is interrupted by the sound of your scream.

N drops the phone as he rushes to your side, and it clatters to the floor, shattering the screen on the hard, half frozen ground.

He gets there just in time to watch in disgust as you vomit off to the side then slump over, passed out and bleeding again.

Chansey huffs and uses heal pulse on you again.

-

Arven doesn't know where to begin. You're lost and hurt somewhere with N. He said something about it being cold, and then the line went dead.

What the fuck was he going to do?

His hands are shaking, so he stuffs them in his pockets to try and still them.

You're alive. You're out of the cave. Probably? You're alive. You're hurt. But you're alive. He can work with that.

N said something about it being cold...and snowing rain. Did he mean a snow storm? That seems like the most likely thing, right?

If that's the case then the two of you are probably stuck on Glaseado Mountain.

Arven eyes it in the distance. There's definitely some kind of storm going on up there.

Fuck... He has to find you.

[twotailednekomata]

Had a terrible session of Rimworld today. Fire after mental breaks after fire after mental breaks.

What makes these worse is that:

Currently a majority of my guinea pigs have the plague

Before that, three of my 6 pawns (four female adults, a male infant and another female adult that can't do jack shit due to a quest) contracted a flu and, soon afterwards, a fire happened

Before above two bullet points, a few minor electrical fires

The only person that can firefight has a., the aforementioned flu and b., also happens to be the main plant & mining pawn

(Not that she really has time to go mining due to a severe lack of food...)

The other person who can technically firefight is a pyromaniac w/ firefoam xenogene. (She was a child when the colony formed so I put full blame on myself for making her a pyromaniac)

Colonist are often spread thin so when one gets a huge movement debuff, it throws a massive wrench on everything

Gauranlen tree is a bitch to maintain. The linked person (the firefoam pyromaniac) is the main animals person and the only one hunting for everybody

On the topic of animals, starving ducks were a major problem for a while (don't worry on this one, I sold the majority of them (too many ducks...))

The infant got the flu so I tried to not let his mother (the Highmate, by the way) breastfeed him but then I realized why I did not do that in the first place: the lack of food

(That idea might've worked. I traded for some insect jelly that I would've used as baby food if the quest colonist did not go on a food binge because she was constantly insulted by the plant colonist (another mental break))

I'm so used to freezing my food that to suddenly lose access to that ability for a long time is kicking me in the ass

You know shit's bad if the normally happy Highmate had a few mental breaks over the course of a couple in-game months

I had electricity, a moderate-sized house, a surplus of food & items, a good couple of colonists (nothing like a dozen but enough to get by) and properly feed animals. Everything was looking up for expansion. After a very destructive fire, I'm finding it very difficult to rebuild back to my former size.

I understand that it is due to my lack of colonists. If I had at least one pawn dedicated to mining, that alone would speed up the process of getting back all my production and electricity facilities (including my research bench).

All I can hope for is more colonists via quests and capturing people (if I remember to do the latter on downed raiders...).

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Neo Champion Rosa

Fun fact! Meloetta is my favorite mythical Pokemon. I adore this little Vocaloid baby. So I've been anticipating the day it finally got added. I always expected more of a seasonal/PokeFair kinda deal, maybe with Lisia, but apparently we're going full-on Master Fair with Rosa. So she's gonna be good, right?

General Overview Psychic Support.  An instant OHKO on my hopes for a Normal Meloetta that type shifts, but I guess the plus side is my Psychic army is ever-growing.  Also, she does type shift to Fighting, and all her moves seem to be Normal, as her sync is listed with Normal-type damage modifiers, so...I don't know, theme skills are weird.

Buddy Relic Song has AoE, and gives +1 crit, +2 to a random stat, and transforms Meloetta each use, with a passive giving +1 PMUN and SMUN each transformation.  Her first attack in each form applies Psychic or Fighting rebuff, she gets both, and each attack gives +1 Sp Def (Aria) or +1 Def (Pirouette).  Her trainer move is a pop +2 PMUN (Pirouette) or SMUN (Aria), with +2 team speed.  She is the most consistent moves up next stacker in the game, with the most consistent fast-acting stacks in the game at present for either offensive type.  And that's just her base kit, with two moves.  She has Potion, and changes between Sing in Aria, and Teeter Dance in Pirouette.  Her grid provides options like Precision Pals, MPR1 for even more stacking, Force Field/Team Stoic to get some guaranteed defenses, Curative Confusion for passive regen, Easy Pickings for random debuffs on foes, double Potion MPR, and Go Viral in case you really need Sing to just mess with the whole team, but I actually think Go Viral sleep is detrimental at this point in my life.

Rosa's rotation is fairly clear, at least to me.  Spam Buddy move out the gate, while your allies handle boosting Atk/Sp Atk by themselves.  By the time they're done, you're around first sync, which Rosa takes, getting Support EX buff.  She then kicks in Sprint role and ramps so you're guaranteed second sync before foe's first.  Then you either use Buddy move once to get to the form you want, or go straight to TM to stack moves up, until the opponent dies.  There is no mercy.  Only Meloetta.

Rosa's problems, however, are just as apparent. The main one is her Buddy move conditional. She needs to "not be in a pinch." Which is that red blinking HP level around 25%. Heavy hits in CS are a massive threat to her, and if she's taking Half Healing as a parameter, which is often free money in CS, it's hard to get her back on track. She also can't reliably buff Atk/Sp Atk, which means she's excellent for top-tier self-sufficient damage dealers, but pretty bad otherwise. Also she needs partners with good DPS attacks; low DPS gets borderline nothing from her. Another flaw, and this seems to be a personal stance, is that Sing is a bad decision. Yes, I hear you, general meta theorists. Sleep is insanely powerful and broken as a status for disruption. But it also means Rosa can't queue another action before the foe re-queues, which means if she's sleep-locking, she's not doing literally anything else. It also means having to run Troublemaker as a lucky skill to hit literally anything ever, because 45% accuracy. Even with the +20 accuracy she can get from grid, which is expensive and removes her better utility, AND the Precision Pals effect on TM, that's...around 85% accuracy. Which is still far too shaky to rely on. But she doesn't get Vigilance, so you're leaving yourself wide open on crits.

Which brings us to the big flaw. My first opinion of Rosa was "this seems kinda tame." It's because her grid sucks ass. Her kit does a lot, but considering that Blue not only had a super good base kit but also got an absurd grid that gave him even further tools that were unnecessary? Rosa feels like she should be getting more than this. Her tools are underwhelming on grid, and it's hard to build anything overly cohesive out of it. And like...no built-in Vigilance? I thought we fixed this shit with Melony; if you have Sing, you want Vigilance on grid so you can take Troublemaker, otherwise you're Elio, who is bad. Melony got this, but somehow Master Fair Rosa didn't? Why? This isn't exactly a tall order if a general pool can do it. Even her ability to boost team defense is +1 per attack, similar to Blue, but without his offense debuffing and chance for flinch. They even have the audacity to make them two separate skills on opposite ends of the grid. Rosa's grid legitimately feels like one of the worst all year for very little reason.

My stance on Rosa lands somewhere between "This is the best support in the game" and "Oddly under-kitted." Depending on partner, she's either the unquestionable best partner for 3v3 content given her stacking and defensive backbone with healing, or she's accomplishing next to nothing because her kit locked her into one niche unlike NC Blue who got to do literally everything at the same time. I think if the grid were less garbage, she'd have an argument for being better than him. But as it stands, she's at home among the other Master Fair support, but I don't know if I'd call her strictly better than Bede, and certainly not better than Blue. Which is just typical Kanto bias shit. My favorite couldn't just lose to Kanto, but to Zapdos? Rude.

EX, Role, and Move Level? If you're looking at Rosa like damn.  I wish I had that kind of stacking power.  1/5 has all you need.  Legitimately, she's fine 1/5.  EX is a good idea for the stats, given her buddy move conditional, but you only need the one copy.  3/5 is when you just get silly with the defensive backbone she doesn't need but will gladly take, and some other niche tools that don't do much because again, I do not respect her grid.  The EX Role is honestly one of the most worth it things ever.  Support/Sprint is one of the best combos in the game, and my pick for outright best.  It's perfect pace for 3v3 metas, ensuring two syncs before foe's first even without quad queue, denial, or Adrenaline.  Supremely worth it. And good news! She's the first and currently only Sprint sub-Role! So you have the cake. Choose wisely though, because there's good odds of SST Red and Aura Cynthia at the start of the year with roles, and I have a feeling Cynthia's getting Sprint.

Team 1: NC Rosa, SS Lana, SS Lusamine Alright let's start with one on-type pick each, the best of each kind.  Lusamine Hours.  Rosa's +1 crit is all Lusamine needs for a successful fast-ramping nuke, and the ability to stack both types of Moves Up Next means both Lana and Lusamine fire at maximum capacity at all times.  With a defensive-minded grid, she is able to consistently provide what Bede could not: a serious means of survival in High Score.  Potion's pop heal just doubles down on this flexibility, achieving an absolutely bonkers performance.  With Lana and Lusamine already fast-ramping to Lusamine's transformation, and Meloetta's Sprint role, she even contributes meaningfully to the ongoing Psychic Ramp meta.

Team 2: NC Rosa, NC Hop, Rei "But Aura Cynthia-" redundant.  Rosa stacks harder than Cynthia could ever imagine, and the rebuff is much better than duplication of Zone.  And with Rei's Sprint role, welcome to fast ramp central, complete with sure-flinch lockdown and rapid defensive drops.

Team 3: NC Rosa, Anni Lillie, Renegade Cynthia Okay, time to start getting a little silly with it.  NC Rosa's ability to boost team speed, as well as boosting both offenses, anchors a dual strike opportunity like Lillie and Cynthia.  Anni Lillie has tremendous DPS, and adores the stacks of SMUN.  Meanwhile, Cynthia has the ability to store one type of moves up for the other, including a potential explosion off of Shadow Force.  Having both options at her disposal allows Cynthia to just go ballistic here.

Team 4: NC Rosa, SS N, Glaceon/Colress As alluded to in the previous set, one thing Rosa can be incredibly funny for is the 2-turn move nuke. SS N's Freeze Shock is bullshit powerful, having 300BP at base. Now consider a situation where N gets to throw out Freeze Shock, but he's loaded up with PMUN. And also there's either Zone, or there's Def debuffs. Are we really...going to argue this one? I might actually, a non-EX SS N often fails me. Two-turn damage is still a problem.

Team 5: NC Rosa, SS Hilda, Blaine/NC Leaf SS Hilda is similar to Renegade Cynthia, being extremely high damage, but having both physical and special moves available.  She can DPS nuke both ways.  Add in Sun, and her damage is frankly batty.  It doesn't even matter where the Sun comes from, anyone will do, but Leaf is the comedy hour option.

Team 6: NC Rosa, Nemona, Volkner/Jolteon Another fun option: Nemona.  Nemona operates on burst damage, she's not good at DPS.  Rosa's stacks PMUN for Nemona to throw around on her Buddy move as needed, while also having that coveted Sprint role for repeat fast-ramping.  Nemona instant ramps, Rosa ramps off her sync, into Nemona's sync, which is also a ramp.  Speedrunning. There's honestly an argument for Paulo in here if you have him. Just triple fast-ramp sync nuke deluxe, with two of them being Support.

Team 7: NC Rosa, Anni Steven, S!Liza Okay, NOW it's time to talk.  NC Rosa, because of her buddy conditional, approaches CS with a bit of apprehension around field effects.  The shuffling of parameters often means taking Offenses +5, which is when things get scary.  When she ignores field effects, Rosa is at her most devastating.  And with that in mind, enter one of my favorite cores, Anni Steven and Summer Liza.  Both of them have very effective physical DPS, with Steven having fantastic speed control and Liza having the ability to rotate in Free Moves Next and her own PMUN.  Rosa's ability to boost defense for the team off a 3/5 grid allows Liza to get to TM second turn with full Atk.  Her TM boosting team speed eases their rotation of offense as well, as they throw around ridiculous numbers.  And again, because Rosa can ramp with Sprint role, there's no more of this need for a denial to keep on pace.  Liza will sync, and she will kill.

Team 8: NC Rosa, Paulo, Emmet Sprint ramping is real, and Paulo was a huge proponent of it with his sub-Support role.  Paulo can take first sync to throw out his own Buddy move, which also removes Rosa's grid energy from defense boosting to put into other fun tools like Precision Pals on TM for their accuracy issues.  Paulo's GMax having Sandstorm application, and his free -2 with Emmet's -1 TM in Sandstorm composing a fast-ramp, makes this a fairly strong Sandstorm core.  That can then pivot into Rosa taking second sync for further ramping, with double Support EX bonus and massive stacks of moves up next on both allies.  The accuracy here is key; Rosa's ability to grid in accuracy salvages the issues I have with Paulo's base kit.

Team 9: NC Rosa, Roxie, Looker I want to use this opportunity to stress something important.  When you're dealing with these heavy moves up next stackers?  +4 offense is sufficient.  Obviously, +6 is the ideal, but you can make do.  To that end, Roxie and Looker.  +4 offenses is just fine for them, with the moves up next stacks more than making up for the missing +2.  And with Rosa, there's always the chance that she rolls that +2 anyway.

Team 10: NC Rosa, Will, Brycen Okay this is really stupid but I realized something I could do and it was WAY too funny not to consider. So, Rosa has Teeter Dance, right? But no Stop Hitting Yourself. She partners with pairs who do, though. Mallow has poor offensive setup, and Sidney has poor DPS. But Will? Will has Stored Power. "But wait," you say. "Will has no self setup at all! How is he relevant?" Not so. Remember, Five Stats +3 is a thing. Will can simply copy and double their buffs, to get all his stats to +6 instantly! "Okay but...now you're dealing with stronger opponents." Not with Brycen here to Haze that shit. "Crystal this feels like a bad plan that could very easily backfire." True. But I bet it works.

Final Thoughts Rosa seems very good, and I am excited to try out her kit. I will acknowledge I think she also has some serious flaws which limit the teams she can support. She does not play well with sync nukers with low DPS, and she doesn't play nice with those who need full offensive support. But she does offer the best and most consistent moves up next stacking in the game at current, and given it's literally "every time you attack, +1 to both," this feels like a cap in the same way Aura Cynthia was. I doubt we'll get directly better than this any time soon. We just have to hope the Buddy move conditional isn't too great a burden.

[crapmagak]

Engage Drip Marketing: Yunaka

This one’s a day late. Wanted to get some personal writing finished first.

I figured we’d get the remaining royals first, but instead it seems like we’re getting Yunaka first. In terms of design, I’m kind of dispassionate. Like, I’m used to the overall style of engage characters, so she seems like nothing new. And as dumb as they are, side waist windows is such a niche design choice that I appreciate the novelty. Also, oh look, a short girl that doesn’t look like a baby, mostly thanks to booba. I do unironically like that shade of red/ purple they used for her hair though.

Now, for the intro tweet…

Yunaka is a strange girl you meet during your travels. She's bright and active, and gets along easily even with people she's just met thanks to her good vibes.

And the Cutscene tweet…

Yunaka is trying to find something she dropped. Maybe these two nice people will help her.

Yunaka: "How could I mess up like this..."

Alfred: "You there."

Yunaka: "Huh?"

Alfred: "What are you doing crying in a place like this? Is something wrong?"

Yunaka: "...Yi-"

Alear: "You must be in shock. Sorry for suddenly talkin-"

Yunaka: "Yipee! Help is here!"

So, at first glance, she seems to be your typical cute and plucky thief girl. Considering the cutscene takes place at night, I think we’ll end up recruiting her after the night village map. The presence of Alfred makes me confident of this. 

Of course, the juicier stuff is shown off in the crit clip…

Yunaka's starting class is Thief. Good at picking locks and dazzling enemies with swift moves. Uses daggers, capable of poisoning enemies with them.

Not gonna lie. When Yunaka’s voice went deep and cold for her crit quip, she shot up from a 4/10 to a 9/10. Also, the gold plating on her legs looks dope. If Yunaka turns out to be like a gremlin version of Charlotte from Fates, she may end up being one of my faves. 

As for the clip itself, it takes place in the ruins chapter, so nothing new here. However, another tweet I don’t feel like copy and pasting did shine some light on how daggers will function. Not only are they 2 ranged, but they inflict the poison status, which works differently, again… 

So in old dames, poison worked like in more typical jrpg’s, dealing a little bit of damage and wearing off in a couple turns. This meant it was about as dangerous as a gnat when integrated into Fire Emblem gameplay. In fates, it shaved off 10% of your health after combat. That doesn’t seem like much, but if you weren’t careful it could fuck you up fast. Especially if a unit was surrounded by multiple enemies that could inflict it.

In Engage, poison seems to be a stackable defense debuff, and one that doesn’t go away on its own. Since we don’t exactly see how much your defense is affected, I can’t really say what my thoughts are. This could be op/ frustrating, or this could be largely irrelevant. Only time will tell.

Honestly, though, I feel like status effects just don’t work in Fire Emblem. Even in typical jrpg’s status effects are hard to do right. If they aren’t punishing enough, they might as well not even be there. If they’re too punishing, they feel unfair and unfun. And a lot of them limit or take away your control in some way. And in Fire Emblem, where so much happens each turn, where merely one or two rounds of combat can mean life or death, where the mere act of position of unit affects so much, any act of taking the players control away can put them in unfair positions. Easier to manage and understand stat changes could make this work though, as long as it’s easier for the player to know what those changes will be ahead of time.

[skit-cha]

Origin World Building Headcanons:

Enderian Canon

+ Can Teleport with Enderpearls without having Any.

+ Can Reach further.

- Takes damage from water.

- Is terrified of Pumpkins.

• Enderian Additional Worldbuilding

+ Since enderians are derived from the enderdragon, Endermen with a tail, or/and wings are higher in the hierarchy of the end. Meaning if you are without either you are considered lower class.

+ Different skin tones to enderians are rare, though not unseen. You definitely get looks if you are something considered a rare color. Which is typically anything that isn't on the greyscale excluding white, which is the rarest pigmentation.

+ When stressed, an enderman leaves dust residue on objects, as a form of “stress indicator” so you could imagine the amount of clean up after a stressful event.

+ enderians have different blood colors, coordinating with their eye color. Heterochromia? A mixture of the two, or follow a dominant gene!

+ sometimes enderians are born with almost translucent paws or patches of skin (akin to vitiligo) and so you could see their blood color through the tips of their fingers, tails, wings, horns and ears.

Elytrian Canon

+ Has wings by Nature

+ Can launch themselves into the air every 30 seconds.

+ deals double damage while flying

- can only wear light armor

- takes more kinetic damage

- receives a stacking debuff when in places with low roofs.

• Elytrian Additional Worldbuilding

+ when Elytrians are babies, they sometimes grow little tufts of feathers on their cheeks arms and sometimes sides but eventually they molt off as they get older with age.

+ Elytrians can do something akin to a click, and or a raptor call, this is to help find other Elytrians and sometimes this is how they express an emotion more thoroughly.

+ As Elytrians get older, their feathers gray and begin to molt until they are so old to the point their wings are nothing but the soft underfeathers that protect their wings from any harm.

+ Elytrians express their gratitude through beads, and gems. The more beads in an Elytrians hair, the more they are respected.

+ Elytrians heirarchy is divided into gems, but they travel in a flock (family, friends, relatives and so on) until they find a Village they wish to settle in. The highest on the heirarchy for Elytrians is Emerald, then follows in ranking by order- Opal, Amethyst, Ruby, Sapphire. Elytrians that resemble these ranks in the heirarchy, have these sort of beads in their hair or attached to their wings (carefully attached to a feather[s] near the tip of their wings).

+ You will almost never see an Elytrian alone unless they are specifically a rogue from their village. Then, rogues tend to collect all sorts of gems and decorate their hair with it. Rogues are commonly pointed out because they dont have a specific gem dedicated into their beading. But ALSO rogues tend to not bead their hair at all, and so it varies.

• Blazeborn Canon

+ is immune to fire and lava damage

+ deals more damage while burning

+ is immune to poison and hunger status effects

- Starts the game in the nether

- Takes damage while in contact with water

• Blazeborn Additional Worldbuilding

+ Blazeborns most of the time travel alone. The only time they would travel in pairs or trio at most is if they were family, or traversing the overworld together.

+ blazeborns, when in contact with water and inflict serious wounds, will begin to die out and the affected area will look that of a incense when its burning, small red ember patches and ashes will surround that area.

+ Blazeborns burn things when they touch them so when they are near people they tend to seclude themselves away from those who can easily be burned. Because of this, a lot of blazeborns are touch starved.

• Arachnid Canon + has the ability to climb + Hinders foes from cobweb on attack - has three less hearts of life - can only eat meat (carnivorous)

• Arachnid Additional Worldbuilding + Arachnids typically live in cave colonies or tree colonies, its easy to find treehouses linked with roped bridges traversing in a jungle which is a big indicator that you are within a arachnid civilization. Caves civilizations have a complicated tunnel system, akin to ant tunnels, except they're completely covered in cobwebs. + Toxic and non-toxic arachnids have few defining features. Such as larger fangs if they are a toxic spider. Toxic arachnids also have more of a decorative skin pattern to them than the non-toxic arachnids, very bright colors and patterns is what they are mainly known for, along with clean faces, and neatly done hair. as opposed to the non-toxic spiders who are more camouflaged, and messy kept hair. Though, both of them have amazing personal hygiene. + Arachnids, instead of having a half spider half human body, have a more humanoid like look. They appear human, but have multiple eyes and abnormal skin patterns and colors. They seem very stoic, or very feral depending on the species you encounter.

[isaacathom]

I made my 5 OCs duke it out, yeehaw

So there's 5 of them. In order, we have:

Calvyre - Lvl7 Echo Knight Fighter / Lvl3 Trickster Cleric

Devin - Lvl2 Rogue / Lvl8 Whispers Bard

Florian - Lvl10 Samurai Fighter

Naielle - Lvl10 Celestial Warlock

Zimri - Lvl10 Bladesinging Wizard

An important thing to note is that only Calvyre, Devin, and Naielle are native to 5e. Florian originates from the WitcherTTRPG and I picked Samurai as an approximate of the Man-At-Arms class, and Zimri's a Pathfinder 1e Magus. For the three native to 5e, only Naielle has ever been played canonically at a level close to this (9) - Calvyre saw play as a lvl1 Fighter, and Devin was a 2/1 Rogue Bard, as memory serves. Putting them in this arena was largely a courtesy and numbers thing, and also because Naielle fighting Devin was where this all sort of started.

So the format is straightforward - Each will verse the others twice. So 8 matches per character. Some of that is to offset me learning how their skillsets work, and some of it is to try and offset first turn bias. This was important for someone.

After all 20 matches were done, this was the tally.

Calvyre's sole win was against Florian, in which she echo kited his ass. Devin's wins were 1 against Zimri (first turn bias, baby), and 2 against Calvyre. Florian's losses were the aforementioned Calvyre, and both fights against Zimri. Zimri's 3 losses were aforementioned Devin, and both against Naielle. Naielle's 2 losses were both against Florian, funnily enough.

There's a cute lil chart breakdown of the damages dealt. Which I only did because I was procrastinating HW and wanted to make things colourful and Math. So it shows off that Zimri was the best damager, and Calvyre+Devin pretty bad. Which sort of tracks with the way the tally went. Interestingly, Naielle was the only person who successfully dealt damage to everyone, which everyone else experiencing at least one match where they did nothing.

That was where some of the first turn bias came in. Zimri and Devin, in their two matches, traded spots in that regard. Very funny to me.

Then I decided to do the same table, but moderated by the person's HP. So, eg, the 119 that Devin did against Calvyre (first table, upper left) was divided by 80 (Calvyre's HP) to get 1.49, or 149% of Calvyre's HP (that is because she heals, and also overkill). And then running those through the same calcs as the previous breakdown. Which shows that Naielle did better average damage (makes sense, as she had to do a minimum of 100% against 6 of her 8 opponents, and with two people who can heal? yknow how it is). I just thought it was fun.

And then the big money. So now that I had the ranking, I decided to stage a 2v3, between the top two and the bottom 3. Naielle teamed up with Zimri (who edged out Florian on the basis that they had beaten him both times they fought), and Calvyre, Devin, and Florian contested. A best of three situation.

Which went. Great.

The numbers really don't tell shit, I gotta say. But, baring in mind that Naielle+Zimri have a collective 166* HP and Calvyre+Devin+Florian have a collective 221, well, yknow. And then remembering healing gets involved. its. its a bit ridiculous.

(*As a Celestial Warlock, Naielle gets an extra 15temp hp, and Zimri got 10)

The main thing this does is show off just how devastating a well-aimed aoe is, since in the way ive been counting it, each instance of damage is tallied against the person it hits. So, eg, a Cone of Cold that Zimri used which dealt 30dmg to all three members of the CDF trio adds 30 against each one. so. yknow how it is. Wizards, man.

It mainly shows off how deadly Zimri is, and how un-damaging Devin is. but that doesnt tell the story. Because Devin isn't a damage dealer - she's a debuffer. In round 1, which the CDF won, this was because she was able to cast Confusion on Zimri, allowing them to get wailed on by the two melee characters while she could fuck with Naielle, who couldn't do anything to help. Similarly, Naielle and Calvyre are both supports of a kind, and Naielle spent many turns using her bonus-action healing from being a Celestial warlock, and Calvyre spent MANY turns in round 3 just doing cure wounds specifically on Devin. It was a whole situation.

Round 3 alone took me like 2 hrs to run, because its a lot to track and ive been down this in the most scuffed way imaginable (using Minecraft as my VTT and having 5etools and the character sheets up on another monitor, lmao)

Truly it was a wild ride. Devin did pretty badly in the main brackets and it was genuinely a delight to see her shine in her role as just. an absolute bitch. The MVP of Round 3 by a wide margin, and the Blindness/Deafness spell in particular took the cake. Absolutely devastating.

[istherewifiinhell]

Reading progress: chapter 300 (what the fuck)

reading highlight: this time with. so so many probably inaccurately copied quotes. forgive me. i was trying to eat my own pen. and also notebook. and also arm.

Square brackets are. when not quoting text. my own meta reactions or clarifications

280 Cheok jungyeong tries to uplift the ppl and fight outer god. I do love him.

sword saint and kyrgios. battle couple

Indescribable Distance. great name for a (baby girl) unknowable horror.

281 kdj bullshit. commence.

[often i lose track of whose taking but in this section they were focusing on jhw] "I can't let you go! don't go alone again! please! Dokja-Hyung!"

swk (looks at) his friend ABFD (looks at) his adversary CJY (gives) furious yell

oh yjh baby

live and death companions is silent

yjh spoke in a trembling voice

282 txt revision yjh is fucked up and depressed

kdj told ysa the plan in ADVANCE

indescribable distance -> Oh like the pale? (DE)

■ final chapter OR eternity. inch resting

283 sprawling chaos

SP "I don't agree with your methods but I'm curious" the kdjc story

284 SP and wenny man ominous interlude

(bunch of constellations dying in front of him) kdj picking up video game items

"For a brief second I felt my heart stop. Scarred muscles could be seen through the torn sleeves of the coat. I looked at the trajectory of the sword against the ground and emotions filled my heart."

285 middle school kdj made a yjh whisperer chart

"Son of a bitch you have to let me talk to you" classic

kdj lack understanding to 2nd level orv (ugly crying meme)[on kdj side]

4th wall trying to fry yjh brain with the greatest hits comp

286 only person who can debuff yjh? yjh. regression depression [YOUD THINK THAT WOULDNT U]

the angels are just chilling with kdj?

"He will commit terrible destruction and shall destroy the mighty and holy people" gabriel girl what the fuck

kdj literally "you dont have all the facts" the facts being? "i love him..."

gabriel has seen uriels amvs and okays it

kdj aggravates regression depression. hold his hand and tell him happy moments. you know. to torment. him.

Ethics??

288 giant baby monster. skyscraper height

angel conversational interlude -> "they were fighting and holding each others by the collar a few hours ago". welcome to dokhyuk

kdj seemed to be stroking yjh head. -> excuse me?

gabriel comparing dokhyuk to her and uriel. HELLO?

kdj making yjh eat soil. ETHICS...

289 "bear like man lhs" i stay winning

↳ kdj are u gonna cry about seeing him

knw! hi!

290 this patient is allergic to animal related stories

HDH! hi!

this is a hospital and base of operations?

mjw!

hsy... did what kdj would have done. but without yjh.

hsy... two of them

291 hsy multiplicity moments (orv doesn't work)

ppl crowd yjh like an attraction

yjh eyes became hot and his heart stuffy -> crying? anger?

yjh remembers from 4th wall. uriel doll... like a child first learning to speak "uriel"

292 hankim. dressed the same. playing mind games. socratic

lhs gives piggy back to hsy

hsy power b/c nothing is truly original + TWOS is just that bad

Damnit. I had no choice but to agree. In order for this world to be complete, Yoo Joonghyuk... Han Sooyoung stared at me. She seemed to understand what i was thinking. "You know by now, I don't need him in this world." The plagiarist, who dreamt of a world beyond the original told me "I know how to kill YJH"

293 Hsy probability based arthritis

HSY grabbing YJH chin. pulling out a cig. howd you get so cool hsy...

294. 1863 lhs is still a sad dog boy huh

knw... kdj is giving girl advice?.... no never mind hes talking about how handsome yjh is.

1863 got to read orv... and it reg deps him

295 SP really wanted 1863 to die huh?

hsy to kill yjh by sealing the earth. an eternal sleep. no dreams no waking. (to die. to sleep. No more, and by a sleep to say we end the heartbreak and 1000 natural shocks that flesh is heir to)[the final chapter... or eternity]

"It is a deception" "Some call it salvation"

defiance to yjh sponsor... always

296 YJH ORV JFC

"I watched Yjh, I heard it clearly. I was still listening [I want to live]"

kdj would see the end with these ppl and find a way back

"The world that you showed me? Does it really exist"

297 "Does the world where you live really exist?" [its the emphasis change thats killing me here]

hsy "Is it cause of this guy? Did this guy do something to your spirit? Didn't you want to die so badly? Aren't you tired? Don't you want to stop preforming scenarios?"

yjh desperate for hope hsy begging for pragmatism kdj (deluded) faith in a only win scenario

yjh agreed to become enemy of the world, lost everything -> unites the world

yjh "does it (exist)?" kdj "I didn't know if saying would be comforting to yjh. I cried out with all my might [It exists]"

kdj ready to spend 3-5 years here to win both 1863 and then return to 3rd turn. yjh wont let him

"the dazzling light filled the air with ashes, revealing a pale reality. In it yjh was walking towards a world we didn't know."

298 "Yjh escaped from being a character"

lhs beautiful bear like idiot. knew hsy was tricking them. went with it anyway

yjh "wanted to write a new story in a very sincere manner. that's the condition for the author trait"

TWOS written by? large baby?

299 yjh dead "It's no longer a novel" 4th wall activated

oh no (checks notes) Jophiel dont sacrifice yourself

J: I don't believe in you (kdj) but i have something to ask.... bruh

"Someone was left and someone was leaving. No matter what was chosen, everyone would eventually reach their end." (Someone has to leave first. This is a very old story. There is no other version of this story.)

lhs continues to imprint on kdj

"Even without me the 3rd round would be fine for a lone time" "How can you be so sure?" HSY stared at me suspiciously. "You are there" -> WHAT THE FUCK AFFECTIONATE KDJ HANKIM MOMENT

rotating: okay. okay. alright. where to even fucking start. small. start small. kdjs friends have even cottoned on pretty well to his bullshit. jhw in particular doesnt want him to do things alone. shouldnt you give people the choice to stand (and die) with you. than leave and die and force them to keep living alone. this is a secret tool that will help us later

im considering. the weight put on endings. ■■. the closer it is to meaning, truly, an end. the more... auspicious? and is an end a finite or infinite thing. final chapter or eternity. death or endless sleep. life or forever regression

im considering. stories. and ownership. and what does it mean to end one. rewrite one. does it change you. does it change the original story. are they gone forever. could they every truly stay. the moment you reread the story. isnt it different. kdj cant let go of 1863 by his own volition (always... volition). it meant everything to him. from middle school to 28 years of age. TWOS yjh saved him. HSY, who, in so many ways is kdj, and in so many was, is not. has no loyalty to yjh. she can make this world without him, she can write beyond it. she will put this world to bed and she will create something else. 1863 yjh has nothing. no companions, no hope, just loss. and 4th tells him the story of our 3rd turn. OF. ORV. and this is what he needs. to live and die. to leave. to try again. to person himself once more, to act and not react. possibly. killing himself, killing this story, is an act of creation too

and. speaking of yjh and being a person. we. i gotta talk about this. and im gonna try and make sense and use sentences but. i have. just. why did they have kdj caress yjh and put him in a highly suggestible state by whispering sweet (tormenting) nothings to him. what... what what what. do you think they meant by that (they meant to torment me....). With making him follow kdj very command. With making him incapable of acting *without* the command. He's an attack dog. Bodyguard. Instrument for violence. Kdj also makes him eat dirt. Kdj also tells him to go to bed (and then to sleep. He needed to be told to *sleep*). The people in the 1863 base crowd around him. They gawk. The world's enemy and most dangerous person. Docile. A toy? Hsy grabs him by the chin, inspects him. He's a thing. Kdj. In knowing everything about him. With tenderness. In an act of terrible love. To avoid having to kill him. Unmakes his person. What the ever living fuck am I supposed to do with that.

[jupitermelichios]

On a more possitive note, I’ve started watching Sword Art Online. It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen (and the last film I saw in cinemas was Cats to give you context for the scale i’m working on here) and I kind of adore it in much the same way I love garbage like Smallville or Twilight. It’s so stupid on so many levels. You could challenge someone to write the worst anime, and it would almost certainly be better than SAO. It’s almost hypnotic how terrible it is.

No one should watch this terrible terrible show so I therefore don’t feel at all bad that I’m about the spoil absolutely everything, but honestly if you do also hate-watch this please come talk to me about how terrible it is. I don’t know anyone else who watches it.

Highlights of Season 1 include:

everyone is trapped in an MMO, and if you die in the MMO you die IRL. but if you were a beta-tester you’re probably fine because they just let them keep all their levels and items from the testing, so they’re all massively OP and everyone just accepts this as a normal and non-game-breaking thing

it’s a fantasy MMO but there’s no races, no magic system, no weapons except swords and maces, and not even an option to dual wield - literally all you can do in this fucking game is stand in front of an enemy and mash the attack button. I’m pretty sure they’re trapped there because the devs realised no one would play this post launch-day otherwise because it’s boring as shit

when the villain traps everyone he also just changs all their avatars to look like they do IRL for absolutely no reason, like actually none, he doesn’t even say he thinks it would be funny, he just does it and no one questions it and it is literally never mentioned again because this is the worst TV show ever animated.

in the second episode the main character deliberately witholds information about how to defeat a boss, indirectly causing multiple deaths. there is absolutely no reason for him to withhold it, he was just being a jerk because he doesn’t like people

in the third episode they reset his entire personality and he’s now a selfless hero pretending to be a lower level than he really is so people will find him more relateable and be his friend because all he wants is to help people. this is not a consequence of episode 2, they just decided they didnt like the character as he’d previously been written.

he makes some new friends who are all objectively terrible people who have decided for no season that the twelve year old who doesn’t really know how to play and keeps having anxiety attacks about the very real possibility of death has to be the guild tank. the MC is high enough level to be functionally immortal in like half the levels, but doesn’t tell anyone this he just lets them go on bullying this child

none of his friends survive that episode, in the game or IRL. which is also a christmas epsiode. a child dies in battle because she’s a terrible tank and then a man commits suicide out of guilt, so then the main character murders santa to try and bring them back from the actual dead but it doesn’t work because again, this is a video game and they are dead IRL, so then he walks off into the snow alone. Christmas!

we meet the best character in the entire show in episode 4, Rosalia, who has gone evil and started just straight murdering people because she’s sick of being an attractive adult woman who can’t get a date because she’s surrounded by lolicons who are only interested in the preteen characters (not a joke, that comes up, the show is firmly on the side of the lolicons)

in the same episode we get an extended bra and panty sequence staring an actual fucking child, like canonically this character is maybe 13 at best. this is one of only 2 occaisions when they feel the need to undress a character and it’s the fucking 12 year old, it’s so gross it reads like a parody of itself

literally every single named female character aged over 8 who talks to the MC falls in love with him after like 5 minutes (and in season 2 this includes his actual sister). he shows absolutely no interest in any of them (including his sister, thank god) until...

the main character gets engaged to a girl he only knows from an MMO after a virtual single date (he doesn’t actually win her in a PVP match but only because he looses the match, he 100% canonically tries to win her in a match, which she is apparently fine with). he then doesn’t bother to ask for her real name until the final episode, he just calls her by her screen name

(that’s okay though becuase it turns out that this moron of a love interest used her real name, on a local server, in a game where your character looks like you do IRL, because apparently getting doxxed is her hobby)

they then get in-game married off screen. there’s not even like a still of a wedding photo. nothing. the main character proposes and then the show immediately jumps to the honeymoon, it’s fucking bizarre.

they find a creepy child dressed all in white with no memory alone in the woods a week into their honeymoon who starts calling them mommy and daddy literally seconds after they first meet her, and they don’t suspect anything suss is going on and adopt her

for hilarity bear in mind the main character may only be 15 at this point (he says he’s only just turned 16 in the last epsiode, but his actual birthday is never mentioned), and his virtual wifu is 16, but no one ever questions the marriage or the adoption, even though ‘hey marriage in a video game is as important and meaningful as marriage in real life’ is an actual conversation people have multiple times. also they think the child they adopt is an actual IRL 8 year old who thinks these randos she met in an MMO are her mum and dad and everyone just goes with that like it’s a totally normal thing

a character called ‘Thinker’ agrees to meet an enemy faction leader for peace talks. the “peace talks” take place in a high level dungeon and he is told to come alone with no weapons and no fast travel. he does this. no one ever comments that his name is ironic, and in fact they seem to think that being betrayed and trapped in a dungeon with a boss is a totally unexpected turn of events Thinker could never have planned for

they take their new baby into the dungeon to rescue thinker, because they went to the jean grey school of baby rearing, and she imediately reveals that she’s actually a magical maggufin with infinite power, murders the grim reaper, and then dies. In literally the second episode she’s in

after she dies the MC hacks the admin account of the game, converts her corpse into an in game item, and saves to the local storage on his console, with the intention of bringing her back to life as a robot once they’re saved from the game. I’m not joking, that’s an actual thing that happens.

the fact that the main character can just access the main admin account and make massive game-breaking changes isn’t used again in that game and he never thinks to try and use it to force log people out or give himself infinite life so he can just rush the game and free everyone. nope, convert a corpse into an item and then never think about it again.

there’s an entire episode where all they do is go fishing. its the only filler episode in the season, and it immediately follows the death of a small child. it’s the most tone-deaf beach episode in writing history

it turns out this game, this game where they didn’t bother coding in any difference races, weapons, or any kind of magic system, was intended to have fully sentient AI therapists, because why the fuck not at this point honestly

oh also the game has PVP and you can trick the game into thinking a sleeping player is in PVP with you in order to actually murder a real person without it flagging in-game as a murder making the crime impossible for the real life legal system to investigate even though you just murdered a person. and they expect us to believe this game had actual beta testers. at least cyberpunk wasn’t played on microwaves you connected straight to your brain (also not a joke, the VR consoles canonically work by sending microwave radiation into your brain, no wonder VR never caught on)

the set up for the show is that they have to reach level 100 of a dungeon in order to win. At level 75, the writers got bored and the show just ends.

it turns out the power of love allows you to just break the fucking game and the main villain literally has a line about how ‘love allows you to remove debuffs, huh, we didn’t think to plan for that’ because again, there’s no metaphors in this show, everything is 100% literal including the fact that falling in love with another player means you’re immune to the paralysis status effect

power of love also allows you to very briefly become a poltergeist after being killed, but only for like 2 seconds. again not a joke or a metaphor, main character is killed but then gets to hang around as a ghost for a little bit to enable him to defeat the boss. he also doesn’t die in real life despite that being the entire fucking premise of the show, again because power of love.

the bad guy literally has no plan, he’s just doing shit for the sake of having something to do. His actions directly cause the deaths of more than 4,000 people, and it’s not even in aid of anything. they ask him why he trapped 10,000 people in an MMO and allowed them to slowly die, and he’s just like ‘huh, i forgot i did that, random’ and then just fucking peaces out

the fact that he committed one of the largest mass killings outside of war never really comes up again, as far as we know he doesn’t even go to jail. i think the show actually kind of thinks he’s a good guy, which is a fucking WILD moral stance to take on the deaths of 4000 completely innocent people for absolutely no reason

If this sounds hilari-bad but you don’t want to invest the time to watch a show which is objectively garbage, it has an abridged series which is famously better than the show it’s parodying (i’m dead serious, people have character arcs, the getting married after one date thing is properly addressed, the mc has to deal with PTSD because of all his friends dying in epsidode 3, they don’t immediately follow the death of a child with an extended fishing montage, the villain has an actual plan). It’s mostly actually pretty good, but this is the internet and it’s an abridged series, so while there are a lot fewer yikes moments than most it still has enough that I’m not comfortable recommending it without the caveat. that said I still enjoyed it a lot, although possibly not at much as pointing and laughing at the garbage that is the actual show.

[whitherliliesbloom]

You follow the scent trail of sweet flowers...until you bump into a mysterious bijou girl with starspun hair and lustrous lavender eyes. Mysterious girl far from home: “O-oh- I’m sorry... The way you’re looking at me as if you want to d-duel... W-well, i-if you in-insist..”

@windupnamazu​‘s Pokemon!AU Illya headcanons under the cut! It’s very long, so hang tight! Note the headcanons may be subject to change or updates in the future ;w; Drawings and designs of Illya’s outfits by @rosepinkwol​.

Illya’s personality is about similar with her ffxiv canon verse. Shy, reserved, very sweet and gentle. But she’s considerably more cheerful in her pokemon au form and less emotionally volatile / depressed. She still does have some lingering emotional and mental health issues though, which will be covered later. 

She became a pokemon trainer primarily to explore the world and meet more pokemon. Dueling and beating others isn’t a real priority for her, though she still does it to earn money. 

While Illya bets pokemon dollars in normal battles with trainers she is unfamiliar with or in official tournaments, she doesn’t like gambling real money when battling with friends. Instead, she’d often suggest that the loser has to treat the winner to a meal.

Extremely good cook. You’ll never go hungry or be unsatisfied in the tummy if you go camping with her. Just don’t mention that you like spicy foods or she’ll almost always assume that you’d be able to handle the same level of spice as she does (pro-tip: you probably can’t). 

She smells like the most gorgeous mix of flowers - no thanks to her Comfey often playing with her hair and wrapping flowers around her. 

She takes pokemon welfare very seriously due to her upbringing and background. She thus has a habit of releasing pokemon she captured that she feels would either be happier out in the wild or are showing signs of stress in her care. That seldom happens though, due to how loving and caring she is towards all her pokemon - most of them end up becoming very attached and even protective of her.

In the same way, she never forces a pokemon to battle, evolve or do anything they don’t want to, even if they are strong. 

Illya knows a lot about pokemon care and the likes / dislikes / proper way to take care of different types of pokemon. Thus, she makes friends with pokemon a lot easier than she does humans.

The very definition of ‘gotta catch em all!’..... but only if the pokemon wants to be with her. She loves all pokemon, regardless of her personal tastes and will treat any pokemon she comes across with respect and care as long as they mean no harm to her. 

Knows basic first aid for both humans and pokemon. And much like in canon, her pain tolerance is incredibly high.

She’s very particular about money. Short-change her, and she’ll be very very cross. After all, less money means less treats she can buy for her pokemon. 

In general, she’s dainty and graceful... however she is a tad more clumsy in her pokemon au form compared to canon. 

Illya is the definition of gap moe: her sweet, cute and angelic demeanor causes a lot of people to underestimate her. When they challenge her to a battle, they are later shocked by just how ferocious and skilled she is as a trainer. 

Illya has become quite famous everywhere she travels - owing to her infectiously sweet, genuine and kind nature contrasting her ferocity and skill in pokemon battles. 

She’s extremely intelligent, observant and intuitive. She often stays on the defensive for long periods of time before she works out a strategy or her opponent pokemon’s weak points before going in for the (metaphorical) kill. Reckless trainers who don’t plan accordingly are the quickest to lose to her. 

She WILL order her pokemon to use stun debuffs on your pokemon (sleep, charm etc). And she won’t apologize for it.... until the battle is over. 

As stated, since Illya doesn’t especially care about dueling or becoming known as the best pokemon trainer, she often doesn’t see the need to challenge gym leaders to duels unless her friends urge her to, or if beating a gym leader is required for her to be able to advance in her journey. 

Illya’s an extremely good sport. She’ll congratulate you wholeheartedly if you defeat her, and will also wish you ‘good fight!’ if she beats you.

Gives the best hugs - especially to her pokemon. It’s not uncommon for people to see her giving group hugs to her pokemon after a particularly tough or difficult duel.  

Illya actually has a lot of pokemon, many captured but also many that she befriended and didn’t officially ‘catch’ until they decided to follow her home. She carries a fair bunch around with her, but also left a good number of her pokemon at home to live peacefull with her father. Of course, she only enters battle with 6 pokemon at maximum, as per usual pokemon battle rules. Relationships with her main pokemon team and other notable pokemon detailed below!

While Illya is generally not one to fuss too much about her appearance or fashion, she does care about making presentable. As such, she has a more colorful and varied self-made wardrobe in her pokemon au form than she does in canon. She does however, have a favorite outfit that has become trademark to her:

A loose cloak that is fastened either with a pin or buckle, and a long flowing scarf that sways freely in the wind as she walks. Underneath her cloak, she wears a knee-length dress with a sailor collar and elbow-length sleeves and black fingerless gloves. She often switches between various hair accessories such as flower corsages, ribbons and pins. However, her brightly colored hairbands are perhaps the most well remembered to those who meet her.

Some people speculate that her scarves were sewn from the fur that was shed from her Cinccino, hence how warm and fluffy that look. Her hip length pure white hair is wrapped against her neck when she wears her scarf. 

Illya’s trademark outfit in the pokemon au has two different versions: one that she wears in the spring and summer, while the other is worn in autumn and winter. 

Her spring / summer attire is lighter- both in color and fabric. Her baby pink cloak is fastened with a flower pin atop her pink and purple dress. Intricate flower patterns adorns her skirt, and she wears ankle-length socks and purple flats. She also wears flower earrings 

Her autumn / winter attire is made of thicker, warmer material - specifically her purple cloak which has a star print and is fastened with a buckle. Her dress is a darker blue in color, with constellation and star patterning around the edge of her skirt. There are rumors that the underside of her skirt shimmers like a starry night sky... but you’d have to be out of your mind to want to look up it to confirm said rumor. Instead of socks, she wears white tights and dark blue shoes. She also wears a star hairclip and earrings to go with her blue hairband. 

Illya does not like feeling cold, and thus usually travels around wearing her cloak and scarf... however, she will on occasion take them off indoors out of respect - such as when she’s eating a meal at somebody’s house as a guest. 

Illya was born to two loving parents - Cocona, a lalafellin woman who worked as a nurse at the nearest pokemon center to their home in a small, quaint town and Lachlan, an ex-pokemon trainer who retired shortly after having his name entered into the hall of fame, now settled down to live with his wife and daughter.

Cocona’s job as a nurse gave her a lot of knowledge on how to take care of pokemon, and together with her husband set up a daycare / nursery for both young and old pokemon alike, where they spent their days taking care of many different species of pokemom. 

Born under those circumstances, Illya was exposed to pokemon since a very young age, and began playing with and interacting with pokemon as a toddler. She also quickly learned to help around the daycare, learning more about each different type of pokemon and how to best take care of each of their needs. 

At age 9, her mother fell ill with a life-threatening disease, and in order to allow his wife to see the world before she passed on, Lachlan took Cocona away on a one year journey outside their hometown, leaving Illya alone with her aunt (Cocona’s younger sister) to take care of the pokemon daycare in their absence. Unfortunately, Illya’s aunt had a somewhat sour relationship with her sister, and was neglectful towards Illya, often leaving her unattended for extended periods of time.

Illya sought refuge and comfort from the pokemon she was tasked to take of, and for a long time, they were the only ones Illya talked to. She’d take the pokemon out flower picking, stargazing. She ate with them, slept with them and vowed to take care of them to the best of her abilities for the sake of her parents.

On a particularly terrible stormy night, the land surrounding her home became flooded with rainwater and seeped into her house. While Illya scrambled to keep the water out, her pokemon were thrown into a panic, and eventually one of the baby pidoves flew out and away from her home. Illya chased after the pidove into the woods despite the rain, the wind so strong that it caused her umbrella to be carried away into the wind. 

As she ran after the pidove, she slipped and tumbled down a hill, breaking her leg. Now injured, scared and alone in the middle of the forest, the young Illya cried for help, but her voice was drowned out by the sound of the pouring rain and thunder. With nothing but the darkness of the night staring back at her and fearing that a wild animal or hostile pokemon may be lurking about and attack her, Illya attempted to crawl her way back home, but the pain from attempting to stand up only causes her to collapse once more.

It felt like the entire world had abandoned her, and just as she heard a strange noise from the shadows and feared the worse, a mimikyu approaches her from the dark and sat by her, watching over her and shielding her with its appendages, as if to reassure her that it won’t let any harm come to her. 

She was found later in the morning by the people from the nearest town, who had gone over to her house to check on her only to find she wasn’t in, her pokemon panicking and gesturing towards the forest for the townspeople to look for her. The pidove was hold safely afterwards too, trembling as it took shelter in a tree. 

The incident left Illya well traumatized, and stemmed her own growing self-hatred and anxiety which would only grow worse as she grew to become a teenager. 

She doesn’t like talking much about what happened to her as a child, and she only ever mentions the incident to people she truly cares about and trusts. And if anybody were to ever upset her by being pushy and asking her about it when she doesn’t want to share, her Mimikyu would be the first to smack the offender in the head. 

Her main pokemon team underwent a few changes over the years, but for the most part now, it’s fixed and she rarely switches members of her party out for another pokemon unless she thinks it’s really necessary.

One of the first and oldest member of her current pokemon party. Illya and her Mimikyu are inseparable. 

Mimikyu had in truth been watching her since she was but a child, enviously admiring how happy her family and her pokemon in their daycare had been together. He had, on multiple occasions, attempted to show himself in order to be part of their family, but was always too cowardly to do so. He would always scurry away whenever Illya or her parents would approach, hiding in the shadows and only ever watching from a distance. He watched her even as she was left alone, and on the fateful night of that storm where Illya would find herself lost and injured in the forest, Mimikyu folllowed her.

Watching Illya cry alone in the rain, he felt a surge of protectiveness and compelled him to finally step out of the shadow to comfort and protect her through the night. Perhaps in that instance, he saw himself in Illya, someone who was scared, alone and just wanted to be loved. He could relate to Illya’s loneliness, and loved her for the way she would love and accept any pokemon, regardless of their appearance or strength.

Since that day, Mimikyu hasn’t left Illya’s side and is one of the most protective pokemon of her. 

Mimikyu can often be found sitting on Illya’s head when he’s out of his pokeball and traveling around with her. He will extend his appendage out to grab any food that she offers him, or even to swat away anyone who gets too close to Illya.

Compared to other Mimikyu, Illya’s Mimikyu isn’t at all aggressive towards Pikachu. It is however, very shy and embarrassed and will attempt to hide if it spots one. 

As Mimikyu only really cares about what Illya thinks, he won’t attack anyone who catches a glimpse of him under his disguise. But he will be very, very grouchy.

He gets along decently well with all her other pokemon, though it is sometimes jealous of how big and strong Corviknight is.

From a distance or as a shadow, Illya’s scarf often resembles the appendage Mimikyu extends out. Once, while the pair were out in the woods and Mimikyu was sitting on Illya’s head, it extended its appendage to grab hold of a treat Illya was offering it. A distant passerby who could not see clearly in the dark of the night mistook their silhouetted figure as being a monster - or a near and frightening mythical pokemon. The myth is still circulating to this day, and Illya has no idea that it had been caused by her and her Mimikyu.  

Mimikyu doesn’t like going inside his pokeball - not that Illya would force him to. He’d of course, prefer to spend time outside with Illya. He especially never leaves her sight while she sleeps, often snuggling up to her beneath the covers or otherwise making himself comfortable in her scarf that she set aside. 

He’s surprisingly, and scarily very physically strong - able to grab hold of other pokemon and even other people several hundred times larger than itself. He uses this to his advantage by grabbing people who get too close to Illya and shoving them away - and he’s not at all gentle about it. 

Comfey shares Illya’s love and passion for flowers and it’s not uncommon to see her Comfey drifting around her, weaving flowers into her hair as she walked. The scent of the flower crowns Comfey weaves makes people who wear them feel relaxed, so she often wraps Illya in flowers whenever the girl is feeling particularly stressed or uncomfortable. 

Comfey loves decorating hotel rooms and campsites with flowers she picks from the wild, and she seems to be particularly generous when it comes to giving out her flowers to others. Friendly, sweet and kind - it’s almost as if Comfey was an extension of Illya herself sometimes. 

Comfey is the resident healer of Illya’s pokemon roster, able to not only heal the ailments of humans but also the other pokemon. She is especially active when Illya is helping out at pokemon centers or giving first aid to others. When Illya is in pain, Comfey often goes into a tearful panic. 

Corviknight’s appearance almost always gives other people a heart attack. Nobody ever expects someone as small, cute and demure as Illya to have such an intimidating looking pokemon. But she does, and she is just as affectionate to him as she is with her other pokemon. Strangely, Corviknight seems to be very uncooperative to everyone except her.

Once lacking a flying type pokemon, Illya almost fell to her death after being pushed off a cliff. Corviknight caught her in midair and hid her under his wings after he landed, guarding her with a ferocious glare even as other humans attempted to check on her. Ever since, he’s ever a watchful guardian to her, glaring from behind her back even as she smiles sweetly at others. 

Corviknight also serves as Illya’s main mode of transportation when she isn’t able to walk herself. As Illya loves taking her time to explore on her own two feet, she tries to not overly rely on Corviknight... sometimes, it can’t be helped however - such as when she needs to cross large bodies of water.

Interestingly, Corviknight bears a striking resemblance in both his aesthetic and personality to a hyuran pokemon trainer of dark skin and black hair who has secret romantic feelings for Illya. 

Bellossom met Illya while the girl was traveling through a tropical area that has been haunted by rain clouds and dark skies for the past several days. Illya was first attracted to bellossom because of the flowers on her head, and had watched as the Bellossom danced and chanted, mesmerized when the rainclouds pulled apart and sunlight began to shine through.

The two quickly bonded, with Bellossom teaching Illya her sun summoning dance before finally, she decided to join Illya together on her journey.

She wasn’t exactly meant to be a part of Illya’s team, and for a while, she was but a mere travel companion. However, Illya noticed just how active and enthusiastic Bellossom was to battle - or perhaps she saw it as an opportunity to show off her dance to more people. Regardless, bellossom hence became a new member of Illya’s pokemon team replacing Cincinno. 

If it wasn’t obvious enough, Bellossom loves to dance. She is rarely ever seen not at least swaying to its own beat while she’s outside her pokeball, and she becomes very eager when other pokemon or humans show an interest in learning her dance. 

Evolved from an eevee that Illya had taken care of since she was a child, it alongside Mimikyu are the two most senior members of her current pokemon team and also the longest to have known her. 

Sylveon is a free spirit, much like he had been when he was still a baby eevee. He enjoys roaming about a fair bit, though he takes care to not stray too far from Illya. 

He’s very attached to Illya and much like other sylveons, understands his trainer’s emotional state well by wrapping his feelers around her hand while walking with her. Whenever Illya gets sad or upset, he often likes sitting in her lap, purring and nuzzling himself against her in an attempt to make her feel better. He also wraps his feelers around her in an attempt to soothe and calm her down whenever she cries.

Despite his adorable appearance, he’s actually very daring and fearless, never once backing down from a confrontation or fight with other pokemon even if they are multiple times his size or even if they are a type that holds an advantage against him. 

Illya’s Sylveon is also very attached to Alphinaud’s Espeon, nuzzling himself to espeon whenever Alphinaud has it out. 

Gardevoir was one of the latest pokemon to have joined Illya’s team. She is an extremely elegant, regal but also stoic member of the party. 

Like other Gardevoir, she is able to read the future - and it was through her prediction that she foresaw her meeting with Illya and prematurely approached her. She is also able to distort dimensions and create black holes, though she rarely ever does the latter. 

Much like Mimikyu and Corviknight, Gardevoir is extremely protective of Illya despite not having known her for as long as the others have and would not hesitate to expand her own psychic powers to her fullest if she feels like Illya may be in any sort of danger.

Though powerful, she doesn’t tend to like roaming about much and mostly stays within her pokeball unless Illya calls her out for food or battle. 

Gardevoir’s demeanor and headstrong personality reminds Illya a lot of her late mother, and perhaps there is some deeper reason for why Gardevoir herself feels such a strong need to protect Illya as if she were her own kin. 

Some of her pokemon are carried around with her as travel companions, only occasionally taking part in battles, while others are left at home to be cared for by her father.

TRAVEL COMPANIONS [to be updated as au is expanded on]

Vulpix: A male vulpix that Illya carries around and cuddles with during the winter or when she’s traveling through locations with colder climates. Out of all her pokemon who are not part of her main party of 6, vulpix is probably one of the most active and frequently called forth in battles that aren’t official tournament leagues or competitions. Illya also calls her vulpix out whenever fire is needed. He is brave and enthusiastic and hopes to one day evolve himself into Ninetales. 

Dragonair: A gentle male dragonair that Illya caught near a lake one day during clear skies. It had dragged her into the sky and allowed her to ride on his back, soaring high into the clouds before dipping back down towards the waters. However, Illya lost her balance and fell into the water. He still feels bad about it to this day. He likes to curl around her to sleep.

Cinccino: A playful female cinccino who evolved from one of Illya’s minccino that she has been caring for as a child. She was once an active member of Illya’s party, but now is more of a travel companion who rarely ever battles now. Some people believe that Illya used the fur shed from Cinccino’s scarf to sew her own trademark scarf that she’s seen traveling around with now. 

Rowlet: Though Illya gets along with many pokemon in general, birds in particular seem to be very fond of her. This male rowlet followed Illya as she was traveling through the woods and eventually became a part of travel party. He doesn’t see very many fights but he does love to cuddle and is very affectionate towards not just Illya but other pokemon and trainers.

Alcremie: A shy female Alcremie who offers sweets to new friends she meets. Illya often has reservations about eating the cream and berries secreted from her, but after being assured that it doesn’t at all hurt her Alcremie and that it’s offering of sweets is a sign of affection, Illya has started learning to indulge more in sweet foods more and more. Illya doesn’t have the heart to tell Alcremie she prefers spicy food, though. 

Trevenant: A female trevenant that attacked a woodcutter that Illya saved while traversing through the forest. Convinced at first that Illya intended on harming the forest, it proceeded to trap her in a cage of trees until she was finally convinced to release Illya after witnessing the way Illya refused to let her vulpix burn the trees down just to escape. She follows Illya around and holds a lot of respect for the way Illya cared for nature and the environment. 

Hatterene: A reclusive Hatterene Illya met during her travel. She once hated Illya, chasing her by emiting a strong psychic aura much like she does with other strangers. Upon sensing Illya’s lack of hostility and own gentle soul however, she eventually calmed down enough to allow Illya to approach. She is very moody and temperamental.

NOTABLE POKEMONS AT HOME [not including pokemon that belong to Lachlan or pokemon that belong to other people being taken care of]. List is NOT exhaustive!

Cleffa: A female cleffa born from Cocona’s retired Clefairy. As Cocona passed away shortly before cleffa was hatched, Illya became her owner / trainer instead. Though cleffa wishes to someday be a part of Illya’s team, grow stronger and evolve herself, Illya hasn’t quite allowed herself to let go of her mother’s death, and hence prefers to keep cleffa safe at home. It’s one of the rare instances where Illya has explicitly gone against a pokemon’s wishes, even if out of a genuine love and protectiveness of it.

Musharna: A female Musharna that eats the nightmares of Lachlan and any guests who come to stay over at their house. She sleeps a lot and frankly cannot care any less about battling. 

Chimecho: A male Chimecho that Illya caught and took along with her on her journey for a while, before leaving him at home with Lachlan. He likes hanging himself to the roof of the house and swinging in the breeze. Not hearing chimecho’s wind chimes tells Lachlan and Illya that something is wrong. 

Azurill: A male baby Azurill that Illya rescued. He is very timid and lacks a lot of confidence. He wants to get better at doing battle, but still has a lot of training to do before it can get to that point. 

Beedrill: A male beedrill that was evolved from a weedle - the very first pokemon Illya ever caught in the wild on her own. She’s trained him personally as she grew up, and he saw many of her clumsy behavior and less experienced days. He’s sort of retired now, spending his days keeping the more rowdy pokemon in the daycare in check. 

Theme songs

If pokemon au illya were to have a theme / ost track, it’d be this lovely re-orchestrated track of the Lacunosa Town Theme! It’s soft, peaceful and has a touch of melancholy which suits her perfectly. This, this and this remix also fits her and may double as her battle theme?

Illyanaud track mayyyybe? 

Legendaries / Mythicals??

I didn’t include any legendaries or mythical pokemons into her roster because lore regarding those are that they’re very very rare BUT if Illya were allowed to have a legendary and a mythical pokemon, she’d probably own a Cresselia and a Celebi! 

Cresselia, the Lunar Pokémon. Shiny particles are released from its wings like a veil. It is said to represent the crescent moon. On nights around the quarter moon, the aurora from its tail extends and undulates beautifully.

Celebi, the Time Travel Pokémon. This Pokémon wanders across time. Grass and trees flourish in the forests in which it has appeared. When Celebi disappears deep in a forest, it is said to leave behind an egg it brought from the future.

Shout out to Diancie, who is a close second choice solely based on the fact it’s design looks like what Illya would be if she herself were a pokemon. 

Relationships with other OCs / NPCs

To be added!

[quartercirclejab]

the gold saucer squares: ranked

wat’s up, turkeys

with FFVII Remake on the horizon, it is vitally important that we let newcomers to this garbage pile of a fandom know that the world of FFVII has a Six Flags and it’s a horrible place built in an endless desert above a literal prison. you can bet on stuff, get in fights and ruin your interpersonal relationships. it’s just like the real Six Flags

but what parts of it rule and what parts suck??? that is why i am here, and guess what, i bought a lifetime pass as part of my very necessary research process

dont look at my other key items

anyway let’s do this

it’s time to rank the locations of the Gold Saucer

the gold saucer is divided into seven sections, all of them inexplicably called “squares.” there are technically eight, if you count the station, which we do because this blog does nothing in half measures

station square

leads to all the other parts of the park. instead of something ordinary like a monorail or a set of stairs, though, you get to use these colorful rainbow slides. delightful

score: 4/10. i already feel like this is worth the 3000 gil ticket price

event square

this part of the park serves no actual gameplay purpose except to act as a backdrop for a specific cutscene that only happens on your first visit, there is literally nothing to do here after that point

score: 0/10 stage shows at theme parks are always terrible fight me about it

speed square

no theme park is complete with a roller coaster, and the Gold Saucer’s coaster is ridiculous in a ps1 kind of way

it’s a rail shooter that awards prizes for high scores, and of all the attractions in the park, it’s easily the most visually interesting- this is the showstopper, and i have never once gotten a good score on it

bonus: if you visit this attraction after Cloud’s moment of self-realization, there’s a chance he’ll throw up, because the chronic motion sickness he had before assuming his false identity will have returned with a vengeance

score: 7/10 did not win a prize i hate it but everyone looks cute in the roller coaster car together

round square

this is the gondola ride where FFVII’s infamous “date” sequence takes place. outside of that one sequence, riding the gondola simply allows you to view the (admittedly pretty cool) “riding the gondola” cutscene again, with your choice of characters

score: 6/10 CLOUD STRIFE VOICE “NO, I SHAN’T”

ghost square

in-park resort hotel with terrifying haunted castle theme. this is one of only two locations in the Gold Saucer where the park’s standard theme music does not play. what plays here, you ask? something mildly spooky, but also suitably lighthearted and whimsical, as you might expect from a theme park? bold of you to assume the Gold Saucer is a theme park that gives a shit about customer comfort. “Trail of Blood” is what plays here thanks i hate it

cool! this is the worst!

i like these spookies playing chess though

score: 3/10 if you approach the desk you get jumpscared do not stay in the hotel it’s scary like the movie ratatouille

battle square

nothing says “fun for the whole family” like a deadly battle arena where you can fight horrifying monsters that don’t exist anywhere else in the game for prizes that basically amount to weapons of mass destruction

score: 2/10 “what if we found a way to make random encounters even less fun for the player? RANDOMIZED DEBUFFS, I’M A GENIUS, pass the cocaine”

chocobo square

do you like betting on horse racing? does the idea of notorious anime sadsack Cloud Strife acting as a jockey riding a giant chicken in a race around a technicolor meadow make you laugh? then you’ve found your new favorite location

the chocobo square is the other location where the standard Gold Saucer music is suspended, instead replaced with one of FFVII’s three (!) chocobo themes, “Fiddle de Chocobo”, which is basically what would happen if “Techno de Chocobo” and “Cotton Eye Joe” had a horrible, horrible baby

eagle eyed players may also remember this location as the place where Cait Sith betrayed the party, you moogle fuck

score: 8/10 chocobo noises

wonder square

now we’re fuckin talkin lads

this part of the park rocks, because it’s where you can go to replay some of FFVII’s weird little minigames with the added bonus of totally sweet prizes. the motorcycle chase, submarine battle and snowboard ride minigames are all represented here, along a “paper-scissors-rock”-style 3D Battler fighting game, a Moogle Coming Of Age Simulator (yes really) and, of course, a fortune teller

score: 10/10 this is the best part of the park

in closing, the Gold Saucer rules but some parts of it are not worth the money, just like Six Flags

thank u, mysterious fortune teller

[braincoins]

further Dalish magic thoughts

We know that a Circle-trained mage gains Arcane abilities and then can specialize into one (or more) of the four (allowed) schools: Spirit, Creation, Primal, and Entropy... or dip into evil, dark, black, etc. BLOOD MAGIC oooooh.

I think a Dalish mage gains Arcane abilities and that they actually tend to pick up the Fade Shield Tree and Repulsion Field Tree along with it. (That these are only available in Awakening actually supports this, as you can get Velanna - a Dalish mage - in your party.) They also focus on the Life-based spells I babbled about here, and, if they are a Keeper’s First or Second, they’ll pick up the Keeper spells.

Beyond that, they have some knowledge of Creation and Primal spells, or, at least, their basic foundations. A Dalish Warden can mention to Morrigan that her (Morrigan’s) shapeshifting spells sound a little like some of the magic the Keeper can do, so obviously those are in here as well.

Perhaps this is knowledge the elves always had. Perhaps it came from the Fade. Perhaps an elven mage fleeing the Circle brought it to them. Regardless, they’ve learned some basic Creation and Primal spells but have... expanded upon them in new and interesting ways.

The Earth spells come naturally to the Dalish, of course, who are already attuned to Nature. They’re very careful about how they channel Fire, so much so that some of the higher level Fire spells are usually not even taught, let alone cast. But, at the same time, they’ve learned such fine control as to be able to manipulate existing fire, to make it lash out at enemies or dance and create shadows, for example (a fun party trick). 

They learn Wind, learning how to manipulate it by studying the spells that manipulate Lightning (but not manipulating Lightning itself usually). They use wind to fuel fires higher or smother them to glowing embers (or anything in between). They’ve learned to use it to help speed their hunters’ arrows towards a target... or speed the hunter themselves! (Haste, which is technically Creation in the Circle schools)

They don’t do grease spots (from Creation) very well, but they’re quite good with ice slicks (same effect done differently). Another fun party trick is freezing over a pond for skating, even in the middle of summer! 

Rejuvenation is often used alongside the Keeper’s Life-based Mend spell (really what it is, honestly), thus imbuing the sick/injured target with more energy that can then be used to heal themselves. Rarely is a Heal spell (as the Circle thinks of it) used.

And yes, the Dalish can shapeshift, though they choose different forms than Morrigan does. Dalish shapeshifters will have a flying form (bird or bat), a sneaking form (squirrel or stoat), and a battle form (wolf or bear). The exact form differs from mage to mage, and those familiar with the mages in question can tell A’s squirrel form apart from B’s squirrel form.

The Dalish also know some of the old runes and charms of their history, ones that have long since faded from human knowledge. Aside from rarely-used but practical ones (like rune-ing an aravel so the trees will move around it - Nature-based & Keeper specific), the Dalish can use (and, I admit it, I’m getting a bit more video game-y here):

Charm/Rune of Sleep - The target falls asleep. Most often used to help those who are sick rest; the Keeper has pillowcases with the rune embroidered with it. For the willing (i.e., those who are sick and want to sleep), they will sleep soundly and will be hard to disturb for at least 4 hours, which is the charm’s duration - many will sleep past that point on their own, but whether they are easily disturbed or not is dependent on the sleeper themselves. The charm can be cast in combat/on an unwilling person, but the effect is dramatically lessened, as some part of them is fighting to stay awake: can last anywhere from 30 seconds on a very strong-willed person to 5 minutes on the weak-minded.

Charm of Light -  NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CHANT OF LIGHT, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. A quick charm cast to make a small ball of white light hover near the mage. Aside from the obvious, it makes spotting traps easier than it would be otherwise, even if it’s not dark. Mages use the charm when they need time away from a rowdy campfire but still want light to study by (and to show off a little, let’s be honest). The humans refer to the balls as “elf lights” and believe that seeing one is an ill omen, because it means the elves are coming and seek to ...kill you, steal your babies, whatever the various nonsense folk tales claim.

Rune of Purification - A rune etched on a wooden amulet, usually at the end of a cord. The most common use is to submerge the rune in collected water so that it can purify the water of anything that might make those who drink it sick. However, it can also be pressed against the heart of a poisoned/otherwise negatively-enchanted person and, with a special invocation word, activated to dispel harmful effects upon them (removes debuffs). 

Rune of Potency - increases magical power by 50%. Often embroidered onto a Keeper’s clothing or etched into an amulet or staff. There is a lost form of this Rune that increases power by 100%, but attempts to re-create/re-discover it through trial and error have ended... badly. Most Keepers council their Firsts/Seconds that such a rune may have been lost intentionally, and that it is better not to meddle too much or pursue so much power.

I would really have liked to have a Dalish mage origin in general (I know there’s mods that put one in for you), but I think it would have been neat to have the Dalish have their own spin on magic, as well as spells/abilities that are unique to them. 

Better still, make it so that all Dalish have some limited amount of magic. Some have more than others, and they tend to go on to be Keepers/First/Seconds, but everyone can do a little bit. Everyone can attune to Nature to some degree, and then what you do with your power beyond that is up to you.

For example, woodworkers obviously have their Woodworking, and we hear Master Varathorn mention the use of fire, which only makes sense, since they have to work blades sometimes, I’d think. So crafters might pick up Fire or Wind to help with that. Hunters tend towards Shapeshifting and Wind for their arrows. Those who tend the Halla dive deep into Nature, attuning so keenly that even though they don’t shapeshift, they can almost understand their charges. Scouts are all Wind, Fire, and Ice, offensive spells in case they come across something they shouldn’t have.

Furthermore, it could be that the “Life” spells of the Dalish are, essentially, a form of Blood Magic. I’d say that “Blood Magic is to Life Magic as Sith are to Jedi,” but that underscores the Circle’s insistence that All Blood Magic is Evil, which I don’t think is true. 

Anyway, I just really wanted to think about Dalish magic as being something different, because the Dalish come to magic by a slightly different path, as it were, and with a different viewpoint than the Circle. Even setting aside the whole “mages can become abominations and magic is squicky and bad” thing, the Circle approaches magic academically, as a vocation, a thing you are taught in order to make a living live (because if you aren’t taught to control it, you become an abomination and the Templars kill you THE END). But the Dalish see magic as one more tool in the toolbox, one more arrow in the quiver. You learn it as part of what you do, not as the entirety of who and what you are.