#npc: wolf pack

[angel-milano]

November 19 – Five Times X, One Time Y TW: Deadnaming, abuse, self-induced vomiting, self harm, suicide, death

The Five Families Angel Had, and the One She Didn't

I.

"Mr. Wilson, please try to understand--"

"No! You need to understand just how bad things could've been!" The short, stocky man screamed in the face of the finer dressed woman holding a blonde toddler. "That thing could've bitten me or any of my family! Then what would we have done!? We would've been cursed forever! You people are sick for not warning us about this ahead of time!"

Olivia Parker took a deep breath, readjusting the young child in her arms. They were awake but unusually still, no doubt exhausted after what had likely been a harrowing evening.

"That thing has a name. He's Daniel Milano and he's just a child. He didn't ask for this and there's no way we could've known or tested ahead of time. Born wolves are extremely rare in this system--"

"Yeah, well maybe there's a reason for that! They need to stick with their own kind and not put the rest of us in danger," Mr. Wilson interjected again, before turning to his silent wife, who was on the verge of tears. "You need to leave. And take him with you. We won't be housing him anymore. We're going to take legal action and we want every cent compensated and then some."

The social worker bit back another, exhausted sigh as she nodded, just accepting it without fighting back. "I understand. And I'd once again like to apologize for this. It won't happen again." With that, Olivia turned and began to walk out the door.

The child roused in her arms, and looked over her shoulder back at the couple. "Mama?" They murmured, reaching a tiny hand back out towards Mrs. Wilson.

She turned away and closed the door.

II.

"Hey Marny?"

The room was dark and still, with two pairs of bunk beds on each opposite walls. Three of the bunks had the bundle of a child, while one was empty. The bottom bunk's occupant stirred before peeking out a half cracked eye.

"Yeah Dan?"

On the other end of the room, a small blonde child, no older than seven, was clinging to the railing of the top bunk, looking down at the older girl below.

"I miss Louis," the young boy admitted.

There was a pause before she yawned, readjusting the blankets to pop her head out more. "Yeah, I do too. But it's a good thing he got adopted. We should be happy for him."

"Well, I'm not. He was our family and now he's gone."

She huffed. "We're not a real family, Dan. Our real families are gonna come and adopt us. We just gotta wait."

The boy paused as he considered this. Marny almost fell back asleep when his voice rang out again. "D'yah think the reason they adopted Louis and not me was cuz we got in that fight earlier? I said I was sorry."

"I think Louis got adopted cuz of all the water tricks he can do. They are pretty cool."

"Yeah. You guys are cool. No one thinks being a werewolf is cool," Daniel murmured into his pillow.

"I think it's cool," Marny responded, though the room fell silent after that. After a moment, she spoke up. "Do you want me to make the stars dance?" The young boy gave an affirmative noise and she lifted her hand, projecting pinpricks of light onto the ceiling. As her wrist twisted, so too did the "stars" as they danced the night away. She did this until she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore, and fell back asleep.

But Daniel didn't sleep. It was always so hard in this house. He could smell things the others couldn't smell, hear things the others couldn't hear. In the early morning, he heard his foster mom across the house, calling Ms. Olivia Parker.

She explained that while their home was open to foster magical children, they were best equipped for those with Gifts, while a werewolf was a different situation. She explained the fight that Daniel had gotten in with Louis and how their roughhousing resulted in the latter getting scratched. How everyone worried for hours that he might turn. How it almost ruined the boy's chances of getting adopted.

His foster mom didn't yell, or scream, or say that he needed to leave. But she pleaded with the social worker, asking if there was a werewolf pack out there that would take care of the child? Ms. Parker didn't have an answer. In her calmest, most polite voice, his foster mom recommended that they try to find a different foster family.

Daniel didn't get out of bed that day, pretending to sleep through the morning. He heard Marny explain to their foster parents that he had a long night. He laid there until he finally did fall asleep.

He dreamed of his real family, his werewolf pack, coming and taking him away.

III.

"Daniel?"

The preteen jolted from their cross-legged position and quickly slammed their journal shut, shoving it under their pillow. They looked up just in time to see their bedroom door open, revealing their foster father, Mr. Wainwright. As he stepped in, a golden tray of food and drink followed behind, magically suspended in the air.

"How are we feeling today?" The sorcerer asked, flicking his wrist to deposit the tray on the nightstand. Daniel eyed the "feast" before them, a plate of raw meats and a familiar purple liquid in a small vile.

"Fine," they replied, just shrugging their shoulders.

"That's all?" He waited for a response, but none came. "Well, you know the rules. First eat, then take your wolfsbane potion. We want you as stuffed and docile as possible for the full moon tonight."

Daniel nodded and drew the tray in front of them. Hunching over, they dug their hands into the dripping red meat and shoved it into their mouth. Their foster father never provided silverware and always stayed to watch, without looking away.

They chewed voraciously, the sickening squelching noises ringing in their ears as the all too familiar nausea washed over them. For the first time, however, they paused in between swallows and spoke up.

"Mr. Wainwright?"

The man tilted his head slightly, surprised at the pause in routine. "Yes, my boy?"

They ignored the second wave of nausea that came.

"You're an expert on werewolves, right?"

He chuckled. "Well, I would hope so, considering the number of books and studies I've published on the subject. They are my life's work."

"Do you think my pack is still out there somewhere?"

Now he tilted his head in the opposite direction, intrigued by the question. "You mean the pack you were born to? I would think not. Werewolf packs are notoriously protective of their children and there have been very few documented cases of a born-wolf being given up for adoption. Yours is a specific situation, likely born of a "lone wolf"," he explained.

They didn't look up, squishing the slick, raw meat between their fingers. "Do you think they'll ever come for me?"

This drew a laugh from the man. "Oh, my dear sweet boy, no. The only thing a werewolf is more protective of than their own are their own identities. To come forward and take you in would be outing themselves to the world, which can have very nasty consequences. No, it will likely be just you and me until you're able to be on your own. But worry not, I will continue to teach you the ways of keeping your wolf neutralized and tame as well as a steady supply of these," he said, tapping his finger on the potion. "Then you will move out, get a job, and become one of my many satisfied customers. You will integrate back into society and no one will be the wiser of your affliction. Truly, it's the best outcome for your situation."

They didn't say anything else. They merely stomached the rest of the meat until their plate was empty, and drank the vial dry.

"Thank you, Mr. Wainwright," they murmured. Already, the haze of the potion was beginning to take over, and they could feel their senses dulling. They tried desperately to hold onto the thoughts that were slipping away.

"Of course, my boy. Now, I will be putting up the arcane locks for the night, and will be back to check on you tomorrow morning. Enjoy a restful full moon, alright?" With that, he flicked his wrist to collect the empty tray and began out. As the door closed behind him, several runes began to glow in the wood, trapping them here for the rest of the night.

Only once they could hear the footsteps no more, they leaped from the bed and ran into the connecting bathroom. Dropping to their knees, they shoved a finger to the back of their throat. Nasty, red sludge filled the toilet bowl, but more importantly, it was tinged with a distinct purple. It wasn't long before they could feel their mind returning to them, the haze clearing up.

Maybe they still had a pack. Maybe someday, someone would come for them.

But tonight, they would take matters into their own hands. They wouldn't be Daniel, Mr. Wainwright's sweet boy and a docile pup.

Tonight, she would be Angel and she would be free.

IV.

Angel had met a lot of people since she started living on the streets.

Some were kind, some were cruel, but none were ever family.

Until she stopped in Forscythe, New Jersey.

She'd been scouting out the quarry as a spot to transform for the next full moon when she met them. A group of kids her age who were going to the local high school. Theywere sneaking out to get drunk in the middle of the night. They welcomed her in and invited her to join their party.

Angel was never far from them after that. She used her fake ID to buy them more booze. She slept over at their houses. She'd come to their football games and cheer on the local team. The Forscythe High Wolves. The kids called themselves the Wolf Pack.

She had a pack.

She snuck on their school bus to attend their senior trip. She stole a dress and crashed their prom, where she pretended to be a foreign exchange student. She kissed the prom king.

That summer was the best she'd ever had. Beach days, party nights, and the promise that they'd always be a pack, even if they were going away to different schools. No matter what, they'd always come back here and have a reunion just like this one. With Angel included.

They didn't care that she was trans. They didn't care that she was homeless. She thought they wouldn't care that she was a werewolf.

But things changed after the night she told them.

No one rejected her, or called her a monster. No one told her she should go find her own kind. No one even asked about wolfsbane potions.

But they also didn't ask her anything at all. In fact, all forms of communication stopped. Everyone went to college, and Angel was left behind in Forscythe.

She tried to hold it together. She visited them at their schools, but they were always too busy with work or had other plans that they couldn't cancel. She set up group calls that people conveniently forgot. When winter break rolled around, she was sure that they would all reunite, just as they had promised back on that starry summer night.

If that reunion ever happened, Angel hadn't been made aware of it. She checked the group chat every day, stalked people's socials, and sent out a few too many "casual" messages, but all were in vain.

As she sat on the empty, frozen bleachers of Forscythe High, leg bouncing, she opened the Wolf Pack group chat one more time.

The last three messages had been from her.

Her fingerless gloved hands trembled across the screen as she typed.

'i miss you guys'

Her lips tightened before backspacing the entire thing.

'hey bitches who wants to get drunk on eggnog and have an all nighter??'

Backspace again. Her grip on her phone tightened before furiously typing.

'do you assholes know how lucky you have it? to have mommy and daddy pay for you to sleep in a dorm and skip classes and get drunk at some loser frat party? then you get to go home to them where they tell you how great and special you are and how you can be anything you want to be. i wanted us to be a pack but you fuckers decided youre better than me. YOURE NOT BETTER THAN ME!! choke and die'

Her shaking hands stilled, and then backspaced it all again.

'fuck you.'

Angel hit send and left the group chat.

V.

Angel and Lucky had been dating for almost a year now and he wanted her to meet his family.

She'd joked that she already had enough of his family, considering she had to contend with Pepper and Roland every day.

But this was different, he explained. She wouldn't just be meeting his parents, but his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents. She would get to experience a real pack.

Her heart leaped in her chest and she agreed.

Following the directions given to her, she wandered down the path towards the Doyle family house. The colors of the forest were changing and her feet crunched against some early leaves on the dirt road. Even in a small town, the estate was pretty deep in the wilderness, but she supposed that was the point. As she looked around, she could imagine wolves upon wolves running through the trees, free and unburdened by the outside world.

Her senses kicked in before she could see the house. The area was pungent with the smell of others like her, to the point where it was overwhelming, like she was entering territory she didn't belong in. The playful shrieks of children reached her ears, along with the sounds of kitchenware clacking and a fireplace roiling. Then, as she crested the hill, she could see it. It was huge, enough to fit several branches of a large family, and yet it still had the quaint charm of the South. Angel approached the huge porch, her heart hammering in her chest. She attempted to shake the jitters away, reminding herself of what Lucky said--his family was welcoming and it would be like she was part of the pack.

As the thought sank in, she stopped, one foot on the porch step.

All her life, all she'd ever wanted was a pack. Now, she was finally getting it.

So why did it hurt?

Because it wasn't her pack. Not really. All of these people, they grew up together, knew each other, loved each other.

She was just some wolf entering into territory that wasn't her own.

Any pack would be able to let her in. But there was only one out there that she truly belonged to. The one that had brought her into this world. The one that she'd spent her whole life dreaming would save her from her terrible life.

If she walked through that door, it would be an admission that the dream was dead. The sorcerer would be right--she was a no one from nowhere and nobody was ever coming for her.

Inside the house, one of the Doyles sniffed a strange new wolf on the wind. They announced that Angel must be here and went to open the door to greet her.

They were met with an empty porch.

----------

I.

"What is this for again?"

Angel was sitting in the home of Georgia Mayweather in the small town of Oakland, Connecticut. A light snow was falling outside and the older woman sat in a comfortable chair, nursing a mug of hot cocoa in her hands. When offered some of her own, Angel declined.

"It's Suicide Prevention Month. The high school is doing a project to honor those in town who passed," Angel explained, a lie that she'd spent the last week practicing.

Georgia nodded, sad eyes gliding towards the frosty window.

"So you want me to talk about Ellie."

"Eleanor Milano, yes," she confirmed. The name was written all over her notebook. Folded a few pages behind was an article about her death and a picture she'd cut out of an old yearbook from the local library of Eleanor and Georgia together. She had one of the last few fresh pages open to take notes.

Georgia sighed. "Ellie was my best friend growing up. We met in the third grade and were inseparable after that. She was a good person--quiet, mostly kept to herself. But when you could get her to open up, she'd never stop talking," she said, a ghostly smile crossing her features as she reminisced. "We were on the high school softball team together, but we were never any good," she chuckled. "And she liked to write in her free time. She won the Harvest Moon festival prize for her poetry, but wrote a little bit of everything."

Angel's hand paused, gripping the pencil in her hand. The very journal she was currently notetaking in was filled from margin to margin with her writing--scribbles, thoughts, ideas, and poetry. She always thought the skill was just hers.

But it came from Ellie.

There was still another detail, though, that caught her attention. One she couldn't let slip away.

"You said Harvest Moon festival?"

"Yes?"

"Is that held on the Harvest Moon?"

"Yes, every year..." Her tone shifted to confusion. "You live here, don't you? Have you not been before?"

"Oh, I just moved recently," Angel lied.

So Ellie couldn't have been the wolf.

She quickly changed the subject before anymore questions could come. "Did she have any family?"

"She was an only child, just her and her parents." That didn't sound like a pack.

"Are they still in town?"

"No, they moved out of Oakland ages ago. But even before that they, ah..." Georgia's face contorted as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Disowned her."

"Why?"

At first, she wasn't sure she was going to answer at all, but finally Georgia admitted, "She had an unexpected pregnancy."

Angel pretended to look surprised. "Could you tell me more about that?"

Georgia hesitated. "There's not much to tell. We'd both recently graduated high school, and she was working as a waitress at the local diner. Some guy blew in from out of town, and they had a short affair. It didn't last."

"Can you tell me more about him?" Angel asked, a little too quickly. This drew Georgia's attention, who finally looked back at her with a furrowed brow.

"What does this have to do with your project?"

Angel forced herself to swallow, putting on her most even tone. "I'm just trying to gather as much information as possible."

The expression on Georgia's face had definitely shifted to something a little more wary, but she continued anyway. "Honestly, I don't remember much, it was all so long ago. He had a British accent, I remember everyone was fawning over that. I think he said that's where he was going, when he left."

"Do you know where?"

The way her brow furrowed let Angel know she might have gone a step too far. So instead, she pivoted.

"So Ellie had a baby? Before she died?"

Georgia sighed, taking a deep swig of her hot cocoa before answering. "Yes. She was distant throughout the whole thing. I mean, she was alone, you know? The dad left and her parents wanted nothing to do with her. I was basically her only support system and even then, she pulled away from me. I think she was becoming really depressed. I-- I should have seen the signs coming." Her voice broke slightly and Angel could see tears starting to well in her eyes.

"Sorry. This all happened so long ago, but..."

"It's okay. I understand," Angel replied stiffly, unable to meet her gaze.

"It all happened so fast," Georgia continued. "She didn't even tell me she had the baby. I don't know that she told anyone. After...after she killed herself, the police went to her apartment and found him there. A little baby boy. Barely a few weeks old. Her bathroom was a disaster. They think she delivered him herself. It's amazing she didn't die of blood loss. Maybe she was hoping she would. She tried to cut her wrists first but--"

"But it didn't work. So she drove her car into the lake," Angel said. Of course it didn't work. If she were a recently turned werewolf, all of her wounds would heal before she could make a dent.

There was a brief moment of pause as Georgia looked to her in surprise. "Sorry, I read as much in the original article," Angel explained, the truth this time. She followed with, "Did she have a suicide note?"

Georgia shook her head. "Not really. Just a brief message about taking care of her baby. She named him Daniel."

The sound of her deadname was suffocating--not just for the usual reasons of dysphoria and horrible memories, but because it was the final nail in the coffin of her dream. Confirmation of who she was and what she wasn't.

She wasn't the member of a long lost pack waiting to save her. She was the byproduct of a lone wolf making a mistake, and leaving everyone behind to clean up his mess.

The sound of Georgia's chair creaking as she stood caused Angel to snap back to reality. "She's buried at Oakland Cemetery, if you want to visit her. I do, sometimes." Then, she began towards the door. "I hope this was helpful, but unfortunately, I need to cut this a bit short. The snow's starting to come down harder and I'd like to pick my kids up from school before the roads get blocked up."

Angel numbly closed the notebook, holding it tight against her chest. All she could do was nod and stand. She didn't have it in her to keep up the lie. It was all too much. With her mind racing a mile a minute, she forced herself forward towards the exit.

"Swynlake."

Angel stopped and blinked. "What...?"

"Sorry, I just remembered. That's where Ellie's man said he was going. I don't know why that just came to me, I think a celebrity I like is staying there..." She shook her head sheepishly. "I'm sorry, that doesn't matter. I think my head is just all over the place, recalling all these memories."

Swynlake. In England. That's where her father was.

"No," she answered. "This has been very helpful. Thank you so much, for everything. And sorry for your loss."

[wygolvillage]

started a new file for ranch raiding (hoping for better trap RNG?) but we may have to wait for early spring since the calves are so strong in late winter

we did get a successful raid in thoughhhh

[taxidermycanine]

5 WAYS TO HELP WITH SPECIES DYSPHORIA AS A THERIAN (with and without gear)

- please note that most of these are focused mainly on being a wolf therian, but i'll try my best to make it more inclusive to others.

1 •

my personal favorite, wolf quest! this one does cost money, so this isn't for those who don't have the money/don't already have the game. it really helps me feel more connected to who i am. you find a mate, raise pups, hunt prey, defend your den and pack from predators, and there's even a multiplayer option for you to play with your friends. :o)

(and yes, you can customize what your wolf looks like. all NPC wolves in the game have different personalities for immersion, including you, your pups, and your mate)

please note that the game is still in development! they plan to add a saga where you can live constantly with your pack and continue with new generations each year (and no, you don't HAVE to pass away). you can toggle whether your mate dies or not, if you play on easy you can avoid your pups getting sick by reloading saves if you're sensitive to that, there are constantly new updates being brought out that make the game feel more realistic each time and the development team are incredibly sweet. if you have the money i highly recommend this game, wolf therian or otherwise.

2 •

documentaries. a wonderful way to not only feel more connected to your theriotype(s), but to also learn more information about them! my favorite thing to do when i'm stressed is to wrap myself in warm blankets, turn off my lights and put on a documentary to calm myself down. bonus points if you DO have gear to wear during this, if not that's okay too.

i also like to have my plush friends join me so i can act like they're my pack :o) it's a nice way to feel less lonely as i watch. this also works if you're a domestic cat therian, have your plushies be your clouder! no matter what animal you are though, never feel less valid for wanting your stuffies with you during this. it doesn't matter if your theriotype isn't a social animal in the wild.

if you're an aquatic therian of some kind, i think a good idea would be taking your phone in the bathroom with you and setting it up outside of the tub to watch whilst you're in the water! (or shower if you don't have one, you can also use a kiddie pool outside in the warmer months). PLEASE remember to be safe during this though, if you worry about getting your phone wet then instead find some blue blankets and pretend it's the ocean!

3 •

going outside to where your theriotype resides in naturally. of course this won't be for everyone, since a lot of the time trips can end up being quite costly. something that i like to do is go to my local forest whenever i have the time to do so! i find it refreshing to sit by the stream and play in the water with my mate.

if you're a domestic dog therian, ask to go on a walk around the neighborhood with your friend! (or hell, go by yourself if it's safe enough, you're a free dog, you can do what you want). even as a wild animal i still enjoy this, so don't feel ashamed if you're ALSO a wild animal who wants to do things that domestic dogs do. it doesn't make you any less undomesticated.

if you're an animal that's used to deserts, i recommend going to where you can access sand (e.g. a sandbox at a playground, asking for a small sand tray to play in as a gift, a day out to the beach if you live near one). i also find that dried dirt that's very damaged can feel sort of similar to sand!

if you can't go outside for whatever reason, then there's always ways to make your bedroom feel similar to where you would be more comfortable. if your theriotype lives in dens like caves and underneath trees, make a blanket fort and pretend it's your home! if your theriotype rests in a burrow, make a tunnel with some blankets from the top of your bed all the way down to under it (if that doesn't work, pretend that anything below your bed is underground, and anything above your bed is the surface).

4 •

dressing in clothes that are the same color as your theriotype. i have this fluffy hat with ears that feels very affirming for my species dysphoria, paired with my favorite dark sweaters, warm pants and my tail. if you don't have any gear, don't worry! you don't need to have any to complete an outfit. sometimes clothing textures can also be affirming. for example if you have smooth skin like a whale, a bathing suit can feel similar to blubber. (if you have gender dysphoria, i recommend either full body bathing suits, or wearing pants on top of it and a jacket to help yourself feel more affirmed). i wear fluffy clothes because my fur is fluffy :o) it helps me, personally, but this might not be the same for everyone!

5 •

studying the behavior of your theriotype and trying your best to imitate it to the best of your abilities with the body you have. this can be as simple as copying how they act around each other as a family (for example wolves who are mates will rest their chins on each other to display affection), and as difficult as trying to vocalize what sounds your theriotype makes.

if you wanted to try the latter, i recommend looking at vocal exercises online before as a lot of creature sounds can and will strain your voice, i promise you that warming up your chords will not only help you sound clearer, it'll ensure that it won't take as much effort to do!

[tentacleplains]

WOULD THE DOL LOVE INTERESTS (+ some choice NPCs) HELP YOU WITH YOUR HRT INJECTIONS

ROBIN would be happy to help you! in theory. in practice they get squeamish about administering an injection, but they get better at it with time and confidence.

WHITNEY says only if it’ll give you bigger tits

EDEN would if you reminded them to and if they weren’t mad at you, but they don’t trust any medication you get from the town and especially not anything you get from harper. if the injection is in the ass or thighs they grope you while doing it. they're good at giving the actual shot itself though.

KYLAR would do anything for you, my love! they get too overzealous and forget to wait for the rubbing alcohol to dry before jabbing you, and they push the needle in too hard, so it hurts. they also lick the blood off afterwards, if there is any.

AVERY says what? no we’re in a car. you couldn’t have done it before the date? (avery it takes thirty seconds) yeah well if you bleed on the seats you’re paying for the cleaning (avery it barely bleeds) don’t care go ask someone else

BLACK WOLF says no. pack leader needs to stay fertile

GREAT HAWK is scared of needles. why are you stabbing yourself. every week??? scary :(

ALEX happily agrees and is surprisingly professional about the whole thing. only after working at the farm for a little longer do you recognize that they’re sort of treating you the same as they do the livestock. at high dom they also grope you while doing it though.

SYDNEY, similarly to robin, is happy to help in theory, and then gets nervous about doing it in practice. she gets sirris to help you instead and holds your hand, telling you that he helps her with her shots too.

BAILEY only agrees to do it if you pay them enough. doing the actual prep costs extra btw.

HARPER is thrilled to get to treat you for your transition healthcare! they make sure to massage the area extra thoroughly and get you suuuuper relaxed so there’s no lingering muscle tension that would make the injection hurt more. what do you mean you don’t think all this touching is necessary? are you a medical professional? no i didn’t think so.

REMY says only if it gives you bigger tits

[miscellaneoussmp]

I hope Team Bolas Rojas truly becomes the chaos team. The other teams may continuously strike them down, but they'll keep coming back over and over again. They'll rob a base and steal an npc all because they think it's hilarious. They'll come back with manipulation and continue to gaslight, gaslight, gaslight. They'll chase a singular person down, over and over, claiming they 'just want to talk'. They'll laugh the entire time. They'll chase down a member of a wolf pack over and over like the starving pride of lions they are. Like the pack of cackling hyenas they are.

[aquarius-cookie-jar]

Right. I'mma just dump these ref sheets I made here because I'll be making some drawings with these guys, and I am bad at staying consistent within the design lmao.

I was inspired by these amazing designs, go check them out.

X || X || X.

Ramble down here, where I try to explain the ""lore"" and my design choices:

So as mentioned above, the majority of the Dark Cacao kingdom is actually composed of kirins, mainly because Cacao was already a kirin in my older designs, and I wanted more of his citizens to match him. Maybe I'll draw the other Cacao NPCs mlp-ified and what I headcanon their species to be.

I ultimately decided to give Cacao a mane and replace his long hair with that. Ngl, I was always on the fence about Cacao and Choco's designs, but yeah, I think the mane works better than just getting rid of it. (Old design below).

Btw, I dunno if I wanna give Cacao an actual crown, or just keep the additional horn things the leader of the kirins kinda have.

Dark Choco hasn't changed much, just in a different art style. I do however wanna say that he shaved off his mane out of shame and guilt for coming across the cursed sword not long after his banishment. Maybe when he and Cacao reconcile, he'll start to grow it out again, or maybe he'll keep it that way as a reminder of the past.

I actually drew (more like edited a screenshot) Caramel Arrow before, and she was originally just a pegasus, but honestly, the concept of hybrids and what they entail really intrigued me. I thought it would be fun if she were a hybrid kirin/pegasus.

Also, her horn doesn't exactly function, mainly because there's this headcanon I once came across a post that says faux alicorns do exist in the mlp canon. If you wanna know my full headcanon for this, feel free to shoot an ask, but to keep it short, for faux alicorns, either their wings are under developed, or their horn can't control the frequencies of magic that well or at all. Such is the case for Caramel Arrow. Though she has fully developed wings, she can't control magic with her horn, and if she tries to, it may cause a headache. But besides that, she's all fine and dandy.

Crunchy Chip, hm, I'd say when he was a little filly, he was found in the woods, either by Cacao, or Choco, and his horn was already broken by the time they came across him. When asked, the little guy said he was protecting the cream wolf pups from a monster, but he can't remember what else happened before he fell unconscious. As he grew older, his broken horn didn't really bother him anymore. He's adapted well, and picked up a thing or two about survival from his cream wolf pack.

Also, sidenote, the kirins' scales are actually very hard to dent, meaning their backs are usually safe from attacks. Crunchy once encountered... something when he was out on patrol, and he was out of commission for a week (to his incredible dismay + annoyance) because of how rare serious injuries to the kirins' backs occur.

Ah, Affogato. Actually, I really do like him as a character, I just tend to focus my attention towards the Celestia and Luna coded father-son duo a bit more. Oops. But anyway, I decided to make him a hybrid just like Carrow too, mainly to add both contrast and similarities between them. They're not too different, but their ideals and beliefs clash and cause conflict with one another, I just thought it was fitting. Also decided to give him a more elegant and curved horn design as a nod to his unicorn heritage. Unicorns in the Cacao kingdom (and maybe the Golden Cheese kingdom) have a curved horn, mainly because the east asian coded unicorns in the mlp canon have curved horns too, and I thought they looked beautiful. Affo is someone so elegant and refined in a land that's chaotic and holds danger everywhere.

And that's my unhinged thoughts for now. I think I'll design Licorice and the others next time, but no promises.

Anyway, thank you for reading.

[littlefaeriebottles]

A few rough sketches of my original characters that will appear in my Debtors of Inkwell comic! OCs won't have too much of a role in my AU but I thought it'd be fun to share them anyway. Also, these designs might change very slightly when they appear in the comic.

---

Baron Biscotti and Baroness Beignet VonBonBon, the kind and regal rulers of the fief of Sugarland, and parents of Baroness Brioche BonBon.

Winona Warbles, wife to Wally Warbles and mother to Willy Warbles, who gets bored of domestic bliss and leaves the nest.

Barnaby Bailley, the eccentric ringmaster of the Traveling Inkwell Circus and Beppi's mentor and father figure.

Olga Berg is Hilda Berg's grandmother, renowned mage who was one of the founders of Hexenwerks Magierakademie (Academy of Magic).

The Primordial Ooze is a manifestation of hate that haunts Goopy Le Grande and fills him with self-doubt.

Gourdy 'O Hallow is a down on his luck bum who helps The Root Pack get back on their feet.

Nikos the Goatherd knew The Legendary Chalice and the Calix Amini hundreds of years ago.

Scylla and Charybdis, the two aunts of Cala Maria, who teach her about the world dividing men and monsters.

Nefurrtiti is an ancient deity that Djimmi The Great befriends on his travels.

The Patient is an ill-fated figure that is a passenger on The Phantom Express.

Privates Fidget and Hodgepodge are two of Werner's fellow soldiers drafted into the Inkwell fighting forces.

Sir Chaucer Canterbury is a knight who has found his own calling and befriends Grim Matchstick.

Gustavo the Gardenia, Pascal the Pansy, and Bailey the Bluebell are flowers that live in the garden with Cagney.

Vespa Flaxenjacket is a wasp from the other side of the island who has her eyes on Rumor's hive and empire.

Shep Hyde, who's determined to make his client, Sally, a star and might be a wolf in sheep's clothing.

"JugORum" Bellows, father of Ribby and Croaks, who has ties to the Moonshine Mob.

---

There's a few others I haven't illustrated yet, and then there will be several NPCs from the game that will be important (I'll be drawing some of them too!), as well as the Debtors/bosses themselves being the main characters! I'm really excited to start working on this AU again! Hope you like em!

[spiribia]

My animal shapeshifter MMO post was honestly more something to roll around in my mind palace for fun than a true "materialize this" call to arms, and it likely is more interesting and plausible in theory than it would be in action, so we all must be aware that I'm still just playing pretend in saying any of this, but I don't mind at all if players can identify who else is a player. This is actually part of the point of it being a fake multiplayer game in my brain. Theoretically, player-typical actions like spam repeat actions would be considered odd and socially punished by NPCs. This is not to fully dissuade players from identifying each other. You could have a reputation system among fellow animal NPCs of whatever you currently are, and higher rankings within this would afford you benefits (ex. in social pack animals with hierarchy, you have a mob hunting with and defending for you, and you get priority access to resources that they may come across. For loner animals, fellow loner animal NPCs may be more respectful of your territory boundaries and less likely to try to snatch resources from you). You would incur a small reputation or some such penalty for repeat jumping at someone with at least one NPC peer in the vicinity. I imagine some players would decide that doesn't matter enough to them to reroute their behavior, and some would look for subtler means to work around this.

Players can jump up and down back if they are also a player, even at a cost, but in any MMO in the world there is a significant population who are players but do not respond back to social inputs. I imagined it less as "ooo there's no mechanism by which players could tell ever" and more that for the most part you are steeped in this non-zero chance it's a real person. Imagine if cleverbot had a disclaimer that some of the time it actually is a real person responding to you, but that it won't tell you when. I want you to be starving to death as a wolf and your NPC pack is starving too and as you are chasing a deer it begins signaling to you that it is actually a player, and I need you to evaluate whether or not that changes your course of action at all. I want there to be actual in-game benefits of integrating with members of your own species and for players to be unable to shapeshift until they die, meaning that if you encounter another player but you are a wolf and they are a deer, you could elect to travel together odd pair style, but they cannot help you hunt, and you will not get any sort of buffs, and your reputation with other wolves will decay over time as you are forgotten. I want you to have to decide whether it's worth it to sacrifice your reputation to signal back to someone you may never encounter again and have no way of concretely identifying again in the future, unless you come up with some kind of musical code, which is part of what I meant by using the musical language to identify each other (I've seen a few comments that this is an overly poetic sentiment and players would just jump instead). Maybe they'll hit you with a unique do-re-do, do-re-do sound output when they see you again in a different animal body. And then you're like oh hey it's the do-re-do person.

[charthurlover]

VDL gang as roblox games!!

sorry for not posting, been more or less trapped in north carolina for the past few days, jst got home a few days ago, so i’ve been unpacking all my bags and sleeping!!

Abigail -

- Farm Life

- Islands

Arthur -

- Write A Letter

- 🌲 Cabin. [cozy vibe]

Bill -

- LGBTQ+ hangout

- LGBTQ+ Vibe

Charles -

- Zoo World Tycoon

- PAWS Pet Hospital 🐾

Dutch -

- make roblox games to become rich and famous

- Cash Tycoon

Davey -

- be dead forever simulator

- Resting Place ☔️🐸

Grimshaw -

- Arsenal

- Glory Kill Testing

Hosea -

- making scam calls to save your best friend

- Hunting Season [BETA]

Jack -

- become a server owner to get revenge tycoon

- The Graveyard [HEAVEN]

Javier -

- Bloody Zone [🩸]

- Mexico Simulator

Jenny -

- Natural Disaster Survival

- Try To Die

John -

- [Summer] Forgotten Worlds

- A Wolves’ Pack Alpha - Wolf RP 🐺

Kieran -

- Horse World

- Horse Riding Elite

Karen -

- [DRINKS!] On Tap 17+

- Big Bank Robbery [Story]

Lenny -

- NEED MORE DRINKING

- Bloody Baseplate [🧊🩸]

Mac -

- Ragdoll Death

- EVADE

Mary-Beth -

- Write a book!

- Library of Aletheia

Micah -

- Obby but You’re a Rat!

- Be a Snake

Molly -

- [🩸] Bloodburst

- Try to Die Obby!

Pearson -

- My Restaurant!

- Work at a Supermarket

Reverend -

- Church

- Church of the Ascension Catholic Parish

Sadie -

- kill npcs or something

- Weird Blood Game [UPD 20]

Sean -

- Irish Tycoon

- [SUMMER🏝️]The Garrison

Trelawny -

- MAGIC SIMULATOR

- Wacky Wizards

Tilly -

- Family Life 🏠 RP

- Life with a Family

Uncle -

- [RELEASE!] 💤NEED MORE SLEEP 2.0💤

- Farming and Friends

[gynandromorph]

courage is an ironwolf, and they're in a really bad spot right now. affinity with the pups has been so consistently low that they constantly wander off, meaning i can't go hunt to feed them. this is WITH my mate staying there with them, somehow. even briefly sleeping with the pups to try to gain back ANY stamina caused a rival wolf pack to attack -- i have had few attacks BECAUSE i've slept away from them. just a couple of coyote attacks and a hawk attack, which we dealt with. the thing is that this ironwolf is on accurate difficulty, where NPCs do at least 170% more damage (both prey and rivals). i was practically dead by the time we got those two wolves to leave. we would have been fucked if an entire pack had showed up. i now don't have the energy or health to hunt. there aren't enough hares to feed 4 pups. the pups are at 30% hunger. my only choice is to go into survival mode. i'm going to abandon the rendezvous site and head to the river. beavers are the only chance for all of these pups to survive, and i don't think i have enough health or stamina to fight even them. but the pups may be able to survive some starvation as their HP dwindles if i rest by a beaver site. i stayed put before with my other wolf (who is called AAAAAAA, lmao). there were no den sites in the mountains near the rivers. but this is slough creek, so there are many sites with this food source... the issue will be that there is a rival pack that's been fighting me for that territory constantly. i've gotten into the habit of howling over and over to take territory. i would just run if the pack showed up, but this isn't going to work with pups following me. if the pups end up dying, they end up dying. i can have another litter. i can't put myself in another situation where i could lose more health, because if i die, it's game over.

[songoftrillium]

NPC Spotlight: Burned Hide

art credit @morggo licensed to use with permission

CW: Animal death, fire, scars, generational trauma beneath the read-more link.

Wolf-Born, Galliard, Athro Older Brother, Master of the Rite

One day, Ape was sitting on the back of a horse, and stopped at the foot of Dume’fa. Ape doesn't know whether to go around her or try to go over her. One asks a nearby wolf,  "Wolf. Does she have a rocky face?" And Wolf says that she does. Ape orders the horse onto her face and gets stuck in her logfall and underbrush. Ape shouts to Wolf, "One said she has a rocky face!" And Wolf says,  "One did, Ape, all mountains have rocks for faces. Keep sinking and one will find it, this one is certain," And Wolf howls for one’s packmates to gather. — Burned Hide

Despite having had no visible likeness to her kin, she was the direct descendant of Rala Blood-Claw, and the last living descendant of any member of Tawatuy. Born the pup of a lone wolf and her two yearling packmates, her siblings and she had spent their early years catching trout and hunting for grouse, deer, rabbits, and elk in the fall, moving farther into the cascades over winter when the canyons and high desert turned bitter and cold. This had traditionally been the time when Younger Brother roamed into the region along with the Northern Paiute and Yahuskin, though times had changed since then. Her story began with the fall of Gulaka’i. Her grandmother, Aleshanee In-The-Sun, had witnessed numerous other garou begin succumbing to the Bitter Rage. Heeding the warnings of Muskrat, she had worked tirelessly to save as many wolves around Gulaka’i during the Snake War and the war of Rogue River as she could. She had eventually been taken by a Bitter Rage in her attempts to save more tribe members. Her once sweet, playful nature had been reduced to a frothing spittle in 1867. She was survived by her kin-pack, which had lived in the canyons just south of what is now Valley Falls, many miles away from Dead Mountain. When those wolves roamed too close to the cattle ranchers near Paisley, many ate poisoned meat and died painful deaths. A pack of yearlings had dined on grouse earlier that morning and had not gone on the hunt, sparing their lives. Those surviving wolves formed a pack with a number of coyotes; and in the spring of 1899, Burned-Hide was born. 

In 1900, Burned Hide's first change, and the first time she'd channel Rala Blood-Claw, occurred simultaneously. A fire had broken out that raged out of control through the canyon and reached the top of the plateau, destroying 75 homes in Lakeview. When the ash began raining down, she tried to locate her pack. Overcoming her own fear, she let her human mind take over, and ran into the fire. The only thing on her mind had been her family and their safety. She ran across hot coals, and through flame, scalding her paws and igniting her fur. Charred, and choking on smoke, she located them sheltering beneath an overturned boulder. 

The smoke was too much and she collapsed. That’s when Rala and she had a whispered communion in a language she was surprised to understand. In their first communion, Rala egged her to her feet, and whispered to her what happened to her Grandmother. To their family’s family, and their families. Rala held out the words and lives of the wolves that came before them, and the wolf, breathless and forgetting her pain, reached out with her heart and caught it in her teeth. 

The wolf transformed into her hispo form, and feeling her breath returning to her, led her family to safety. Even with her newer, stronger wolf form, she nearly succumbed to the heat and the smoke, had she not seen a family of muskrats fleeing northwards. She had followed them, fighting against all wolf instincts and fording the creek all the way to Thaervarmet. Despite wincing when she stretched her scars wrong, they had only served to add to the beauty of her heart, and year after year, she ran with the wolves. In her own words, the scars were marks of pride that showed her family just what they meant to her. Her life as a garou was one that saw her be one of few wolf-born to live to old age. Her springs were spent with her kin back home in the canyons where she was born. Among the creatures found there, they include 11 mexican gray wolves, 7 coywolves, and 10 coyotes all coalesced into an informal family of sorts, all hunting together with multiple kin leading.

Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3, Charisma 5, Manipulation 3, Composure 2, Intelligence: 3, Wits: 4, Resolve 4 Abilities: Alertness 3, Assbeating 2, Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Empathy 4, Expression 5, Intimidation 2, Primal-Urge 3, Subterfuge 2, Animal Ken 4, Leadership 4, Melee 2, Performance 3, Stealth 2, Survival 3, Enigmas 2, Forestry 3, Investigation 2, Linguistics 3, Medicine 1, Nation Lore 5, Occult 4, Politics 3, Rituals 4 Gifts: Prey Mind, Beast Speech, Master of Fire, Uncloak the Hidden, Coyote Howl, Scent of Sight, Oaksong, Lore of the Land, Hand of the Earth Lords, Spirit’s Horse, Whisper in the Dark, Catfeet, Distractions, Song of Heroes Rage: 4 Gnosis: 9(3) Willpower: 6 Fluster: 2

Backgrounds: Animism 5 (Champion), Patron 12 (Muskrat 7, Dume’fa 5), Kinfolk 3, Allies 3

Rites: Any Needed Maneuvers: Evasion

Equipment: Medicine bag, Awakened Tarweed Seeds, Awakened Juniper Berries, Awakened Trillium Seeds

Appearance: True to her name, Burned Hide is heavily disfigured, with the majority of her body a lattice patchwork of only partially-healed burn scars covering over 75% of her body. This include some of her eyes, which appears to be blind,doesn’t focus and is constantly weeping tears. Despite this, the shaggy cheek tufts and leaner build present her as a Mexican Gray Wolf, bearing no resemblance to her historic relation. Her expressive eyes are the color of dark juniper bark. Despite her scars, the way she carries herself gives her a sort of Wyld quality that is strangely beautiful, and all conducted beneath a veneer of self-control that belies her passion for expression.

Roleplay Tips: You are bold and unapologetically passionate. You carry the weight of Tawatuy on your shoulders and love in your heart, and become irritable when you’re not feeling heard. Your frequent communion with Rala has instilled in you a deeply-critical view of leadership, and there have been numerous times where you have handed the wheel over to Rala Blood-Claw herself, in a manner of speaking, unleashing a rancorous warrior when you do. You believe she was the true voice of reason in the face of Voruk’ny’ket, and you being the sole descendant of Tawatuy are living proof of that. Your duties to Gulaka’i that pull you away from here are also one of your biggest fears; that you won't be able to keep this family safe. You would give your life to save Gulaka’i, but only if you know your family will be saved. When near the hearts of septs, or in late spring, you are always shaking your head, for all the butterflies that land on your face drink your tears away. Your hidden strength is your Animism. The ability to channel and use up to 5 dice will grant you a base dice pool of 11 in homid form. This could have you, true to Rala Blood-Claw’s form, go toe to toe with Legends and hold her own. That hidden power gives you confidence, despite being small and 76 years old. You’d be a legend in your own right, did you not have Rala’s habit of mouthing off to whoever is in charge.

[propertyofkylar]

gonna yap abt amie (dol pc) and her relationships with the LIs because i was thinking abt it in the shower this morning and wanted to share and i only ever talk abt her and whitney and kylar so wanted to expand

whitney: her boyfriend. she loves him so much. they get along well because they’re both loud and violent and love causing trouble. amie is known as “whitney’s girl” and therefore no one ever fucks with her.

kylar: except when they DO fuck with her because no one understands why whitney’s girl also spends so much time with that freak kylar. but amie loves him too. her other boyfriend. she protects him at any cost. most days she heads over to his manor after school. she feels a strong need to take care of him.

robin: since amie has been in the orphanage as long as she can remember, robin has been her best friend since day one. she tried to repress their mutual feelings but couldn’t do it so now they’re together too. another one that amie needs to protect. she supports him in all his endeavors (lemonade stand, crossdressing) and he’s always there when she wants to cry.

sydney: he intrigued amie because of how cute and shy he was. and amie couldn’t stand there being someone whose virginity she didn’t take. so she joined the temple just to sleep with him. and she feels guilty about it. because she does care about sydney, but she’s also literally a demon and he clearly cares more about her than she does him. but she considers him a friend because they spent a lot of time together during the play and working at sirris’s shop. she’s just very conflicted.

avery: this may be surprising but this is amie’s first love. he was kind to her when no one else was, and showed her how good life can be. like she had no money and no friends other than robin and avery came to help her. even now she has more than enough money and no worries, she still spends every saturday with him. he’s the only person she will be calm and submissive with. they genuinely enjoy each other’s company (and now that amie is a famous model and dancer that doesn’t hurt either)

eden: SCARY. amie is scared of her. her worst fear is being trapped with only one person. she kidnapped amie once. amie ran and never looked back. thankfully amie is quick lol so she hasn’t been caught again since.

alex: amie barely knows him. she doesn’t often go out that way (she’s been kidnapped by remy so many times it’s bad memories) but she’s worked at his farm a few times. honestly she’s too busy with stuff in town so she doesn’t have time to go out to the farm. she really just doesn’t care.

black wolf: i think a long time ago amie ended up here and gets along fairly well with the wolf pack. she doesn’t spend a lot of time there but when she sees them in the woods it’s not a bad experience.

great hawk: amie has never met him!!

idk if anyone even will read this but maybe i will write more about her and named npcs too. idk. thinking abt amie a lot lately because she is my child and i love her

[thefruitypebblescastleoftorment]

10, 12??

10. Is there an NPC who's minor or forgettable in cannon that ended up playing a huge part in your game?

Several! I mentioned already how the missing Vallakovich servants ended up being pretty important.

The Wachter Brothers have also ended up as pretty big characters -- my cleric quickly latched onto them as drinking buddies and while the party is still suspicious of Fiona they love her boys. (The party doesn't know about the cult yet, haha.)

Yvgeni and Szoldar, the wolf hunters are also bigger in my game because I made them secret werewolves and tied one of them into my cleric's backstory. (They encountered a pack of werewolves outside Barovia that were there on a raiding party and got curious. Now they're thinking 'well, if these werewolves know a way out of Barovia I might want to get in on whatever they've got.')

12. What is your favorite part of the RAW module?

There's a lot I love about it, but I think the winner is a simple and classic one: Doru. The whole thing with him and his father is amazing -- tragic, dramatic, horrifying and potentially quite dangerous.

I love how you can play him as anything on a sliding scale from Sad Wet Cat to Terrifying Monster. I love how deciding what to do with Doru inevitably reveals things about the characters, what they value, what lines they draw and how they will see a lot of things in Barovia.

It's an early introduction to a situation where there's no obviously good choice (and in my opinion, the best one in the module.) Really it's everything you want from gothic horror, all wrapped up in one sweaty, screaming little package.

[fillingthescrapbook]

Let's Talk About: Fantasy High Junior Year and A Very Merry Moonar Yulenear

This episode was packed! And not just because it was three hours long--

I can't believe we're already eleven episodes in. So few episodes left--and so much of the mystery is still left to unravel! I have to say: I think this has been the most complicated plot Brennan has unleashed on our Intrepid Heroes so far. Or, at the very least, the first one that he hasn't really peppered with NPCs that help guide the players into uncovering plot threads. I love the trust.

I also love that our Intrepid Heroes are very smart people who are really great at playing this game. And this episode has them really hitting it out of the park.

That said, I am very concerned about some of the things that are being revealed (and reinforced):

One. Why does it feel like Henry Hopclap having one of Grix's motherboard feel like a red herring? Zac/Gorgug didn't investigate further, and I don't know if he mentioned what he saw to the other Bad Kids, but I think Henry might be doing some investigating of his own. Because why did Grix go haywire?

Siobhan as Adaine being made to realize that she had all the resources she needed to research Fig's curse the whole time (in Zayn and in Aelwyn) feels like a callback to how Aelwyn played her in Freshman Year--and I suspect that Brennan is setting something up for Adaine.

Hallariel reiterating that Fabian shouldn't host parties at the Seacaster Manor feels ominous. And I want to know why. I feel like the destroyed cloudrider with a missing component plays into this.

And I loved seeing Ally as Kristen (and Lou) realize that Tracker's wolf-song religion got coopted by a megachurch for some nefarious reason that we will soon find out about.

Also: Oh no, Tracker has a type.

Emily and Murph really are out of this world when playing together. The way they chew on Brennan's mystery at the Loam Farm, and then at Fallinell… They're so quick. Chef's kiss.

And Fig's gift to Kristen being so clutch? And Adaine's gift to Fabian and Gorgug's gift to Fig immediately getting used for plot purposes? Amazing. Wonderful. Gorgeous!

I love how the Bad Kids and the Hallow Stones reminded me so much of The Doctor's last stand at the Stonehenge when the Pandorica opened. That probably wasn't intentional but I loved it so much.

And then Baron's return? Wowza.

Wowza.

Whale fall is kinda like Burning Man.

[miirshroom]

Elden Ring (Shadow of the Erdtree) vs. the definition of Bad Writing

Pondering the question of whether something can be called bad writing when it is intentionally "bad". Like, good fiction writing is engrossing - it evokes emotion and can through linguistics alone paint a very vivid sense of space and atmosphere. Any emotion - joy, anger, sadness, etc. So if bad writing is the opposite, then it would be writing that causes confusion about what emotion should be felt or is structured in a way that breaks the suspension of disbelief.

But what if causing confusion is the intention? While in fiction writing it is desirable to provoke an emotional response so that the reader becomes invested, this is a lot like the goal of propaganda - an appeal to strengthen a certain point of view and evoke sympathy for it. The main difference being personal scale compared to a society scale. Some fiction stories focus on showing how a single person is the hero of their own story and others split the viewpoint between multiple characters for a window into the fundamentally different personal philosophies that cause them to be in conflict. If the point of view of 9 demigod characters are presented via the themed zones of the map and NPC interactions and each make a propagandistic emotional appeal, then which is the player going to empathize with?

It's a confusing choice, requiring extensive research to weigh the options. And I mean, both in-game and research into real-world dog whistles, snake oil, and other esoteric nonsense that can help identify the types of crackpot ideas involved with each faction.

But critical thinking is hard compared with just gravitating towards the character that a person projects onto most strongly based on surface aesthetic. And if that character later has character development due to the status quo changes in a way that the reader DOESN'T personally empathize with, then that's bad writing. How dare they change the precious blorbo Miquella, he should have remained a sweet innocent child and forever stagnant in the narrative. Or otherwise, he was robbed of his role in the narrative to grow into a powerful and beautiful saviour.

However, a different truth is revealed after stripping emotion from the situation: this is an expectation of a YA fantasy solution in an adult fantasy story - expecting a lone perfect child saviour to carry the weight of the world and be victorious where experienced but flawed adults fail.

Alternatively, the objection that actually Miquella is a wise adult cursed to be in a child's body ignores a fundamental facet of the narrative - Miquella knows that he has not grown to his adult form and seeks to remedy this. He KNOWS that he is undercooked and not finished developing. So it comes to this: either Miquella's worth is reduced to his ability to produce offspring by sexual reproduction (thus requiring him to become a biological adult), or he was intent on become an adult because stories operate on metaphorical levels and his child-like ignorance of the rules of magic that govern the Land Between is making him terminally incapable of devising a functional plan to bring his dreams to fruition. Unfortunately, that ignorance also extends to the conditions of that metamorphosis being faulty. Miquella was doomed by the narrative from the moment he was presented as a child prodigy and above critique.

Oh, and also the general theme of Shadow of the Erdtree is that it is bad on purpose! But in that second way of deliberately trying to break suspension of disbelief. Observe a few ways that this surreal design logic is worked into the environment:

Helpful developer hints for things like "hit the weak point" that players would have figured out anyways quite quickly

Forest populated by 20 wolf packs and not much else

The Scorpion-spiders are a badly designed chimera creature that is even anatomically inaccurate in how the stinger is rendered. This after the accurately rendered wildlife (crabs, crayfish, tortoise, Golden Eagles, etc) of the base game

The red flesh mushrooms are comically cartoonish - the 3D render being a nonsense version of a Fly Agaric (that doesn't even match the item 2D portrait). Compare to the more accurate Fly Agarics embedded in the 3D render of the Melted Mushroom.

Piles of the broken Rosus statues scattered about the entrances to Catacombs in place of the more subtle directional guidance of the base game

The soul item colour coding convention is entirely broken - an orange item is more likely than base game to be something generic while any plain white soul item could be a unique armour or weapon

The way that you can walk too far in a direction and break the great rune to drastically change the worldstate in the middle of some random fields that don't even look like significant checkpoints

The design logic is disjointed and seemingly contradictory with the main game for a simple reason: it is a dream of the past. A dreamworld with barely enough Order to hold it together. The Shadowlands is a parallel universe to the Lands Between in the similar way that human imagination has invented explanations for how the world works in fanciful ways that run parallel to the scientific explanations. Paying attention to the differences in the environmental storytelling reveals the sense of wrongness that saturates the DLC, like waking up from a dream and realizing that in hindsight the rules of reality in the dream were simply wrong. It isn't even a new concept to have a deeper dreamworld to a surface fantasy world - this concept is used in both Wheel of Time and the Realm of the Elderlings and probably other fantasy settings.

The idea that dreams influence the reality of the real world can explain seeming inconsistencies. The "Mother of Fingers" is a retcon in-universe in that she did not exist until someone imagined it so, and then retroactively she has always existed since some vaguely defined primordial era. Somebody dreamed up Metyr from some misinterpreted observation and invented Finger Creeper constructs in homage to her. Like how people knew that unicorns and basilisks existed and created art of them for centuries with the belief that this is a thing that is totally real, and now digital constructs of them exist in fantasy computer games.

If the Shadowlands is a dreamland and Marika originated from here, then it follows that Marika was a dream woman fashioned by the Fell God of Fire - her soul did not exist in the Lands Between until crossing the boundary between the waking world and the dream (the Gates of Divinity), overtaking the physical body that holds the Elden Ring, and transforming it to the image that she was designed to have. Messmer is all of the base serpentine nature that Radagon (who is himself said Fell God of Fire) forced out of sight and out of mind in his pursuit of becoming Marika. So Messmer is a child of Marika because he represents everything that Radagon suppressed in the Shadowlands in the process of embracing the identity of Marika. But just as the base serpent breaks through Marika's seal of grace on Messmer, this is paralleled in Marika struggling to maintain her identity until that of Radagon overwhelms her once again.

Miquella brings the perspective of a boy who has recently pushed his own dream girl-self off a cliff. This is a drastic shift of his character, in the sense of character development. It's just not character development in a positive direction. It is literally tied into defeat of Mohg, Lord of Blood that Miquella's story requires an understanding of causality. Trina being discarded by Miquella is an effect. What is the cause? A wounded Miquella decided that he needed to discard pieces of himself in the Shadowlands to become a god. How did Miquella arrive at the Shadowlands? Mohg helped him there. How did Mohg "help" Miquella? By kidnapping and traumatizing him into not wanting to inhabit his own body - allowing Miquella to fall into a sleep so deep that it is indistinguishable from death. The Shadowlands is not a place for good well adjusted thinking to end up.

So in conclusion: bad writing is writing that lacks the self awareness to know that it's bad. The Shadow of the Erdtree knows that it's in the dead timeline where rejected ideas go to burn out and diminish. The writing of Shadow of the Erdtree may be uncomfortable or upsetting, but it is actively trying to be these things. Miquella's dreams and nightmares have a depth to them that is beyond anything that the player can guess from looking at his aesthetic in isolation and without considering the full cause and effect of events surrounding him. The writing is going to seem most nonsensical to people who accepted Miquella's goodwill and genius on blind faith.

[moodbroads]

BACK IN MY WOLFQUEST PHASE ONCE AGAIN!!! MEET ROSEMARY :3

also heres some goofy ah photos of my mate being scared of his own pups-

ANYWAYS IM SO EXITED FOR HELLROARING MOUNTAIN!!! i wonder if theres gonna be a new achivement for like interacting or killing a wolverine since i think they said its gonna be rare or smthin! i already know theres prob gonna be new cool collectibles so im exited about that- OOH WHAT IF THEY ADD A WOLVERINE SKULL

would be nice to also have a den in an abandoned human camp ehehe tbh my dream wolfquest update would be if you could raid like a rabbit warren or maybe get revenge on stranger wolf dens so there could actually be war n stuff >:D MAYBE IF YOU FIND A NON-ABANDONED FOX DEN IN WINTER U CAN MAKE IT UR OWN BY DEFEATING THEM >:D

it would also be so epic to have mutations like having a piebald pup!! aionguedbhklwsuv i have SOOO MANY IDEAS like a 'rp mode' in multiplayer servers where ur able to play as a puppy or special rp-only emotes like stretching, shaking or play fighting/roughhousing! and maybe even splitting players into diff packs (maybe being able to attack the other players- if in a diff pack XD)

BUT YEE ANYWAYS BACK TO RAISE MY PUPS-6 MORE POUDS TO GO (to 15) AFTER THE DEN FLOODED T_T (edit cuz im too lazy to make another post)

I FORGOT HOW DRAMATIC WOLFQUEST CAN BE LIKE SKIPPER JUST GOT YOINKED BY A COUGAR AND THEN 5 MINS LATER THE ALPHA FEM OF THE MOLLIES CAME

also yaya its spring i can finally bring food cuz the only beavers are like a million miles away :')

OH AND I SAW AN EAGLE PERCH FOR THE FIRST TIME ON LAMAR PEAK AND IT WAS SO PRETTY-

PLZ GROW SKIPPER PLZPLZZPLZZAAA IM ON MY WOLF KNEES AND HOWLING WHY DID U HAVE TO DO THIS UR BROTHER IS 16.9-

anyways yeah i saved and left after that to take a break-hope to update yall once again soon XD

i have returned once again i couldnt resist >:)

WE GOT TO THE REN SITE FINALLY!! :D the personalities of em are rlly starting to come out sooo...

introducing...creek the napper/antisocial, ember the explorer/rebel, and skipper the energetic/extremely lucky XD

i got revenge on the cougar that snatched skipper /j

BONE PARTY!! (yeah thats creek sleeping once again ;-;)

fun fact i found out durin this playthrough: the plane will visit your mate if they have a radiocollar on and you dont! even if your far from the den and theyre still at it! i saw it a few times and it was pretty cool but very hard to get good shots of :')

AGRHJ MORE DRAMA- dang calfree creek moved in super close to my home hex while skipper got sick- ;-;

once again skipper being 1 tiny pound away BUT AYYE SHE GOT HEALTHY AGAIN LIKE 2 NIGHTS LATER SO YAYA

also me findin the barbie bag and lance being scared of it for some reason (AgAinSt GuRLiEpOpS?!?1/1/!?)

underappreciated local redhead XD

i finished and creek got air jailed by lance for tryna be active T_T

I KNEW SHE WAS A RUNT >:(

ANYWAYS HERE THEYRE ADULT FORMS!! ember got a cool tinted buffy which was my first npc coat!! (XD aint suprised tho cuz lance was stormy) and creek looks like he ate face-first into a bag of flaming hot cheetos

ANYWAYS YAYAAA I HAD A FUN TIME!! i might continue this bloodline too..someday >:)