#oops very long post

[smoosie]

Viktor: *silent treatment*

Jayce: *dies*

[anbaisai]

"Rest well, Jamil-senpai."

[woolying]

tetro pink doodle dump: varied ramen trio edition 🍜🩷 i need to get all of these off my hands lol

picture captions, if you care:

sanrio dogs i drew in my sketchbook once during class ! they are such a doodleable bunch

IIIIIII👏SUP👏POSE👏HEY🆙

this was based on one of tsunos gacha cards, i just wanted to sketch it but then i got carried away..... rip to the matching cheshire sasaki that didnt get drawn (I PROMISE IM STILL WORKING ON THE GACHA CARDS THAT WON THE POLL I DID THAT ONE TIME....IM JUST THE STRUGGLER...)

von tweeted this one and i thought it was funny

i drew this one literally today lol also inspired by a von tweet!! a little bit of miki manami hcs kinda (ive been meaning to do art studies with them bc i have clear views of how the trio look in my head but im not very good at body variation...parkourist tsuno you are so important to me ill draw you well one day) also just know all of the isono hcs are me projecting thank u

isono miki digital angel real (featuring wader)

OOOOO YOU WANNA TALK TO ME ABOUT TETRO SU FUSIONS SOOOOOO BAD ametrine is my fave out of my finished ones so she gets posted yay

i saw the project sekai movie when it came out so i made sure masa miki did too (just realized i forgot wadas eyebrows um...im not going back to fix it sorry idk what canvas this doodle is on)

more sanrios except i assigned one to the whole cast and planned on drawing them all... then gave up basically before i even started lol (if anyone sees this please draw ojima with harenochi nyua and color it all cutelike ty)

/ 11. back to my roots: drawing wada over and over again (i was going through severe genuine withdrawals when i drew these i love drawing wadas)

[gothwizardmagic]

god ok also gotta say as a choreographer, whoever did the superbowl choreo was a fucking GENIUS like. it manages to be so effective without ever being flashy or complicated & like. flashy & complicated are great but to do the basics this effectively is PHENOMENAL. the repeated motifs are so striking and so strong and so CLEAR in their meaning its PAINFULLY effective - the contrast of more relaxed dancers just vibin and having a good time at the beginning & end, when its just people being themselves vs. "what america wants" - disquieting, emotionless, rigid lines of soldiers throwing salutes while kendrick & sza are singing on stage in the middle, keeping the people entertained & distracted as the goose-stepping dancers circle like sharks

and thats not to even mention the SCALE - working with such crisp colour lines in such an ENORMOUS group is staggering to even fathom like. making sure all the reds are in the right place at the right time & you dont have someone who was a blue in one section but accidentally wound up in the white group somewhere in the shuffle....... the formations are UNBELIEVABLY complex & span such an enormous space, its mind blowing to think about. over a hundred dancers. over a HUNDRED people to keep track of at all times to make sure they're getting from one place to another in the right way at the right times in the right formations. over a HUNDRED.

the dancers executed FLAWLESSLY too - taking big steps and remaining PERFECTLY in line is incredibly hard & they made it look effortless. the amount of split-second transitions to nail and vibe-shifts to hit.... oh my god. also shot to the camerapeople who were working their asses off on those transitions just as much as kendrick & the dancers were

also thinking of scale like... arena choreography and stage/film choreography are VERY different things. on a stage or in a music video etc. you have ONE front. at most on a big stage the audience might wrap slightly around the sides but generally speaking, you're choreographing for the people or camera in front of you, and they're gonna have a pretty good view of your face the whole time. arenas are MASSIVE, and there are people on ALL SIDES. you can't pick A Front, you have to be entertaining people all around you simultaneously, which means completely rethinking how things are structured. you also can't rely on detail nearly as much, because the audience is Really far away. even if there are screens, you want to make sure that there's something to look at on the stage itself, so the audience doesn't feel like they're just watching a music video. it's still a live show & you want it to feel like one

so theres a balance to strike between giving the individual artist focus & acknowledging that they literally... can't face every direction at once. even if kendrick is facing away, there are always dancers doing something that'll be visually striking at a distance for the audience to enjoy. but at the same time because there ARE cameras, it also has to work for video & HAVE those detailed up-close elements, so the footage doesn't just look like a guy bopping around with people walking past him for the whole time. the most effective example i can think of is in peekaboo - the groups of white-clothed dancers in the X is visually strong from a distance - even if you can't see exactly what's going on, it's an interesting visual, whereas up close you have the strong music video feel of kendrick popping up out of nowhere; of all these different up close groups of dancers giving their full performance directly to one front while that front is rotating from one group to another, as opposed to the multiple surrounding fronts on the main stage. it transitions from an arena show to a music video (and then back when he walks out onto the main stage with that trail of dancers so the visual is most effective from above rather than up close) SO EFFORTLESSLY and makes absolutely brilliant use of the space

this is literally jsut stream of consciousness it could definitely all be phrased better & honestly i could keep talking for a Long time like i didnt even get in depth abt the use of colour in the costuming & the way every costume is slightly unique in the up close shots but when you pan out to the stadium they become lines of clones like. god i could go on!!!! i coudl go on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! its a masterpiece choreographically fr its elegant its communicative its mindbogglingly complex ive watched it five times now trying to absorb as much as i can

[scribz-ag24]

I've recently seen again a post talking about the Sableye and Dusknoir's relationship so i'd like to put my two cents in the discussion, for I love screaming into the void about PMD. (this isnt meant to discourage any other interpretations btw this is just my take on theirs and Dusknoir's relationship, bc I think they're very fun characters and I am very glad the game actually gives these minions a bit of relevance in se5).

Tbh I don't buy that Dusknoir treats the Sableye nicely, at least not out of kindness. I don't think he's a tyrant or inexplicably mean, of course, and I think his minions ADORE him, but i also believe that doesn't mean he's nice to them, sth that i consider meaningful for their character arcs.

Throughout the entire game he's exclusively giving them orders, in se5 he concocts a plan that involves thrashing them MULTIPLE times (he's lucky Grovyle isn't one to try and kill enemies in battle ig), and the cherry on top is that the first time we see him being fully genuine he does this:

(yes, he is in turmoil in here, but there's not a single thing implying that 1. this is an unusual response towards the sablye, 2. dusknoir feels bad for it at some point or is surprised at himself, 3. this has any impact in the sableye at all. You can argue these reactions happen off screen and we don't see them, they don't happen bc they have pressing matters to attend to or they happen after they return to life, and that's perfectly valid, but i'm sticking with what the game shows us, here.)

I must say, though, the fact that the Sableye, despite having been almost mindless pokémon up to now, STAND UP TO AND ATTACK Primal Dialga for their boss and even try to look after him despite him ordering them to check on Grovyle and Celebi first is SO important to me. they are goons to the bone and they love that scheming ghost so much.

My own view is that Dusknoir is generally polite to them (you wouldn't randomly break your own revolver or weapon without any reason, would you?), but is quicker to get mean with them than with people he doesn't know or he is seeking to manipulate. He doesn't care about their behaviour as long as they get the job done, which is why I think the anime thing of the Sableye climbing onto his shoulder isn't that remarkable, rather it's a very cute moment, one that is showing how they've been working together for long and how their size difference affects their interactions, but it is not necessarily conveying an affectionate bond (this is a bit random, but it reminds me of Disney's Jafar with Iago lmao. throw your pet sableye at your enemies so they mock them and then return to your shoulder). Additionally, Dusknoir letting the Sableye onto his shoulder is probably as close as we are gonna get to a villain turning around in his chair while petting a cat in PMD lol.

[this isn't meant to be a one-to-one comparison, it's just a detail i find cute and shows that this gesture can have multiple interpretations, with none being the only right one]

Leaving that aside, I hesitate to claim Dusknoir trusts his Sableye as allies, as Grovyle makes a point in the main story of how the Sableye (your Sableye, he says, as if objectifying them; not friends, but tools, weapons at Dusknoir's disposal) are lacking compared to the way hero/partner/grovyle support one another (power of friendship and hidden information babyyyy). The Sableye are used to Dusknoir's way of doing things, though, I'm sure. They know what happens when he's displeased, after all.

I think, most of all, the Sableye are meant to look disposable: they are 6 identical pokémon that almost act like a hivemind, and we are not supposed to think at all about how we may hurt them in battle any more than we do with the angry Manectric pack or random dungeon pokémon. This, I believe, is why the game has them stand up against Dialga and gives them unique dialogue at the end of se5. They're meant to show their inner shine, just as Dusknoir managed to do. They suddenly gain an individuality they had never shown while they were working to maintain the dark future.

Where they abandoned Dusknoir in the Old Ruins, now Grovyle has motivated them to look for their dignity and fight for a better world, and that starts with protecting their leader from Primal Dialga's rampage, and supporting his new objective and allies in their quest to save the future. In their own small way, they've also grown as characters throughout SE5.

I believe that, overall, Dusknoir saw the Sableye as tools, but thanks to their growth and clear care for him, there's a possibility he might start to see them (and by extension other pokémon) in a more genuine, less pragmatic / objectifying way in the future. Now that Dusknoir has the chance to live a fulfilling life, he may learn to care for others without surrounding himself by so many walls. If anything, I think their future is quite bright. Not that the Sableye would mind if he still thrashed them around, though lol, they're clearly not bothered much by it (special episode 0 had a great depiction of the sableye imo, you can check that romhack if you haven't yet).

In conclusion, look at these little guys who adore their can-get-mean-but-is-mostly-polite boss and probably have a body count but now are good, they're so cute:

[starcurtain]

Hello! I just saw your latest post and you might have been referring to my ask if it was the one about Ratiorine's differing philosophies or of what philosophies they abide by (existentialism, absurdism, etc) then that's me! If you weren't referring to that I apologize for the confusion. Sending it off anon this time so maybe it doesn't disappear 🥲

Sorry for the ask disappearing the first time; I'm not sure what happened, and I was so sad because I had been carefully holding on to it to answer it! I'm glad you were able to resend.

I do have to say first that philosophy is not my area of expertise, so there may be much more qualified philosophy buffs out there who can answer this more accurately than me, but I'll give it a go with my personal understandings of the characters:

First, Ratio is the easier of the two I think. As many people have said, he's a good fit for existentialism. His entire shtick is basically believing in the power of the individual to improve and enrich their own life, to fight valiantly regardless of the hardships imposed by their life's circumstances, and to make themself into a better person by their own choices.

It's important to underscore that this means Ratio believes in self-determination, in the idea that people's lives are not foreordained but are actually actively shaped each day by personal decisions. Therefore, people have inherent freedom to decide the course of their own lives by accepting what they approve of, refusing to accept what they disapprove of, and harnessing their own individual power to ultimately achieve self-actualization.

Essentially, Ratio works under the impression that life is not guided by something as intangible as destiny, and no matter where you start off in life, what ultimately happens to you is within your control (or at least within the control of whoever controls you). This is likely a small part of why it grates on him so badly that he wasn't recognized by Nous, because the fact that one can dedicate everything to a goal and still not achieve that goal runs contrary to his central philosophy.

If he believes that people have the power to determine the course of their own lives, then what does it say about him, who fought so hard to do exactly as he claims even idiots can do--seize control his own fate--and yet didn't succeed? Are there some things outside of man's power? It's enough to make even a renowned doctor question himself, and Ratio decided to come out on the side of "It's a personal failing, not a flaw in my philosophy." He literally said "Skill issue" to himself.

Changing tack a tiny bit here, I think it's also important to emphasize that there is a difference between existentialism and nihilism even though these philosophies dovetail. Again, I'm not an expert in philosophy, so my understanding is very limited, but the basic idea of existentialism is that "existence comes before essence"--that is, things start as a blank slate and gain nature and meaning after the fact. We are not created by some grand design, nor is there any inherent "purpose for living." Things just exist because they exist.

This is where existentialism intersects with nihilism, at the starting point that existence is inherently meaningless. But, in my personal opinion, nihilism as a philosophy fails to move beyond that. Pure nihilism is ultimately self-defeating because it leaves us with no motivation to commit to growth. It's a philosophy antithetical to the continuation of life as we know it. Existence is meaningless and any meaning you personally derive from existence is also meaningless, so why bother attempting to derive any meaning at all? This complete apathy is the Device IX that Star Rail paints as so dangerous.

And Ratio is not this way at all. His philosophy absolutely reaffirms that life can have meaning, so long as people create that meaning for themselves. He simultaneously asserts that anything that people create is not meaningless ...which basically means that meaning itself cannot be meaningless. (If that makes any sense to anyone.)

Frankly, I would argue that this philosophy may be a core part of why Ratio has not been recognized by Nous so far, rather than simply his "being a good person." (Nous is a robotic AI super-computer, why would THEY care about the presence or lack of human empathy?) Ultimately, Ratio's central philosophy about people being capable of determining their own fates and purposes also applies to his understanding of knowledge--knowledge is not something which is inherent in certain beings from birth or limited to the purview of the "special" (geniuses), but is attainable by all people. People are not "born talented" or "born untalented," they are simply "educated" or "uneducated," with the only barrier between these categories being one's own personal willingness to change. The mundane can become the divine--if they work hard enough at it.

Thus, knowledge is not wealth to be hoarded, but a currency to be spent to enrich other members of humanity.

(By the way, completely random aside--it also surprises me that everyone relates Ratio to Alhaitham from Genshin when they literally have such a glaring fundamental discrepancy in their understanding of the concept of wisdom... But anyway, back on topic!)

Ratio may (sort of) respect the members of the Genius Society, may recognize their incredible knowledge and abilities, but at the heart of the matter lies a single all-important question: Does Ratio even really believe in "genius" as a distinction (other than as a concept to insult himself)? Does he truly believe there is barrier between brilliance and idiocy that "ordinary people" can never cross?

He speaks convincingly about geniuses being different from "the ordinary," but if his core belief is that people have the power to pull themselves up out of despair and achieve greatness through effort and self-development, rather than some form of luck or god-given talent at birth, then... do born "geniuses" even really exist? Is there really an insurmountable difference between brilliant and mundane?

If knowledge is the equalizer of all sentient beings, do we not all have at least the initial capacity to become geniuses?

I personally think this central distinction about the capacity for knowledge among all humanity is the actual deciding factor in Ratio's rejection from the Genius Society, because, at the end of the day... how do you become a member of the "Genius Society" when you fundamentally reject the distinction of "genius" as an exclusive category from the start?

Ratio wants to share knowledge and uplift everyone (even if he thinks most people are starting off at the rock bottom known as idiocy).

His mission is diametrically opposed to the concept of a "Genius Society" in the first place.

He wanted in to the cool kids club because he desperately craves validation and acceptance, but the philosophical values of the Genius Society are ultimately incompatible with his own. In short, he would have to cease to be "Veritas Ratio" to succeed in joining the geniuses.

Okay, okay, back to the original point again, and just one more note about Ratio: Even though existentialism also goes hand-in-hand with absurdism, I don't think Ratio is far enough down the philosophical rabbit hole to believe in the wider definition of absurdism. Although I think he does agree with the inherent meaninglessness of existence, I don't think he views existence itself as truly irrational and the universe as as manifestation of unknowable chaos. I think he'd at least like to imagine that there are some ontological principles and inherent laws governing the operations of reality, and I think he does believe that certain things can be predicted with the application of enough thought... He certainly seems to believe in some form of "objective truth," at the very least.

I think he'd at least like to believe the universe is semi-orderly, even if he might deep down admit this is also wishful thinking.

So, to me he reads as a strong metaphor for pure existentialism, with deliberate rejections to both nihilism's apathy and absurdism's lean toward solely subjective reality.

PHEW, this is already long and I still have a whole other character to talk about... I had more to say about this topic than I thought. Sorry for the long read!

Anyway... Aventurine.

I've seen all sorts of things thrown around for Aventurine's philosophy, and while I think he does inherit a bit of Acheron's absurdism by the end of 2.1, I actually don't think Aventurine is an absurdist, an existentialist, or a nihilist.

I think Aventurine is a struggling fatalist.

He doesn't like it. We see him actively question it, but ultimately, he does come back to the concept of destiny over and over.

First, I think it's important to draw a clear distinction between Ratio and Aventurine: Ratio's existentialism is a philosophy that technically works even in a theological vacuum. Nous doesn't have to exist for Ratio's philosophy to function. Ratio's belief in the self-determination of humanity is, in fact, somewhat opposed to belief in aeons in the first place, and only works because technically the aeons of Star Rail used to be human (or were originally human creations). It's essentially an atheist viewpoint.

But Aventurine is a religious character. Like, he's just... religious. That's a fact about him. Even though we do hear his doubts, at the end of the day, he actually believes in Gaiathra, and believing in a omniscient supernatural being that is not human in origin (is from outside the aeon system) comes with a whole set of philosophical foundations that most aeon-worshipping characters just don't have in Star Rail. (Sunday is the obvious exception here, by the way.)

Kakavasha's like the one practicing pagan in the middle of an atheist convention. Awkward.

Being more serious: Religion requires faith. Faith requires the ability to believe in things you cannot verify with empirical facts. To believe in things you can only feel, never see. The belief that a goddess is watching over you, blessing you, and guiding you requires you to also accept the idea that events in your life are not always in your own control--that some of what occurs to you is decided by powers beyond your comprehension.

In essence, faith requires belief in fate. And that leads to fatalism.

No matter how much he doesn't like it, no matter how much we see him struggle with it, Aventurine does actually seem to believe in the concept of fate. He believes that some events in life are destined to occur, that some things are outside of individuals' control, and that ultimately not everything can be changed.

This is the dead opposite of Ratio's mindset: No matter how hard we fight, how far we push ourselves... in the end, sometimes people fail. Sometimes the only answer to our endless struggles is that we die, as we were destined to, before ever achieving the greatness we sought or the futures we were promised.

As an aside, I don't think faith or religion are necessarily the only factors connecting Aventurine to this particular philosophy either. Even removing theological aspects from the conversation, his extreme focus on the gambling aesthetic suggests a strong connection to fatalism too--if not a goddess, then one's fate may as well be in the hands of luck itself, of the whims of the rolling dice--or the push and pull of "powers that be," those figures of authority in the room where it happens, who make their shady deals according to preset rules and expectations, every bet resulting in an ultimately predictable outcome.

(He keeps gambling and gambling, hoping that he'll get a different result than the one he knows is inevitable...)

This is, of course, an inherently pessimistic mindset, a perfect dark-mirror to Ratio's deep-down optimism. Fatalism puts humanity into a position of powerlessness. All hopes and dreams are given over to the goddess, by whose judgment and whims the actual events of one's life are decided. Pain and poverty are inevitable trials. Suffering and death are foreordained.

And yet Aventurine has to cling to this, as much as he doubts it, as much as he hates the idea that things in his life are beyond his power to control.

Because if fate doesn't exist... If it wasn't destiny, if the tragedies of his life weren't trials from the goddess, if things weren't supposed to go this way... Then every single thing in his life really is meaningless. Everything he suffered, everyone he loved and loss, his mother's and sister's sacrifices, the torment he went through--just sheer bad luck. All of it, completely and utterly meaningless.

How can you convince yourself to keep living, in the face of such supreme and all-encompassing Nihility?

This is the central struggle of Aventurine's character, the actual mental and emotional journey we see him undertaking from 2.0 to 2.1. He is literally on the precipice, swinging between a viewpoint that he hates--his fatalistic belief in destiny--and an entirely self-defeating philosophy--nihilism--whose only possible final outcome is suicide.

This is what his talk with Acheron at the end of 2.1 is all about. This is how she saves him. In that final cutscene, we witness Aventurine reach a mental compromise, managing to finally reconcile his necessary faith in the concept of destiny with the reality that life may truly begin meaningless--but beginning meaningless does not mean staying meaningless, and believing in destiny does not bar you from making your own choices or finding your own purpose in life.

Later on in Penacony's story, we literally see Acheron use Ratio's philosophy to reject the same nihility that crept into Aventurine's:

Acheron wards off nihility's apathy through an absurdism all her own, but one which manages to enclose both Ratio's and Aventurine's otherwise incompatible mindsets: We have no way of ever knowing for certain whether the events of our lives are fated or mere nonsense. We have no way of knowing if our choices are our own or foreordained. But we don't need to know this to find meaning and value in them. Whether life is nothing more than unpredictable chaos or a predetermined pattern of cause and effect, what matters is what you make of it.

Ultimately, I think that this post has really helped me recognize just how well Aventurine and Ratio work as philosophical foils.

They really are perfect opposites.

Aventurine's fatalism is deterministic, while Ratio's existentialism is self-deterministic. Aventurine's philosophy is inherently pessimistic; Ratio's is inherently optimistic. Ratio's philosophy operates on a core belief in the freedom of humanity to decide their own paths in life, while Aventurine hates but does ultimately believe that people aren't really in control, that even if no gods are guiding us, we can't rise above our own natures. Ratio's philosophy makes meaning from growth; Aventurine's makes meaning from loss...

And they both struggle with fundamental doubts in their own philosophies, core questions that are directly tied to their own lives. Aventurine worries that his faith might be misplaced, that destiny might not exist, and that everything he suffered might have been in pointless, empty vain. Ratio faces the crisis of recognizing that his core belief in the power of humankind to determine their own paths and make their own meaning might not actually apply to everyone--because it doesn't seem to apply to himself.

It's literally only by bridging this philosophical binary with Acheron's anti-Nihility absurdist rhetoric that we can reach some sort of healthy outcome. That's why it takes both Ratio's note and Acheron's comments to finally lead Aventurine to acceptance. Ratio probably needs a little bit of Aventurine's "If you didn't make it into the Genius Society, there's got to be a reason" mindset to finally reach some peace with his situation too.

I'm not even a philosophy expert and even I can see that there's really only one takeaway here: These two characters were totally written with each other in mind.

Aventurine and Ratio need each other on core metaphysical levels! 😂

It's so good guys. You can't see it, but I'm making chef's kisses, I promise.

[serve-cunt]

carrying the other one in their arms - rosquez

ok this is a prompt from like ten miiiiiillion years ago... I wrote something and never posted it but it works pretty well for the sci-fi au summer camp badge so I'm letting it be freeeee

— —

— —

“Idiot,” Vale said, and knelt beside Marc. He poked him, then pushed him over. Marc rolled easily in the trampled mud, and as he flopped onto his back Uccio saw his face: white, a death mask, spattered with muck. His air purifier was yanked to one side, and his eyes were closed.

Uccio sucked his teeth and turned away. “Good riddance,” he said, and hoisted his gun tighter to his chest. “He was a liability.” 

Vale didn’t answer. His hands were running, quick and sure, over Marc’s body. Checking his breathing, his pulse. His long fingers at Marc’s neck. 

“We should go,” Uccio said. He was watching the trees: he and Vale weren’t far from the ship, but if there was anything in that grove—if they were rushed—they were far enough from safety for their position to be dangerous. He checked the detector at his hip: it beeped quietly, slowly. Nothing close, thank God. 

Vale had ripped open Marc’s shirt from the shoulder, and he made a sound, a pull of air. Uccio looked down: Marc’s shoulder was mangled, a mass of broken bone and ripped flesh. 

“He’s been bitten,” Uccio said, harsh. “Holy God—Vale, stop touching him—” 

“That’s not a bite,” Vale said, quiet and grim. “His shirt…” 

It took Uccio a moment to understand: the shirt’s fabric hadn’t been torn. Not bitten through. 

“He fell, or something. From his bike, maybe. Idiot! I told him…” But exactly what he had told Marc, and when, he didn’t say, and Uccio didn’t ask. 

Vale finished stripping Marc’s shirt from his shoulder, wiping away the gore as best he could with the sleeve of his own jacket. He examined the injury, eyes intent on the mutilated muscle, fingers light at Marc’s elbow. Uccio watched, sickly uneasy but silent. If Marc had been awake, he doubted Vale’s fingers would be so gentle. If Marc had been awake, he might not have let Vale touch him. 

Uccio’s detector gave a warning beep. He looked down, then towards the stunted, twisted trees. He didn't like this planet; never had. He didn't like that the detectors beeped continuously, but they never saw signs of animal life bigger than a spider. Where were They? What were They eating? “Vale,” he said. “We should go.”

Vale’s hand was hovering over Marc’s mangled shoulder. He didn’t look up, his eyes now scanning Marc’s face intently. “There will be trouble if we leave him. The brother… he’ll ask questions. He'll make a scene.” 

Uccio tsk’d. “He won’t last the trip, with that arm.” 

“Then he doesn’t,” Vale said, sharp suddenly. He stood up, eyes cold. “We’ll get him into the ship, at least. After that, it is a problem for his family.” 

Uccio didn’t ask. He stood back and watched as Vale covered Marc’s shoulder with his torn shirt, and then threw Marc’s arms over his own shoulders to pick him up more easily. Marc was short; once Vale had struggled to his feet, Marc in his arms, he carried him without too much awkwardness. Marc shifted, groaned, then went silent again. They waited, but his eyes stopped fluttering. Vale was looking down at him, expression unreadable.

Uccio’s detector beeped again, although not more loudly than before. He shot a glance at the trees: nothing visible yet.

“I’ve got him,” Vale said, tight-lipped. He took a few slow steps forward, Marc in his arms. “Go ahead, warn Marquez we’re coming.” 

The ground was flat and the wind blew towards the ship. Uccio heard Vale’s next words too, although they weren’t met for him. 

“I have you,” he said, low and soft. “I’m bringing you home.” And then, in a much different tone than he had used the first time he’d said it: “Idiot.”

[unsettlingcreature]

This probably isn't what anon expected but I don't know any other way to explain what mods I have and why.

Foreword

This post will be a comprehensive overview of the mods that I use for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (AE) and why I choose these mods specifically.

When I play Skyrim, I'm looking for survival-gameplay and a level of realism that can't be found in the base game. I dislike the idea that my character can defeat Alduin, Miraak and Harkon, as well as all manner of other enemies from both vanilla questlines and modded, in the span of a few months or years. As such, my aim is to make Skyrim a dangerous land that takes years to fully explore where my character will struggle to survive before they can thrive.

With the mods below, you'll find that you fall into a nice gameplay loop of exploring dangerous dungeons and completing quests while camping, returning to safety to rest and deal with non-fighting related business, and finally planning your journey for the next quest.

This post is split into the following sections:

Character creation

Survival

Non-combat mods

Travel

Combat

Weather

Miscellaneous

This post doesn't include:

Tutorials for installing any of the mods mentioned

Mentions of per-requisite files, compatibility patches or bug-fixes

Aesthetic/visual mods (such as retextures, city overhauls, new armour/clothing or animation replacers)

Companion mods, story/quest mods or expansions

Character creation

I'll quickly mention the race overhaul that I use - Aetherius. I like that each race is instead given a passive ability rather than the powers in vanilla Skyrim.

First, there's the Alternate Start mod. I like this as it not only allows me to skip the opening cutscene which I've seen far too many times, but also lets me start to think about what my character was doing before the start of the game. Starting with a faction or property in any of the holds allows for an easier start but typically I'll go for something that drops me right into the thick of it.

Immediately upon spawning in the world, I activate Dealing With Backstories to further flesh out my character's history. You'll start with detailing your character's childhood, from their parent's station in life to the chores and hobbies they had at a young age. You can start immediately with the "Coming of Age" stage or further flesh out more of their life. Something I love about DwB is that you can reactivate the mod to simulate time passing - which I love doing after completing a few major questlines.

Next, I make a point to travel to Riverwood - not just to start off the MSQ but also to choose my starting Patron God in Blackfall Temple. Rather than having to curry favour with the gods, this simply has you select your patron god (which can be changed at any time). It's simple and non-intrusive - something that's nice compared to the many other mods I have!

Survival

The absolute core of this comes down to three mods: Frostfall, Last Seed and Wounds.

Frostfall is pretty simple in that it's the mod that makes your character feel cold. You'll need to prepare for journeys to the colder parts of the province with warm clothing and plans for setting up camp once you can't tolerate the cold anymore.

Last Seed handles your main needs - Hunger, Thirst and Fatigue (with each being linked to health, stamina and magicka respectively). It also has other features, such as diseases which grow in severity the longer you go without rest or vitality which serves as an overview of your character's overall wellness - with support for Frostfall and multiple other mods that will be mentioned in this section, allowing them also to contribute to your wellbeing!

In order to keep your character fed, I recommend using Simple Hunting Overhaul which allows you to hunt animals for meat, as well as sell their carcasses for money. Combined with Skills of the Wild, you'll find your character improving as a hunter, allowing them to skin/butcher animals with more efficiency (and saving daylight in the process). I will warn that this does remove the compass and HUD - meaning you'll have to rely on the map and landmarks to navigate! I used to hate this but now I love getting lost.

The last of our core survival trio is Wounds which makes it so you can be injured in a variety of ways from bruises to concussions to broken bones. Similarly to the diseases, these can get worse if left untreated and will often leave you weakened from pain (or even unable to hold weapons, in the case of broken and unsplinted arms).

A final addition to round it out is Stress and Fear (and Stressful Darkness) which means that your character will become more and more stressed the longer they are in dangerous situations, such as combat or dungeons. You'll find your character isn't able to keep going without breaks, whether that's from disease, injury or stress. Eventually, they'll need to take a break!

Since my ideal living situation for my character is them being unable to afford a house of their own (helped along with Evolving Economy), you'll be spending a lot of time in the inns of Skyrim - which are a fair bit more pricey thanks to Coherent Inn Prices. A useful mod to go along with all of this is Extended Stay - although you'll need to adjust the prices in the console to match CIP - which lets you rent a room for three days, a week or even a month and gives you a safe chest for storage.

Once in the inn, you'll be able to wash off the dirt and blood from your recent travels with Keep It Clean. Not only will you be viewed more favourably when clean (through a speechcraft boost), but it keeps you healthier too since your disease resistance is lowered when you're filthy.

Finally, when it's time to sleep, make sure you have Idrinth's Dream Framework so that you have the chance to have a dream or a nightmare while you snooze. Make sure to add the various dream mods (all of which can be found in the "Mods requiring this file" section).

Non-combat mods

It's all well and good saying it's time to let your character rest but you'll still want things to do during that time. As such, here are a handful of mods for that exact purpose! First, overhauls of existing mechanics.

Complete Alchemy and Cooking Overhaul does exactly what the title says - overhauls cooking and alchemy! I love making my character learn how to cook and improve over time and it links nicely to Last Seed, in that it gives you so many more foods to eat. The new alchemy additions of grenades and weapon coatings also give you more options during a fight!

Immersive Jewelry gives... so many new types of jewellery for your character to wear. I think that accessories can really tell a lot about your character and the many new styles will help you find something that fits your character more than the limited rings, amulets and circlets in vanilla. And even if you don't want to wear them yourself, you'll be able to sell them for plenty of money!

Thaumaturgy is my enchanting overhaul of choice, it isn't overcomplicated and just rebalances the vanilla enchants and adds some fun new ones.

Personally, I love playing scholarly characters which makes Immersive Spell Learning my favourite of the mod category I like to call "mages should be nerds". Learning spells will take time, particularly if they're of a higher level of understanding than you've currently achieved in that school of magic. It's also compatible with like... every mod that adds new spells. My personal favourite is Apocalypse.

Another mod in my academic-skyrim repertoire is Train and Study. With this, you can use skill books or training dummies to improve your skills. If you use this in tandem with Bibliophile's Arcanaeum, you'll be able to borrow skill books from the College of Winterhold. Great for waiting out the many, many blizzards in the north!

If you're more musically inclined, Skyrim's Got Talent lets you play a bard. Just be prepared to suck at first. Once your character gets past the beginning stages, it's nice to be able to whip out an instrument and sit back and listen to them play a song. In the same way as CACO, you'll find that this is something that your character will improve upon gradually.

Of course, I'm always looking for more mods to give me things to do during my character's downtime. I've recently been looking at Tavern Games, but if anyone has any suggestions then please send them to me.

Once the resting is done, it's back on the road! I like how I have to plan out my journey ahead of time - which quests do I want to complete now and which can I save until later? What quests and dungeons can be found along the way? If I get sick or injured, are there any nearby towns or villages for me to rest before I head to a city? Can I survive the cold at this time of year? Many things to consider!

Travel

Starting off with Journeyman, this mod overhauls fast travel. Rather than restricting fast travel entirely, this mod requires you to have a travel pack in order to do so. You can either craft or buy them but they do weigh quite a bit. I like this as sometimes, I don't want to have to walk up the seven thousand steps every time I need to chat to the Greybeards or Partysnacks. It means I will typically be on foot for most journeys but have the option to skip tedious journeys if I want to.

Some more mods to skip the on-foot tedium are Carriage and Ferry Travel Overhaul and Sforzinda's Destinations. These allow a number of ways to shorten the amount of walking you need to do.

However, exploring the world on foot is very beneficial with the Experience mod. This overhauls how the player earns experience, with it being gained through completing quests, clearing dungeons and even just discovering new locations. Something else to find on foot are Skyshards - collecting three of them gives you an additional perk point which I love a lot! I'm indecisive so I like having extra points to throw into skill trees without worrying whether I'll end up swapping playstyles later on.

Finally, I love the convenience of Convenient Bridges. I wish I was joking about this but there have been many times where I've looked at a river and thought, "wow, I wish there was a bridge so I could cross this" and then I look slightly to the side and there's a bridge there thanks to this mod. Considering that going in the water can risk hypothermia with Frostfall, this mod will really help in avoiding freezing to death.

Combat

Of course, where there's travel, there's danger. To start with, we have Arena which overhauls encounter zones. To put it in simple terms, certain enemy types are best left for certain level ranges and enemies will be harder overall... I think? I still don't fully understand but I do know that I frequently get my ass beat with this mod. Which I love.

Next is Manbeast which overhauls werewolves. My favourite part of this mod is the forced transformations - once, I had a character with several broken bones and a concussion. Though he was trying to recover in the Bee and Barb, the beast within threatened to break free and he had to go running across Riften before he transformed in front of everyone. It's counterpart for vampires is Scion, which is also in my load!

Can you tell I like the simonrim mods? Because here's another one - Stormcrown! Along with overhauling the shouts, you can meditate on them with Paarthurnax in order to permanently buff them (for the low, low cost of one dragon soul!).

As for dragons, I use Simply Stronger Dragons to make our scaly friends more of a threat and Dragons Awaken to add named dragons at dragon mounds (yay! more opportunities for death!). Finally, I add in Cult of the World Eater to encourage me to hunt down the dragon priests, lest Alduin be unkillable once I reach him in Sovngarde.

Weather

I don't have a neat transition to this category. Weather! Yippee!

First off is Frostfall Seasons. This makes it colder during winter and warmer during winter. Self explanatory. Then, it's Wander which adds some new types of weather but I primarily use for the darker nights. Next, I add True Storms which makes storms in Skyrim a thing a beauty. I love storms and this mod makes them incredibly intense.

Wonders of Weather adds rain splashes, shooting stars and rainbows, while Wet and Cold adds some visual effects to your character and NPCs based on the current weather.

Miscellaneous

Finally, we have the mods which I couldn't fit into the other categories.

Skald's Mail adds a mailbox for you to receive all of your letters in, rather than a courier running up to you every time. You can also send packages between mailboxes and order stuff from shops, if you have their catalogue. I love this mod so much. I want a mod that adds spam mail. I want mods that give me more mail. Please. Please.

Immersive Citizens overhauls the AI of friendly NPCs to make them more... immersive. Yeah. And Realistic Dark Brotherhood Kidnapping makes your kidnapping more realistic too! Also, I know I said I wouldn't include any quest expansions but I will sneak in Destroy the Dark Brotherhood. I always found it unrealistic that you just get to wipe out their sanctuary in one go and I personally enjoy hunting people down.

At this point, I've been making this for four hours on about as much sleep. I am COMMITTED to the grindset. jk i'm going to bed after this.

There's a lot of mods that I didn't include since they are down to personal preference. After all, not everyone is going to want crows flying overhead or is excited by the prospect of a completionist museum. As such, here's some special mentions of mods that I enjoy but are (ultimately) down to personal preference.

Fashions of the Fourth Era

Replace Nirnroot Sound with Windchimes

Spaghetti's Overhauls

Keeping Warm - Scarves and Mufflers

Improved Alternate Conversation Camera

Obscure's College of Winterhold

Ordinator

Genuinely Intelligent Soul Trap

JaySerpa's dialogue and quest expansions

Mephala's Curse

Dark Forests of Skyrim

[ejga-ostja]

six of bunny hare rabbits

[koobiie]

its my blog and i get to make the silly oc posts. anyways differences in jake/harley driving styles. harley first -

vs jake-

bonus-

[chanelle-lize]

On Thursday, February 20, 2025, I got hit by a freight train.

Let me explain…

When I saw @wizard-loving-wizard post that Aabria was teaching a free masterclass in Hamilton, Ontario, I was crushed.

I live in Montreal, Quebec, which is a seven-hour drive from Hamilton. Round trip tickets would have cost me ~$200, which would have been perfectly affordable if it wasn’t for the dire financial situation I’ve been in for the last several months. I felt like I was missing out on a dream come true because I was just too much of a fuck up to reach out and take it.

I retreated to my Aabria appreciation post on Discord and vented about my inability to attend the event. Fifteen minutes later, a fellow Aabria fan, who I will refer to as “Ruby” replied, “Tell me how much it costs to get there and back- I will sponsor you.”

I almost immediately refused. They explained that they wanted to pay my way as a birthday present for themself, because they really wanted to see me follow my dreams. So, I decided to look up the current ticket prices. I did my research and learned the most efficient route was to take a bus from Montréal to Toronto, then from Toronto to Hamilton. Four tickets, round trip. Then, I registered to get my ticket for the masterclass, just to make sure I didn’t secure bus tickets only to find that the class had sold out.

I asked around some local social media groups to see what options I had and found someone who was looking to trade a bus ticket from Montreal to Toronto on the exact date of the event. They ended up trading me the ticket in exchange for a faux fur blanket that I forgot I had. Ruby congratulated me for snagging one of the tickets, but reminded me that their offer was still available.

I kept looking, in the hopes that I would eventually find a way to get from Toronto to Hamilton, and then back home again without having to accept freely-given financial support (no, I don't have a therapist, why do you ask?), but I had no such luck. I felt like I was on a perpetual roller coaster of hope and disappointment, but every time I got discouraged, I hummed “Impossible” from Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella to myself – the Brandy and Whitney Houston rendition, specifically – and kept going.

On Wednesday, I had to accept that I probably would not be finding any more bus tickets on my own, so I thanked Ruby for reiterating the offer and told them how much I needed for the remaining three tickets. They sent me $200 regardless.

I bought the rest of the tickets and left for Toronto at 6:30 am Thursday morning.

On the way to Toronto, I got a Spill notification (Spill is a Black-owned social media app) reminding me about the weekly “Advanced Audacity” lecture series I had signed up for. It suddenly hit me that, last Thursday, I had said that I simply didn't have the funds to achieve my dreams. Naya, the audacity coach running the lecture series (yes, audacity coach) asked me what dream I didn’t have the funds for, and I said “becoming a performer/storyteller in the TTRPG space.” And there I was on a bus to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario to watch Aabria Iyengar teach a D&D storytelling masterclass, exactly seven days later.

Wild.

I got to the venue safely and settled in for the show. It was phenomenal, unsurprisingly. Aabria was joined on stage by four local D&D players, one of whom was a Black woman named Renée. Aabria began by giving a short talk on storytelling within the context of D&D (and the sociocultural implications that come with it), before spending the rest of the show DMing a brilliantly thrilling one-shot. I took notes throughout the entire event and had a lot of fun writing speculative marginalia about the thought-process behind her storytelling choices and jotting down the insights she shared as she paused to explain why she was doing something the way she was doing it.

I was also particularly struck by Bubbles, Renée's unsettlingly over-friendly Tiefling character. At some point, I leaned over to @wizard-loving-wizard (who I met and got to sit next to at the event) and whispered, “Bubbles is the Tabby to my Evan Kelmp.”

After the show, Aabria sat on the edge of the stage to chat with audience members, and my wildest dream of being able to nerd out about storytelling with Aabria Iyengar… was immediately shattered when she looked over at me and I reacted like Troy Barnes meeting LeVar Burton. I broke eye contact and starred at the ground, absolutely furious with myself. Thankfully, I remembered that I wanted to ask Aabria to record a video message for Ruby, so I did end up meeting her.

I told her about the blanket–bus ticket trade and Ruby's generosity, and then I tried to ask for a video message, but I just said "Um," forever until she asked me if I wanted to send Ruby something. I jammed my phone into her hand, and she said, "Oh, I'm doing it?" and I said, "I DUNNO," to which she replied, "No, we're all in this now!" turned into a selfie stick, and recorded a minute long heartfelt message for Ruby with WLW and I just kinda hanging out in the background. Then she asked me if I wanted to take a photo with her. After the photo, she said something that I cannot remember, but I remember saying, "I am not here," in response, to which she replied, "No, don't dissociate!" And then I dissociated, and I don't remember what happened between that and saying goodbye, but I do remember that after I said goodbye, I said, “Flee the scene!” and legged it.

So, I didn’t exactly get to discuss any of the notes I had taken, but I did meet Aabria Iyengar, and that alone is a dream come true, even though I became a version of myself nobody has ever seen before and I hope to God no one ever sees again, because, what the fuck… was that.

Anyways.

WLW couldn’t stay for the after party but kindly dropped me off. I was starting to get pretty tired, and I was disappointed that I didn’t get to properly talk to Aabria, so I didn’t actually want to go anymore, but I also didn’t want to give up on having the opportunity to have a conversation about storytelling with somebody. So, I went inside.

I spent a long time just kind of standing in a corner by myself until I worked up the courage to approach someone else who was also just kind of off to the side, and we ended up striking up a conversation. We chatted about the show, and as we spoke, I slowly came to the realization that most of the people who came out to the masterclass were motivated by an interest in D&D.

Now, this sounds like a dumb realization to make after traveling for seven hours to attend a D&D masterclass, but it was an important one, because I don’t give that big of a fuck about D&D. I’ve never played a single TTRPG in my goddamn life. Would I? Sure. But D&D had nothing to do with how desperately I wanted to go to that masterclass. I was drawn in by something else.

Last Thursday, Naya the audacity coach said that one of the ways we think ourselves out of our dreams is by assuming that everybody would be doing what we want to be doing if it was something that anybody could just up and do. But that assumption is false. Everybody has different dreams. Not everybody wants to be doing what you want to do. And I looked around the room and saw Renée on the other side and realized we were the only Black women there.

I didn’t feel quite up to breaking the ice, but thankfully my conversation partner wanted to go ask Renée what Bubbles’ class was, because she had the other three pretty much figured out. So we walked over and joined the conversation. Bubbles turned out to be a druid, and the reason she was hard to identify was because Renée did not take a single combat action during the entire one-shot and Bubbles was still a fascinating and engaging character nonetheless. I’m not exactly sure where the conversation went from there, but I remember getting really excited because Renée said Bubbles’ whole “unaware that she’s freaking people out by being too friendly” vibe really resonated with her, and I excitedly told her that it really resonated with me too, and then there was this lovely moment where Renée started talking about how much harder it is to be a weirdo when you’re already a visible minority, and she started a phrase that ended with “when all they see is,” and she looked me right in the eyes and paused for the tiniest fraction of a second before saying, “sharp teeth and horns.” I already knew how common it is for a Black person to play as Tieflings, but using a Tiefling as a literal metaphor in order to talk about your experiences as a Black person while physically, not figuratively, but literally standing in a predominantly-white space and simultaneously protecting that expression of self from getting hijacked and repurposed as a teachable moment for the benefit of everybody else in the room but you absolutely blew my mind.

I have strongly identified with the song "In My Own Little Corner" since the first time I heard Brandy sing it as Cinderella, but "Impossible" didn't resonate with me until I watched the first episode of “Burrow’s End” on YouTube and Aabria became my Storytelling Fairy Godmother. Since then, I’ve been hearing “Impossible” playing from some vague, untraceable location in the distance that I had no real hope of finding. But, on Monday, it crystallized to a single point over Hamilton, Ontario, and on Tuesday, it started getting louder, like the horn of an approaching freight train, and it kept getting louder, until Thursday, February 20, 2025, the freight train hit, and I’m different now.

Fuck it, I’m different now.

It was Impossible for me to go to the masterclass, so somebody else sent me. And it was Impossible for me to achieve my dreams because if they were possible, everybody else would be doing it too, but I just sat in a room with 300+ people who don’t want what I want, so…

I’ve never been fired, but I did find out that I’d used up all my student funding last semester in the middle of midterms when I was too stressed to do anything about it, and I haven’t been able to pay rent since September. So, fuck it! I have the audacity. This is my Doechii moment now.

I’m going to go to a bunch of studios and ask if they have any internships open and ask questions, and by that I mean I’m going to connect with the Renées and the Aabrias, and all the other Black women storytellers, and talk to them about creating, and playing, and performing, and critiquing games, and stories, and characters, and worlds.

I’m going to message Renée and tell her I really enjoyed talking with her about her unique approach to gameplay and I’m going to ask if she’s free to chat more about it.

I’m even going to tag @quiddie and not even panic a little bit about it. Sup prof, lecture was sick, do you do… office hours…?

Anyways, that’s the story of how I got hit by a motherfucking freight train.

[meamiki]

5% of a color headcanon.... two versions since b&w emphasizes the dagger more i think but i still like the warm tones ASFSADA

i am not biased towards rainbow daggers whatsoever i promise (lie)

((also friend is streaming now and im there too!! bit more info linked here, its rated mature tho))

[ninawolv3rina]

I post him a lot. If you’ve been on my blog for any amount of time for the past year, you’ve seen him. But who IS he? What’s his DEAL (or, more accurately, his problem(s)?) I’m so glad you asked.

Note: in this post certain words will be hyperlinks to art of the characters and scenes that I’m referring to

This is going to be a very long post, but I’m trying to keep it as clean as possible — buckle in!

Fae is a dnd character I’ve been playing for a little over a year now in a game called Overlooks and Owlbears. We meet bi-weekly on Fridays, and most of the weeks we don’t play I’m still thinking about him. I fully initially considered him a more ‘gimmicky’ type of character, mostly built to be easy to slip into during roleplay with not *that* much going on. His concept was pretty simple: I wanted to play an evil character, and I wanted to play an old character. That was it. Everything else came directly from ‘evil old man’ and spun out of control into the man he is today.

Fae is largely inspired by some of my favorite Latino characters from popular media, as well as my own family. When I play him he has what’s functionally a more masculine, lightly hispanic accented version of my own voice, but in my head he sounds like this

Art Gallery / Vibes Playlist / Backstory Playlist / Pinterest Board

At a Glance:

System: D&D 5e (2014)

Race: Half-Elf

Class: Rogue (Swashbuckler subclass)

Alignment: neutral evil

Sexuality: Bi with a strong preference for men

Age: 100ish

Pronouns: He/him

Personality: Sarcastic, mocking, I would go so far as to say ‘mean’. Calculating in social situations, impulsive in combat. Thinks of himself as more fun-loving than he really is. He strives to come off as devil-may-care and some of that may be genuine but deep down he is very task-oriented and will take control the moment it seems like things might even kind of go off the rails.

General Backstory:

Faedril “Fae” Silvarin is the son of two heads of separate crime families - the elven Kaemarises, and the mostly-human Silvarins. Fae’s mother, Camila Silvarin, was prepared to raise him without involvement from his father, but Llewel Kaemaris surprised pretty much everyone in both families when he decided to claim Fae as his own, and gave him responsibilities and authority within the elven side of his family as well. Not all the elves were super thrilled about this, but Fae was able to uncover a coup against Llewel and leveraged that to build himself a small group of loyalists and gain respect on that side of the family. On the Silvarin side, his authority is innate, and he’s never really struggled with it… which is part of the problem.

Fae is a half-elf, so he ages slower than the human side of his family, and faster than the Elven side. At about 100 years old at time of the game’s start, Fae had seen a lot, and he was kind of tired of it. Without exactly knowing his own motivations to do so, Fae dipped out on his life of crime and leisure and decided to try his hand at adventuring on his own. All he knew was that he was tired of his reputation and wanted to start over, as just ‘some guy’ out in the world. This has had mixed results.

Fae’s Family:

Faedril/Fae Silvarin: Our man in question (he/him)

Llewel Kaemaris: Fae’s dad, an elf, head of the Kaemaris crime family (he/they)

Camila Silvarin: Fae’s human mother, former head of the Silvarin crime camily (deceased) (she/her)

The Party:

Celosia Poincaré: Fire genasi artificer. Shares Fae’s mommy issues. Has a sick gun, Fae wants her to make him a sick gun. Member of the party he’s closest with. He understands her the best, though he doesn’t know how to express it. He knows they were both raised by people who ignored their autonomy. Whether he wants to admit it or not, he’s attached to her and wants to help her turn out better than he did. (She/her)

Laurence of Abury: Human fighter. Complete good-aligned teddy bear from a family of criminals who want him to take up the family business. Dating Celosia. Fae initially thought of him as ‘muscle’ that he could order around but now he admires the guy’s carefree mindset and slight naïveté (He/him)

Scrip: Kobold cleric of a god of mercantile. Do NOT leave him and Fae in a room together they will start a pyramid scheme. Has saved Fae’s ass in combat MANY times. (He/him)

NPCs:

Goggles: a deep gnome who recruited the party to help as body guards for diplomatic missions. Still alive, despite several failures to protect him on our part (he/him)

Drow/Drider Assassin: I think it’s fair to call this guy Fae’s rival. Fae has killed him multiple times and he keeps getting resurrected. Wants to kill the party real bad.

Madame/Priestess Bitch: a drow priestess, formally the Drider’s partner who now has turned on him and become the party’s ally.

The Sphinx: A sphinx librarian that, as of now, has stuck his neck out for the party on more than one occasion. Has a personal library that includes multiverses, as well as access to an infinite library

Fae’s Parents:

Camila had Fae fairly young, shortly after becoming the matriarch of the Silvarin family rather unexpectedly when her own father passed away. She had turned to Llewel Kaemaris for advice on how to command respect the way that he did — but obviously, that relationship developed into something more. After Fae was born, Camila often wondered if Llewel’s affection for her was genuine, or motivated by power. That never fully became clear one way or another. Though he both claimed Fae as his own son and engaged with Camila in discussions about potentially merging the two families she was never really sure if those were signs of respect and love towards her, or shrewd chess moves towards absorbing the Silvarins into the already-powerful Kaemaris family.

Before the Game:

Fae grew up mostly-loved by his parents, though Llewel did put him through some trial by fire to help him find his footing within the Kaemaris family without falling victim to the label of ‘nepo baby’. He was always closer with his mother, though. Fae really loved his mom, total Mama’s boy — he was her right hand man, and the two brought the Silvarin family into something of a golden age. He always knew he’d outlive her, with plenty of time to spare, but he had determined to make the most of the little time he had. That’s why it was especially shocking and hurtful when she died when he was still very young.

At the time Camila died, Fae and everyone else thought it had been an unknown health issue, but over time he became increasingly convinced that it was foul play. Specifically, he decided she had been poisoned. But by who? Camila was a crime lord with a lot of enemies. After a decade of trying to investigate, Fae let the trail go cold, though his interest in poisons remained. His thoughts on the matter are complicated — it’s been around 70 years since she died. If the person who did it was human, they’re long dead, and finding out who they are would do little for Fae except open old wounds. If they aren’t dead… he’s not ready to think about what that means.

In fact, he’d more or less thought that his anger over her death had died out completely — that it was a mystery he’d never solve, even though his old habits refused to die and he continued to test poisons to see if, just maybe, he’d be able to use their effects to determine at the very least the method of her murder.

After Fae’s mother died, most looked towards Fae to lead the Silvarin family, but he refused. He gently guided them towards another human leader and chose to take a more subdued role. this is a move he doesn’t regret in the slightest. No part of him ever desired to be in charge of an organization like that. In fact the longer that he worked as muscle for his dad and advisor for the Silvarins, the more his enthusiasm for organized crime in general seemed to wane until it all but completely vanished.

Fae was sick of diplomacy, sick of the way the Elves treated him like a weird elderly child on the brink of death, and the humans treated him like some legend beyond their limited mortal scope. It was a frustrating line to walk. Above all, he didn’t feel like a real person to either group. He finally gave up on changing that when he decided to leave without warning either side of the family, disappearing overnight to become an adventurer.

During the Game:

Fae met the rest of the party when an inn they were all staying in was attacked by monsters that escaped couriers of the wizard’s guild, an organization responsible for both experimenting on monsters and also transporting those monsters from place to place. After successfully assisting in keeping the in from being *completely* destroyed, Fae and the rest of the party agreed to hunt down the remaining couriers who had failed at their job, and were now legally required to be killed for their failure. After following the couriers to a cave full of more imprisoned monsters, the party did their job and also found an entrance to the Underdark via territory owned by a Drow organization/family that had some… less-than-friendly history.

The party wisely decided against going down that route.

We also, during this initial adventure, found out about an element called Delirium that has powerful magical qualities, and can be fashioned into weapons (we did acquire some here)

After a few more adventures, the party was approached by a Deep Gnome who goes by Goggles or Mr. Red. Goggles asked the party to escort him into the Underdark to where his nomadic people were settled at the time, emphasizing that there were some Drow who might be after him due to a long-standing blood feud between the two races. The party agreed, and off we went.

On our way to the Underdark, we stopped at a transition town still in the Overworld. In this town there was a library owned by a sphinx, where we discovered books from the real world (namely, Romeo and Juliet, and later I wrote a fic that retroactively brought in Call of the Wild and used it to frame Fae’s feelings about his role within his family). Fae also picked up some knives that had poison chambers in them, and then we were off to the Underdark.

On our way into the Underdark we were ambushed by a drow assassin and a drow priestess, who kicked our asses a little bit but we ultimately won! We left their corpses behind us, sure we would never see them again.

We managed to get Goggles to his people underground, and they contracted us for a little more work in return for refining the raw delirium we had acquired. During our work we found a Skinweaver (who made Fae some sick armor out of hook horror leather) and a cult of Kobolds worshipping a dragon that slumbers on veins of adamantine. While investigating the Kobolds, who the fuck should we find but THE REVIVIFIED ASSASSIN AND PRIESTESS who we killed a second time, and Celosia and Fae reached the conclusion that to keep them dead, we’d probably have to remove a body part. We settled on their jaws, which Fae collected.

Our last task the deep gnomes hired us for was to transport Goggles to the Duergar capital to ask them to ally with the gnomes. On the boat journey over, Fae recognized a member of his dad’s organization. Though he tried to play it off at first, he did eventually seek the man out — only for the man to be murdered seconds later. As the party scrambled to find out who had murdered the guy, they were approached by none other than Llewel Fucking Kaemaris, who said he’d come to the Underdark to try and form a partnership with the Drow (who, you may remember, don’t really like us all that much). Fae told his dad that uhhhh the drow don’t like us very much rn, and Llewel was less than thrilled. He also tried to pick Fae’s brain on one other mystery — why Fae had left the family in the first place.

Fae answered as honestly as he could. He said he didn’t know.

Fae and his dad’s relationship is complicated. No parent should have to outlive their kid but it’s even worse when you also have to watch them age and get elderly at a rate you can hardly imagine happening to yourself. Because of that, Llewel can’t possibly understand Fae completely. Fae knows that — doesn’t mean he doesn’t still resent the guy a little.

We managed to solve the mystery — it was that fucking Drow assassin and priestess who we had killed TWICE already at this point. Because we stole their jaws this time they’d been reincarnated which was why we didn’t recognize them. When we foiled their plan this time they managed to escape, unable to kill Fae’s dad (or him) like they’d wanted to. But they kept their jaws this time!

Upon reaching the Duergar capital we learned the man who had invited us, the prince, had disappeared while looking for a mythical library made of chalk. Using the delirium we’d acquired we were able to dig him out — but, this is where shit got unfortunately real for Fae.

In this library there was a cluster of Flumphs, psyonically powerful creatures with tentacles. And in the center of this cluster of Flumphs was a glowing red crystal.

We’d seen crystals like that before, and the party had been able to calm aggravated enemies by removing the crystal from their presence, so Fae thought it would be a good idea to just. Grab the crystal.

It was not a good idea.

Upon touching the crystal Fae was overcome by pure rage, got smacked with the mental image of his dad bleeding out, and was barely able to pull himself back together with the help of the cleric, Scrip. Even now the rage bubbles just under the surface but he’s doing his best to cope with it.

After the rage had simmered the party did as much research as they could in that library, and found that this particular gemstone houses a very, very angry dragon — one of three who have all been hidden away from the world for the world’s safety, though it’s said that one was hidden against its will.

Now attuned to the dragon in the gem, Fae has hung onto it since. He’s not the biggest fan of myth, fate, magic and dragons, so initially he wasn’t super thrilled about the situation, and he was determined to find a way to get rid of it as soon as possible.

Having rescued the lost prince and secured an allyship for the Duergar and the Deep Gnomes, we headed back the way we came. On the boat again, Goggles disappeared. We found a ransome note telling us to come to the front of the ship at 2am. When we did, we saw Goggles bound in spiderwebs, and Fae was surprised by a NAT 20 ATTACK from the SAME GODDAM ASSASSIN AS BEFORE, who was now a Drider, having asked Lolth for the power to fuck Fae up. “This time, I’m going to fucking kill you.”

He did not kill me. But damn! He got close!!! Fae was pretty much consistently at 1 health for the entire fight until he finally went down. But Fae lived, and he stole the guy’s jaw again, I’m sure that’ll be the last we see of him.

It wasn’t the last we’ll see of Priestess Bitch, though, who showed up and told us that she was tired of fighting with us and had decided to help us, informing that there are other drow on the gnome’s side, and telling us how to find them.

That night, Fae had a dream.

He dreamed that he was someone else, trapped inside a person, a person who was slowly dying. A person who he was KILLING. In the dream, whatever he was snapped and became enraged. Putting two and two together, Fae realized that in the dream he was the angry dragon — and the person who he’d been killing was his own mom, unaware of what was happening to her, or how to stop it.

As he woke up, Fae managed to get one last thing from the dream, and that was a clue to who had killed his mother: the symbol of the wizard guild.

Now with a personal attachment to the rage within the draconic gem, Fae’s priorities have shifted. He’s not sure exactly how everything connects — he had given up on finding his mom’s killers and now he has a serious lead. While he continues to help the party and the gnomes with their goals, his own thoughts lie heavily on the dragon and what it means for his past and his future.

AND NOW WE’RE ALL CAUGHT UP TO THE PRESENT!

He’s afraid of bugs

He doesn’t like fish

His full name is Androbal Marques Faedril Silvarin. Yes I have practiced saying that out loud in his voice repeatedly, it’s actually very fun to say when you get the hang of it.

His backstory wasn’t initially based on Hamlet but at some point I realized what was going on and decided to lean into it.

People have compared Fae to a lot of other characters and people, notably Pedro Pascal, ‘Lesbian Waluigi’, and Dorian Pavus

It’s rly funny that one of his inspos is a character from Sons of Anarchy, a Hamlet adaptation, but the inspo character is NOT the Hamlet analog

I run 5e game on Wednesdays called Illusa, and Fae is an NPC in that world! His backstory is a little bit different to adjust for a world I have full control over - he has a full-elf half brother named Lysander, who is the rightful heir to the Kaemaris empire. He also has Dove, a silent masked elf who is by his sides at most times. Besides that, what else… oh yeah I killed his dad! His dad got poisoned during a political event and now the party is investigating Llewel’s death. I can’t wait to see how that plays out for them ehehe

In Illusa, in addition to common, Fae speaks a fantasy version of Spanish I call ‘Queño’! I’ve actually built a whole hispanic culture within that world that he’s a part of, and I had a lot of fun fleshing out that side of him since I had the ability to build the world around him in this one.

The Illusa version of Fae has a slightly different personality, too. I’d say probably less prone to redemption than O&O Fae, but honestly it’s still pretty early to make that prediction. Again, can’t wait to see what my players do to influence his life and the world he lives in!

And that’s it! I probably won’t update this post until the game makes significant progress, so until then, hopefully this is enough context for the art I make from here on out. If you’ve made it this far thank you so much for reading and I hope you feel informed :3

[anakinh]

arcane characters dnd classes

because im bored and hyperfixating

Vi: Monk. Pit Fighter Vi is Way of the Drunken Master. Drunken Master monks fight hand-to-hand 'mimicking the style of a drunkard'. Technically you don't have to be drunk to be a Drunken Master monk so maybe she still uses those techniques while sobered up later. I think she starts out as a Way of the Open Hand monk, which is just a monk that is Very Good at Punching. The gauntlets are a magical item.

Jinx: Artillerist Artificer. Very straightforward. Makes bombs and cannons. Can use magic (referring to her use of hextech as bombs)

Ekko: Scout Rogue/Chronurgy Wizard multiclass. Scout rogues are very mobile so I think it fits him. Later on he takes two levels in Chronurgy Wizard, which gives him chronal shift. This lets him rewind time briefly to change the outcome of an action - fits pretty well, I think. He only needs two levels wizard to mimic his rewind ability and that multiclass makes him fast.

Viktor*: Transmutation Wizard. In the DnD world, both Viktor and Jayce (and Ekko!) would be wizards because they can just study magic instead of trying to harness it via technology. At level 14 the Transmutation Wizard can use their 'Transmuter's Stone' to create a panacea - a cure to all ills (plus restore youth and raise the dead. sounds familiar). Luckily, I think Transmutation Wizard fits Arcane-Viktor as well (especially once he creates the hexcore, which could be his Transmuter's Stone).

Commune Viktor is an NPC with a three-phase boss fight. The first phase is so simple you know there are other phases. I'd probably add in a mechanic where you try to talk him down in the third phase.

(Alternatively commune Viktor as we know him does not exist because the spell Revivify exists and Jayce shouldn't have to turn to unlicensed necromancy to get Viktor back**. Speaking of...)

Jayce*: Hexblade Warlock/Paladin (Oath of the Watchers)***. Again, if left to his own devices in a DnD world, Jayce would be a wizard. I'd say Abjuration (tanky wizard with protective shields) because he wants to protect people (and he's tanky), Order of Scribes (if he's focused on learning/harnessing all magic). Divination to pun on the 'Man of Progress' thing or if you interpret his glitches in s2 as visions of another world/seeing the truth of the commune members/arcane spidey-sense, which tbh really works

However, If I wanted to create Arcane-Jayce in DnD, I would make a Hexblade Warlock/Paladin multiclass. Hexblade warlocks get magic from a weapon, so it can be flavoured as Jayce using his hammer to do/cast magic. The hammer blasts can be very easily flavoured as eldritch blasts. Paladin is added narratively after the post-apocalypse world but not needed if you just wanted to mimic abilities. I'd go for Oath of the Watchers because they literally protect the realm from extraplanar threats. I've seen some people go for Devotion. That's fair, but it's a bit too Knight in Shining Armour for me.

Mel: Divine Soul Sorcerer. Also pretty easy - sorcerers come by their magic naturally, divine soul sorcerers get their power from a connection with the divine + has the gold/light/shielding imagery/spells. Hell, she's probably an aasimar? I don't know enough league lore to tell.

However, she only got her powers later. I think before that she was an Eloquence Bard or a Mastermind Rogue. Mastermind Rogues are more insightful. Both are incredibly persuasive - the bard moreso. The bard has magic - could be reflavoured as manipulation or as her sorcerer powers poking out before she knew about it. Later you could even multiclass her with sorcerer - works better with Eloquence Bard, but it's still not the most optimal multiclass (that's Jayce's). It's not bad, though, and if you only make optimal multiclasses in dnd you're going to get bored. I'd honestly go bard, only two levels in divine soul sorcerer for sorcery points, get metamagic adept feat for metamagic, it'll be fine. Divine Soul sorcerers get wings and healing at higher levels but if she's an aasimar she already has those.

Caitlyn: Inquisitive Rogue/Battlemaster Fighter multiclass. If you want to play a gunslinger in DnD the general advice is 'battlemaster with a gun'. She probably has the sharpshooter feat (she should have the sharpshooter feat). Inquisitive rogues are intelligent and focus on investigating, unravelling secrets. Rogue/Fighter multiclasses are very good - you only need three levels in fighter (edit: but maybe go for five for extra attack.) (She should also pick up the observant and martial adept feats if she can.)

Bonuses:

Vander: Vander is a bartender NPC at the tavern all our players meet up at during the first session. He's a retired high-level monk. Way of the Open Hand, of course. Just like he taught Vi.

Mylo and Claggor: I only added this because I re-watched the first episode and Mylo was apparently the only one who could pick locks. So Mylo is a Thief Rogue and Claggor is, idk, a fighter? (funnily enough both the artificer and the monk would be good picks for resident lock-picker. Not as good as rogue, but not bad)

Silco: Honestly, Silco would be an NPC with a commoner statblock, but I give him ridiculous bonuses to insight, perception, intimidation, and deception. That said, he did fight Vander, so maybe also Mastermind Rogue? With expertise in intimidation? (Still goes badly for him, though. Do not 1v1 a monk in dnd).

Singed: NPC combo necromancy wizard/alchemist artificer, focusing on the alchemy. I'd probably stick some Spores Druid/Death domain cleric stuff in just to be fun since NPCs can be whatever you want. Honestly, in the average DnD world he could just pay someone to resurrect his daughter and we'd solve half of our problems right there. He's originally from Piltover, right? He can afford it.

Ambessa Medarda: NPC Battlemaster Fighter and she has Rictus' anti-magic item that all your players hate.

Footnotes

* Jayce and Viktor cast 'spells' with hextech that reverses gravity, creates lightning, teleports - but, in the immortal words of Ms. Aabria Iyengar, "anyone can cast fireball teleport." Those are conjuration/evocation spells but you don't have to be a conjurer or evoker. Sometimes I see people think of enchantment wizards as 'wizards who enchant magic items' so maybe we'd put Jayce and Viktor there, but actually enchantment wizards do mind control. And, like I said, commune Viktor is an NPC with a three-phase boss fight. Transmutation wizards are the only wizards who can resurrect without making undead and they do it using their transmuter's stone. Although I'd argue that Viktor's commune members are undead... but anyone can cast the Animate Dead spell. And he's an NPC at that point so his abilities are whatever the DM wants.

** UNLESS you assume the hexcore is Viktor's transmuter's stone (which is how he casts the spells panacea/raise dead that I mentioned). It got corrupted as Viktor created it and when Jayce uses it to cast Raise Dead it goes wrong. (Despite its name the Raise Dead spell is supposed to be a normal, safe resurrection spell AND it cures all nonmagical diseases.) Anyway, we're getting into fanfiction now

*** My problem with the Jayce hexadin class is that it's optimized for charisma. Jayce is very charismatic, but his main characteristic is his smarts. A somewhat popular homebrew is to make warlocks int casters so you could go with that. In that case I might multiclass him with abjuration wizard for the extra tankiness. It's still not as good as the original hexadin multiclass so as a DM i'd allow it. Or just keep paladin, ability-wise you only need it for smites and his charisma should be high anyway. Probably your DM shouldn't allow all three on an int warlock.

On the other hand hexadin Jayce's high charisma makes him well suited for the 'talking down Viktor' mechanism in his third phase bossfight, which ... tracks.

[thefandomenchantress]

Okay I know none of the people following me know what this is but my post introducing The Music Freaks as something I want to talk about will probably end up being long, and I have a smaller thought I want to share, that being:

I don't think people acknowledge enough how weird it is that Liam never utters the word "freak" a single time throughout the whole first season.

One could try pinning this on a few different things that aren't deliberate characterization. The first being that the word freak as an insult is mostly just Drew's thing anyway. But it's not like he's the only one who says it. Jake also does, obviously, as it's a major plot point, but Henry also does it in a rather casual manner. Which means that in their four-person friend group, it isn't just Drew that says it but literally everyone except Liam (though Jake's circumstances were a little off when he did it).

Or, you could try saying it's just because Liam is probably the one who gets the least lines and/or focus in Jake’s friend group. While it's probably close between him and Henry, since they're both comedic relief for the most part, Henry still probably manages to beat him out. Henry has more little gimmicks, those being his interest in anime, lettuce, and his massive crush on Lia, whereas Liam mostly just sticks to jokes revolving around his general "girl-obsessed horny guy" stereotype. Plus, because Henry is a bit more outgoing, he usually has the chance to do things of his own accord more, instead of just following along.

But even if you did buy into that argument, it also doesn't completely hold up, because Liam still gets perfect chances to say his group's signature insult...He just actively chooses not to.

There are the two instances I associate most with this topic. The first is the scene where Drew and everyone else are all pressuring Jake into saying some bad things about The Music Club. And when it's Liam's turn to agree with the rest and pressure Jake, he says:

“This Sean guy”. Not 'freak', or even any other insult. Liam literally just calls Sean by his name, which isn't something The Music Club members always have the dignity of when they come up in conversation. In fact:

Just before this, Henry speaks up and calls Sean "one of the freaks" without much thought. He says this rather casually, proving that yes, calling them that is completely normal for the people in this group. But if it's so normal, why didn't Liam also refer to Sean in a similar manner? Maybe it's just a fluke. The creator didn't want to lines to sound repetitive, so she made Liam word his point differently. But that's not a sufficient explanation, because this is not the only time this happens. In fact, this next example provides what may be the most perfect opportunity Liam could ask for to call The Music Club by their titular insult.

After the incident I already described, Drew, Henry, and Liam discuss why Jake isn't in class. And Liam suggests:

Why doesn’t he call them ‘the freaks’ here? If you replaced the word "club" with "freaks" in this sentence, nothing would change. It would have the same exact meaning. The title of the show is based on replacing the word 'club' with 'freaks'. No one brought up The Music Club before this, so this isn't another instance of it just being for less repetitiveness. Liam just chose to not refer to them by his group's signature insult and instead called them the club. This line is what makes me think it's possible it was a deliberate choice, because the fact that the side antagonist refers to The Music Club not by an insult but just as the club, (not to mention while he already seems a bit resentful towards them in the moment for keeping Jake away), is weird. It would've been so easy to just have Liam insult them in this moment as he makes a joke about Jake apologizing like he's in a cheesy rom-com, but it just doesn't happen.

And for what? It honestly seems like more work to make sure he refers to them regularly when Drew's group usually makes a point to do the opposite.

So what's my point here? Liam has never actually referred to the Music Club as freaks despite the fact that Drew and Henry have done so multiple times, possibly deliberately. So?

Well, the thing about Liam is that he's supposed to be a little bit more laidback than Henry. Not quite as eccentric, a little more down to earth, even if his internal logic doesn't always add up. In a lot of scenes, he can be seen reacting to what others say just as or even more than speaking himself. And I think that, sort of branching off from that, it allows Liam to come off as a little more...Observant than Drew and Henry.

Of course, this isn't to say I think he's secretly super smart or anything, I just think he notices a little more than he is credited for. This is pushed a little harder in the later episodes than the earlier ones, I'd say, a good example being Liam's text to Jake.

Henry doesn't seem to have texted Jake directly, and Drew asks why Jake is ignoring them, seemingly angry. Liam, however, instead asks if he's coming to school and attempts to bribe him into talking with them. Liam and Jake's dynamic is interesting because despite the fact that him and Jake probably have the least touched upon dynamic out of the entire friend group, Liam is the only one who seems to be trying to communicate with him properly here. Drew is already accusatory, asking why Jake is ignoring him, and further disincentivizing Jake from engaging. Henry is either oblivious to anything being wrong or is ignoring it for deep character reasons. But Liam's text is almost concerned, but in a way where he can play it off as just joking around, because showing vulnerable emotion usually isn't stereotypical high school boys' strong suit.

He asks if Jake is coming to school, meaning he must know Jake is currently upset enough that he may not go to school. And then he follows it up by offering something Jake presumably likes and is special enough that Liam thinks it might convince him to talk it out with them. (Side note, since Liam says he has Haribo peaches like it's not a common occurrence, (he wouldn't need to tell Jake he has them if he usually possesses them), do you think he went out of his way to buy them? Do you think he knew something was wrong with Jake and went out and bought candy for him because of it? Though I might be stretching it at that point haha).

All this rambling is to say that Liam does seem to care about Jake, and that's why he makes an effort to reach out to him like this. Clearly, he knows something is wrong and that's why he does so, showing that he is in fact aware that Jake isn't doing so well. Liam comes off as oddly emotionally intelligent at points, and this is one of them. And not much later, he and Henry react to the fact that Jake got kicked out of The Music Club with expressions that clearly depict the well-known emotion of "uh oh". Unlike Drew, who doesn't understand why the club was so important to Jake in that moment, the other two immediately see this as really bad because they, to some degree, know that being a part of The Music Club was important to Jake.

And I think that may be the reason why Liam doesn't ever call them freaks. He, on some level or another, understands that the club is important to Jake, and Jake has told them to stop calling them freaks before directly, only for this to get ignored. Maybe, it's possible that he took note of this and actually did stop referring to them in a way that Jake seemed genuinely upset over. Because even if they weren’t as close as Drew and Jake are, Liam still cares about him. Of course, he’s too much of a follower to speak up and stop the other two, or stop bullying The Music Club in general, but still.

To be clear, I'm not saying Liam is a saint or anything, even if he never says The Music Club are freaks, he still joins in on bullying them. But I did want to bring attention to the fact that Liam never calls the Music Club freaks, and that's kind of notable in my opinion and maybe says something about his character, that he's a little more aware of the things going on around him than it seems. Or maybe it means something else, feel free to suggest what that something else could be, if you want, I think about this way too much haha.

[aliferous-ly]

BigB knew he was in a death game. It wasn't like he wanted to lose - on the contrary, he strove to win. But, and this was a very Big But, he also strove to have a good time. Those two goals were not entirely cohesive.

So, Secret Life. Everyone had good reason to act like goofballs, since the tasks weren't reasonable actions in the slightest. BigB didn't need a slip of paper to act strange, and thus the BigB Hole was born. It caused suitable chaos.

With so much weirdness going around, it shouldn't have been a surprise that BigB was, well, surprised. Skizz and Tango asking him to join their group, living on a little island, was an unexpected drop in the bucket. He had a group! He had a squad!

The Heart Foundation was, as many charity organizations were, very poor. They didn't have a roof over their head. Instead of inviting them to his slowly-growing backrooms he lay down with them in the grass. Skizz and Tango both glowed softly, and BigB knew his eyes gleamed in the starlight, but nobody said a thing about it.

"Tomorrow we should build a house," Tango grouched.

"I'm workin' on it!" Skizz, who'd been collecting resources, said.

BigB laughed. "Yeah, I think it's supposed to rain tomorrow." He had no idea what tomorrow's weather would be like. Sometimes it was nice to just say things.

"Aw man, really?" Skizz said.

"I hate rain," Tango said.

BigB hummed. In short order the other two fell asleep - Tango snored like a chainsaw and Skizz made little mimimi noises, but BigB didn't mind. It was nice, actually. Better than eerie cave noises.

He turned on his side to gaze at them. Neither were particularly skilled at these death games. He shouldn't have been so delighted to team up with them, if he were dead-set on the crown.

They were fun, though. BigB grinned to himself and thought about the shenanigans happening server-wide. He still wanted to win and would try his best, but goofing around and confusing fellow players was just so fun, and this go-around was looking to be particularly exciting.

Sighing happily, BigB closed his eyes, mind whirring with possibilities for the days to follow.