#other NPCs mentioned

[autumnslance]

The Schoolteacher

(Desertwalkers AU; foul language, nasty attitudes, & violence.)

Gareth Leawood had a shit week and it was all that fucking school teacher's fault.

Like so many others, he had come to Stonewood for the opportunities presented by Baelsar's consortium—except that dried up due to another investor and the Black Iron Wolf’s brief tangle with the Striker siblings.

Still, plenty of work for an honest man to do, enough pay to keep a small place Gareth could stick his mousy little wife. She wasn’t his first pick, but her cousin was spoken for and her uncle had paid well. She kept the place clean, his clothes darned, and hot meals ready for him, even when he came home late after a few drinks at the Saltlick.

Rather, she had done all that.

Fucking bitch of a school teacher had to stick her pert little nose where it didn't belong.

Aside from those rumors of a tussle with Baelsar, Gareth hadn't paid the Strikers much mind. The brother worked in the land office, handling half the town's bureaucracy on behalf of the mayor. Gareth supposed Striker was better at it than the mayor's spoiled worthless son.

The sister turned heads when she walked down the dusty streets, but she never seemed to heed the attention. She taught her classes, volunteered at the multitude of local charities and events women seemed to spend all their free time on, and shared a small homestead with her brother.

Not that Striker could control her. She demonstrated that by strolling into the Saltlick once, a respectable lady like her, and the school teacher no less. She sat down, had exactly one drink, a polite conversation with the piano man, broke another man's finger, and then left again while her brother fumed.

If she belonged to Gareth, she would have learned better.

Then again, he thought he had his wife in hand, too. But that fucking Thavnairian witch had worked her wiles on more than a few folks.

While Gareth spent his days hard at work, and deserved to end those shifts with a few drinks and some entertainment at the Saltlick, his wife had snuck off to the school house to take lessons. She was supposed to use her meager sewing skills to earn extra cash. She always handed over her pay to Gareth, as she didn't know how to spend it properly, and what was hers was his, after all.

Her earnings had been short for a while, but he hadn't suspected her of lying when she claimed she had fewer jobs, or that clients weren’t able to pay. Times were tough all around, thanks to whatever laws trickled in from Tuliyollal and the godsdamned Dawnservant.

A few days ago, Gareth had come home drunk and weary. He ate the food left to warm in the oven and then passed out in bed, still dressed. The next morning he realized his wife hadn't just woken early as usual—she hadn't slept in the bed at all. She wasn't there.

It took time to piece it together, and only after speaking with another bitter fellow that had also found his wife and daughters gone, down to the city and back across the Salt.

It was the thrice-damned school teacher.

She had taught Gareth's wife gods only knew what, convinced her to save away money, pack a few belongings, and book passage east. To leave him, as if he hadn't taken care of her, put a roof over her head, bought the food she made to eat. He had never even hit her. Ungrateful mousy bitch.

Gareth and the other man, Ben Brown, decided someone needed to deal with this wife-stealing little witch. Her brother might even thank them, when he sure as fuck couldn't keep her in line.

He checked around to see who else might be disgruntled at the Strikers—that brother had made more than a few enemies himself, given his work with local land and water rights. But when Gareth laid out his plan, Cal Hotwell shook his head and stood.

"No thank you. Good luck."

"Y'ain't scared of Striker are ya?" Ben asked.

"Yeah," Cal admitted. "I worked for Baelsar when he tangled with ‘em before. Ain't doin’ it again. 'Sides, you're goin’ after Aeryn Striker—and out of the pair of 'em, she's the one you ought to be afraid of."

Gecko snorted. The Au Ra's scars had lent themselves to the moniker. "The woman can scarcely raise her voice when her students act up."

"They don't often," Cal said. He tipped his hat and left Gareth's house, navigating around a full trash bin. The place was a mess, but Gareth had no wife now to keep it.

Because of that damned school teacher.

"Well, we shouldn't need more than the three of us to handle that wench," Ben said. "Keep some other honest fellas from losing their women."

They agreed, then headed to the Saltlick to celebrate.

-

For most folks around town, Miss Striker was an affable woman with a smile and a kind word for everyone. Even Gaius Baelsar, and he had sent toughs to kidnap her in an attempt to strongarm her brother last year. That attempt had not gone as planned when the thugs, injuries treated, ended up trussed in the back of the Strikers' buckboard and brought to town by an unsurprised Zaine, who had returned home to find them in said condition.

Cal Hotwell had been one of those toughs, since then set to more honest work in the mines Minfilia Warde ran for her mother. After leaving Gareth Leawood's place, Hotwell had let the Sheriff know trouble was afoot, and to have the doc ready to treat three fools.

And so Deputy Dark Autumn waited inside a nearby store, nursing a cup of tea as she watched the school across the yard through a partly opened window. Miss Striker seemed busy with her older students and a picnic lunch they managed for the younger classmates, while young Tenwa won the duty of running food over to Zaine Striker at the clerk's office. Not uncommon for one of the students to do that.

Tenwa had been gone far too long for that errand, given how Miss Striker checked the time and frowned as the lunch hour wound to a close, the older students leading the younger in cleanup.

Dark watched as the three men ambled up the street, Leawood's hand on Tenwa's shoulder. She set down her cup.

Miss Striker's eyes narrowed. The children’s chatter and laughter faded as they looked at the rough men with their classmate, and then back to their teacher. She stood tall, arms crossed. "Is there a problem, gentlemen?"

"You could say that," Leawood said. "You're a bad influence, Miss Striker."

"The school board has confidence in me, as do my students' parents."

"We ain't talkin’ about the board, though I don't agree you ought to be teaching these kids the way you taught our wives."

She smiled, head slightly tilted. "Why should I teach them differently?"

Leawood’s hand tightened on the boy's shoulder. Tenwa squirmed "Maybe I don't agree with your teachings," Leawood said.

"You're welcome to bring your concerns to the board. Thank you for escorting my student. Tenwa, go inside with the others."

Tenwa tried to move forward, but Leawood held on. "We'll let him go, if you come with us."

Miss Striker's face was dangerously blase, but Dark didn't think Leawood had the brains to notice. "I have to teach afternoon classes. If you come back after the children are dismissed at three, we can discuss your own lessons then."

"Class is canceled," Ben Brown sneered. "Don't think you can use these kids as a shield from what you owe."

Miss Striker raised a brow. "Oh, you have it quite backwards. They're not protecting me." Her tone was rather frosty.

Dark frowned. She wasn't the most sensitive type, but there was an entire shift in the air itself as the Weave that suffused all life reacted to events in the schoolyard.

Reacted to Aeryn Striker.

"Ryne," Miss Striker said in her kind but firm teacher voice. "Take everyone inside. The older students are to divide the class into five groups, and each lead their little cohort in the afternoon's math lesson. Close the blinds, lock the door, and only open it for me."

The slight redhead nibbled her lip, and almost looked ready to jump into the fray next to her teacher. Her dark-haired friend, too; rumor had it she was apprenticed to the coven Ryne's father protected. The two girls exchanged a look, then escorted the others inside.

"Tenwa," Miss Striker said. "Go with them. I will join the class shortly."

The boy pulled away this time and dashed past her, but stopped at the door. "Miss Striker, you don't have your—"

"Inside, please, and follow Ryne's instruction until I return." She smiled, warm and sweet, for the child. He reluctantly stepped inside, and Gaia closed the door behind him. Dark couldn't hear it lock, but was certain the young woman had followed instructions.

For her part, the deputy was far more stealthy than anyone expected of a woman her size, and she took the opportunity to ease outside to stand just behind a pillar on the store’s shaded porch.

Miss Striker turned to the trio of men. "Walk away," she said, hands at her hips.

"Hear you're pretty good with a blade," the man known only as Gecko sneered. "But you don't got one now."

"Please." Miss Striker unhooked the pair of folded fans from her belt.

Leawood’s angry hand reached toward her. "Let's go talk somewhere—"

A snap, a flash, and Leawood cried out and stumbled back, his pants falling off his hips. His suspenders had been sliced by the razor-edge of one of the fans, his shirt and skin untouched.

"Leave," Striker said, voice cold and hard, the fans up in a ready position as she bounced on the balls of her feet.

"You uppity little bitch," Leawood snarled, grabbing his trousers. Brown hesitated—and then Gecko drew a firearm.

"You owe us," he snapped. The other men shouted. Dark leaped, already too late, toward the Au Ra as he pulled the trigger.

Reality warped, hot and electric, a shield of energy sizzling before Striker’s defensive fan. The bullet disintegrated. Striker flung the fan and electricity both. Gecko cried out and fell, his entire body jolted. The gun tumbled away, cut and warped.

Striker spun forward, her held fan collapsed into a solid piece she used to smack Brown in a half dozen places before he could react. She kicked out his knee, leaving him bruised and moaning on the ground.

She snatched the flung fan out of the air on its return arc, her own whirling motion ending with its deadly edge held to Leawood's throat. He froze, despite the knife in his own free hand.

He swallowed. "Th-the gun wasn't part of the plan." He glanced down at Gecko, groaning and slightly smoky on the ground. "We just…our wives left us and it's cuz you—"

He screamed as she left a long slice along each of his cheeks. "They left because of you," she spat as he dropped the knife and clutched his bleeding face. "I merely gave them the knowledge to make their choices and gather their means." She looked up with stormy gray eyes and met Dark's gaze.

If someone as inept as Dark sensed the weight and warp of Striker’s Weave manipulation, so could every sensitive in town.

Dark cleared her throat. "Think I can take it from here, ma'am."

Striker's face smoothed, though the storms in her eyes continued. "Thank you, Deputy. I do have class to teach." She stepped back from her combat ready position and snapped her fans closed to hang them on her belt. She took several deep breaths and fixed her long black hair. The sensation of imminent lightning faded as the teacher smoothed her blouse and skirt. "Perhaps you could also let my brother know there's naught to worry about."

Dark nodded. She whistled, loud and sharp, then leaned down to haul Brown and Gecko to their feet. Pipp and other nearby deputies would hear and come to help.

Miss Striker turned on her elegant booted heel and strode back to her school. She knocked in a specific rhythm and spoke through the door, which soon opened for her.

Not one student had peeked through the curtained windows, which did not open again until the deputies had the battered men out of sight.

The laughing children were dismissed promptly at three o'clock, as a few of Miss Striker's adult students arrived for their own lessons.

[ganondoodle]

okay, i have been thinking about brabant more (the lynel smith)

and im not sure if that would be too much detail to put into him but i do really like the idea to have the possibility of him becoming hostile- like if you attack him too many times it would trigger a bossfight with him, if you lose either just simply a game over or being respawned outside his shop with a quarter heart left (killing your customers maybe isnt ideal) and if you win the fight ends (zelda stopping you?) with brabant either angrily limping away into his private rooms (locking the door even if you have unlocked it before) and his shop staying closed for 3 days or so, or him actually dying and for him to return you need to wait for a bloodmoon

i like there being consequences to attacking an NPC especially if you arent used to them attacking back or actually triggering a fight- PLUS it would put emphasis on the player perhaps being too used to attack anythign that looks monstrous to them and might make you think more about it

HOWEVER, the biggest problem with this is locking a unique boss behind being a jerk (unwanted) will only ensure most to all players WILL be jerks since otherwise you miss out on that defeating the point in a way

(ALSO i do ... like the idea of him just swatting you away like a fly anytime you try to attack him bc you dont matter to him and .... that could imply just how strong he would be if he WAS hostile and you should be glad he only cares about his forge and flowers, which is a good kind of little mystery)

so, should brabant be a possible boss to fight if you keep being an asshat and attack him? (poll probably isnt a deciding factor, i am leaning towards him being NPC protected even if just to avoid making more people be jerks to him)

[bloos-bloo]

Sozo made me mad so I took away his leg

Sozo ref sheet- he’s isolated cause drawing him made my legs hurt >:( I forgot to add this on to the ref but my version of Sozonius does suffer from DID (dissociative identity disorder) his main trigger is when his stressed or going through withdrawal (a rare one for him)

Edit: I was unaware MPD was outdated! I fixed it <3

The lamb and bishops redesigns are here too :D

[durgeteriormotives]

@animentality I hope you don't mind I made a meme <3

[mantisgodsdomain]

Lioden Dot Com is designed to accommodate for your wildest masculine dreams and fantasies. The lion, the single male in a pride of females, the "alpha", if you will, dominant over the females and ghiue fbbfdjjdf eurehtret

lioden is a fun game because it has fun lions and sometimes some of them do shit like beating you up when you click on their profile page and we think that's cool and that more games should do that

[gamebunny-advance]

Last Thing

While I was trying to figure out if Zam actually was a little too big, I noticed that there's this little "tail" hanging off the left cup of his headphones to make it look like a speech balloon.

I've literally never noticed it before, but it's apparently been there since the very beginning.

I dunno how, but I've just never internalized this detail until now, but it's super cute, isn't it?

[project-sekai-facts]

have u ever shared ur thoughts on why vbs started with three virtual singers instead of two?

i mean well i think it's mostly just a case of there being 6 vsingers, 5 units and Niigo not getting a starter for plot reasons, but also i think the specific selection of MEIKO and Len makes a lot of sense for why VBS got the two.

Street SEKAI MEIKO doesn't really do a whole lot. She never really performs with the others and usually just works at the cafe. She's the vsinger equivalent to Ken, she's a mentor to the kids but doesn't join in with them. But obviously, VBS needed a starter to join in with their performances, so you've got Len leftover and his personality meshes well with the members.

Actually I think it's funny that technically VBS started with 4 since Rin was there the whole time and is said to have existed before the main story (and is mentioned in said story and actually appears in the vsinger one). 3 is a bit much to count as their unit specific vsingers though, and Rin was already assigned to MMJ so it makes sense she doesn't count as one of their main vsingers. Plus she's only really there so Len could have a partner.

And if you want to get really technical on it then they started with 6 because KAITO and Luka had been there the entire time but fucked off somewhere else for a bit.

I have two theories. One of them (the far more realistic one) is that all of the vsingers being there from the start is to set up a sort of team as VBS eventually did at the end of their first arc. The other (grasping at straws) one is that the SEKAI was influenced by more than just VBS, but VBS are the ones who can access it. I talked about it more back in July. It's a bit ridiculous, but we know SEKAI take a while to form, we know Street SEKAI has been around for a while, and also there's the fact that some of the vsingers take influence from RADder, which is certainly something alright, especially considering that when the SEKAI manifested Toya didn't know anyone other than Ken and Kohane knew none of them. You could just say that Akito and An have more influence on the SEKAI which is arguably true but sometimes meta can be fun too.

[pokemon-npcs]

Hello :D I was wondering, do you know if there's any NPC quotes in LGPE that mentions the RGB trio going on their journey 4 years ago? I could've sworn an article online had a screenshot of it, but I can't find it anymore.

I can try to look it up! I don't know if anyone mentions them all at the same time, but I'm pretty sure that they are all mentioned. You can encounter all of them, after all. Not as sure that Green is ever referenced in a past tense, though.

....Y'know, this reminds me of the fact that we found out in XY that Blue went to Kalos to study. I love fun little stuff like that :)

[cerealmonster15]

i forgot grunt meant like henchman or whatever for a second i thought they were like yeah leonas bitch ass grunts and growls are partial proof to savanaclaw being an athletic leaning dorm lol

[delightfuldevin]

Finished my new Pokemon sona ref!!

Also I’ve solidified my role in the series!! My first appearance is in BW and then I’m in every game in the main series after that. The player will meet me at some point towards the beginning of the game, probably some time after the second gym. I’ll introduce myself and tell them that I’m a researcher studying the region’s legends. Then, the player will just encounter me in random points of the region throughout their journey. I’ll give them a random fact about the legendaries or something related to how the Pokemon interact with the humans in the region.

Perhaps there’s also a secret battle with me unlocked after meeting me in all my locations? That could be cool!! I always like the idea of being a secret boss :D

[saccharinerose]

Honestly really hope 4.1 gives ANY kind of interesting aspect to Neuvillette and Wriothesley's dynamic bc rn "token yaoi bait of 2 tall men who live in the same country, work together professionally but are not close personally" is just not hitting for me...

Like give me SOMETHING to work with so I don't have to be annoyed with the Wriolette art when I'm just trying to look for Neuvillette fanart

[silverware-is-interesting]

been thinking about undertale for a bit incase anybody hadn't noticed

[dire-vulture]

omg i was thinking of making an npc otp poll but. pretty much any potential pairing just felt like i was throwing darts at the wall dfgsdf no shipping culture here at all

[headfullof-ideas]

There’s something I noticed while writing and planning my HTTYD/The Deep fanfic in its early stages about HTTYD. Something I fix in my fic but would also like to just mention to all HTTYD fans because I feel like it’s not mentioned too much in the fandom.

The films AND shows allude to the riders being the ONLY kids their age on Berk.

It doesn’t make sense. There can’t possibly be just six teenagers on Berk. I’m sure child-loss is unfortunately not uncommon in the Archieplago, due to a multitude of reasons but also relevantly the Dragon Raids. I’m sure at least one or two small children died in a house fire, or have been accidentally taken in a raid (of which is a dark thought considering where all the dragon’s spoils in their raids winds up, something I also elaborate on in my fic) but to the point that in a generation only SIX kids survived beyond puberty? Really?!

There aren’t even NPC models of background teenage characters, generic models that get copy-pasted for whatever scene is needed. Why did they do that? Do you know how cool it would have been to have more teenage characters on Berk? Or literally anywhere else in the Archipelago? The only other teenage characters we get from the Archipelago are Heather and Dagur, and Dagur isn’t even the riders age. Why didn’t they have more teenage characters, even if they weren’t main characters?

We could have had plot lines of secondary teenage characters on Berk trying to become dragon riders and join the dragon riders club like Gustav was trying to. We could have had the riders have friends with other kids beyond the riders, their own small friend groups. They still all become each other’s best friends because of their shared experiences, but they could have all had buddies that they shared hobbies with beyond dragon riding.

Fishlegs and his rock club and botany friends, and the kids Ruff and Tuff have prank wars with and then invite over to their house for poetry slam afterwards. Snotlout and his friends in the sewing and book writing club he doesn’t tell everyone he’s in, full of kids who don’t immediately assume he’s a muscle head and only knows how to fight that he gets to hang out with without fear of being ridiculed or judged. The girlfriends that Astrid and Ruffnut could have had girls nights and sleepovers with, dressing up in outfits and makeup they wouldn’t normally wear, painting each others and Stormfly and Barf and Belches nails, because Barf and Belch are honored guests at girls night fight me. The inventive and adrenaline junky kids Hiccup has a blast test-running inventions with, that poor Toothless cries over because he feels like a single father of who knows how many idiots are jumping off of cliffs into the water below at a time.

We could have had more teenage dragon riders. The dragon riders club could have been not six, but a whole hoarde of dragon-crazy teenagers all running around on their dragons, a whole next generation of dragon riders coming into the world that used to hate them.

We were robbed

[sofiaruelle]

I love your stardrew drawings, I was wondering if you've done the rest of the villagers? Or might one day? I think it would be fun to see how you draw them

I do plan on doing the rest of the villagers! But I’m taking my time. There’s a LOT of them…. I mean I’ve decided on a format of 3 scenarios/actions per character and sometimes i dont have enough brain cells to make up proper headcanons.

It takes time and i do want to pace myself so i dont get burnt out and overwhelmed. But eventually I will!!I even have a little list of the villagers on my lil schedule board of who to draw next 😂😂

But if you/anyone has like a specific character they’d like me to draw, ✨✨my commissions are open! ✨✨*wink wonk*

My lil list that I’ve barely made a dent on lmao:

[raizelsknights]

recently i finished rereading room of swords (+ finally getting around to the last ~30 chapters i stopped reading at) and while the resolution was absolutely beautiful and more perfect than anything i could have imagined, i'm still kind of,,,confused over the main loop lol

correct me of wrong but basically the room of swords is a prison for anomalies like kodya/sylvia/tori/the other ros cast/etc and gyrus, iro, amelia, & don are all npcs designed to keep them trapped ? and if so . . . gyrus was the one who designed the room but how did he do that if he's an. npc. also how did tori know amelia from beforehand if amelia's an npc? and was vsc an actual thing from the world they came from or was it just part of the recursion loop? plus what happened to the world the non-npc characters came from? the story ends with them creating a whole new earth so did the previous earth cease to exist or do they just exist simultaneously?