#psychic terrain

[pokemaster91]

I can feel the psychic powers growing! Lana & Tapu Lele have now got their 6* EX style unlocked!

[pokemoninaction]

Mr. Rime used Psychic Terrain!

~ Ultimate Journeys Ep. 39

[heirofnepeta]

I went into a 5 star tera raid battle to get some herba mystica and i swear to fucking god this goddamn poison tera typed eelektross is the bane of my existance

[tineymang]

its another guy that i wanted 2 share! i think lumineon deserves a mega so i basically just pulled up a bunch of images of fish and went ham

[tired-needs-sleep]

..what. i beat tania first try too????? she took me a few days to actually beat. and like she was so frustrating to me that i literally went to play rejuvenation as a distraction

[communistkenobi]

i’d love to get your take on the physical geography/human geography “divide”. we spent a lot of time debating the merits of having both in my first year phd course and in my opinion as a physical geographer the opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration far outweigh any of the issues with housing physical and social scientists together

my familiarity with this debate primarily comes from the academic discourse around the concept of the “Anthropocene” (ie the period in Earth’s history where human beings have made a measurable, global impact on the environment, almost always spoken about in the context of climate change). The way I’ve seen this term used is to argue that the period of the Anthropocene is collapsing the physical/human geography divide, that even if we could separate these disciplines in the past, we can no longer partition the environmental from the social.

I’m partial to critical interventions in this discourse (which is how I will answer your question) - that the ‘human impact’ we’re talking about is actually a function of colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism, not some abstract universal ‘human impact’. Modern human beings have existed on Earth for nearly two hundred thousand years, and human-made climate change has only occurred in roughly the last two centuries - a microscopic timeframe when talking about Earth’s climate. People in the Global South, in imperialized countries, and indigenous and Black peoples in settler colonies are not the classes who produce industrial levels of carbon emissions or wreak industrial-scale environmental devastation - that is the ruling class & the imperial states of the world. Hoelle & Kawa (2021) argue in Placing the Anthropos in Anthropocene that we should call it the plantationocene or capitalocene, because human-made climate change is a function of specific historical and material processes, not some generalized, ahistorical "human impact." Likewise, "human impact" is an imprecise and colonial definition of human involvement with the environment, which dismisses Indigenous peoples' complex and highly sophisticated relationships with what are understood by the Western world to be "pristine environs" (arising from the doctrine of terra nullius, or empty land, which justified colonial expansion into the American continent because there was "no civilization there") such as the Amazon Rainforest, which should be understood as a human-made ecological system the same way we understand farmlands to be human-made (see Roosevelt's 2014 The Amazon and the Anthropocene: 13,000 Years of Human Influence in a Tropical Rainforest).

therefore I think it's productive to think of the divide between the physical and the human geographies as a colonial framework, or at least one that is deeply implicated in colonial thinking - it positions the environment as an ‘object’ terrain that ‘subjects’ are situated on top of, as opposed to understanding human beings as part of nature. This is part of the logic that relegates Indigenous people to the status of animals ("savages"), as "part of" nature, while human 'subjects', ie white bourgeois Europeans, are separated from nature (see Quijano's 2000 Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America). This type of thinking is attributed to climate change-denialism in fascist circles (see Acker's 2020 What Could Carbofascism Look Like?), whose denialism is premised on a settler colonial understanding of the environment as a resource to be dominated and extracted from - the environment has no agency in this framework, no ability to react to the violence of colonial extraction, it is a purely inert economic resource. Likewise, this psychical/human divide obfuscates the fact that historical processes like colonialism are also environmental processes. In North America, the genocides of indigenous peoples carried out by European settlers over the past five centuries have been so monumental that the resulting reduction in carbon dioxide output by human bodies is measurable in the geological record (see Hoelle & Kawa again). The environmental devastation of silver mining in South America led by Spanish colonizers, and the resulting misery inflicted on colonized peoples forced to conduct this mining (see Galeano's 1971 The Open Veins of Latin America) was foundational to the forming of the modern Spanish nation-state, who imported so much stolen silver into Europe that they crashed their own economy (see chapter 3 of Perry Anderson’s 1974 Lineages of the Absolutist State).

Likewise, efforts at environmental protections from Indigenous nations has resulted in unique advancements in the law, such as enshrining legal personhood on rivers, as was the case with the Whanganui River in Aotearoa (see Brierly et al's 2018 A geomorphic perspective on the rights of the river in Aotearoa New Zealand), or the forsaking of sovereign mining rights by the state in order to protect indigenous land claims for environmental protection, as was the case in Ecuador (see Gümplova's 2019 Yasuní ITT Initiative and the reinventing of sovereignty over natural resources). These are social, political, and legal efforts at environmental protection, done with an eye towards decolonization (or at the very least, decolonial policy regimes), and separating the environmental from the social in trying to understand this subject would be absurd.

And so the question of discipline specificity is obviously bound up in these debates, and the academic production of environmental scientists on the one hand and geographic social scientists on the other is part of the maintenance of that divide. Environmental protection policy requires specialised knowledge of the environments being protected, and that specialised knowledge likewise requires expertise in how state policy functions. And it has required decades and centuries of resistance and legal challenges for Indigenous people to be involved in these respective sites of knowledge production - all of this is bound up in debates about if we should keep the physical and human geographies separated. I think the example of medical doctors talking about “shit life syndrome” (ie the medical problems faced by people as a result of poverty and inequality) speaks to a consequence of the debates around disciplinary divides - most medical doctors are not social policy experts, it’s not their job to write legislation or policy programs, their job is to provide medical services to people, but they are nonetheless identifying in their supposedly separate discipline of medicine and human biology the harmful social outputs of capitalist societies, which is intense systemic poverty

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Ok so, before the indigo disk released I heard there was going to be people with competitive movesets, so before it released I literally made myself an entire competitive team. IM A CASUAL PLAYER 😭😭 and I just think it’d be really funny that carmine and kieran would probably think i’m just gonna stroll up with my usual team but nope swords dance + scale shot 💃 if you could write their reactions to the new squad I just think it’d be funny lmao

(If you want the team I made for reference, it was koraidon, ogerpon, chien-pao, blood moon ursaluna, armarouge, and a shiny slither wing because I felt like having a shiny so I hunted one lol)

- 🪑🥚

Bro I went into the Indigo Disk 100% blind so you can imagine my shock when I realized double battles were gonna be everywhere </3

I mostly had a "fuck it we ball" mentality going through it (which made some battles go on for WAY too long), but later I taught my Ceruledge Poltergeist when I realized almost every NPC in the dlc uses held items.

Funny enough Ogerpon (with Spiky Shield) and BM Ursaluna were on my team. He was an absolute TANK with the assault vest and he knocked out Hydrapple with a Moonblast

Anyways enough rambling and onto the request!

......

Kieran

He was expecting your usual team when you started challenging the BB Elite Four, rolling his eyes at the thought of you trying to use the same old tactics to defeat him.

But he's changed. He's gotten stronger and wanted you to be surprised by what he can do now.

Instead, though, when you arrive to the championship battle...not only did you bring out Ogerpon with her teal mask to (supposedly) insult him, but you also had Chien-Pao, which may spell trouble for his Dragonite.

He'll admit, you were clever to bring a Pokémon who could lower the defense of all the others and cut their HP in half with Ruination..but he doesn't give up yet.

Seeing a shiny that looked like a Volcarona but fluffier was certainly bewildering--as is the Bloodmoon Ursaluna you managed to tame back in Kitakami and the Armarouge who sets up a Psychic Terrain to boost its Expanding Force, allowing it to hit two of his Pokémon at once.

Oh, and apparently you have not one but TWO Koraidons, with the one you brought into battle being more brash and a fierce fighter in its Apex build.

You set that one up with a Swords Dance + Scale Shot combo that absolutely kicks ass, somehow striking your opponents 4-5 times whenever you command it.

Kieran's certainly gotten smarter about his team, but so have you, and he's livid about it.

It was like you enjoyed knocking him down over and over again...yet he can't hear the reluctance in your voice as you utter the final move that finishes off his Hydrapple.

You knew you had to win. He needed to be humbled.

But it didn't feel good at all as you watched him crumble and Drayton rub his loss in his face.

Carmine

When you battled her, she (like her brother) expected to see some familiar faces on your team.

Yet you surprised her (in a good way, very much unlike her brother) with Ogerpon, and she smiles and asks if she missed her, with the legendary responding with a small hop and a happy trill....

Followed by a devastating Ivy Cudgel that lands a critical hit on her Pokémon.

Yeah, she can definitely tell you've been training the Ogre a lot, but she's proud of how confident she's grown nevertheless.

Seeing you have both Chien-Pao and another Koraidon working in tandem is impressive, especially with that Ruination + Swords Dance + Scale Shot combo you pulled.

BM Ursaluna and Shiny Slither Wing are the only two that genuinely shock Carmine, as she's only seen one in myths and the other....she's never seen in her entire life.

But after the trip to Area Zero, she understands Slither Wings better (although she's amazed you managed to find a shiny down there).

Either way, those two are powerhouses.

She remembered you talking about a little lonely Charcadet you found during an outbreak, and to see it has grown up into a mighty Armarouge was such a sweet thing to see.

You clearly took the time to plan out your team before coming to the Blueberry Academy.

Carmine found your battle to be fun.

Although she can't exactly say Kieran will feel the same way..considering Ogerpon is with you and you have some new tricks up your sleeve.

But she figured he oughta find that out for himself.

[local-unintelligible-shifter]

Introducing my Pokemon X PJO DR

Cora, born March 15th, nonbinary (They/Them), Australian, Pokemon trainer

Appearance:

My Pokemon (start of dr):

Sylveon: - Sylveon is a service Pokemon and she has a pink service Pokemon vest (just imagine a pokemon version of a service dog vest) thats specifically made of a nice feeling material for sensory issues - Service Pokemon don’t take up party slots - Used to be an eevee but evolved (clearly) - Dosen't battle but can/will if she feels like she need's to step in Helps with: Regulating anxiety/panic attacks, meltdowns and sensory overloads, grabbing and touching things I can’t due to sensory issues (with either its feelers or psychic) Ability: Cute Charm (to help possibly de-esculate any possible situation with it's cuteness) Moves: Helping Hand, Misty Terrain, Psychic, Reflect

Vulpix: Ability: Snow Cloak Moves: Moonblast (egg move), Powder Snow, Disable - Is my first Pokemon (excluding sylveon) and main partner

Sprigatito Ability: Overgrow Moves: Petal Blizzard, Shadow Claw, Quick Attack

Aesthetic:

Songs: Cherrybonbon - Kyary Pamyu Pamyu CANDY CANDY - Kyary Pamyu Pamyu

Powers:

I'll find out when I shift/will update after I shift lol

Misc:

I'll find out my godly parent when I shift, I'll aslo find out my last name when I shift because I'm lazy but i'll take suggestions

Leaned in to the 'pokemon tend to look like their trainers' thing from the anime, will probably dye hair some pastel colour at some point, pastel princess vibes, eventually gets a keystone and ninetaleite

Originally I also had a piplup but I don't really fuck with empoleon vibes wise I might still get a piplup later but it will probably stay a piplup, also originally my vulpix was the fire type version of vulpix not the alolan form, my step-mum does have a piplup though (also a dingo fakemon b/c fakemon are a thing in my dr for ✨biodivercity✨)

Australia's starter pokemon

Note: If for some reason you want to be in any of my DRs I will add you, you can be as vauge about your personality and description as you want, it cam be a pm, ask, post that you tag me in idk but I do have a-few house keeping rules 1: The closest i'll accept being related to a cannon character (appart from like being half siblings in the case of pjo) is a distant relative purely so things don't get too confusing if someone else also wants to be related to said character and there are clashes, same with romantic relationships but I can make a footnote for any crushes and it will play out how it plays out, also if its something like pjo I also have scripted in powers for the cannon 12 cabins so feel free to be lazy if thats the case and not add powers 2: With Pokemon DRs you're not getting ledgendarys or mythicals, not even me, also if you want to be in this dr in particular and want to be a trainer you don't have to have a full team off the bat, also try keeping what pokemon you do have to what pokemon you think would fit your country/area of origin or you can let me take the wheel and i'll give you one or two pokemon if you want. Also service pokemon are a thing as indicated by my Sylveon, if you want a service pokemon just tell me, either look at headcannons to what pokemon would be best suted for what or pick whichever pokemon you want (also keep in mind with the pjo dr if you want to be close in age to percy and annabeth you'll be 11-13 for abit of range so keep that in mind) 3: For pokemon DRs unatural eyes and hair are free rein (within reason)

[guiltygearconfessions]

dnd 5e builds for base strive cast (+ goldlewis!)

Sol: either an Artificer (Battlesmith) w a Barbarian (Totem) dip where his Steel Defender is his bike and Elk/Bear rage is dragon install OR a Wizard (Bladesinger) with a belt (headband) of giant strength and Tasha's Otherworldy Guise as his DI

Ky: Hexbalde Warlock w a Battlemaster Fighter dip since he seems charismatic and his patron cld be the Thunderseal. His manouevres: Trip (Stun Dipper), Lunge (Foudre Arc), Riposte (Vapor Thrust). Meanwhile, Eldritch Blast = Stun Edge, Booming Blade = Dire Eclat, can blow his limited spell slots on Lightning Bolt (Sacred Edge) or Hasted Booming Blades + Relentless Hex or just Thunder Step (RTL). Possibly take a sorc (Storm) dip or the Metamagic Adept feat to transmute spell and change his damage types to lightning + gain flying speed.

May: Ranger (Beastmaster) for sea animal shenanigans. Possible dips into Paladin (Devotion, to the Jellyfish Pirates) or Fighter (Cavalier) for mounted combat features and bonuses (e.g. Find Greater Steed)

Axl: Ranger (Horizon Walker) + Monk (Kensei)/Fighter (Battlemaster). The boring and "correct" answer here is pure bladesinger wiz using a flavoured whip for the Time Stop spell, but the teleportation offered by Horizon Walker and the idea of slipping between planes of existence seems flavourful. Ranger features also have a bit more trap laying flavour. Monk bonuses for movement speed + unarmoured defense to remain slippery while dressing casual.

Chipp: Monk (Shadow) with the Fey Touched and Shadow Touched feats for access to Shadow Teleport + Misty Step + Shadow Blade and maybe a small spellcaster dip into Sorcerer (Shadow) if only to get Quickened Spell for ninja flavour + Mirror Image (multiple Chipps!)

Potemkin: although a pure Fighter (Champion) is tempting, the 4 attacks per turn feels at odds w the slower, lumbering idea of Potemkin. Instead I propose DM fiat to allow smiting while Unarmed, then build Potemkin as a Variant Human (base feat used to learn Unarmed Fighting style) with full Paladin (Glory or Redemption). His devotion and larger than life presence give him moral power behind his blows which are weighty (big ass smites) but infrequent (2 per turn). The other athleticism, tanky abilities come from his Paladin subclass features. Spells like Command and Compelled Duel reflect his intimidating presence and ability to control the field. Spells like Thunderous Smite and Destructive Wave reflect his sheer terrain-altering strength. Feats could include Grappler, Tavern Brawler, Tough.

Faust: Pure Wild Magic Sorcerer or an even split btwn Wild Magic Sorc and Life Cleric. Dimension Door/Misty Step for teleports. Items could represent by: Meteors (Minute Meteors), Bomb (Delayed Blast Fireball), 100T Weight (Earth Tremor/Earthquake), Donut/Banana (Healing Word/Cure Wounds), Afro (reflavoured Web since its also a control debuff that turns into damage after fire exposure), Minifaust (so many summon spells but I like the idea of Guardian of Faith from Cleric), Trumpet (Insect Plague), Hammer (Catapult). And then Haste can be used with Quickened Spell to simulate item throw super. Tack on a couple fighter levels perhaps to Action Surge and emulate the 100 tension version + give some oomph to the occasional scalpel normal.

Millia: not base dnd but i think she fits a Blood Hunter (Lycan) pretty well. The flavour of undergoing a dangerous and forbidden procedure for power, the hair transformations... probably uses Rite of the Oracle (psychic) and Blood Curse of Binding (tandem top) to hold enemies in place for devastating up close "mixups" while still remaining highly mobile.

Zato: Fighter (Echo Knight) w a Monk (Long Death) dip (or, potentially, Undead Warlock). Fragile but frequently summonable puppet fighter w a Monk dip for the "unarmoured melee fighter" vibe + undying flavour or Warlock dip for more spell slinging vibe+ access to flight spells.

Ramlethal: taking a bit more from her Xrd incarnation, a mixed Cleric (Twilight) for access to Spiritual Weapon for the "remote/hovering sword" + a hover/fly movement rather than regular walking and a Warlock (Hexblade) with the Eldritch Smite invocation to burn spell slots for chunky damage that knocks enemies flat on their asses (Mortobato).

Leo: Rogue (Swashbuckler ) + Barbarian (Totem). Probably a Tiger/Elk Barb for the movement speed and the animalistic vibe, while the Rogue levels and Swashbuckler features give the idea of a speedy duelist who occasionally snipes out big damage hits from "converting" movement speed based mixups. (also Swashbucklers benefit from Charisma, which leo definitely has since hes led so many soldiers to their deaths 🥰)

Nago: Fighter (Samurai). I think a majority of Nago's features and design are reflected in this subclass- the idea of a fighter who takes a slow and measured approach while occasionally bursting into a flurry of sudden violence. The high level Samurai feature of taking another turn upon getting dropped also kind of feels like Nago blood rage- a last second gambit at the verge of defeat type of deal.

Gio: Monk (Astral Self). Gio's features as an unarmed, unarmoured, mobile fighter w a not-quite animal spirit are perfectly encapsulated in this subclass, down to her appearance transformations at high tension

Anji: Bard (Swords) with Fighter (Battlemaster) dip and the Dual Wielder feat. Swords Bard explains his armoured twirl (Defensive Flourish) and other more magical effects like the butterfly, koi, and his cinematic super. Battlemaster Trip (rekka low), Push (corner carry off fuujin), Sweep (spinny spins), Parry/Riposte (dedicated counters).

I-No: Oddly enough i dont think she's a pure bard. If anything, I think her style seems more offense oriented than support, so she probably has way more Sorcerer (storm) levels for flying and her other magic shit. For her Bard dip, probably a Whispers bard to play into her role as a mysterious and menacing antagonist figure.

Goldlewis: Paladin (Watchers) with a Warlock (GoO) dip. Watchers paladins already deal w abberations and aliens, and his smites could be flavoured as his big behemoth typhoons/down with the system. Warlock spells and blast reflect the gadgets stored by his alien.

Wow! Points for being so thorough! This is cool

[nightmarearian]

Code: Auto

Having been without autonomy their entire life, Zetta, under the name Code: Auto, has been consumed by desperation to even just die on their own terms. They don't seem to care much for it's own well-being, with nothing to lose. Their Reuniclus-like body is incredibly acidic, irregularly corrupted by Rift Matter, and melting their old human body into bloody cytoplasm and bone-mesh.

The pure desperation has caused Zetta to opening a Dimensional Rift in themself, corrupting each of their odd cells. The Dimensional Rift that transformed Zetta seems to have been an irregular one, not affecting them as it usually would another. Whether this is because of their state as a human and Pokemon, or due to the fact they are a creator of Rift Matter themselves is unknown. Evidenced by it's eventual Ghost-Typing, they seemed to have gained their wish to die on their own terms, no matter how painful.

Rift Zetta :)

(Here's them on their own)

> "Auto" is meant to refer to "Self" and "Autonomy", referencing that Zetta used a Dimensional Rift on themself, and the whole thing with their lack of autonomy.

> Currently (it's still up in the air), the battle, wherever it would be*, would start Zetta off as psychic/poison (1st phase), and then after the third shield, they turn into a psychic/ghost** type(2nd phase), meaning that. You know. He died. :)

*> I know I drew a cave, but that's also up in the air. Surprisingly there's no field that's really geared towards psychic that isn't psychic terrain and one that fits the vibe. I'm leaning towards something in Xen( Xen lab?) but definitely something contained, walled in. Minimal exits/escapes and all that.

**> While the exact battle/moveset stuff is deeeffffinitely not set in stone, they absolutely have Focus Blast. oh oh oh a toxic (spikes?) and then a hex from phase 1 to 2 would be good. yeah. hm. Baneful Bunker or toxic or toxic spikes??? or poison point/ability along the lines of that? ughhhhh

> So in the first phase Zetta is, obviously, melting. His arms have melted into a Reuniclus-like cytoplasm, and the idea is that his bones have broken as the cytoplasm-like limbs start to duplicate, sort of like how the nucleus and shit duplicate and then the cell splits for mitosis. If that makes sense.

> The bones, as they're breaking and duplicating into more arms, are melting into those cell-organs Reuniclus has, essentially.

> The rest of his body is essentially pretty amorphous/genuinely melting into nothing, though when they die their state as a ghost lends itself to something a bit more stable, as their memory/perception of themselves would. yk. give them that. or smth.

> Their stats basically boil down to glass-canon, since Zetta doesn't really have any intent to really defend themself. They just want to, at least, die on their own terms; they don't really expect to make it out alive. They do have some defense, but the idea is that they hit hard and fast, before you can really hit back. 2nd Phase gets some more defense though.

> I doooo want him to be like. Helped. LIke Garbodor or smth. Like Erick or some other scientist type (Nastasia works too, actually. Definitely works) gets the notes from the Interceptor and he gets... uhm.

So. He does still end up dead. He is ghost, but a much more corporeal and consistent ghost, sort like how Gengar is. Depending on his mood he can appear on a sliding scale like normal Zetta or Rift Zetta. The middle point would him having Reuniclus arms and an arm or two floating behind him, but not completely melted/cytoplasm. They spend sometime in the/a lab (and has maaaaany panic attacks about it. being born and then immediately tested-abused on does that) healing/getting stabilized. Tbh i see him hanging around Geara if he's with Xen(? Maybe. Dunno if he's for or against Xen in this) cause Goldenleaf + Semi-Ghost specialty. and a bit of valorshipping :) And he gets ghost/psychic powers. definitely. absolutely. as a treat. he deserves it.

Yeah. That.

> Tbh the main vibe about this and the desperation is that one saying about a cornered animal willing to gnaw off their own leg to escape. Pure desperation. As my original notes say "willing to damn itself to live/die on it's/his terms."

> I drew phase 2 before phase 1, so. hm. if anything's a bit incongruent cause of that, yeah. I also got really tired by the end, so I sorta half-assed the last parts of phase 1

> uhhhhhh yeah that's all the lore i remember for now. There's absolutely going to be more I remember later that I'll probably add on later. oh well.

> Oh also the Luxray is my main lead in my playthrough rn, so he gets to show up :)

[lesbian-salamander]

polygrigus aka convergent fakemon. more in depth explanation about its ability + the signature move below art

Polygrigus, very obviously based on POLYBIUS don't think that needs to be explained. The "distraction" effect is a new one, works like infatuation but doesn't rely on gender and has a higher chance to be distracted compared to being immobilized by love. Every move that got the ability effect also has every move, regardless if it's special or sound or dance or whatever, will now become a contact and replace what it previously was.(that means throat spray won't work on what used to be sound based moves)

It also has a signature move! Confining Wires, a special 65 bp ghost type move that deals contact damage . Its a trapping move, the main difference being it doesn't get countered by moves like u-turn. It's also kind of dual electric type? It hits electric & water pokemom for super effective but ground resists instead of being straight up immune.

also. don't really wanna get into it's full move set it would take a REALLY long time but this thing would learn

-all terrains

-all weathers

-all field(non hazard) effects like trick room or gravity

it DOESN'T learn any status moves like will o wisp or any hazards like spikes.

Also learns alot of psychic & steel type moves, obviously.

[eponymous-rose]

So I've been playing Baldur's Gate 3 like everyone else and had An Incredibly Wild Combat Experience just now...

(spoilers under the cut for an early-game fight; if you don't care about the game, this is 100% parse-able as a d&d fight)

So there I am with my character Amisra (elf fighter), and a party consisting of Karlach (tiefling barbarian), Astarion (elf/vampire-spawn rogue) and Gale (human wizard). We venture into the lair of a hag to try to rescue this woman she's kidnapped and I'm getting a little blithe when it comes to spell slots and short rests - everyone's starting to look pretty rough, and then there's a long stretch of having to navigate carefully around traps, mostly via jumps that I actually remember to have Feather Fall on this time. "No problem," I think like every D&D player before me, "I'll simply take a long rest before the boss battle." And the game, in its DM-ish wisdom, says, "No, you can't long rest in the lair of an actively hostile enemy, what were you thinking???" and that's how I get into a fight that's way, way over my head.

I'm giving it my best shot, dealing with illusory hag-enemies and complicated terrain, but it's clear this is going to be my first total-party-kill of the game. Several characters have been knocked down and brought back up, and we've been in enough of a bad state that all of our healing potions are gone (leading me to the realization that you can craft in battle, which then leads to all of the crafted potions also being consumed).

The stage is set for disaster: the hag still has half her health (60-something points), and my whole party is out of all spell slots and fancy tricks. Astarion and Karlach are knocked unconscious on the other side of the room via Ray of Sickness, making death saves. Gale and Amisra are in some sort of necrotic zone that's dealing damage every round.

The immediate turn order: Gale, Hag, Amisra. Gale has 1 HP and will be unconscious from the necrotic damage after his turn. Amisra has a whopping 7 HP but is being held in the damage-over-time area by a Hold Person spell she cannot seem to save against. The hag has a perfect shot on everyone in the room.

So I'm sitting there like "well, it was a fun run while it lasted" and trying to remember when I saved last. At this point, I figure I might as well go for a little roleplay flair and try to think of what Gale would do for this, his final turn. Well, he'd look to magic. But, uh, sorry, those cantrips aren't going to deal 60 points of damage and get you out of your current predicament. Too bad.

Hang on. I've picked up so many scrolls, surely there's something there that might be a fun finish. Scroll of Flying? Nah, then I'll just die in midair. Scroll of Ray of Enfeeblement? Yeah, I'm sure she'll be real sad that her melee attacks do marginally less damage as she annihilates us with ranged attacks anyway. Scroll of Feign Death? Who's ever even used that spell successfully in a video game? What would you even--

Wait. Scroll of Feign Death. Resistance to all damage types except psychic, puts the target in a comatose state. Gale's going to be unconscious next round, but Amisra still has 7 HP...

So Gale, very dramatically, pulls out this scroll and casts the spell on Amisra, who Feigns Death very convincingly considering she's frozen on the spot and slowly taking damage. And Gale takes the last burst of damage himself and falls unconscious.

The hag absolutely doesn't stop there and keeps hitting Karlach, Astarion, and Gale until they're dead... but she never targets Amisra. She thinks she's dead. She actually thinks she's dead! And she might be right, as Amisra takes 2 HP and 1 HP of damage each turn, frozen in place...

And the hag just... stops. Everyone is dead, right? Yup, four bodies on the ground. Time to go and do whatever it is hags do for fun. She leaves the battlefield.

And Amisra finally saves against the damage-over-time with One. Frickin'. Hit. Point. Remaining.

I as the player have about 1 HP remaining myself as I fumble frantically to move Amisra out of the dangerous area and manage to remember how to use a mouse in time to cast a Scroll of Revivify on Gale. Two of us, each stumbling around at 1 HP, no other healing available, no idea where the hag is in her lair, the rest of our (very dead) party on the other side of the giant room, and a huge path of traps and treacherous drops to get back to the surface. What can we do but press on, deeper into the lair?

In the next room, which I have never seen before, I am shaking. If there's a trap, we're probably done. I'm too nervous to try looting anything in the room - what if she comes back? And then I see a sparkly fairy circle of mushrooms, looking an awful lot like an exit. No way. NO WAY.

I click that fairy circle so many times and just hold my breath as the two remaining party members stumble to the exit... and promptly appear back in the (slightly less dangerous) bog. The bog where, in its infinite DM-ly kindness, the game finally allows us to make camp, where I can resurrect Karlach and Astarion in peace.

And that's how we avoided a Total Party Kill with the most situational spell scroll use imaginable!

Edit: Also, a tip for when I did go back to fight the hag - a 2nd-level Magic Missile auto-hits up to 4 targets, so if you position Gale toward the middle of the room you can take down all 4 illusory hag-clones in one turn. Ahh, it was nice to have spell slots again.

[sandypuggames]

Dor, the Egress Of Tjeker

A hole in the world, supported by a titanic bronze snake coiled hungrily around the void. A doorway to psi-space, straddled over the quarry of nous that fuels it. A below-replica tattooed on the living walls beneath.

Type: Productive

Purpose: Physical invasion of Psi-Space, perversion of all psychic reality

Terrain: Layers of ruined forgotten Hell, screaming nous-quarry

Defenses: An arrayed invasion fleet, twisting canyons, whatever comes out of the portal

Build Time: [][]

Quality: 1 Subterfuge, 1 Territory

Art by @leafie-draws

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

The Fight: Final Part

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~3k

Summary: After a weird encounter with your parents and friends, you try to get to the bottom of it even if you don't like the answer.

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Season Five Masterlist

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them.

x

You join Emily and Mick Rawson who is on the Red Cell team. They're standing over the recent victim while SFPD is closing off the park from everyone else.

"Hey, I came as fast as I could," you say. "Do you have any gloves?"

Emily hands you a pair and you slip them on over your own hands. You kneel next to the body and touch the wounds on his face. His spiritual energy flies out of his body and swirls around you, putting out a video that plays out in front of you of his last moments. There is an empty pool with two people inside, one of them being the victim. Both of them run at each other before fighting. There are tons of blood stains all around the pool, telling you that many people have fought there. A man sits on the edge of the pool looking down at the two men fighting but the only thing you're getting from him is that he's white. That narrows it down... Not. You stand up and remove the gloves.

"So, the only thing I'm getting is that he and another man were inside this big empty pool and they were fighting each other. The unsub was sitting on the edge watching them but the only thing I saw was that he's white." Mick stares at you like you have two heads and you stick your hand out which he shakes. "Hi, I'm Y/N, the on-call psychic."

"Not the weirdest thing I've come across," he shrugs.

"British, huh? I know a girl who has a thing for accents," you grin and look at Emily who blushes.

Mick smirks but he doesn't say anything about it.

"So, the Tenderloin is full of junkies who would be easy to control, but the first victim had no drugs in his system and this geezer looks pretty healthy except for the whole dead thing. There's skin under his nails. Didn't the first victim have scratch marks on his chest?"

"The victims are fighting each other," you say, "not the unsub."

"Exactly," Mick agrees.

"I take it you're about to wow us with a theory?"

"The first victim is dumped before the fathers and daughters are taken. Why?"

Because he wants to send a message to the wife that he means business, to make sure she doesn't call the police."

"It also sends a message to the prisoners he already has. If you lose a fight, you die." Mick leans down and points to the welts that are on the victim's back. "What do those welts look like to you?"

"Wounds from rubber bullets?"

"This is the same as how they used to control rioters or prison inmates. I think the unsub's been locked up. It's where he's learned to control his own prisoners."

"Well, if he's learned how to dominate them, why are they fighting each other?" Emily asks.

"It has to be part of his plan to watch them beat the hell out of each other. The loser is executed."

You take out your phone and call Hotch.

"Hey, we might have the profile on this guy." You tell him everything Mick told you. "How do you want us to do this?"

"If what Rawson said is true, the profile will need to be given to San Quinten Prison."

"Hotch, I can't go there," you whisper.

"I'm not asking you to. I'll have Rossi and Sam go there. Get back to the station so we can give it to SFPD."

"Thank you."

Rossi and Sam go to the prison, Derek stays with Jane's mother, and the rest of the team is at the SF police station to deliver the profile.

"We have a serial killer on our hands. We think he might have done time in San Quinten Prison. It's very likely that this unsub has a prison record. He's white, and judging by the age of the people he abducts, most likely in his thirties. Considering the terrain in which he's dumping the bodies, we think that he's imposing or at least very physically fit," Hotch begins.

"He also has access to a space that's large enough to house and control a number of prisoners, all without disturbing the neighbors. Look for places that have big pools, most likely abandoned," you say without telling them about your gift.

"This guy keeps to the same hunting ground and same dumpsite. He's a control freak and really organized. Also, in prison, he would have been obsessed with the guards and their methods of controlling the prisoners, especially in the yard."

"This dude kills folks the same few days every year. There's no way he's that obsessed and he's not talking about it," an officer scoffs.

"We think the man has a daughter of his own, most likely a brunette like Jane. The dates he chooses probably correspond to an event involving his own daughter. Our guess is that he lost his daughter in some way and it's symbolic of him not fighting for her in the first place."

"A lot of times, killers choose victims that are surrogates for someone, like a wife or a mother. In this case, we think his own guilt is making him choose surrogates that represent himself."

With the profile in mind, it's time to do some scouting on the streets. You know his energy. You'll be able to spot him out in a crowd if he's around. Emily and Mick joined you on the mission with Mick up above in the clouds. He's a very good sniper and can see more than you and Emily might. The place you hit is Chinatown while everyone else scouts other cities the unsub might hit.

"So, what are you wearing?"

You smirk when you hear Mick's voice in your ear. You look at Emily to see her smile, and you know she heard him, too.

"A gun." She chuckles. "Hey, Mick, explain something to me. How come we're out on the street and you're sitting on your butt on some roof?"

"Do you really want me to expound on my own prowess? It's undignified. Stay on your headset. All his victims are coming from this four-block radius."

Emily looks at you and sees the look on your face.

"Don't start."

"I didn't say anything." You remember Friday's mishap and look at Emily with a slight frown. "So, how's that dating profile of yours coming along?"

She tenses next to you. "Good."

"Come on, Emily, you know I know you two were lying. Why did you lie? I'm not mad, just confused as to why you felt the need to. Do you not like my parents?"

"It's not that," she sighs. She hopes she can leave it at that but then she sees you staring at her, waiting for an answer. "I don't know. I felt something when he looked at me."

"What do you mean?"

"Y/N, please drop it."

"No, Emily, what do you mean? Did you feel unsafe?"

"No, nothing like that. There was something about him that made me uncomfortable."

"Was it something he said?"

"No. I'm sorry. It was the way he looked at me."

"Oh," you say softly.

"I'm probably reading too much into it." You nod and continue to walk in silence. "Are we okay? I don't like fighting with you."

Whatever happened on Friday wasn't Emily's fault. Your dad must be under a lot of stress and his look might have come across as creepy when it had nothing to do with Emily. You look at her and give her a reassuring smile.

"We're not fighting. We're okay. I just wanted to know, is all. In the future, you don't have to lie."

"Okay," she chuckles.

"If you two are done, I think I've got something," Mick says from above. "I don't know if it's anything but check out the guy in the southeast corner. See the guy clocking the junkie?"

"Care to expand on that? All I see are guys clocking junkies."

"Gray shirt."

You two look where Mick is directing you and see a man following closely behind another man who looks like he's cracked out. Emily is about to follow them when you stop her.

"That's not him."

"What? How do you know?" Mick asks.

"Look, I'm a psychic. I see energies and I've already seen the unsub's energy through the victims. His energy doesn't match the unsub's. Everyone has their own unique aura and that guy isn't ours."

"I trust her with my life," Emily backs you up. "If she says it's not him, it's not him."

"Put a little trust in me, Mick."

"Alright, I do," he says after a pause.

"He was never here. Tonight was a bust."

The next morning after a restless night, your team meets the Red Cell in their domain. It looks like a storage garage that one would go to if they wanted to get their car fixed. Only there are no cars but computers and other tech equipment everywhere.

"Did your analyst get us the data?" Sam asks JJ.

"Yeah, I can lay it out for you."

"Good. Let's cross-reference it against our potential suspect pool."

One of the agents, Johnathan Simms, takes out his phone once he hears it ringing.

"Hello? ... Yeah, we can be there." He hangs up and looks at Rossi. "You up for a ride to San Quentin?"

"Lead the way."

"Okay, what do we have?" Mick asks once the two men are gone.

"The profile says he's spent time in prison and probably lost a teenage daughter in a way that corresponds to the dates he abducts and kills his victims. We have the dates in question divided into four specific subsets." Spencer points to the different groups as he explains. "This group is teenage girls ages thirteen to sixteen who were removed from their fathers' care. This group are deaths of teenagers the same age. The remainder are men arrested for violent crimes and anyone serving a prison sentence during the same window."

"The stressor's in here somewhere. Let's find something that looks promising so we can start running background checks. I want to get inside the girl's head. She's the key. Any insight could help break this thing. We need to understand why he took this girl at this time," Sam says.

One of the prisoners who asked Rossi and John to come overheard a story about this big white man who was in this prison at one time. Supposedly he's all kinds of crazy. When he found out his daughter died, he went all commando--boxing, working out, and challenging everyone in the yard saying that he'd fight them to the death. Sounds like it could be the unsub. It got so bad that he started to beef with the officers when they finally put him in solitary confinement to serve out the rest of his term.

Derek, while with Jane, finds something about Jane that sticks out to him. There is a collage in her room that doesn't have her parents in it like she's trying to hide them or keep them from her life. He finds her diary which is filled with typical teenage stuff like rants about her parents being unfair and talking about some boy named David. He thinks it's odd that she'd have a diary when she comes across as a very private person. The diary only goes back nine months, and Sarah reveals that the family counselor suggested she start one. His office? In the Tenderloin District.

"Okay. Got it. Good work, Morgan," Hotch says when he called. He hangs up and looks at the team. "The Mcbride family went to a therapy center in the Tenderloin. The place also did evaluations for social services."

"We profiled that the unsub may have had his daughter taken away from him," Emily says.

"If he was processed in the same place, then he would know how to target the fathers and daughters. Can I talk to your analyst?" Sam asks.

"Sure."

Hotch calls Penelope and places her on speakerphone for all to hear.

"Penelope Garcia."

"Sam Cooper here."

"Sam Cooper?" she gasps. "As I live and breathe, and here I thought you were a story someone invented. What you got?"

"Here's what I need from you. Has anyone been processed by social services who ended up losing a daughter? I don't care how big the list is. I can cross-reference it against my others."

"Roger that. Gonna hack like the wind. Prepare to be wowed, sir." She is silent for five minutes. "Alright, my tribe, I have a list of parents evaluated by social services who ended up losing custody, but as Cooper predicted, it is a lengthy tale of woe."

"We'll use it to cross against the teenage girls who died on some of the dates in question. I'm gonna start reading names. You tell me if they're on your list. Maria Salter, Carla Denny, Joyce Collard, Dawn Sparrow--"

"We have a name," Sam says while checking a text. "John Vincent Bell."

"One of the first who died was named Mandy Bell."

"Garcia, run the name John Vincent Bell against the family therapy list."

"Shazam. Bell and his wife divorced then the wife died. Bell was declared incompetent to have custody of the daughter due to a host of mental health issues."

"They got that right," Sam scoffs.

"Oh, Lord, when social service agents showed up to remove the girl, Bell beat one of them to death and was given seven years for manslaughter. During this time, his daughter was in a car accident. It looks like she survived three days on life support but eventually died of brain injuries."

"Bell is making these men fight to the death just like he did. He's trying to prove he did what any father would do."

"Do we have an address?" Sam asks.

"The only listing I have is a gym on Hall Street in the Tenderloin. It belongs to Bell's family. It hasn't been operational for years."

"Gyms have pools," you say, remembering what you saw.

"We got him."

You take two cars to the place and get out once you arrive. You sneak inside the darkened gym quietly. You come across the main room where there is a big pool with tons of blood stains in and around it. There is a body inside the pool... dead. Half the team searches the gym while you stay in the main room.

"See? Told you I saw a pool," you mutter to Mick.

"I will never doubt you again," he chuckles. Someone moans in pain from the left side of the room, and you see Ben McBride chained to the pole with cuts and bruises all over his face. "I need paramedics immediately to 631 Hall Street."

Pictures of Jane and Bell are scattered around the floor on Polaroids and she looks terrified.

"Sir, where's your daughter?" Sam asks.

"He took her."

"How long ago?"

"A few minutes ago. Find her," he begs. "Please find her."

"The place is clear," JJ says when she comes back.

"He's on the street. He's got the girl."

"I'll stay with the father."

Hotch takes out his phone and calls Penelope.

"Garcia, I need vehicle information For Bell. Tell police we need an APB."

"I can hit the rooftops," Mick offers.

"Good. Go," Sam says and Mick runs off. "I need a helicopter."

"Garcia, tell San Francisco PD we need a chopper." Hotch looks at you. "Can you track Jane?"

"Yes."

"Good. Do it."

This is the way you prove yourself. You need to feel like your old self again. You're done letting others control your life. Both Jane and Bell's energy is everywhere inside the gym but her panic causes her energy to wisp through the gym and out the back door. You immediately follow the wisp until you reach the street. The wisp flies down the street. You don't think twice about running after it. Hotch, Rossi, and another Red Cell agent take the car while Derek and Emily run after you. You don't stop running until you reach the end of the street and watch as the wisp flies down the sidewalk toward a public parking garage. You keep running and enter the garage with nothing on your mind but Jane. You run all the way to the roof of the garage where you see Bell practically dragging Jane with him to the ledge.

"John Bell, FBI!" Derek yells with his gun out. "Put the weapon down!"

"Don't shoot me!" Jane pleads.

"Drop the gun!"

"It's over! Look around you! You know what it feels like to lose your daughter. Do you really want to hurt somebody else's?"

Bell shoves Jane away and jumps onto the ledge. He's going to jump.

"Get off the wall!" Derek yells.

Bell smirks and jumps off the wall without a second glance. You and Emily rush over to the wall and look down only to see Bell with a gun pointed right at you. He jumped onto a ledge and waited for someone to come so he could take out one of you. Your eyes widen but you don't have to think about your life ending. A shot rings out but it doesn't come from Bell. Mick zeroes in on him through the scope of his sniper rifle. You two look at him and he waves to show you that he's got you.

This calls for a win. Strauss can be pissed all she wants but if it wasn't for Sam and his team, you'd have never thought fathers and their daughters were going missing. For your last night in San Francisco, Sam opened his shop to your entire team for a small party to celebrate.

"Thank you for what you did," Emily says to Mick.

"Same here but I'm sure she'll do enough thanking for the both of us," you wink at Emily whose cheeks redden.

"You guys wanna watch out for this one. She's gonna have a hard time getting over me," Mick smirks.

"Like kicking a virus," she grins.

"You know, I could have just missed."

"With your ego? Not a chance," she chuckles.

Spencer walks over to you with a cracker that has a dip on top of it. He holds his hand underneath it so nothing falls on the ground.

"Open." You open your mouth and he puts the cracker inside. You chew it happily and nod to him to let him know you think it's delicious. "Good, huh?"

"Yeah," you smile and swallow.

"I see you're doing better," Rossi smiles and nudges you.

"Doing better, Rossi, and feeling better. I think... I think I'm going to be okay."

In fact, when you got home, you didn't have a single nightmare.

x

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[dr-futbol-blog]

Epiphany, Pt. 7

Having ventured out into the sanctuary, Sheppard was about to come across the Jabberwocky, the local boogeyman, the beast that plagues the Paradise. He hears some kind of an animal screeching or bellowing somewhere in the underbush and has his weapon at the ready. While he is concerned, given that this is literally alien terrain and there could be anything waiting out there for him, and the beast sounded pretty big besides, he is prepared to take it on. While there has probably not been a day in his life that John Sheppard has not felt fear, this is not the type of thing that frightens him, not really. This he can deal with.

Sheppard: Well, you're either gonna eat me... or I'm gonna eat you!

Sheppard quips at the beast, and this is a classic case of him using wisecracking in relieving tension. He is not actually saying it to the beast, he is saying it to himself, to boost his confidence. Similarly he does not lick his lips here because his mouth is watering over the image of him eating this tasty animal, it is his self-soothing tick, being a thing that soldiers are wont to do. Tyrteus, writing about the Spartan warriors during the Second Messenian War, described them preparing for battle: "But let everyone stand fast, with legs set well apart and both feet fixed on the ground, biting his lip with his teeth." And obviously he is saying that he is going to eat the thing that is coming at him, he is hungry enough to do just that.

What he says here is interesting in two regards. First, because the beast is actually a psychic manifestation of the sum total of the fears of the people living in the sanctuary, in a sense being "fear itself," Sheppard is essentially saying that either he must conquer his own fears or they will eat him up alive. It is very poetic, and pertinent to his character. But also, because Teer had sent her brother Avrid to meet Sheppard and he was about the spring from the bushes to meet him, Avrid being a man whose companionship Sheppard really seems to yearn for before long, promising to eat Avrid or let Avrid eat him is also fitting. It is innuendo either way. Also, there is a transition from Sheppard saying this to McKay talking about loading supplies, being consumables, meaning that both of them are thinking about eating. But at the same time, it also sort of makes McKay the "you" of the reference here because we see neither the beast nor Avrid yet.

On Atlantis, McKay, Weir and Beckett have changed their t-shirts into fatigues and seem to be on their way to the jumper bay to take off. While later on McKay questions whether it is wise for Weir to accompany them to the other side, it is entirely possible it was McKay's idea to convince Weir to come with them as far as the portal, to translate the Ancient text they had discovered there. Her skills as a diplomat are not really relevant for this mission, so it is her ability to translate Ancient that must be the reason she is even coming along. Unlike McKay and Beckett, she is not wearing a tactical vest, and is probably unarmed too.

McKay: We've loaded weeks of supplies and everything I could think of. Beckett: What are we not thinking of? Weir: Now take a minute, and be certain. If your theory is correct, you won't be able to make many of these trips. McKay: I am painfully aware of that. Weir: I remind you only because from what you've told me, rushing is what got Sheppard into trouble in the first place.

Because McKay's entire brain is on saving Sheppard, he seems to have been going over scenarios that might happen, had tried to load their jumper up with anything at all that they could need to get him out. He feels terrible about what happened and blames it entirely on himself, and for some reason Weir decides to pile it on him some more. And while she may have good intentions--she claims to want to make sure that they have everything necessary because she is so very, very worried about Sheppard--what she is actually doing here is wasting their time. She even mentions taking a "minute" here, which could mean hours for Sheppard (one minute equals around 4 hours in the sanctuary, as per Teyla's calculations).

McKay's response to Weir is the same as it had been for Sheppard in Trinity (S02E06), when he had reminded him that a member of McKay's team was in the morgue: "And I am responsible for his death, yes. I am painfully aware of that. I sent him in there and I will have to live with that for the rest of my life." His voice does not crack here as it did then but he is similarly, if not even more, affected by this, by what he sees as his own hand in things turning out this way. However, let us note that he leaves the latter part of what he said then unsaid here. If we learned something from The Hive (S02E11), it is that McKay does not think that he can live without Sheppard. He would rather give up his life in an attempt at saving him than continue living in a world where there is no Sheppard, and hence his omission here is concerning.

McKay: This was not his fault, it was mine. I should have looked more closely at the video. The clues were there before he even stepped through. Look, all I can hope to do now is fix this within his lifetime. Beckett: His lifetime? McKay: If it takes us a week to ten days to fix this, then it won't matter, because he will probably have died of old age. Weir: Oh my God.

While it is not entirely clear which one of them Weir was blaming for this (or even if he put the responsibility on both of them), it is clear as day whom McKay blames. But even so, he jumps to Sheppard's defense here, tolerating no insinuation that what had happened had in any shape or form been Sheppard's fault. And what people say about someone when they are not around to hear it is important. McKay defends Sheppard when he is not there to defend himself because that is what you do for a partner, for a significant other. And let us note again that McKay takes full responsibility for what he perceives as his mistake, naming the thing that he had done wrong. And yes, McKay probably should have looked more carefully at the video but he was clearly distracted by Sheppard's presence and this is something that gets worse and worse over time, coming to a head just before the events of Sunday (S03E17).

As discussed in connection with Weir and McKay's exchange in The Hive, when McKay was trying to tell Weir about what had happened to Sheppard and Weir was unable to understand what he was saying because he was talking about Ford instead of Sheppard, McKay had tried to tell her through circumlocution what had happened because talking directly about Sheppard seemed to be too painful for him. Here, we see why he generally does that in similar situations: when he says the words "died of old age," his voice does not just crack, his voice trembles like he was about to break out in tears right then and there. That is what he really feels, what he tries to keep from spilling out with all of his considerable ability at concealing his emotions. We see it only briefly, but the look in his eyes has such deep fear and sorrow in them that it makes him look almost childlike.

What he says here is also interesting given later events. McKay says that he is going to do everything in his power to fix this within Sheppard's lifetime. In The Last Man (S04E20), we see him spend his own entire lifetime, all the days of his life, to get Sheppard back from the future even though what had happened then was not even remotely his fault. He spends the rest of his life figuring out how to get Sheppard back to his own time when only seconds have passed for Sheppard, making it almost an inversion of what happens here. Forward, backward, compressed, dilated, submerged, theirs is a love that crosses dimensions and time.

McKay: Yeah, hence the rushing. Now, you ready? You don't look ready. Beckett: I'm ready. Weir: I need to pick up a few of my books to help with the translation. McKay: Well, we'll pick them up on the way, and I hope you've got us a real jumper pilot because I don't trust him and I can't fly the damned thing in a straight line.

It seems as though Beckett and Weir had just as hard a time wrapping their heads around this as Ronon and Teyla did, and it was only McKay painting a picture of what is about to happen that made them understand the full severity of the problem. But even in spite of that Weir wants to get a few more books just to cover her basis, and it seems to have been this book-run that gave Teer the time to enact her plan of seducing Sheppard, which will be discussed in more detail later. Also notable here is McKay's call-back to The Defiant One (S01E12) and Sheppard teaching him how to fly, which just confirms that McKay is thinking about Sheppard like that was in any doubt here, like he doesn't think about Sheppard like it's his job on the regular.

Sheppard had pointed out that McKay cannot fly in a straight line. Neither Sheppard nor McKay can navigate on the ground, meaning that while Sheppard can fly straight, he cannot walk in a straight line to save his life. McKay not flying straight is a metaphor for his sexual orientation. And since this whole episode is basically an ode to Sheppard's bisexuality, it is fitting that we rejoin him as he seems to be utterly adrift on a treeless clearing. He is about to run into Avrid, sent to receive Sheppard by his sister who seems to have known precisely what would happen here and had hence placed her brother purposefully into jeopardy. But all is fair, and all that.

Avrid: Help! Help! Help me, please! Sheppard: Where is it? Avrid: It's there! In the trees.

First of all, the meadows that Sheppard is walking on here resemble the meadows that he and McKay had had their private chat on at Ford's planet in The Lost Boys (S02E10), where he had followed McKay as though he had been a piece of metal towed by a magnet. It would be only natural for Sheppard to be thinking about McKay as he is taking a stroll through the hay here. He does miss McKay something terrible and it is not irrelevant to what takes place then.

Avrid is the first person that Sheppard runs into in what is going to become his home for six months, following probably a week of not having had any human companionship that he had desired to the point of wishing he had a volleyball to talk to. It is understandable that Avrid becomes rather important to him. Avrid gets right into Sheppard's personal space, excused by the fact that he seems very afraid of what ever appears to be chasing him. He is a beautiful man, seems to have the Ancient gene like all of the people in the sanctuary (the folks living here seem to be the closest thing to living Ancients in the galaxy), dressed in flowing white linen. He runs right up to Sheppard in need of him, and let us just take a moment to appreciate the fact that instead of sending herself or an innocent little girl to fetch Sheppard, Teer seemed to know that Sheppard's protective instincts would be triggered best by her brother here.

Sheppard: What is it? Avrid: The Beast! Sheppard: Alright, is there a safe place for us to go? Avrid: No, no, the Cloister is too far. It is upon us! Sheppard: Stay down, and stay behind me. Avrid: You can't fight it! Sheppard: Maybe we can scare it away.

What we see here is an instant rapport. They have a back-and-forth going on and they seem to move as one when Sheppard tells Avrid to duck with him, meaning that there is also a physical resonance there. Sheppard also explicitly tells Avrid to get behind him, and so does something that that we have seen him do with McKay but that has never been verbalized (and we have seen multiple examples of Sheppard not putting his body in harm's way for other people than McKay, so this is not a small thing that happens here). Also, in these few moments he has already asked Avrid more questions than he asked Neera the whole time they were locked up in a cell together. But maybe it is that Sheppard is just bereft of human company. Maybe he hopes that he can employ this man's help in getting out of here. What ever the reason, Sheppard prepares to face any kind of beast for this man and this set-up is undeniably romantic.

We have seen this exact scene play out with a man and a woman countless of times, and it has never not been romantic. Not seeing the same dynamic here when it is so readily available is largely caused by heterosexism, not just refusing to see the romantic undertones but refusing to acknowledge a man in need of and seeking physical protection from another man.

Also, it is ironic that Sheppard's plan is to scare the beast away given how the beast is comprised of the fears of the people living in the sanctuary. But alas, it appears as though this beast cannot be killed using conventional weapons. The beast seems also to be invisible to the naked eye, making it that much more difficult to conquer, and given that we just got a reference to Conan the Barbarian, we would be amiss not to mention the beast's resemblance to the Predator, another classic (unintentionally homoerotic) Arnold Schwarzenegger feature.

Sheppard: Get out of here!

This whole scene seems to be fanservice and needless eroticization of Sheppard. He is flung to the ground by the invisible beast and the way he looks behind him over his ass is a classic gay pin-up pose, and there is not a chance on God's green Earth that the director was not aware of that. Also, the camera lingers on Sheppard's package here again which the cinematographer seems to like zeroing in on. And let us also note the tantalizing stretch of skin shown as his shirt and jacket ride up here, which eroticizes Sheppard in a way few male protagonists are ever eroticized, objectified -- but just like Marty McFly was in Back to the Future, as discussed in connection with Before I Sleep (S01E15), doing the same ass-up pose and everything.

And then there is the invisible rodeo bull that Sheppard rides here with his ass up, conquering what is a rather obvious symbol of male sexuality and virility. It is made even more homoerotic by the fact that the bull is invisible and he is hence shown riding just on top of Avrid. The gay rodeo is actually a pretty interesting phenomenon, harking back to those Reagan-era attitudes toward homosexuality that both Sheppard and McKay had matured under.

The gay rodeo was established at the height of a national crisis in masculinity... A lot of Ronald Reagan’s rhetoric was about manning up after the social and cultural movements of the 1960s and 1970s. The gay rodeo pushed back on the metropolitan chauvinism of queer culture, offering exiled gay people in rural places a new home... in part because the ingrained hypermasculinity of the rodeo countered the notion that gay culture was inherently urban and effeminate.

The scene, that is, presents Sheppard in both effeminate and hypermasculine light at the same time, which is actually rather characteristic for him. He is both these things. And while Sheppard is symbolically wrestling with his fears as he literally wrestles the collective fears of the villagers here, this is also symbolic of sex. We are not shown Sheppard having sex with Avrid (we are not shown him having sex with Teer, either, it is implied), but this rough-and-tumble is definitely sexual. Sheppard uses all of his weapons, each and every one of them phallic ("This is my riffle, this is my gun, one is for fighting, one is for fun..."), in attacking the beast, definitely going at it. It also invites us to wonder what had happened between Sheppard and McKay on the meadows at Ford's planet that made it so very, very difficult for Sheppard to sit for like two episodes straight.

Alas, Sheppard loses the battle and is rendered unconscious, although he does not look unlike someone falling asleep from sheer exhaustion here. The battle took a lot out of him. He is drained. He is out of juice. He is spent. But also, let us put a pin on the fact that his tac vest, jacket and t-shirt were all torn to shreds by the claws of the beast. This will become important later on. His own tight-fitting black t-shirt is done for.

Continued in Pt. 8

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

On the left, the Balhannoth! 9 ft (2.7 m) long and 4,000 lbs (1.8 metric tons)! It can turn invisible, teleport, and alter the world around it to whatever you want! Specifically you, it telepathically detects where you most want to be and alters the terrain within 500 ft (152 m) to be a good but imperfect copy. Also, those "spikes" appear to be soft because they aren't showing up as piercing damage. It also feeds on fear!

On the right, THE HUNGRY. Size of a large human wants to eat you. No psychic damage or anything like the others, just a constantly hungry monster that wants to consume flesh and drink screams. Nice and simple.