#so you can't do non-lethal damage?

[mariana-oconnor]

I had Astarion eat a goblin child. I feel so bad.

And then one got away anyway and it turned out that letting them go free isn't even that bad.

I am the worst.

[maximumzombiecreator]

I've read all the stuff you've written about the megadungeon and some of Alexandrian's posts on it, and I think the stuff about wandering monsters and restocking rooms is absolute gold. Do you have any advice on designing dungeon crawl puzzles and traps, or maybe an example of your favorites or go-tos? Everything I find is either the classic "anything can be a puzzle" non-answer or kinda lackluster. I've had some success looking at the Book of Traps supplement for 3.5e d&d, but it feels like advice for puzzle design is a bit thin on the ground.

I'll talk about traps first, then puzzles.

My favourite traps are situation traps. When the party triggers a situation trap, there's no immediate threat to their lives, there's no damage, but the triggering of the trap somehow fundamentally changes the situation and makes it more dangerous. In my big megadungeon post I mentioned an example of one of these: the party triggered a trap that rotated a room, dumping them in a new wing of the dungeon and triggering a long, terrified escape. I love traps like this because a lot of the best and most fun dungeon gameplay happens when the party is pushed to their limits and put in desperate positions. But smart play mostly means trying to avoid those situations. Traps like these create more opportunities for those types of moments.

Probably the simplest situation trap is the classic portcullis trap. The party is walking down a hallway and steps on a trapped floor panel or trips a tripwire or whatever, dropping a portcullis in the middle of the hall. But it doesn't drop in front of the triggerer, it drops a short distance behind, likely splitting the party on opposite sides. You can combine this with an ambush for a good time, but even without it, in a system where lifting a portcullis is non-trivial this becomes a whole situation.

Another one of these I've really enjoyed using is showing the party an extremely deadly monster, something they'd struggle to fight even in the best of circumstances, behind a magic barrier or something where it can't get to them. Later, deeper in the dungeon, they trigger a trap that they can hear cause the magical barrier to drop. No immediate threat, but suddenly the rest of the delve becomes incredibly tense.

The basic structure of a situation trap is that the trigger should fundamentally change the circumstances in a way that is notably more dangerous, but not imminent. The fun for the players is that it immediately becomes a problem for them to start working on. I tend to design these by thinking of fucked up situations and then trying to come up with a mechanical pretense to trigger them. Generally, if I can't think of how I would handle the new situation, it's too harsh, but if I think the players would knowingly trigger it, it's not harsh enough. Also don't invest too much energy into designing these, or you'll be tempted to try to hard to get the players to trigger them. Teleportation and portcullis traps are such classic examples of this in part because they're very low effort to design, so if the players thwart them, no worries.

The second big category of traps I enjoy are set piece traps. These are the big, dramatic traps that pose an imminent threat but are more complex than saving throw vs damage. The room is slowly filling with sand, the statue is rotating and shooting lasers out of its eyes, the floor is slowly turning upside down over a deadly pit, etc.

I think these are fairly easy to design. You have some kind of peril, which is easy to brainstorm (tip: think of things that kill people) in some configuration that is imminently but not instantly lethal. And then you let the players interact with it to try to stop it. I would usually try to make sure you can think of at least a couple of ways to interact with it, but as long as you are clear on what the actual mechanism is, these will usually suggest themselves. Block the sand spouts, cover the statue's eyes, jam the motor rotating the floor, etc.

One thing that I do value doing with these traps is telegraphing them. If the statue is going to rotate and shoot lasers, I'll describe groove marks along the wall, and perhaps with investigation the players will determine that they were burned into the wall. Reckless players can be surprised by these, but cautious players should usually have a sense when they're about to trigger a big trap and what. Usually I'll describe the mechanisms for these as sufficiently complex and deeply built into the construction that they can't be disabled by a basic thieving skills check, but if they can describe a way around the trigger, I'll certainly let them roll for it.

My last big category of traps is simple traps, the ones with a basic trigger (a trapped floor panel, opening a drawer, walking through a beam of light) and a basic effect (a pit opens, a poison needle shoots out, the room gets fireballed) that you get a saving throw against. I still think these are okay, but I think using them effectively depends on how you're using them. Any time I'm using a simple trap, the question I am asking is, what is this accomplishing?

Sometimes they're just there for verisimilitude. In a standard dungeon game setting, sometimes it just feels like "obviously this guy would have a trap on this drawer." In these cases, the trap is there to be found and disabled. I'm not expecting it to trigger. This can give me leave to make the trap really nasty. I'm a big fan of petrification traps in dungeons for example (getting back to where you left the statue of Morningwood the Elf with a Stone to Flesh scroll is a great little sidequest.) But the trap is nasty so the thief can feel good for disabling it. On the rare chance someone gets hit by one of these, it should always provoke a reaction of, "Ugh, yes, obviously that was trapped and I should have anticipated that." Not surprise.

The second way I tend to use these is as setting. The existence of these traps tends to say something about the location and it's denizens. The traps associated with Tucker's Kobolds are great examples of these. Pit traps that can support the weight of a kobold but not a human, trip wires above a kobold's height, trapped hallways that kobolds can avoid via tiny crawlspaces, these speak to the defenses of the kobolds and the way they make the space their own. When deploying traps this way, they're often not meant to be a challenge on their own. If the party is passing through a kobold warren without kobolds, they likely won't trigger any traps, and once they've described how they're proceeding (using poles etc.) I probably wouldn't even roll, I'd just assume they handle them competently. But during a fight these become an active component. And before a fight, they foreshadow the locations' inhabitants. Designing for this use case basically starts by thinking about how the dungeon inhabitants would fortify their space against their enemies and the mechanizing it in a handful of simple ways. Usually it's a good starting point to think of what traps the trap-makers could ignore. What's unique about them? Are they unusually small or large, can they fly, are they immune to poison or fire, etc.

The third way is to set tone, and in this approach I use these very sparingly. Sometimes you want to establish the dungeon as a place that hates you, a place that you should not be, and traps can be a great way to do that. But bogging the game down to a constant crawl of extreme caution isn't desirable. Throwing a handful of simple traps (some of them already triggered and expended, as set dressing) can establish this tone and reward caution without being too disruptive to play. And besides, if I really want to establish a dangerous tone, set piece traps are often more fun for this.

I've covered loosely how I come up with all of these, but in terms of extant examples, there are a few good sources I know. OSR blogs used to have a ton of these, some of which are still around. I won't link any specific ones for... OSR reasons... but if you search for OSR traps you'll find examples. Pathfinder 2e's hazards are also good for these, I especially enjoy their complex traps for set piece traps, and they tend to be conceptually pretty easy to port to other games. I wish more of them were available on AoN. I get the full list from foundry and there's some real winners in there. If Paizo published a full on Bestiary-type book of these I would buy it in a heartbeat.

This has gotten long, so I think I will cover puzzles separately in a reblog of this once I get a chance to write my thoughts down.

[ninelivesastrology]

Being feminine as a Black woman seems to be such a personal attack to non-Black woman. The more I think about it, the more I realize that Black women are incredibly feminine. I remember doing a rollerset on my hair and not stopping when my wrists ached because I was so determined to get it right. Even putting your hair into a bonnet at night is so feminine, so feminine as in, "I want to be ready to be beautiful tomorrow." Night routines have been a thing all my life.

When I got into make-up, I was obsessed with red lipstick, I swear nothing else looks good on me. I was the one giving beauty tips to all my non-Black "friends," so quick to share and not realizing they didn't have a clue about femininity... They didn't know how to style themselves. Like first of all, if you can rock straight cornrows, your face card is lethal as a BW. I love a patient fishtail braid on a white girl. It gives fairy vibes.

And I thought about how quick non-Black women were to get insecure and spiteful around me because I did myself up. Or how they would scoff at me seeing my hair tucked under a bonnet. I never got it because... the thought of being non-Black and waking up to mad tangles in my hair from sleeping on it would piss me off, but that's just me, do you.

I'll be so real, this white girl asked to help flat iron the back of my head, like the nape of my neck and she turned the flat iron all the way up to its highest setting and damaged my hair. I smelled my hair fucking burning and it did not revert back. I don't let anybody touch my hair, but that has always pissed women off. Like in my opinion, anybody wanting to play in my hair was wanting to play with me.

Looking back, I really triggered them. Like badly.

My child is rocking my face and earlier this year, my husband's deadbeat mother was begging for more pictures and this woman hates me, on God. My child has lighter skin than me and it just added more proof that so much of her vitriol and ire towards me is racially charged. Also, you can't trust people who don't like you, but want to be near your child who resembles you because they're going to take out all of their hatred on your child. Children always pay.

All I ever hear is how cute my kid is and how we're twins, like people stopping and gushing. My genetics won, I don't care. My child is more Black than anything else in isolation.

Femininity and Blackness doesn't mix in these folks' mind. It's a personal attack to be beautiful, to be desired, to be complimented. We're not supposed to be feminine because it makes them uncomfortable to see us as attractive. Really weird to me because I don't react well to people being sexually attracted to me anyway.

I understand why Black trans women experience so much hatred when I look at the situation from this lens and I don't say that to be insensitive, but being Black and expressing any type of femininity is met with adversity. "Fellas, is it gay to get a pedicu—" Come on. And men need pedicures.

This world is dominated by beauty. Beauty causes visibility and Black women are not supposed to be visible.

[nightmare-foundation]

Honestly I'm thinking... so hard about Nightwing 119. I'm fascinated by how Dick is aware that in order to keep people safe, you might have to do things not everyone agrees with, and how you might have to do things that are on the 'morally gray' side of things.

Its interesting how Dick is trying to control crime, over just stopping it. It really reminds me of Under The Red Hood, and how Jason argued that you can't stop crime, only control it to minimize the damage. And that seems to be exactly what Dick is doing here, albeit in a non-lethal way lol. It's a decision Bruce definitely isn't gonna like, based purely on what happened with Jason, though I'm not sure what Bruce will do about it. I'm not sure how that conflict will go, but that's something I'm really, really excited to see.

Overall I really love a morally dubious Dick, especially one who's taking a page out of his brothers book!!

[eri-pl]

Silm reread 22: Earendil (and very vague Elwing)

Earendil rules the people in the area. Elwing, despite being the heiress of the crown of one of the two groups who joined in there, is simply his wife. Huh.

Also, he's got sea-longing and wants fo find his parents (not a good reason to leave your wife and kids) and find Valinor and ask the Valar for mercy (ok, this is a better reason). So, Círdan makes Vingilot (from birch tree) and Earendil sails off. Elwing is sad.

But… his sailing is still a good thing, because he wants to ask the Valar for help? I guess? I have a hard time with Earendil, I'm not a fan of absent husbands. But I guess his mission is important.

And also, maybe they did discuss it with Elwing before they got married ("I dream of sailing far and for long periods of time." "ok, I may be sad with it but I still want this marriage.")…. You know what? I am going to HC that they did have this talk. It makes him 20x more sympathetic to me.

Meanwhile, among the Feanorians… Maedhros is restraining himself (again!) because he is remorseful for Doriath. But. the oath tornments them all (ok, so it is a compel, but not absolute. Not "dominate person", but it does give them mental damage for not following it. Unless it is just honor and stuff, but it doesn't sound like it.)

The Feanorians gather. (Which is a bad sign). They send messangers to Elwing, demanding "politely but clearly", the Silmaril. Well, you should have tried "politely" with Thingol, now, after Doriath, your politeness feels a bit empty.

[Also, Maedhoros' life would be much, much easier if he had the ability to just throw C&C under the bus and blame everything on them. It was even mostly true! And might have worked. But he is loyal to his brothers. And this is a good thing. This is tragic: he has one good trait, but can't manage another (not murdering people), and so he fails both morally, and fails at his chosen goal.]

Elwing, and the people of Sirion didn't want to give him the Silmaril. Because:

people have died and suffered for it (the usual argument, which I feel is increased by the nature of the Silmaril)

their ruler was not home, and they didn't want to make the decision without him (this is stupid, on a very mundane level. Earendil should have chosen someone to make important decisions when he's away. Also, Elwing seems either very indecisive / shy, or not respected by the people. My bet would be on "shy", or eldritch/shy, somewhat Varda-style)

it seemed to them that the Silmaril was the reason of their health and prosperity (this is a new idea)

So: it is not Elwing's decision. And it is not based mostly on "we hate them, they killed our people", but on survival needs (and a misconception). And again, there is no textual evidence that the people of Sirion know about the Oath.

Yes, there are people from Gondolin there, but who exactly? Turgon died. Idril was a child when the Oath happenned. They may not know, or they may not share the knowledge (but the later would be unwise).

Based on what the people of Sirion know and assume, their reply makes complete sense to me.

(Also, it seems like it was less a clear "nope" and more of a "umm, let's wait till Earendil returns, but we can't give you an ETA for that".)

The remaining soF suddenly attack the poor people of Sirion and the book is pretty clear that this is bad. It's so bad that some of their followers change sides and die trying to protect Elwing (because of course they do die, we can't have any characters getting any sort of redemption… yea, I understand, it makes sense realism-wise that they all die. But still, non-lethal wounds causing unconciousnes are a thing and I think it was a thing among the Elves? I can't remember an example)

Anyway, A&A die (because this is the unburned version).

Oh, and also Gil-Galad comes to the (too late) rescue (with Círdan). Which means that the mainstream Noldor are (for the first time) willing to fight the Feanorians. They just miss the party. Hmmm, this one detail makes me more fond of G-G son of Fingon. Because: think of the angst. (Or even better: G-G son of one of the Feanorians. But this has other problems)

There are a few survivors who join G-G.

It is told that E&E were captured. It is told that Elwing jumped to the sea with the Silmaril.

For the capture we later get a confirmation. But not for how exactly Elwing landed in the sea.

No info on how much she knew about her sons (already captured? assumed dead? hidden? whatever?). No info on whether she panicked and run blindly, or tried to distract M&M from killing other people, or wanted to maneuvre them into falling into the sea too, or one of myriads of possible scenarios. Or just even fell by a lucky "accident".

You want a perfect, flawless Elwing? The text doesn't contradict it (though she is at least a bit indecisive or not in such a position of power that would make sense given her parentage).

You want a stupid, indecisive Elwing who does a random thing? The text doesn't contradict it.

You want a young, lost, completely panicked Elwing? The text doesn't contradict it.

You want Elwing putting the prosperity of her people (which is assumed to be based on the Silaril) and them not dying of hunger above her own children? The text doesn't contradict it.

(No, we can't have a canon-compliant terrible mom Elwing, we'll get a counter for this.)

She joins Earendil and they are really terrified about their captured sons. So yes, they do care about their sons. they fear that M&M will kill them.

Kidnap fam mentioned, Maglor is sad and tired because Oath. :,(

Earendil wears the Silmaril on his forehead. So… what happenned to the necklace? Did Ulmo take it when he shapeshifted Elwing? The text very much sounds like the necklace is now gone, it's just the gem.

It is said among the gnomes wise, that the Silamril was what guided them to Valinor and let them pass all the magic barriers/traps.

Elwing has Lúthien vibes of "No, I am your wife, you aren't going to do the deadly risky thing alone!"

Earendil comes during a celebration and we are reminded that it's just like Morgoth and Ungoliant did (but he does it by accident). Nice bracketing, I guess? He is scared that even if Valinor something bad happenned. I like this scene.

Eonwe gives him a really cool (however very formal) greeting. "the looked for that cometh at unawares, the longed for that cometh beyond hope." I love this line. Yes, a lot of Tolkien's good lines give the vibe of "wrote it as part of a prayer, rewrote it to fit in his fantasy book". It's not a flaw. But I do find it a peculiar kind of funny.

Anyway, stuff is happenning. The Valar summon even Ulmo for a conversation. They talk. Námo plays the bad cop, which peronally I don't like but ok. I guess somebody has to, it is his job.

Manwë goes "we won't punish them, because they took this risk out of love" which is a solid argument. Earendil&Elwing (and by mention their sons) get the choice.

Also, interesting wording (or translation): they will be judged according to the laws of the species they chose. Huh. Interesting phrasing, I'm not sure what to think of it.

I totally forgot Elwing chilling out with the Teleri in the meantime.

Anyway, Vingilot gets an upgrade, the three sailors get a new ship. Also, doors of Night mentioned. Also, Earendil comes back to Valinor at sunrise and sunset. And it does seem like he does land, he is banned from the mortal lands, but not from Aman? So I guess he does spend some time home with Elwing. When she flies to him it's just to meet him earlier.

But I may be wrong.

Estel / "High Hope" mentioned.

M&M notice a new star. Confirmation that they saw the Silmaril sinking in the sea. Mae is like "Sure it's the silmaril." Maglor is like "we are supposed to rejoice." Anyway they do, at least they are no longer despairing.

And Morgoth is freaked out. :D But he doesn't expect the war (as they say), because the Valar were upset at the Noldor, and he doesn't get what pity is.

The army has white banners, the Vanyar are there (all of them? I suppose Ingwë stayed with Manwe, because before we were told he never went back to ME? Maybe only some Vanyar went to war.) And so are the non-Exile Noldor.

There are some Teleri in the army of the West!!! Just not many. At least that's how the Polish text reads. "Not many wanted to go to war" — so, some did want? some went?

More Teleri (convinced by Elwing) join as sailors, but those Teleri stay at the ships and don't touch tha land. (So yes, it seems there were other Teleri there)

I will leave the War of Wrath for later, maybe for the Morgoth into the Void day 1. Maybe not. Maybe i will do it sooner.

[another-fanfic-haven]

Du bist Giftig

Hey again Previous (?) part Word count: 1393 And a song: Rammstein - Giftig

Your days started to look the same: Wake up before sunrise, prepare for the day, shower (with help from the medical staff to clean the area under your neck brace), and head out to the labs. While you didn't have to do anything with the chemicals perse, he required you to run errands, check on the researchers, and so on. Your body still felt too stiff after the exhausting surgery to throw you onto the battlefield, so you did that until you recovered.

Oh right, the neck brace - is made out of thick and sturdy, yet fairly comfortable material. It allowed you some movement - although limited. Wesker said it's for your good, so the P30 on your spine wouldn't damage or potentially kill you, piercing through your spinal cord.

By noon you were done, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. People learn quickly to get out of your way, or they'll face the wrath of their terrifying supervisor. You returned to the office area, prepared specifically for your needs - a comfortable chair with a non-interacting backrest with the device on your upper back and neck, a computer with all the access you could ever ask for, and more. While waiting for your next order you'd spend your time here, silently monitoring the area, like a falcon - ready to strike its unassuming prey.

And so, he came, walking long and purposeful strides to your desk, standing right behind you before you could notice. Albert placed his hand on your shoulder, a sign. He got an assignment for you. Or a lesson. You quickly stood up, trying to look up into his eyes - the brace on your neck only allowed you to tilt your head ever so little. He took a step back for you to face him comfortably. How considerate.

"Come." He ordered, making a small beckoning gesture for you to follow him. You obeyed.

His pace is hard to keep up, but you're trying your best, breaking into a light jog every few steps to catch up with him. He didn't notice your struggle, his mind focused on one thing. He leads you in silence to the elevator leading to the surface. Finally, sunlight after a month is spent underground or in a medical facility.

"Tell me, what do you do with problematic people?" Just as the doors closed, he laid the question on you. His voice was flat, speaking with a cold detachment. Your eyes widened slightly, lips parted as you took a breath to respond, yet your voice caught in your throat. You stuttered an action that brought his attention to you - shown by him looking at you through his dark glasses. You swallowed thickly, taking one more deep breath and exhaling slowly.

"Get rid of them." You answered, looking directly into your reflection in his glasses. Your answer seemed to please him, his face twitching into a resemblance of a crooked smile. He didn't say anything more, not yet, looking directly into the door again. And you didn't ask either. Better not to ask. You'll see the reason soon enough.

*Ding*. And you arrived on the surface. Wesker led you out of the building into the soaring, African sun. The air felt hot, dry, and suffocating. You couldn't help but glance around - all the equipment stood there, but not a soul man in sight. All the workers must've taken a break. You seemed to be dressed more appropriately for the weather - a short-sleeved shirt with a zip at the front and a low cut back (another thing made specifically for you and your device), lighter tactical pants, and quite comfortable boots. How on earth is HE not sweating in his tough-looking suit and trench coat?

The area he led you to changed drastically. It seemed colder, despite being in full sun, with no shade in sight. The stench of death looms, enveloping your senses in its lethal grasp. You curled your fists, preparing for the worst. Your mind started running, recapping the past few months for any mishaps. You can't find any, not anything that'll result in your untimely demise at least.

Once you reached the destination, he beckoned you to take a step further. You could breathe a sigh of relief - if the situation wasn't this grim. You saw a man, hands bound behind his back and on his knees. He looked battered, the light beaten out of him. And yet, he still breathed, whispering something under his nose. Was that a prayer? Or perhaps he pleaded for mercy? You couldn't understand a word spilling from his lips.

"Good job. Now." Wesker started, his voice cold, but with an edge of sadistic amusement. He reached out to you, holding his gun by the barrel, inviting you to grab it. You froze, sensing what's to come. Your mind started to flood with thoughts, your body stiffening and freezing. He waved it gently, narrowing his eyes on you. And you reluctantly took the weapon from his hands. It felt so heavy in yours, despite the enhanced strength he's gifted you.

"He's the rat you caught, a useless weed in my garden. And now I allow you to plow the leech. Make an example for others." He spoke with so much amusement and wicked enthusiasm it gave you chills. He crossed his arms on his chest, supervising and observing your reluctant actions. From how you made sure the weapon was loaded and ready to shoot to your shaky, slow steps toward the man.

You put the barrel to the man's head. You saw all of his reactions, the tremble in his lips, the shakiness of his whisper, turning into a low, raspy plea. Your finger loomed over the trigger. It was so close to pulling on it, but you couldn't. Your mind stopped you. The thought of ending someone's life made you sick on the spot - stomach churning and knotting, mouth feeling dry, and throat burning. You felt tears coming to your eyes, threatening to spill onto your cheeks. Your own body trembled as you tried to keep the aim straight.

You stood there for minutes, yet they felt like hours. Hell, days even! You swallowed thickly, each breath coming in shaky gasps.

"Don't make me do this, little lamb." Wesker moved behind you, leaning into your ear. He whispered, but his voice changed to growl mid-sentence. His left hand rested on the junction of your neck and shoulder, his thumb tracing lines up and down your neck - the gesture as intimate, as it was threatening. His right snaked around yours, stabilizing the aim. The usual heat of his body burned almost cold, his breath fanning over the shell of your ear. You could hear it all, his whisper, his deep breaths, as his finger curled around yours, pulling onto the trigger.

No. No no no nononono. You had to do this. You can't disappoint him. Or worse. You grit your teeth, close your eyes shut, and turn your head away - as much as you can anyway - before you pull the trigger. The shot deafened you temporarily, stopping the victim's voice. It was... silent for a while. The hum of the institute grew distant, disappearing somewhere outside your hearing range. Even Wesker's breath in your ear was gone. It was only you and the weight of the soul you just took. You heaved an open-mouthed sigh, your eyes wide in horror of your actions. You stared ahead, trying to avoid the pool of gore forming where the victim fell.

"You did so good." He murmured into your ear, chuckling lowly in amusement. His right hand moved to hold your wrist, just in time as your arm went limp. He pried the weapon from your hands, leaving them to fall along your body.

Wesker straightened up, looming behind you, suffocating you with his sheer presence. He moved his arm down, resting it on your arm, holding it tightly - not enough to cause you harm, but enough to make you feel the threat.

"You just made me so proud, little bunny. You're learning so quickly."

The praise felt more like a cold statement, except for the pet names, pronounced with drawled vowels and much huskier than the rest of the statement. They weren't made for anyone's ears but yours anyway.

[beanghostprincess]

WOMEN MY BELOVED

Okay but Shanks being SUCH A SIMP is so hilarious and also RIPE FOR CHAOS. She needs a non-fruit user for some of it ((maybe up to and including some seastone experiments)), and Mihawk either can't or Won't ((or, and he refuses to admit it, doesn't exactly want to run the risk of hurting her or Croc if there's Residue)). Now she has the Best Little Guinea Pig Ever.

Shanks never considered himself to have a weird k!nk for unhinged scientist clown women, but hey, Buggy awakens things in him, what can he say?

Also imagine the exchanges there.

B: "so we're gonna take this bomb, and I'm gonna throw it at you. And you're gonna cut it, and see if the explosion causes any damage."

S: "I dunno, Bugs, it could be kinda dangerous-"

B: "if you do, I'll kiss you."

S: "YES MA'AM!!!!"

GODS AND YEAH THE OUTFITS

Personally, I think she'd either be fairly The Same as far as outfits go, for practicality, but she also is friends with Alvida, and she's a Flashy Princess, so OBVIOUSLY there's gonna be some SKIN. And just... imagine for a moment.

A gathering for/of pirates. No I do NOT care that it's not a Canon feasible event. Moving on.

Pirate Gathering. A Dress Code. Formal.

Clown Princess in Princess Dress.

Clown Woman In Any Dress. And HEELS. and if it gets uncomfortable, she just detaches her ankles and floats while her feet rest at their table.

Crocodile and Mihawk get to coordinate with her a lil bit, and they both get to watch her bounce around and just grin bc no matter who she charms or spends time with or Spends Time With (👀), she's still theirs. Open relationships.

Also also - consider Luffy and crew being there. Sanji is SWOONING. Nami is disgusted to be a clown fucker, but she's also Looking. There's bets being plaxed on Who Will Flirt First and one of Who Will Be Most Successful.

Luffy meanwhile is splitting his time between FOOD, FRIENDS, and AUNTIE HI HOW ARE YOU I LOVE YOUR DRESS.

She acts all annoyed and put out but she and Luffy CLICK in a way few ever have, their brands of Unhinged and Feral are complimentary.

((Extra Bonus, maybe it's a gathering for the Emperors. Shanks is there too. He is frothing at the mouth bc AAAAA LUFFY and AAAAA BUGGY and AAAAA LOOK AT THEM TOGETHER.

The only way we include Teach in this is if he's in Dirty Baby Jail, hit on Buggy and got OBLITERATED, or Buggy point blank 'seduces' him to knock him out, steal his treasure, and then locked him in a closet with seastone cuffs and a toothbrush.))

I love seeing an ask starting with "women my beloved". It makes a lesbian's day. Do not stop loving women.

This is all amazing. Thank you. Yes. Absolutely. Shanks would let Buggy do anything to him and he'd thank her and honestly? Understandable. While Mihawk and Crocodile just see their girl do her own stuff with pleased smiles on their faces. If their clown wants to torment people with her silly shenanigans and lethal inventions, who are they to intervene?

And the outfits would kind of be the same, yeah, but she'd definitely want to catch people's attention. Maybe at first she still wears the same things, but after a while of feeling comfortable in her body and with her identity? She has a closet full of clown-themed outfits. Beautiful dresses. She has everything. From classy, more sophisticated dresses to sillier outfits. Everything is provided by Crocodile because now Buggy is some kind of beautiful Barbie he dresses and watches explode things. "This Barbie is a pyromaniac clown" but like, literally.

Sanji and Nami are having a moment™. Leave them alone. It's understandable. Sanji is shameless about it, though, while Nami is questioning her entire persona (that's only like the first five seconds tho). Zoro wants to get out of there and he can't stand them (<- gay gay homosexual gay) but at least he has a chance to talk to Mihawk again so, whatever. And Luffy won't stop annoying Buggy but she secretly loves the kid a ton, and he won't stop telling her to go "boom boom" on stuff together while they catch up and that's something she can't say no to.

Shanks is going through a heart attack, by the way. I heard those AAAAAAAAAAAAs in his voice. He's SO happy to see Luffy. And SO excited to see Buggy like that. And SO thrilled to see them together getting along. He can't get rid of Mihawk and Crocodile who're staring at him menacingly (because yes, they have an open relationship with Buggy but that does not mean Shanks gets to hurt her again. So they try to be careful even when they know he's pretty much her silly toy now to try her new inventions on) but he doesn't really care about it.

[threepoint14art]

Day 6: Fankid.

My children will be happier than I was. My children will be better siblings than we ever were.

surprise! owynn fankids! yay :) Fankids for our ship of owynn x loon x red, AKA what we lovingly title "worlds worst throuple" lmao Their names are Lila and Asiri!

Lila is the brown haired one, she got her animal from red (cicada) and her hair color from loon. Her name is a family tradition thing from red, since Red's guardian is named mauve, color themed! Asiri is the purple haired one, she got her animal from loon (ladybug) and her hair color from Owynn, her name means smile in quechua :)

Their earrings correspond to their blood colors! Lila has a green earring with a little alien since shes interested in those, and Asiri has a yellow sun earring

They both dress in a really simple manner with tshirts or sweatpants, and i think it's a nice way to show that they are comfortable and happy. I make owynn use loose clothes when hes at his worst (hoodies and sweatpants and whatnot) and then over-dress himself when hes compensating (suit and tie, leather jackets, etc), so he never really dresses comfy and feels good about it. These two dressing "lazyly"/ in a simple way and not feeling wrong while playing and being happy is a nice way to showcase how his children are happier than he was, and that he broke the cycle.

On the siblings part of the equation, his girls are really close, they play together and are attached at the hip. Owynn's relationship with his brother is much more strained. They were really close when they were smaller but since vincent was older and also lived in a horrible house, he left once he had the chance and didn't take Owynn with him. Once Vincent was more stable and came back to try and help (repent?) Owynn already hated his fucking guts. The sadness of being left by his big brother was replaced with just raw hatred, how dare he leave? how dare he not live the same way he does? why would he come back? just to rub it in his face that he has actually made a life out of himself while he rotted in the same stupid house? He starts antagonizing him every chance he has, which is laughably easy given the guy is ridden with guilt and depressed. And he wishes he could find it in him to forgive and forget, he wishes he could simply get over him not showing his face when owynn was half fucking mauled to death or in any other of the situations that have happened to him. But he can't, at least not truly. And without the strain of a horrible household, his children will have the bond he wishes they had.

On the subject of their animals: Cicadas are often associated with the act of being reborn or renewed. They represent change and a new begining. A new life now in the sun instead of trapped in the dark and cold underground. ladybugs are said to bring good luck and be "holy", Farmers would pray to Virgin Mary to prevent their crops from being destroyed by pests, and when ladybugs did just that they were titled the bug of the lady or the bug of Mary. Ladybugs are pest control. The reason neither of them are scorpions like Owynn, is because scorpions don't really tend to have any positive connotations (and Owynn himself is acutely aware of that). In the bible they are often associated with a great evil alongside snakes, a simile to wicked people (Ezekiel 2:6), enemies (Luke 10:19), cruelty (Revelation 9:10) and are in some versions present in the locust plague of egypt (despite them not being locusts, but yknow old book and all) Scorpions, even the non lethal ones (like owynn) are nuisance pests. meaning that more than a danger they are just a nuisance. A sore sight for the eyes and a creature that you simply don't like. Because why would you? Even if it can't do serious damage to you it looks monstrous, even if its not deadly it can hurt you and it crawls like vermin. Pests are meant to be erradicated. So them NOT being scorpions is good for owynn's brain because he's kind of insane about being one ^^

And that's it :D bonus of the first ever time i conjured up the designs for those two lol

[angelofchaos001]

Bad slugcat idea ft. my brother's dumbass

Tw: Mention of self-harm

Basically if Sliver made Saint, some other iterator discovered this and they were so anti-sliver they made an entire organism just to fuck over her plans and it's entire campaign is just trying to kill Saint over and over and stop them from doing anything.

Saint is mentally strong but physically a lightweight, this is the opposite because it's beefier than possibly imaginable but dumber than a box of boxes.

Normally a forced carnivore, can't eat plants at all (think Saint but reversed).

10 total, needs 8 and can hold 2 over

Anyway it's abilities are tied to it's karma level like Saint, however, it's not just 'oh stuff at 10' nah you get stuff every level

1 - Mauling (Kinda always have this one)

2 - Spawn with a fixed sluppie at the cycle's beginning. Respawns in the shelter when it dies. Doesn't spawn if your karma goes below 2.

3 - Global reputation boost with all creatures. (+30)

4 - Can now eat plants for full food.

5 - Upon the first lethal hit, instead you give an Arti-like explosion and don't die.

6 - Increased maul damage.

7 - Spawn with two fixed sluppies that respawn and don't spawn if your karma goes below 7.

8 - Even more global reputation. (+50) It can no longer go below 30.

9 - Items can now be mealed for even more food, and you gain an additional two pips to hold over. (12 total, need 8 and can hold 4 over)

10 - The arti explosion now sounds like ascension and instantly kills creatures caught in the blast. Forces a lineage if possible. (Bc funny)

Takes place during Saint, so snow is a thing, and you just keep finding this small green fluffball at various points and try to kill it.

1st time is an echo (Idk which one), entire point is you can't bring items in there with you and there's one spear (Saint's holding it). Goal is to get the spear and hit Saint with it, which is hard because it keeps fleeing. Failing the encounter (after a set time Saint escapes) gives a dream of the scug being angry at both itself and Saint, while succeeding gives a different dream of them standing triumphantly over the body.

2nd time is at Pebbles, after Saint hit karma 10. Fight is more of a climb to the top, where you're chasing Saint upwards as they try to ascend you and keep running. When you reach the top, Saint has nowhere to go (and runs out of ascension juice), any kind of damage over 1 triggers the end of the fight. You cannot leave until you do something, but the cycle still progresses.

3rd time is in Rubicon (yep we're doing this again), actually in the Void Sea when Saint is going to ascend the worm. It's more of an actual fight with attacks, dodging, dealing with both water physics sometimes and normal ground other times, phases, etc (my brother doesn't care this is lore contradictory, we're making a stupid scug here. he likes to fight if you couldn't tell). Only way to do damage is by mauling saint, which you need to do 3 times to end the fight.

Upon the third maul, and a slight pause, a loud ascension sound plays reminiscent of a death as this slugcat. Both Saint and you glow yellow before the game fades to the ending sequence.

Said ending sequence is images of you grabbing Saint for the last maul, before realizing you can royally screw both of you over. Non descriptively the slugcat injuries itself, provoking the volatile nature in it to cause the ascension boom, ascending both of you. (You become dissolved, Saint ascends). Then the void worm stares into the empty void, not caring where the fighting sluggies went.

Menu screen after the campaign would just show both this one and Saint in two different areas, resting as they're both just reset to the beginning all over again.

[alicelufenia]

would you recommend pursuing a minthara romance with her current state?

and follow-up questions—can a resisting durge still work with minthara? will she hate us? do you have to go all or nothing?

Despite every Minthara fan's protestations she is literally the most stable and accessible ever right now.

Her romance dialogue works, as little as it is (you "only" need external tools to access one set of dialogue, whereas before it was two or more, but even then it wasn't a big deal). Her kisses from patch 6 are 🔥🔥FIRE🔥🔥 and have a chance to trigger an easter egg dialogue where you feel strange after one of your kisses. Pretty sure that's unique to her, so that's cool.

Knocking her out in a "side with the Grove" run is as simple as using non-lethal damage on the last blow. She has banter with and comments on every other companion (except Halsin; they used to be mutually exclusive so they'll just ignore each other. Honestly preferable to them remaining exclusive)

As usual the most reliable way to recruit her is still to side with the goblins which is not everyone's cup of tea. If you can though, it is EASILY the best experience; her act 1 romance is incredible and ties in beautifully with her recruitment in act 2 (hint: enter her mind rather than fighting the guards first)

It's also recommended cause she still doesn't have an act 3 romance scene. The quest to retrieve Orin's Netherstone effectively becomes her companion quest, which is okay. Romancing her without her act 1 scene is still totally possible, get ready to say and do some questionable things (not too bad tho: my Tav is Oath of Devotion and I have 89 approval in act 3 without breaking my oath)

Resisting Durge CAN still romance Minthara, they have an epilogue scene together and everything. Telling her you intend to resist will earn you a warning that she'll end the relationship, but nothing happens if you do. The only thing that will end your relationship is cheating on her. On the upside, that means lots of reactions to everything you can do by end game.

Hotfix 21 added dialogue where she claims to break up with Redeemed Durge after rejecting Bhaal, then hotfix 22 removed it (it didn't actually end the relationship so Larian only knows why) Minthara fans have STRONG opinions one way or the other as to whether this addition/removal was good or bad (my opinion is that no reaction is less satisfying than SOME reaction, but especially with Larian's announcement that they will end creating new content for bg3 soon, we can't realistically expect anything more here either way)

Bottom line: you can romance her in any playthrough, you just need the approval. She has by far the least romance content out of all the companions except maybe Halsin, but if you enjoy her dialogue and like to headcanon-fill in the blanks you will still have a good time (I certainly have!)

Every Origin character has special lines and epilogues with her too. Fan favorites seem to be Karlach and Gale (don't know anything about the others personally)

Thanks for your question, hope that helped!

[ravenekrops]

Tell me about Donovan I hear he's a dead guy and I wanna know more!

OK SO i don't have much like, actual plot to his story since he's a "minor" OC of mine but i do think there's potential for a good story about him! >:3

Gerard de Vos was a dutch sailor that turned to piracy in the 18th century around the end of the Golden Age of Piracy, eventually getting captured and sentenced to be hanged for his crimes. the previous night to his execution, as he was locked in his cell, desperate as he was, instead of praying to whatever god a normal person might've believed in, he called upon a "demon" (TL;DR aliens from other dimensions that have wacky powers that don't follow Earth's rules) and asked it for immortality. of course, immortality doesn't exist (citation needed), so instead the "demon" traded his soul for an eternal flame. and the time for his execution arrived. Gerard de Vos died, hanged in public for the crime of piracy. that is what the records say. what they don't mention is that the next day, the body of the pirate was missing, the rope he was hung from burnt on its end. that day, Donovan Byrne was born

his body was dead, but his new soul kept it alive and running. this meant he was immune to most physical harm. he could get stabbed, shot, cut, it didn't matter. he simply did not die. and so he pirated, pilfered, robbed, assaulted, murdered and commited heinous crimes to the whims of his non-beating heart's content, for years and years to pass... ghost stories would be written about Donovan the Undying, the pirate that couldn't be killed, the pirate that would haunt the seas

but history moved on and piracy stopped being a thing, although that didn't stop him from continuing his crime spree. he adapted, changed with the times and became more accustomed to the new ages. he kept his unlawful activities for a very, very long time. but everything loses its shine as it ages, and boredom started to grow inside him. with no risk it also came no thrill, and with no thrill there was no fun to be had. he started slowing down. aimlessly wandering from place to place instead of eagerly looking for his next hit. he's done almost everything life has to offer him, after all. he didn't need to sleep anymore, but sometimes he'd find a place to stay and simply lay down, not sleeping, but moreso in a sort of comatose state, letting as much time pass as he could bear. he was bored, tired. immortality wasn't so fun anymore

he attempted to take his own life several times to no avail. he'd always end up waking up somewhere else in one piece, his body impervious to lethal damage. you can't die if you're already clinically dead, after all. and turns out that having something that's not a soul where your soul should be ends up giving problems. with time, this hellflame started to become unstable, and its contact with Donovan's body started to faulter, which in turn caused him a series of troubles. sometimes his soul wasn't able to reach his body properly, causing him to die during variable periods of time, from minutes to days or weeks. sometimes his soul would overflow its physical container with its energy, detonating a fiery magic explosion around him, destroying whatever was close with ice-cold flames. his body was starting to crack under all that energy flowing in him, and it wouldn't be long until something really bad happened if he didn't do something about it

soo that's more or less where he currently is. since he's in my modern monster world, that means he's still alive at least in the 90s, so he hasn't nuked a continent yet hhhhh. but! he is looking for a way to safely kill himself. he doesn't really know that waiting for the soul to burst out of his body would be a cataclismic event, but he's smart enough to know it'd be bad, not only to the millions of people that would die, but because he's not sure what'd happen to him afterwards, so he prefers looking for the safest way out. the only problem is that he's spent the last century or so doing basically nothing, so he's uh, very out of date regarding, well, EVERYTHING, but mostly technological advances. lots to catch up on

now for the more technical details about his undeadness! because i know you like those ehehe. i did do some very barebones research about decomposition for this. his "soul" provides energy for almost all his bodily functions: that means he doesn't need to eat, his blood doesn't flow, he doesn't need to breathe, the standard undead stuff. he does need to hydrate though (otherwise he'd end up like a raisin), so the only thing he ingests is water. eating food will end up with the food rotting inside his stomach because his digestive system stopped functioning ages ago. he also has certain-- i'm not gonna say regeneration bc it's not THAT extreme; it's more like sped-up natural healing process powered by his soul, where his wounds, no matter how severe they are, will eventually close. arm cut off? hold it in place for a few days and tada! reattached. they do leave scars tho. and i'm not sure what'd happen if you cut his head off, so let's not do that maybe hahah. the thing about having a dead body running around against its will is that it will try to die. sure, being fed with energy and constantly moving around keeps it from decaying, but only to a certain extent. as centuries pass and Donovan starts being less active thus lessening the amount of energy he uses from his soul, his body starts doing normal corpse things like starting to decompose. it doesn't get to rotting levels, but the "i'm supposed to be dead" signs start to show. his senses start decaying, his body temperature averages to room temperature, his skin gets really pale, his movements become sluggish and his brain starts malfunctioning too, which leads to memory losses among other things

i've only got two scenarios written about him. one is about how he meets this girl who works night shifts on a gas station on the outskirts of a city, saving her from a poorly attempted armed robbery in which it's revealed that he is in fact, undead. after the initial shock has worn down, the girl is actually pretty chill about it, and they end up becoming friends, her also helping him with learning about modern times. eventually, she'll also help him find someone who can euthanise him safely, even if that means dealing with iffy individuals and questionable and very possibly illegal supernatural research groups

the other scenario is about how he "dies" during a walk through a park and is discovered by a random civilian walking their dog a few days later. after calling emergency services and getting absolutely no identification from him (they found a very antique powder gun on him tho, strange), his body ends up in the nearby town's morgue, ready to get an autopsy and see if there's anything that could hint at this man's identity. the doctor (mortician?) who's assigned to examine him stays late to get it done as soon as possible, so he starts opening him up and taking a look inside. a very bad time for Donovan to regain consciousness. he almost gives the doctor a heart attack when he suddenly grabs him by the labcoat and very angrily asks him what the HELL does he think he's doing, spilling his guts like that. after the initial shock has worn down and a few words have been exchanged, Don convinces him that no, he's not gonna kill him, he just wants to leave and be left alone. the doctor hesitantly agrees to help him, and then shenanigans ensue

andddd that's all the Donovan lore i currently have! i hope this was an interesting enough read hjfdkhgjfdksgjfdk, i'm not very confident on my worldbuilding skills yet. if i said something that wouldn't make sense or you have questions about how certain things would work, ANY of you can feel free to mention it! maybe i can apply a bit more realism to the story, or maybe i'll just go "a wizard did it" and call it a day! who knows! but i'm always up to recieving feedback and/or ideas i could incorporate to my stories and magic systems :] i love making shit up it's so fun teehee ^·^

Spooky Askbox is open! asking about my OCs is very much encouraged!

[keezybees]

Hi! I follow you across social media and I really love your art and am super looking forward to reading Hello Sunshine! I wanted to reach out because I'm also Bipolar and I really appreciate the work you do to spread awareness about it but there's something that I find kind of harmful in how you talk about it, and it's just the insistance that it absolutely can't be treated through non-medical means. I fully understand that meds are life-saving and that depending on the severity of symptoms, length, and frequency of episodes, going without medication can be lethal. However, as someone with Bipolar I but controlled symptoms (and frankly symptoms that seem a lot less disruptive than yours, I'm sorry), hearing that there's no path forward without medication would easily have triggered suicidal thoughts when I was younger. There are a lot of reasons why people can't be medicated (for me it was a combination of family control and financial struggle), but hearing at your lowest that there's no way forward without something that you can't have is really damaging. I think it's totally possible to stress the importance of medical access and the need to work with your medical provider without erasing the ways that non-medical treatments can also be life-saving, depending on a person's situation/symptoms/etc and that some people can live full lives even if their symptoms aren't fully controlled. Anyway, I love your work and I just wanted to raise this alternate perspective because I think you're helping a lot of people, but I also think a lot of people can be harmed by this rhetoric, especially marginalized people who can't seek medication for any number of factors beyond their control.

Hi Anon! I totally hear what you're saying, and so I just wanted to run through a few things to clarify my stance, both for you and for others who might be reading this (omg I am SO sorry this is so long though haha):

I do emphasize treatment a lot, because I think it's really important for people to work with professionals to find ways to manage their illness. This is partly due to my own experience (I avoided treatment for a looong time) and anecdotally, but also because the research we have is pretty clear--untreated bipolar has much, much worse outcomes for a vast majority of people. However! When I say treatment, I don't necessarily mean medication, and certainly not only medication! I absolutely think some people (though it is sadly rare) can find ways of managing their illness medication-free. I just feel that it's best to do this work with the help of professionals + peers (whether that's a psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist, social worker, support group, etc) who can help you find your way, and help you manage symptoms that do crop up (this is especially true if you're currently on medication and choosing to go off of it, since that can come with physical risks). I could definitely stand to make this distinction a lot clearer though, and I'll try to be more mindful of it in the future.

I also can definitely see how my words could imply that I think non-medication ways of treating bipolar aren't valuable, and I'll work on my phrasing going forward, because they absolutely are! My aim is not to dismiss stuff like self-help or lifestyle changes or meditation or exercise, because I think they're great--for example, that kind of stuff has helped a ton with my anxiety and overall quality of life, and I know for a lot of people they help with their bipolar symptoms. But for me, these things simply don't have much of an impact on the bipolar, and our culture's emphasis on them frustrates me because it prevented me from getting proper care for a very long time, and made me feel like a failure for not being able to control my symptoms despite working so hard. So I'll also try to be more clear in the future about whether I'm venting about my own situation vs speaking broadly.

I also definitely hope I've never said anything that implies that our symptoms are inevitably life-ruining! My symptoms aren't completely controlled (particularly my lows), either, and I like to think I live a pretty good life. I think for many people un-treated bipolar can be life-ruining, and I've just heard too many stories about people who thought they could manage on their own only to have an absolutely devastating manic episode to not warn people of the risk. But most of us will continue to experience some degree of symptoms throughout our lives, absolutely.

I totally understand why someone would want to go med-free, or at least try it, and I in no way think the medications we have now are flawless haha. Side effects are awful, life-changing, and can even be life-threatening (I've had some horrible experiences with side effects myself); the meds we have now aren't very effective against depressive episodes for a lot of people (myself included), and for some people they're not effective at all; meds for most people don't completely eradicate symptoms, etc. I'm fully on board with the med struggle, and I honestly spend a lot of time criticizing the options available to us, though less so publicly, since I don't want to further stigmatize the idea of taking psych meds in general!

One of the reasons I emphasize medication (when I do emphasize meds, specifically) is because when I was younger, I was terrified of even the idea of them. I avoided it for years and really, really suffered because of it. I think our culture does in general look down on psych meds, particularly the kind we usually take, so I'm trying to destigmatize the concept of them, and emphasize for people with similar fears that taking meds can be just as life-saving and healing as they are harmful and frustrating, and that it's at least worth trying.

I'm a YA cartoonist (and former teacher, barista at a youth coffeehouse, tutor, I worked for a kids' gaming website...actually all of my jobs apart from dishwashing have involved kids, now that I think of it lmao), so a lot of the time when I'm talking about this stuff on social media, my target audience is sort of...very young people and kids who think they have bipolar (or may have even been diagnosed) but are afraid to seek help and/or don't think they need help and/or don't think help is going to actually help. So my goal is to demystify and normalize the idea of taking meds and/or seeking treatment for those people, and to emphasize that just because they're able to manage their illness now, that might change in the future, and imo they need to be aware of the very real risks, which includes things like an incredibly high suicide rate for unmedicated individuals, and the reality that the illness can be progressive (episodes can get worse and harder to treat the more you have them--they certainly did for me, and I wish I had been more open to the idea much earlier).

On a similar note, it's also important to recognize that a lot of things can look like bipolar, and a lot of people don't really know what bipolar actually looks like to begin with (particularly if you're getting your info from tiktok or similar). So if you've self-diagnosed and never explored treatment options (emphasis on options!) you can easily be missing stuff like thyroid issues, epilepsy, brain tumors, vitamin deficiencies, or a myriad of other treatable mental illnesses that mimic bipolar, and I strongly believe that people deserve care and help for whatever they're struggling with, including the possibility that it isn't bipolar at all!

Finally, I truly hope I've never said anything that comes off like I'm looking down on or judging people who choose to not be medicated for whatever reason! If it works for you then that's phenomenal (I'm jealous tbh) but it's honestly none of my business haha. When I talk about this stuff I do try to stress most people, because we're of course not a monolith, and when I say something like 'a majority of people with bipolar will need some form of medication to flourish' I don't mean to dismiss those who aren't in that majority. It's more that I want people to be open to the idea that they're not failures for needing meds, that they're actually in very good company, as well as to combat the 'just meditate! or try harder!' narrative that's so prevalent in our culture.

Edit: one last thought, which is that part of my target audience is also parents or guardians whose kids might be struggling--kids are obviously the group with the least access to treatment on their own terms. My hope is that talking about my experiences and discussing the risks will help motivate guardians to get help for their kids, and also help motivate kids to seek their own treatment as soon as they're able. Most people develop bipolar in their late teens and early 20s (though my first hypomanic ep was at 16), so it's a relatively small percentage of folks in this situation, but I do see how a kid whose parents aren't willing to help them could take my words badly, so I'll try to keep that in mind!

I'm definitely going to be more careful about how I phrase things going forward, because I can absolutely see how my intent could be lost. Hopefully this clears things up a bit (although it's also possible that we simply disagree, and I think that's okay too--like I said, our community is not a monolith, and a lot of these conversations are fundamentally ongoing)!

tldr; I'll make an effort to watch my words so that it's clear that my target audience really isn't my bipolar peers, and that the target of my criticisms is anti-medication wellness culture + psych med stigma, not the concept of non-medication alternatives or additions in general. And I'll try to do a better job of highlighting when I'm speaking only for myself vs our community as a whole!

[shenanigans-and-imagines]

Evie (Ace!Tav) Playthrough Day 3(?)

Day 1... Day 2 - Day 4

Astarion x Evie (Ace!Tav) Masterlist

For the uninitiated, I wrote a Tav well before I ever had a chance to play the game. Now, I finally can and thought it might be fun for my first play through to be as that Tav. Or, at least as much as the game play will allow me.

These are just some of my notes and scattered highlights that I thought would be fun to share.

Let me know if you think if I should continue this and any suggestions you might have.

This actually is more Day 3/4 since I did go back and redo some stuff I wasn't keen on; yes, I've discovered the power of quick saves!

Guys I'm going to romance Gale so fast and I don't think I can hurt this man

Got the "go to hell" dialogue with him; stood in front of the goblin so he's told me at least some of his deep dark secret; basically in the green on approval

I'm not sure if I'm strong enough to reject him guys

Obviously I'll keep playing and see how it goes, but I told myself this would be an Astarion play through

Of course, it does align with my thoughts about Gale having feelings for Evie at the start, so it might all work out

Giving me a lot more ideas about slow burn Astarion and Evie stuff in act 1

Going forward from that Wyll is now in the squad!

He's so perfect and soft with the kids

Definitely more distant at the start in terms of putting on the Blade of Frontiers mask, which I actually really like for future development

Switched out some stuff and guys "Speak with Animals" for the extra animal dialogue is so worth it; I love being a bard

Volo has also been underplayed in how funny he is: I'm now picturing Evie being unsure whether to be annoyed or amused by him every time they meet

She's definitely met his type before; they have very different approaches to the role of the bard in society

Got a lot of quests and God I never wanted to slap a bitch as hard as with Kagha

The fact I can't punch her in the nose without sparking all the druids to turn on the tieflings really does hurt my soul

Evie's nails are digging into her palms the whole time

On that note, the fact you can kill Netti without consequences is objectively funny to me

I rejected even taking the poison because Evie wants to live, she's not just going to take her life

Was not expecting Netti to fight, but needless to say four against one isn't much of a fight

We walked out of there and nobody has said a thing

Also shocked that choice doesn't get Astarion's approval; I thought for sure it would

Actually that's a question I have to the internet: can you do non-leathal damage? There are some things I'd like Evie to try to steal and don't necessarily want to do lethal damage

Found the back underground passage, but turned around because I knew I would get distracted and I wanted to find Karlach

Went out of the grove, found some of the Absolute followers

Astarion not happy with Evie saying we can't trust the power the tadpoles give us

They're really not starting off on the right foot

Now debating going forward with the guy squad or going back to camp, picking up the ladies and either go back to the underground cavern or continue to search for Karlach

Suggestions at this time are welcome

[lilyblackdrawside]

The spellcard contract was established to allow youkai to show off their power and skills without causing too much damage. As such, the weapon to be used in battles under this contract is danmaku, which is designed to be non-lethal. It can damage and hurt you, evident by the post-battle portraits, but it won't kill.

Unless you're a fairy. or Mokou.

Yeah Mokou fucking dies.

Each time you clear one of her spellcards, she explodes as if you had won the battle and performs Resurection (sic) to resume the fight. Let's not worry about the details as to whether or not she actually immediately loses the battle after you clear her first spellcard and kill her and instead think about the themes of this.

For one, it's really funny. She's the frailest non-generic-fairy being that's ever been observed fighting a danmaku battle. Patchouli is sturdier than Mokou.

But it makes sense too. Mokou is immortal, so why care about defense. Just attack, attack, attack and if you die you just revive. She does still feel the pain, but at the point where the only regular danmaku battle is fought against her - Imperishable Night - she is at her absolute lowest. She (thinks she) doesn't have anyone or anything except her deep-seated hatred for Kaguya. She just lives in her run-down shack in the bamboo forest and wastes away, mentally. She can't waste away physically after all.

Like, yeah, if I was a resurrection-based immortal with a narrow-sighted view of the world that only lets me see endless attempts at vengenace, I'd also just fucking die.

Many will probably think of Mokou's self-damaging attacks that she uses in later games, especially the fighters, but in IN she doesn't really do that. She doesn't have any moves where she really goes that aggressive, she just shoots danmaku like anyone else. There aren't any aggressive charges like "Regretful Life - Immortality's Reckless Sacrifice" so it's not like she's "doing anything" with her immortality. She just doesn't give enough of a shit to stay alive. But then later on, she does start giving a shit. She realizes that she does have someone who cares about her (Keine) and gets out more, finds reasons to live other than killing Kaguya so instead of just fucking dying, she makes use of her endless life force to express herself. (by killing herself to kill you)

Thus, I find that only one fangame I've played that features Mokou really "got her right".

Most games have her as a kind of tanky bruiser with high hp, low to middling defenses, probably some kind of hp regeneration. TPDP comes to mind for high hp, low def which works to evoke the image of "you have to input a lot of damage to kill her but she's easy to attack", Labyrinth of Touhou does pretty much the same thing where in 1 she's just really bad struggles to do meaningful damage because of mixed-stat attacks and can't tank well either and in 2 she has a revive, health regen and conditional damage reduction and in Genius of Sappheiros she's one of your dedicated tanks, wearing heavy armor, having high health, being bad at dodging and having the ability to randomly revive at the start of your turn. At 1 hp. She can also do some really nice damage in the lategame.

And then there's Gensou Shoujo Taisen where she has the same body as Reimu but with slightly higher health. She's the same size (M), has the same base mobility (120) and armor (800), leaving her okay at dodging and extremely frail. She will die in two hits. She also has baseline 20% hp regen per turn and a variable number of revives that revive her at low hp (relevant) and give her +5 to all stats (stats =/= body). She also has Level 7/9 Berserk and Instinct Dodge, meaning she gets increasing damage reduction and crit (Berserk) and accuracy and dodge (Instinct Dodge) as her health drops.

This isn't practical, because she'll die in two hits. Initially, anyway. Having her revives already makes her excellent on offense against lategame bosses, because you can just throw her at them and let her die without worry. It's very convenient. Not useful on defense, cause if she dies she can't counter-attack, but it works out.

However, you can invest in her in several ways. Her mobility is good enough to make her meaningfully dodgy. It is the same as Reimu's after all. Her Evasion stat is lower than Reimu's, but that's pretty whatever. Stats don't matter that much in these games, Evasion and Accuracy in particular because you'll just cheat them anyway. So with that you'll wind up with a frail unit who's good at dodging and has fail-saves in the form of revives. Pretty cool, pretty cool. Not getting much out of those innate Berserk and Instinct Dodge skills though.

Other than that, you can also just build her as a tank. Yes, her defensive bases are ass, there's no other way to put it, but she has alright hp (Reimu's hp is ass and Mokou's is just a bit higher) and hp regen. You can outfit her with equipment that raises hp and defense and give her other defensive skills that mostly come in in Ei, but PP skills get reset between You and Ei anyway so that's fine. Now you have a decently tanky Mokou that gets really tanky at low health. If you max out Berserk, the effect is pretty insane. There are bosses that become borderline unkillable if you put them at too low hp% instead of nuking them with a big attack from a higher value. This is pretty good.

However, what I consider to be the best build for her (and for a number of units in general, basically anyone who has hp regen can do it) is a mixed grazing-build. For this you just pick up the Streaming skill that reduces the damage you take from grazed attacks. Grazing is a system unique to GST where you can have any unit enter Focus Mode to gain +10% accuracy, change movement range from their unfocused range to their focused range (these stats are unique to each unit) and ignore the basic effects of danmaku (danmaku is laid out by most enemies and will make you take more damage and reduce your evasion. These penalties are negated by being in focus mode). In focus mode, you also can't dodge anymore. If you successfully dodge an attack in focus mode, you will take damage based on your dodge chance. So if you have 50% dodge chance you either take the hit normally, or you graze it for half damage. This sounds pretty bad, but when your options are being in focus mode to maybe graze for half damage or not being in focus mode, thus having 0% dodge chance and taking +150% damage due to danmaku, you'll gladly go focus mode.

The Streaming skill at level 2 cuts graze damage in half, so in the 50% dodge chance example, the final damage will be 25%.

This pairs really well with the Instinct Dodge and Berserk skills, because Instinct Dodge will ramp up your evasion and Berserk reduces the damage you take as your hp declines, both of which reduces damage from grazed attacks. In focus mode, your hp goes down much more steadily than outside of it, because you're not gambling low-odds dodges while in three layers of danmaku, you're letting yourself take chip damage and gradually grow stronger. Of course, unless Instinct Dodge winds up getting you to 100% dodge chance, you keep taking chip damage until you die but that's where that health regen comes in. It'll keep you in an equilibrium, where enemies keep lowering your health until due to Berserk and Instinct Dodge, they can't deal more than 10% or 20% of your health per turn, whatever amount of regen you may have. (It'll be 10% usually, 20% is uncommon and you have to work for 30%) It's a really nice build, because it also makes all of her attacks pretty much guaranteed to hit between the +10% from Focus Mode and the Instinct Dodge bonus.

The only caveat is that Mokou's base Focus Movement Range is 2. That's the lowest baseline you'll see. It's not unsalvageable, but it does sting a bit. You can just pair her off with someone who has accel or a fast mover who can frontline her into the fray, so it's usually fine. There's a generic PP skill that gives +1 Focus Move and later on there's even gear for it, but Mokou only has two slots and usually wants other stuff to supplement her bad body.

Play Gensou Shoujo Taisen. It's like, the best fangame.

Also play Touhou. The regular games. They're good. Do it. Play on easy mode, there's no shame in it. Danmaku is a hostile genre that wants to break you down.

[klysanderelias]

(part one here!)

Today's installment will be all about my absolute babygirl of the Beam Saber game, Briar Finlay. She's the character I've spent the most time thinking about, the one with the most characterization and planning, and the one that probably no one will actually interact with 😭

First we have a piece from @anaizzzen-ut, a stellar artist who did amazing work with this one.

Briar is the leader of the shipboard security forces, and the whole idea of her character is how much that job sucks when you have teams of mech pilots. She's a footsoldier with an EVA suit and a non-penetrative gun in space, where she's the last line of defense for the ship and also the line of defense most likely to die messy, painfully, and slowly. In a couple of these commissions, she's wearing a rebreather mask - in a boarding action long before the campaign starts, a fire started and her suit was breached by the fighting. Due to smoke inhalation, but more importantly the toxic chemicals released by sensitive electrical components and complicated sci-fi materials burning, she suffered extensive damage to her lungs. Luckily there's a certain amount of sufficiently-advanced-equals-magic medical technology, so she survived, but she still needs supplemental oxygen regularly and fights with a full life-support system in her armor to keep her from suffocating, having seizures, etc. I love the smoking aesthetic but in absolute reverse using medical oxygen.

Another gorgeous piece by @nanariemi - the colors in this one are just spectacular.

Briar is such a fun character to rotate in my head because there's so much strong characterization that comes so naturally out of her concept as a combat character who is completely helpless 90% of the time. She can't do anything to protect the ship from other ships, and there's basically nothing she can do about enemy mechs. And of course, there's the issue of survivability - a mech pilot can have their mech melt down around them or explode in a fiery cascade but still eject and make it back home without a single injury. I'm so compelled by having a ttrpg campaign where all the players are mech pilots, and they're having to deal with this angry, rude asshole who has an extremely valid point - they don't have the same skin in the game she does, but they're the vaunted heroes and she's in the trenches. And I think a lot of good mech fiction makes that distinction - making comparisons between the gods of the battlefield and the little people underfoot, but also challenging those roles. Mech pilots literally CAN'T do the job she does. All that armor and missile pods and whatnot aren't going to keep all the people on the bridge from being shot by a normal-sized guy with a gun.

And here's another piece by @dhurain, of Briar in a quiet moment,

I think ideally I'd like to have an arc for Briar where she grows to respect and care for the PCs, while they open up to her and show her respect as well. I think it would be such a good roleplaying experience and a great narrative to have the characters have to rely on each other and see each others' strengths when the first interaction would be something like her disdainfully calling them 'toy soldiers' or something in passing in the hallway. And I think Beam Saber has enough interplay between the in-robot and out-of-robot gameplay that you could have scenes where the pilots are out of their mechs and having to fight alongside her, or where she's providing some sort of ground support for one of their missions and suddenly the lethality of mech combat to everyone not in a mech comes to the forefront.

There's another commission of her I have in the works right now that I won't post the WIP for but trust me, I'll be blasting that thing around once it's done because it looks great so far.

Anyway I'm love her your honor, she's my babygirl and I'm trying to spread out the commissions so it's not just ten of her and one of everyone else. And I'm doing okay! I only have... four... so far...

Finally, another cute thank you sketch from @dhurain!

[inferidrowned]

⬐[rp starter for @abitmoody]⬏ ━━━━━∙⋆⋅⋆∙━━━━━

regulus wouldn't have answered the first letter at all if he had known it was for an official ministry case. when an old yearmate wrote to him about an unknown curse, he'd been initially excited. the effects are utterly gruesome, but non-lethal, apparently - and recent enough that they've yet to discern if there's any way to undo the limb damage. it's terribly exciting, a puzzle he eagerly writes back for, uncovering every extra piece he can through his classmate's limited knowledge to try to figure out the larger image.

she eventually admitted that this was for an ongoing ministry case, and the aurors were stumped, and the victims weren't significant enough (apparently) to warrant negotiating for a second gringotts curse-breaker after the first had failed to tell them anything. and it was so terribly convenient that she'd gone to school with a rumoured expert on these matters! regulus does not care for the ministry, and certainly not for aurors. he'd rather eat his cane than do them any sort of favour.

... but he's interested now. regulus can't just let the matter slip past, or let an interesting new bit of dark magic slide from his grasp. not even for the ministry. it could be brand new, or ancient, and regulus can't just ignore it. he'd think he was snared by a cunning plot, if his old yearmate hadn't been a hufflepuff.

so he sends back his terms (lower pay than an official cursebreaker, but he gets full credit for any counter-curses he comes up with and the legal rights aurors carry to break spellcasting regulation during investigations, because he cares about that more than stuffing even more gold into the family vaults). he's expecting to be turned down ... and instead, he's simply told he'll be assigned an auror to accompany and monitor him during his own investigation, and when to arrive.

and so he does, feeling more apprehensive than ever about the mark on his arm, or the ugly scars crossing his face. he dresses well but not too well and arrives twenty minutes early, leaning against a desk in an empty office and reading through his own notes.

he only looks up when the door swings open again, and his pale face goes even paler. he'd been expecting some younger auror, useless enough to be spared for babysitting, not -

"auror moody," he greets in a soft, flat voice, perfectly level and calm. "it's a pleasure to meet you."