#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.

[mellowtrashtrash]

FNaF World: Sister Location and Pizzeria Simulator finished!

Hey folks! I've had more characters in the works for a while now, and I've finally almost finished this row! Are you excited? I know I am! Let's get into it!

First, I elected to finish off the Sister Location animatronics, with the rambunctious scamps themselves...

The Bidybabs!

With all the wound-up energy of a pair of british schoolchildren, the Bidybabs are a welcome addition to the cast! These were a fun set of characters to make, and like last time, gave me a lot more practice animating multiple characters in one! In terms of animation, I endeavored to express the energy of a couple of silly kids roughhousing. This hurt animation features some walking, and while it is unusual, it was ultimately necessary for encapsulating the wobbliness of their stack. Like with the Minireenas, it was a tough decision whether or not to do an individual or a duo, but I knew it was going to be necessary for them to be a group in order to keep them distinct from the next character...

Electrobab!

This kid scares me. Someone find this kid a hobby. Preferably something non-conductive.

The neglected weird kid of the Sister Location Custom Night group, this overcharged infant is packed full of likely lethal electrical powers can put any pitiable poltergeist in this franchise to shame! Jumpscares? Hallucinations? Possession? That all pales in comparison to Electrobab's capacity for emitting immensely powerful controlled shocks! I guess it learned from how it was raised.

Now that we've finished off Sister Location's cast of oddballs, let's finish off the strange folks from Pizzeria Simulator! First up we have our unforgettable bowl of overcooked ramen...

Molten Freddy!

This noodly feller was quite a bit of fun to make. Rigging up all the wires was tough, but in the end I achieved exactly effect I was going for. And it's just plain fun to watch him go! For the main body, I was going to use a set of rigid bones to make it bend, but after some testing it didn't look very good. Too robotic, not silly enough. That was when I remembered the stretchy bone I'd used for Phone Guy's cord. I gave it a shot, and the resulting stretchy bouncy effect was just what he needed! The hurt animation is a little brutal-looking, but he'll probably be fine. These guys have been murdalized and melted down how many times now? They're troupers, they'll go through a thousand new marketable forms before they're finished!

Since everybody loved one bear so much, how about another Heeeere's...

Lefty!

The surprise puppet-trap himself! Lefty was a fairly simple one, as the character is largely a recolor of Rockstar Freddy. Nonetheless, I tried to give Lefty a distinct personality from Rockstar Freddy as best as I could. The animation direction for this character was very unnatural, disjointed, and jerky; like a dancing beartrap (or puppet-trap, hee-hee). In his hurt animation you can see the Puppet's eyes inside his detached jaw, dizzy from being spun around and stretched. I would be too.

I do not envy Charlie's situation, being stuck inside a robotic bear and forced to burn to death. Oh well, at least the darkest pit of hell is ready to swallow her greatest enemy whole— oh, he got out again? Why do we keep using fire?

Oh well, guess we've got...

Scraptrap!

Designing a cutesy version of this character is a tall, tall order. I did my best, and I think in the end it captures his design pretty well while remaining pretty simplified all-around. It's a little more stylized than I usually like to do, but I can't tell if that's on my part or if that was inherent to the character. He's not the most stylistically consistent of Scott's designs, even in his original FFPS appearance. In terms of animation direction, I decided to animate him like a bit of a cartoon villain. Exaggerated hunched posture, unbridled aggression when attacking, and shocked frustration upon being damaged. Fun animation tidbit, the skull inside his helmet moves its jaw with his. Look closely at his mouth and you can see it. Pretty spooky! Here's a behind the scenes look at his skull. Yikes!

That about does it for the scrap animatronics, though I've got another cooking up for next time, just you wait and see...

To finish us off, here's a remake of my Yenndo hurt animation! I decided the last was too generic!

Thanks for tuning in as always! I hope to bring you some more neat stuff soon! I'll catch you on the flipside!

[kedreeva]

Super curious, what do you mean by genetic deterioration? Why does that happen if in theory you are breeding with the same genetics? What makes generation 9 different from generation 15? How do you or the people to initially discovered it know when that to outbreed? Are they more likely to be ill/have physical issues after so many generations?

"deterioration" is a bit of a misnomer or maybe just not meant the way you're probably thinking. It's less that dna is "breaking down" (it's not. Well it's probably not, but we're not talking about cloning species), and more "diversity is deteriorating."

The thing is, there's no way to know for sure you've removed EVERY "bad" gene, and some bad effects are either mild enough not to be a problem in an otherwise healthy bird, or only a problem if there's not enough or the right other genes to prevent it from being a problem. And without removing all of them, eventually the population of inbred animals will lose enough genetic diversity that genetic drift can cause a deleterious gene with a weaker phenotype (ie, a non-lethal phenotype but still not a good one) to become fixed in a population with no (or so little as to virtually be no) diversity left to breed away from it, and while 1 things might not be a problem, if it's compounded with other things, it can be. The length of time this kind of thing takes can vary. Maybe you won't catch it until generation 15 or 100. Or, maybe you'll get lucky and happen into a perfect line with no bad genetic variations left- and then random mutation will get your ass and you still don't have enough genetic variety left to fix it. Or, enough homozygousity in things you may not necessarily see in the phenotype outright can start to cause a loss of fertility you can't really get back in a home breeding operation- partly because you generally can't know which gene is the problem or can't know which animals have it and which don't until it's a problem, which is made worse by the smaller and smaller groups of offspring to choose from, and the continuance of genetic drift.

So, yeah, if you had a 100% perfectly healthy bloodline with NO deleterious genes at all AND that line never ever had a deleterious de novo mutation pop up (and no DNA damage occurred in gametes or anything) in theory you could inbreed forever without a problem. But in practice, no one has that line. There's always something, and it WILL eventually rear its head, it's just a matter of how long you can maintain some/enough diversity to avoid it, if it's not obvious enough to cull out at the start or self limiting enough to kill off any carriers.

As for how you tell when to outcross- it's kind of subjective. When you notice less vigor, health problems that seem persistent, fertility problems, growth problems, etc, it's probably time for an outcross if you have been breeding a line to itself for a while. There's not a set "when" and it would vary hugely between species. When you talk to some more practical rodent breeders, they'll say you can go 100+ generations with a healthy line of mice. A horse breeder would perish at the thought of that for a horse because they're already having to do genetic tests to check that they're not doubling up on Shit That Will Kill Or Maim Offspring because there is no healthy line. Quail tolerate inbreeding more than horses. Probably worse than mice there are research mice from lines that have been going longer than I've been alive and they're fine despite being genetically identical. Generation 9 isn't different from 15 unless there's a de novo mutation, which they probably cull out anyway because they CAN do genetic testing.

So it's not that there's some hard line of "this animal WILL show x issues after this set number of generations" it's more "you can only roll the dice so many times before you lose." If you slowly make every number on the roulette wheel the same, you're going to hit it eventually. Even if you do manage to do everything right, you can't prevent new mutations from popping up. The longer you go without adding more numbers to the wheel so to speak, the higher the chance of hitting the wrong genetic lottery result.

[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.

[noneatnonedotcom]

not as sick just as bored.

same rules as before, this time we're making a DC superhero. lemme know how strong you think this guy would be.

Etiquette: (100 cp) "You are instinctively knowledgeable about the etiquette and deference that must be shown in any martial art or martial culture. You are aware of faux pas or mild signs of disrespect and will subconsciously avoid making them. You know how to show respect as well as where and when it is best to show it without being considered a sycophant or rude. So long as the culture is rooted in combat and discipline, you will never offend someone unless you actively seek to do "

"Army Defying: (200cp) "You cannot be overwhelmed by mere numbers. If an enemy would not present a threat to you in a one-on-one battle, then any number of similarly skilled foes are equally useless in the face of your martial prowess."

In for a Penny, in for a Pound of Flesh: (200cp) "Training? Guns? Numbers? All is for naut against true battle experience. You have no issue taking on entire armed groups on your lonesome. The more you kill, the larger groups you can take on, and the stronger individuals you can challenge. With a few wars under your belt, taking on a small army or a stone-skinned monster is child’s play "

Instant Ninja: (100cp) "Blending in is all well and good, but if there are security cameras around you'll feel a bit out of luck. You can't do anything, act out or you'll expose yourself. Say you do wanna act though, but aren't in disguise, what are you to do? Upon purchase, you become incredibly skilled at whipping up ""ninja"" themed disguises using only what you have on hand or find in your surroundings. Disguises usually consist of masks, flowing scarves and tactical wrappings that help pull the look off. These improvised disguises are surprisingly effective at keeping your identity secret, with a single flaw that may expose you to the especially observant, your footwear. Something about your shoes leaves them the only thing people will be able to recognize in and out of your disguises, if they ever saw them to begin with."

Angel of the Battlefield: (400cp) "Just being a leading star in the medical field isn’t enough to change the world, not when you have to do it from the front of a battlefield too. While you are most certainly at the front of the pack in terms of medical skill and knowledge of your time, at least as far as Nightingale’s time, your talents are more notable than that. A superb instinct for all things relating to medicine, it allows you to easily master techniques and technology even centuries advanced from your time if you can gain access. Even without access, advancing medical knowledge comes smoothly and quickly to you, accelerating the speed of new discoveries greatly.

Medicine becomes widely applicable in your hands, in some ways superhumanly so. Your knowledge makes you a lethal combatant even with limited combat training, innately understanding the most efficient ways to move your own body, the most vulnerable vital points to strike and how to greatly reduce damage with the right block. Your treatments become applicable on all targets, even against what seems like common sense, as you can stitch up the wounds of spiritual beings with no more difficulty than a flesh and blood human. Even non-humans take only a small time to study before you can effectively understand and begin treatment. While this talent does not directly boost the power of healing magecraft, your knowledge and the skill it lets you use those spells with make you a far superior wielder to most."

edit: forgot the free roll

Philosopher Kings: (free, 100cp) "The greatest kings and military leaders were more than just warriors and tacticians. They were men of incredible fortitude beyond the simple body, with wills to push forward against the impossible for years at a time, so that they could grasp victory. They were more than fighters, with experience as philosophers or explorers that they bent towards their goals of conquest. You’re not a great king yet but you share those beginnings. You’ve got a will like a wall of diamond, incredible hard and near impossible to break or bend. You might not last forever against everything but it’ll take a damn lot to make you bend the knee by choice. Your childhood, where you found that will, was spent not just on military training but also in another field of life of your choice, such as exploring distant lands for years to experience new cultures or spending time as a notable teacher of the arts at home, which has given you a wide array of minor skills and experiences that aid you in finding creative solutions to your enemies."

he spent his childhood learning the law

the basic concept is simple, a frontline doctor who's able to keep up with and heal the heavy hitters of the JL something like a batman but one devoted to keeping his allies in the fight rather than planning up grand strategies to take on the bad guys, that being said he is still growing with every fight, and he can easily ignore fodder. that being said just starting out he's got no combat training and will need someone to help get him started. at least he knows how to do the basics like throw a punch without hurting himself.

@howlingday @heliosthegriffin @weatherman667 how well do you think this hero would do in the DC universe?

[vfx-batman]

Bruce Wayne for the ask game

I'm sorry for not directly answering your ask @vikarians - Tumblr deleted it when I tried to save my answer as a draft. :[ Please excuse how long this is, I really couldn't help myself.

How I feel about this character: I looooooove him. I know I'm a Jason fan first + foremost, but I really do love Bruce. He's my guy. He's great. He's awful. He's everything. I'm as obsessed with him when he's Gotham's chief mourner who carries every dead soul inside him (e.g. Batman: Perpetual Mourning) as when he's a shitty dad (e.g. the Bruce Jason knows). #1 Guy who's condemned to eternal torment by narrative forces outside his control. #1 Guy who's in control of his life + could have done anything with his inherited wealth but who decides to do this day in, day out. #1 Guy trapped inside the Sisyphean task of crime-fighting in a universe where crime will never recede. #1 Guy who, if you told him he was doomed to failure, wouldn't ever give this up, because he can't play the bystander ever again. #1 Guy who wants to fuck + fix Gotham so bad he lets it dictate all his other relationships.

#1 Father of 5 who often pretends that he's only an orphaned son because it hurts too much to recognise what losses have befallen him as he's grown up. If he isn't an adult - if he isn't a father - then he didn't lose the Dick who was dependent on him to the inevitable passage of time + he didn't lose the Jason who adored him to sudden tragedy + he definitely didn't become the damaged man who crawls out of the wreckage of ADITF + struggles when acting paternally to any of the kids who enter his life afterward.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: To me, Selina + Talia are his two great loves, though there are several women such as Silver St Cloud, Julie Madison, Vesper Fairchild etc. whom I acknowledge as important romantic interests at different junctures in his life without me shipping them. I also read Bruce as bisexual, though I think he doesn't know it. He's got chemistry with Clark + Harvey (+ fixations on Gordon + the Joker which verge on homoerotic), + I consider these mlm pairings important to Bruce's sexuality without finding them interesting as mutually requited ships.

To expand upon my particular identification of Selina + Talia:

Selina is great as a love interest b/c she's the personification of Gotham City - the woman Bruce loves for her glimmers of 'goodness' as much as her imperfections b/c the former is what gives him hope for the future + the latter is what gives him purpose in trying to change her. Meanwhile, Selina is attracted to him b/c she (the woman who has been both socially/financially destitute + ascendant, representative of Gotham's dual nature) desperately wants someone to see her as worth something + Bruce Wayne gives her that. And psychologically she deals with this (like a cat) by denying that she ever wanted it, in case he decides to take it back one day + abandon her like everyone else who was ever meant to take care of her. King's Batman was bad for a lot of reasons, but in this regard I think he failed by not having the Batcat wedding go ahead. Specifically b/c I believe that Batcat should have fallen into the malaise of married life, eventually culminating in a divorce.

Talia meanwhile is great as a love interest b/c she's the ultimate personification of his tragedy. She's the only woman who loves Bruce b/c she knows he's Batman, which seemingly solves the problem of intimacy unleashed by his dual identity. But despite this (+ despite their shared attraction to one another), they can never be together. Not so long as she obeys her super-villain father as she believes a dutiful daughter should. Not so long as she prioritises a retributive familial duty which involves murder whilst his 'vengeance for the family' manifests itself non lethally. As I might have said elsewhere, Talia + Bruce are foils. In one sense b/c whereas Bruce decided on a mission of nonlethal vengeance against all criminals as part of paying his dead parents deference, Talia decides (repeatedly) to kill those responsible + leave everyone else alone. In another sense b/c they are born torn between two loyalties. Bruce is torn between wanting to save the world + wanting to live a life with those he cares about (familial + otherwise). But he cannot have both, b/c (as Jason perfectly symbolises) these desires will collide + contradict. Likewise, Talia is torn between the personal freedom she seeks as the daughter of her controlling father's cult, the freedom to be a doctor + do good in the world, + what duty she believes she owes her father. Before Crisis on Infinite Earths, she exclusively shoots the people she holds responsible for (seemingly) killing Ra's. Post-Crisis, this expectation of duty is carried on, but is exaggerated (via brainwashing) into her holding not only Batman but the entire world responsible for the demise of her father. Even after he comes back to life. (Which is another sign of why this Talia is not herself + is, in all honesty, divorced from reality.) It would have been interesting to see a post-Infinite Crisis Batman deduce that Nyssa had twisted Talia's knee-jerk instinct into something far more sinister. And then we'd get Batman saving her from that, the Dark Knight of which she always dreamed. But Morrison's Batman saga was shit, so whatever.

The crucial point I wanted to get to is this -- Bruce + Talia are foils + if Bruce gave up on being a super-hero up to be with her, he would no longer be the man she loved. [Exemplified by Son of the Demon + No Man's Land #0.] Talia meanwhile has offered to give up her allegiance to her father to be with him (as per the Detective Comics Annual #1 triptych written in the late 80s), but Bruce could not reconcile himself to this b/c he knew that Talia still held that you performed familial duty via a lethal vengeance aimed exclusively at those you held responsible. Which contrasted with Bruce's performance of familial duty via a totalising, non-lethal vengeance against everyone who breaks the law. And so, they are doomed to irreconcilability.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Jason & Bruce. This really should not be surprising. I can't explain why in simple words, but they're kind of everything to me. Father + Son of all time <3.

Aside from them, I have to say that I love Bruce's relationships with all his 5 kids (Dick, Jason, Cass, Tim, Damian <- in the order at which they became his to care for as a father). I have particular readings, however, on his dynamic with Tim, Damian, Cass not widely shared by the fandom, so I don't really read those fics. But Bruce & Dick + Bruce & Jason speak to me in almost every form, so I end up reading more fics about them.

It may be unpopular, but I have to confess that I do not care about Bruce's relationship with almost all the other vigilantes roosting in Gotham. I suppose I reflect the ao3 stats well in that way.

Going through the list:

Bruce & JPV / Helena B: Bruce's dynamic with Jean-Paul Valley is interesting in so far as JPV is Bruce's 'dark mirror', but (as the failure of Azrael (1995-2003) + the success of Sword of Azrael 2022 showed) post-Knightfall JPV is only interesting when Bruce isn't in picture. Likewise for Helena B. Get her away from being the Batfamily's black sheep, it's only ever been done to tell the same old 'killing bad + Helena stupid' plot again + again, + I have to say, are you guys not tired of that?

Bruce & the N52 folk (rebooted Helena Wayne, David Zavimbe, Julia Pennyworth, Harper Row, Kate Kane, Duke Thomas, Luke Fox, etc.): All incredibly boring to me. Very few relationships from this period of Batman were built with any mind to long-form storytelling + it shows. Most Batman fans pay no mind to these characters anymore (except for Duke + Kate, both of whom I do not care for in the slightest), + I think that speaks for itself. Some of them had real potential as solo super-heroes tangentially but reasonably related to Bruce (the Batwings in particular!) but a failure to establish the niche of their appeal killed my interest.

Bruce & the miscellaneous crew: Here I mean the ones like Pre-Crisis Creeper or Rebirth Gotham Girl who either stick around for a decent period of time, appearing in one-off stories, or who occupy the attention of an entire arc before disappearing without leaving a trace. I accept them as necessary plot vehicles without caring about Bruce's relationship to them. In some cases (Morrison's Club of Heroes / Batman Inc.) I actually hate them, + I am incredibly grateful for their transient existence.

Exceptions to my I-don't-care-about-Bruce's-relationship-with-Gotham-dwelling-vigilantes-who-aren't-his-kids rule:

Bruce & Babs: Pre-Crisis Babs was best when Bruce wasn't relevant. And he often wasn't, b/c Bruce Timm conjured up Brubabs from almost nothing. Post-Crisis Babs & Bruce on the other hand have an interesting dynamic, but this recedes after she leaves his support team during War Games + becomes a fixture of the Birds of Prey instead. Since the N52, they have had nothing. But Post-Crisis Babs & Bruce are interesting as equals in the field who share very similar values + flaws. I especially enjoy the dynamic where Bruce admires Barbara for building herself back up as a superhero (reflecting how he downplays his own demonstrations of this, such as in Batman Venom). All the while Barbara (wrongly) considers herself superior to him b/c she (unlike Bruce) is blind to her own faults. Bruce is self-aware enough to know when he's being a POS. Babs is usually not. I like when Bruce serves as the vehicle for her self-awareness to advance.

Bruce & Steph: I am not immune to an unintentional Jason & Bruce parallel. All that being said, if Steph's Robin days are not considered, + if her post-War Games feelings are voided (which has essentially been canon since Infinite Crisis), then they do nothing for me. Steph constantly sought validation from authority figures between her debut + her death, + Bruce was high on this list, but I differ from the fandom in noticing that she sought this from both male + female authorities (as shown by her attitude vis a vis Cass, Babs, Helena B, + Dinah). That is to say, I care more about Steph & 'nebulous authority figures' as an abstract entity than I do Steph & Bruce specifically.

My unpopular opinion about this character: I guess the easy answer would be that he's not really a vigilante.

Outside of Frank Miller's interpretation (+ select eras/works inspired by Miller), he's a super-hero whose actions are either officially or unofficially legitimised by the state. That makes him more of a paramilitary vigilante than a true vigilante who lacks any + all support from state officials, organs, +/or proxies (e.g. 1989-1999 Helena B). This is why, even though Oracle hacks into government records + facilitates death, she feels distinguished from Helena B. Oracle has access to the state's monopoly over the legitimate use of force via her close connection to her father, Batman, + various super-hero teams (e.g. the JLA, of which she is a member). <- Likewise, Bruce has always worked with the permission of some sector of the American state apparatus, + Miller introduced a very subversive element in supposing a Batman who was not.

One thing I wish would happen with this character in canon:

I wish J. Loeb would use Hush 2 to reveal that the Bruce we've been following since Hush 1 ended was a fake. I'm not sure how he could do it, + I know this would cause an absolute shit storm, but post-2003 Bruce has been so consistently the capital P problem that I'd like us to go back to the person he was after Bruce Wayne Murderer. He actually felt like a hero then, as opposed to the man he's been twisted into since. Of course, I don't want this to then wipe away the impact of what this imposter Bruce did in the mean time (to each of his kids as well as to other people like Steph). But I seriously struggle to see the protagonist of the twenty-first century's Batman + Detective Comics ongoings / mainline continuity as a hero, + IDK how else they're going to convince of that going forward. You could try a redemption arc which re-litigates all of his fuck ups in the intervening years, but in terms of aesthetics, that would be unbearable to read. Yet ignoring it happened + having him act like he used to (with no catalyst for change) voids the emotional turmoil his kids endured (e.g. the physical + psychological abuse) + gaslights the audience. So I don't want that to happen either.

One thing I wish had happened with this character in canon:

It may be redundant to say this at this point, but I do wish he didn't become such a piece of shit. As I said at the start, I like a Bruce who's a shitty dad, but not when the post-2002/3 narrative valorises him as the best whilst he manifestly gets worse + worse + worse. Some Batman fans would blame this on Miller or even Brubaker/Rucka, but there is a marked difference between their renditions + what emerged after 9/11 sent America into a grim-dark self-congratulatory tailspin.

As a final point - I also wish that Bruce didn't become the Mary Sue centre of the universe. Lex Luthor should not be saying "I'm the smartest man in the world now that Batman is dead" (IIRC in DCeased). He's the World's Greatest Detective + that is his niche.

Thank you very much for sending in this ask!

[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.

[awizardmostkitty]

so I've been playing Baldurs Gate 3 for essentially the first time, some things I had done before but not really enough for it to matter and it's also been a while, and the essential problem I'm having at this moment is "You could save them. You need to act. However, you're not strong enough. You will fail."

I'm essentially in a time loop. If I fail, I go back in time and haven't even spoken to them yet. The question becomes "How many times can you die before you have to accept that you can't save someone, at least not yet?"

And then there's the mistakes. I killed two people, they attacked me first, so it didn't break my paladin oath, but espite having non-lethal attacks activated they just took too much damage. I didn't fail to kill them, so it's saved now. That's unreversable.

This game presents fascinating moral dilemmas. I can only hope my choices reflect my desire to do good, whatever the outcome!

[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.

[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.

[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

[mx-princey]

I have a Pokémon headcanon that Pokémon possess two different kinds of vitality.

Energy Vitality is one kind, and is what Pokémon use in recreational battle. Potions and such can easily heal damage sustained by a Pokémon's energy vitality, and having this type of vitality depleted results in the Pokémon being weakened to the point it cannot fight back in any way, though it will often still be conscious enough to still help its trainer with non-battling tasks like swimming or flying. Generally, damage to a Pokémon's energy-based vitality is short-term and easily healable, even in extreme cases, and is very rarely fatal on its own. However, it doesn't heal over time and does require external resources like potions or berries to regenerate energy.

The other type is the "Physical Vitality" that they share with us, humans. Physical attacks (seperate to the move category, I could not think of a better name) are dangerous and can have long lasting effects on an individuals health if untreated. In fact, its this form of attack that Pokémon use when lethally defending themselves from humans, since humans lack energy-based vitality. And this is what Pokémon use when hunting others to make a meal out of.

Often, Pokémon will weaken each other's energy to make the other Pokémon easier to hunt. Villainous organisations and individuals also often battle using the energy vitality system in order to weaken a person's Pokémon and make them defenseless, which is useful for theft and other criminal activities. Rarely, a criminal may command a Pokémon to attack using its physical proweress in order to hospitalise or even kill their enemies if their goals lead them to do so, though this is rare, as thankfully the Pokémon world is more peaceful than our own. Generally, a person has no chance up against an opposing Pokémon on their own, especially if they are threatened with physical attacks, so in most cases defeating a person's Pokémon in an energy-based battle is enough to get what you want out of them.

The energy that is exclusive to Pokémon is also what allows them to shrink into and enter Pokéballs, a talent that humans very much can't replicate themselves. Though how they do this is still a mystery, it is clear that it is thanks to the energy that they are made up of that we lack.

These distinctions are what make recreational battles acceptable and even fun to seek out. Not only do many trainers enjoy the challenge of a battle, but gaining experience this way also means you have a stronger defense in case you are threatened with the worst. There are strong laws in place, however, for threatening or using physically harmful moves in or outside of battle with very harsh punishments if you are found out.

Well anyway, thank you for reading my headcanon and feel free to build upon it if you like :-]

[nekrops-shaped]

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!

[phonefaceenthusiast]

What's Vanny's full story that leads to how she is the way she is? (Basically i'm not up to date with her lore and want to know)

Okay, so, just so you know this is even more fanfic-ty than usual:

She was raised single-handedly by her father Gerald (her mom passed away) on a small farm in Mississippi.

This ambient helped shape her into the person she would become, being obssessed with animals (she would take care of them), not being girly (since she was a only child, she would do usually manly tasks to help out her dad). Gerald was a kind, hardworking man, and her childhood was overall super happy-go-lucky, contributing to her becoming very outgoing and cheery, but also naive to all the problems and suffering that exist in the world 'cuz she never needed to worry about a whole lot.

as she grew up, Gerald was saving up money so that she could move into the city to study in hopes of getting a high paying job.

In the meantime, she would get a summer job at Fazbender's, blissfully unaware of all the tragedies revolving around this fast food chain. Always optimistic, she never even imagined anything bad could've happened to her.

She was wrong. So, so wrong.

I detailed more on this in another post (CW: gorey drawing of the aftermath) but if you don't want to check it out i'll give you the gist of it:

Something goes horribly wrong (was it a accident or intentional? could someone else be involved in this?) and it ends with her face ripped off and skull partly caved in. She was fully aware of everything going on up 'til the skull injury, which knocked her out.

For unknown reasons, her corpse then turns pink and she wakes up as a immortal zombie (perhaps someone was performing a experiment somewhere on that restaurant and she was just unlucky enough stumble upon it.

We do not know what even went down (i prefer to leave it up to personal interpretation; i don't have a concrete answer, atleast not right now) and the only one that could tell us now has brain damage, memory-loss and represses the suffering from this incident every single day.

Anyways, her immortality post-death is different from Jack's (can't die because of the promise) and Dave's (keeps repossessing his own corpse): She can basically shrug off any lethal injury/wound as long as it doesn't completely destroy her brain.

Her mental state is absolutely fucked (to be fair, anyone would be after that): Her life was pretty much a innocent fairy tale up to this point, nothing could've even prepared her for this and now she simply doesn't know what to do, how to put herself back together.

In a desperate attempt to cope, she holds on to her childlike aspects of her personality and gives them full control of her brain so those could distract her from harsh, cruel reality. She craves the childlike wonder and innocence she once had, Believing she'd achieve those through the fun from her misadventures... But it doesn't last. It never does.

It's like trying to reapply a band-aid to a deep wound over and over again; Vanessa simply can't find anything else she could do to ease her pain so she desperately insists on a "solution" that doesn't work at all.

As for what those wacky misadventures are... It's whatever she feels like it would be fun to do that day, regardless if they're extremely dangerous for everyone in vicinity (including herself), usually blowing up stuff with dynamite (keyword: Stuff, NOT people). She would never directly hurt anyone else, but won't care if they're indirect casualities of the consequences of her actions.

That's the rundown of her backstory from childhood up to the part that she's about to start her antics and meet Jack and Dave.

One last note to clear things up: A while back i made a AU askblog called "Mississippi Location" where Gerald became a phone guy. This lore detail is exclusively for that AU, and it's only relevant WHEN i'm talking specifically about ML Vanny (which i haven't done in months lmao that blog is dead as hell). Treat it as non-canon "What if".

Here's what phonefied Gerald looks like if you were curious: