#the deadly stake

[thegothicalice]

Mixing different black lace patterns 🖤 Bat earrings by The Deadly Stake, skirt from VXM Clothing, everything else vintage.

[bonefall]

Bones, I can only ever support you when you decide to kill off a character. Kill Leafstar! Make it dramatic!!! Poison her!!!!

Wasp says: you want Skyclan to be like the forest4? Alright bet!!

my ggoddddd I had an IDEA

Waspstar receives xeir nine lives the way the Forest Four show xem to, in their new pool, by their new rules. While there, Heartstar assures xem that Juniperclaw has been removed as deputy, will never serve in a position of power again, has gone into exile.

...and Waspstar doesn't respond to that very quickly. Xe has a polite, pungent pause. "Is that the punishment for taking a life? By your code?"

"Our code," Heartstar corrects boldly, in a tone that suggests she sees this as reason and fairness. Our Code-- it protects you too, a gesture of sharing. It makes Waspstar's belly twist. "I've made his punishment VERY severe."

Severe. What a word to describe a vacation.

"He regrets what he's done?"

"Yes, very much."

Waspstar's ear flicks. No. Juniperclaw hasn't even begun to regret what he's done to SkyClan.

"SkyClan will be having a ceremony for Leafstar, to say our goodbyes and welcome in a new era," Xey offer in an even tone, "Spread the word that is is a time of forgiveness. All honored guests may come-- if they want to pay."

Heartstar waits for a beat. Then chuckles incredulously, "Your Clanmew skills could use a brush up. You mean pay their respects, yes? To honor the dead?"

"Oh my, how embarassing," Waspstar smiles back, "I'm so very sorry if I was unclear."

Clear as the sky on a cloudless day. Juniperclaw didn't make it out of that funeral alive. If a true warrior does not need to kill to win their battles, then he was no warrior under the Code at all.

[randomfingthings]

⚠ Don't mess with them, they have ✨table spoon✨ ⚠

[vampirickelpie]

I realized I had never actually drawn all of the Stakes of Purgatory and decided to fix that

[laurasbailey]

CR SPOILERS!!

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Do you think Matt was really gonna do a TPK??? I am so stressed about the possibility?? Like what even is this campaign without Imogen?? Was he going so hard on them because he wants to bring in VM and the Nein? As like Final Campaign: battle for Exandria. I could see it. But I would be so sad. I’m too attached to these idiots (and by that I mostly mean the witches)

i haven't seen the episode yet so i have no context beyond the spoilers i've seen but short answer: yes and no. matt would never plan an encounter with the end goal being a tpk (no good dm would unless the players cosigned), but i also know he doesn't take the cheap way out. the dice will roll as they roll!

this campaign has been especially deadly and bells hells are vastly underpowered in scenarios where they're facing 'boss fights' but they're also constantly racing the clock so it's not like they can pull a vox machina and go find some vestiges or go detour to someone's backstory (as much as we all want that).

i can't see vm or m9 swooping in to pick up the pieces because it takes away from bells hells' story, but i do hope they're more involved for sure.

a tpk now would be really rough because it'd be hard to insert a new party that has the motivation to finish what bells hells started. it'd be like the m9 tpking right before the lucien/eiselcross arc lmao. and i definitely agree about imogen, she's the glue holding this whole thing together. she definitely doesn't have plot armour though, which terrifies me!

[unproduciblesmackdown]

speaking of the horrors brian goosebumpsphantomoftheauditorium is still So funny for being like yeah i'm a ghost i know i'm a ghost. & he's befriended the horror fan menace duo who are giggling clutching each other like omg omg okay. we're fine. we're breaking into the school at night to investigate the horrors aaaa what if there's a ghost eek ok ok!!! & brian ghost who knows he's a ghost is like omg guys aaaa stopppp ;;m;; suffering thee Most but he's not putting on an act to conceal his phantomly destiny. he's just like that

[llycaons]

I do think it's really difficult to write wx short fics where they meet in the fic and then have a full romance bc in canon they had YEARS to build up to what they had and you just can't replicate that in a few chapters. like lwj you met this guy a few months ago and you're mostly just horny, and now you're saying you're in love? I mean, he IS, obviously, but it's not rly easy to pull off and have your audience fully buy in

[blujayonthewing]

so in juniper's campaign we've just found ourselves in a high-stakes situation that I as a player do frankly find stressful and am anxious about, but hey hi also the DM was like 'okay here are the exact mechanics of how this is going to work because I don't want to surprise you with serious repercussions, also here are all the options you will have to try to do something about the situation-- [affected player] what do you think? honest feedback, I don't want it to feel unfair, I want to be clear that I am not just trying to kill your character, and if it ends up being badly balanced we can revisit it down the road' and oh my god I could COLLAPSE and WEEP with gratitude

[chamerionwrites]

I am but an old man (proverbial) relaxing on my porch in the spring sunshine (literal) and I think you should put 🧂 in my askbox for low-stakes cranky opinions

[ariadne-mouse]

Augh goddamn Episode 9 and the twins got real tears out of me

[merge-conflict]

I really want to do a rashoman style “tell the same scene from multiple perspectives” fic but the problem is that it requires it to be a busy scene with a lot of characters that would be interesting and/or funny to recount.

[thegothicalice]

When the dress code for the event is “funeral attire” and you make it accidentally a bit “goth Bo Peep” ⚰️Dress Vixen by Micheline Pitt, batwing dickie collar Dracula Clothing, bonnet and gloves La Femme en Noir, boots Strangecvlt, scythe earrings The Deadly Stake, overskirt and bolero can’t remember.

[the-starlight-papers]

Completely normal (just watched the universe be destroyed and be put back together through the lense of an old webcomic)

[danielleurbansblog]

Review: One Wrong Move

Synopsis: Taunting riddles.A deadly string of heists.Two broken hearts trapped in a killer’s game. Christian Macleod was pulled into a life of crime at a young age by his con artist parents. Now, making amends for his corrupt past, he has become one of the country’s foremost security experts. When a string of Southwestern art heists captures the FBI’s attention, Christian is paired up with a…

[styrofauxm]

If I may add, if Home Depot had ads everywhere about how there's a chance a clown may throw a milkshake at you in the store, you probably wouldn't be shocked or upset. But that didn't happen. Instead Home Depot put up ads talking about how there are no milkshake clowns in their stores.

Not only did OFMD never kill a major character before, they pretty much proved it was impossible.

Plenty of major characters have gotten injured to the point where they could not have possibly lived. And yet they did.

If you want your stakes to be that major characters can die, maybe don't have 17/18 episodes where the opposite proves to be true over and over again.

Just stumbled across this one in a Buzzfeed listicle*:

And it struck me as a great framing of what went wrong with the OFMD finale. We walked into that Home Depot and got a milkshake thrown at our face. The point isn't so much the quality of the milkshake, as that we were in a fucking Home Depot.

And yeah, many of us saw the big clown standing there with the milkshake in its hand, but we kinda assumed it was an inflatable Halloween decoration, because it was in a fucking Home Depot. We reasonably expected some light milkshake-related prankery, but nobody goes into a Home Depot expecting to take an entire milkshake straight to the face.

Now we gotta go home and change before we can finish our errands! It's not the end of the world, but you can see why we're not sure we want to shop at Home Depot anymore. Even if the CEO of Home Depot vaguetweets something that might mean he now understands that the Milkshake Clown Event was not something customers wanted.

(*The theme of the listicle is "17 People Who Wrote Most Hilariously, Beautifully Depraved Sentences I've Read This Month"; as you might expect, there's a lot of Tumblr on it.)

[childrenofcain-if]

DEMO ✝ BACK-UP ACCOUNT

Wealth. Power. Death.

The Ballad of the Young Gods is a dark academia interactive fiction story, with dark fantasy and psychological thriller themes. Some of the romances also contain tropes and storylines which may be disturbing to some readers.

It is based on media like “Ninth House” by Leigh Bardugo, “The Secret History” by Donna Tart, “Masters of Death” by Olivie Blake, and SYFY’s “Deadly Class”.

It is rated 18+ for depictions of swearing, sexual themes, violence, and death.

Getting into an Ivy League school is a dream that thousands of American students nurse from a young age. Luckily for you, that dream is your reality. Four years of continuous hard work and pressure have made you a proud freshman at Yale University. And as if that wasn’t enough, you have been handpicked to attend Rathore College, whose selection process is revered across all the nation’s top educational institutions. But you should’ve known this stroke of luck came with a catch.

Yale is a crucible of power, where secret societies wield arcane magic and the dead are far from silent. The illustrious House of Styx wants you and this is a situation that not even your money can get you out of.

They are powerful, elite, and most of all, controlling beyond recognition. They are also the heart of the eight secret societies that attach themselves to Yale. From the White House to Hollywood’s most acclaimed stars, their influence reaches farther than anyone can dare to imagine.

A sinister conspiracy brews under Styx’s watchful gaze, one that threatens to unravel the fragile balance between the living and the dead. But in a graveyard of secrets, you and your accomplices are the ones with the shovels. You’re now in a world where the past is never truly dead, and the lines between life and death blur with each passing day.

But some secrets are better left buried, and some prophecies are destined to drag you to hell.

Cédric Armand Lacroix / Céline Armelle Lacroix (M/F)

Vindictive. Conniving. Ruthless.

As the heir to the Lacroix fortune, C is every bit as arrogant as their bloodline demands them to be. Even after the messy divorce of their parents which further led to their disownment by their father, Alain Lacroix, they refuse to give up on their dignity. They’ve vowed to destroy him one day and take what’s rightful theirs, brick by brick. The world bent to C’s whims, what money couldn't buy them, those pale green eyes probably did.

There is nothing that they can’t have, especially if they set their mind to that. That is until you came along and stayed one step ahead of them every time in everything that mattered. It wasn’t just the fortune or the legacy at stake; it was the bruising of their pride, the constant reminder that someone—anyone—could outmaneuver them. But beneath the layers of resentment and anger, there’s something more—something darker, even more dangerous.

An obsession takes root, one that blurs the line between hatred and fascination. And they vow to spend their whole life despising you for everything.

Romance trope: Enemies / Academic Rivals to Lovers.

Vance Kasper Næsholm / Vanessa Karina Næsholm (M/F)

Pious. Haunted. Disillusioned.

Raised under the oppressive influence of a rigid, fire-and-brimstone faith in a Danish Catholic orphanage, they were taught to see demons in every shadow and sin in every touch. Forever haunted by the visions provided by a wrathful God they can neither fully grasp their mind around nor escape from, their only reprieve came on the day they got adopted at the age of six and diagnosed with schizophrenia. But the truth of their ‘psychosis’ may be far more sinister than any medical diagnosis could account for.

As the tides become even stormier and their medications become ineffective when they arrive at Yale, all V can do is hold on to the last threads of control over their lives. Your first meeting almost makes them teeter over the edge.

Now that they’re your roommate, they’re bound to you by fate or folly, but whether they’ll be a stable ally remains to be seen.

Romance trope: Roommate Romance.

Wilhelm Johann Ostendorf / Wilhelmine Johanna Ostendorf (M/F)

Exhausted. Abandoned. Lost.

What does the world think of you when you’re a product of brilliance and neglect at the same time? With an Oscar-winning filmmaker for a father and a mother ensconced on the American board of directors at the Louvre, their pedigree is undeniable, yet it is a legacy more hollow than it appears. While their parents sculpted their careers into masterpieces and amassed accolades, they left W to be raised by their paternal aunt and uncle. A sizeable trust fund and periodic checks served as their parents’ only gestures of care, a shallow substitute for the love and attention their only child so desperately craved.

The only times they had felt more than someone who was deeply unlovable were the summers you spent on rusty swingsets and fast bicycles with training wheels. But the swingsets have long been dismantled, and the bicycles have been traded for cars.

The only questions remain—are you the same kid who saw them, really saw them, beyond the reality of being unwanted and the suffocating looks filled with pity that came with their name? Or will this reunion only serve to confirm their deepest fear—that they are, and always have been, truly alone?

Romance trope: Forgotten Childhood Friends to Lovers.

Dumitru Constantin Diaconu / Dumitra Constantina Diaconu (M/F)

Charismatic. Reckless. Guarded.

D’s name is the one that comes up in almost every conversation about Yale’s wildest parties. A natural-born rockstar charmer with a magnetic presence, they effortlessly draw people into their orbit, collecting hearts and bodies with the ease of someone who’s always been in the center of the gold rush. Despite the countless admirers and the trail of broken hearts left in their wake, you’ll always find them with a Marlboro between their lips and a new person in their arms to warm their bed at night. Their smile is a promise, and their laughter a siren call. In the haze of flashing lights and the thrum of bass that pulses through the walls, they are a heartbreaker in every sense of the word.

Feelings are a complication they don’t allow, a line they never cross. They’ve perfected the art of detachment, of keeping their connections strictly no-strings, because to let someone in would be to risk the vulnerability they’ve long since sworn off.

Will you be the only person they'd let peel back the barbed wire surrounding their heart? Or will you be left with nothing but the faint scent of cinnamon and a tale that wasn't meant to be?

Romance trope: Friends with Benefits / Sex First, Feelings Later. [You will only be able to unlock their romance route through a hookup.]

Maxwell Edmund Whitlock-Singh / Maxine Edythe Whitlock-Singh (M/F)

Duty-bound. Noble. Untouchable.

Politeness and decorum are second nature to M. They are the embodiment of manners, a living testament to the art of subtlety in a world where spectacle often trumps substance. They are the sort of person who commands attention without seeking it, a product of both royal blood and rigorous self-discipline. Dubbed the “Paragon of Styx,” M is a modern Plato, someone who finds as much solace in philosophical debates as in the classical texts they’ve devoured in multiple languages. As the second-born child of the Crown Princess of Wales, they have always understood that their life would be one of service with every action scrutinized, and every word weighed.

Their intellect is vast, but it is their passion for the esoteric that sets them apart. For all their convictions, there is a restlessness within M that even they cannot fully articulate. It is the paradox of their existence—a life of privilege that feels at times like a gilded cage, a role that demands both reverence and obedience. Indeed, heavy is the head that wears the crown.

Will you make them realize that life is more than duties and expectations? Or will you become yet another figure in the background, another reminder of the golden cage they were born into?

Romance trope: Forbidden Royal Romance / Secret Relationship.

Step into the shadows as the wealthy heir apparent to a billion-dollar industry who is just starting at Yale University as a freshman.

Be a part of Yale’s most enigmatic secret society, the House of Styx.

Fully customize your character including: pronouns, gender, physical appearance, personality, sexuality, and more.

Romance 1 out of 5 love interests (all of them are gender-selectable).

Study forbidden knowledge, practice dark magic, and try not to fail at your actual coursework.

Test your mind, body, and soul in rituals that blur the line between reality and nightmare.

Learn about the secrets that your mother took to her grave. Is she really the same woman you remember so fondly from your childhood?

Will you rise to navigate the sinister plans brewing under the nose of the House? Or will your actions drag you and your companions to the fiery depths of Hell.

W̶̗͖̝͆h̷͕̲̑̎̓̍̄̎͠͝a̵̢̛̫̾̓͗t̴̙̫͛̐͆̾̀̓̔̊͝ ̴̪́́̈́͛̂̉̀͒̊́ạ̸̗̯̲̘̬͗̀ͅr̸̢̪̜̭̼̠̟̜͚̂̈́͋͋̅͑̉́̎͝e̸̩̯͉̿̊̔͛̃̎͝ͅ ̵̢̹̜̤͍͙̩̬̰̜̏̃͝͠y̷̢̨͇̘͍̌́͐̍̆̓̑̐ǫ̶̢̧̡̛̥̤͉͎̟̃̏̍̓̒ͅu̷̓̂̾̇̇͜͝,̸͎̖̮̲̳̻̱̬̎̒͑͝ ̸̡̛̰̌͐c̶̛̪̗̰̻̜̲̘̺͗͊h̴̡͔̦̘̤̖͊̿̓̇i̵͉̘͙̥͍̼̜̐̐̄̅͝͝ĺ̶̡̧̧̼̦̦̗̰̝̼̓̊̀d̸̡͎͔͔̰̖̿̐̈́̓͊̌̃̓͜?̷̩̗̲̫̮͕̍̈́́̽͜͝͝

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WRITTEN BY: axel (he/him)

CODED BY: @albywritesfiction (they/them)