#the situation less than it does my feelings…

[menomeno91]

I think there's a lot of nuance ignored here. I think there's a difference between legitimate resentment and caution towards a population that has often been centered in queer spaces, and other benefits relating to being more proximal to patriarchal privilege. Does it mean some people feel unsafe around them? Sure. Is it unfair? Maybe. I personally don't think so. But that's my opinion.

The fact is that they still carry more power than women, and people who are perceived as women.

And I would say there's room for healthy resentment towards people who carry that privilege or power, and in many cases, refuse to acknowledge it's even there.

So when it gets to the point where cis men are actively excluded, sure, maybe in those cases the resentment goes too far. I would also argue that evidence that this happens with any degree of regularity is just not reality. It's all circumstantial. I'm sure there are instances we can point to where this happens, and when it does, it's a missed opportunity and it sucks.

I think what happens is that cis men are being asked to confront their privilege in these spaces, albeit maybe not always in the most gentle or civil way. And that feels uncomfortable.

But discomfort isn't exclusion, nor is it creating situations that are unsafe. In fact they are CRUCIAL for growth in a healthy thriving community.

The sentiment "fuck cis men" is resentment expressed towards a system that unfairly benefits cis men. It's not personal, it's systemic. And centering the feelings of cis men when we talk about the systems that put us in danger perpetuates that danger.

It's important that we avoid the temptation to prioritize the comfort of people with more power over the safety of people with less power. And it's not that simple, it never is, but it's a framework we need to utilize, ESPECIALLY in queer spaces.

i don't care how uncomfortable you are around cis men, queer cis men still need places to go, and sometimes, those spaces will be shared with yours. disabled and neurodivergent queer men and queer men of color especially need a place to go. the queer community isn't the "fuck cis men" community. that is the rad fem community. if you think cis men and people who read as cis men are inherently "too scary" or shouldn't be allowed in queer spaces, you joined the wrong community.

[carn4g3]

Creepypasta Relationship HCs (2)

Characters - BEN Drowned, Tim Wright (Masky), Brian Thomas (Hoodie), Kagekao

Summary - A few more glimpses into how these creeps are as partners (w/ 50% more possessiveness !)

TWs - Descriptions of yandere behavior, cheating, stalking, possessiveness/jealousy and overall unhealthy relationships, mentions of kidnapping and violence, & very brief mentions of sex and smoking

Word Count - 3.5k (~700 to 900 each)

A/N: Thank you for all the love on the first part <33 I know a few people requested these characters alongside some other new ones in the time it took me to write this. Just know that I'll have ones for any additional characters out sometime soon if you happened to leave a request along those lines :)

Part 1

BEN Drowned

Before I get to anything else, BEN is perpetually in his early 20s in my characterization of him.

He arguably has the most contact with people outside of Slender's influence simply by being an ipad kid. Because of that, he's most likely to form a relationship with someone if they are from the normal world. BEN doesn't necessary hate his colleagues or Slender, but they're all just so fucked up. Someone with even half the emotional baggage of a killer would be much better.

Now, it's pretty obvious that BEN isn't exactly the most palatable to the average human being. He has a million alternate accounts, all of which assume false identities, but he does have a select few that are more personal. On those accounts, he spends his time in various forums or chats where he can discuss his favorite games and other media. You two would probably connect on one of those shared interests, maybe even several, and he would be hooked from there.

BEN isn't the most patient person, but it would take more than a few months of talking before he truly built a connection with you. He'd prefer you reciprocate his feelings after that point, but it wouldn't deter him if you didn't. He's self aware enough to know that he needs to give you time to adjust to the fact that he's not the human man you thought you were talking to and that he crawled out of your very own computer screen. Though, back to his impatience, it's probably not nearly enough time.

The topic of monogamy with BEN would be a variable subject. He's well aware of the litany of ways partners define themselves given the somewhat questionable time he spends online. Ideally, BEN would see himself as unconstrained by a relationship, and, therefore, you should have an open end as well. Though, the less mature part of him sees you as something of a prize that should be reserved for him alone, and that's the side that takes over.

BEN wouldn't allow you to have romantic or sexual relationships with anyone other than himself. Meanwhile, the unspoken rule is that he could... if he wanted to. Does that mean he actually has other partners? No, not at all. It was a miracle you wanted to enter a relationship with him willingly, if you even did. There's no way in hell he's going to replicate that easily.

Despite all of that, he's not very outwardly possessive. He carries himself with a certain arrogance, it shouldn't be a shock that extends to his relationships. If you seem close to someone else, he still thinks you'll choose him in the end. At the same time, he's your most avid stalker. There are cameras damn near everywhere nowadays, and he doesn't even need to break a sweat to access their footage. In the situation that you're cooperative enough that he doesn't need to force you into his living space, he watches where you go. Even if you can't leave his side, he still tracks you one way or another. Nothing happens between you and another person that doesn't go unseen by him, and, if someone is too close, he'll pay them a "friendly" visit.

He shows affection the best through quality time and gift giving. Admittedly, his definition of quality time is almost exclusively reserved for playing games or showing you something on his plethora of devices. On occasion, he can suck it up and do something that you like: going outside is in his skillset... albeit reluctantly. As for gift giving, BEN is surprisingly good at getting things you like even though it seems like he's never listening. You might want to avoid asking how he got the money for such things, though. He won't give you a straight answer anyway.

Physical affection with BEN would be a bit strange. He's not entirely an apparition, but his form isn't totally corporeal either. Objects he's holding can phase through his grip at times without warning, though it's not quite to the point where he can pass through walls. When he lingers close enough to you, it feels almost like there's a faint, electrical buzzing on your skin. He can still touch you despite that, though your hair may start standing after a while. It's only when he lingers near you for too long that there's an issue. The static electricity building between you becomes pretty potent, resulting in an actual electric shock once he does make contact. BEN can be a little sadistic, but he's not particularly interested in hurting you. So, he tends to avoid touching you much or, if he does, it'll be pretty quick.

While BEN has a bit of a reason for falling short on physical affection, he has no good excuse for his lackluster words of affection. He thrives in making lewd comments on your body and that's it. The only way to get him to say he loves you is by saying it yourself. Even then, his response is pretty lacking, but it's not out of a genuine dislike for you. The way his ears turn a light pink, burning most red at their pointy ends, indicates he's at least a little fond of you.

Masky

Quick note because I can see this becoming confusing, I tend to refer to Slender as the Operator when writing for Marble Hornets characters because I think that's what they would call him. It's still the same old Slendy tho :)

Being in this fandom for so long, I can see the development of my frontal lobe in the form of my hcs of this man.

Tim is well into his 40s. He thinks a dating life is far beyond him, and, even if it weren't, he hardly knows what it's like to be a "normal" person anymore after 20 years as a proxy. While I say all that, if he were to find love, it would likely not be among the Operator's ranks. Tim despises the creature and everything it stands for, but he knows he's not strong enough to evade it. He finds respite in the areas outside of its power and is mostly likely to let go of his inhibitions for someone in that mental space.

He is not 100% ready to embrace a relationship, romantic or otherwise. The Operator isn't clueless to Tim's resent; it's why newer proxies like Kate and Toby are much more infatuated with the creature. To keep the less conditioned ones around, it has to extend its control a bit more uniquely. Tim knows that you're at risk of the Operator doing something to you, and he can't handle that. Because of that, his presence in your life isn't consistent. He's trying to prove to himself that he doesn't need you and, to the Operator, that you don't get in the way of his work. Though, Tim has never been the most strong willed. He comes crawling back to you every time.

While most of the others are willing to kidnap the person of their affections, I don't think Tim would quite get to that point. He prefers that you have your own separate life away from him. It makes him feel like you two are a normal couple, but he's certainly not a saint. Mentally stable people do not become proxies of the Operator, so Tim is riddled with some less than ideal possessive and controlling tendencies. He wants you to be dedicated to him and only him. Any other romantic or sexual relationships are completely out of the question for you, in his mind.

Does he quite monitor if you keep up your end of the bargain on that? No. When he disappears for months at a time, he does anything he can to erase you from his mind. Gaining an almost iron will, he won't even stalk you until he gets especially desperate, and that's usually the point when he shows up again.

When he is around, though, he expresses issues with your other relationships quite readily: platonic or even familial. Tim is very deeply insecure in himself. Who wouldn't be after finding out their existence alone has led to the deaths of many? He's buried all of that so deep at this point that even he hardly knows it though, so he calls himself a "traditional" man instead. He prefers your deepest affections to be saved for him, is that so wrong?

Even though his lifestyle is far from anything traditional, he sees himself as the provider. Regardless of your gender, you're the caretaker or the homebody. Like I said earlier, he's fine with you having a separate life-- it's the modern age after all, the least of his worries should be whether or not you work. But, he expects you to see him as a dominant figure that should be listened to, and he will follow through on that.

Anger management? Who the hell is that? Tim's job grates on him, physically and mentally. That's part of the reason he smokes a pack a day, and why he's with you as well. He tends to be at his most vulnerable and volatile when he turns to you, and those emotions are usually hardly a result of your actions. When Tim is angry, though, any little thing can set him off and make that anger entirely your fault. He'll tend to distance himself before things get physical, but verbal arguments are far from uncommon. One of these arguments is usually what prompts him to disappear back to the depths of the woods. But, if he's feeling a little less sorry for himself, he'll come back to you and give a begrudging apology. He does truly feel bad when he snaps at you and wishes it wouldn't happen. At the same time, he has a completely self-pitying and helpless approach to fixing that issue.

Surprisingly, he's big on physical affection. If he's with you, you're likely a little secret of his, so he can only get his time in after completing his daily tasks. He's tired as hell by that point, so he'll just sprawl out wherever you are. In bed? He's right behind you. Watching a movie? Your couch is comfy enough to sleep on. You're busy doing things? He can fall asleep standing if need be. He prefers if you go about initiating certain things like hugs and cuddles, but he can handle initiating a kiss or more.

When it comes to words of affection, on the other hand, just be happy with the few affectionate gestures you can get. It takes a war in his brain to so much as utter the words "sorry," you'd be shit out of luck to hear "I love you" or anything deeper than that. If he's feeling especially sappy, he might leave you a handwritten note. His handwriting is absolutely atrocious, worse than a doctor's script, and takes some analysis to decipher. Once you get it, that will be the closest glimpse at Tim's true feelings towards you.

Hoodie

I would like to think Brian is similarly still in touch with parts of his humanity as Tim is. But, that would be wishful thinking, wouldn't it?

Brian is a stalker first and a lover second. While normal people might unwind by watching TV or even reading a book, Brian takes similar joy in simply watching you from a far. He would find people outside of the Operator's control most interesting to watch, but it wouldn't matter at the end of the day. If you capture his interests, he'll watch-- maybe even take videos.

I imagine his main tasks under the Operator involve intel collection. He's highly skilled in slinking around in the shadows and not being caught, unless of course he wants to instill some unease in the mind of his victim. As a result, it's very unlikely you would notice him lurking. He's not there to unsettle you necessarily, but he might if he finds himself feeling a certain way. You're his most convenient entertainment at the end of the day, so it's not really in his desire to encourage you to get others involved or even move somewhere less convenient.

If you do happen to notice his presence, he's almost a little impressed at your perceptiveness. Not to mention, it makes the second phase of his plan a little easier. Brian may be content to watch endlessly, but he doesn't stop himself from exploring his curiosity to be included in your life. For him, he feels like he's known you forever. For you, he's crafted your interactions across the span of several weeks or even months to get you interested. With the added weight of a secret stalker on your psyche, it only draws you closer to his "welcoming" arms.

Brian isn't quite to the point where he sees himself as a sole provider. Once again, it's more interesting for him if you have at least a few interests beyond him. Like a beach episode in an anime, Brian sees your endeavors outside of your home as a welcomed (but temporary) change in setting. Not nearly enough people acknowledge that the Marble Hornets guys are from Alabama, in my opinion. It's not exactly the most progressive state, and Brian likely holds some toxic masculine values. He thinks of himself as a sort of "man of the house." You should listen to him, and he expects you to dedicate a lot of time to your relationship. In his mind, he dedicates a lot of time to you, even if most of that dedication is unknown to you.

Before he even went forward with inserting himself into your narrative, he was already interfering with the others in your life. He tries to act all stoic, but he is still very possessive at the end of the day. I've explained that some of the other characters find their possessiveness and jealousy rooted in their insecurities. Brian is certainly not immune to those feelings, but I think his issues stem from what I can best describe as an objectification of others. He views you almost like a hobby, something that he puts his free time into. He feels an almost bitter jealousy when others try to catch your attention with less than half of the pristine planning and attention to detail he executed. Just as he can stalk you, he can stalk others. He will make his watchful presence much more malicious and well known to the people he wants out of your life.

His go to forms of affection are acts of service and quality time. Ignoring that he sees stalking you as a form of quality time, he likes taking you on dates. His appearance isn't something too noteworthy to most people, so he can easily ditch the mask (if you even know he has one) and hit the town. He's a big fan of dinner and a movie or a little nature hike if you're interested in more outdoorsy activities like him. If you're more into stay-home dates, he'll happily watch a movie from the comfort of your couch and help you cook a dinner for two.

As for acts of service, he takes pride in the fact that he's a bit of a handyman. It's not like you can exactly get the usual help when you live secretly in the woods as a proxy of an immortal eldritch being. If you so much as breathe a word of issue about something in your home, he's on it. Carrying something heavy? He'll get it for you. It doesn't matter if you can do it yourself, he's going to do it now. Weaponized incompetence fears him. Asking Brian to do a task for you almost always ensures it will get done within the day.

He doesn't honestly care too much for physical affection. As I've already established, he's happy to do damn near anything you ask of him. If you want attention that way, simply ask. In general, he asks for very little in return. Although, when he does get around to asking for more, there's no guarantee he won't push your boundaries a little uncomfortably.

On the topic of communication, he's not very talkative and prefers to listen to you instead. Words of affection are few and far between, but he does have some quirks. It won't take an army for him to tell you he loves you, and he has a sleeve full of endearing nicknames to call you ("love" is his favorite).

Kagekao

Where do I even start with Kage.

He doesn't have any specific preference if you're a worker of Slender just like him or not. If asked why he does anything for the creature, he'll say it's simply because it's the "best" arrangement in this modern age. On the surface, that's a pretty reasonable explanation given that demons aren't exactly common or readily accepted members of society. However, the real reason is that Slender gets what it wants and is a hell lot more powerful than Kage. The demon begrudgingly does what he has to and tries to spend the rest of his time getting the fun he would prefer.

While some of the others might begin their interests by watching from afar, Kage pops into your life right off the bat. He finds entertainment in watching, but it's so much more interesting to have those interactions up close. Especially if you're not as familiar with inhuman entities, Kage takes pleasure in eliciting those responses of perplexion from you.

Living in a world largely populated by what he perceives as "weak humans," he's gained quite the ego. If you're not a demonic entity, he most certainly considers himself superior to you in all ways. Even if you are a demonic entity, he has a very specific criteria for what he considers to be a "real" demon and would still likely see himself as better. On the other hand, his underestimation of you tends to lead to interesting reactions in the case that you can pack a bit of a punch against the demon. (*cough* he's into it *cough*)

Like Tim, a relationship with Kagekao wouldn't ever really get a chance to be defined because he likes to bounce in and out of your life on a dime. Although, he certainly doesn't feel any guilt or even apprehension to pursue his interests in you. He recognizes you could get targeted by some less favorable attention (Slender being the worst), but he's interested in seeing how you'd react.

He is absolutely with other people in addition to you. I can't imagine he has many relationships that are too far past friends with benefits (everyone wants to fuck a demon, this app proves it), but I wouldn't put it past him. For that reason, he tends to turn a blind eye to your escapades. That being said, if your relationship with him borders on something more romantic, he expects you to have no other romantic partners.

Because he's not too consistently involved in your life, Kage isn't the most possessive on the list. On occasion, he'll express his opinions on the other people you spend your time with, but they're usually empty threats. If they really upset him, he'll eliminate them from your life. Does that mean death? Or simply scaring them off? You don't really want to know.

Like many of these guys, Kage isn't big on clear demonstrations of love like physical affection or words. His best show of affection is gift giving. He's not quite a kleptomaniac, but he does have what can only be described as a dragon's hoard of shiny trinkets. If asked, he won't say any of them are particularly special. Though, he does have a lengthy story for how he acquired each one, and he won't just readily give them out... except for you. Especially if he has matching sets of something, he'll tend to gift you one of the halves. You might not necessarily want or even like all the trinkets Kage gifts you, but you'll have to keep and display them. If not, Kage will do a bit of redecorating for you

Gotta let the brain worms speak on this one, he likes to offer you help, but he is not actually helpful. Kage thinks he can do practically anything. He's a demon in a human's world, after all. But can he actually follow through? No. Not at all. He gives up on tasks pretty easily when they stop being interesting. Even in the case that he goes through with completing the whole thing, you might have preferred to just do it yourself.

Don't get me wrong, his affections aren't all bad. He tends to think he's too good for physical affection, but he can be surprisingly sweet and comforting. Additionally, while he won't say it out loud, you might find that one of his gifts has an oddly romantic inscription etched on it. Trust, Kage makes up for his shortcomings.

[thatbirdguyy]

Hi Nic, hope you’re well!

I saw on twitter that you said you’re interested/tempted to rewrite Lost Worlds Story and do art for it. So just wanted to ask how you’d go about changing the story? Would love to know what idea you have for it!

Oh I love Sonic lost world! But it has such major flaws I wanted to see if I can take my spin on it.

Sonic lost world has this very blunt and colourful world building, that pretty cool, and the mechanics are awesome, but it wants to tell a story of everything slowly falling apart around Sonic and it feels very very forced and rushed. The constant jokes and missing plot holes sadly do no good either, so fixing the story could probably make the game majorly better! I won't change the story for what it starts with and what it leds to, but I will improve it by simply adding more dialogue, fixing some the dialogue and retelling scenes in a less jokey and rushed way, so the impact of the actual intention is felt.

Sonic especially, but even Tails is really just a bratty teenager who feels the need to whine and brag about every single thing in the story till he's captured. And Sonic's whole "character development" feels forced. He isn't a character that needs to learn. You can make a powerful and heart changing story without needing to change a character to fit the plot. Certain scenes are more bearable than others. There isn't even a lot to change about Sonic lost world, just the set of the scenes and some dialogue with the character's execution in expression need work.

I already thought about a few things! Like for example in terms of character writing, I'm not going to make Tails the most confident person, I want to consider frontiers in this but I will likley make him similar to be the Tails that he was in adventure, just so we keep the sorta inconsistent character plot here. He knows his tricks and skills, but he's still very much unsure about it and doesn't know how to intervene in the fights. Low self esteem and such. But he does help and he isn't baggy about it. So yeah, less cowardly, less snarky but still distant towards unknown danger. (Which btw is very in character for him).

Sonic on the other hand, gets this whole, snarky jokey behaviour removed. I'll still leave some jokes in, like for example the whole chonch kick away section, that was fine. But at most, I'll rather make him annoyed working with Eggman. I want the deadly six to be an actual threat for everyone, but Sonic does see them as just another enemy to deal with until the whole situation goes downhill. You can put Sonic in that serious situation but rather than making him whine, make him want to take action, let him be temperamental in this instant. Like, his brother is kidnapped!? His friends- no everyone is dying down below!? Sonic's not gonna sit down and joke around, he's gonna go out there are do this his way, in his favour. He has no fear, he won't back down not when everything and everyone is in danger.

I know this game was speaking to kids, so I will hold back with the very angsts lead, but I will make the story less cheerful and more toned down to the themes it was going for. The world building could be such a good contrast, even ironic considering the dark themes they were trying to implement but couldn't quite capture. So I'll get my hands on this, and see what I can do. Staying faithful, but not too faithful.

[imagitory]

Not to call anyone out because everyone's entitled to their opinion and I don't want anyone getting attacked for theirs...but I saw a pro-Calypso post on an Epic the Musical community I can't reply to that kind of sent me spiraling that asked why Beast from Beauty and the Beast gets so much less hate than Calypso does when they "did the same thing."

Now I don't know if we're talking Disney's animated classic Beauty and the Beast specifically or the OG fairy tale or whatever, but um...have we forgotten the fact that Belle chose to stay with the Beast? And that Odysseus, in contrast, had no choice in whether to end up on or stay on Calypso's island? On the contrary -- Ody not only actively wants off, but he is so unhappy at the thought he'll never get home that he tries to unalive himself at one point. Then of course if we're talking Disney's Beauty and the Beast in particular, we can point out that Belle stays because she gave her word, not because she was physically unable to leave, and she leaves the castle out of fear for her own safety after going into the West Wing and enraging the Beast ("promise or no promise"), only to take the Beast back because he saves her life and is badly hurt in the process. Then the two nurture a real friendship -- something Odysseus and Calypso never did, in all their time together -- before Beast willingly lets Belle go with no expectation that she'd return, let alone break the spell on him and the castle servants. In contrast, in Not Sorry For Loving You, Calypso doubles down on how she treated Odysseus and turns everything into a pity-party for herself. She acts like she's sorry about how she treated him, but frames her disregard for his boundaries and freedom as her "coming on too strong" without ever acknowledging that she legitimately ignored Ody's feelings and wishes at the expense of her own. She uses the abusive-partner playbook to the nth degree, attempting to invalidate any hate Odysseus might legitimately feel toward her for what she did by passive-aggressively acting like it's his fault that he didn't accept her "love" for what it was ("and if you hate me, then I'm sorry my love's too much for you"). She even gets upset about why he "won't love her too" even though she knows full well he's a married man still very in love with his wife Penelope, who Calypso has been purposefully separating him from for years. Oh yeah, and on that note, Odysseus is already romantically committed to someone else, so Calypso has even less reason to presume Ody should return her feelings. Even Beast, who is in love with a single person and also has a ticking clock over him to fall in love quickly to break the curse on him and all of his servants, loves Belle sincerely enough that he didn't get angry or resentful at the thought that she might not love him back. He doesn't try to guilt-trip her into loving him. Even though in the original Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, there are a lot more toxic elements -- such as the Beast claiming he'll die if Belle doesn't return to him -- that doesn't change the fact that Belle has some agency in her situation, with the Beast connecting emotionally with this single woman over time in a way that she comes to see him as a dear friend despite his hideous appearance. And of course just about all adaptations of the story heavily lean away from or outright subvert the original's more problematic elements because they're rightly seen as toxic.

Look -- I don't see any problem with anyone feeling pity for Calypso. With her lonely backstory and lack of knowledge of how to interact with others, it's easy to. I could even see people arguing she cared for Odysseus in her own weird way. But that doesn't change how much she disrespected Odysseus's agency and used her goddess-y powers to keep him just as trapped on her island as she was, at the expense of his and his family's happiness. I personally view Calypso as a very well-developed anti-villain for this reason -- she can claim she loved Odysseus...but if she did, she didn't know what love really is, because love at its core is about selflessness, and Calypso at her core is incredibly selfish.

[agentblizz]

!!my thing!!

everyone please ask your ttrpg friends about ttrpg regularly, or else we fucking die

gonna go over how this would work as specified in the original post and then break down the subclass as a whole, tl;dr at the end

So Wizards take a subclass at level 2, as opposed to the most common level 3, which means that you're going to be even more squishy than the average participant if you spin a Wizard, but War Magic is a great counterbalance for the Wizards historical ragdollability.

War Magic is described as, at its core, a hybridization of Abjuration and Evocation, which essentially boil down to defensive magic and offensive spellblasting, respectively. a War Mage focuses on bolstering themselves early on to ensure they can keep a continuous stream of high damage throughout an encounter.

Intelligence is a Wizards primary stat, which is why the War Mages level 2 feature Tactical Wit is especially helpful. When rolling initiative, a War Mage may add their Intelligence bonus to their initiative roll. Great feature (as long as you don't roll like ass), ensures you can throw up some defenses before an enemy would have the opportunity to attack you.

Their other level 2 feature, Arcane Deflection, is slightly less useful but still a great asset in a tough spot, with one major drawback. when a War Mage is attacked or forced to make a saving throw, they can use their reaction to add a bonus to their armor class. Arcane Deflection grants a +2 to AC against an attack roll and/or a +4 to a saving throw. Ideally saved for saving throws, as it's a better bonus and you would have presumably already cast Shield by now, but that +2 could be the difference between life and death (In fact it most likely will be, as you likely have 14-16 HP as of level two). The drawback of using this feature, however, besides the obvious expense of your reaction, is that until the end of your next turn, you cannot use leveled spells, only cantrips. This is a pretty flat ability at level 2 as with limited spell slots you would be relying on cantrips pretty heavily, but at higher levels when you need to spend some slots to keep up with your party, it could be detrimental. The ideal situation to use this feature in would be when you are already out of spell slots, as you receive no penalty and you don't have the option to cast a reaction spell instead of using this feature.

Throwing defined mechanics out the window in favor of the in-universe feel and use of the subclass, a War Mage is always trying to get the jump on an opponent. The typical strategy is to throw up a Shield or comparable spell and start blasting. War Mages are usually highly trained, respected individuals who would have no need to hide their power, and even if they did, a wizard does not need to perform magic to live, so you could easily hide yourself by simply not using your powers. It would be, IMO, a pretty ideal setup.

Ok now we talk about the rest of the subclass cuz they're rlly interesting!!

At level 6 the War Magic Wizard unlocks a feature called Power Surge, a pool of charges (aptly called "Power Surges") that can be used to deal some free extra damage. Once per turn when they deal damage to a creature with a spell from the wizard spell list, a War Mage can expend a Power Surge to deal additional force damage equal to half of their wizard level. at the time you get this feature that's only 3 damage and it doesn't get much better, scaling to a maximum of 10 if you put all 20 levels in wizard. The reason this isn't completely useless is that Power Surges are incredibly easy to generate, and the feature itself requires no use of action economy. A War Mage can store a number of Power Surges equal to their Intelligence modifier with a minimum of one. You gain one Power Surge whenever you successfully end a spell using Dispel Magic or Counterspell, as you siphon the lingering magic from the spell you end. When you complete a short rest with zero Power Surges, you gain one. When you complete a long rest, your Power Surges are reset to one automatically.

At level 10 they unlock Durable Magic, which grants them a +2 bonus to AC and all saving throws when maintaining concentration on a spell. This incentivizes a War Mage to always keep a concentration spell going, ideally something defensive to maximize protection.

And finally at 14th level a War Mage acquires their final feature, Deflecting Shroud. A majorly needed upgrade to Arcane Deflection, when you activate Arcane Deflection as a reaction you automatically deal force damage equal to half your Wizard level to up to three creatures you can see within 60 feet.

War Mages have a lot more self-defense options than other Wizards, but they still have a low health pool, and benefit majorly from martial support.

tl;dr much safer a position to be in than most wizards but still pretty squishy, if you stick to civilian life or keep an escort of tanky adventurers you'll be fine. Plus magic is pretty convenient even when you're not out doing shit, and having no patron or sorcerous genetics means no drawbacks to using it besides maybe being a little tired.

Spin this dang wheel of every 5e subclass. You are hit by a truck and end up on the Sword Coast as that class, at the level you select that subclass.

[lacunasbalustrade]

and yeah, you know by now that it does more harm than good to talk when you’re down like this. you’re aware that your usual saccharine ways of responding and replying is more suited than whatever this is - saying things that can’t change anything.

this isn’t productive. you aren’t doing anything productive. just trying not to drown in the tears that chase your every footstep and invite themselves into your breath. this won’t change anything.

so let me be indulgent, today, and tell the same lies I always tell later to the concerned who read my page. let me indulgent now, and say later that I’m over it and what they give me is enough to heal. it never will be, but it will always light a small portion of my oath and path for me. it will be another small reason tugging at my sleeve and asking me to stay behind.

let me be self-contradictory. let me forgive myself for burying all the pain and willing it to grow. it only became a vine that choked me, but how could I have known? let me forgive me, for taking their words to heart. for wrapping myself up in the consoling idea of self-reliance. let me forgive them, too, for not loving me. let me indulge again in silly posts and stupid jokes.

touch your own bruised cheek. let me forgive me for not having the capacity to be kindly silent right now.

[cowchickenbeefpork]

It is fascinating to me that Edward nygma is the only man who has someone in love with them kill their lover and justify it. Every time this happens to a character besides from Ed it happens to a female character. The fact his own desperation to not face responsibility for doing that action toward a woman makes this more tragic

[la-galaxie-langblr]

It's so jover part 2

[serpentine-illusion]

I was asked to elaborate so I shall elaborate. (This like, applies to the at this point multiverse of delusional plot lines me and @plague-brat have going on which involve their OC Johanna [you've heard of her she's our famous redhead] but also my little plotlines around copia, Cirrus, aether etc. AND I will elaborate further regarding those three and this situation whenever I make my part 2 of that one delusional post I have made about them and yes I WILL REPEAT Myself probably)

ANYWAY ( please mind this is DEPRESSING AF)

-how tf did we get here? Oh the clergy is very very sick of their plans getting cut short.

-primo is probably the only one who actually was kind of into the whole cult thing or whatever but as we all know primo is clinically insane and very hard to control in all aspects

-secondo simply does not give a shit. If he doesn't want to do smth he will simply not do it. And he doesn't want to do a lot of things. Secondo lowkey cuts his own term short by just being purposefully horrible at being Papa, he cannot be fucked and it makes Sister and the rest of the clergy so so mad.

-terzo simply flew too close to the sun and got lost in the sauce. He develops such a big head at some point and gets way too caught up in the showmanship and attention he gets as Papa. He has an #attitude that especially Sister is not very fond of and is an absolute nightmare to deal with when he gets in a mood

-Copia is difficult!!! He's sort of easy to manipulate and lacks the arrogance and self importance of the others but is also bratty and takes direction horribly (50% unintentionally, 50% weaponized incompetence)

-Copia is also the world's most unfortunate nepo baby. He's the clergys only option and his relation to Sister and nihil put the expectations impossibly high. He's so obviously not cut out to have this much responsibility and absolute crumbles under the pressure almost immediately but he is too scared of disappointing that he would never admit it.

-and everyone is so mad and angry at him, although they knew this would absolutely happen. Sister especially is absolutely sick of it, she hyped copia up in her brain to an insane degree and she's not really up for another disappointment, ESPECIALLY not if it's her own son

-over the course of the Cardinal era everything grows out of control. Copia is under a lot of pressure, he's very emotional. He is a such an emotional and deeply insecure person and it's just totally bursting out of him at this point. He's a mess, he talks back, he cries, he regrets and he expresses how much he despises himself and this entire circus.

-Sister herself reaches a breaking point to where the vision doesn't line up with reality and she absolutely cannot take it. ( I feel like Sister has her own issues when it comes to self worth, I feel like she def feels like she has to overcorrect and prove herself to especially show to Nihil just how bad he fumbled, so HER son out of all of them being the one that completely crashes out under the pressure makes her crash out a little as well.)

-so the only logical solution to shut him up quickly is, you guessed it 🪄lobotomy🪄

-pair this with the facial surgery this is some sort of twisted overhaul, hopefully a factory reset, whoever copia was before this would hopefully be lost and be replaced with Papa IV

-(note: this initially did start because we got rly obsessed with how different his body language and demeanor is between Cardinal and Papa IV)

-and honestly in Sisters eyes it works? Copia is still going through it, probably even worse than before, but at least he's quiet about it, cause his brain is honestly so fucking foggy and all over the place he couldn't even try to find the words to express how he is feeling

-hes like, way less engaged, spaces out all the time, paperwork takes 3 times as long as it used to, Cirrus and Aether do a lot of it behind closed doors, because it takes copia ages, rereading the same passages over and over and over and just not being able to lock in on it at all

-his fuse is crazy short after this, his mood is unpredictable, moodswings left and right

-hes still so incredibly soft at his core but he feels his old self slipping away further and further every day. Just remembering things HE enjoys, his favourite colour, movies he likes, memories he made, it's all slowly fading into a pile of nothingness. So deeply buried and he never has the energy to go digging for anything.

Copia after he becomes papa

(Yes copia gets lobotomized before he becomes Papa, @plague-brat and me love angst )

[bmpmp3]

another vague Mai fandesign i was working on

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

was thinking abt that thing from a lil while ago where arceus cuts ingo's heart out, to spare him having to be sad about his former life. and then also got to thinking abt that thing i briefly mentioned a WHILE ago which is the idea that the reason ingo has no apparent language barrier w/ hisui is that uxie hotswapped his language from unova's to hisui's rq while he was falling as like a "sorry about your memories" consolation prize. and abt how, despite the very silly way i phrased that, that is actually like a supremely fucked up thing to do to a person and i would also consider it metaphysical violence on some level.

so anyway like. alt version where instead of it being arceus, it gets the whole lake trio in on it. mesprit takes out his heart, uxie takes out his tongue

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

finished helluva boss and now i have Thoughts

[lovelikehomicide]

My interpretation was that merging with the reflection actually didn't add anything to the vampires, but erased a part of them--like a tole.

I get that this doesn't fit with how the series presents the reflections as sentient beings, but hear me out:

Mirrors often serve as metaphors for self-awareness and empathy. We tend to be kinder to people we 'see ourselves' in. We 'hold a mirror up to' people when we want them to recognise their own mistakes. Mirrors can be used to represent truth and reality beyond what a character wants to see/what they think is best for themselves.

If we continue with the idea that mirrors represent self-awareness and empathy, losing your reflection would mean giving up those feelings. People who are incapable of feeling empathy (and there are a variety of conditions that cause this--I'm trying not to draw any direct parallels, given I'm talking about a work of fiction) tend to also struggle with guilt and remorse, unless the situation directly harms them. They also generally don't feel shame or embarrassment, as those emotions require you to care what others think of you, which is arguably an empathetic response (again, being very general here).

It's my headcanon, then, that merging with their reflection eliminates a vampire's capacity for emotional empathy. This would be beneficial for the survival of their race, as their primary method of feeding requires hurting/killing other members of their species (vampires are human, after all) in a very intimate way, which would be extremely traumatic for the average person. In addition, the amount of war, death and suffering anyone who lives for centuries would be forced to witness would quickly become unbearable.

We see evidence of this over the course of the show.

Ingrid shows guilt and empathy in season 1, particularly in 'Slaytime TV', where she admits to tricking her father because she doesn't like how upset it made Vlad, and 'countdown', when she saves the Branaughs. There's a lot less of those moments in later seasons. She sacrifices an entire netball team in an attempt to slay her brother, is onboard with executing her father until she finds out he actually loves her, and doesn't seem to feel anything when anyone she's bitten gets dusted. While she seemed to care about the Branaughs prior to her transformation, the implication is that she didn't contact them for the three years following season 2, despite still being in the Stokely Castle.

Boris didn't have much character development beyond being an anxious person and afraid of the transformation. The most apparent change is in his confidence, which could be the result of no longer caring what others think of him. Research has found a strong link between high empathy and anxiety.

Finally, let's look at how Vlad changes after the merge. He's more confident, but that could be put down to him no longer caring if he hurts someone else's feelings. He shows little remorse for dusting people, unless it turns out he was wrong about his reasons (more about his own sense of morality than any actual care for the person), and doesn't hesitate when doing so. In season 5, when he finds out his entire family would be punished if the council learnt about Sally, he genuinely doesn't seem to understand why his father would value their unlives over Vlad's curiosity. He tries to rationalise his selfishness, but he does genuinely seem to struggle to understand his father's very valid concerns.

The sadism we see in Sweet Sixteen and Bad Vlad may be side-effects of bloodlust. In these episodes, both Ingrid and Vlad are coming into their full powers, which are most likely fuelled by blood, so they would be starving. Vlad had already existed for months without feeding his powers, so the added bloodlust that came with increasing them would have been overwhelming. The sadism created by bloodlust would also be a survival mechanism to keep the more moralistic new vampires, like Vlad and Boris, from starving themselves.

I know this doesn't entirely fit with the canon, but I found myself overthinking the concept of the transformation and what it actually does, so this has been knocking around my head for a while.

some part of vlad, even if it was only little has always been a bit evil

ok, so this post is me rambling about vlad and the fact that even though he seems directly opposite to his dad and sister in the way that he doesn't drink blood and wants nothing but peace, a tiny bit of him isn't like that

obviously the best episode we can look to is "bad vlad" when he goes full evil from his reflections possessing him

in my opinion, their reflection isn't a diffrent being entirely. in some capacity,it is part the vampire looking into it. even for the least evil of characters, it focuses in on that tiny shred of darkness in them, and magnifies it. for those already evil, like ingrid or the count, this is fine, because its barely a change. but for Boris and vlad we see that it creates a massive difference. Boris goes crazy with power and vlad almost kills the count,ingrid and erin for a second.

Then, in the episodes following, we see him do stuff he wouldn't have done before and vlad gets to lashout at people (and rightly so 90% of the time) now you could use that as a way to prove that, no a fraction of vlad wasn't evil, he was just dealing with the merging of him and his reflections. but as I said, the reflection is showing who that tiny part of vlad could be.the only thing is,now that little part he kept locked away is getting to come out more through his actions and words and everything.

and then, he bites erin.

while it was in order to save her, he was pretty resigned to doing it until ingrid persuaded him against it.and we know (again from bad vlad) that he tried to bite erin twice. that might just be because he was hungry and she happened to be a breather, but (we're kinda getting into headcannons now) I think that after that or maybe even before, he has wanted to bite her. he mentioned he gets bad cravings sometime at the start of season 3 and erin was the only breather other than renfeild in the house. so there is a possibility of him wanting to bite her before then.

i might be clutching at straws a little with this but I don't care. I do not think that vladnis in no way at all a lille bit on the evil side

[graff-aganda]

I keep thinking about this (and it's not exactly a high bar to reach or anything) but the way Biosphere handled the gender/sex stuff was like the perfect blend of in character for two middle aged cis dudes (from the story perspective) and also being mindful/aware/respectful of transgender people (from a more meta perspective, though somewhat in the story also) and it honestly just kind of impressed me.

[rivilu]

ok you know. the Ellu in dav crossover au is very fun but i am a little bit enchanted by the concept of him AND Rynn at once. Best of both worlds in a sense.

[prince-kallisto]

👆👆👆 THIS. It is pretty refreshing, and very intriguing that Ace was actually able to snap himself out of the breaking of the dream. And I’m currently reading live tweets right, but it MAKES SENSE that Ace says he doesn’t want to put his life on the line for this, especially as someone without a UM yet. Like idk I feel like that would actually be my reaction to all of this 😭💦 Like YES, he was chosen to be at NRC for a reason, he does have a lot of fortitude and potential. But at the same time like, this whole situation and plan is SO WILD ASNCNFJFJ 😭💦💦💦 especially in the context of just the main story, where these boys know each other way less than vignettes/events suggest

BABDHFHF…I’m sacrificing my (very understandably) tired Diasomnia moots for a corn chip for the chance of getting staff dreams abdbdbrbhf 🤣🤣 admittedly I’m burnt out from the dreams…but I can do it for staff members 🫡 I’ve been saying this for an entire year now, but for a plan that revolves around magical power and expertise, we are missing five characters here 😚😚😚 Please…we must be getting staff SSR cards now for a reason… <- copium

Oh my…Ace is putting up surprisingly a lot of resistance about this, just truly going along with the dream world. It’s interesting how Silver, Sebek, and Idia are- not exactly “clashing,” but Ace is finally introducing an uneasiness for their plans against Malleus that wasn’t present before. Interesting…although, I do have to agree with Ace that going up in battle against Malleus as just a handful of students isn’t working. Maybe…maybe we need some teachers- *gets run over by the dark carriage*