#these stats are so wrong oof

[whump-side]

I posted 156 times in 2022

63 posts created (40%)

93 posts reblogged (60%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@whump-side

@imperfection-you-will-find

@leyswhumpdump

@animewhumpydoo

@callaeidae3

I tagged 147 of my posts in 2022

Only 6% of my posts had no tags

#ask - 50 posts

#whump - 42 posts

#whumptober2022 - 25 posts

#whump art - 20 posts

#old stuff - 19 posts

#anon - 13 posts

#other's whump art - 13 posts

#oc: rapunzel - 7 posts

#whump prompts - 7 posts

#whump ask game - 6 posts

Longest Tag: 96 characters

#so my only way to go back to my fav whump moment was either to borrow the manga from the library

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Everyone loves some good ol' riding double on a horse with injured whumpee; what about a modern take on the trope with whumpee slumped against their friend on the back of a motorcycle? I can picture your secret agent characters making their escape that way after a mission gone wrong

Yes, yes, yes !!! Now I need to draw that! Thanks for the idea Anon !! :D

101 notes - Posted July 5, 2022

#4

I was thinking about the hidden injury trope lately and you know what's equally good? The opposite of that: Whumpee being open and honest about their injuries. They're aware they're gonna need to bother Caretaker, but they also know that dealing with their injuries on their own is a bad idea. If things get worse, it's gonna make Caretaker's job more complicated eventually.

106 notes - Posted June 13, 2022

#3

When the weather gets colder, Birb people migrate to their secondary home in a warmer place. But due to Birb's condition and the fact he's still in hiding, they have to stay in Caretaker's primary home. Birb's immune system isn't what used to be after what he's been through. He often gets sick, especially now that it gets cold outside. While it's nothing too serious, being sick is never a pleasant experience for Birb, but thankfully for him, he has always Caretaker by his side.

213 notes - Posted October 30, 2022

#2

FEBUWHUMP 2022 DAY 13: won’t regain consciousness

342 notes - Posted February 13, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Everything is alright now

588 notes - Posted March 21, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[spectrum-studios]

Tales of Torment au update logs!

If you don't want spoilers to the base game, then I recommend you go play the game!

Anyways all logs will be in order of their post! Past the read more line!

Log 1

Also the au name is Divine Torment/ Tales of Torment.

So it starts off like any normal story, but instead of the player [in this au they are addressed as Vona] (or however you wish to address them) being normal, they were cursed by what seemed to be angels, but they weren't later discovered by Cruel King who accompanies them as they share a very similar goal. they weild a white sword that's shackled to the dominant fighting arm! (Yes, it does hurt Vona/player if they let the blade go at all) and the only "assumed way to break the chains" is to aquire all the swords so they can be a regular mortal again and just recover. Vona/player does expirence episodes of torment from the curse.

And that's what I have for the time being

Have a great day/night!

Log 2

We got some updates to Tales of Torment au! Especially the one responsible for the divine curse!

But it's mainly character relationships for this one!

For a start, Cruel King and Vona/ player are allies with a shared goal also because Vona/player snapped CK out of the Ice dagger's hold and he wants to repay the kindess also because Vona, didn't kill a single knight.

Noobabor, Blue, and Red are friends after their second encounter on thy train. (They actually met when the 3 were on a mission to um oof someone but called it off after having a brief talk)

(I struggle with his name, correct me please if i spelled it wrong) Shelenski has been friends with Vona/player for some years way before the events of Block Tales. His goal is to break the divine curse!

Griefer is an uneasy ally... he kinda wittness the horrors of what Vona's Curse does and just immediately assumed the Venom Shank did the same.

Log 3

Tales of Torment au update time!!!!

First off, we have Divine rivalry. Aka Karen's yelling and even kicking each other's butt's. And we all have a new enemy opponent type known as Divine Champions! Aka people who succumb to the Divine curse and are lost under the Divine's influence (or propaganda).

The first one, Vona/player and CK fight, actually comes from the Blackrock calvary!

It also introduces a new attack pattern for both sides! It acts like the slingshots in base game, but the number of hits can vary in a big range of numbers. (Ex. 20 hits or 10 hits!) And theoretically, you can attack infinitely with this attack pattern if you had the energy!

Also, if you are curious, all battle areas/arenas for Divine Champions are like a crumbling version of the place they came from!

Heres a translation for different mechanics atm: Ticks! = health points!

Now, to plot stuff! Shelenski almost dies again but is saved in the nick of time! And Vona/player now has the first out of many cursed swords and an ally! And both CK and Vona/player got sent to the hospital after beating a Divine Champion, CK literally got impaled by a spear, and there are no plans for him to die, so don't worry! We also had the first possession episode for Vona/player in the story.

And finally, some very basic stats:

Vona/player has extremely high stats as they've won battles over the span of 5 years, but they don't have the ability to equip battle cards except for call cards. (self explanatory as allies tend to stick by them) most attacks they preform deal HEAVY amounts of damage which ends up one shotting most enemies anything at a boss level or mini boss will take 2 to 5 hits.

Cruel King was freed from his ice dagger curse and has gotten a very fast mental recovery! He deals the same amounts of damage like base game, but his health is beefer thanks to him wearing his old adventurer armor. He does now knows the new attack pattern and is slowly getting used to it! (He originally thought it was cheating because he's never even seen anything like it, lol)

--_--_--_--_--_--

And that's all for now! Have a great day or night!

[dapg-otmebytheballs]

weirdest thing is that my rejection sensitive dysphoria actually get triggered by dan and phil. like, the fact that their views are only in the hundred thousands instead of the millions actually triggers my rsd for some reason, which makes NO SENSE. the same goes for the bad reactions to dan's catboy photoshoot. it probably means i'm too parasocial, but its like, i feel genuinely bad and like screaming or crying, or like i'm wrong and the world is wrong just because their views aren't what they used to be. its so fucking weird.

anyway, everyone go watch the past vids in the background as you do shit on loop, lets get them to 1mil views per vid.

Oof I understand this. It's kinda v similar to people saying mean things about your special interest/hyperfixation and that making you feel much worse than some random person's opinion should. We do have to figure out how to work through it ourselves or we'll end up always being miserable lol, but having a space to talk about it like this helps! Same here though, when they aren't doing well a part of me is so genuinely sad about it, and a little scared, I feel like every success they have gives me hope and every failure makes me keenly aware of my own. They've had such a positive response from the viewers with the return though, so I'm quite glad for it! The numbers certainly aren't what they used to be, we'll all eventually rewatch everything tho lol, it's gonna get there. Even bigger youtubers than them have trouble hitting a mil views on usual videos nowadays (yes I checked, sometimes stats are fun XD)

[fierykitten2]

One argument I see Team Scarlet use against Team Violet is “Iron Thorns sucks because it has a lower base stat total than Tyranitar” which admittedly isn’t wrong but they sorta act like this is the only case where it happens (I swear this argument is used against Iron Thorns not Iron Jugulis and I think the reason is that Iron Jugulis is hated on exclusively for looking “too similar” to Hydreigon, in which case, have you considered getting your eyes tested (this is a joke - you really don’t need to get your eyes tested if you hate on Iron Jugulis)? Also anyone who hates on Iron Jugulis has never seen its joy animation, though I guess that’s not surprising if you hate it). So, while accidentally proving a situation where Violet is clearly losing if you look at how many times this happens, I’m gonna show every Paradox Pokémon that is a downgrade from its modern day counterpart when you exclusively check base stat total

Firstly Iron Jugulis and Iron Hands from Hydreigon and Tyranitar

Only a decrease of 30, doesn’t seem too bad

Next, Roaring Moon to Salamence

Ten, admittedly better, but it took a downgrade in speed, special defence and HP and a minor downgrade in attack. Oof

Next up, because it’s based on their Mega Evolutions, Iron Valiant from Mega Gardevoir and Mega Gallade

28, I can kinda see why Thorns is the one getting picked on (but still don’t understand why Jugulis doesn’t get picked on for this)

Wait, that example only works if we’re talking about Megas, and you know which Paradox Pokémon is also based on the Mega of its modern day counterpart?

Oh dear, that’s a downgrade of 110! And comparing that to the combined decreases for Jugulis, Thorns and Valiant (only counting Valiant once): 30+30+28 is 88. 110>88. Thanks for coming to my TED talk I never want to hear you slander my baby Iron Thorns like that again

[eldritchsurveys]

1161.

Number of Movies/Documentaries I Watched in 2023: 226 Genre I Watched the Most in 2023: I... don't know. horror, probably. Mike showed me what I was doin wrong with using Lboxd so when I take this for 2024 I should hopefully have stuff like genre stats

1. Best Movies I Watched In 2023? >> from each month, one new-to-me favourite and one old favourite that I rewatched: 1. Hagazussa / Velvet Goldmine 2. Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul. / Twelve Monkeys 3. Nanny / The Fly 4. Sugar & Spice / Dead Ringers 5. Rigor Mortis / Birds of Prey 6. Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse / Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story 7. You Won't Be Alone / Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey 8. Swiss Army Man / His House 9. In the Earth / The Woman 10. Perfect Blue / Silence 11. Akira / The House That Jack Built 12. Angel Heart (didn't rewatch a fave in December)

2. Movie I Was Excited About & Thought I Was Going To Love More But Didn’t? >> I wasn't exactly excited about Beau is Afraid but I definitely thought I would enjoy it more than I did. the first 20-30 minutes or so were pretty fun and weird but then it just... *longsuffering sigh* I had also hoped The Blackening would be a bit funnier than it turned out to be. still watchable and I'd still like more Black horror-comedies, but I definitely wanted more guffaws out of it. I'm not even gonna bother talkin about Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania... (at least Kang was good) OH! Renfield! THAT'S the one I was excited for and heavily disappointed by. I knew there was one (also, Last Voyage of the Demeter. not at all my favourite year for Dracula movies, that's for sure)

3. Most Surprising (in a good way) Movie I Watched in 2023? >> I was surprised by both Akira and Perfect Blue because I just assumed they would be a bit inscrutable to me (when a lot of "buffs" speak highly about a work I assume it's some shit I won't understand), but they really drew me in. also surprised by Host (2020) which I'd assumed would be watchable but not really anything to write home about considering the gimmick. but they pulled that one off pretty well!

4. Movie I “Pushed” The Most People To Watch (And They Did) In 2023? .

5. Best Sequel of 2023? Best Ending of a Movie I Watched in 2023? >> Across the Spider-Verse and as for ending I'm just gonna agree with prev "can't beat a dancing naked man" (Saltburn) because that was pretty good

6. Most Action Packed/Thrilling Movies of the Year? >> the John Wick quadrilogy

7. Movie I Watched in 2023 That I Am Most Likely To Re-Watch in 2024? >> In the Earth, The Lodge, maybe Noroi? I might rewatch I Saw the Devil because for some reason I forgot a lot of that one despite enjoying it

8. Favorite Poster for a Movie I Watched in 2023? .

9. Most Memorable Characters/Talent of 2023? >> oof... can I just say Ben Wheatley (director) for talent because he really sucker-punched me with the two movies of his that I watched this year

10. Standout Writing / Directing of a Movie I Watched in 2023? >> obviously that goes to whoever wrote Call Girl Of Cthulhu

11. Most Thought-Provoking/Impactful Movies I Watched in 2023? >> The Vast of Night, Silence, Titane, Perfect Blue, Akira, Aniara. also 2001: A Space Odyssey except the thought it provoked was "why am I still fucking watching this" and the impact it had was "I'm annoyed to the point of anger and I have a splitting headache"

12. Movie I Can’t Believe I Waited Until 2023 To Finally Watch? >> Die Hard lmao. it was way more entertaining than I expected. also how did I go my whole life without ever learning that Alan Rickman was the bad guy in that also Battle Royale and ofc Akira

13. Favorite Scene From a Movie I Watched in 2023? >> oh man this is impossible, give me a break

14. Movie That Shocked Me The Most? (Because of a plot twist, character death, etc.) >> I didn't expect Swiss Army Man to be quite what it was (this is not a complaint, I loved it, but the whole farting business definitely threw me for a loop lol) honestly my bar for shock is seeing Oldboy for the first time last year having never had it spoiled for me and losing my whole ass MIND at the plot twist. nothing has come close to that since

15. OTP (One True Pairing) – You will go down with this ship? >> those two girls from Do Revenge

16. Favorite Non-Romantic Relationship? >> the vampire family in Near Dark

17. Best Movie I Watched In 2023 That I Watched Based SOLELY On A Recommendation From Somebody? >> Noroi: The Curse but also The Adjustment Bureau was an incredibly solid and cute flick (both Sparrow's recs)

18. Most Exciting Worldbuilding/Most Vivid Setting? >> ooo let's see... well, I did rewatch The Neverending Story this year :p Rigor Mortis had a really memorable setting for me but I wouldn't call it exciting OR vivid. like, it was just an apartment building lol. it was just... I don't know. I can't explain it. it sticks in ya El Hoyo (The Platform), maybe? definitely an intriguing setup and setting there. A Field in England was literally just a goddamn field in England but man.... I also like the new worldbuilding ideas Hellraiser (2022) brings to the table.

19. Movies That Put A Smile On My Face/Were The Most Fun To Watch? >> Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Ref, Cocaine Bear, Sugar & Spice, Airheads, Polite Society, Totally Killer, Do Revenge, D&D: Honor Among Thieves, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, Earth Girls are Easy, both Sister Acts, Call Girl of Cthulhu, Idle Hands, Van Helsing, and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. yeah there were a lot of these this year

20. Movie/Documentary That Made Me Cry Or Nearly Cry in 2023? >> Swiss Army Man and Akira, but also Velvet Goldmine, Do the Right Thing, Crooklyn, and Sister Act 2.

21. Hidden Gem Of The Year? >> not sure how to determine this

22. Movie That Crushed My Soul? >> [insert another snarky comment about 2001]

23. Most Unique Movie I Watched In 2023? >> so many of the movies I've seen this year were incredibly unique to me! let me see if I can find one I haven't already mentioned... ah yes, of course. how could I forget Mad God 💀

24. Movie That Made You The Most Mad (doesn’t necessarily mean you didn’t like it)? >> I will refrain from mentioning That Movie again (although that is the true answer lol) and instead I'll go with... Lake Mungo bc I thought that was gonna be way more interesting than it was just based upon the fact that the tumblr girlies used to be all over that shit back in the day

25. Notable Mentions of the Year? >> some more movies I really liked that didn't get a chance to get mentioned yet: The Banshees of Inisherin, Baskın, On the Count of Three, Hell House LLC, Ringu, and Mad Max 2.

Bonus: Favorite Movie Moment?

Bonus: Five Movies I Am Anticipating in 2024? >> Furiosa, the Joker sequel, apparently there's a new Alien flick coming out? Dune Part 1 was Fine, I guess, so I might as well see Part 2 🤷🏿‍♂️ meh

[honorhearted]

fandom ask meme: C, R, T!

This meme: (x) | @rhogeminid

C - A ship you have never liked and probably never will (be nice) Oof, I have so many for Ben, haha. But my least favorite is definitely Ben and GWash. I don't dig pseudo-i.ncest ships as a general rule of thumb, and the way the fandom has Ben constantly r**** by his superiors really, REALLY bugs me. But since the prompt said to "be nice," I'm just going to leave it at that lol.

R - A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships You mean literally ALL my ships? lmao I've always been drawn to rarepairs, save for my a.nime days, so I've often jokingly said I should go back to that JUST so I can get some dang fanfiction/fan art in my corner. Anyway, I didn't actually ship Ben with anyone when I watched the first time around -- but then fic experimentation and RP sucked me in. Basing it off of AO3 stats, Ben/Philomena is my "ship no one else ships" since there's zero fanfiction for it. I'd write it myself, but I'm too lazy and pressed for time lately. My other rarepairs have at least one fic, though the rest are mine LOL.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending, about anything at all (gender identity, sexual or romantic orientation, extended family, sexual preferences like top/bottom/switch, relationship with poetry, seriously anything) I don't bother getting into fandom arguments, so no, I'm not going to die defending anything lol, but if asked, I'll certainly give my opinions on certain topics (and you can find plenty of my deadset headcanons under my "my stoofs" and "meta" tags). I will say that I disagree with 98% of what the fandom says about Ben. The only thing I nod and agree with is that Ben is a high-strung "horse girl" with a praise k.ink lol. Everything else, I just turn a blind eye to cuz I'll get annoyed. Whenever we develop characters our own way, I think we can't help but think "no, WRONG" cuz the character becomes our "baby."

[unendingwanderlust]

Saw a few of those AO3 Wrapped for authors templates and they looked fun! Questions from here (I love how writing-focused it is! Way too many of these templates focus on stats, which can't be the best for one's mental health).

Answers and director's commentary below the cut:

Words written this year: 116,462

Most written rating: Explicit (is anyone surprised?)

Most written category (gen, m/m, m/f, f/f, other): M/M, followed by F/F.

Most written fandom: The Hobbit

Most written relationships: Here's the top 5:

Gimli/Legolas Greenleaf

Bard the Bowman/Thranduil

Thorin Oakenshield/Thranduil

Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield

Bard the Bowman/Thorin Oakenshield/Thranduil

3 of the above made it to the top 5 because of the Summitry series, I'm sure.

Favourite characters to write: I interpret this as "most written" because I couldn't pick a favorite to save my life. My top 5 is as follows:

Thranduil

Legolas

Tauriel

Thorin Oakenshield

Bard the Bowman

I feel like I must blame the Summitry series again for these results.

Honorary mentions: Gimli (always a pleasure to write!) and my OC for Thranduil's Wife, Laergliriel (I just know I'm going to have the time of my life when she shows up on the page).

Favourite additional tags (eg. hurt/comfort):

Established Relationship

Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot

Kinktober/Kinktober 2023

Anal Sex

Humor

I expected so, so much worse. There's always next year, right?

Favourite fic you wrote (+why if u want): That's such a hard question to answer because I enjoyed the process of all 50 fics that I wrote this year. If I absolutely had to pick one, I'd go with Of Spider Silk And Escaping Prisoners, my beloved! It was so much fun to work on from beginning to end.

Honorary mentions:

The King's Most Precious Jewel. Bagginshield with Thorin at the height of his dragon sickness? How could I not love writing this?

To Covet And Treasure. I'm SO NORMAL about this fic, I promise. It's also attached to the crown jewel of the World Of Our Own series, my biggest writing project to-date that I have no idea when I'm even going to finish/post. Hopefully soon.

On The Edge Of A Knife. There's just something so fun about Thranduil's mutually awkward crush on his wife-to-be. I also love writing him in his War of the Last Alliance era. So much angst, so much opportunity for character development.

Favourite paragraph(s) you wrote: That's a tough one. I'm going to go for a couple of paragraphs from This Time, Next Year because I love the Gothic romance ambiance of it:

That night, she dreamed strange dreams. She was in her body, and yet it belonged to another: male, with unfamiliar scars and different tattoos. Another body draped over hers, its weight a comfort for her weary heart. A sense of impending, inescapable doom hung between every kiss they shared, only momentarily chased away by whispered words of undying love and devotion.

and:

Legolas told her a tale of deep friendship that had blossomed in the ashes of ancient hatred; grudging respect between warriors that had grown into mutual affection, and eventually blazed into fires of passion. He told her of their first and last night as lovers, when they had joined their bodies and hearts before the final battle against evil. Legolas’s tale was long enough that, when he concluded, the sun sank into the horizon, only to be replaced by the waxing moon.

Favourite dialogue snippet you wrote: Another hard choice to make, but this takes the cake (from here):

Thranduil caught a whiff of pipeweed. Not even a heartbeat later, Laergliriel parted the foliage and came into view. She smiled and tucked her hair behind one ear, exposing the thin red line that ran from her temple to the corner of her mouth; a new acquisition.

“What is wrong with your face?!” Thranduil exclaimed.

Off to a splendid start. Those had to be his first words to her tonight!

Laergliriel sank to the ground beside him with a barely audible oof. She preserved the smile. “Of all the ways to call me ugly, Thranduil. Unfortunately, not all of us have been blessed with stunning good looks.”

WIP ideas for next year: A lot! But let's just do a top 5:

An untitled for now Gimli/Legolas fic set during the Quest of the Ring, during which Gimli recognizes that Legolas is his One and goes through every single stage of grief under the sun. It's about 60% finished, which means it might be the first multi-chapter fic I'll post in 2024. I estimate it's either going to be this or our next candidate:

Nocturne, a snippet of which lives here. Essentially, an AU where Maglor is the one who raises Legolas. A lot of fluff and a lot of angst with seriously complicated family dynamics (because, y'know, Second Kinslaying and Thranduil being from Doriath. Among other stuff).

The events of the War of the Last Alliance from Thranduil's point of view. A couple of scenes already written, lots of it outlined.

This is only an idea with no execution so far, but I'm itching to add a ghost hunting story to the There Goes The Neighborhood series. Especially since neither Legolas nor Tauriel believe in ghosts, but their half-sister surely does!

My AO3 profile will be 10 years old sometime in 2024, and what better way to celebrate than with a filthy little oneshot? It'll be Tolkien femslash, but that's all I'm going to reveal on the matter.

What you learned from writing this year: JUST POST THE DAMN THING! I have a chronic over-editing problem, which can be an issue if you're crazy enough to participate in Kinktober, Flufftober, and Whumptober in the same year. I re-wrote entire 2K+ word fics from scratch even though there was nothing wrong with them... never again.

[pikachumaniac10]

Remember how I said that the 13th shiny of violet had a 0 in the wrong atk stat... well, it's this one, lol!!

The team for the paldea's side is done ofc, but it's a shiny only playthrough, so I need raid mons!

First off is a mon that can check for ability thanks to trace, and lucky me, I got a gardevoir outbreak!

That helps a lot against dragon, poison, dark, and fighting type raids if I'm not hard countered.

Unlucky me got a 0 sp atk stat with a sp atk raising nature... and i had to ability capsule trace on cause it was syncronoise oof...

As soon as I get some room cleared out from my applin mm breed, the next shiny hunt for paldea will be for an HA mankey that will be an anilahape used for solo raiding!

[juniperberries-canisroot]

I opened my first Skyrim game on my main Switch to get refs for CL and Stalleo (the Switch that has like no storage left, no space to make saves in Skym and also crashes alot for that game) and I took a gander at CL's stats.

I knew they weren't going to be that good cause she was my first character, before I knew what I was doing, before I knew the ins and outs, before I knew to get certain perks in a certain order. I also did not have ANY CC stuff while making her. I made her with just the base game+DLC, so no easy leveling with destruction+UnBounded Storms. I got the CC stuff well after making her OP.

But, oof.

She's a stealth archer who only has ONE PERK that boosts the damage of her bow. Two out of three critical shot perks. NO alchemy perks, poopoo enchanting perks, no destruction perks thus my enchants suck, she had twin souls despite not playing her as a conjure mage (in her story she only conjures weapons, which ofc I didn't have the perk for). Her armour is wack, she has equilibrium, don't know where I got that. None of my other chars have that. I completely forgot about the spell till I looked at it. I had sunk SO MANY perk points into lockpick cause I didn't have Fenrik's Welcome. Also pickpocket, despite not needing to pick pockets. She could take equipped weapons despite that I NEVER do that. Also she had no muffle on her armour, she's supposed to be a sneak but no muffle and she wears heavy armour :') WTF was I doing?

She's level 81 and had only 2 perks to spare. I went to the Summit of Apothryica cause I already completed the DB DLC and got some perk points back without legendary-ing and de-leveling my skills, so now she has like 15. But majority of those are going to end up in like one skill tree, that doesn't fix everything else wrong with her build.

I don't play on her file anymore cause that Switch keeps crashing+no save space making playing difficult. She's so far in the game too :( Her current quest list was SO SHORT. Only the really annoying quests were left and some miscellaneous ones. I've completed just about every main faction except the Civil War and main story. Theives Guild, Companions, Dark BrotherHood, DawnGuard on the side of DawnGuard, DragonBorn, WinterHold College, Bard's College, all completed, special jobs and all. Barenziah's crown is complete. I think she's done every basegame+trio DLC Daedric quest too. But her save keeps crashing and the game takes SO MUCH FUCKIN SPACE that I constantly run out of space to create new saves. Granted yes have ten+ saves (3 or 4 saves on each player profile) but my other switch now has this problem at times, giving me the 'need to delete saves to make new saves' despite only having 3 saves on that total. No other saves on other player profiles.

But wow. I did want to redo her save on my other Switch and seeing how bad I butchered it on her first, makes me more want to redo her 'proper'.

[hischiersjohnston]

Talk Hockey To Me

tagged by: @jonassiegenthighler ty for the tag <3

Tell me about:

1. The thing that got you hooked on hockey

STORY TIME: i moved to canada, just outside of Hockey Capital (Toronto) when I was 9 years old (am 23 rn). so you'd think that i'd have been into hockey since i moved, right, considering that i was surrounded by leafs fans and like a good chunk of guys in my classes growing up were hockey boys?

DEAD WRONG.

all the guys ever cared about are the stats. so i wasn't too too interested in hockey. but i somehow absorb a lil too much info about hockey and the leafs in general but i never got /into/ the sport until my best friend lucy got into hockey like in february/march 2023. the irony is that lucy is from the uk and that's who got me into hockey: not any of the hockey boys I grew up having a crush on (bold of my family and friends to assume i got into hockey to impress a guy lol), not any of the hockey boys I went to high school with and was on good terms with. but my British friend (she’s a real one for it). And Tbf it’s because she talked more about the vibes first before she went into talking about the stats. im not a math person so the stats were like flying over my head. but she sends me videos of their interviews and game highlights and talks about them and i'm like... aight okay let me give this hockey thing a chance.

and here i am.

2. Your first ever fandom friend

definitely lucy (@ draisaitleons) like... she introduced me to the sport, so she's my first ever fandom friend on here.

3. The jersey you would most like to own

ngl i've been eyeing the hischier premier heritage jersey... either that or the black and white jersey one, though i'm leaning more towards the first one.

4. YOUR player (you only get ONE so choose wisely)

who else but nico hischier? tbh i can't even remember how i first heard about him. but i swear it must be all the gif sets i kept seeing when i started following more and more hockey blogs around april/may 2023? then i watched a few of his interviews and was endeared; thought he was cute and a good captain. but what REALLY sold me was when i found out that his birthday is on january 4, which is two days before mine. i was like "oh cool, a fellow capricorn" bc at that point, i'm pretty sure all the hockey players i keep seeing on my dash had birthdays in april and may, so to see a capricorn hockey player i was like... okay okay. so that's also the story behind my tag for him which is "my cap(tain) and fellow cap(ricorn) <3" if anyone was ever curious. then i read up on him; found out he was drafted first overall in 2017 and i just really liked his vibes as a captain and a player, and decided "yep, that's my guy".

5. A pairing that deserves more fic

ooh this is hard but ngl... kailer yamamoto x connor mcdavid. HEAR ME OUT: yes, i know yamo is no longer with the oilers (rip but he seems happier and less stressed out in seattle, so go have fun, king <3) but when i discovered this pairing when i was reading rpf, i was confused at first but i was VIBING! there was this fic i read on ao3 and it hasn't been updated but the premise was that kailer was a single dad, but no one on the team knows except for like one other person. and connor only finds out that kailer's got a kid when he goes into kailer's apartment to drag him to a team bonding. oof, can't wait to read more tbh. but the fic that really sold me on the pairing was connor having a crush on kailer, who had no idea connor was into men (he thought connor and lauren were dating, when they were really just besties) and i was HERE FOR IT.

tl;dr: kailer x connor will be my rarepair that needs more fics.

6. Your favourite on-ice moment

has to be when jack tackles aho back during the playoffs. this lived rent-free in my brain and i was like.... huh... maybe i should check out the new jersey devils if they got a guy who tackles people like this.

THEN

this gif set of travis konecny by lucy !! altho really, any gif sets made by lucy deserve so much more love <333

AND

... tbh i am really really proud of all the gif sets i've been making lately for the nj devils, but!! i gotta shamelessly plug in my latest gif set of my captain nico hischier scoring his first goal of the season with an assist from jack !!

tagging: @draisaitleons @luvembarrassing @toffoliravioli @hischierlovebot @skjeisy @kmercer

[pegasusknightsonly]

now that im at endgame i want to quickly run through my team and what i learned about awakening luna playing it again after seven or so years

what i learned:

i used WAY too many units. nice as it was to have a full second gen trip the late game it was not really feasible without a lot of grinding

its generally better to play aggressive than defensive on maps, even if it means you're not using pair up so you have better action economy. chapter 4 and chapter 9 were really tough until i went all out with the aggression.

myrmidon might actually be good in Luna bc avo+10 becomes really really good when it's cancelling out a whole bunch of hit+10s. this does not fix lon'qu's bulk issues.

map skirmishes blocking useful shops are the fucking devil and not something you can do anything about other than wait until you hit endgame. really annoying feature

DLC doesn't scale to game difficulty!! that's fun

weapon forging is my new best friend

van/ven is still ABSOLUTELY broken and Owain hard carried my team through several maps

and my thoughts on my team!!

Robin - i actually think i fucked up by second sealing at twenty instead of promoting? armsthrift is nice and i wanted it for Morgan's inheritance but robin fell off really really hard by the midgame and i never got him back so it would have been nice to have rally spectrum available when that happened. ultimately that was ok for me bc unlike the luna guides will tell you i was not solely relying on robin for the front lines but oof he fell off harder than Fred

Chrom - Chrom is Chrom. not much to say there. he didn't get to see a lot of combat early which kind of worked out in my favour bc it meant he was still in lord in chapter 12 and gave Sumia some HUGE effective dual strikes with his rapier. it might actually be worth delaying his first class change to get that?? as usual i went archer -> bow knight and he was great in both. rally skill is actually really good to have on a non-combat unit in later maps where everything has so much speed and avo, it definitely made the difference for Nah a couple of times

Sumia - MVP. oh my god she was so good. i had to grind Olivia anyway so i ran her through great knight and although i don't want her to see any enemy phase combat at this point it has been really helpful to have her fly in, kill something annoying with a luna proc and fly out again to physic or rescue. rally speed has been really helpful as well! i had to do a little hand holding with her in chapter two but early investment pays off so well and i can't think of another unit who can transition from frontliner to support as well as she can. love her.

Fred - when people say awakening luna is unplayable without using Fred are they like. are they just bad at the game? don't get me wrong he was fine but imo the Fred carry/Robin carry meta really only is true until chapter 3 which is... not long, and definitely not long enough for Fred to have the kind of reverence he has in Luna meta. idk. he was fine! i had to finagle a bit to get him and Olivia married which was a pain but then it was nice being able to give Olivia extra move via pairup in the late game.

Olivia - i normally bench her after getting the kids when i play hard bc galeforce is just better than dancing and she becomes a liability with the ambush reinforcements so it was kind of novel to still be deploying her in the valm arc, even though that was mostly just to dance Sumia so i had two actions worth of healing. i had to do a LOT of grinding with DLC to get her galeforce for inheritance which was pretty painful and her stats were never that good. dance utility for my healer has been pretty nice!

Sully - i probably shouldn't have used her and shouldn't have given her the resources that normally go to wyvern Panne but i LIKE her and she did really really well in chapter 12 after she promoted and got lance access back. Gaius s support is solid but those first few levels before reclassing were really difficult because her bases are just so low. if awakening luna slightly bumped up everyone's bases it would be a joy to play.

Panne - it says a lot about how good wyvern Panne is that i brought her back in to the team way too late and she not only kept up but then outperformed Sully who'd had so much more investment. brokenly good unit and by the time i got Yarne she had late game worthy stats. the lack of galeforce kind of hurts as does her weapon ranks - she was stuck using bronze axes for so, so long - but yeah. good unit. believe the hype.

Nowi - i have really mixed feelings about Nowi's performance because it was just. so painful. her bases do not get bumped enough and at the start everything was doubling her and her awful 18HP. speed issues continued for a long long time but she eventually kind of pulled it together. a bit. not sure I'll do this again

Vaike and Lon'qu - mostly they were used to produce Nah and Yarne respectively but they were ok!! really solid backpacks. Vaike's stats were toilet tier for a long long time but he got there eventually. lon'qu loved dual striking for panne so much it got her in trouble a couple of times. it's good that they can support each other as well!

Gregor and Miriel - i put so much into Miriel lmao i love her. woteva. she was fine, bulk and survivability issues but that's pretty standard for Miriel. i also had trouble with her critting things i did not want critted. Gregor got so little investment i actually felt kind of bad for him. i promoted him after like... one or two levels worth of dual striking experience but i probably should've done it sooner

Lissa and Libra - early promotion to get Lissa tomefaire (mostly from rescue staff abuse) was worth it! really solid performance from both of them and Lissa had decent offenses on her galeforce grind. i wish I'd used Libra as a frontliner more but ultimately Lissa needed more exp than him and that's how it worked out, but it felt like a missed opportunity bc Libra in luna is really, really good.

Sumia!Lucina - i was worried about her stats on recruitment but she's been really really good and had some fantastic survivability thanks to her aether procs. great unit, does everything she needs to. i ran her through great lord for rfk + rapier access and that worked pretty well! her final class was between bow knight and paladin but surprisingly paladin has better overall stats and she didn't desperately want anything from bow knight. i don't think i would want to do anything dramatically different with her

Chrom!Cynthia - BEAST. BEAST. BEAST. ALL OVER THE SHOP

Libra!Owain - my only van/ven build and boy did he do good work with it. kind of ruined a couple of maps when the computer abandoned all reason and prioritised attacking him bc he was a staff unit which was a pain but ultimately pretty recoverable. van/ven is good! van/ven owain is good!!

Gaius!Kjelle - sadly she became mostly just a pair up bot for Owain. i never quite got her offences up to scratch to get her galeforce which was a real shame. Owain appreciated the stats and a partner with flight though

Frederick!Inigo - ugh. my only real disappointment in this run. speed!! speed!!! where is his fucking speed!!!! giving him galeforce was nice and all but he can't use it very well if he can't fucking double!!!! Inigo!!!! what's going on there!!!!!! i think Fred passed down dual guard+ which is fine but ultimately inigo would've been better with either luna (the lack of offensive procs really started to hurt him) or deliverer for extra movement for Cynthia. kind of pain to level and promote. he relied on his s support with Cynthia a LOT.

Vaike!Nah - might have been a little too ambitious to want to run her through merc and hero before bringing her back to manakete but those Vaike offenses ended up really paying off. very very slow to start cooking but so good once she got going. sightly too tanky? enemies tended to avoid her on EP which wasn't helpful. her sol proc rates also need some work but overall a really solid unit and one i might bring back to hard mode or use in luna again.

Lon'qu!Yarne - I'm glad i made the decision to bring Panne back to avoid Lon'qu/Lissa. listen. i have not asked Yarne to do too much but he has done it so well and has probably contributed the most in battles for the least exp. bless him! bless his name!!! i wish Panne gave him a better class set. he could have been everything.... that said, even if my original plan of barbarian -> beserker -> griffon didn't work out due to lack of EXP he still did really well and sat in an unpromoted class until chapter 25 when i took pity on him and went to a DLC map. really solid guy.

Gregor!Laurent - i had such plans for a strong and bulky nostank with armsthrift and then it just... never happened. im sorry Laurent. i don't think i ever gave Gregor enough levels to make that work. he did ok promoting to dark knight instead of sorc to be Morgan's pair up bot but i kind of wish I'd managed to get him going. i have two forged Nosferatu in my convoy that i now can't use. whoops

Lucina! Morgan - less than 25 str or mag as a level 10 dark flier was not it. great crits, great aether procs but what the hell happened to her offensive stats. bizarre. probably not unfixable but she's going to close out the game as a rally spectrum bot. rip

Cynthia got the most MVP awards but Owain was just so, so good and Lucina did everything i needed her to. Sumia!!! she's so good!!!!! anyway i had a lot of fun with this run once i found my feet with it and i... honestly will probably finish it and immediately start another one lmao. it was fun!!!!

[overlyimmersed]

Reblogging to amend the information here and to add a link to the first post on the subject that's referenced above. Read that one here

After I leveled [Royalty] far enough to unlock his "Unique", it seems like I might be wrong actually.

The quest/story/battle things to unlock the "Unique" -which for this version of Helbram is "Magic Connection" which boosts his HP-related stats by 5% for each surviving ally- takes place PRE-human-incident. The reason Helbram seems mildly unhinged in his move-set here is because he's being an ass on purpose... XD oof

See the whole premise is Helbram playing a pretend game with another Fairy, where he's playing the part of a human noble and the other Fairy(I forget who it was) is playing the part of a human servant. So yeah. Helbram's play-acting being an asshole to try and demonstrate to this friend of his how human nobility behaves, and gets in trouble with Harlequin for being abusive XD

So yeah... I should really make sure I have ALL the information before I do an analysis, but I was really excited to get that last version :p

I'M SO FUCKING HAPPY!!!!!

Of the three forms

Reincarnation of Revenge

Forest Guardian

Royalty

Two are...crazy...

I've talked about how Helbram's move sets in [Forest Guardian] vs [Reincarnating of Revenge], as well as the information in the hero's description, indicate that the [Forest Guardian] version is pre-"human incident". So that version of Helbram is still sane, vs the [Reincarnation of Revenge] which is the version revived by Hendrickson and is very very insane and genocidal.

Anyway, the hero description for [Royalty] Helbram gives absolutely nothing, but his moveset -"Blood Suck" an offensive move that inflicts life steal at 2 and 3 stars, and "Increase Recovery" which is a debuff remover that also heals at 2 and 3 stars- indicate rather clearly that [Royalty] is a post-"human incident" form.

Sad to see it, but it's very clear in the animations. The way he moves, his expressions and especially his eyes really give it away.

I'm not sure which version I'll use going forward. I've been using [Forest Guardian] because I prefer Helbram in a non-suffering form and I find his mix of buff and de-buff moves more useful then the strictly offensive [Reincarnation of Revenge]. But having a de-buff remover would be really nice. If I switched to [Royalty] I'd probably wind up changing out Gerheade too, replace her with either Elaine or Gloxinia. Gerheade's nice and balanced, but if I had a different healer I might be able to increase my damage output... I don't know.

[shai-manahan]

OK OK OK CALM DOWN CALM DOWN THIS IS NOT AM EMERGENCY BUT I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW JUST HOW MUCH I LOVE YOUR WRITING AND IF LIKE- ????? THE WAY YOU DESCRIBE THINGS IS SO BEAUTIFUL AND OMG THAT NIGHTMARE SCENE IS GIVING ME NIGHTMARES THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT SO I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU THAT I ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOUR WORK AND HOW GLAD IM THAT YOU DECIDED TO BRING IT TO LIFE- SO KEEP IT UP AND PLEASE TAKE CARE YOUR HEALTH AS WELL 👍👍👍👍👍👍

also i have a few theories about our MC if you don't mind-

1. so... as i played through the nightmare scene for the 9th time in a row to fully relish the horror and trauma, i realized that our dear (but unfortunate) MC must have gone through something MUCH MUCH worse than merely watching their father get oofed off by their mother 🤔🤔🤔 because i once read somewhere that if someone experiences like a really bad traumatic experience their brain will instinctively suppress their memories and lock them away to protect the person from getting anymore affected and also to give them a sense of normality? dunno about that our brains can be really mysterious sometimes, which brings me to my second theory

2. OK OK OK i know this may sound crazy and also scientifically inaccurate, but i think MC has some sort of Dissociative disorder? i mean- how do you explain their sudden black out from their home to their journey all the way to Bale's territory and the bar? or maybe im just overthinking it and perhaps its somehow related to the hallucinations and the syringes that have been emphasized over multiples times in the demo

3. why do i feel our MC is being drugged with something 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 or maybe something happened before or after the incident with their father otherwise why would Alex act so sus, Vincent too, YALL TOO SUS

and so ends my theory spree as i have exhausted my remaining two brain cells to make SOME kind of sense and connection through this whole theory thing

ALSO ALSO ALONZO WHY DO I HAVE A FEELING I WRONGED YOU SOMEHOW AND SOMEWHERE AND IF I DID IM SO SORRY -

which puts me to my next question, i wonder why our MC just offed 11 of their coworkers 🤔 corruption maybe? whatever the case Is, it still doesn't excuse bernard (or whatever his name is, he's a jerk) for acting like the lil piece of poop he is, to both us and finn cause oh boy imma bout to throw hands (you better sleep with one eye open you lil shit)

ALSO ALSO ALSO MORE WESLEY LORE YAY omg now i feel kinda conflicted rn like i still wanna sock that lil bastard for exposing us but i feel kinda pity for him too, also that wholesome moment between them was so cute if not for the current angsty situation, but i guess i'll them off with one good bish slap on the face for the whole expose before listening to their side of the story

and now finally, after going through your whole blog i realized that we have a hidden mental health stat- lol my mc is gonna be one helluva self sabotaging half depressed boi bu the end of this IF 😂

SORRY FOR THE EXTREMELY LONG RANT / ASK I WAS JUST TOO EXCITED AFTER PLAYING THE WHOLE DEMO AGAIN OVER 9 TIMES BEFORE FINALLY FEELING SATISFIED- IM SORRY 😭😅

Oh that is long, but don't be sorry! I love seeing long messages like this 😌And I’m so glad you love the story to this extent 😭

First of all, so there'll be no misunderstandings, I want to make it clear that what the MC is going through isn't exactly a dissociative disorder, although there is some degree of disassociation happening. I can't explain further because it's a very huge spoiler, but not everything they've been experiencing can be solely attributed to the level of trauma and other related occurrences that DID patients often went through before being diagnosed. It's a little... different.

This does not mean, however, that the MC has no repressed memories 😔 If you look carefully, there are actually some more hints spread throughout the demo, although some of them are hidden behind certain routes. A lot are in Chapter 2, though. Anyway, the revelations relating to it won’t be the focus of Book 1, but there will be a lot more clues in the future.

And yeah, I'm afraid Alex and Vincent will continue to be sus all the way.

YALL TOO SUS

ah but I wouldn’t have done my job right if they’re not sus :)))

why do i feel our MC is being drugged with something 🤔

🤔🤔🤔

ALSO ALSO ALONZO WHY DO I HAVE A FEELING I WRONGED YOU SOMEHOW AND SOMEWHERE AND IF I DID IM SO SORRY

Well, I suppose that depends on the perspective but Alonzo does believe the MC has wronged them haha which is tbh actually valid.

which puts me to my next question, i wonder why our MC just offed 11 of their coworkers 🤔 corruption maybe?

To be fair, I don't think arresting them counts as offing lmao but yeah there's a heavy corruption occurring within the police force and everybody knows it; it's just that most of the people in Gaile cannot do anything to stop it. And don't worry about Bertrand, he already sleeps with one eye open lmaoooo although he does have kind of a huge role (spoiler: he will always be an asshole).

Wesley's reuinion scene, though... if you all think the flashback scene is already conflicting you, well, the reunion might uh.... actually nevermind, I'm not gonna spoil it.

and now finally, after going through your whole blog i realized that we have a hidden mental health stat- lol my mc is gonna be one helluva self sabotaging half depressed boi bu the end of this IF 😂

There are four types of mental health stats in the demo right now, but I'm arranging all the variables in a spreadsheet to see if I've missed anything. I kinda have a lot of them lmfao.

[blackandwhlteaesthetlc]

I really feel like opening weekend is almost all it’s going to get in total. And I do wonder if it’ll actually hit that projected target of 21. I just don’t see it bringing in much more than this initial fan run and views from curiosity seekers. Whatever it makes, I wouldn’t deem it a success in any way. It’s made a shitty laughingstock of everyone but basically Flo (And the support cast because even the director ignored them).

Totally agree, anon. I think that’s the general consensus from those of us that are looking at these particular stats.

And oof, you’re not kidding with your last point. I can’t imagine Warner Bros will consider this a success considering how deep in the hole they are right now. From a financial stand point, even breaking even on the original budget looks like a bust.

For the cast themselves, no. Olivia has completely discredited herself as a Director. Her next film would have to be 100% devoid of any personal tabloid fodder and basically be a Scorsese-level Oscar contender for her to find any sort of redemption as a viable Filmmaker. This is how it is for women in a Hollywood to be taken seriously anyway and she short herself in the foot because she’s 1. addicted to the paparazzi and 2. lacks the actual creative talent or drive to deliver something like that. She’s fucked there. She’s welcome prove me wrong though (she won’t).

Harry’s acting skills have been mocked mercilessly, he’s been labeled a queer-baiting home wrecker, and is still very publicly affiliated with a proven liar (the Shia video should’ve been the end, jfc). The general public feels validated in their assessment of him. He’s also gonna have to give a performance that’s basically Oscar worthy in his next role if he wants to continue to take on serious, complex characters. Unfortunately he doesn’t do that in My Policeman and a Marvel movie won’t cut it either. So the next project is going to have to be chosen VERY carefully. And again, he’s gonna need to stay out of the tabloids for anyone to take him seriously. If he continues to be connected to Olivia, that’s never gonna happen because again…She can’t help herself.

Florence Pugh is definitely the winner here. She has her next film debuting on Netflix later this year (The Wonder, which also debuted at TIFF) and already got great reviews for it. But her performance in DWD wasn’t panned by critics anyway so yes, she’s fine.

Maybe it’s a blessing for the rest of the cast that they were essentially ignored. Kiki Layne posted today:

But gave nothing to DWD. I think Gemma Chan posted the same IG story Harry posted but not much else. And who can blame them?

[clockworklozenges]

So, a good five or so years back, I played in one of the best worst DnD games I have ever been in. The DM had bought the Libris Mortis book, which, if you were unaware, was a 3.5 splatbook adding in a lot of undead stuff, including some monsters and undead player races and stuff. Wanting to try it out, me and my gaming group decided to play things from it, our then DM deciding to run a completely homebrewed session. This proved to be a...

Terrible Idea™

(for the uninitiated, never homebrew something you do not fully understand unless it's just cosmetic. If you want to make all elves worship the god of garlic bread, Ultimo-Metatron-Omega, go ahead, but unless you know how the game works, don't make mechanical changes). So we all picked stuff from the books-one player played a skeleton Sorcerer who in life was a tribal shaman, but an attempt at healing went wrong, turning him undead as his life energy was replaced with negative energy, explaining why most of his spells were necromancy and suchlike.

Another player played Krug, an antipaladin in very spiky full plate. He was a zombie made by a necromancer of a paladin who was fighting him, but his allies killed his would-be master before he could assert control, and not wanting to just off him, his allies just...yeeted his body into a portal and hoped it'd re-kill him. It did not kill him hard enough. It did, however, explain his stats which...oof. He had already got debuffs to some stats due to being a zombie, and rolled abysmally. Fortunately for the player, he played mostly to socialise, so didn't much care.

I played... Count Nox Feratu, the Campire. As in, a vampire with a very camp German accent, which I did not break for the whole time I was playing him. To the point where "ach, nein, I haf bin heet! Heal me, meine freunde!" was par for the course. My overly camp vamp was a wizard, but due to level adjustment was a bit of a shoddy one. For backstory, he'd been ousted from his clan for ineptitude, and had sworn revenge. I was going for a swordmage build but never got there. All his spells were utility or just necromancy spells.

Our last player played...sigh...Damien Bloodmoon, cleric of Nerull, God of murder and undeath. He was one of the clerics from the book's murder Domain, meaning that he got buffs to damage. He was a vicious arse both in character and out of it, and was so dripping with edge compared to the paladin with the same IQ as a horse after its trip to the glue factory, the shaman who thought killing fixed people and the Campire that if you gave him a pat on the back you'd have finely diced your hand into a red mist. Not going too outlandish with his backstory of wanting to dominate the world as his undead thralls, Damien F***ing Bloodmoon had only taken spells which either charmed live people, dealt negative energy damage or messed with ability drain and suchlike, which he used with aplomb on townsfolk on our way to our objective. He was also, importantly, playing an elf of some sort, I forget which kind. Meaning that of the party, only one was alive.

So, just as an aside, for those of you that haven't played 3.5e DnD or have only played 5e, in Libris Mortis, undeath was gone over in detail, and had a litany of pros and cons. For one thing, undead had only the HP they had-folks like Damien F***ing Bloodmoon could be 'dying', and had some time to be stabilised before meeting the reckoning of Papa John and dying proper. Undead did not, it was just how much you had and if you ran out, poof, you're dust, bones and fertiliser again. You were also harmed by positive energy, so healing spells hurt you, as did potions of healing. However, undead were kind of hardy - poison immunity, some had resistance to non-magical melee damage, stuff that drained your ability scores and levels didn't work on them, some crits wouldn't do extra damage, and the best part- negative energy healed undead. Meaning all the spells our party had which damaged others like the living Damien Bloodmoon were curative ones for us. Keep this in mind.

So, we began our quest, learning of a necromancer a nearby town was plagued by. After using our skills (to whit: Damien Bloodmoon charming and drawing the life force out of random villagers and the only potion seller in the town whilst we went shopping. Krug got a snazzy hat, which we put on top of his helmet, and we chatted to townsfolk as I looked alive enough to pass as human and the shaman had a fake beard and toupee that people were too awkward to point out was fake so went along with it) we learn that the necromancer has a base of operations in the cemetery. "Oh ja, zo original, dahlink. Ve vill need to educate zis guy on vhat is chic and vhat is just shabby!"

So we head there and the nightmare begins. Damien Leads the charge, using all of his knowledge to deduce that the shambling horde moving towards us were stronger-than-your-average-bear undead, and he was right. These were powerful armoured zombie mages of some sort, casting ability draining spells, negative energy ray spells and even having auras of negative energy that dealt damage on a failed Fortitude save. Even their punch and quarterstaves did negative energy damage as well as the usual bludgeoning or unarmed. However...only one of us was really in danger and the DM's face fell when the squishy casters walked up and began shanking their super-special homebrew zombie wizards, being healed by the damage of their attacks as we cut them down.

Like I said, one of the benefits of undeath is that negative energy actually heals you. So the strikes of the magic staves and punches that hit us did some basic damage. Which was then immediately healed by the negative energy their weapon strikes and spells were doing.

However, you'll recall that Damien Bloodmoon was an elf. And not dead. Being a Cleric of a death god doesn't mean that you have the abilities of an undead. That meant that even with the DM being merciful, by the end of the first fight he was covered in blood, mud and withered away to just above half his original strength and constitution. More were patrolling, so we had to run. But that posed a problem.

Remember Krug had heavy armour? And recall his awful stats? He in fact, hadn't got enough strength to wear the armour he'd been given for backstory. He didn't, according to the DM, have enough to remove his own armour. And we attempted to, but also failed our checks according to the DM. And Damien Bloodmoon refused to help, simply blaming Krug and his player. Krug's player thought it was hilarious, and Krug only had enough Intelligence and Wisdom to say his own name, so saw no problem. And Krug, Nox Feratu and Shaman realised that there really...wasn't a problem.

For us, at least.

We slogged through three combats dragging Krug and wading through the mud with him. His speed was so slow that for every step he took, we took about ten. The DM was confused and infuriated that his encounters weren't working, but refused to change them. So we had fun role-playing. Or at least three of us did.

Damien Bloodmoon refused to roleplay, and none of his ranged spells could affect the zombie mages. When he went into melee, he came out wounded as all hell. He went down twice, and it was only the healing supplies of the shaman that saved him.

All the while, he was... Let's say not best pleased. Damien Bloodmoon was getting increasingly wounded, exasperated and longing for the sweet embrace of death as reprieve from the humiliation. His player was getting increasingly redder and rage-filled as time passed. Each fight ended with our characters stronger than ever and his a bloody pulp on the floor, with poor in-character knowledge (and terrible rolls) preventing him from realising why.

Eventually, we reached the final boss, pausing only to paint Krug's armour in contact poison just in case, and to find a stick to help the now-partially-crippled Damien Bloodmoon, cleric of death and murder, walk after being beaten up by angry zombie wizards for hours. And it had, indeed, been hours. Among us, only Damien had a bonus to strength, and we had two swords, a mace and a staff between the four of us. Meaning it was re-death by a thousand cuts for the enemy and a slog and a half for us.

We reach the necromancer and, having taken so long due to dragging the oblivious Krug with us, his big ritual is complete- he raises a fist-sized black onyx egg aloft, crackles with arcane power and causes the bones around him to coalesce into one massive creature - an undead, giant-sized rust monster, radiating an Aura of pure negative energy. Krug opened his arms wide, eager for the metal-eating monster cockroach to free him from his poison-painted metal prison. It ignores him as he's still very far away. Me and the others have our weapons and armour devoured.

Our DM was very much a stickler for note-taking. So because Damien Bloodmoon hadn't written 'clothes' on his sheet, his armour being eaten by the monster left him naked and afraid.

It became clear that the DM had done another f***y-wucky. See, the Aura of negative energy healed me and the Sorcerer by more than its other attacks did. So whilst Damien Bloodmoon was naked, soaked in mud and bleeding to death almost crushed to a pulp in the fetal position, rocking backwards and forwards as his player seethed with hatred, the Shaman and the Campire set about beating the thing to death with our bear hands and a stick.

The session ended once we killed the necromancer, or rather when Krug walked up to him, closed his arms and just crushed the noodle-armed bad guy to death with the weight of his ridiculous armour and poisoned him with its paintwork.

We never revisited the game afterwards. We were told later on that the DM wanted us to use the non-undead races. But at no point had he said as much, even when we asked him about our characters and the restrictions on them. We also learned a valuable lesson. DM for the players who are there, not the ones who you have an idealised mental image of. Tailor your game, otherwise you'll get a sitcom featuring a camp nosferatu, a shaman with no healing, a paladin who could barely move and a Cleric of murder who was ironically the only one at risk of actually dying.

[dangerously-human]

Oh, shit. I did my math wrong; I kept thinking I had two whole years left in this program, but I don't, I need to graduate next spring. Financially this was always going to be more complicated than I realized, I needed to do two years of more than two classes, not one. I should have done a summer class last year, or taken a second class last semester when I had my nice easy stats course. Now, because of the tuition benefit snafu plus a time crunch, I'm going to need to take three classes this year and from the government's perspective, I'll be getting paid out for four, which is going to make my taxes murder. Summer session is also all but useless in the school of ed, they never offer anything, and who knows if the foundations class I missed will be offered again this fall. Lord willing, I can use my job as an internship, though, and that actually works well if I do it next spring, because that can be my transition point to my role changing at work (still part-time, at least till the degree and funding and all that). That would minimize the chaos of trying to do two legitimate classes in one semester. But, oof, I need to sit down with my dad and hash out the financial side of this, and apply for a loan, because this is going to get ugly very quickly. I am pretty sure I can then use my tuition benefit to pay back the loan, assuming I stay at the company (longer than I planned, but so it goes - I guess I can put off the attempt to live in Ireland for another year, I'm really happy in this job anyway, and once I'm done with school I at least have the option to move just about anywhere within the US if I really want to get out of the city).

I have been thinking recently that it might have honestly been easier for me to just do the master's full-time, get a scholarship and financial aid, instead of trying to go this mish-mash route. Then I even could have applied to Irish programs like I originally planned! But that would have meant leaving a job I love, having less hands-on application for what I'm learning, and leaving behind a church and Bible study group where I belong more deeply than I've ever experienced before. I trust that God had good plans for this and that he knows what comes next, even if I'm struggling a lot not to worry right now about logistics and timing.

Still fighting for my life with tuition benefit stuff, in case anyone was wondering. I would like to submit my request for this semester, but we're still duking it out over last semester because of a problem from over a year ago and I don't want to swing at two hornet nests at once, so. Took every single dollar out of my savings account to pay tuition for this semester and am just praying I can get reimbursed before another rent check needs to go out (and Lord willing, my car won't need massive repairs at inspection this year). I'm doing an actual research study for my mixed methods class this semester, and the professor keeps saying she's fine with giving us an incomplete so we have another year to wrap it up in order to actually get something meaningful out of it. I finally talked to her last night to explain that I cannot afford to take another incomplete and ask how I could do a legitimate study on such a condensed timeline. Thankfully she was understanding and came up with an idea I think will work, since it involves basically just doing the quantitative portion under an existing protocol at work and a qualitative portion that doesn't count as human subjects research, so I don't have to deal with an IRB pissing contest between institutions, nor the debatable ethics of collecting data without compensating people for their time, given that it's unfunded research (and I really can't afford to pay people out of pocket when I'm already paying through the nose to be in this class in the first place). I'm still reworking my research plan, but I do feel a lot better about this in comparison to my plan as of last week, which would have required either submitting to both IRBs (and my work IRB is notorious for having different standards than most, and they/the data lawyers that often end up getting involved move slowly in this kind of situation) or submitting twice to my university IRB, once per phase.

Anyway, dealing with all of this today had me looking at what I really have left to do before I graduate. I'm halfway through the program now, though it feels like I've done way more. After I'm done with this class, which meets my advanced methods requirement (although round 2 of statistics probably did too), I have to eventually go back and take the foundations of the program course that was a scheduling conflict my first semester and somehow hasn't been offered since; another research apprenticeship (I'll probably write another manuscript, ideally one that's already been in progress for a bit at work - if I can get a loan, maybe I can do that this summer with my brief report I'm first authoring); plus two electives, which I was hoping to concentrate on measure design but would also happily do more advanced statistics courses if I'm allowed to take them through the school of psychology (I've tapped out the school of ed on that score). I guess I should ask if I'm allowed to say my job counts as an internship, which from the course catalog it looks like it should, but idk. Theoretically that puts me graduating... fall '25? Maybe? I could go so much faster if it weren't for the financial aspect. I do have to meet with an advisor at some point, but I still don't have one at the moment (again), which really seems like a problem for future me to figure out. But future me before May, because I think I'm still recorded as supposed to graduate this semester, even though it's been clear from the beginning that I was not a full-time student. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

They really do make this grad school thing as complicated as possible, don't they?