#they're inside a dungeon btw

[olitheguy]

Absolute silence.

[kyonshi-8610]

more than one week i will be gone

translations and img descriptions in alt thing

[blackkatdraws2]

4th Batch: The Guardians!

[Blank Scripts AU (non-canonical)]

Inside the deeper layers of the Parable marches the sinister army of monsters, born from the flesh of the Dungeon itself.

Alongside them are human workers, learning to cooperate with these beasts and come together for one purpose.

To protect and nurture the Parable.

BATCH LIST:

- [1st Batch: The Inhabitants] - [2nd Batch: The Janitors] - [3rd Batch: The Citizens] - [4th Batch: The Guardians]

↓ [Thoughts and Credits below] ↓

The fourth illustration is complete after a long, long time!!

Excuse how long it took me to do this one by the way, I have things to do IRL and my own projects to complete [very excited to finish those by the way, it's been so long since I've posted a new AMV hehe] so it took me a while to have the spare time and come back to the OCs / Self Inserts!

Anyway, I'll try disciplining myself to draw more of the submitted characters! I have 4 more batches [19 characters] to draw, so please be patient with me! ＞﹏＜

I swear I haven't forgotten about anyone! I've just been busy, hahaha.

Suru by @tsuru-yasunaga

ARRGHGHHH I REALLY LOVE THIS OMG?? I can totally see her working in the deeper layers of the Dungeon alongside the monsters ARGHH crazy I'm crazy [AND DON'T THINK I DON'T SEE THAT BLACK CAT LOGO ON HER SUIT ARGHHH SO COOL STOP]!!!?? I love that she has an axe, so badass...

Widget by @adventurecrimez

OUH??? Our little platelet doctor!! This reminds me so much about that one anime, Cells at Work... Anyway, I LOVE THEM!! They're so cute and helpful to have around <3

Axl by @tumbling-turmoil

AHEHEHE LITTLE GUY LITTLE GUY!!! For such a cute-looking thing, it sure has a very ominous-sounding title... The all-powerful Axl, decider of Fate.. bowing

Horns by @idunnowhattowriteheretbh

HWUAHE I LOVE THIS THING SO MUCH YOU HAVE NO IDEA this is making my creachure-loving brain go uueueueuw looking at this thing with big teary eyes btw I loved drawing their horns [haha funny name pun but yeah I actually did like drawing the horns btw :3]

Nugget by @thenamesmobu

This stinky old mannn, this creatuureee, this gruffy guuyyy hhehwuew he's so silly and he looks so cute but imagining him with a gruff old man voice will never not be funny to me

Abhorrence by @commit-vehicular-manslaughter

OOUHH?!??!! It's missing a leg... poor thing.. I also lived drawing this thing, it feels like a monster I'd see in the woods or something argh... a cryptid.. THE SKULL HEAD IS SO COOL PLEASE

Legal Distinct Bug by @test-url-please-ignore

hehehe little bug, I'm gonna make this thing into a marketable plushy, I will squish this thing very lovingly it's so BIG and it's so FLUFFY and it looks so CUTE I just wanna AGRHAWGGHAEGA let that thing crawl all over me please

[dunmeshistash]

I honestly agree with your take on people shouldn't think "oh izutsumi was a cat first all along" and they don't even think about the human soul infuses with the beast soul. they're pretty much are like izu herself for not understanding lycion's explanation /hj.

also the beast soul described as a monster cat and not an ordinary cat kinda makes sense to me. perhaps that's why izutsumi is more beast like yk?

btw lycion obviously knew what opposite beastman are cus he's a beastman himself but that means there's other beastmen just like izutsumi. man the world of dungeon meshi is so fascinating to explore.

Yeah, plus he just met Izutsumi he didn't do a through analysis of her body, he probably just knows general information about why she can't be in fully human form cause of experience.

Here's the werebeast notes for those who haven't seen it

Maybe the "toll" it takes on the body is trying to suppress such a big beast inside of them? I imagine a small child fused to giant cat couldn't really contain the beast and turn into a human version.

These also talk about how their personalities are affected by the animal they choose, so Izutsumi acting like a cat is still in line with other werebeasts, only to an extreme amount (cause of the difference of the amount of beast inside her I imagine)

Anyway, Izutsumi is more cat than girl but let's please not forget there's still a human girl in there. And it's her backstory that we learn.

This is the cat monster that was fused with a human girl to become Izu

It's big even compared to current 17yo Izutsumi, imagine to a 6 year old tallmen.

[viaviv124]

Homicipher incorrect quotes

Mc: speaking of surprises, Crawly

Crawling: yea?

Mc: i've got something up my sleeve

Crawling: is it... A banana?

Mc: nO! It's an automated gun torrent! :D

Crawling: we're going to a candy store!?

Silvair: what? No! Candy stores are closed!

Gap: WE'RE GONNA ROB A CANDY STORE!? :D

Chopped: omagod u so tall you look like a giraffe :D

Scarletella: that's why you dead built like a baked bean

Chopped: a ba- A BAKED BEAN!? *bites his foot* BAKE BEAN THAT. BEAK BEAN THAT!

Mc: you're under arrest! Scarletella! Scar-face! Scar-poopy-poopy-butt!

Scarletella: you may be the- dont you ever fucking call me that again

Mc: what would you do if i was kidnapped?

Crawling: obviously come find yo-

Hood: nothing

Silvair: wait 20 minutes until they let you go voluntarily

Machete: i killed your entire family

Mc: huh? But i live alone-

Machete: huh? Then who were these people in your house-

Mc: there's people in my house!?

Machete: well not anymore! Dumb bitch! You could've died! You're welcome!

Mc: Crawly am i ugly?

Crawling: nonsense, you're the most beautiful girl in the world, i see you right now!

Hooded Child: Hood am i ugly :D

Hood: very much.

Mc: hold on, the phone's calling. Hello?

Telephone Guy: how do you say uh corn in cantonese?

Mc: sok mai?

Telephone Guy: HAHA SOK MAI NUTS *hangs up*

Mc: ... Well they're not my friend anymore.

Scarletella to MC: so i send u a lil smiley face

So you send back a lil smiley face

So i write hey

And you write back hey

And i say hey what

And you say you said hey first?

And then i say okay

Crossaint emoji

Fuck u

Chopped: smile :D

Bride: sweet :D

Nurse: sister :D

Silvair: sadistic :D

Gap: surprise :D

Crawling: service :D

Stitch: CRAWLING IS A BITCHASS MOTHERFUCKER

*cue music*

Mc: name a country that starts with V!

Silvair: venezuela!

Machete: FINLAND! FINLAND

Silvair: OH MY DAYS. LOW IT. YOU SAID WHAT???

Machete: finland?

Silvair: DON'T CHAT TO ME. YOU'RE JOKING

Silvair: SHE SAID F MAN

Machete: what did u say

Mc: V?

Silvair: v.

Machete: VENUS

Silvair: ARGHHH

Mc: you wanna take things up to the bedroom?

Human: sure. ...what's up there?

Mc: btw did you bring protection

Human: WHY WHATS UP THERE!?

Chopped: i am very small. And i have no money. So you can imagine the kind of stress that i am under.

Scarletella: and without looking up at me Hood said "You have the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair"

Machete: am i boring? Sure. Social skills? None. But i'm loyal if you feed me and i will never leave you because, well, i need the food.

Crawling: i wouldnt wish that on my worst enemy-

Hood: i would. I would wish it on my worst enemy and then a whole list of other people that dont even qualify as my worst enemy. I'm not "above things" and at this point i'm existing out of spite

Gap: Your uber instincts cant handle my uber autism. Observe.

[insert him being in the fucking textbox an yoinking mc through it, escaping scar]

MC: You enter the dungeon, and on the far end of the room, you see... a door!

Masque: Can I seduce the door?

MC: No you cannot.

Stitch: Can I seduce the door?

MC: ALSO NO.

Crawling: Can I punch Stitch?

MC: ... Uh Stitch you take 4 damage

Stitch: Well I transform into a beaver.

MC: You... do that.

Stitch: Now can I seduce the door?

MC: STILL, NO

Crawling: I punch Stitch again.

MC: 3 more damage.

Machete: Can I fight the door?

MC: No!

Wheelchair: I also would like to fight the door!

MC: NO ONE CAN FIGHT THE DOOR.

Machete: I FIGHT. THE DOOR.

MC: You lose!

Machete: I fight you.

MC: Machete, take a walk!

Scarletella: Is the door dead or alive?

MC: ITS A DOOR?

Scarletella: Can I enslave its soul?

MC: How would you- No!

Chopped: Can I build a better door?

MC: ... Do you want to build a better door?

Chopped: I acquire lumber from the surrounding forest!

MC: Okay you do that.

Silvair: ... Is the door locked?

MC: No it isnt!

Silvair: I open the door.

MC: You do so! Inside is one small treasure chest!

Masque: I seduce the treaure chest~

MC: NO.

[maripr]

Obsessed in general with the idea of Enki going inside the dungeon of F&H expecting dark knowledge at best and a horrible death at worst and this last thought doesn't even bother him because he was just literally trying to commit ritual suicide the other day. He has stopped giving a shit about humans, about himself maybe even long ago.

He's not there to make bonds. Bonds have done nothing but hurt him (his twin sister? Yeah he's not met her in years and it would probably end badly if he did). But then he sees a girl inside a cage with a hopeless, defeated expression (but still in her eyes the glimpse of fear which means here's still fight in there), bandage around her arms, clearly been hurt and oh now he's reminded of a hurt, hopeless little boy who crawled himself out of a well instead of dying like he was fated to.

So he frees her - obviously not because he cares! her pitiful expression pisses him off, that's all! - and then the girl starts following him around, what a pain. Still, he figures, she can be cannon fodder in case things get ugly, but the moment she shields him in combat for the first time (btw this is a thing she can actually do in the game! There! Just to make you sadder!), surprising even himself, he panics. After the enemy is dealt with, he treats her wounds and scolds her for attempting that and from that moment on, he doesn't let her out of his sight.

Speaking of sight, Pocket cat suggested the trade once and Enki's stare was enough to make him known it's time to back off.

Aaand then he meets all these other people. A girl knight searching for her love when in truth she's probably searching for an identity for herself. A rogue who tries and sometimes fails to laugh in the face of all the hurt and the horror they're all experiencing and that he's experienced. A beast of a man who, behind his sad eyes, has just as strong of a mind, he's there to not only fight the enemy but to study it as well.

And they start journeying together, even just to keep themselves sane (an impossible enough task in this hellish place) and Enki discovers feelings that he though he left behind long ago. Blasted humanity, he thought he left his own in the well, but it's still inside his own beating heart. Why does he care for these people? This can only end in hurt. Again. And yet, yet he fights so it doesn't end in tragedy. With them. For them.

Does it end in tragedy? That's up to you.

[monstersdownthepath]

So we know that chromatic and metallic dragons are going away due to OGL stuff (and btw, have you seen the previews for their replacements on the Paizo blog?? They look awesome!). But what about the other families of dragons, i.e., primal, imperial, esoteric, etc.? Are those staying? Or are they also in the OGL?

-----

The who are doing what to when now?! Hold on, let me backread some stuff--I don't keep up with their community posts as much as I probably should... so I appreciate asks like this to remind me to actually read those wonderful things!

Ahah, I see! "Every dragon will be arcane, divine, occult, or primal in nature and have their stories and abilities connected to their respective tradition." This likely means at base, there will be one new dragon introduced for each of the magical traditions, one good and one evil (or however they're flavoring it now since they're moving away from alignments (which i still don't like)).

The other unique families of dragons are most certainly staying right where they are, because they're Paizo originals. D&D doesn't have a copyright on the concept of dungeons or dragons or dragons inside of dungeons, despite its name, so all of Paizo's original inventions aren't going to be retconned, though they'll likely be reflavored to fit into this new system.

I wonder what they're going to do with Dahak, Apsu, Tiamat, and all the famous named dragons though...

[thegeminisage]

zelda lost woods time

it has immediately hit the fan. wow <3 i was just looking for my last might crystal...good thing i didn't give into temptation to do this earlier

oh i forgot about the big sacred tree...deku tree cameo pleasepleaseplease

got my last might crystal!! brb taking this to lueberry

the music here is so much nicer btw when i can enjoy it on my own tv without worrying the volume will bother anyone. very stardew valley

okay wait before i do any of this orb shit i gotta find the lynel. my last echo......

following the prints is scary actually like if you don't do it in the right order they're not there. like it just moves around. you could go to the right clearing and find nothing unless you were hunting it down. idk that's kinda spooky

okay, right as i was finishing that is when my power went out last night :| now it's back!! i'm back at it. the lynel has spotted me i am afraid for my life

what!!! that was EASY. that took less than a minute. wtf

i guess now i do The Orbs and the challenge is not to use my echoe power on anything else while i do it...rip i can't even use my new lynel

The Orbs Have Been Activated

wow a triforce <3

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO IT IS THE DEKU TREE HEY MAN HOW YOU BEEN

"enter"? am i about to get vored??

oh ok

first jabu jabu and now this...nobody vores me like they used to

oh shit it's mirrorverse zelda

TRIFORCE? JUST THE WHOLE GOD DAMN TRIFORCE?

Oh, Fuck.

NOT THE MASTER SWORD PULL THEME????

oh fuck oh fuck uh oh she done did it oh girl you're not supposed to do that have you never played a zelda game before

BOYFRIEND?????? oh ok ok not yet

HOLY FUCK? NULL BIG

SOMEHOW I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD BE THAT BIG.

stilled whatever this is is so fucking metal. i love it in here

the closer i get the more massive null seems. this is truly some kirby levels of eldritch horror

BOYFRIEND IN THE CRYSTALLLLLLLLL

oh fuck it's girlfight time. conquer yourself, as it were

time to let my lynel get some exercise <3

ZELDA'S THEME IN MINOR KEY.............

this is great. my lynel is basically destroying all the enemies she throws out as distractions leaving her and me to duke it out over my boyfriend

got her ass already

I GET TO SAVE THE BOYFRIEND??? arrow perhaps as he did for me...

WAAAAAH IT'S HIMMMM IM GONNA CRY

what...no...i have to give him his sword back :(

BUT I LIKE THE SWORD...............

ok. for the boyfriend i will do anything

OHHHHHHHHHHHH I'VE JUST REALIZED HE'S LEFT-HANDED IN THIS GAME LEFTY LINK RETURNS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUSTICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

wait wait wait hold on everybody shut up are we going INSIDE null? vored after all???

YES!!

oh this is nasty. the dripping black goo

i love that link will literally just run off without us lol girl this isn't ganon's tower slow tf down

holy shit link's a BEAST...even my lynel couldn't fight like that...jesus fuck

omg co-op dungeon is SO COOL i fucking love this waaaah

lol skipping these platformer section with the humble and trustworthy water block

did the wind riding puzzles the proper way cuz i think theyre fun

omg please i can MOVE LINK???

god i would LOVE a co-op zelda game like this in full someday. wahhh

Oh I Don't Like That Sound

this reminds me of the final descent in totk. i'm beside myself

OH SHIT

mirror zelda got vored.................

OH SHIT?? RIP DEKU TREE AND CASTLE TOWN AND HETBAIT ZORAS

OH SHIT..............

he's a tri!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

omg omg boss time

ok wait hold on. my lynel keeps getting oneshotted but i cant go swordmode anymore tf am i supposed to do

ok ok ok i get it i think. i miss my sword though

omg one of the creepy hands PICKED UP MY BOYFRIEND??? girl i was over there with my lynel so fast

my automatons are finally coming in handy but also i'm going through them very quickly

ok no useless until the end actually...echoes spawn infinitely and instantly. these automatons just aren't for fast paced fights like this

god link is so cool. i wish i had a sword so i could help!!!

NOOOO omg my boyfriend :( left behind...........

oh GROSS null is voring all those poor little tris :(((

final form maybe?? dude he is SCARY looking this is literally some kirby shit

i take back what i said about this games music also. maybe not all of it. but this fucks. im catching so many familiar melodies like zeldas theme and the master sword theme and the overworld and then also it just sounds so good

omg one of the hands got me and link saved me 😭😭😭

oh shit ganon echoes NICE

oops i was trying to burn a spiderweb and accidentally set link on fire

OMG I THINK I GOT IT

PLEEEEASE WE ARE TAKING BACK THAT TRIFORCE TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh man the callback in this imagery...

oh no is it time to say goodbye to tri :( this always happens with zelda partners.................

THANK YOU AT THE END.............WAH

OKAY MAYBE I WELLED UP A LITTLE. SO WHAT IF I DID

oh, but she still has her rod...?

BOYFRIEND IS HERE

LUEBERRY AND IMPA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HE'S TALKINGGGGGGGGGG

HE IS TALKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M GONNA CRY

oh that was so GOOD. oh my god time to mop up my FACVE!!! while the credits play

i hoped he would talk. oh god

omg wait the kids who got taken waking up and feeling themselves again...wah

CONDE'S BROTHER OH GOD I AM GOING TO CRY AGAIN

CAT!!!!!! cat?

awwwww she hung the rod up 😭😭😭

oh ym god and thats the END!!!!!

what an amazing game. i am absolutely gonna make another post about it in a minute first i have to RECOVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

[princesscolumbia]

Warhammer 40k fandom, sit the fuck down, we're having a talk

And by that I mean you're going to fucking listen while I explain something to you. I tend to ramble to get to my points, but you're going to shut the fuck up and listen because you need to hear this.

I am forty-fucking-six years old.

I have been in the gaming scene since D&D classic was still being published. I have Magic the Gathering cards from the second printing of the first-ever set. I was around for the Satanic Panic of the 80s. My first exposure to WH4k was back in the late 1980s, and here is my entire understanding of the game from the people who tried to explain it to me when I was still a gaming newbie:

There's hypermasculine space marines wearing mobile tanks that emphasize the hyperness of their masculinity even more who literally only think of two things; their ultra-honking-super-masculine God Emperor who they actively kill people to keep alive and fighting anything that isn't a hypermasculine space marine. There's space orcs that aren't really orcs but think they're orcs so they're orcs. (Are they orcs or aren't they? Fuck if I know!) There's magic but it's not magic but it's magic but it's not called magic and you can have your squad use magic but don't call it magic or the inquisitors (who are like thin, mean space marine Internal Affairs weasels) will call you a heretic and it's game over and the space orcs who aren't orcs have won.

Tell me this, numbnuts; how is this supposed to make a teenage transgirl even remotely interested in this game?

Are there any characters in the game? Anyone even have a name that would get me invested in the survival of the pile of expensive metal (they were metal at the time) toys I've got on this expensive vinyl mat? Does anything I do as a player make any difference whatsoever in the bigger picture of the game universe?

The answer to all these was 'no.'

And it just so happened, that was my answer to the question of, "Do you want to play Warhammer with us?" Hillarious, right?

Over the years, I'd encounter Warhammer again and again, from spotting resource books to figurines to models to video games, and in every...single...FUCKING instance; hypermasculine space marines fighting parodies of orcs.

I didn't find out there were demons in Warhammer 40k for almost two decades from my original exposure to the game.

I got into D&D and read up on GURPS and watched Battletech strategy combat games and bought universal resource books and picked up novels and even tried my hand at writing for one of the settings I liked.

Over and over and over again, there's Warhammer 40k sitting in the corner, the art featuring hypermasculine space marines all fighting orcs or demons. There's the players (all men, btw), pulling out boxes and boxes of little figurines and performing troop movements and every single one of these little figurines was a little, hypermasculine space marine.

When video games got to the point where you could play as a character and not have to use your imagination to do the heavy lifting, Warhammer 40k games started getting made, and the main characters that you played were all hypermasculine space marines.

My repressed, hurting little transwoman inside me just wanted to play as a woman, but no, there were no women space marines, so fuck me, I guess.

Then TSR gets bought by Wizards of the Coast and then Hasbro, and RPGs are renamed TTRPGs to differentiate from VRPGs and MMORPGs and through it all, through every single step and evolution of TTRPGs, table-top strategy games, RTSs, FPSs, and anything that has a hope in hell of rendering a space marine and competing against the behemoth that is Dungeons and Dragons in the table-top space or Doom in the video game space, there's Warhammer 40k, being all hypermasculine and space-marine-y.

And the fans of the franchise, you motherfuckers? You kept crowing about how in the game the men are men and the women are men and the children are men and how every man is a hypermasculine space marine, and I'm by this point just begging you to please STOP because I'm so fucking sick of hearing about your homoerotic fixation on your goddamn hypermasculine, hyperfascist, hyper-dogmatic, hyper-religious, hyper-space hypermarines!

I get it! There's no such thing as a goddamn woman...

...oh, there is? S/he's a chaos god/dess that's all genders and has entire armies of women who specifically are corrupted demons who exist entirely to seduce and corrupt your hypermasculine space marines?

For the sake of the God-Emperor that you're busy fellating, HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE HOW THAT'S WORSE!?!?

A few months ago my girlfriend comes to me and says that a friend got her a kit so she could get started in Warhammer 40k. After a brief mourning period for our bank account and an existential crisis over what this could mean for our relationship if she goes down the rabbit hole chasing after hypermasculine space marine ideals, she starts to get excited and tells me she's getting a unit of battle sisters.

"Come again?!" I interrupted.

She repeats that she's getting a unit of battle sisters called the Sororitas.

Well, of course, I took some French in middle school, which is based on Latin, and the root word for the name of the unit was "sor-" which is the prefix for "sister," so yes, this was a unit of women.

In Warhammer 40k.

I actually had to dig up the official Games Workshop site to be sure she wasn't being dragged into some knockoff thing that wasn't actually Warhammer. It took me a good solid two weeks and the actual box of miniature model kits to be in my hand before I could believe that Warhammer had women in it.

And then my girlfriend starts telling me all sorts of lore, mostly because I just genuinely can't believe that this is anything real. Everyone knows that Warhammer is about hypermasculine space marines...right?!

So, okay, the Sororitas are a thing, and I'm still convinced that it's just a few models, a token effort. Have a few females, as a treat.

And then she (my girlfriend) starts telling me about how there's named characters in the Sororitas, that they're a pretty darn big deal and a major part of the war effort, and there's even some transwomen in the Sororitas.

"Bullshit!" I say.

Then I go looking it up, not because I don't trust her, but because by this point I feel like I've stepped into an alternate universe. Everyone knows women Are Not A Thing in Warhammer 40k and it's about Manly Men Being Manly! This is not a space where a transwoman can feel represented and welcome!

...right?

So we start getting more models and she's getting pretty good at putting them together and now we need paint. So we look at the Games Workshop official paints and the prices are actually decent so I order some and look at that, there's a Games Workshop store about 20 minutes away. I'll have the order shipped to them and go pick it up. Turns out it's gotta be two orders, that's fine, the first comes Thursday and the second comes Saturday. I have to pick up the Thursday order by myself, but my girlfriend is going to join me for the second pickup.

I get there, prepared to deal with unwashed dudebros who are wearing MAGA hats and enacting their imperialist fascist fantasies through the medium of Warhammer. I'm expecting to be, at best, harassed, and at worst...well, I didn't want to think about what could happen to a transwoman in Arizona in the middle of Trans Panic season.

The store is clean. And well organized. Not a MAGA hat in sight and there's even a hand sanitizer dispenser right at the front door, and the guy running the shop hurries up to me to find out what I need. I tell him I've got an order waiting and he hurries over to get it and hands it over. Done and done.

No harassment, no catcalls, and no trouble getting my order at all.

A few days later, I'm back at the location, feeling much better about going in, and while we're there I ask if we can see their paints as one of the ones we wanted was out of stock online. The guy who's running the store is the same as the one before. Turns out he's the owner, he makes small talk, keeps my daughter entertained, answers questions like a boss, and most importantly, correctly genders me without me even asking once.

By this point, I'm now convinced that even if the game turns out to be expensive shit, there's at least enough rep for women I could maybe try building a model or three and playing a combat game with my girlfriend.

But it'd have to be either Sla'aneshii or hypermasculine space marines.

But I want to participate in my girlfriend's interests.

But I'll have to pick a horrible, misogynistic parody of non-cis, non-het stereotypes melded with chaos magic and demons OR horrible, misogynistic parodies of cis, het, masculinity.

But I want to play a game with my girlfriend, a game that she's starting to enjoy.

Seemingly unrelated, I'm chatting today on Discord with a friend who, like me, appreciates extremely cut women with abs you could grate cheese on. They send me a pic showing a guy in green armor that I think looks a bit like Doomguy but it's not quite a 1:1 fit being topped by a very ripped woman with purple skin and...those tattoos look familiar.

I load the pic up into image search and oh, hey, there's the original on the guy's Twitter feed! I start scrolling and the more I see of this chick the more I'm convinced I've seen some of the symbols before. I start to think...is this chick in Warhammer? That's where I thought I'd seen the symbols, when I was reviewing some of the materials my girlfriend bought. And sure enough, there in front of me was a confirmation that this was an OC based on an actual faction in Warhammer that features women that weren't the Sororitas.

I didn't quite realize it at the moment, but this hit me really hard and it took me some time to figure out why. More on that in a minute.

Up to this point, right up to the very moment I confirmed this random dark elf OC was a WH40k character, I had it so firmly in my head that there was no actual representation of women among the overall lore of Warhammer, save for the Sororitas, which I was still convinced was just a token presence.

I mentioned to my girlfriend that I'd never seen Warhammer 'sexy' art, whether risque or straight-up porn, before that moment, and she said, "Yes you have, I've shown it to you."

I realized in that moment that the entire concept of Warhammer had been presented to me as "Man, man, man, man, man, man, man" so thoroughly, so completely, so many, many times over the course of LITERAL DECADES (probably 30 years, come to think, I believe I first encountered it when I was 16) that I'd been shown literal porn of Warhammer characters and, because they were women, I had no foundation to make the connection between the characters and Warhammer.

I have a point, and if you haven't figured it out yet, I'll make it absolutely, painfully, obnoxiously clear to you.

SHUT UP ABOUT THE FUCKING SPACE MARINES!!! THE GOD EMPEROR WOULD TEAR THE IMPERIUM OF MAN APART, BURN THE INQUISITION TO THE GROUND, AND SEND THE SPACE MARINES TO THEIR ROOM TO THINK ABOUT WHAT THEY'D DONE!!! YOU HAVE FUCKING HAMMERED YOUR MANLY MEN IN MANLY POWER ARMOR INTO THE DIRT SO HARD THAT NOBODY EVEN KNOWS THAT ANYTHING ELSE ABOUT WARHAMMER EXISTS!

Your space marines suck anyway. The Doom Slayer and Master Chief would bully them for their lunch money and Samas Aran and Bayonetta would FemmeDomme them so hard they'd have to clean their power armor's crotch with an industrial cleaner.

Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP about those fucking loser walking tanks who are nothing but canon fodder for their higher-ups. There are entire alien races that nobody outside your little twink-seeking-bear fanboy clique even knows about because you WON'T SHUT UP ABOUT THE SPACE MARINES!

Just stop. Stop talking about them right now. They won't sleep with you, they won't take you to space-prom, they're so hung up on their spiritual hardons for their god emperor that they wouldn't notice you if they tripped on you.

[the-mist-striders]

Episode 3: One Must Die

So we last left off with the party realizing they’re fucked.

I would also like to mention that this is the top floor of the manor. As far as we can tell at a glance this is it. 

Kai does her echo-location thing and finds a secret door in the master bedroom- a spiral staircase down

Congratulations to the party! We found the basement that's supposed to have monsters in it

And it's very... basementy

Spooks part ????/????

Anyway, they find a locked room. Fauna presents a key she found in the study. Unlocks it and there's 2 child sized skeletons on the floor

The clothes matching the kids that led us in here

:)))

So the actual ghosts of the kids materialize and they talk to the party.

They say their mom locked them into the room to keep them safe

They starved to death

#Mother of the year award

Cinderell, being a paladin of the Raven Queen asks where they'd like to be buried. They say they want to be with their mom and dad. The paladin with the help of Lucerian scoop up all the bones and have them in some kind of sack. When this happens the kids possess Cinderell and Lucerian. Lucerian suddenly becomes meek and Cinderell becomes a bit more bossy.

We go into another room and it's full of corpses too

Fauna triggers a trap

A trap in the form of the angry maid’s spirit

Kai runs the fuck away because she not equipped for this shit

Lucerian runs the fuck away too and nearly yeets Kai’s blind ass down the staircase (but I succeeded in a dex save)

So me and Cinderell’s player do hatch a plan while Amahlia and Fauna fight the ghost

I have herbs, Cinderell is a paladin, and a match to burn the herbs. Cinderell does some chanting, takes by herbs, hauls ass to the box filled with the maids bones, and yeets the herbs inside. Setting the box on fire

While this happens the maid is balls deep into Amahlia

By this I mean the maid is fondling her guts

And is on her death saves

Amahlia is dying

Kai steps up and fucking book's it across the room towards the distracted wraith and wacks it so hard from behind that it finishes it off

Kai uses a healing spell and saves Amahlia's ass

Please no one notice how I keep changing how certain names are spelled, I can only edit this so much.

They rest, they level up and heal, tiem for the next floor below

They find absolute darkness. No longer do their surroundings resemble a home, it's a dungeon. A crypt

Kai hears distant chanting

Can't pinpoint what they're saying

When she mentions this the rest of the party hears it

#this is fine

The kids nudge the paladins towards the mothers burial crypt. They leave the bones there, releasing their spirits. They also fetch the fathers corpse from the noose and place him in his grave.

They press on, Amahlia is the only human and thus can't see

Must be rough

Lucerian is holding Amahlia's torch, he nearly lights up a room with it before Kai stops him

In the process revealing her telepathic nature by speaking directly into his mind

You see, she can hear something in that room

Its big and has many legs

And it was the quietest way to stop him

She reveals that this whole time she could read their minds

Fauna is embarrassed because she sings the theme song of my little pony internally every time she's spooked

Please no one question where she could have heard the my little pony theme song we are in a dungeon ffs.

Fauna also discovers she can talk to animals (because she leveled up as a druid)

Turns out the dog has an Aussie accent.

Who knew

Btw this is what the dog looks like

3B, The bat in her hair is also constantly panicking because he has no idea what's going on at any given moment. Also 3B has a jersey accent. 

Kai, using herself as a radio of sorts we navigate deeper, passing messages around telepathically and listening for enemies

I knew a blind telepath would make a useful party member

However, they do get jumped by 3 ghouls

Because I failed my rolls for Kai to see it coming

They manage to avoid most traps/encounters using Kai's senses, but sometimes my dice will be like "fuck you. have a low #"

Amalia dashes ahead to smash some ghouls

Now mind you the halls are narrow

Amalia only gets past Kai because she flattened against a wall to make room

Should I mention Kai uses a crossbow and how nobody questioned ever why a blind woman is using a crossbow

(She uses other people's eyes ( and her own senses at times) to aim)

So uh

Lucerian can't hit any of the ghouls because Amalia is in the way

So he has a bright idea

To fucking try jumping over her

Amahlia is an average height adult woman and he's slightly taller and covered in heavy armor

As decided by a series of rolls between Amahlia and Lucerian - here's how that went

They fucked it up

Lucerian knocks Amahlia down, sending them both to a dog pile on the ground

Cinderell has an idea too! Basically he wants to go up and around in attempt to flank the ghouls

Says "I got this!" Takes off into the dark hall

Next the party hears is a loud bang as Cinderell steps on a floor trap with spikes below

Cinderell passes the dex save, grabs the ledge and pulls themselves up

#ideal party moment

Oh but what's this?

The party is making a lot of noise

A giant caterpillar/worm like thing emerges from the hallway that Kai heard it crawling around in

It has fangs and tentacles

And craves our meat

And its Kai whose first on the menu

Oh, and fauna turned into a cat, got past everyone and joined the fight. She left 3B and the dog behind to keep the animals out of danger.

They did pass a check to detect the worms arrival and to be smart enough to run away

#the dog is ok

So I won't sugar coat. Kai gets her ass beat

It's fukin rough. It uses poison damage that paralyzes

So Kai wasn't able to do much even when I could pass a constitution save

Cinderell makes his way to the back finally

The woerm is chewing on Kai’s head

Kai accepts this as her cue, turns into a rat and makes a dash

Cinderell smashes it with their battleaxe

Its dead bitches

Kai heals her own ass

The ghouls are dead

They managed to survive

...for now

They find a statue of a dude and a colorful glowing orb

Fauna needs to be held back so that she doesn't grab it

There are strange shadows in this room and we can feel eyes on us ... watching

Oh and there's skeletons chained to the wall... they sure do know how to decorate

They find a door

Cinderell and Kai don't trust nothing

Kai detects magic on the door. Cinderell shoots it activating a trap that would eat you if you tried to open it

Totally normal stuff

Everyone in the party is just like "fuck this house"

Amahlia looks down and the tarot card is back

She rips it and moves on

They find a room with a chest of magical shit that Kai can see with borrowed eyeballs + detect magic

But bro

We didn't even touch anything

Cinderell just

Looked at a painting

And out comes a ghoul like thing

I don't think it was a ghoul, something stronger smarter and maybe harder to kill

Not sure

Because that thing was fucking ganged up on on sight

The party was #done and out for blood

Little bitch died

Oh and the reason we didn't know it was there was because I failed 3 perception checks in a fucking row

Which btw Kai is now toph'ing it up and going barefoot because I'll be damned we get jumped by another ghoul popping out of the ground

No one can smell her boot feet because the air is already putrid from all the ghouls and that woerms insides 

In true spirit of #fuck this house we didn't bother with the rest of the floor. They went down the stairs that Cinderell found when he tried to flank the ghouls

When they reached the lower floor they could now understand the chanting they heard on the floor above

"Strahd is ancient, he is the land"

to which the squad starts roasting the chanting. Kai personally did it by saying "I fucking get it! Strahd is old and strahd is dirt! Who cares!"

"strahd is older than dirt'- Amahlia I think, idk

We find a room full of alters with different things on a pedestal

Random shit like clotted blood in a glass, a dried patch of skin, dragon tooth wrapped in wire, a lock of hair, shit like that

What's funny is this setup is for a ritual that isn't a thing. It does nothing

Cringe blood cult with their fail ritual

2 different doors ahead. Kai checks both, one is a flooded room, the other another series of hallways. They start with the later and find yet more skeletons chained to the wall

#im kink shaming at this point

Kai finds a secret passageway that leads to the flooded room but this entrance opened up to where there were platforms

I have Kai put her finger tips in the murky sewage water so she can feel for movement- something brushes against her fingers, causing her to jolt back, Last minute she sees red eyes in the water.

Amalhia has a galaxy brain moment and throws her javelin into the water

To ""kill the water""

She goes in the water to get it back. All the splashing keeps Kai from figuring out what the fuck is in the water

At the center of the flooded part of the room is a platform with an alter, to the right in the water is a stack of bones

Fauna just goes for the altar by wading in the water

Kai is paranoid, won't go in

Cinderell offers to carry her

Kai almost accepts

But for reasons unbeknownst to Cinderell she pauses, then turns and just leaps into the water while screaming “It’s not personal!!”

They all get to the platform

The whole squad smells like sewage now

#squadgoals

With all of them on the center platform a bunch of hooded figures with no face except for red eyes manifest everywhere in the room

There's a knife on the altar

Now the chanting changes to something else

As hooded entities manifest in the room

"One must die"

#ohno

So I, as Kai’s player was launching into "how can I twist the wording here" mode

Or "is there like... a bug somewhere we can kill?" Or "can we sacrifice a ghoul?"

Dm is evil and won't tell

Lucerian thinks out loud "they need one of us to die... and we have a dog"

At the same time Amahlia has a galaxy brained idea to write a '1' on a piece of paper. The dms are shocked that Amahlia is actually literate

They let her make the attempt

Kai lends her some paper, she writes "1" on a piece of paper, takes the knife and stabs it

The paper erupts into black inky smoke

"Yes! I did it!"

The smoke clears

Revealing the fucking tarot card

Cinderell goes looking into the stack of bones

Hoping to find rats or something

No luck even with a nat20

Kai is having an existential crisis on what it means to die as she contemplates sacrificial alternatives

Cinderell has their galaxy brain moment

The chanting is speeding up

They’re being timed

He gathers bones from the stack and assembles a skeleton

Rolls for deception to see if maybe he can trick the spectators

As he pretends to sacrifice himself and use the skeleton for a body

Lucerian stops him because he knows it won't work (via a nat20 on insight) 

That's when Lucerian gets out a dagger and attempts to commit suicide

Chaos happens

Cinderell is attempting to grapple the knife away

Fauna the ray of sunshine is having a crisis as she watches her brother attempt to sacrifice himself

I enjoy how literally no one even entertained sacrificing the dog

Lucerian stabs himself on the neck

#ohshit.jpg

The chanting is loud and so much faster than before

Time is running out

Do we save Lucerian?

And if we do ... what then? Who will die instead? 

Fauna sets 3B and the dog down on the floor. Says "take care of each other" before attempting her own suicide because she can't live without her brother

This sets Amalia into action. Since she seems to have a crush on fauna

Amalia dashes over and force feeds him a healing potion

In all the chaos we don't see Cinderell step aside, take his chest armor off, grab the sacrificial dagger, and stab himself in the heart right over the alter

He uses one of his weapons to command we stay back and let him die

With a nat 20 intimidation

The party is probably pissing themselves

He dies so that the rest can leave

Something inside the stack of bones emerges, vaguely human in shape... but not quite right It goes to Cinderell’s corpse and devours him

#traumatic.jpg

But hey at least they can leave this house right?

They go back where they came

And find the staircase to the basement blocked off

Fuck-this-house.com/fuck 

Fauna is somewhere murdering a door

Lucerian trying to calm her

Amalia too

tfw the barbarian is telling you to chill

Kai finds an exit in the hallway the woerm was in

It's a ladder to the very first floor you enter on

They did it. They escaped.

The party then in an act of friendly bonding set the house on fire.

The smoke trail marking the end of the Death house arc.

There's a basket of fine whine and cheese on the road where the children once stood. Inside the basket is a note that says

“Welcome to Barovia :)”

[<< Previous]

[Next >>]

[Episode Directory]

[skiddo-xy]

TOTK TRAILER #3 OBSERVATIONS+TAKEAWAYS

much to unpack. in the order that they appear in the video btw.

enemies fighting each other. wonder if that'll actually make it in game. unless the one on the right is a non-hositle npc.

aw they're chopping up wood

link is flying HEAD-FIRST....unmatched bravery (and also aerodynamics??? the ease he goes from head-first to stomach-first to paragliding is commendable)

that one geolyph looks like half of the snake in the logo HMMM

MAIN THEME AGAIN!!!! WE ARE GTETTING A MORE TRADITIONAL GAME!!!

there is light coming out of the ground.

cute little storm cloud i bet that's for a daily/weekly/whatever-loy event

is that the dye shop looking fancier???

millitary camp also hyrule castle town is not restored yet :(

that vertical stone donut in kakariko village was DEFINITELY not there before okay so some zonai stuff went straight down to the ground and some stayed in the air was it like precipitation except they all froze midair???

what is that hurricane please tell me that's a mountain

castle emerging in gerudo ohohoh

his hair looks like candy worms you get for hallowe'en

zelda's sheikah slate glows as she's falling?

that loooks liek a hot dungeon link is going through

SANDSHIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! except it's flying

floating water you can stay inside that also looks like an eyeball aw

link is getting past lasers is he breaking in somewhere to steal?

those eyeballs from before look like they're in a gumball machine what

IS THERE A NEW MAZE??? low-key didn't like the mazes from botw or uh my bad "labyrinths" but i hope this one is nice (except i LOVED how it was beneath that one maze with the guardians and all)

that is a long spear. also zonai i think.

are those bokoblins wearing zonai helms?

the farmers are fighting too???

love the mysterious music

who is that again? was that the one zelda thing in that fanart

the flowers are so pretty

OH??? SOMETHING IS EMERGING from a wall that can't be good

okay so link still has his champion's tunic that's good

the castle is so pretty!!!

what temple needs those gears and who is that

so there was that one fanart with zelda like that but then who was that other person we saw earlier i'm sooo confused

huge earrings

the bird is like a loftwing and i like that

the orb with a hole in it also reminds me of skyward sword

now THESE are boss fights!!!! more traditional zelda game <3 <3 <3

i dod not have the reflexes to use that stasis thing fast enough.

rocket lol p.s tell me those monsters did not overtake lurelin village.

low gravity is so cute

did link attatch a red rupee to that arrow. form looks a little off but anywasy lol

that laser thing looks srious business

SNOW MONSTER!!! UH OH!!!

that thing in zelda's hand looks like that amber from skyward sword must be reeeeeeally old

that lynel must look older

oh so that poisoning or whatever was caused by ganon

not surprised that ganondorf is here because i saw him on an instagram post from the nintendo account but anyways he sort of looks like wind waker/twilight princess ganondorf doesn't he

two piercings in each ear side by side! fashion icon

who is THAT i'm losing track

riju!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

fighting with sidon i see i see ok ok

link's facial expression...i've never quite seen it

THREE HEADED DRAGON AREW YOU SERIOUS

was zelda kidnapped? why is she up there? WHY IS SHE LOOKING AT THE SKY WHEN SHE SAYS LINK DOES HE...

[heshemejoshi]

i made some modifications to my european pmd2 rom with skytemple! added a patch that makes characters have damage portraits when they're in low health

closeup bc i really like how it looks lol

(feraligatr portrait sprite made by comics.town/@ noo btw! most of the sprites available for romhacking pmd2 are made by pixel artists lol chunsoft only made a few for the story characters and the first evo of all hero/partner combinations.)

also managed to fix the sleeping animations that displayed hero and partner running in place once they evolved. now they're actually sleeping lol.. they look so cutesies :-]

my next goal is figure out how to add different portrait expressions during dialogue when speaking inside dungeons (not just pain portraits LOL i wanna add happy portraits when in full health as well too)! but it seems much more complex than just using patches haha. might have to tweak with the code a lil'? anyways i got distracted and managed to make delphox and snorlax my hero and partner for a different rom JSDFKLG

[kira-the-whump-enthusiast]

How did Andrei keep himself sane - or try to - while he was locked up?

Sorry it took me so long to get to this ask!! Thank you so much for it btw :D

So the thing about the cell Andrei was locked in,,, it is quite literally empty. It is a stone cell in a dungeon and there is absolutely nothing inside. (In Andrei's country + time period, prisons aren't actually used for holding people for long amounts of time, they're usually used as temporary holding only, but Andrei is a bit of an exception.)

So yeah, Andrei had so, so little stimuli. Mostly, he scratches drawings or writes words into the walls and floors with his fingernails. He's gotten extremely good at it over the 15 years he was locked in the cell.

At night he would look out the cell window and study the stars. Try to remember what he learned about them. What certain stars were called and what constellations are in the sky. (He named a few of them himself to fill the gaps in his knowledge.)

But yeah, he still lost his sanity really quickly despite all this. Maybe I should give him some nice things.

[lucy-the-cat]

hi! same anon from the backup blog a couple days ago :)

first, when i was reading the time-travel fic, i was wondering how if elara can’t read mavens mind, how is it that she was able to hear him think about coriane during the beginning of the queenstrial? second! i just wanna say that the scene in lovers curse where mare physically fights cal to stay in the palace and goes so far as to call out for maven was literally everything to me. i audibly gasped when i read it. words cannot explain how much i love it. lastly, if you can have any of your scenes from ur writings be illustrated, what would they be? or what scene did you envision with the most clarity?

anyways, i’m about to take my second to last final, and thank you for the well wishes! i hope your day is going well

I squealed when I saw this. About the time travel fic, Mandy said she couldn't read anything that could alter the present, so she can read thoughts that sync to what he had originally been thinking. If Elara couldn't read his mind at all, she'd be fucking panicking. That's what Mandy says, anyway ;)

Yeah, that scene is pretty epic, and there's more where that came from, trust me. If I had to pick a scene to be illustrated, it would be the break into three of a WIP called Newblood Queen (4 book series, hopefully) where Newbloods rule, Reds are still oppressed, and Silvers exist in a hazy space in between. I haven't written most of it, but I do have this excerpt from the end:

Mother taught me to never kneel.  To never make myself small to appease another.  But when my knee hits the dirt, it doesn’t feel like a loss.  Nor when I take her hand, trembling, yet undaunted, a queen forged in the flame of a kingdom sieged.  The skin of her knuckles doesn’t taste like weakness.

It tastes like freedom.

“I’m sorry.”  An admission, one that burns me from the inside out.  “I failed you.”

I just need to see Mare's stunned expression, and Maven's resolve, how they're both so overwhelmed by emotion, and the need to be strong at their weakest moment. (They've been thrown in the dungeons, btw). The imagery is so potent I can taste it

As for published work, the winner would have to be the climax of Lover's Curse, which I won't spoil, but also involves Maven getting on his knees lol

Not a scene, but I've always loved the idea of someone drawing a picture of Mare for each section of Red Ruse. The Girl would have her in a princess ballgown (lavender, of course) with red blood dripping down her shoulder from the knife she slashed in it. The Snake would have her in Calore colors, a tight fitted evening dress with the red slithering like a snake. The Bride would have her in a nightgown with hollow, haunted eyes, and The Queen would have her with a torn wedding dress and lightning crackling from her fingertips.

As for most vivid, it's uh, I'm such a fucking lesbian it's this paragraph from chapter six:

I seize his hands, rolling until I’m on top.  My shoulders are bare but for my bra straps, and I nibble his ear.  “I could kill you.  I could wrap my hands around your pretty neck and squeeze until you burst.”  I unclasp his flamemakers.  “Would you let me?”

Mare's hot okay

[rust-official]

I mean, they *wanted* to do the exact same shit with 4e that they're doing now, it's just they acquired the VTT this time instead of the internal development project falling apart (this is the only part I'll acknowledge any humanity on their part, as this was a genuinely tragic circumstance involving loss of human life).

While they weren't explicit about the "recurrent user spending" part of it, it absofuckinglutely was exactly the same shit 16 years ago. Pay for D&D Insider (which used to be Dungeon and Dragon magazine, by the way, the print magazines that Paizo (yes, Paizo, of Pathfinder fame) used to publish until WotC took the license back), get access to digital rules so you don't get a physical rulebook, a promised VTT (see above), some character / monster creation tools, etc.

To be clear I'm not defending WotC / Hasbro right now, I don't even play their shitty game, but I want to make sure people know the history so they can see this is not new behavior from them. I feel like I'm the only one who's seen all this coming because I was paying attention. I saw the license change coming because the terms they used for it were literally copy-pasted from the DM's Guild agreement (btw in case you missed that, if you submit ANYTHING to DM's Guild, they can take your content without even acknowledging you). I saw this "recurrent user spending" thing coming because they tried it with 4e and because of the push to monetize D&D (which actually got its start well before 5.5e was even announced; Hasbro wanted to push D&D to be a 50 million/year brand).

I'm definitely not the Cassandra of tabletop games but I feel like the TTRPG industry definitely has the same memory problems as the video games industry.

Also, in case it's not abundantly clear: fuck Hasbro, fuck WotC. There are so many other, better, more interesting games out there that you can have actual DRM-free PDFs of, or even print books of, much cheaper than D&D. There are so many other, better games companies out there producing interesting, genre-challenging, innovative games. I've got my preference but please don't listen to my recommendations, try them yourself! Many of them are free online!

... and that actually don't fall apart at higher levels and that you actually build balanced, predictable encounters for, and that aren't run by abuser-protectors like Mike Mearls

Sorry I am just really angry about WotC/Hasbro dominanting an industry because they were first despite clearly having no fucking clue wtf they're doing

"D&D 4e was too much like a video game,"

[fromcenotaphy]

What's your take on HBO Balthazar? It's such an underappreciated character, a true chaotic neutral. (btw I'm loving all your headcanons because they're *on point*. You have a wonderful, brilliant mind)

💖 thank you, that’s so sweet! yeah hbo balthazar is hmmm just [doing coke in the enormous, empty parlor of an enormous, empty mansion overlooking the sea] [knows exactly how many gallons of alcohol he needs to consume in order to feel the buzz through his grace] [enochian warding woven around him like tangled cobwebs] [singes his fingertips on holy fire to remind himself he’s still an angel] [four-figure bottle service at invite-only nightclubs, surrounded by strobing lights and human strangers] [riding a high arctic wind alongside castiel, their wings almost brushing] [sutures the weapons of heaven into himself, so that each one he gives away leaves a scar] [spent the late 1800s addicted to gambling] [slipping away from his garrison to spin roulettes in vegas, roll dice in monte carlo, cheat at cards in macau] [assigned to attend at castiel’s questioning in season 4] [watches impassively from the far wall of the cell, jaw clenched tight] [flies to the gobi afterward, crouches on a cold silver dune and vomits into the sand, vessel shaking in a way it’s never done before] [fondness for delicate fabrics, the way they shiver and glide against his skin] [unreadable expression the first time he sees dean, catches the lightning-pine scent of castiel’s grace radiating off of him] [snapped the lock on heaven’s dungeons on his way past, heard the pandemonium starting up behind him and grinned into the stratospheric dark] [lying on the roof of a train as it speeds through the european countryside] [grace burning through the last of the night’s excesses] [watches the stars streak overhead and counts the weapons still sparking and humming inside his body]