#which IS tied to the magic system very closely actually i figured out recently

[amberskywrites]

Hello! I return your STS-- I see that you do a lot of fanfic as well as original writing, which is awesome! Engage with what interests you! I wanted to know what your favorite part of worldbuilding was as well, and what worldbuilding is like in fanfic, if there's worldbuilding at all? I hope that doesn't sound rude, I just haven't really engaged with fanfiction on the writer or reader's end too terribly much, and on one hand, you would think the world is already established, but on the other, I feel like there have to be gaps you need to fill in sometimes? Thank you!

Thanks for returning the STS!!

So, first a disclaimer: I am still very new to worldbuilding! At least, worldbuilding in-depth. I used to just make sure I had basics figured out, enough for the story to progress, and then just figure things out as I went. Worldbuilding used to be super daunting to me 😅 and still is sometimes, I won't lie! But recently I've found myself really invested in it, and it's been a lot more fun than I could have imagined!

Alrighty, that outta the way...

A TL;CR as well because I kinda rambled on: favorite part of worldbuilding is magic systems and was the whole reason I began writing Not of This World. As for fanfics, I personally rarely worldbuild with the exception of my most beloved fic (by me. i adore writing this fic) Eternal, where I did quite a bit of worldbuilding especially where the magic system is concerned.

My favorite part of worldbuilding:

My favorite part of worldbuilding is definitely creating magic systems. I love writing high fantasy, and creating a system (or systems) of magic has always been a part of worldbuilding I've enjoyed, even when I was hesitant to do much worldbuilding. Usually, it's the magic systems that get me really invested in a world.

My current wip Not of This World began, really, with the initial thought of "what if magic physically manifested on a person?". Then it turned to considering what kinds of magic would have a physical manifestation, what those manifestations would look like, why would certain manifestations occur (arms vs legs vs hair vs eyes etc.), what are some kinds that wouldn't have much physical manifestation. This then led to considering, okay, what if people practiced more than one kind of magic? What would the consequences be? What would they look like then? And then as I started writing some characters, I also started considering would these characters feel pain when learning magic? Could this lead to these characters becoming disabled? How would they accommodate those disabilities in the world?

And I gotta say, exploring all that has been probably my favorite part of writing NoTW so far. I could talk all day about the magic system beyond like, the questions that led to my decisions, like full on just ramble about the answers to those questions and more, but I shall move on for now ^^

Worldbuilding in fanfics!

By the way, not rude at all to ask about this! Especially if fics aren't something you dabble in, I think it's really great that you asked, cause there are definitely differences I think! Personally, I don't worldbuild too much in my fics unless I am writing an AU and even then, it's still not often. Often I stick with the canon world, and only worldbuild if I am drastically changing the setting. (my awesome friend @hihopelessromantics does some fantastic worldbuilding for fics though!!)

I will talk about the one fic that I have done more worldbuilding than usual for though!! It's my darling child, Eternal. It's a canon rewrite and divergence of the anime/manga Nanatsu no Taizai (The Seven Deadly Sins). In a lot of aspects, I kept what was from the canon world, because I enjoyed how that world was already built. It was one of the things that drew me to the series originally on top of the potential the characters all had.

However, just because I liked most of what was in the world already does not mean I liked all of it. As you mentioned, there are definitely gaps in places, and in others, there are downright plotholes that, when planning a canon rewrite, just... gave me a headache if I'm honest. And then in some instances, I just outright did not like what was in canon.

Ironically, for me, this happened to be the magic system. Specifically how some characters were impacted by magic they either possessed naturally, were bestowed with by higher beings, or cursed with in some way. So, a lot of my worldbuilding for Eternal has focused on this, altering the magic system to make more sense to me but also, in my opinion, utilize potential that was not met in canon. Figuring out these aspects of worldbuilding genuinely makes ne super excited to write the fic, because I'm excited to share my twists with others and get their takes on it, and see how other's may like it compared to the familiar canon worldbuilding.

I think for me, I have two mindsets when it comes to worldbuilding: original fiction worldbuilding and fanfic worldbuilding. For the first, it's more of a sense of "What do I want to see/explore? How far can I take x concept and what would it then influence in culture, characters, and landscape?" For the latter, for me personally, it is very much a case of "What do I want to change?" And I'll admit, for fics? If I worldbuild too much/too far from the original world, I end up wanting to just turn it into an original story instead. That's how I got wips like You're Something Else and The Prince's Guard (which I still need to put info about here eventually lol).

Thank you again for sending the ask!!!

[phantomtrader19]

Phantom of the opera 1st & 3rd preview review

PART 1

Auction - I was absolutely overjoyed to see the chandelier onstage!! I personally loved the new set, it was sad to see the angel had gone but I’m so glad they put the homage to Maria bjornson in the centre where the angel was as seen below (it’s modelled after Maria I overheard)

The cloth covered piece behind the chandelier is a broken middle section of the inner proscenium that when the overture starts re-assembles and rises into place absolutely stunning addition!!

some words were changed

“Lot 666, a chandelier until recently believed to be destroyed... *normal lyrics* “Our workshops have restored it and fitted it with wiring for the new electric light so that we may get a hint of how magnificent it will look when re-assembled” so like the restaged tour lyrics.

Standard auction really not much change but haunting as always!

Overture - perhaps a new sound system? But the overture was absolutely thunderous and I was LIVING for it, lighting design is new and a lot more flashes of light which upped the dramatic feel to it! The chandelier was new and I thought it looked absolutely wonderful it certainly didn’t disappoint it’s a lot bigger than the original which was a cool change. The curtains rose like before and the inner section of the proscenium was sort of like a centre piece and as the overture gets to the middle part where the music sort of slows then dramatically picks back up again (I hope I’ve explained that okay 😂) the dust covers on everything are very swiftly removed and it looks beautiful. The audience went crazy for the overture and it was just amazing to witness!

Hannibal - Saori’s cadenza was so fierce and you could tell she was having a blast up there! Again she got an applause as she came out on stage. The ensemble was fabulous as expected costumes again all the same but fresher as they were all brand new or from the uk tour 2020. Christine doesn’t come out with the ballet girls she joins just before they all do that lovely en pointe section which Lucy does as she is a trained dancer as well! A couple ballet girls now wear their wigs in curlers and tied up in ribbons to give that extra feel of a dress rehearsal which I’m still to figure out if I liked. Yukina Hasebe one of the ballerinas wears a black wig in a plaited ponytail with a black fringe which was interesting but they all wear their regular degas wigs the rest of the show. Everything else remained relatively the same.

Think of me (Carlotta) nothing different I don’t think, Saori sounds brilliant she’s so sassy I love her! Her tantrum is brilliant as she’s so tiny and all this anger bursts out of her it’s really funny!

Lily was also absolutely divine in this part aswell gorgeous voice and good comedic timing.

Greg Castiglioni has a nice voice but not too convinced on his portrayal as piangi not my fave but not bad! (I miss Paul tabone so much!)

Think of me (Christine) My heart was pounding as the piano started I was so eager and excited to hear Lucy safe to say she doesn’t disappoint she’s so radiant and has the voice of a bell, her cadenza is the movie cadenzas but higher and it was fantastic Think of me was much the same but again the set looked so bright and new it really was gorgeous, I absolutely love the new addition of the mini proscenium inside the outer one it frames the stage just beautifully! Rhys’ part was great aswell lovely voice :)

Angel of music - much the same again, the ballerinas have a bar where they practise upstage left which was a nice touch. Lyric change to -

Meg - “your face Christine, so strange”

Christine - “I’m changing Meg”

Meg - “No one’s changing”

In the third preview the lyrics changed to

Christine - “he’s with me even now”

Meg - “Your hands are cold”

Christine - “all around me”

Meg - “Christine are you alright”

Christine - “it frightens me”

Meg - “don’t be frightened”

So reverted back to something similar to the original lyrics! Ellie is a lovely Meg and her wig is auburn and it looks lovely!

Dressing room - everything the same

The mirror - everything the same again killian has a great voice and sounded very threatening! when the phantom brings Christine through the mirror Raoul calls out angel and instead of the title song beginning the music continues into a dramatic swell no where near as long as the restaged tour though.

Title song - Raoul leaves the dressing room as the title song begins and the ballerinas walk onstage congregate round Raoul and then they all walk off as Lucy and Killian appear on the bridge so no more doubles a bit of a restaged tour moment again I’m still to figure out how I felt. There seems to be extra set pieces like flat cutouts of staircases which move with the bridge which I really enjoyed, I think it added more depth to the stage.

The first preview the candles on the candelabras were poking out of the floor as they usually did and Lucy and killian appeared on the boat and however the candelabras didn’t rise which was confusing however they did in the third preview apparently it was a technical malfunction so I was very happy to see it fixed as the lair looked really bare without them.

I Have brought you - nothing different

Music of the night - mostly the same but it was like the phantom could put Christine to sleep when he sung close your eyes her eyes closed and she seemed to kind of lose consciousness it was a really nice touch to see how much control the phantom had over Christine. The catch is gone now :(

The morning after/ I remember - again the same

Stranger than you dreamt it - Lucy’s acting in this scene was just out of this world you can tell her Christine was absolutely horrified by the sight of the deformity and killian was fantastic!

Magical lasso - same as normal

Notes/ prima Donna - exact same as before except i don’t know if it was just me but the curtain behind the manager’s desk seemed a lot larger which was nice as it filled up a bit more of the empty space. Raoul wore a brown bow tie for this scene. Saori and Lily both were fantastic in prima donna would love to see lily again and will most likely be seeing Saori anyway in my upcoming visits. Rhys was really good in this song he was very clever and lovely belt. Francesca Ellis is definitely a standout in the show her voice is so unique unlike any other I’ve ever heard her acting is also 10/10! Managers I think could work on their timing for the comedic parts but that’s the only complaint Matt and Adam are great otherwise :)

Il Muto - lovely to see Manon Taris back on stage and James Hume and I want to say Hywel Dowsell were amusing to watch aswell! Saori and Edward court as Don Atillio were great Lucy was so cute as Serafimo!

The ballet - all the ballerinas were gorgeous! And the male ballet dancer was fantastic! Andre was trembling like crazy when trying to introduce the ballet and engaged with the audience quite a bit which was fun, the ballerinas screamed a lot when they noticed the phantoms shadow on the backdrop and the music had a build up behind the actual original score which made the reveal of buquet’s body more dramatic!

The Rooftop - Lucy looked gorgeous in her rooftop costume! She seemed genuinely distressed and her acting again just shone through, Rhys at the beginning was giving me Hadley Fraser/ restaged tour vibes coming off as dismissive of Christinebut he begins to soften Lucy’s soar was sublime probably one of the best I’ve heard it just floated from her!!!

All I ask of you - Rhys and Lucy had a lot of chemistry and she was beaming from ear to ear when Rhys sung to her. Beautifully done

All I ask of you reprise - the controversial Pegasus.... would it have been nice for the phantom to appear on top of the angel? Yes, is the Pegasus statue THAT bad absolutely not it was beautiful! Killian was fab! Loved the sustained note on “when he heard you siiiiiiinggggggggg” liked a lot!!!

CHANDELIER CRASH WAS SO COOL, killian appeared in box five and shot sparks from his staff essentially shooting the chandelier down. It crashed like it did in the original and swung really fast over the audience and made an explosion noise which was changed at the third preview the music sort of rumbled instead of the explosion which worked better as the explosion was rather odd since the chandelier didn’t collapse or like the restaged tour chandelier spew fake glass.

INTERVAL The blue curtain is GORGEOUS

[hasquetzorkukudoneanythingwrong]

Foggy Fate

Recently Rex and Quetz had dealt with two annoying situations, both of which had left Quetz in a situation that Rex hated to see her in. First was a meeting with another universe's master, who decided to immediately start fighting and had managed to beat out Quetz with his servants by a bit of luck. Second was in Madrid where a trap specifically meant for Quetz had weakened her and had her captured by the enemy.

The two managed to come out fine in both situations, Rex even gaining new symbiotic powers in Madrid, but he still hated how it happened at all. He got paranoid, and wanted to prevent any similar scenario from happening again. One measure was that he requested many of the caster servants create a special charm to prevent Quetz from getting harmed by any magical traps like in Madrid.

But suddenly, the control room had detected a singularity. Nothing major, but needed to be addressed soon.

Rex: another one? We've been seeing a lot of these lately.

Da Vinci: might be a bit of a side effect of the lostbelts. Singularities happen all the time anyways but these have been different.

Sion: this one's in London, same time period as the London singularity of The Grand Order.

Rex: interesting...

Da Vinci: it's not nearly as big an issue, but we'd still like you to take a look.

Rex: I will, but I'm not taking any risks.

Under normal circumstances, these small singularities would be handled by Rex and Quetz, but after the last two incidents he felt he needed to take further measures. For one he brought in Jalter as backup.

Sion: bringing in some backup?

Rex: yeah... I won't be having Quetz harmed again...

Quetz: I understand your feelings mi amor... but still a bit embarrassing...

Rex: I realize that, but... that's reality unfortunately. Besides we know Jalter's dependable backup.

Jalter, blushing a bit: ...thanks master...

Sion: anyways, we need you all in the coffins soon.

After the 3 entered their respective coffins it was time to rayshifting.

3...2...1!

The three found themselves in the foggy streets of London. It looked like a ghost town, not a soul in sight. Not too unique for singularities but still unnerving.

Da Vinci: ...huh, that's odd. About the same time you got there, we've detected another life signature and a servant.

Quetz: ...could it be another universe's master of chaldea?

Sion: that's a very strong possibility. If they're anything like the last one... then be on your guard.

Rex: don't need to tell me twice

Jalter: do you know where they could be?

Da Vinci: yes... a few blocks away

Rex: ...great...

Meanwhile, with the other universe's master: Maya.

Maya: so you've detected more servants?

Maya was sent in to deal with the same problem, she brought along her surrogate daughter Abigail Williams.

Da Vinci: yes... though one seems a bit odd. Two are pretty standard, rider and avenger classes. But there's another that's... fluctuating? It's not far from a berserker but...

Maya: could be a pseudo-servant or something?

Sion: maybe...?

Abby: are they source of the singularity?

Da Vinci: not likely...

Sion: heads up, they're getting close

Rex: hey you!

Maya: here we go...

The two groups could see each other, Rex decided to call Maya out. When Maya saw the group she already got a decent read on the servants. She knew Jalter already but this one was... different? Closer to the one from Orleans. Quetzalcoatl was... dangerous, not malevolent but a risk. Rex was... confusing. She could tell he was a decent guy but something seemed off.

Maya: hey there!

Rex: hey...

Maya: lemme guess... are you another universe's master?

Rex: yeah... same for you?

Maya: yup! You got some interesting servants there...

Rex: thanks... what's your name?

Maya: Maya. Maya Hinagami.

Rex: Maya... lemme ask you something, you know a Faye?

Maya: yeah actually... you know her too?

Rex: we've met up a couple times.

Maya: nice! Wait! She might've told me about you too. Lemme guess your name... Rox?

Rex: Rox?! It's Rex!

Maya: oh! Sorry about that! Must've misheard her.

Jalter: hey... I'd hate to cut the discussion short... but the fog's getting thicker.

Quetz: she's right.

Da Vinci(s): you better get moving *bzzt* servant *bzzt* danger- *bzzt*

Eventually the comms cut off, the fog now much thicker and the masters were getting nervous.

Maya: Rex! You still there?

Rex: yeah!

The groups huddled close to stay safe.

Abby: Maya... what could it be?

Maya: not sure...

Quetz: don't worry girls, we'll come out of this fine.

Jalter: yeah, always turns out good eventually.

Then the group heard an unnerving scrapping sound. Like metal being dragged across the pavement.

Rex: what the hell?

Maya: must be the source of the singularity.

Abby: what could it be

But before anyone could answer suddenly the enemy strikes from behind

Jalter, blocking with her sword: fuck!

Then suddenly they disappear.

Rex: what the?

Maya: some kind of warping ability?

Quetz: this will be annoying.

The fog was thick with mana, messing with the comms and preventing Maya from getting a read on the enemy.

Suddenly another strike!

Quetz, countering with her Macana: don't think so!

Gone again

Rex: is it the fog that let's them do that?

Maya: no idea. But it's irritating regardless.

Rex: I got an idea... on my signal all of you duck.

Maya: what do you have in mind?

Rex: you'll see.

After a bit of waiting, Rex gave the signal.

Rex: now!

The rest ducked and Rex unleashed dozens of spikes from his body! He feels some impaling the enemy servant.

Rex: gotcha!

Maya: wtf was that?!

Rex: long story!

The fog clears a bit but not much and the enemy servant is seen stabbed in several places in their body. Finally getting a good look at them the group can see what their opponent looks like. They're covered almost entirely by a cloak, with a large white mask covering their face, tho it seemed to have been damaged by the spikes.

Maya: are they still alive?

Abby: they aren't fading...

Suddenly the enemy servant warps again, leaving some blood dripping on the spikes they were impaled on.

Rex: fucking hell!

Quetz: that didn't kill them?!

Jalter: I've had enough of this bitch!

Jalter in a fit of anger unleashes a large circle of flames around the group.

Maya: Jalter! What the hell!?

Jalter: they can't warp into fire that easily!

Maya: but it may kill us!

Then suddenly the enemy warps rights above the group, axe in hand ready to strike!

Rex: there you are! Maya, Gander!

Suddenly the two shoot out consecutive gander shot right at the enemy, causing them to lose focus and let go of the weapon.

Immediately in response Quetzalcoatl leaps and grabs the enemy forcing them into an aerial suplex and launching them into the flames!

???: RAAAAHHH!!!

Jalter: now I'll hande this!

Le Grondement de la Haine

She unleashes her noble phantasm killing the enemy servant.

The fog clears away, and to clear the flames Quetz uses her authority to bring about enough rain to put it out.

After everything is said and done the two masters have to talk to their respective Da Vincis and Sions.

Sion: don't know if you figured it out or not from everything but it seems the enemy was an alternative summons of Jack the Ripper.

Abby: did Jack... grow up?

Da Vinci: no... not likely. Jake the Ripper's a very unique servant when it comes to how they can be summoned.

Maya: that's what happens when you're never even seen.

Rex: so is the singularity gonna clear up soon?

Sion: actually, it looks like you two being there is causing a new but much weaker singularity. Not far off from the incidents with Faye and so on.

Rex: ah, just us being here will keep it stable until we leave.

Da Vinci: yep! So if you guys want to talk like with others then by all means!

Maya: is that cool with you?

Rex: suuure, don't see why not.

The two groups sat at a table near a Cafe that was still abandoned. Discussing their adventures and making comparisons. When Maya learned Rex had not 1 but 6 different versions of Quetzalcoatl she was shocked!

Maya: how does it keep happening?!

Rex: your guess is as good as mine.

Maya: ...how the...

Maya, remembering what Rex did: wait! Another thing! How the hell did you just shoot out spikes from your body!

Rex: oh yeah! That

Rex explained the events of the Madrid singularity and how he gained symbiotic pseudo-servant powers to save Quetzalcoatl.

Maya: that explains a lot.

Rex: yeah... they were supposed to leave with the singularity but nope! So until we understand things better I'm stuck like this. Not that I'm complaining or anything.

Maya: well I probably wouldn't complain either.

The two continued on, until an interesting topic came up. Maya didn't bring it up until the servants went off on their own for a bit.

Maya: so... Faye tells me you and Quetz are actually married.

Rex: yup! Tied the knot a while ago now.

Maya: but... are you sure that's the best idea?

Rex: why not? I love her! I've loved her for so much of this journey, and she loves me! After I resummoned her in Russia and we together again I decided then and there I should propose.

Maya: I understand that but... she's a servant. She's not going to be here when this is all over.

Rex: ...yes she will be.

Maya: ...what do you mean?

Rex: she'll still be with me, after the lostbelts and so on, we'll still be together.

Maya: but after everything's said and done the servants won't be needed and just like after Goetia will be unsummoned.

Rex: well they can't unsummon her.

Maya: yes they can? Why wouldn't they be able to?

Rex: because back in Russia I didn't use the Chaldea system to summon her, I used a traditional summoning circle.

Maya: !!! You did what!?!?

Maya: how the hell!? How is your body able to handle the strain of not only a servant but a divine spirit a that!?

Rex: well... according to my records my magical circuits are scarily good? They said it's astounding I had such good ones when my family had little prior connection to magecraft.

Maya: so... you were just blessed with amazing circuits?!

Rex: no! My predecessor... actually did some small experiments on members of the family as the generations went on... until I came about with the right circuits.

Maya: ah, so you're the result of generations of experimentation to create an heir with the right circuits and can thus summon a divine spirit without Chaldeas, no problem.

Rex: well... yeah....

Maya realized just how odd of a master candidate Rex was. When it came to the world of magecraft such experiments weren't unheard of, but rarely did they produce such results. How fortunate for him to end up in chaldea. And he needn't worry about losing his wife thanks to that.

Rex: but hey... I'm sure you can still be with Helena after you finish up with the lostbelts.

Maya: ...how can you be so sure?

Rex: I dunno... call it optimism or call it foolishness, but I think you two can still find happiness together in some way after all this. You two had to say goodbye once and then got to meet again, whose to say it won't happen again?

Maya found his optimistic view on things... amusing. Maybe he was right... in some form or another, they may be able to stay together after all is said and done.

The two groups went their separate ways eventually. Seeming to have made new friends of another universe's masters again. Time will tell if they were to meet again.

A/N: so there's the Rex/Maya crossover. Thanks to @hasabbydoneanythingwrong for volunteering Maya as tribute. Hopefully you all like it and hopefully I got Maya right.

Tags

@hasishtardoneanythingwrong @haspaulbunyandoneanythingwrong @hasnightingaledoneanythingwrong @haskamadoneanythingwrong @hasbbdoneanythingwrong @grievouslyxorvia

[fermented-writers-block]

Coven System Artifacts?

While combing through the new promo and recent discussions, these two items stuck out to me from how few people seemed to even notice them, and I’d like to rectify that:  

To start off, judging from the gold and dark brown gray aesthetics of the wall and door, it seems likely that this room is in the same place as this ominous throne room:

Aka most probably Belos’ throne room, which would logically mean that Willow, Luz, and Gus are fighting someone inside of Belos’ palace/castle/whatever this place is in, and with that established, I want to draw attention to the wider room that the trio are in: 

Like with the harp, there appears to be a bunch of pedestals set through the room with a fourth one just barely out of view to the very left of the frame as can be seen by the outline of the pillar of light over it, and one can make out the outline of something wooden on the right edge of the frame. However, one particularly interesting detail here is that the very hat Luz is holding has a Healing Coven symbol on it, which makes me highly suspicious about what this room is for and what is on the rest of the pedestals.

From the looks of things, each of these pedestals likely hold some kind of artifact representative of the major covens of the Boiling Isles, including the aforementioned Healing Coven as well as the Bard Coven with the harp. But though the hat only appears for a single frame, considering the probability of this being a private room in Belos’ estate, I can’t help but feel like this room is a LOT more closely tied to the Coven system than just some kind of trophy room simply filled with artifacts to represent Bellows’ achievements or goals. Instead, I’d like to propose that this room might actually be for directly manipulating the restrictions on the different covens for what kinds of magic one is and isn’t allowed to use.

Here, it could be that the artifacts don’t just represent the different types of magic, but are HIGHLY concentrated examples of each type, and the pedestals all connect to the seals/brands each coven uses to seal a person’s magic. Together, the artifacts like the harp and the hat could be templates from which the pedestals and light determine whether a person is trying to cast something out of their respective coven, kind of like the turret manufacturing line in Portal 2 where a normal turret is scanned and used to judge which turrets are acceptable and which should be trashed.

Of course, it is unknown at this point what would happen if one was to remove one of these ‘template’ artifacts like Luz apparently did with the Healing Coven Artifact, but given how Belos was first introduced by name in Covention while Bump proclaimed about how the Emperor’s Coven is ushering in “a new age of controlled magic,” I have the feeling that line will turn out to be much, much more literal than even Bump himself realizes. 

Namely, that when removing one such artifact from its pedestal, you also are able to remove the ability of anyone under the related coven to cast that same type of magic, in short meaning that they wouldn’t be able to cast ANY of the nine main kinds of magic instead of just a single one.

As for what purpose this could possibly serve, given that the Healing Coven Artifact apparently takes the form of a hat and the Bard Coven Artifact a small harp or lyre, I have the feeling that the other Coven Artifacts will also take the shape of easily portable tools and wearable clothing. And to add to that, if each of these artifacts are highly concentrated examples of a specific branch of magic, then perhaps putting on the Healing Coven hat grants one extraordinary control over healing magic, and playing the harp grants control over bard magic. 

Specifically, magic siphoned and stolen from all the witches and wizards under the Coven System - except for the Emperor’s Coven, of course. I mean, who better to make sure that magic is being controlled ‘properly’ than the one in control of everything, aka Emperor Belos himself? 

With this, he and his elites would have all nine types of magic under their complete and direct control, making sure that nobody else would be able to muck about with his system and truly bringing in a new age of “controlled magic.”

I had been planning to save this for a later power, but to summarize, I have theorized for a long while now with @sepublic that Luz’s unorthodox method of casting magic will eventually spark a major rebellion against Belos’ reign and control. But for the longest time, I couldn’t figure out for the life of me exactly what would be the biggest factor in convincing people to band together - that is, until now.

After all, for as much good will Luz may have garnered with the people she freed from the Conformatorium, I find it hard that they would be able to drum up such a massive amount of support with such few members, and we haven’t particularly seen a whole lot of non-witches who have shown signs of wanting to cast magic. Furthermore, with how widespread and normalized the Coven System is on the Boiling Isles to the point where the Emperor’s Coven seem to be viewed as pseudo-celebrities, the majority of the population would likely require a considerable push to get them to even consider actually actively challenging it.

As such, with this new detail from the promo, I would like to propose that near the end of the season, Luz, Willow, and Gus will somehow end up discovering Belos’ secret room and the connection these artifacts have to the covens, and the finale will be about the trio attempting to escape Belos’ wrath and tell people what’s really going on. And with that comes the PERFECT incentive for both witches and non-witches to unite under Luz’s guidance and stand up against Emperor Bellows’ reign; aka to learn how to cast magic again if and when he strips them of their ability to even cast the last kind of magic he had allowed them to use before.

Or in other words, forming a group that can practice all kinds of magic without restrictions. A group where you aren’t expected to suppress your own free will and conform without question. A group that can and will make a stand against Belos and his Emperor’s Coven.

Aka one that would have a LOT of reasons for them to listen to and learn from both Luz Noceda and Eda Clawthorne under a single banner, a group where Luz can “teach them some of that Bad Girl Coven magic:”

Just picture it; Belos, the ruler of the Boiling Isles, trying to fight against Luz, the biggest disruptor to his carefully crafted system. The long-established Emperor’s Coven squaring off with the newly formed but numerous “Bad Girl Coven,” having banded together under Luz not out of some grand destiny, but because she figured out how to do what she does on her own merit. And at the center of it all stands Eda and Lilith, both powerful witches with an entire group willing and ready to hear what they have to say in pursuit of what they believe is right, both with a young protégé trying to determine their place and worth in the world. 

Both sisters separated by completely opposing opinions and sides, yet all but the exact same in position, influence, and parallels to the other.

Now wouldn’t that just be poetic as heck?

[unproduciblesmackdown]

watched the end of some guy’s amnesia: rebirth playthrough and i have some boring thoughts @halloweenhavoc have u finished the game i feel like you have more of a grasp on all this stuff than i do lmfao what with having actually played it and also probably remembering machine for pigs better

i really did not like fully piece together either the lore of the Main Story of the game nor the broader Amnesia Universe Lore lmfao but i was interested in the latter especially, but re: the former, i did like having all these other Known People associated with the protag whose fates we could all find out and shit

i’m like, sort of underwhelmed, but that’s b/c even though i was like “okay so just b/c this is a frictional-produced amnesia sequel a decade later doesn’t mean you need to hype it up like it’s gonna blow your mind just coz atdd was That big a deal” doesn’t mean i still wasn’t partially like oh but what if it is like mindblowing horror game tho......it felt a lot more like soma than atdd which isn’t in itself bad b/c soma rules but when i’m expecting it to be more like atdd it just makes things kinda bemusing and hard to recalibrate.....it was a good game though lol just like the whole time trying to figure out what the experience is gonna be i guess

anyways so like in the direction frictional’s games have gone it def feels like they’re more into Game Environments (those ruled in this game....) and being very like Thematic Story-Centric.....atdd was very stripped down and they sure got creative with that and it was as effective as it was but yeah it feels like now that they have the clout from that and the game production experience and presumably more resources and stuff that they’re progressing in This Direction which is not as atdd-esque lmao like good for them if this is the creative vision, follow those dreams and stuff

did not feel at all invested in any of this baby lore lmfaooo like it was very abstract and also i don’t care. but 10/10 for breastfeeding gameplay

i did like the Other World lore like. this is where alexander is from, Maybe?? i remember he’s mentioned as an apostate from [somewhere else] but like, is that somewhere else in another dimension or just another Region in this world lmao i don’t know. out here Inventing the amnesia potion vitae harvesting strategy, and then it’s Something Else he does that is considered heinous and they just banish him to earth lmfaooo like our problem now......and who is alexander’s wife lmfao. in atdd bad ending, when alexander portals back, does he get to come back to the shitty place where nothing’s going on but eternal vitae harvest i guess? sucks. in atdd sorta-neutral-ending, when you toss agrippa’s head through the portal and then agrippa asks [someone, i forget who....the student? weyer? or whoever??] to Help Daniel, does everyone get to go to this crappy world or are there other better dimensions lmao....also i forget how this The Other World got so shitty in the first place. something something they flew too close to the sun with their technology and it got fucked up, i forget what The Gate even is........i do like this origin story for what the fuck is up with the shadow lmfao. that like, it’s just some other alchemical Invention expressly to fuck up the vitae system?? which is sort of counter to the idea that it’s simply a Guardian of any orbs.....but then also, there was some sort of note or memory that seemed to imply that having fucked up whatever Gate they fucked up created something that sounded like maybe it was the shadow?? or was it just something Else fucked up and b/c it was like “uh oh something shitty is happening here now” i just Assumed it was the shadow.....idfk. but idk maybe since Orbs are Other World Tech For Portals the shadow is just like, Other World Tech Ruiner and if you handle one improperly the shadow will like, sense orb-jostling Lol and be On It....i don’t knowwww

i gotta admit i did love the lore tying to atdd lmfao like maybe this game would’ve been better off not really being tied to atdd but i’m still like oh yep i’m a sucker for cameos / lore about these atdd people places and things.....herbert, alexander, daniel, brennenburg, and someone else i forget who was like “i’m the first human to get to this place but i don’t have A Traveller’s Whatever so i have to die here,” rip to him.....kinda funny that vitae-harvesting is like, so Industrialized in the other world with this factory and mass-produced as it were, which is Fucked Up, and alexander got shot to earth for some mysterious terrible thing and had to invite some rando with an orb to his castle and then get his help torturing other randos with medieval instruments like. banging rocks together over there. also i don’t get what the harvesters job was? they were sure Harvesting but if the vitae is just getting Sucked thru tubes why are these guys going around breathing it in also. just like, stray air-vitae filtering system?? idk

also what was going on time-wise with this weird accelerated pregnancy. i don’t think i get Why tasi got amnesia in the first place. coincidence i guess??? and why...did she end up back in the plane wreckage. was that just where she got dropped off after they were all like. taken from Our World into the Other World and then....back into our world?? i guess??? i’m just not clear on the Timeline Of Events and how everyone got split up with some people dying and shit....was everyone getting attacked by ghuls i guess. there was a crapload of them in that one place, wasn’t there.....i also forget Where things happened lmfaooo like shit was this in Earth or The Other World.....i guess the latter it was always like, “high tech” with that art deco design shit and green light and stuff.....god i don’t know. like i already forget why richard was like, held captive and tortured. just on evil principle??? augh lmfao

also it was certainly Interesting that people turn into monsters around here with some like, magic + corruption deal going on......felt like the Lore in atdd was sort of vague but that it could Maybe tie into that sort of idea....frictional games sure will like, Metaphorically have the Self and the Non-Self But Which Is Tied To Your Self in all its stories, atdd, soma, rebirth......daniel having this past self he’s now detached from but re-learning of his past exploits.......soma copy/pasting consciousnesses.......uhhh also when it was talking about the ideal Vitae Collecting Cycle being fear, amnesia, and then Hope, and about who was the best candidates for that, i was really thinking that like, we’d learn tasi was being put through a [Hope] sequence, basically

also (rachel if ur reading this lmfao) i remember this pre-release Audio Tape that wasn’t in the gameplay that i think was like, the doctor doing an experiment on a Monster to confirm it had regenerative properties?? i thought we were gonna get a whole fucked up subplot dealing with that guy lmfao but nah just at the end......i guess soma’s promotional stuff was similar, they had all these Files and Videos and stuff which was relevant to the Lore / story but which wasn’t like, flatout in the game......i guess at some point the doctor must’ve been like, experimenting on a crew member who was sort of in the process of Turning or w/e. hank or someone i guess.....UHHH i did like “talking” to so many monsters lmfaooo like leon and crap. wild, tragic, etc.......

RIGHT and i think frictional is really creative in its like, Game Mechanics, like how relatively recently we learned that that whole thing about being told that Low Sanity makes you easier to detect in atdd, but that wasn’t true and was just put in the game to put the player more on edge? i mean, daniel keeling over for a moment if sanity gets too low is probably unhelpful in a chase but. and like, here the “sanity” thing was neat, i liked the Sound lol, i liked the flashing images and how that was like, Relevant, but also it seems like you can’t ever die in this game?? basically, ish?? which i think is neat. like, you don’t really Need to.....said it last time how it feels like the player just is still going to react as Urgently if they’re being chased by the monster lmfaooo

idk there was something other neat / creative element i think i wanted to point out as Cool but i forget (HAHA...manesima.....) i dunno the 0.0001% chance any of you are Coincidentally into amnesia at all and know what all is being talked about here and have thoughts....feel free to send me an ask or whatever.......would be inchrested in hearing other takes on it etc

OH and it didn’t feel like machine for pigs was involved at all lmfao which makes sense since it wasn’t actually produced by frictional but now i’m really struggling to remember the Lore there and if it could Conceivably tie in with descent/rebirth-verse.......oswald’s soul got actually split with Evil Orb-Corrupted Self (which!!!! i forgot there’s even the implication that maybe orb-proximity fucks you up. didn’t seem that relevant here. here magic empress fountain water fucks you up) and Amnesia’d Good (Normal-er) Self and there’s the giant machine which is gonna.....consume the world to protect it from self-destructing in another way......or, that was the reason given to oswald anyways, i remember he like sacrifices his kids to it to save them from [his visions of ww1 being an impending thing] and he doesn’t find that out till the end......his evil self tricked his good self into firing up the machine......i forget where the pig men come from or what their point is, and the machine is like, another Factory Line Vitae Harvesting thing, right?? what’s the vitae For in this case....i sure don’t fuckin know. i forget what oswald does at the end as well to like, fix things, i remember feeling sad about it even though he was a horny weirdo.....i really forget what the full picture was there or what the Orb Involvement was. anyways. idk

would be fun to see more frictional games but it seems like they’re not too interested in doing something as atdd-esque again lol, soma seems more like What Frictional Really Wants To Do, which isn’t a bad thing cuz soma rules and like. objectively i guess soma is the better game, i’m not at all mad at anyone arguing soma is better lmfao, i just sure cherish atdd and it sure is the one that made the whole [subsequent horror game defining] splash lmfao. OH YEAH and i liked they threw in another moment where someone’s been alive for ages and you unplug them and it’s like what the fuck. and i guess you do that but even Harder in the one Rebirth ending where you shadow-infect everything and all the people in the vitae-pods die......which like, it Was def creepy having all those vitae pods lmfao. conceptually fucked up.....uh yeah that’s it i guess. was a sucker for the atdd-lore-fanservice stuff lol. thought it was good but wasn’t like atdd 2.0 which is both Totally Fine and also A Bit Disappointing Of Course lol. now i’m thinking about soma some more though which is Worthy cuz that game rules and i love its story / concepts so much. and i love that you keep fisting sphincters to Save until you have to fist your forearm off. we’ve all been there. and i love the “we have the better view. :)” audio log from someone on the surface. and how the gradual reveal of the [lady you talk to throughout the game who guides you along]’s story. and the Ending. and the gradual reveal of Just What Is Going On Around Here

anyways yeah atdd rules soma rules i thought this game was good too but def is like okay you’d rather make soma than atdd and that is valid

thots????????????????

[seyaryminamoto]

Benders not of the 4 elements

Hey, I found your fic a few days ago, and I just wanted to say that I’m really surprised at the quality (in a good way lol.) There’s a few things I disagree with (for example, Iroh’s portrayal - he comes off much more as bumbling to me rather than someone hiding something, as well as the personalities of a few characters, but I won’t go into it here) but generally it’s actually very well written! I do have a question, though: what’s with the mentions to benders that aren’t from the 4 elements? That’s the biggest contradiction to canon I’ve found, and it honestly seems rather confusing, considering that’s it’s not a very significant detail at all to change, but still feels ‘off’ to me, I guess. I’m at chapter 107, so maybe there’s something I’m missing from the later chapters, but I still find it weird especially since I’ve always found the natural symmetry of the four elements rather satisfying.

Thanks for the submission! It’s good to know you’ve enjoyed the story and you consider it’s of good quality :D

We could probably spend a very long time talking about why I portray Iroh as I do, but I could probably just summarize it and then direct you to many analyses of Iroh’s less flattering canon traits, which compelled me to portray him as a much murkier character than canon did...

I can understand why you perceived him that way, but Iroh wasn’t merely bumbling in the show, especially considering he becomes Zuko’s moral spine and acts far more seriously throughout the final season of the show than he did beforehand. He has canonical ties with the White Lotus which, as you have already seen, isn’t portrayed at their most flattering either in my story, since I’m hinting at separate factions and corruption within their very group… and of course, once you pay close attention to Iroh’s actions when you watch the show, you might notice Iroh is not only full of contradictions and several displays of highly hypocritical behavior, but he’s also a complicated character who committed terrible deeds in the past, deeds that the show is happy to gloss over and excuse him for at every opportunity. I’ve turned him into more of a mastermind with his own agenda to give the character a more serious tone, as well as to acknowledge his constant rivalry with Azula in the show, where they were outright portrayed as the two forces battling over Zuko’s soul (a rivalry that, to my utter confusion, seems to go ignored by the majority of the fanbase despite it was a major theme for two whole seasons).

Alright, so, for further analysis of the character: Ursa vs. Iroh in how they handled the sibling relationship between Zuko and Azula, sexist behavior displayed by Iroh during the show that he’s not called out for, Iroh’s not-so-humorous reaction at Zuko’s entitled behavior (a display of his serious side as early as the first episode), analysis on Iroh’s three different “faces” and how they play into viewer’s perception of the character. I figure there’s more... but I’d rather not spend all day digging into my blog’s archives for it xD

In short, my portrayal of Iroh really isn’t gratuitous, or just an attempt to make him more problematic than necessary. Sure, it is a much darker Iroh than seen in canon, or in most other fics... but even in a recently released book, Legacy of the Fire Nation, Iroh is portrayed speaking of Ozai far more sympathetically than he speaks of Azula. He outright blames her, rather than Ozai, for the misfortunes Zuko suffers during his younger years, when it’s plain as day Ozai is the main culprit for most of Zuko’s problems, if not all of them. So, if recently released canon material presents an Iroh that behaves so mercilessly towards his niece, I’d think I’m not that far-off in how I portray him...

Anyways! Closing that point, since that’s not really why you’re here...

The thing with elements is that, despite what you may have thought while watching ATLA, it’s absolutely feasible and possible for there to be more than four. Many cultures have five elements rather than four (Ancient Greece had aether as well as the typical four, I believe Hinduism featured the void, there was Heaven in Japanese culture...), to say one thing.

And then there’s China, they also have five... but they don’t even have air in their five mythological elements.

Those five elements are the ones featured in the Chinese Zodiac’s cycles, for instance. Curiously, the Avatar world’s calendar features the years named after the animals of the Chinese Zodiac (can be seen in the Library episode, specifically): yet, while borrowing their calendar, their four classic elements are different from the five elements Chinese Mythology relies on. Curious, isn’t it? :’)

Avatar wasn’t the first big story I got invested in that featured the elements as the setting’s magic system. I started off by being a huge fan of a particular show where there were no less than TEN elements: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Metal, Wood, Thunder, Ice, Light and Darkness. In Avatar, some of the elements I’ve described here have turned out to be subsets of other bending skills: Thunder (in Avatar, Lightning) a subset of Fire, Ice and Wood of Water, Metal of Earth. With the background I had, as a fan of that other show, I was quite amused to see elements that other cultures and stories have separated and distinguished from each other tucked into umbrellas of each major bending art of the Avatar world...

In ATLA’s finale, the lion-turtles that are both loved and hated in the fandom showed up with a huge sudden twist: energybending. This has been loved and hated too, and it can be interpreted as though energybending is the superior form of bending, sure... but what the lion-turtle says is:

“In the era before the Avatar, we bent not the elements but the energy within ourselves.”

It virtually proposes that energybending itself created each bending art. Who’s to say, then, that even within LOK’s concept, there couldn’t have been more than four lion-turtles granting bending powers? Or that, if there were more, they might have been able to grant even more powers than the known ones? I’d even go so far as to say that the lion-turtle, by saying “we”, could have even been referring to humans with abilities to energybend, and that this skill wouldn’t have to be relegated to lion-turtles alone. Seeing as, before LOK arrived, the understanding of the matter was that firebenders had learned to bend from dragons, waterbenders from the ocean and moon, earthbenders from badgermoles and airbenders from sky bison, why not assume these lion turtles taught people how to ENERGYBEND, just as all those other animals had taught them how to bend the elements? :’D it was, before LOK, a perfectly acceptable interpretation of this big, last minute revelation. And the implication that the Avatar’s arrival happened AFTER the energybending era was over, could even be read as a hint at another erradicated culture: energybenders themselves.

At any rate, I’m pretty sure that I wrote the early chapters of Gladiator, where I first brought up the topic of various other bending skills, long before LOK’s big “Beginnings” episodes had aired, based mostly on that lion-turtle quote and my own previous experiences with other magical-element-based settings. This, paired with the implication that energybending used to be the main bending form of the past, and that it was lost to time, felt like fair basis to suppose that perhaps there could be even more bending arts that could have been lost to time in the Avatar World. I mean, if you think about it, had Aang been killed irremediably somehow in Sozin’s time, an entire bending race would have been gone. Why would it be impossible for previous bending groups before the Avatar’s time, the period the lion-turtle referred to, to be erradicated too?

It was all, of course, conjectures, theories and guesses. But, at that point in time, said conjectures and guesses were perfectly plausible, as, like I said, LOK’s lion-turtle based mythology hadn’t been established properly yet.

There will be some exploration into a certain kind of bending I referred to (namely, lightbending, which will have a different basis than what Azula has heard or read about so far). Still, my idea was basically to propose that a world that has been a victim to so many wars, where there are strange skills that only a few people practice (like combustion bending, or blood bending, or plant bending), it was possible that entire groups who practiced unusual subsets of bending could have been victims of other kinds of wars, just as airbenders were. And that, if the connections of those subsets with their parent elements were lost to time, in contemporary times it could look like those subsets were whole elements of their own that were decimated through warfare.

Soundbending, also mentioned early on in Gladiator, was often debated in the fandom as a possible subset for airbending before LOK was finished airing (there were huge theories on the subject). I featured Azula talking about it once because I thought it might become a thing in the franchise’s future (and then it didn’t :’D). Plantbending seems pretty instinctive to the waterbenders we see using it, yet, as most waterbenders seem to spend their whole lives in the poles, it’s natural that they wouldn’t think to bend plants since they wouldn’t really need to... hence, it’s another perfectly plausible bending skill that could have been practiced in the past, when, presumably, waterbenders fought earthbenders for territory in the large continent. Once the waterbenders settled in the poles, the skill could have been lost easily enough. The bending possibility itself isn’t gone, for it’s a subset of water, but if there were whole tribes (like the Foggy Swamp one) with a culture based around plantbending, wars could have easily seeen them destroyed and their bending art “lost”.

So, in the end, Gladiator won’t end up warping the whole four-element concept, despite canon itself kind of lends for warping by adding the fifth, energy, but I do explore these other possibilities of bending largely inspired by my other experiences in certain stories with more than four elements. I’ll stick to working within the parameters of bending subsets, and I do explore certain strange bending things that have absolutely no connection with anything that happened within the show... yet, while I didn’t start out with a set-plan on how I’d work with these bending possibilities, by now I can safely say the idea is to perceive them as subsets that resulted in small clusters of cultures of their own, cultures that were lost to time and warfare, just as airbending nearly was.

I hope this is a satisfactory and clear enough answer, if you don’t like it that’s fine too, but four elements, while they may sound very instinctive to us in modern times due to how popular it has become to split things in those four (the western zodiac, for instance, divides the zodiac signs in the ATLA four elements, as you probably know), it’s not a given, absolute thing that, when speaking of elemental magic, it has to be those four elements and nothing else. The number of elements can vary in different cultures, the types of elements can vary too, and testing a few bending possibilities beyond canon’s boundaries sounded like a fun enough idea to hint at, as long as I didn’t pull off something completely OP like VOIDBENDING... just imagine that, someone with the ability to create black holes xD sucks their whole world into it and that’s that, story over (?)

[ghostmartyr]

after all sh*t that happened in the manga do you still believe ymir is alive? because it's kinda hard to believe it anymore

According to the past two years of my life interacting with people, it was hard to believe in the first place.

Meanwhile, here we stand.

In a post-Porco world.

Yeah, I think Ymir is alive.

Worse than that, the past month has led me to decide that Ymir is NPC Farmer Guy. We aren’t just in casual, ‘hey this seems odd,’ theory territory anymore. We’re popping wheelies on tin hats.

Even worse than that, Ymir being NPC Farmer Guy is directly tied into how Historia is actually hiding Eren’s leg stitched to her stomach, and in the coming chapters Ymir is going to discover Hange and Levi and bring them back to the house only to discover thunder and lightning very very frightening bursting out of Historia Alien-style, and that’s how Eren accesses his extra life.

You might ask why. Not as a question, simply as a statement in response to that collection of words. You feel the word in your soul, and it goes far beyond what any explanation could offer.

Allow me to provide an explanation.

Our story begins with Ymir being pronounced dead after consenting to provide her life to Marley, the government entity responsible for stoning her and turning her into a titan for decades.

She volunteered for this? We hear the person who ostensibly ate her asking.

Absotively, comes the answer from the person whose life she saves twice over with this decision. In payment I have delivered a letter. All is well, and my guilt complex shall not touch upon the eaves of trauma I ought to have delivered upon mine own shoulders.

In the midst of ocean, reading that letter, the object of its love holds the parchment aloft, and proclaims softly, with feeling, is this to be the end of this fuckery? Where is the rest?

The omniscient plot, moving on from such petty concerns, pronounces her pregnant in sheer defiance of her entire arc revolving around breaking damaging cycles, and declares that enough of that.

Anguished and enraged, the inheritor of the Jaws our dear volunteer crossed paths with

dies without the fact that he ate the friend of the people he’s attacking ever being a blip on anyone’s radar even a little.

I’ll stop now, because as much fun as this is, I can’t keep up that style very long, and every once in a while someone who hasn’t heard me rant about this comes along, and I do try to be like. helpful.

The basic point is that Ymir’s death is strange. You have a character whose primary motivation is to fuck fate and fuck a pretty girl (and fuck suicide too), and she consents to die. She consents to die in a way that gives her enemies power. She consents to die to save the lives of two boys who will continue to receive nothing but abuse from being alive in the system they’re trapped in.

Ymir does not save Reiner and Bertolt. She rescues them from titans, but helping them go back to Marley is not a rescue in any sense of the word.

People are killed in unsatisfactory ways all the time in this series.

That is very different from agreeing to it.

Ymir receives nothing for her trouble. Reiner delivers a letter for her that only needs to be delivered because she’s in Marley’s clutches, and he nearly dies before he manages that. Bertolt does die in that same battle.

There is no functional purpose to Ymir’s death. Past delivering her letter, Reiner thinks about her sacrifice once. When Galliard brings it up. Guilt over other things drives him, but not over her. He and Bertolt are depicted as grateful, and obligated to honor her wishes, but they are not conflicted over whatever became of her.

Her death’s greatest influence on the plot is that Galliard has the Jaw Titan.

Which basically means nothing. He’s dead. Family memories, and the memories of the most recent holder, pass on best for most Shifters. Falco has neither link to Ymir. She’s just another dead random, without even the chance for the angst of her friends doing battle with the person who ate her.

The function of Ymir going with Reiner and Bertolt is that Marley has an extra Titan to play with, and Ymir is removed from the plot.

War Hammer explicitly establishes that the writing was down for inventing a new Titan for Marley to play with. What, then, is the effect of Ymir exiting the plot?

Her letter provides motivation for Reiner in RTS, but past that, anyone could have eaten Porco’s brother and been later fed to him. As an individual character, Ymir being the participant provides nothing, except the question of why someone who is so aggressively against suicide would agree to die for a cause she has no reason to ally herself to.

No one mentions her. She comes up in Eren’s flashbacks of her conversation with Bertolt, but no one outside of Porco (once) (in the scene implying her death) talks about Ymir.

Much in the way that a grand total of zero of Historia’s friends think about her pregnancy, but we’re not going there because this post is exhaustive enough as it is.

As a character, she might as well not exist. In fact, if she didn’t exist, Historia’s arc would be much simpler. Historia wouldn’t be pushed to find her own motivations and cause, and going along with everyone wanting her to bear children for the sake of her kingdom’s future could slide along the excuse of Krista being too close to her heart to let go of.

In theory though, she exists. So where are her contributions?

Historia.

She exists in the heart of Historia’s arc.

The arc which, by all implications presented, is in shambles.

Her eyes are dead, and she’s stated to be pregnant. She stares at the stated father with no interest, edging on despair, while the myth that theirs is a love story is passed to the higher brass.

Historia protects kids. Giving up her autonomy so that a child can bear the burden of her generation’s failures is such a strong violation of her character development that any justification for it would have to be a few chapters long to even approach counting as honest development.

Both Ymir and Historia’s arcs, as they stand, appear to be precise counters of everything they want. Which can be effective, but the story is asking the audience to accept a narrative where these characters abruptly turn their backs on their beliefs, and how sad it is, oh well, nothing to be done. Isn’t it tragic.

I think that’s about the stupidest waste of time I’ve ever been asked to consider a legitimate use of story.

I am not, in any way, kidding when I say that I think Historia’s arc, if this is where she’s intended to land, works better without ever having Ymir involved. Keep Historia in her overwhelmed depression with her need to please people, and this outcome still sucks, but it doesn’t betray anything fundamental about the character.

I also believe, if Ymir is dead and done contributing, her character is an empty cutout existing for nothing except the progression of the plot, serving the need of certain characters to survive rather than a character’s internal desires.

“You’re going to kill yourself, the ultimate act of submission. Is that how much you want to please the people who treated you like a nuisance?! Why are you trying to hurt yourself?! If your will is that strong… then shouldn’t you be able to change your fate?!”

A character who says this consenting to die, granting her tormentors a powerful weapon against the people she loves, is an egregious violation of character.

There isn’t enough time (any) showcasing that change for it to be tragic. There is no reason for it except that she’s written to make that choice.

Isayama does not write his characters that way. Whatever horrible things happen to them, there is always something you can point to that provides a clear explanation. When there isn’t, we have Eren, where we all look at him and think, “good golly gee this is fucked up, can’t wait to hear why.”

We trust, when things don’t make sense, for there to be a why.

In-universe, the only reactions we have to Ymir’s death are, “uh. are we. sure that’s all? no one finds this strange?”

Historia looks at her letter and asks if that’s it.

Galliard looks at his new memories and asks about her volunteering.

Reiner says yep and goes about the rest of his miserable life.

Nothing to see here.

Sure, the only two people who mention it are left with proverbial question marks about their heads, but there is absolutely no reason to think that anything other than what we said happened happened.

None whatsoever.

So that’s step one.

Accepting that Ymir’s death is fucking weird.

Step two is presenting a plausible escape.

Also known as presenting the jackass known as Zeke, known expert in magically getting away with conning people into doing what he wants by figuring out what they want.

Zeke knows, by RTS, that the Reiss line is royalty. Reiner and Bertolt deliver to him a girl who writes a love letter to the last living member of that line.

(That girl is mysteriously missing from Reiner and Bertolt’s reunion with Zeke. Bertolt’s dead, and he’s everywhere in flashbacks, because it makes sense for him to be there. Ymir, in a scene she definitely existed in, based on canon, is nowhere to be spotted, even in a passing mention.)

Ymir and Zeke are in the same place at the same time. There’s room for conversation. There’s room to find out what they’re after.

Ymir wants freedom. She can’t ever really have it, tied down to the Jaw Titan, but she wants a life beholden to no one. Plus Historia.

Short of keeping her sedated for the whole trip, turning her death back into a murder, Ymir’s going to have opportunities to escape. She put in some nice face time for Reiner and Bertolt’s sake, so they get to live, but now she can skedaddle.

But okay, what if she doesn’t have to?

Zeke presents it very easily. When Reiner and Bertolt watch her sign her life away, it’s with solemnity, but a confidence that isn’t their job to save her from.

What if there’s a way to free herself from the Jaw Titan’s limitations?

It’s that drug of hope that dreamers like Ymir can’t quite let go of.

It’s that drug of another pawn on his side that Zeke knows better than to abandon.

The Queen of Paradis has no reason to bargain with him. As a matter of fact, even in the future, their links are downplayed. Eren does not tell his older brother that the other living member of the Eldian royal line is a personal friend. He says “something” happened to unlock his memories.

Ymir gives Zeke a bargaining chip.

Zeke gives Ymir a shot at a life free from all of this.

Spinal fluid transfers aren’t convenient (biting a person’s head off is just plain easier), but Porco can be under his control. Failing that, he has his Volunteers with a vested interest in keeping their hostage alive. They’re willing to try to keep her alive. Is Ymir?

Then Ymir’s memories transfer to Galliard in the process, and that’s just perfect, because that doesn’t just give them a hostage; they have a compliant hostage.

“Hang out with this girl on a farm for a year, then we could not care less about what you do.”

My original version of this theory brought up photos, and that’s still an awesome thing to use, but you know what’s better? Dangling Ymir right in front of Historia, showing her exactly what’s what, and putting an amnesiac Ymir in a position she’s fine agreeing to for now; make sure the girl’s pregnancy (or ‘pregnancy’–the Yeagerists being in on this could go either way) goes smoothly, and don’t let her out of your sight.

Historia won’t want to leave Ymir. Ymir won’t remember why. She won’t really be the same person.

(The old Ymir would have know this. One more reason to leave her backstory in a letter. Historia’s a kind idiot. She’ll try to bring her back, even if it doesn’t make sense.)

Then at the same time you’ve got Eren being in way over his head, and he’s aware enough of Historia’s situation that he figures there’s a way for them to leverage this a little. He’s going to be doing some really stupid stuff, and he could really, really use a save point, and Historia needs to look like she has some extra flesh under her shirt anyway, so it’s not like this really changes her life quality for the near future…

(None of Eren’s friends are happy with Eren, but Historia was probably unhappiest first.)

Cutting off that style now.

I really don’t know why Eren’s amputated leg getting stitched to Historia’s stomach would make any kind of sense to anyone thinking any kind of clearly, but no one’s thinking very clearly in canon, so I don’t have to know yet the logic of how the individuals get to certain spots.

In other words we’re leaving Watsonian for Doylist again.

The concepts of this are really very basic. Eren’s as dead as Zeke was when that titan found him. There’s precedent for using another living being as an incubator. Titans are Eldians. Historia’s Eldian. Founding Titan + royal blood can probably stretch that deus ex machina a bit further.

That would give a reason for Historia to keep up the pregnancy look; she really does have something vital under there (her actually having a kid adds. it really adds absolutely nothing to the story. it doesn’t.).

Then we have NPC Farmer Guy. All we know about him is that he feels like he owes Historia. Getting him to provide a lovely backstory, then shipping him off far away, is pretty dang simple. He owes her.

Ymir’s just here because a bunch of people told her they would kill her if she didn’t play house with a hot pregnant girl for a year. The hair dye is weird, but so are the death threats and how much this royal babe seems to hate her.

It is at this stage of the post where I look at all of this and think this has got to be the most ridiculous crack I have ever deigned to put in a post, so I think I’m just going to present this in the way I thought of it, without trying to reverse engineer it into sense.

Right now, Eren’s dead, unless he’s not, and about to revive. That doesn’t really change the Ymir of this all, so it’s incredibly not relevant, but damn it guys, I can make all these threads dance together.

If his body’s fucked, traveling along Paths to get him out of the disastrous battlefield he’s landed himself in is a valid option.

The only other place any plot could conceivably be happening is with Hange and Levi. Who are out in the wilderness.

So okay, here’s the idea, right?

Eren vanishes from Shiganshina.

Chaos.

Hange and Levi are rescued by the shadow of NPC Farmer Guy, and brought back to the house. Historia helps, Levi bleeding all over the place, when suddenly, lightning stomach shocks.

Alien scene commences.

The audience asks why in the fuck we’re being subjected to this.

The answer is laughter.

But at the end of it all, suddenly, you’ve got room for plot that isn’t just Shiganshina being full of titans. again.

You have Eren in the same room with a benign presence with royal blood. You have the Commander of the Survey Corps staring down at both of them. You have very clear evidence that lies have been sprouting freely from everyone, and you’re in an isolated house in the middle of nowhere. There’s no reason to keep the secrets going. Anyone who argues there is will probably find themselves with another bullet through their head.

Then in the corner, you have Ymir, who is evidence that people can survive passing on their Titan. With Hange, leading research specialist of Paradis, sitting right there.

All of Paradis’ legitimate authority in one room, secrets unveiled, and time demanding that they all hurry the fuck up and do something about this.

Solution?

Founding Titan.

Second solution?

Founding Titan magic to wake up Annie so she and Historia can trade places so Eren can make the Founding Titan go zoom zoom.

Complications?

Eren still doesn’t tell anyone why the fuck all of this is necessary.

We’re getting off task.

Anyway, that’s the whole mad theory, but the reason why Ymir has been assigned NPC Farmer Guy’s position is very simple.

The assumption here is that she’s alive, and a hostage.

She’s a very boring hostage if she’s nowhere she can interact with the situation.

NPC Farmer Guy’s face is hidden the one time we see him in the present.

Either it’s just a dramatic cue that means nothing, or there is something about that face that has deeper implications. For the purposes of me going absolutely berserk with nothing to feed my brain on, my current theory is that his face is hidden because it isn’t NPC Farmer Guy at all.

There’s either a Reveal there or not, and if there is one, and Ymir’s alive, why the fuck not?

We keep hearing the story’s ending. This is the time to consolidate plot details, not spread them out further. All of this combined gets a rogue team of operatives with legitimate power, a serious scientific discovery with massive implications for their future, deep emotional strife between every member, and a time crunch they’ve got to fight while all their friends are trying not to die.

You can tell me I’m on crack, but you can’t tell me crazier things haven’t happened in canon, and you can’t tell me this wouldn’t be a fucking blast.

.

.

.

Is any part of you glad you asked, anon?

This will be pried from my cold dead fingers.

Thank you all for your time.

(Remember when this theory was less drugs?)

[twatd]

The White and Black Goddesses

The first half of our commentary on issue #38 focuses on WicDiv’s ties to The White Goddess, by Robert Graves (and, apparently, Anna White), as Alex hits the books.

Alex: Since Ananke first mentioned it, way back in issue #9, I’ve spent three years resisting the urge to read Robert Graves’ The White Goddess. Since Gillen mentioned he’d made sure to hide the book from all his Instagram photos up until that point, I’ve always thought of it as a sort of WicDiv Rosetta Stone… but, for all the insight it might contain, nah, I’d really rather not.

With Graves making an extended cameo in issue #38, I finally caved.

(Well, sort of. More accurately, I read around it. A few passages from the book; commentary from Graves, critics and scholars; some Pagan websites; a fair bit of Wikipedia.)

Once I began to probe, I couldn’t stop noticing connections. Coincidences, maybe. Except, as the woman herself once said, they don’t feel like coincidences. They feel like magic.

Let’s start with the story of how The White Goddess originally came to be, and how that fits with what we see in #38. The majority of the book was written in a three-week sprint in 1944 – the same year ‘Anna White’ visits Devon – after Graves was struck by a sudden bolt of inspiration. His account in the real world involves drawing maps for a book about Jason and the Argonauts, but WicDiv switches this out for the much more interesting idea that he was visited by a drunk Ananke.

(And while we’re in real-world history mode, it’s worth noting that the 1957 lecture from this issue did really happen, at New York’s YMHA Centre. Everything he says in the comic appears to be a direct quote from that lecture.)

As for the actual content of that bolt of inspiration: well, it was something about trees and Celtic druids. Ananke throws this out fairly casually, half a bottle deep into her rant. For Graves, it was the key to unlocking a bigger idea.

First, the solution to a riddle in a medieval poem, The Song of Teliesin, using a Druidic alphabet that used as its letters the names of trees – the consonants of which, according to Graves, doubled as names of months. It was a lunar calendar, with thirteen months instead of twelve. Those numbers might sound familiar.

(This calendar leaves one spare day each year: 23 December, which is so close to the all-important WicDiv date of 21 December that it actually hurts.)

Graves used this idea as a jumping-off point. Understanding the trees as an alphabet, he reinterpreted The Battle of the Trees, a medieval Welsh poem, as a metaphor for two warring languages and knowledge systems – a new patriarchal system overwriting the old goddess-worshipping matriarchy.

This didn’t just happen in Wales, according to Graves – it happened across prehistoric Europe and the Middle East. “The language was tampered with in late Minoan times,” he wrote, “when invaders from Central Asia began to substitute patrilinear for matrilinear institutions and remodel or falsify the myths to fit their social changes.” Back to WicDiv: we’ve actually visited Minoa roughly around this time in the comic.

(Very roughly, it’s worth noting. Crete in 3026BC is actually, as far as I can tell, early rather than late Minoan. Tim’s the historian in this duo – you can see what he had to say on the matter here.)

We saw it first in #36, where it stuck out in a fifteen-page sequence of murder as one of the few examples where Ananke’s role was filled by the one we know as Minerva. Then #37 filled in the blanks a little – it was the first time Ananke fucked up the ritual and experienced 90 years of darkness. “Never again,” she said then, which might explain the changeover. Maybe she decided to go underground.

Because the big idea that was lost with this cultural overhaul was worship of a “a divine female power, manifest under many names and forms in the goddesses of the ancient world”. Does that sound like anyone we know? Someone roaming early civilisation setting up franchises like Michael Keaton in The Founder, perhaps?

The other idea in The White Goddess with obvious applications to WicDiv is the triple goddess. It’s not an idea that started with Graves – it was likely borrowed from Jane Ellen Harrison, writing half a century earlier – but he applied it to this idea of a lost prehistoric goddess. She was a single deity, but generally worshipped in three different aspects: Maiden, Mother and Crone. Or, less catchily, Mother, Bride and Layer-out. That version describes her relationship to a lesser god-king, the last bit referring to her killing him as a sacrifice.

(This triple goddess idea, if we’re melding together the real and WicDiv histories, was one Graves wrote about before 1944, suggesting it didn’t originate from Ananke’s whiskey-fuelled diatribe. Perhaps it was these earlier writings that attracted her to seek him out.)

The obvious question becomes: which of the Pantheon does this apply to? WicDiv is weirdly full of triple goddesses. The obvious fit seems to be Minerva (Maiden), Persephone (Mother – soon to be literally) and Ananke (Crone, and Layer-out of a fair few gods along the way).

Persephone is a name that cropped up a lot in my reading, but an even more commonly cited example of the triple goddess is the Morai – the Greek Fates, known in the mythology of Northern Europe as Norns. Yup, our old pals Skuld, Verðandi, and Urðr.

The Maiden/Mother/Crone archetypes don’t map as neatly onto Cassandra and pals, although it’s generally accepted that each of the Norns represents past, present and future – which would, I guess, make Urðr our Crone. It’s also perhaps notable that the Norns manifested in issue #9, right after Ananke first mentioned The White Goddess.

And then there’s The Morrigan. Mythologically a shapeshifter with three (or more) forms, her WicDiv incarnation is probably closest to the original conception of the triple goddess – which is, after all, three aspects of a single person. The archetypes are a fairly neatly match, too, especially the less-common version. Annie is life-giving Mother. Macha, Bride to Baphomet. Badb, his Layer-out.

 It’s probably worth mentioning at this point another of Graves’ major influences: The Golden Bough, written by James George Frazer in 1890. Frazer identified his own pattern in mythologies and religions that seemed to suggest a single common source – primitive fertility cults which worshipped a divine king for a year before sacrificing him.

This is basically the story that Morrigan overlays onto her relationship with Baphomet, “my king for a year, twice over”. #37 basically shows how Graves’ triple goddess archetypes fits into this cycle, and – for me – understanding that helped contextualise the way the abuse storyline was handled. A new king is always (re)born, so the cycle can start all over again.

One interesting thing about The Morrigan is that we’ve seen two earlier incarnations, both of them male, neither of whom showed any signs of a triplicate personality. But there always seems to be at least one triple deity in each Recurrence: the 455 Lucifer referenced a Morai, the 1830s had its Brontë-analogue Lonely Sisters and – the only male incarnation we’ve seen – the 1920s had its own trio of Norns.

But, as ‘Anna White’ reminds us, the Mother/Maiden/Crone construction is “an effective sleight of hand”. So I’d like to consider a couple of other options.

The first was suggested by Tim: maybe Laura/Persephone is the Triplicate Goddess in and of herself.

Jane Ellen Harrison wrote that "the matriarchal goddess may well have reflected the three stages of a woman's life." Laura begins the series – which opens at the start of the year, remember – as a relative innocent. (“Well, she was just 17/And you know what I mean.”)

As a mythological figure, Persephone is most commonly associated with the Maiden archetype, but recent developments slot her firmly in the Mother role – possibly the reason she seems to have abandoned the Persephone identity. If it works, maybe she’ll get her full allotment of years and a chance to explore that third stage of life. (“Laura, you’re more than a superstar/You’ll be famous for longer than them.”)

Or maybe we’re asking the wrong question altogether. Let’s finish by quoting Grevel Lindop, editor of a 1997 edition of the book: “By 1963 [Graves’] vision of the Goddess was changing again. In his Oxford lecture of that December – published as ‘Intimations of the Black Goddess’ – he began to speak of the White Goddess’s ‘mysterious sister, the Goddess of Wisdom’.”

Hmm. Does that sound like anyone we know?

Like what we do, and want to help us make more of it? Visit patreon.com/timplusalex and pledge to gain access to exclusive blogs, ebooks, mixtapes and more. 

[capricious-writes]

21 Questions Tag Game

Rules: Answer 21 Questions (they do not have to be the same questions) and tag [21] people (Don’t know who to tag right now, so I’m gonna leave this one open ended)

Tagged by @quilloftheclouds    

>>> There, I finally got this all filled out! There was no way I was gonna just give this one up, because there were one or two questions that I REALLY wanted to answer ... <<<

 1. Height?

I’m 5′7″. Not 5′6″. NOT 5′6″ (I will go to my grave with this) [Excuse me I have a taller younger sister]

2. Eye Color?

Medium Light Brown (Glorious) Idk

3. Hair Color?

Chocolate Brown (Equally GLORIOUS)

4. Favorite Color?

Brown. (See it’s all falling together)

I actually have an incredibly complex system of favorite colors for different reasons, the explanation alone of which would take multiple paragraphs, but - 

- Brown

- Pink

- Purple

- Orange 

- Green

(in that order... why am I like this?) I don’t care, it’s fun

5. Favorite IceCream?

Default Chocolate, but sometimes I need a mix-up.

6. Favorite Music Genre?

EDM. I didn’t used to know edm ~existed~ so I thought I liked pop-music. But what I really loved was the strong beats, the electric syncronicity, and the strong technic sort of sound. Yeah - that’s EDM apparently. 

7. Favorite Song?

Default - Party In My Head by September

8. Following How Many Blogs?

wow, 95 apparently. I’ve never looked at that till today, and I’m certain it’s increased within the last week or two from slipping into Writerblr territory.

9.  Favorite way to procastinate from writing (Besides Tumblr)?

My Favorite? Probably laying on my bed and staring at the ceiling while I wonder if I’m gonna take a nap. I like it because a) it’s mind decluttering time, and b) maybe I get bored and try to write. I don’t do it TOO often though.

10. Favorite way to get inspired for writing?

Just think about what’ll be interesting about the next scene I write. Or focus on what scene I want to get to. Otherwise, not sure really.

11. Favorite Live action movie?

Knight and Day. Whatever its issues - it’s my default ‘favorite,’ even if I’ve seen a better movie. It’s got tons of action and humour and I LOVE that. AND I’ve rewatched it several times - rewatch value is always a big one. It’s a tad lackluster, story-wise, but it still entertains every time.

12. Favorite Non-Disney cartoon

There are way too many good ones, so I’m going to have to default to all the animated Justice League cartoons. Mainly because their batman is my FAVORITE batman, despite even them not blending the Bruce IS Batman idea together. I think Gotham got the closest to that, but I haven’t watched more than a season of it I think. 

13. Favorite Disney cartoon

So hard to say! Cars 3 was particularly satisfying because I knew the movie was going to be fantastic the moment the trailer took my breath away. On the other hand, there’s also the fantastic DuckTales reboot - but then there’s always the Milo Murphy show that tied in with Phineas and Ferb during its finale and - 

Guys there’s too many!

14. Favorite Book character

I really liked Artemis Fowl. Him being a protagonist good guy as a villian slowly reforming himself without knowing was SUCH an amazing characterization. There was always something missing from it though. I could never quite pinpoint what,  but it got SO close that it was still the most brilliant and fantastic thing I’d read up to that point. 

15. Favorite Fanfiction

Very difficult. “Flowey Isn’t a Good Life Coach” had me hooked for two days until I finished it (leaving me empty, disorientated, and lost). But there was also tons of Gravity Falls fanfic that I adored (I made a rec list on my mainblog a while back too actually). And I think there was another fandom that I just had to look at ... but I don’t remember it right now. 

16. First Original Story

I have these spiral notebooks with words in them from when I was 12. Half ready and rumbling to write, half seventh grade writing project - I think my MC was named Jane? No more than 20,000 words at most.

- Girl goes to different world where danger threatens to destroy it. She is 'chosen one' in a line of 'chosen ones' and her best friend is actually from there. He's basically been her guardian all the while, and he's sort of half lizard mutant.

- Along the way they meet a useless mad old man. An angsty but suave, but irritable dude named shadow. And a more sensible local guy who leaves his 'tribe' to help save his world.

I just ... I love how - to use a euphamism - how 'classic' it is.

But you know what, there are some good parts. Just starting out, tropes, cliches, and plenty of mistakes sure. But it’s also telling of my style even just beginning. For instance, the main MC and her friend that’s a Guy have these moments that are really close and build their relationship - but it’s not romantic. Everyone’s ‘friends,’ and it’s really telling of where my priorities aren’t, ha.

17. Favorite Book

I DON’T KNOW. HOW DOES ANYONE CHOOSE?

18. Favorite Book Genre

Action, adventure, but also with magic-is-science I guess? 

19. Favorite Trope?

I love funny tropes I guess. Subverted tropes. Oh! I recently saw a drabbled post about a villian and hero’s friendly, but still antagonistic relationship. I ADORE that. Think Doofenshmirts and Perry the Platypus's relationship. Or Megamind and Metroman. It’s fantastic.

20. 5 skills/interests you have other than writing

1. Amateur-Intermediate Origami

2. Amateur-Intermediate Piano

3. Amateur-Intermediate Lollygagging

I don’t really know what else. My interests leap from place to place. 

21. 5 Fav Mythology Creatures

1. Dragons are cool

2. Phoenixes are GREAT

3. Kitsune and or Foxes with lots of tails are just - Stunning 

4. Three-headed doggies are thrice the fun, adorableness and blood curdling terror

And I’m required to say Gargoyle, because I have another WIP named the same after the MC. I’m completely ignoring it until Blooming Under Night is finished (or I decide to be a fickle beast), but it does have a few thousand words to its credit, sitting in a file just waiting for me to figure out how to give it proper TCL. 

[paradoxicalca]

r/hockey NHL Power Rankings Week 6: Tropical Depression Edition

/r/Hockey NHL Power Rankings Week Nov 4, 2019 - Nov 10, 2019Thank YouThank you to all of the volunteers doing the power rankings. Each ranker has their own system and have their own reasonings and analyis. It truly is a lot of work.RankersSpoilerOrganizersSpoilerVisualizationThe visualization contains historical data, so you can see how your team has done over time. Hopefully, we can run this for many years in hopes that we can see the rise and fall of teams by /r/hockey opinion.It automatically updates so feel free to bookmark. You can find it hereProcessHow does this work? Throughout the course of the week rankers are able to access an app that will allow them to rank teams. At the end of the period we calculate the average ranking for every team and collate all of the analysis provided by rankers.The app then generates a post that is first proofread and then posted to /r/hockey!Rankings (27/31 Rankers Reporting)Ranking (avg)TeamDeltaOverall RecordRecord This WeekComments1 (1.59)Washington Capitals113-2-32-0-0The boys are buzzin. The top line isn't slowing down and our shiny new second line of Vrana - Kuznetsov - Wilson is tearing up the weaker competition. MacLellan's new look bottom six is still giving teams fits with their mix of speed and size. The defense is the best it's been since Mike Green ran the PP. Samsonov is the prince that was promised. Aside from a surprise mid-season extension for Backstrom there really isn't anything more a humble Caps fan could hope for.2 (3.03)Boston Bruins-111-3-31-2-1Well, this is a slump. Nothing but sloppy, uninspired hockey this week from the Bruins. The fact that we beat the Penguins is a shocker. Lost a close game to the Habs, stunk against the Red Wings, and played 40 minutes of bad hockey against the Flyers after having 10 shots through 40 minutes. Bruins showed signs of life in the 3rd period against them but ultimately fell in the shootout. PS: Pasta, get good at penalty shots.3 (3.68)New York Islanders-12-3-12-0-1Despite the rough loss to the Penguins the point streak is still alive. All throughout the goal-tending has been fantastic by both Greiss and Varly. With Eberle now back we will have to see if he can recapture the magic he has with Barzal, which was missing at the start of this season. Even without Matt Martin, Cizikas and Clutterbuck combined to have an outstanding week. On defense, Adam Pelech is playing like a top d-man. Other teams and fans will hear more about him if he keeps it up, but for now he is one of the most underrated players around.4 (4.76)St. Louis Blues412-3-33-0-0The bad news is that the Blues really aren't playing the best hockey they're capable of. The good news is that we're still winning. Many close games but the duo of DP57 and ROR is dragging us to some wins, our D is stabalizing, and our goaltending is proving good enough to compete. Would like to see some depth pieces begin to contribute more, and the loss of Tarasenko is just beginning to set in, but at the end of the day we're leading the Western Conference and we can still definitely get better from here. There also might not be a more trusted ownership/GM combo in the League than Army and Stillman. It's a fun time to be a Blues fan.5 (6.74)Edmonton Oilers-12-5-22-1-16 (6.76)Colorado Avalanche110-5-22-1-0The Avs have awoken. It took about two weeks, but the Avs finally figured out chemistry against Nashville & Columbus. Bad News two new injuries this week, now with 6 players out with Grubauer the only one set to return soon. Sakic looks smart for acquiring all the depth this offseason. The new top line is fun, not as skilled, but no players work harder than Donskoi and Calvert and Mackinnon benefits from the chaos they create and they benefit from the chaos he creates. Francouz has been sufficient in Grubauer's absence but isn't really playing himself into a potential 1B role. Avs start a Western Canadian Road trip this week and look to keep the momentum from the last couple games. First up a big 4 point game in Winnipeg on Tuesday. Calder Watch: Makar had an insane week, with points in all three games a 3 point night and a 2 goal game with his first GWG. He is now at 17 points in 17 games which ties him for third in scoring amoung NHL dmen, Crazy!7 (9.82)Nashville Predators39-5-31-1-1I'm away from my computer this week so I'll keep this one to a single point: /u/dabz14, I'm a true believer after the Red Wings game this past week. That second period was brutal, and the Preds made sure I understood that by being on the other side of the brutality against the Avalanche.8 (10.26)Pittsburgh Penguins610-6-12-1-0Almost as soon as we got Malkin back, Crosby gets knocked out. Please start wrapping these players up in bubble wrap.9 (10.5)Carolina Hurricanes-59-7-10-3-0The lack of top tier star power is starting to show. Each of the last 4 games should have been winnable but they ended up not even being close.10 (11.53)Buffalo Sabres-49-6-20-2-0Three more games until we hit .500.11 (12.59)Vegas Golden Knights19-7-31-2-1Tough week for the Golden Knights going 1-2-1 on the road trip. Blown leads in the 3rd period has plagued the team lately and really needs to change.12 (12.91)Vancouver Canucks-39-6-30-3-1Ever since rushing to jump on the ill-conceived and somewhat forced "Team Like That marketing campaign, the Canucks have indeed become a team like that. The team like that has since lost 5 of their last 6, with their only win coming against a floundering Sharks team. Over this period the powerplay has lost some the luster shown earlier in the year, and Canucks fans must face the tough reality that a team (like that) might not win 70% of its games this year. The club remains competitive, but this string of losses should slide them down to the middle of the pack in our power rankings - the "playoff bubble" position most anticipated the team would inhabit at the start of the season.13 (13.41)Toronto Maple Leafs29-6-42-1-1The Leafs are a confusing team. The week started with a sloppy 3-1 win against the Kings on Tuesday which made it a two game winning streak, which was extended on a 2-1 OT win against the Golden Knights (Did you see Ceci's beautiful setup for Pacioretty!?), which was won by captain Tavares himself. Unfortunately that streak ended Saturday night, after the Flyers got shootout revenge, highlighted by Marner taking an awkward tumble. After trying to take another shift, he was sent to the dressing room and shut down for the game, and after an MRI, for four weeks. Looks like leaf fans are still gonna annoy r/hockey by saying this team still isn't fully healthy yet :). Is that an excuse for letting up 4 goals in the first against the Blackhawks? Oh it's the second half of a back-to-back. That excuse. Made the game close, but not close enough. Overall, another confusing week for leafs fans14 (13.5)Arizona Coyotes-19-6-21-2-115 (14.18)Calgary Flames110-7-32-0-1The Flames had a good week, getting 5 out of a possible 6 points. The team appears to have a completely different effort level when they are down in the third period, having multiple late goals to tie both Arizona and St. Louis, forcing overtime. If only they could play with the same sense of urgency at all times. Johnny Gaudreau continues a large slump. While he's still getting points, he doesn't look like himself and his turnovers and defensive game make him feel like a liability at times. The Flames have already played 20 games this year, so hopefully their schedule slowing down a bit will give them some time to solve a few issues.16 (15.18)Anaheim Ducks-59-8-10-2-0This season feels like a rerun. Looks like a losing home stand came 1 month earlier than last year. A poor effort against the oilers after 4 days off. Similarly poor effort against the wild. I don’t see the fight. I don’t see the ducks ready to start any game lately. Song of the week: Free fallin’ - Tom Petty and the heartbreakers17 (15.35)Tampa Bay Lightning28-5-22-0-0Hard to take a ton away from just a back to back against the same team, but I did like what I saw from the team. Got some depth scoring, so that was nice. 3/7 on the PP isn't too shabby, and killing off all 4 penalties is quite nice too. Very happy only seeing 4 PP's given up, seems Tampa decided they were just having no fun sitting in the box.18 (15.76)Montreal Canadiens-19-5-32-0-1This week the team made big strides in improving their penalty kill (albeit in large part to Price in the net). Victor Mete is making up for all the goals he didn’t score to start his career and it helping beat the Bruins makes it all the better. Ryan Poehling finally has first few games of the season but if all Julien is going to do is play him for 9 minutes a game I would rather see him getting more time in the AHL.19 (15.97)Philadelphia Flyers210-5-24-0-0Its been a very Fly week this week, not a Die week. Myers has been on fire since scoring his first of the season, Coots, Lindblom, and TK line is actual sex on ice, our goaltending is stabilizing, and we are making teams regret starting their backup against us. 3 games in 4 nights against teams in playoff spots, and having pulled a majority of the points from it means we are doing a good hockey. Giroux with an absolute slapper in the SO, Moose and Hart are being the tandem we need them to be, and the team responding well under AV means things are well. We may never go pointless in a game again. Also PROVY PLEASE JUST KEEP YOUR GAME SIMPLE YOU ARE TOO GOOD TO BE PLAYING AS POORLY AS YOU HAVE BEEN RECENTLY. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk pt.2. Praise Gritty20 (17.68)Winnipeg Jets-10-7-12-0-121 (19.47)Florida Panthers-38-4-51-1-1Panthers' games are absolutely crazy. 4th in GF/game and 4th most GA/game. Half their game have been to overtime...it's not good for my heart. Recap; decent game against the Caps. Good game against the Islanders, should have won but Greiss was fantastic. Good game against the Rangers, Monty was bad, but the team rallied to with it. The Panthers don't give up and that's great.22 (20.74)Dallas Stars-8-8-21-0-1Only two weeks this game. Big win over the Avalanche and a OT loss to the Jets. Standouts? Faksa, Bishop. Takeaways? We played great against the Avalanche, and the Jets loss was hard-fought A 1-1 record doesn't always spell improvement - and it's sure not as good as last week - but we're playing better than our first 10 games. That's what matters.23 (23.56)New York Rangers-7-6-22-1-1Just another week at the office for the New York Rangers. We opened the week by losing 6-2 to the Ottawa Senators. This one was tough and really showed how young this team is, but a game like this was necessary. Next, we bounced back against the Wings by winning solidly 5-1. The next day, we got to see vintage Hank against the Canes. Even though we got outshot 47-19, we somehow walked out with a 4-2 win. To cap off the week, we had a shooting gallery of a game against the Panthers, falling 6-5 in the shootout. Some positives to come out of the week were that the kids are finally catching their stride and really developing. Kakko, Chytil, and Fox have looked great the past few games. Lindgren also deserves a shoutout for his play lately. Strome continues to put up points as well. Here's to another successful and entertaining week (also hopefully Lias gets more minutes).24 (24.41)San Jose Sharks37-10-13-0-0Much better week for the Sharks, but there's still a lot of work to be done. They were able to squeeze out 3 wins, but almost blew late leads against the Hawks and Wild. If the Sharks want to be back in the playoff picture they'll have to clean it up and play consistently tight defence for the next two weeks, with the upcoming divisional games against good teams like the Oilers and Vegas. The forwards are looking better and they've had some periods with really good defence, but they can't have those 10 minute stretches where they almost blow the entire thing, because good divisional teams will pounce on those opportunities.25 (24.47)Columbus Blue Jackets-16-8-31-2-0Bemstrom got his first and his second career goals this week. The two games we were pretty close, which is an improvement over our 5 game skid, but we're still 1-6-1 in our last 8. Things are looking grim if we don't improve by American Thanksgiving.26 (26.5)Chicago Blackhawks-6-7-42-1-1After a disconcerting California road trip, the Blackhawks managed to go 2-0-1 against the Canucks, Penguins, and Leafs. Kane has 5G, 6A and points in each of our last 6 games. Keith has been playing well, and is averaging over 25 min in ATOI, which is around his career average, but is significantly higher than the past 2 seasons. Lehner has been fantastic, and is 2nd to only Greiss in SV%.27 (27.21)Minnesota Wild26-10-12-1-0Wild fans are in this weird spot right now where they want the youngsters to show signs of development but the collective team is being cheered on to tank. Kevin Fiala has shown, to quote the GM-who-shall-not-be-named, "gamebreaker" qualities in the past few games. Jordan Greenway and Joel Eriksson Ek have finally looked in the mirror and realized they have big bodies meant for a physical brand of hockey. Ryan Donato...well, he's still looking pretty lost. Can't win them all I suppose. As much as this franchise needs a number one pick, it did feel good to see four pucks go past Mr. Darcy on Saturday night.28 (28.03)Ottawa Senators36-9-13-1-0With the Sens recording 5 wins in their last 8 games, I'm suddenly feeling a sense of...what's the opposite of "shame"? Less shame. That's it. Make no mistakes folks - even though they've had a good week thanks to the heroic efforts of guys like Pageau and Nilsson playing absurdly well, this team is going to finish in the bottom 5. They NEED to finish in the bottom 3 in any case, so as to have the best chance of picking up a generational forward talent at this stacked draft. This means not winning against other bottom tier teams like the Kings and Rangers, which we unfortunately were unable to do this week. Good games for team morale but certainly not for draft position!!29 (28.26)New Jersey Devils-15-7-42-2-02-2-0 This week, nothing too out of the ordinary. Back in Sept. r/devils did a straw poll about Hynes' leash and most said he had until Halloween to turn it around. A week after the devils are 5-7-4 and severely under-performing for the talent level of the roster. This roster shouldn't be 5-11. Shero should already have a list in his mind at this point to replace Hynes. The Good: Blackwood seems to have rebounded from his rocky start and has taken the starter reins from Cory. Hughes is still playing great. He isnt always scoring, but seeing him play with hustle every shift is amazing to see. The Bad: Hall is cursed. He has 2 goals on 59 shots, only 3%, while his career shooting percent is over 10%. The Ugly: We're still barely 0.500 hockey week to week and sitting at the bottom of the metro, only 1 point above the Sens ins the same 16 games. The talk has already started on Hall's fetching price come trade deadline time.30 (28.56)Los Angeles Kings-55-11-10-2-1I was fortunate enough to watch the Kings play the Leafs in Toronto this past week. We look slower than molasses right now and its a pretty boring brand of hockey almost worse than the ‘wear you down’ of Sutter’s time as coach. Some of the young guys are doing well but its crazy to think that this core won 2 cups.31 (29.59)Detroit Red Wings-16-12-12-2-0Robbie Fabbri and Jonathan Bernier stole the week for the Red Wings. With a jam packed schedule of four games the Wings continued their walk of shame with piss poor effort against the Preds and breakdowns against the Rangers. Jimmy Howard gets the start and the hook in both games. Then the trade for Fabbri happens and Bernier gets the start in both games against Boston and Vegas and now the parade planning begins. In reality, the Bruins were at the tail-end of a 11-2-1 stretch and Vegas was back to back after getting beaten up by the Capitals. However, this is what we should expect from the Wings. The plan is to stay competitive and transition to the next phase of the rebuild. Detroit needs to be in these games against top teams who are struggling and limiting their chances. Boston and Vegas combined for 30 shots against the Wings at 5v5(47 All Situations) which is an incredible defensive performance considering the power those offenses have. r/hockey NHL Power Rankings Week 6: Tropical Depression Edition Source

[awesomeblockchain]

You don't own your items. That lucky knife skin you scored in CS:GO? The cool Halloween-themed Overwatch outfit? Nope. Property of the developers who let you use it. That value is destined to stay within the game's ecosystem, and we've never had a better technical solution. That's the problem Enjin is trying to solve.

It didn't take long for the blockchain to enter gaming. The two tech-savvy crowds form a solidly joined Venn diagram, and we're already losing track of all the startups aiming to use the new technology to carve out their little niche in the gaming space.

While most of the esports focused cryptocurrencies focus on betting - some legitimate, some less so - Enjin is focused on true ownership. Whether that be ownership of games, or items, or persistent character traits, or whatever else the developer can think of. It's a platform for others to get creative with.

Having flirted with entering the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation for months, Enjin Coin moves from gaming show to gaming show, preaching the word of adoption. If developers don't adopt, none of the cool stuff happens. If they do, the sky is the limit. The difference is Enjin has some great ideas about how to get people on board.

We sat down with Enjin's head of dev tech Pat LaBine to chat about what the blockchain could bring to our space. His background is gaming, not crypto. A 13-year veteran of Bioware and IO, he's worked on titles like Mass Effect, Jade Empire, Dragon Age, Hitman, and even a much older version of Anthem.

His expertise reflects the team. They're mostly game developers, not just mathematicians. And perhaps that's why they have what we think is the best strategy for getting people started.

Enjin Coin - or blockchain tech in gaming, for that matter - has no killer app. Enjin is focused on making a platform, and letting developers use it in all the innovative ways they can think of. There's no roadmap here - it's all new.

But seeing as he ditched his life as a videogame executive, we figured LaBine would have some crystallised ideas about where the tech could take us.

-Provable scarcity," he told us. -It's good to show people sometimes that there are only ten of these in the world. And you can actually go on a blockchain scanner and see - you don't know who they are - but you can see only 10 people own these things.

-I look at it like, you're going to have this digital garage of stuff you collect from playing games over and over. You could have tokens from a game you played five years ago, and maybe some of them are worth something."

But what ensures those items will have value beyond the game's lifecycle? Isn't the value still tied to the game? What happens if people just stop playing it?

-Every token you create, you actually have to give it a value, and you have to spend real-world value to craft that," explains LaBine. -So it would be like spending real-world materials like metal. Like you need to buy the metal - in this case, it's Enjin Coin - to forge the sword out of it. So there's always a minimum back value for it out there.

-So, the Black Lotus, which is a Magic: The Gathering card, it's an extremely popular and rare card. It's only five cents of paper. But it could be worth thousands of dollars. Same with these tokens."

Pat LaBine fully expects that many gamers won't even know about the crypto side of the coin. They'll just know that they can trade their items, and if need be, melt them down to the raw Enjin Coin value to be used elsewhere. But you won't have to be a developer to benefit monetarily from the crypto side.

With item rarity being not only provable but enforceable, it's even possible to attach items to a one-time event or achievement. The winners of a DOTA 2 tournament could merge their team skin with an Enjin Coin and trade it like a signed Messi jersey. A world record speedrunner could offer something similar to their streaming audience.

-That could be a good way for an esports team to create revenue," says LaBine.

The cryptocurrency space is prone to outlandish claims, and we've already seen a few in the gaming space. Much of the time, it comes in the form of inflated numbers. -We serve 3 billion gamers!" is a real boast currently made by one coin unaware of its self-parody.

One such claim that caught our eye was GameCredits' proposed strategy of creating its own game-making engine to create games around using the coin. We weren't sure what was more arrogant: reinventing the wheel, or the assumption people will abandon their favourite developer environment to make a game involving one proprietary crypto.

Far more realistic is Enjin's strategy of integrating into existing engines. Tools are on the way for both Unity and Unreal - the two most popular engines - which require no coding to use. It even recently announced support for Godot.

-You need some basic knowledge of how they work, but you don't have to code the smart contracts," says LaBine. -So theoretically the target user we're looking at is a technical designer. Familiar with the tools but won't necessarily know how to code."

While there's certainly an overlap among developers and those interested in crypto, keeping the learning curve small is key. To borrow Unity's motto, modern engines have somewhat democratised game development, and those walls between creators and their vision should stay levelled.

To that end, Enjin Coin wants to have a developer portal in the future that shows off different use cases. Much like the Unity Store's example projects, Enjin's portal will have a -game as a token" project or an example of a token-enabled collectible card game.

Unity users will soon be able to download the tools for free, and Enjin won't take a cut of transactions made through the technology. The barriers to entry are low to facilitate maximum experimentation. And should any promising projects emerge, Enjin has earmarked 10% of its coins for partnerships and developer incentives - it can effectively fund them.

We've seen enough -top wallets in crypto" articles to see the Enjin wallet mentioned a few times. It's touted as one of the most secure in the world, and we wondered what the strategy was behind a gaming crypto investing so much time and energy into a wallet.

-It's to get people into the ecosystem," explains LaBine. -It's a place where you can see all of your games and items. We'll open source it at some point but for now it's closed source. But who knows, we might have skinned wallets, like a Blizzard wallet or stuff like that, if they allow it."

LaBine opened up his own wallet full of gaming items for us to see. It's currently a minimalist UI and will be expanded before it hopes to shoulder the burden of your entire game item collection. But it works - LaBine can send you a sword in Minecraft on demand.

As for wallets themed on other companies? While possible, they may already be making their own moves into the space. LaBine expects early adopters to be mostly indie, but now that he's known as the -gaming crypto guy" to his career's worth of triple-A contacts, he's had executives picking his brain.

-Yeah, we've had a couple of conversations with them," he says. -Don't count the big triple-A studios out, because they all have skunkworks departments, and they are definitely working on blockchain stuff. They're just not telling anybody about it.

-They don't know how they're going to use it yet, a lot of the time. But it's going to happen at some point. One of the big publishers is going to come out with Ubisoft Coin or something like that. Steam Coin, or whatever."

The big question with any cryptocurrency is -what can this do that a database can't?"

-I think traditional systems do a good enough job most of the time. But databases can't provide true ownership of the tokens to you," he says. -They're basically just leased to you, at their whim. So you could be banned - we see that in esports. As a value proposition, I don't know that that's compelling enough.

-For a developer, you don't require as much infrastructure because you're leveraging the Ethereum network and all the properties of that network. You don't need a huge security team, or DevOps, to administer. That removes the customer service element that you might traditionally need, running your own giant databases.

-But again, it depends on where the market goes, right? Like, what players think is valuable. Some of my friends are like, 'Yeah, I don't care.' So you put 200 hours into Overwatch and you don't care that you don't own the skins? And they're like, 'Nah.'"

In the case of Enjin Coin, there will be interesting use cases made newly possible. But much of its appeal is doing the same things with increased confidence. The idea of a digital collector, for instance, is less likely to occur if the collector is technically leasing items behind mountain-sized EULA agreements.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect is the fact that separate systems can be designed to interface with any token. It's rare enough to see your RPG characters carry over into a sequel. But what if they could carry over into any game? Progress in one game could affect the world of another. If the receiving software knows how to interpret the token, anything is possible.

For all the bluster in the crypto space, LaBine is refreshingly frank about the issue.

-We know it's going somewhere, but I don't what form it will take," he says. -Blockchain isn't as sexy as AR/VR. Those techs have been around for 30 years at least, as an idea. But blockchain hasn't been around very long, as Bitcoin and whatnot. As an idea, it's very new. You'll see some people doing wacky experiments with them, and mostly crash and burn, but somebody will figure something out. And people will be like, 'Cool, I get it now!'

-So I don't know which way it'll actually go. It may not even take off at all. But I can easily think of a world where my son is playing Fortnite or PUBG, and all these items are things he could own and give to his friends. I could easily think of people saying 'How was it not like this before?' I worked at big studios for a long time, and this time I actually feel like I'm slightly ahead of the curve. So that's exciting, but it's also kind of scary."

https://ift.tt/2u6qoAo

[proven-paradox]

The Lesser Evil Side Sessions: Neera takes care of some loose Ends

<DM_Dox> ---

<DM_Dox> The next day dawns, and apparently people are beginning to prepare for another day of festivities. The previous night was a long and loud one, whether celebrating in the common room or trying fruitlessly to get some sleep above.

<Neera> Neera awakens even earlier than usual, performs their morning prayers, and takes a quick breakfast downstairs before heading into town. Recalling the relative haste with which they were able to have their armor refitted earlier, they seek out Toragrin's shop once again.

<DM_Dox> The door to Toragrin's shop is closed when Neera arrives.

<Neera> They're anxious to have this task dealt with, and knock at the door. It might not be polite, but it's better than repeating the events of yesterday and searching in vain for a working blacksmith.

<DM_Dox> There's a pause before Toragrin's voice shouts out from inside, something in Kanish. Another few moments and the door opens a crack, Toragrin peering out bleerily. "Oh, ah, mornin' lass...?" He smells of ale.

<Neera> Neera lets out a stunted sigh of relief. "I'm sorry to bother you so early," they offer a quick half-bow. "I have some work I need done as soon as possible. It can't wait. I can pay whatever you want."

<DM_Dox> The man nods and rubs his eyes blearily. "Arrigh', arrigh'... Give me five minutes ta put on some coffeh an' a shirt, t'an we'll talk, aye?" He opens the door fully to allow Neera in.

<Neera> "You have my gratitude," they assure the smith as they step inside. Neera stands and patiently waits for the dwarf to make himself ready.

<DM_Dox> The inside is slightly less cluttered as Neera would remember from their previous visit; possibly due to the army purchasing a lot before the fight. The man is indeed shirtless and the inside is dimly lit. "Jus' have a seat wharever for th' moment, lass. Be right back." He practically drags himself into a back room.

<Neera> They nod, and, not wanting to spurn his hospitality, take a seat.

<DM_Dox> A few moments later the smell of coffee drifts from that doorway, and the dwarven smith returns with a simple green shirt and carrying a bottle of water. He takes a long drink before nodding to Neera. "So, ah, while th' coffeh simmers. Care tae tell me th' short version?"

<Neera> They grunt an affirmative, and gesture vaguely to the pack they've set down beside them. "I need more armor resized. Two suits this time. The first is the same one you worked on before, which I just need returned to its original dimensions. I have it here. The second I need scaled down, and I can bring to you when I come to pick this one up."

<DM_Dox> He gives Neera an odd look. "'Tween th' 'angover an' me old age, 'tain' sure I heard y' right lass. Y' want th' armor I worked on not even a week ago undone?"

<Neera> "That's correct." They aren't about to explain further than that unless pressed to do so. "And a second suit re-fit for my person once you're done."

<DM_Dox> He sighs and shrugs. "'Syer gold, lass, I'll not tell ye 'ow t' spend it. 'At said, if I'm also scalin' down anudder piece, be more efficient t' 'ave 'em both." He shrugs. "Take material from one t' use on th' ot'er."

<DM_Dox> "'Ow 'bout 'is, aye? I need a good t'irty minute 'r so t' heat up tae forge an' finish wakin' up." He rubs his eyes again to accent this. "You go get th' second suit, bring 'er 'ere."

<Neera> "Not a problem," they reply. "I'll return shortly, and we can discuss your payment once you've had a chance to appraise your work."

<DM_Dox> "Sounds good, lass." He waves her out of the shop.

<DM_Dox> Some time later, Neera returns with Crimson's armor. Toragrin is sipping on a large cup of coffee with a powerful smell. The forge is starting to glow with gentle heat, and he has laid the armor already delivered out on a table (with a small pile of clutter at the end where he wiped it off into the floor).

<DM_Dox> "Welcome back, lass!" He seems much more sociable with some coffee in his system. He points to a table next to the one he'd laid the armor out on. "Set it there, let me see what we've got..."

<Neera> Upon returning, Neera begins setting the second suit as directed. It still seems to be in impeccable condition despite the battle it recently survived.

<DM_Dox> The dwarf perks up a bit as he sees the armor set out. "Someone's gone an' sheened it! Very important tae someone, this suit..." He starts examining it closely.

<DM_Dox> "Howed y' come across t'is'n, lass?"

<Neera> "It belonged to a..." They struggle for the exact words for a moment. "To another proud warrior. My allies and I faced him down during the battle with the gnollish horde..."

<DM_Dox> As Neera speaks, the dwarf starts lifting up plates on the armor and examining what's underneath the red sheen on the armor's surface. His eyes grow wide with shock as he examines the suit.

<Neera> "...Is something wrong?"

<DM_Dox> He looks to Neera and lowers his voice to nearly a whisper. "Lass... d'ye understand what t'is is 'fore y' brought it tae me?"

<Neera> The crusader looks at him in utter confusion. "Should I have?"

<DM_Dox> "I... 'Tis Defender's Steel!" He peers at the armor in wonder. "Th' sheen hides it from tae outside, but peer under it... Genuine adamantium!"

<Neera> "Adamantium?" they step forward to observe for themself. "No wonder he was able to handle so much punishment..."

<DM_Dox> "Tae make such a fine armor from such a difficult material..." He shakes his head. "Lass, adamantium is traditionally only handled by tae finest dwarven smiths, masters whose art makes all of dwarvenkind proud and envious all at once!" He continues lifting pieces of the armor to observe joints and connections. "A master smith may hammer at such a treasure wi'out a single break and still take five years to complete the work."

<Neera> Neera's stomach sinks. "Do you mean you can't do anything with it?"

<DM_Dox> He shakes his head. "I di'n' say 'at, lass. Gimme a moment."

<DM_Dox> He does a meticulous examination of the armor. It's unclear whether he's actually trying to figure out how to work with it or just admiring the thing.

<DM_Dox> A few awkward moments pass before he replies, "I can do it. 'Tain' a master meself, but I'm better 'n anyone else you'll find in 'is town."

<DM_Dox> "Twill have to call in a favor 'ough. Me forge won't get even half as hot as we need it."

<Neera> "Whatever resources you need," Neera assures him. "I can make sure you're supplied."

<DM_Dox> He steps back from the armor, fiddling with his beard-braid thoughtfully. "Let's talk price, lass."

<DM_Dox> "Tae other armor, 50 gold an' I can be done in three hours." He shrugs.

<Neera> "Done," they agree. "How much will you need for the Crimson suit?"

<DM_Dox> "Tae red one... I must find a magewright what can give me the fire I need. I 'ave a few ideas. Once 'at's done, should be fast to get it small 'nuff for you to don, and 'en magic in th' suit will shift it tae fit you well."

<DM_Dox> "Price: 800 gold. If I do 'is'n first, 'twill be done tonight 'fore I hang up me tools."

<Neera> "Perfect." Neera begins digging out the payment. "850 gold, then. How does half now and half when it's all finished sound?"

<DM_Dox> He nods and replies, "Sounds far tae me."

<Neera> "The Builder guide your hands." They offer up the payment with apparent satisfaction. "I'm sure you'll do me an excellent service."

<DM_Dox> The dwarf takes the coin with a nod and a grin. "My thanks for bringin' such fine work into me shop. 'Twill be an honor to work on it."

<Neera> "And I shall be sure to praise the smith who worked it after battles to come," they grin back. "Now, I have a few other errands to attend to. I will see you again tonight."

<DM_Dox> "Aye. See you 'en."

<Neera> Their next destination is the mayor's office. Neera makes for town hall without delay.

<DM_Dox> There's a lot of hustle around town hall; most of the populace has time to celebrate, but the various city workers who manage the town's business apparently still have a lot to do.

<DM_Dox> Neera is able to make it into the building without a problem. Inside a secretary is busily doing paperwork. He looks up to Neera as they approach. "Can I help  you?"

<Neera> The orc nods respectfully. "I need to speak with Mayor Tanisk as soon as possible. Tell her... Tell her that Kurth has asked for her."

<DM_Dox> The secretary raises an eyebrow at the name but nods. "I'll go ask. She's been very busy and keeping to herself. Prepare to wait for a while." He stands and motions to a seat near the opposite wall.

<Neera> "Thank you," Neera replies, before sitting down as instructed.

<DM_Dox> The man nods and moves to the door to the mayor's office. He comes back momentarily, looking perplexed. "She said she'd see you immediately. Head on in."

<Neera> They rise, a bit tense, and enter.

<DM_Dox> Inside is Elvira, her desk littered with paperwork. If there is a method to her work's madness, it is not immediately evident. She looks up to Neera, her face making it clear that she has not had much sleep recently. She is silent.

<Neera> There's an awkward moment as Neera attempts to find the appropriate words. They settle with, "Thank you for seeing me on such short notice. I... hope you've been well?"

<DM_Dox> She sighs. "The city's freed from the gnoll siege and thanks to Calther and Terril there weren't even many casualties. All said, this was a better ending than I could could have asked for, I suppose. Just... very busy."

<Neera> "I understand. Both captains did commendable jobs, your man Calther especially." They seem to contemplate before continuing. "I'm sorry to burden you further, but I need a favor, one I wish I did not have to ask of you."

<DM_Dox> "Go on..." She seems nervous.

<Neera> "I need to ask you to lie," Neera explains. "I understand if you feel that you cannot do this, but I need you to tell my clan that my-- That Kurth's body was recovered in the battle, and that it will be sent to them for proper respects to be paid."

<Neera> "And then, well, I need you to send the body to them."

<DM_Dox> She is quiet for a long moment, eyes closed, looking thoughtful.

<DM_Dox> "Kurth... You just accept this then? You're not even going to try to explain to your family?"

<Neera> "When I was dealing with Tasha, the Toad, trying to bargain for her assistance in repairing the breaches in your sewers, she knew who I was. I was forced to make an enemy of her to secure her aid. My people might have paid grievously for my own error. Then, during the battle..."

<DM_Dox> Elvira looks like she's about to say something, but closes her mouth.

<Neera> "Crimson, one of the enemy leaders, he recognized my armor as well. Now he is dead, and his body will serve as a worthy substitute to my former flesh. It is better if I am dead, Elvira."

<DM_Dox> "Better for who, Kurth?"

<Neera> "For my people," they reply, almost instantaneously. "This way, I can do them no more harm with my failings."

<DM_Dox> "So... what, you think that your successes have been completely erased now?"

<Neera> "It was easy to succeed with a brother and an army at my side," they respond solemnly, eyes downcast. "Those victories still belong to Clan Stone-Sun. Let them have that honor, and be unburdened by what is to come. This is not about me; if I cannot protect them, I refuse to endanger them."

<DM_Dox> "You can still protect them though!" She slaps her desk loudly. "Calther told me of your fight out there. Getting the sewers repaired, helping the druids, all of it. You're still a capable warrior. You can still be who you were before."

<Neera> "Not with that abomination--" Neera starts to match the rise in tone, but stops, suddenly, and drops into a low whisper. "What we uncovered in that ruin, Elvira... Northwall is safe from it, but myself and my companions are now part of something that I cannot subject my clan to. I wish I could tell you, but you would not believe me if I did. Believe only that there is no going back, however desperately I want to."

<DM_Dox> She seems taken aback by this, clearly unsure how to respond. After a moment to consider, she finally replies, "After seeing what the druids' spell has done with you, you really think I would not believe you?"

<Neera> They seem to consider something, mournfully. "Anything I tell you runs the risk of putting you in danger as well. Please, know that your city is safe and leave it at that. I expect we will be departing soon, and then neither you nor my clan are like to hear from me again. This is the way it must be."

<DM_Dox> "Kurth. You're still standing here. At this point I don't even care about what kind of body you're in! You don't have to walk away from everything! You don't have to face whatever's coming alone!" She seems desperate.

<Neera> "I must," Neera professes, conviction stalwart as stone in their voice. "Do not doubt that I appreciate your sentiment, but there is no other way. Please, I need you to assist me with this one final thing."

<DM_Dox> She puts her head in her hands, defeated and dejected. "If... If that's really what you want, Kurth..."

<Neera> "It is." The Dal looks exhausted, as if the years of their past life have somehow manifested upon their new flesh. "Thank you, Elvira. For everything."

<DM_Dox> "Just... Just go." She doesn't take her head out of her hands.

<Neera> Neera bows, a bit less gracefully than they would like. "The body will be ready by tomorrow."

<Neera> They move to exit.

<DM_Dox> As they leave the building, Neera hears Marohi, seemingly coming out of a yawn. <Sooooo, ah, done cuttin' ties yet?>

<Neera> <Done,> they respond, sounding none too pleased. <Nothing left but to pick up the armor from Toragrin when it's finished.>

<DM_Dox> <So what's the plan for the rest've the day?>

<Neera> <To get away from this damnable crowd, mostly. Why the interest?>

<DM_Dox> <If you got time to mope, you got time to train. You think I'mma just let you swing me around next fight? I got higher standards than that.>

<DM_Dox> <You're gonna take me to the nearest spot where we don't gotta worry 'bout collateral damage. Preferably sand or some other soft floor.>

<Neera> <The barracks has a room that will serve,> they suggest. <And I had no intention of moping, I'll have you know.>

<DM_Dox> <Uh-huh, sure. Either way, take me there. Before we do any real fightin', you gotta get t' know me, an' I gotta get t' know you. So let's get to it.>

<Neera> <Fair enough. Let's make this count, then, shall we? I have a lot of steam to burn.>

<DM_Dox> ---