#The Archmage's Restaurant

[derekscorner]

#The Archmage's Restaurant #The Wizard's Restaurant #webtoon

[instant-spicy-ramen]

#the archmage's restaurant #food #food blog #manga

[teaspoon-of-stars]

#the archmages restaurant #manga #food #aesthetic

[lord-kiwi-the-wizard]

In the darkness of the world, heroes are born. Called forth from the infinite void of possibility by fate to change the world.

It was another day on the small world of Atherius. A ball of various noxious and often dangerous materials that in no way should functionally co-exist. The inhabitants of this world built it themselves. From nothing more than dreams and sheer potential. I walked the blue neon streets of Lexus City admiring the grand lights and dark streets. This was the dark part of the city. Were the more shady people tend to go, but it was also the more adventurous part of the city. Often to build up things need to be torn down but all that mixing and matching happened in the bright district. The place were the Archmages of the three main orders loved to hang out. Down here things are old and rather dank. An excellent place for someone to hide or disappear. I knew there were likely to be chaotic wizards down here, even if they preferred the freedom of the caux plains or the most horrid place they call Oiseaux… wasou… quasun… uhhh… that place i cannot pronounce. I swear. They invent these names just to spite me. Nonetheless, the city isnt a place for the Chaotic Wizards of red to live. Unless they're here to cause trouble. The neon lights and autonomously run restaurants and bistros begin to give way to darker less lit apartments. I remember when we were all first learning to use magic it was difficult if not impossible to make anything that stayed up. I can’t help but smile at the thought. I remember everything my parents and their parents ever did. The wisdom of generations overlapping onto the next. I guess you could say the younger were wiser here where i lived. And yet despite this sentiment i was here in a place of ill repute looking for an old friend. I'm certain he was dads friend at least. Thats how he was remembered. Old coot he would say. it certainly is dark down here. I looked up around again. The verticality of the city will never not leave me in awe. Apartments of stone and concrete with stairs and ramps everywhere. Ghosts of those from other worlds who had died live here on occasion. The others must get lonely with so little of our own around. The dirt path i was walking had little more than a single street lamp. Emitting light from a magically enchanted stone that was wedged under a hood so it only shone straight down. Atmospheric. It shone down on a bench across from an old looking noodle shack. Shoddily put together with debris and discarded wood and cloth. What kind of person lives around here who cant conjure a simple shop. And what kind of server sits within.

#microfiction #narriation #may try a different narration voice

[glitterandmoondustofficial]

And Onto Further Stillness

Chapter 7

Notes:

Characters: Yrelia, Gale, Lillian Rating: Teen Warnings: some language Notes: I’ve had this written for like…a couple weeks but everything happens so much lol

Yrelia wasn’t sure what to expect from Lillian.

She was seemingly kind, definitely full of energy and enthusiasm, and most certainly a very concerned individual.

Yrelia recognized that concern. The way Lillian stared at Gale. The way she fussed over him and the way she lectured him. Or as she had put it “offered him advice”.

Yrelia knew that feeling. She thought of Cyr when he was growing up. How she was always worrying about him and trying to make sure he was staying safe and healthy. Gale and Lillian were far closer in age than Yrelia and Cyr but she understood.

Every time Gale huffed with that annoyed crease in his brow she smiled and rubbed his back with a kiss on the cheek. Gale really did act like a younger brother with a worrisome and sometimes overbearing sister. 

And now she was sitting in front of Lillian in a bistro eating lunch. Lillian swore this place would be perfect for their lunch. When Gale had asked where they were going to lunch he said he hadn’t heard of the place. Yrelia found that somewhat shocking. Surely her fiancé who took so much time to focus on her diet would know of all the restaurants that she would enjoy?

When Lillian dragged her away from Gale she let Yrelia know that it was because it was a relatively hole in the wall restaurant and that Gale had the tendency to “focus on rich foods, both in price and ingredients” and concluded by saying “not that he doesn’t appreciate what someone can do with simple and cheap things, but he definitely goes out of his way to buy saffron when it’s an optional ingredient.”

And if that didn’t describe Yrelia’s future husband she’d eat her own boot.

“You know, Yrelia, I have to ask,” Lillian started.

Yrelia looked up to Lillian’s serious expression. She blinked. “Ask what?”

“What are your true intentions?” Yrelia frowned. “You see, it’s almost unbelievable that Gale goes silent for a year and then disappears and then suddenly turns up one day the happiest he’s ever been with a fiancée.”

Yrelia’s lips twitched, not sure if she should be happy that Gale was as happy as Lillian was saying, or if she should be upset that she was being accused of an ulterior motive. “I’m afraid I won’t tell you more about what happened than he will,” Yrelia said. “Gale has the right to keep what happened to himself,” she added. “But my true intentions are to marry him and stay with him for the rest of our lives.”

“Yes, I know that, but why?” Lillian said.

“Why?” Yrelia asked, unable to believe what she was just asked. “Because I love him.”

Lillian eyed her. “I just think it’s odd that he is someone with such refined and rich and luxurious tastes and yet he managed to find a…farmer as a wife. You’re telling me that you simply fell in love naturally? That you didn’t find an archmage and decided it would be an easy meal ticket?”

Yrelia’s eyes widened and her face burned, feeling shocked and a bit humiliated. It took every ounce of patience, grace, and strength to not throw her drink in Lillian’s face. “No,” she said sharply. “I love him. It’s because of him I…” she stopped herself and instead stared at Lillian with an angry glare. The only people who needed to know how he and their relationship kept her sane while dealing with their tadpoles was Gale and herself. “I love him and I want to spend my life with him, that’s all you need to know.”

Lillian stared at her. She cocked her head. “You’re furious.”

“My love for my fiancé is in question.”

“You’re also quite scary.” She grinned. “Fine, you love him, he loves you, you’re a genuinely happy couple,” she huffed. “Can you at least tell me why he’s lost so much weight?”

Yrelia’s eyebrows twitched into confusion. “Lost weight?” She asked. “I’ve only seen him like that.”

Lillian sighed with a dejected frown. “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that. I was really hoping you would say he lost weight to impress you or something dumb like that. He used to weigh more, somewhere between me and our mother. Seeing him so thin makes me worry. It had to have been that year he went silent and avoided us.”

Yrelia stared at her for a moment before her heart squeezed. The orb. Of course it was the orb. The orb didn’t just sap his magic, it didn’t just rip into his soul, it also ate at his body. He was supposed to weigh more. He was meant to be bigger, healthier. It wasn’t just stress and dehydration it was…

He wasn’t supposed to be…

Oh, and his signs of age!

She now wondered how much of his signs of aging was the fact he was almost thirty-six and how much was because of the orb. The grey in his hair that she liked to play with. The wrinkles on his face that she loved to kiss.

How much of Gale was because of the orb? What had he looked like before such a terrible thing happened to him?

“Yrelia, are you alright?” Lillian called concerned. “Did I say something wrong?”

Yrelia cleared her throat and swallowed the lump in it. “No, I’m fine, just lost in thought. Did you have any other questions for me?”

Yrelia couldn’t focus after that conversation. Her mind was preoccupied with thoughts of Gale and the orb. This was supposed to be behind them, it was supposed to fade away along with his scars. 

Gods, she was such an idiot. How could she not have seen this?

Of course the orb would eat at his body! She remembered how it was then, how much pain he had been in, how debilitating it had been. And then she thought of him when the artefacts stopped working and how he was in constant pain. Her love, her poor love and his suffering.

And his family had no idea.

Lillian and Morena had no idea. 

Only Yrelia and Tara knew.

Yrelia went through the motions of shopping and engaging in conversation with her sister in law. She tried so damn hard to enjoy herself. After all, Lillian was trying to show her Waterdeep from a different perspective. She showed her what was in fashion, she even convinced Yrelia to buy some new clothes for herself when she mentioned she hadn’t done much shopping besides some basics. 

Among other things like simple makeup, a floral perfume she absolutely couldn’t get over, soap that smelled like cake, and new shampoo and conditioner specifically made for people with curly hair.

“Lily,” Yrelia called. “I don’t have curly hair.”

“That’s what I used to say,” she said and she nodded her head, making her curls bounce. “My hair used to be wavy like yours but then I started taking my classes and I learned that my hair was curly!”

“Classes?” She blinked. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I ever asked what you do?”

“I’m a hairdresser!” She grinned happily. Yrelia blinked in surprise. “I know, much different from Gale’s career path.” She placed a jar of hair mask in Yrelia’s hands. “But it’s where I met Tydan. You know, dwarves take their hygiene and hair very seriously. We see more dwarves than any other race! Tydan came in one day and then kept requesting me and now…we’re married with two children.”

“That’s…really sweet,” Yrelia said. “I’d love to meet them.”

“You will, of course. You’re family now.” Lillian smiled at her and Yrelia found herself smiling back. Lillian’s smile faded after a moment and she shifted. “I am sorry for upsetting you earlier, Lia. You have to understand that Gale hasn’t been the…luckiest man when it comes to romance. And he’s my little brother who thinks he has it all figured out and unfortunately he’s pretty right most of the time but when he’s not…” Lillian sighed. “I can tell how much you’ve changed him and that’s why I was so worried. I didn’t want him to completely change himself for someone who may not love him the same.”

Yrelia’s lips twitched. “No, I understand,” she said. “I have a baby brother, too. It’s hard watching them go through life making mistakes and getting their heart broken.” Yrelia sighed, her heart aching thinking of Cyr by himself in their childhood home.

Lillian smiled. She linked her arm with Yrelia’s. “Why don’t you tell me about him while we finish shopping?”

Yrelia sighed as she walked into Gale’s tower with her many shopping bags. Nope, sorry, her tower. Gale made her swear to start calling it hers. This was her home and her tower and they were living together in domestic bliss. She was happy and content and absolutely in love with Waterdeep. A small part of her didn’t miss her farm at all.

“I’m home!” Yrelia called and was answered with silence. “Gale? Tara?” She tried again and was answered with silence again. “I guess they went out,” she said to herself. “So, I’m here…alone…?”

Ah. Well, she could spend time cleaning and preparing dinner after she put away everything she had purchased. 

And of course in the silence her thoughts were brought back to her love’s health.

“Ah, Lia,” Gale said with a strained smile as she approached him. The last artefact hadn’t helped nearly as much as it should have. Yrelia could see how much pain he was in. She could see him spending all of his energy just going through the motions. “What can I do for you?”

She let out a breath and stepped in close to him, so they could speak quietly. Yrelia tried not to let him know that she also simply…wanted to be close to him. “I was actually going to ask if there is anything I can do for you.”

“In what regard?” He said with a grin. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much of a grin. He was trying to hide his pain behind it and Yrelia knew it. She stared at him, not answering him, but giving him a worried stare. His smile faded and he sighed. “No,” he said. “I’m afraid this is my burden. Don’t worry yourself over the likes of me. I will still be able to fling spells and freeze the enemies when they try to bury an ax in your skull.”

Her brows twitched. “I’m not concerned about your ability to fight, Gale,” she said softly. “I’m worried about you and I care about you. That’s my priority over your ability to cast spells.” 

He looked so confused as she said that and Yrelia wasn’t sure which part of her statement was the most confusing. “I’m afraid you can’t separate the two, but I appreciate your kind words either way. Now, why don’t we speak of something else? Were you planning on going hunting soon? If you don’t mind, I would like to join you again and…”

“Lia,” she heard Gale say her name as he walked into the kitchen. She looked over from the stove and to her future husband. She smiled softly when he presented her with a bouquet of pink peonies. She leaned in and kissed him in thanks. “What have you decided to cook this evening? Admittedly I had planned on making something for you but I like to think that I’m intelligent enough to not turn down a meal cooked by my beloved.”

“Ah, it’s not much,” she said with a sigh. “Lily and I were talking about younger brothers today and I suppose talking about Cyr made me think of his favorite dish.”

Gale stared at her for a moment silently and Yrelia took the opportunity to look him over. The grey in his hair, the wrinkles on his face. She looked at his chest and saw where the scar from the orb used to be. She looked that his clothes were a little too big on him, not in the way that dress of hers was, but in the way that he was trying to regain what he once was. Held together by belts, vests, and jackets.

“You miss him,” he said and she blinked back to reality.

“Yes,” she said with a forced smile, trying to focus on him in that moment. “But I’m happy that I’m here with you.” She leaned in and kissed him again. She turned to the cabinet under the sink and pulled out a vase. “Now, tell me, my love,” she said as she filled the glass vase with water. “Do you plan on buying me flowers every time the previous ones die?”

“Perhaps I am.” She snorted and then grinned when he kissed her cheek. “You deserve flowers, jewels, elegant dresses that will look beautiful, magnificent, and even ethereal on you.”

“Elegant dresses?” She questioned. “I’m not so sure about that, Gale.”

“My lady, you must trust me on such matters,” he said and took her hand. He kissed her knuckles. “I’ve told my tailor many details about you and have provided her with your measurements, taking care to remind her not to fashion the chest to be revealing.”

She stared at him completely…shocked. “You know my exact measurements?”

“I do.”

“I don’t know my exact measurements.” He shrugged in response. “Nuh-uh,” she set aside the vase of flowers and wrapped her arms around his neck. He immediately grabbed her hips, squeezing gently. “You’re not getting away with that, Mister Suddenly Not Talkative.” He grinned at her. “Did you take a measuring tape to me in my sleep?”

“Ah, you see it’s in a wizard’s best interests to not reveal his secrets.” She grinned and nipped his chin. “Very, very bad luck and a terrible idea. I pride myself on my research and everything I’ve learned thus far. Revealing how and what I learn would be detrimental to my craft and profession. And you know, my darling, this is important information to have! Think of all of the gowns, coats, shoes, and other various clothing I can buy for you now as a surprise!”

““Other various clothing”, huh? How very undescriptive of you.” 

He kissed her in response. “You were bound to learn your measurements soon in any case.”

She blinked. “Why?”

He gave her a look that told her that he didn’t quite understand why she was confused. “For our wedding.” Her eyebrows shot up in shock. He looked even further confused and a bit nervous. “Lia? Why do you look so shocked?”

“I, uh, I forgot the wedding part of getting married.”

“You…forgot?” That nervous look didn’t fade. “Do you want a wedding? I suppose we never discussed that. If you don’t then-” she cut him off with a kiss. He relaxed against her lips and she smiled softly.

She pulled away, smiling up at him. “I haven’t thought about weddings in years,” she said. “I hadn’t planned on getting married after the last relationship so this is all new territory for me. I had just skipped to the part where we’re already married,” she chuckled. 

“We’ll do whatever you want,” he said and she cocked her head in response with a worried smile.

“What do you want?”

“I want you to be happy.” She took his cheeks within her fingers and stared at him with an expectant brow raised. “I would like a wedding.” 

She kissed his lips. “See? Was that so hard?” She grinned and released his face. “A wedding,” she sighed with a smile. “I assume you have already been planning for it?”

He teetered excitedly. “I have,” he confirmed. “Since the moment you agreed. Actually before that, if we’re being completely honest. The mere thought of returning to Waterdeep with you as my future wife was the solace that kept me going through that last stretch of our time in Baldur’s Gate. Imagining you in the sunset in a decorous raiment with a ring on your middle finger was enough to keep me going even on the most gruesome and bloodiest of days.”

She chuckled. “Alright, you romantic you.” She smiled when he kissed her. “Why don't you tell me about what you have planned for our wedding while I cook us dinner?”

Yrelia laid in bed, smiling as Gale placed kisses on her shoulders and chest. She ran her fingers through his hair, humming in approval when he nipped at her collarbone. She grinned when he kissed her lips slowly. She twirled his hair around her finger, relaxing as his hands caressed her sides. She blinked open her eyes and stared at the grey wrapped around her finger. She paused. She thought back to her conversation with Lillian and how…

“Lia,” Gale murmured to her lips. “Are you alright? You’re frozen.” He pulled away from her and his brows knitted in worry. “What wrong, Yrelia?”

She blinked at the use of her full name. “I…” she frowned. “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing? Did something happen?” He took her hand and kissed it. “I assure you whatever happened isn’t worth apologizing for.”

“It was something that Lily had said to me earlier than made me realize something that I should’ve realized months ago.” 

He frowned. “What is that?”

Yrelia sat up and Gale sat back away from her. She reached out and cupped his cheek. “I love you,” she said. “I love you more than anything, Gale, I hope you know that.” He covered her hand on his cheek with his. She let out a breath. “I hope you can forgive me, but I went snooping through your belongings for something.”

His eyes searched hers for further answers. “That’s nothing to apologize over. I said that you could do whatever you wanted in our tower and that includes pilfering through whatever documents, scrolls, books, or trinkets you see.”

She smiled sadly. “I was looking for a portrait of you.” Every moment that passed the look of confusion grew on his face. She removed her hand from his cheek and softly traced down to his chest, pressing her hand where the orb used to be. “From before.”

He stared at her for a moment in silence before holding her hand over his chest. She blinked, remembering when he told her about the orb for the first time. “Why?”

“Because,” she stopped and thought about how to phrase her thoughts. “Because Lily mentioned that you look different now,” she said. “And I wanted to see how.” She frowned. She felt herself start to cry, thinking of all the suffering her love had gone through. All for the sake of a goddess who wanted him to die for her. 

“I…see,” he sighed. “And what conclusion did you come to upon seeing myself before the orb?”

“That you didn’t tell me how much the orb affected you physically.”

He frowned. “Yes, you’re correct,” he said with a sigh. “Are you upset with me because I didn't share this with you?”

“No,” she said. “Do I wish that you had? Yes, but I can’t force you to talk to me. Your hurt is your own to tell or not tell.” Sighing, she reached up and brushed hair away from his ear. The words came from her mouth smoothly with no clicks of her teeth nor a furrowed brow. She was calm, just like she had been on the road. Although, talking down various murderous entities seemed far easier than talking to her fiancé about his physical trauma. 

She smiled and took his face in her hands. “Let’s get some sleep. I’m exhausted after running around with your sister all day.” She kissed his forehead and then released his face. He stared at her with an almost bewildered expression. He took her wrists in his hands and held them. A firm grip that simply told her “not yet”. “Gale?”

He frowned deeply and had an almost desperate look in his eyes. “Please don’t look at me in such a way.” 

Her brows knit in concern. “In what way?”

“With disappointment.”

She blinked and recoiled in shock. “I’m not disappointed in you. You’re misunderstanding me, beloved.” She leaned in and kissed his forehead again. “I love you,” she said, enunciating each word. “I’ve loved you for a long time, longer than you probably realize.” 

“Lia, I’ve loved you for just as long. I-” she pressed her fingers to his lips with a soft smile. 

“Let me continue,” she said with another kiss to the forehead. “I don’t care about what you look like. No matter what you look like, you will still be you. All that I wish is that I had known how the orb had changed you in this way.” He sighed at her and she could see thousands of racing thoughts in his eyes. “I fell in love with you with the orb still in your body. This is what I know, this is who I know.” She frowned deeply. “But that doesn’t mean I like what the orb did to you. You suffered and I’m angry and sad about it because I love you and you deserve better.” She removed her fingers from his lips and kissed his lips. “And what I said at the temple still stands.”

He cracked a smile. “Lia, she is still a powerful goddess.”

“I don’t care. She may be able to completely obliterate me but she’s still an absolute bitch and completely unworthy of you.”

“That’s kind of you to say, Lia.”

“It’s the truth.” She kissed him loudly. “In any case, I am exhausted from today. Your sister has far more energy than I do these days.”

“She is unparalleled in energy,” Gale said with a tired smile. He brought her wrist to his lips and kissed it. “She also didn’t have the weight of the world on her shoulders for nearly six months nor did she have something in her body that would make her explode for over a year. I’d say we’re overdue on rest, sleep, and even oversleeping.”

Yrelia chuckled and allowed him to lay next to her, immediately curling into him when he settled in. She kissed his throat and relaxed against him. She yawned and closed her eyes. “Oh, I don’t think I ever asked you, love. Where did you go today?”

“Ah, yes, I had meant to tell you but it slipped my mind. I went to Blackstaff Academy.”

Yrelia opened her eyes and tilted her head up to look at his face. “You went today?”

“I did.”

She blinked. “Well, don’t just stay silent, what did he say?”

Gale grinned in a way that made her heart want to come out of her throat and into his arms. “My lady, you’re in the presence of Blackstaff Academy’s newest but not inexperienced professor in the School of Illusion.”

#baldur's gate 3 #gale x tav #galextav #gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #What are all his goddamn tags? #gale #yrelia #I am a soft Gale truther #however I firmly believe that the orb destroyed his body to the point where he was skinny #and as he gets back to his life #and has Yrelia #he gains back his weight #and Yrelia is like (•◡•)

[lorecraft-tales-from-drakken]

Section from my new story Moonfire.

It was another day on the small world of Atherius. A ball of various noxious and often dangerous materials that in no way should functionally co-exist. The inhabitants of this world built it themselves. From nothing more than dreams and sheer potential. I walked the blue neon streets of Lexus City admiring the grand lights and dark streets. This was the dark part of the city. Were the more shady people tend to go, but it was also the more adventurous part of the city. Often to build up things need to be torn down but all that mixing and matching happened in the bright district. The place were the Archmages of the three main orders loved to hang out. Down here things are old and rather dank. An excellent place for someone to hide or disappear. I knew there were likely to be chaotic wizards down here, even if they preferred the freedom of the caux plains or the most horrid place they call Oiseaux… wasou… quasun… uhhh… that place i cannot pronounce. I swear. They invent these names just to spite me. Nonetheless, the city isnt a place for the Chaotic Wizards of red to live. Unless they're here to cause trouble. The neon lights and autonomously run restaurants and bistros begin to give way to darker less lit apartments. I remember when we were all first learning to use magic it was difficult if not impossible to make anything that stayed up. I can’t help but smile at the thought. I remember everything my parents and their parents ever did. The wisdom of generations overlapping onto the next. I guess you could say the younger were wiser here where i lived. And yet despite this sentiment i was here in a place of ill repute looking for an old friend. I'm certain he was dads friend at least. Thats how he was remembered. Old coot he would say. it certainly is dark down here. I looked up around again. The verticality of the city will never not leave me in awe. Apartments of stone and concrete with stairs and ramps everywhere. Ghosts of those from other worlds who had died live here on occasion. The others must get lonely with so little of our own around. The dirt path i was walking had little more than a single street lamp. Emitting light from a magically enchanted stone that was wedged under a hood so it only shone straight down. Atmospheric. It shone down on a bench across from an old looking noodle shack. Shoddily put together with debris and discarded wood and cloth. What kind of person lives around here who cant conjure a simple shop. And what kind of server sits within. I walk in to a small covered kitchen with a bar and a few stools. An elderly Atherian man who looks worse for ware seems to be behind the counter.

[amazingspider-z]

Post ToA! Jim AU

Based on the idea that Jim might be a changeling (more or less) after the final Wizard's episode, and also the idea that he eventually gets a chance to relax just a wee bit (and that time travel nonsense means certain :) events :) happen less badly now :))) ).

In short, everything finally cools down after the events of the series, and the Heartstone didn't get as badly damaged in this timeline or something, so Trollmarket gets rebuilt. With the multiple mini-apocalypses over the course of less than a year, the masquerade is firmly smashed in Arcadia and in the process of breaking down everywhere else, which is mildly problematic but could mean a reintroduction of magical creatures to society (and introduction in general of aliens).

It takes a couple year for the ball to get rolling, so most of the Arcadia gang is eighteenish and fresh into college life and beyond, while still dealing with the new era of Arcadian issues (this time, it's...the boring treachery of global politics, with an occasional random monster of the week for spice).

Jim specifically, still acts as the Trollhunter despite the loss of the Daylight amulet, although without Gunmar it's a much more low-key/ceremonial role, even with the bonus ambassador duties, which is great for attendance. Technically he's also King of Camelot because of Excalibur, but with ye old crash-landing it's basically a fancy title he pulls out occasionally to sound more official with non-trolls, or for Dramatic Nonsense Purposes with Steve. On the civilian side, he's working part-time at a restaurant for experience while going to college for a poly-sci degree. On paper, he sounds even more busy than he was during the series, but the relative lack of unscheduled life-or-death fights does wonders for his schedule.

In regards to everyone else's current lives: Claire's getting a theatre degree and working with her mom's campaign in addition to apprentice-wizard and trollhunting duties, Toby's studying geology while working as a stage magician in addition to his trollhunting duties, and Steve's studying for a social workers degree with a sports scholarship in addition to acting as the main knight of the round table-which is currently also mainly an ambassador/ceremonial type position. He also runs a popular magic and aliens youtube account with Eli that is technically to prevent the spread of misinformation, but reads like Buzzfeed Unsolved. Douxie managed to negate the Order somehow (he... also needs rest) so he's technically the archmage now and Claire's teacher, but he's also gone more official with his music career and hangs out more with the hedge wizards at HexTech. Eli is still off-world half the time, but he's pioneering the field of xenobiology when he's not, in addition to the aforementioned youtube account. Krel is another one of the half off-worlders, but he's singlehandedly advancing the field of mathematics when he's not serving as Akiridion-5's official Ambassador (Aja is mostly off-world ruling Akiridion-5, but she does pop over to Earth when she has free time now that their parents recovered). The rest of the Arcadia crew (re: detention club) have reluctantly been finangled into auxiliary support positions with the whole magic/alien hotspot due to proximity, but they aren't nearly as involved. Darci's studying law, Mary's studying music, and Shannon's studying computer science.

Technically, Jim's still half-troll psuedo-biologically speaking, but he can switch between appearing functionally human or not at will (since he can look human in theory he can also go beast-form but. He doesn't do that ever because Trauma). It's not so much how a changeling switches in a burst of magic so much as a more gradual physical transformation, and while that does mean he doesn't have a 'true' form he can be knocked into, it also means it takes more energy for him to transform than an actual changeling. It's still not a large amount, so it's typically a non-issue, but it does mean he normally can't transform when he's super tired or injured (Fun fact: his emotions have a low-level impact on his appearance, so he tends to look a bit more trollish when he gets nervous if he's in human form). Typically he splits his time 50/50 between both forms, although if he's acting as Trollhunter he looks half troll more often than not, and if he's at school or working he's human more often than not (Arcadia has adapted to Trolls to make it easier for trolls to be out during daylight without risking their lives, but if he can reduce the risk of turning to stone he's not going to not do that).

He's called the last trollhunter because...it sounds good, thematically, but really they're working on a way to rebrand his new duties now that the amulet and Gunmar are both gone into a more democratic position, eventually. He does have Daylight back though, kind of, in the form of a magical stone embedded in a bracelet by Douxie. It's a prototype created specifically for him, so it's tuned to his specific signature (which is. not hard due to him being the half-trollish fake changeling in existance) and it doesn't come with armor, although Daylight 2.0 can turn into a shield if he's wielding Excalibur (technically he probably isn't going to dual-wield Excalibur as 2.0 as swords, but it's nice to know he has the option).

#toa #tales of arcadia #jim lake jr #troll jim #wizards spoilers #trollhunters #toa spoilers #this is probably gonna get destroyed by the movie when it comes out but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #the beard/goatee is. bad. but everyone makes questionable decisions in college #also the arts stiff but again: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #tbh i was gonna post this to my art-ish blog but its dedicated to dbz so ig this goes here whoops #long post

[thoughtsonargentdawn]

On the limits of “IC =/= OOC”

Hello everyone, with a busy time dealing with the gradual loosening of lockdown here, working with the rest of the team on the other blog and just a general inertia for philosophising its been quite quiet lately i’ll admit. However this is a big one not covered yet here. You’ve probably all seen this bandied about like some cure all to woes and the like yes? Used by the wrong people for the wrong reasons too no doubt. To start let me be clear, the separation of character and player is non-negotiable, there cannot be “role” playing without it by dictionary definition. If you are not playing a “role” you cannot be role-playing. That said this is also used as a shield by many players on Argent Dawn to effectively hide behind their own personal beliefs and project them onto their own character. Now I won’t condemn people for doing this, we all leave a bit of ourselves on the character, most of us aren’t professional writers after all! The issue stems from when the character stops being a “character” and becomes a “conduit” for the player to pursue whatever weird ideas they have offline in a safer online environment. Most times these are completely inoffensive and sometimes even beneficial for the player in the long term - here I am referring to those who suffer from gender dysphoria exploring non-binary or otherwise a different gender to their assigned sex at birth - and no reasonable person has an issue with this either from my own extensive experiences and talks with others. The problem of a “conduit” is when they’re used by players to engage in destructive or repugnant fantasies, ones that can lead to harm for other players around them. For example let us take the stereotypical human male paladin - sometimes dressed in green, sometimes dressed in red, and even sometimes in blue - who lecherously pursues women for the purpose of “breeding”, they claim “oh but it’s my character’s nature to do this.” really now? Being a rapey creepo is integral to your character, and singling out “younger” looking female characters for “recruitment” is how this is done? Objective nonsense, lets be fair. They are lacking the stimulation from real life and the abundant 18+ video websites out there clearly aren’t enough for their niche fetishes to be satiated. This is what it boils down to, people who for whatever reason or another in their offline lives - exceedingly so this last year unfortunately - find a lack of fulfilment in dead end jobs, they feel disempowered, weak. They may even suffer from mental health issues - your mental health is not an excuse to harm others, mind - and thus turn to their online fantasy world to soothe their aches and pains.

These players are simply not roleplaying, by definition they are not playing a role they are inserting themselves into the sleeve of an online persona to fantasise about things they cannot have. Overbearing, culty like guild leader with a massive ego and tendency to shit on their “lessers?” - probably works a low paid, long hour underappreciated job either in retail, clerical, delivery/logistics or hospitality - especially restaurants - and feels the need to have a group of loyalists telling them how important and great they are to deal with the crushing pain.

Immaculate and charismatic human male paladin chad chasing females of every race and acting very creepy around them? Probably a lack of confidence offline, perhaps social anxiety and a feeling of worthlessness, likely raised a misogynistic culture as well. Over-powered, can’t be defeated super fighters with anime-level reflexes Or always right archmages at age 16? Likely someone who feels weak in their life, either through abuse or a sense of underachievement, they’re seeking to feel better by playing something powerful. Weirdly overly obsessing about race or religion in a universe where the notion of “race” is about as dumb as trying to class a dolphin and a cow as the same? Do they insert odd phrases that look like they were taken off /pol/ or reddit? Probably someone who has been either radicalised or someone living in an insecure environment, looking for an -other- to redirect their worries onto.

These are just some of the examples i can offer. In general a good way to check if someone is roleplaying or simply playing an avatar of themselves is to see how they react to something unexpected or perhaps unpleasant to their character. If they react neutrally and go along with it, or accept what is happening then they are likely playing a character. An avatar however will likely recoil in shock and disgust and declare “how dare you harm my character without my permission.” in a very indignant and weirdly personal manner, as if you were attacking the player. A certain cinematic universe on Argent Dawn love to mock these people as “second life roleplayers” - ironically failing to look in the mirror themselves - and the appellation is quite fitting, they would get far more out of such a game than this one.

#argent dawn eu #World of Warcraft #roleplaying #self-insert #mary sue #gary stu #fetishism #strange

[writeblrina]

Breathe

Already, shadows clung to the anonymous nature of the nearby restaurants. Creations of the mages’ council: archmage traven, somewhat taken aback.

#poetry #writerscreed #twcpoetry #generated #poem #ai #spilled ink #original #spilled poetry #poetryportal #Breathe

[instant-spicy-ramen]

#the archmages's restaurant #food #food blog #manga

[codus571]

A Wizard and a Warrior, Part 1: A strange coincidence, or a plot hook...or maybe just character introductions

Date: May 5th, 3012 SC, Year of the Sasquatch

A horde of monsters gathered around a large, dark altar in a circle of stones, glowing with dark purple energy. Those gathered were a collection of Ogres, Satyrs and the undead as well as a few of the goblinoid races scattered in the group. On a raised dais in behind the altar, stood a black clad man, arcane and demonic symbols graced his robes. He had a drawn and pale pallor to his face, his eyes wide with madness and lips curved in an evil grin.

A young woman lay helpless on the altar, blonde hair flowing down the cold, stone slab. Her hands and feet were bound carefully; ever struggle was to no avail. Panic rose in her gut, her screams piercing the night, though this deep in the woods it would take a miracle for anyone to hear her. She whispered silent prayers to her god Sear, god of the Sun, the bane of evil.

“SILENCE!” shouted the man, the force to his voice was enough to silence the woman as well. The monsters in attendance stopped their low murmurings. They turned to look at the man with expectation.

“Tonight! Tonight, with a sacrifice of a virgin, we shall open the way for our lord, Sheogar. Tonight, he shall feast upon this young woman’s blood. Tomorrow, he shall feast upon the WORLD.”

The monsters erupted into a cheer as the man pulled a dagger from his belt. It was designed to look like a small, thin wave and would serrate and cut viciously. He prepared to plunge the blade into the woman’s chest, drain her life’s blood onto the altar and open the gateway that would lead to his dark master. She prayed, beseeching her lord Sear for salvation. And as if in answer, light flared in empty space between the monsters and the altar.

A teleportation gate appeared, filling the entire dark, fire lit area with blinding light. When the light disappeared, two men stood in its place, both with a somewhat confused look on their faces.

The monsters looked on, stunned as the two human men began to get their bearings.

“Uhh, Aeron, I thought you said we were going to the Silver Hawk restaurant.”

“I think it’s the moons’ alignment, Klydus, it threw us off course. You don’t suppose…,” the man named Aeron, dressed in a simple dark grey tunic and breeches and carrying a staff suddenly stopped, realizing they were in a hostile situation, “…weeeelllllll… shit!”

The other man, Klydus by name, noticed as well. He was armored in grey plate and chainmail, a vicious looking flail hung at his belt and a shield graced his back. He had the holy symbol of Sear, God of Sun and Light, on his breastplate. He drew his two handed flail with one hand, the heavy ball catching fire as the holy knight ignited the magic in the weapon. He caught sight of the young woman on the slab and the man who was preparing to stab her.

“Aeron!” Klydus was deadly serious.

“Yeah, I see, Klydus, we’re surrounded by monsters,” said the practical wizard, sizing up their odds, “Let’s divide and conquer, you take…”

“No, look,” interrupted Klydus as he pointed at the dias and the robed figure on it There was a pause as Aeron looked and caught sight of the woman on the slab and the obvious magic user poised over her. Aeron sighed, his shoulders slumping.

“Yeah I see a dam…” Aeron couldn’t finish before Klydus interrupted.

“A Damsel! And she is distressed!” Klydus jumped up onto the dais, stalking the magic user.

Aeron looked back to the assembly of monsters that were fast approaching him and raised his hands in frustration, “That’s…that’s great, Klydus, you deal with the lone magic user… and… save the captive. I’ll take out this horde of monsters. It’s cool, I can handle it….all by myself….with no help.”

Aeron swallowed the rest of his complaints as the first wave of monsters advanced. It was mainly the undead at this stage, the more intelligent monsters staying farther back so as to test Aeron’ strength.

He grimaced at the wave of undead and flourished his staff. Bright orange, almost yellow, fire swirled around the head of the staff and a wave of fire spread out in a cone in front of him. The undead, mainly comprised of skeletons and zombies, disintegrated upon impact with the specially crafted fire spell. He didn’t have time to relax, though, as another wave came within striking distance. In the instance a skeleton’s sword sliced down at Aeron, he winked out of sight, teleporting behind the line of monsters.

He drew in magical energy using his staff as a focus. The energy coalesced in the staff’s head and he shot it forth. A great fireball sailed into the horde and exploded in their midst. The explosion was a miniature cataclysm, engulfing many of the monsters in its blast radius. Howls of pain split the air as goblins and orcs and dark satyrs burned alive from the unnaturally hot and tenacious fire. Wanting to maintain his advantage, Aeron unleashed bolts of lightning. They arced outward, jumping from monster to monster, putting more down.

Klydus stalked toward the altar. The black clad man held the dagger over the woman. His hand trembled as he watched the approaching Holy Knight.

“Stay back! I’ll kill this woman before you can reach me. You can’t stop this ritual, our dark lord will rise.”

Klydus, in a deadly calm voice, “You fiend! You dare to distress a damsel? That, I can not forgive.”

Klydus swung his flail at the man even though they were some 3 meters away. The chain of the flail extended outward and wrapped around the black clad man’s arm. The ball of the flail hit the man’s arm with a loud smack and the man’s arm broke with a wet pop. He cried out feebly as Klydus reeled the cult leader towards him. The man fell in front of Klydus, who twirled his flail.

“Ahhh, what…what did I ever do to you two? I don’t recognize you as local heroes,” whined the black clad man in pain, “Is this revenge for something?”

Klydus growled in response, “No….this is Justice."

He smacked his flail downward on the man’s head, killing him. Klydus let the magic in his flail subside and he hooked it back on his belt and shouldered his shield. He approached the young woman and cut her bindings with a skinning knife.

“Madam, are you hurt?”

She burst into tears and crumpled against Klydus’ chest, “Th…th…thank you, kind sir, I was so frightened. It seems my prayers were answered.”

Klydus held onto her, a sense of accomplishment washing over him. He had done a good deed this day. In the background, his friend Aeron danced with magical energy fending off several ogres and satyrs who had regrouped and attacked him in mass. Everything from fire to electricity to water to ice to air, even rocks, flew around as Aeron used everything he could to stop the approach. Klydus was still holding the scared woman when the last monster fell.

“No….” Aeron breathed heavy, speaking in gasps as he approached Klydus, “It’s all good… here… Klydus….I killed the monsters….you just keep… holding the girl.”

Aeron joined the two on the dias, using his staff to lean on. He’d expended a great deal of energy in that fight.

“Aeron, today, we’ve done a wonderful thing. We have saved a distressed Damsel from certain death.”

Aeron nodded, “Yep… he...he….nevermind the...horde of monsters that a certain someone...fended off…by himself, I might add.”

Klydus didn’t hear him and clasped his friend on the shoulder, “Truly, this is a victory for justice and order.”

“Or it was an act of outright genocide and religious intolerance against monsters we perceived as evil strictly based on their racial upbringing and a biased outlook of human-centric conditioning,” said Aeron.

“What did you say, Aeron, I didn’t hear you. The damsel still needs caring for.”

Aeron just sighed, “Nope it’s nothing, just talking to myself.”

The young woman recovered quicker than the two expected and stood under her own power. She raced over and hugged Aeron as well. Aeron tensed, uncomfortable with the sudden contact..

“Thank you as well, bravely fighting off that horde of terrible monsters and giving your friend here the opportunity to save me.”

Aeron chuckled nervously and tensed, patting the once captive woman gently and awkwardly on the back, “No…no worries, don’t mention it, all in a day’s work, or…night’s…work…I guess. Speaking of which, eh…who are you?”

She smiled and turned to face both of the men, “I’m Jeanna Andermann, Priestess from the Temple of Sear in Lacona. Who are the two of you?”

Aeron made to speak first but Klydus beat him to it. Aeron remembered it was futile to get a word in edgewise when Klydus could be of assistance to or engage in conversation with a maiden or damsel in distress.

“My lady Priestess, I am Klydus, Knight Captain of the Order of the Sunblades in service to Lord Sear stationed in Mu City. I am at your command, my lady.”

He knelt deftly and kissed her hand. Despite the look of his plate mail, it was magically enchanted and weighed nothing, giving him full range of movement. Aeron shook his head at his friend’s sudden suave demeanor.

“I’m Aeron, nice to meet you,” said Aeron, waving.

She looked to Aeron confused, “Master Aeron, you seem to be a formidable sorcerer, surely, you must have some title or something?”

“Don’t let, Aeron’ humble nature fool you, my lady, he is Archmage Aeron, Mage-Knight of Lunaar.”

Her eyes widened, “A Mage-Knight of Lunaar and a Knight Captain of the Sunblades! You two are both so young. I truly am impressed and humbled. Thank you again for saving me.”

She bowed to them both. Aeron just chuckled awkwardly while Klydus beamed with an all too wide smile.

As if to rain on their good mood, what started as a subtle yet imperceptible tremor, turned into a full fledge earthquake centered around the dark altar. A swirl of dark, cold energy started to rise from cracks within the altar that Aeron, Klydus and Jeanna stood on.

“Ehhh, I thought this ritual needed the blood of a virgin?” asked Jeanne.

Aeron and Klydus exchanged a look and then glanced down at the dead Cult Sorcerer. Aeron gulped and Klydus pursed his lips

“He he he…eh, now I feel a little bad for killing him,” said Klydus with a nervous chuckle.

“Well, I did not see that coming…” added Aeron.

The trembling continued, the cold energy growing ever more powerful, turning the relatively humid spring night into a frigid one. Klydus helped Jeanna down and moved farther back from the altar, ensuring she was safe then returned to his friend’s side. Aeron had also stepped clear of the altar but was much closer than where Klydus had deposited Jeanne. Aeron’ hand and staff were both outstretched and glowing with a pale silvery light.

“Can you close the gate before whatever it is escapes?”

Aeron shook his head, “The tunnel’s already open and it’s just about here. Anything I do now would be a waste of energy.”

Klydus nodded and activated the fire around his flail with a thought. He brandished his shield and said a brief prayer to Sear. His shield started to glow a pale yellow light as did Aeron’ staff. Aeron glanced over to his friend and nodded for the blessing.

To be continued...

#fantasy #story #my writing

[shadowofthemoth]

Hello again~! Just out of curiosity, for the ship ask meme, can I say Khadgar and Alieri? ^^ (if not, fresme could be a second choice. ;) )

Hellooooo! Of course you can! ^^ 

Sorry it took so long, I didn’t mean it to, but I’ve been too buzy… Well, here goes!

Khadgar/Alieri:

1.    Who hogs the duvet:

Khadgar.  And he looks so adorable in his sleep when hedoes it that Alieri doesn’t have the heart to object… but she still needswarmth, right? And at some point she just ends up getting her own duvet whichshe keeps under the pillows or somewhere at hand and takes out when Khadgar hasalready cocooned himself into their main one.

2.    Who texts/rings to check how their day is going:

Bothdo it very rarely. Khadgar, because he doesn’t want to overdo it and makeAlieri feel like he’s controlling her; Alieri, because she hasn’t yet gottenused to actually having the right to do it – and she probably never will.Besides, it’s freaking Khadgar, he is the Chuck Norris of the World of Warcraft,there’s literally nothing he cannot cope with.

3.    Who’s the most creative when it comes to gifts:

Alieri.She is the creative one. Khadgar does his best, but he is more likely to choosesomething useful and practical as a gift. He has good taste though, and itcompensates for him being less inventive than his partner is.

4.    Who gets up first in the morning:

Khadgarand his ancient habit to wake up at dawn. He is not an early bird though; it’sjust that he is used to waking up and getting ready to whatever it is that heneeds to get ready for at literally any given time. Years spent at war willteach anyone that. But years at war also mean sleep deprivation; so he can fallasleep in a matter of moments and stay asleep in any conditions, be it in abed, on horseback, ahem, at a boring meeting in Dalaran, ahem, or whenever elsehe has the opportunity to do so.

Alieriis a bit different in this regard: she can go very long without sleep (perks ofbeing a dragon), but when she has the chance to relax – don’t you try to gether out of bed before midday. Khadgar did once, he knows what I’m talkingabout. And he can prove that the wrath of a dragon woken at an ungodly hour ismore horrible than that of the Burning Legion (even in the hour is perfectlyacceptable to 99% of people around you).

5.    Who suggests new things in bed:

Bothdo, but Alieri is sort of reserved and almost shy about this aspect of life,whereas Khadgar is much bolder. He understands and respects her timidity, butagain, years at war mean that you try to get everything you can from life whileyou still can – and that is a lesson he has learned well. So yep, he doesn’thesitate to experiment in bed (and out of it) because why the hell not enjoythemselves if they can?!

6.    Who cries at movies:

Thereare no movies in Azeroth, and I haven’t thought about a modern AU for thiscouple, but… I guess these two don’t cry at movies, they are more likely toinsert sarcastic comments for the whole audience to hear. xD

7.    Who gives unprompted massages:

Khadgar.He uses his hands well (and I’m talking not only about massage now, yeah) andenjoys caring for Alieri, and massage is a perfect way to help her relax and toshow her all his love and tenderness. Alieri herself doesn’t really like givingmassages, mainly because she fears to misjudge her strength and hurt Khadgar(do I need to remind you she is a dragon?)… and also because she isspectacularly bad at them. xD

8.    Who fusses over the other when they’re sick:

Khadgaris the fussy one: let Alieri sneeze once, and he is already running around withhot herbal tea, warm duvets and an (adorably) panicked expression. On thecontrary, when he gets sick, Alieri is calm and collected all the time. No fusswhatsoever. If she panics, then it means Khadgar is as good as dead (and thatshe probably knows whom to ask for help anyway).

9.    Who gets jealous easiest:

Alieri.Because come on, look at that hot man and tell me: how many people would liketo get him laid?.. Yep. Now add his position as Archmage and tell me: how manywomen would like to get themselves such a husband? Exactly. Khadgar isblissfully ignorant of all that (or at least pretends to be), but you see,Alieri has many reasons to get jealous quite often.

10.          Who has the most embarrassing taste in music:

Uuuuhhhh…They both have some embarrassing secrets to tell in this regard, I think, butthis question requires more of a modern AU, so I’m not sure about the detailsyet.

11.          Who collects something unusual:

Alieri.She is a dragon, after all, and hoarding stuff might be an innate need, so tosay. But she is also a mage, so this need is combined with her scientificinterests: she collects magical artifacts of all sorts and studies them.

12.          Who takes the longest to get ready:

Theyboth don’t need much time to get ready, because when they have to get ready, itis usually for battle or journey, not a nice evening at a restaurant. But whenit IS a nice evening at a restaurant (more like a pub though), it is Alieri whofusses over her clothes and hairstyle a bit longer than time limits mightallow.

13.          Who is the most tidy and organized:

Alieri.No ifs and buts, it is her. Even though Khadgar might disagree and grumblesomething under his breath. Something about long red hair on the floor, whichis definitely not his (at this point he may demonstratively ruffle his –short-cropped, silvery white – chevelure).

14.          Who gets most excited about the holidays:

Khadgar:Holidays? What holidays? What does this word even mean? Have res and relax? Howdoes one do that?

AlsoKhadgar: *excitedly packs stuff and plans a trip to the City of Shattrath and avisit to Draenor*

Alieri:*rolls her eyes fondly and proceeds to help with the packing*

15.          Who is the big spoon/little spoon:

Theytake turns. xD

16.          Who gets most competitive when playing games and/orsports:

Oh,Alieri is very competitive. In a modern AU, I imagine, she’d be on some sportsteam. In the reality of WoW, this competitiveness is probably a good help inbattle.  Khadgar is not competitive atall – he might have been at some point, but now he has long gotten over it.

17.          Who starts the most arguments:

Theyrarely have arguments in the first place; but when they do, I guess it’s a50/50 situation.

18.          Who suggests that they buy a pet:

“Let’sget a pet!”

“Youcan turn into a raven, and I am literally a dragon, Khadgar, do you really wantto add a proper animal to this madhouse?”

(later)

“Let’sget a pet!”

“Khadgar,this is a crocolisk.”

“Hey,don’t discriminate crocolisks!”

(later)

“Ican’t believe you have gone and bought another chimera home.”

“Alieri,please, we are in Warcraft, having a hundred pets and several dozen of mountsis a must here!”

“…I’llsee myself out.”

19.          What couple traditions they have:

Do goodluck kisses before battle count as a couple tradition? Also, Khadgar makes it apoint to bring those blue Draenor flowers to Alieri every so often (which isnot too often because the world of Draenor is not always accessible).

20.          What tv shows they watch together:

Noideeeeaaaa, but it would probably be some standup shows of such comedians asEddie Izard etc. Maybe BBC mini-series like Pride and Prejudice, too.

21.          What other couple they hang out with:

Notsure about other couples per se, but when Kraid gets himself a girl, they’ll beinvited to a double date for sure! ^^ Also, their closest friends are Kalecgos(who is a dragon and a mage as well), a Draenei Death Knight Jenerlen (my OC)and a Night Elf Druid Ilmarikki (my OC as well). Jenerlen and Ilmarikki areboth female and I’m not into femslash, but I’ve been pondering on this shiplately.  

22.          How they spend time together as a couple:

Theytalk, they laugh, they make love, they try to get some rest from all the eventsand responsibilities the war throws at them. A predictable answer, yet I canthink of nothing else. They also work together a lot, so I guess it counts asspending time as a couple anyway.

23.          Who made the first move:

Khadgar.

24.          Who brings flowers home:

Himagain. Rarely, but he does his best. Alieri brings magical artifacts. xD

25.          Who is the best cook:

Khadgaragain! Alieri just seems to be really unsuccessful in this area. Potions? Yes.Herbs, artifacts, ancient scrolls and volumes – can do! Cooking edible food?She’d rather die. Or alternatively die of eating the food she had cooked.

#ask meme #World of Warcraft #Khadgar #OC #fanfiction be like #Alieri is my WoW human mage character in the game in fact #but I love her so much that I created a whole AU with her #an AU I've never gotten around to writing and so it only exists in the form of random headcanons #oops sorry not sorry I'm lazy

[shalliedragon]

Fur Squared 2018: Convention Report

All right. I think it's official now. Fur Squared is now my favorite furry convention. Their attention to detail, the sheer generosity of the attendees, the utter insanity of the events, the fact that it's just the right size, the fact that 40% of the attendees either sponsored or super-sponsored... all of those things make Fur Squared unlike any other convention I've been to. It is rare that I attend a convention that is pretty much non-stop happiness and excitement from beginning to end.

I say this despite the fact that the weekend was more or less one big blur of awesomeness. There weren't a whole ton of standout moments, because it was all consistently fun and enjoyable. But I will try to recount what I remember (might be easier now that it's over).

Thursday

Got everything packed into my car before work, and left work early to head on the road. It's a long drive from home to Brookfield, so I had to put the pedal down and just go. On the road I listened to the Dragget Show and Feral Attraction podcasts (sidenote: FA's "keeping yourself secure on the internet" episode was extremely disappointing, but that's a topic for another day).

I got to the con around 10:15 and checked into my room. I met my dear friend (and roommate) Jake (AKA Cobbs) in the lobby of the Sheraton. After exchanging pleasantries, he helped me carry my stuff in, and then we went over to MST3K (stylized to MiST3Ke on the schedule). Registration had closed, so I didn't have my con badge yet, but the person at the door thankfully let us in just by showing our state ID's.

The panelists were Alkali, Pandez, Xander, Draggor, Dixie Lioness, and Furry Bobs (I believe). The movie in question was... some kind of bad fantasy adventure thing, I don't remember the title, but it was bad. The panelists had to drink when a weapon was drawn, when there was a typo in the subtitles, when there was "(dramatic music)" playing, or the secret rule: anytime the panelists ended a sentence with a vowel. I didn't stick around to the end, as I was exhausted (so did Jake), but I think the panelists ended up winning.

We made our way back to the room, where we ran into our 3rd roommate, Gotherine Foxx (Gothy for short), who was putting the finishing touches (read: a pack of googly eyes) on a very large and ornately-drawn painting for the charity auction. She subsequently left with her friends, and then Jake and I went to bed.

Friday

I. Slept. Like. GARBAGE.

It took me a very long time to finally fall asleep the night before, and I don't quite know why. I think I got like 3-4 hours of sleep. It was BAD.

Thankfully, Fur Squared made it up to me with FREE BREAKFAST. This is one of my favorite features of Fur Squared. Every day of the con, they give all of the attendees vouchers for the breakfast buffet, so that everyone always gets at least one of the two meals needed for the 6-2-1 rule. I ate my fill, assuming that I wouldn't really be eating lunch that day. Jake and I sat with my friends Angel and Gabi, and we also ran into my friends Linn and Xeila.

After breakfast, I meandered around the con space with Jake, and went to get registered. Two things of note. First, they were giving out ribbons to the sponsors/super-sponsors that had character classes on them: archmage, drunken master, divine oracle, and ... one other one that I don't remember (I think it was Bard or something like that). I chose Archmage. Second, they had little stickers that you can put on your badge for your preferred pronouns. This made me REALLY happy; I always love it when cons try to be trans-inclusive.

Then we did some people-watching. There were a lot of familiar faces, and the excitement was palpable (both from the attendees, and from the many happy dogs that the charity had brought with them). I managed to snag a picture of Axikor as they walked past (it was actually the only picture I took the entire con, foolish me). Finally, it was time for opening ceremonies. It was filmed, so I won't go into detail, but long-story-short: the GOH's were Furry Bobs and Cypher (sp?), the artist of honor was Golden Druid, the con theme was "Lizards and Labyrinths 2nd Edition, Revenge of the Top Hat", the Kalerati and the Church of Adam started a charity donation war to see which one was the best, and people were silly. Good times.

Also, throughout this time, my 4th roommate, Dezzi, was nowhere to be found.

After the con was open, I made a beeline for my room and got right into my fursuit. I traveled around the con space some, posed for a few pictures, gave a few hugs, and got some professional photos taken at the photoshoot area in the headless lounge (I was due for some new photos). They had a whole collection of fantasy-themed props there, which made for some fun photos. I did a couple photos: one where I had a veil and some potions and looked like an alchemist, and one where I had a fistful of gemstones. The photos should be processed in the next few weeks.

I ran into my friend Alex while I was there; he was wearing his Azriel Dreemur fursuit (he's the one with the big Save button you see gallivanting around the cons). We chatted for a bit, and he went on his way.

I also had a goal for the weekend. Earlier in the year, I had bought a pack of "sprouts", these little clip-on plastic plants that you can affix to yourself as decoration. I was inspired by a former MFF roommate, Sven, who was giving them out to people. I wanted to continue the tradition, so that I could help #SproutTheLove on my own. I had a collection of 5 that I was going to give out by the time the weekend was over (I had already given my other 2 to my roommates).

After getting my photo taken, I sauntered downstairs to the video gaming room. They had rockband set up, so I immediately sat down at the drum kit and started getting a song set up. A couple other furries saw me banging on the drums and went "I have to get in on this." There were 3 of us playing "Somebody Told Me" by The Killers. And it was a cluster. We could barely hear the music, the instruments were all out of sync, and I was extremely rusty (and in fursuit). But it was fun, and it seemed like it made people smile, so it was worth it.

I said my goodbyes (I think we ended up attracting a small crowd), and made my way back to my room to cool off and clean up. I got a quick bite to eat at the con suite (which was decorated with candles, goblets, crystals, and even a little keg), and then made my way over to the Otherworld Stories panel. Alkali and a bunch of his Nero (LARP) friends told stories of their various experiences in LARPing, and hilarity ensued. It was a surprisingly popular event, and the individuals involved sounded pretty amazing. They also had a slideshow of old photos from Alkali's LARP days. I really wish they had Nero out where I live, because it sounded like a hell of a lot of fun.

After that I stayed put for convention horror stories. It's pretty standard for that kind of panel: old con chairs and con staffers talk about ridiculous terrible things that happened during their tenures, and hilarity ensued. I had heard many of them before, but it was still fun. It was filmed.

I got a quick bite to eat (#BeerCheeseSoup) between panels, and then went back for the 3-Headed Monster. As per usual, Alkali, Pandez, and Xander each did 15-20 minute comedy sets back to back. Xander got somewhat political, but also much darker than usual. Good balance of new and old material. Alkali ... was Alkali, and Pandez sang a song or two. It was filmed, as usual, and it is consistently one of my favorite events, so if you haven't seen it yet... see it. Seriously.

After that was QUIPFUR. This is Draggor's homebrew version of the popular video game Quiplash. Serathin was the MC (he basically just read off the answers and stuff) and the main panelists were Xander, Furry Bobs, and Huscoon. Unlike standard Quiplash (in addition to having furry-related questions), Quipfur was played where Draggor chose which two people played in a given round. He usually pitted one of the panelists against a random audience member. It was pretty hilarious, and I highly recommend it if you like fun events that you can participate in.

It was at that time that I noticed that Draggor still wasn't wearing his trademark skin-tight bodysuits. He was in a costume (broad-brimmed fantasy hat with feather, and tights), but he wasn't wearing a mask or anything. Indeed, throughout the entire convention, he only donned a bodysuit once: the fursuit parade (where he wore his Robbie Sinclair suit). Other than that, he was just his normal human self. He never said why he wasn't wearing them (to my knowledge), so I don't know what the reason was for the change of pace. I can only speculate: either a) he just wanted to change things up and do something different, or b) he was getting tired of being known as "the bulge" and wanted to be recognized for more than just his suits and his package. Maybe I'll ask him sometime...

After Quipfur, I went over to "Fox's Songs To Get Murdered By". Fox Amoore (accompanied by Flop the bass bunny) basically just played a bunch of random songs, and had Pandez, Alkali, and Boozy Badger sing along. It was definitely fun, and very silly. I think it was filmed (I hope so, because my memory for it was kind of weak).

Of note: this was one of the first panels I recall that made mention of the phrase "cripple fight." This phrase was to become a recurrent meme throughout the con.

Jake and I quickly went over to the restaurant and got some more food (I had a salad, and Jake had a salad with a brat sandwich, and also had the cocktail I got earlier that night, a variant of a sidecar). We often spent our time talking about things in the fandom and various hobbies. Jake's a soft-spoken guy, who often just responds with a "nice" or "I like that" when I tell stories. I worry that I am boring or annoying to him, but since he chooses to keep hanging out with me, I'm assuming my worries are unfounded.

After dinner part 2, we went to Whose Lion Is It Anyway (audience participation version). I've become more fond of the audience Whose Lion in recent years; people have gotten better at it, and the quality of the jokes has really increased. Further, I am SO HAPPY that Alkali specifically told people "please avoid insult humor and racist jokes" and encouraged people to get creative. That had been a problem in previous years; people had often used Whose Lion as an excuse to say terrible things to each other, in an attempt to be funny. But since they specifically quashed that this time, people actually tried different things beyond the typical "hey baby wanna do sex?" chestnut. It was great. Indeed, some some of the jokes were FANTASTIC.

Also more cripple fight. And Culver's. Culver's is apparently a thing now.

After that, we went to the bizarrely-titled "Boozy's Drunken Naptime." I honestly went into it expecting to see Boozy doing dramatic readings of children's stories or something. Instead, it was him, Huscoon, Fox Amoore, Nbowa, and Dixie Lioness just BS'ing for an hour. Weird, but still funny and interesting.

This seems to be a common theme for a lot of panels: get X people, put them on a stage, and have them tell funny stories and BS with each other, with pretty much no structure beyond that. There were at least 4 panels at Fur Squared that followed this format. It's a format I haven't really seen outside of furry conventions, and I am curious about how it came to be, and why it works so well. More research to come.

After that was the last panel of the night: Iron Alcoholic. It is competitive mixology. During each round, the competitors had to create a cocktail that met certain criteria (i.e. "must contain vodka, must be a shot"). They had a time limit to do this (2-3 minutes), and then audience members were the taste-testers for the event. Each round had a winner, based on how the audience felt. Me and Jake only stayed for 2 rounds, because the event started after midnight, and we were both exhausted. But it was pretty awesome. It was definitely filmed (thank you Silvergatomon, seriously he is a saint).

Saturday

I got up at around 8 in the morning, so that I could go to Xander's Saturday Morning Cartoons panel. I had been looking forward to this panel all year; it was a ton of fun last time. It's a great way to just relax and unwind on a Saturday morning. As usual, Xander created a "playlist" of various clips from cartoons and TV shows, and we just kind of sat and watched. It was funny, though some clips were better than others. Most of them were D&D or animal themed to an extent. Unlike last year, they didn't have cereal and milk, which was a bit disappointing. Still, a good time.

Immediately following was CHAIRity D&D. This was probably one of the best panels at the con. It was a one-shot D&D adventure, played by Alkali, Draggor, Dusty Montale, and John AKA Beardo The Magnificent, with Faelan as the DM. They were playing a variant of 5th edition, with some additional house rules to streamline things (each player had a deck of cards with spells on them). And it was BRILLIANT. The campaign was really smooth and fluid. Faelan was an EXPERT DM; he deftly made things up off the cuff, without batting an eye or checking a rulebook. All the players got really into their characters. And as usual, they were hilarious. To top it all off, the audience could donate money to the charity to both increase the difficulty of the adventure AND grant boons to the players if they so desired.

It was probably one of the best run, most entertaining D&D sessions I have ever witnessed. And it sounds like they'll be doing it again next year, so yeeeeeeee!

After the adventure, I booked it back to my room to quickly get into fursuit for the parade. While I was in the staging area, I ran into Xander (in suit) and gave him my usual hug. I also ran into my friend Angel, who was wearing her brand new wolf partial suit. It was super cute, especially because she had a big plush cookie in her mouth. After the group photo, the parade began. I was right behind Red Beagle (I think that's his name?) and I felt really bad, because I kept bumping into him as I walked. My vision isn't very good in-suit, so I had a hard time looking at the audience AND seeing where I was going. I'm going to make an effort to be aware of that going forward. Mustn't have been fun for Mr. Beagle (considering my head is made of resin and probably made for unpleasant noseboops).

On a lighter note, I do distinctly recall hearing people shout "Shallie!" as I rounded one of the corners (I think it was Leafy Greens?). This really made my day, as I rarely get recognized by name in the parade. I made an effort to get a lot of mugging and posing in, trying to do more than just wave. I think they like it when I act "fabulous", so I'm going to try and ham it up more next time.

After the parade, I rushed back to my room to get cleaned up before running back to attend Charity Whose Lion. Again, one of my favorite events. And again, more cripple fight (IIRC Boozy ended up swatting Propzilla with his cane). I highly recommend this panel; these folks are all experts at improv comedy. If you haven't seen it, watch the video when it comes out.

Following that, I went over to the dealer's room to take a look around, and collect my super-sponsor swag. This year's con swag: a Fur Squared beer mug, a t-shirt, a branded dice bag, a complete set of D&D dice, and a branded stemless wine glass for the super sponsors. As usual, sponsors got a copy of the poster, and super sponsors got to be IN the poster. I was pretty blown away by my picture: they knew somehow that I was a spellcaster, so they made me a sorceress (in a pretty dress no less). It was awesome.

After wandering around some more and snagging a bite to eat (while signing the super-sponsor poster for the charity auction and giving two sprouts away to some strangers), I went over to @FurSquared. This was a gameshow of some stripe, hosted by Iggy, where each round, people were given prompts, and were asked to come up with clever responses. For example, one of them was "what kind of fictional crossover have you always dreamed of?" The responses were pretty good, but I remember the game being a bit more... lively the previous year. Still, fun times.

Following that, I went over to another bizarrely named panel: "Monkey Knife Fights." Following a similar formula as Drunken Naptime, they put Alkali and Boozy up on a stage and had them BS for an hour. As you might imagine, it was hysterical. But that wasn't the cool part. That came after the panel.

Immediately following the event, Alkali revealed that a hypnotist had come to the convention, and was in the audience with us. I think some people donated to the charity to convince Alkali to undergo hypnosis at the hands of this gentleman. I thought "Oh this'll be funny, we'll watch Alkali do stupid things". But what actually happened was even better. The gentleman, who was named Mark, was a professional hypno-therapist, and he spoke all about how hypnosis can be used to help treat psychological disorders and mental illness. He also explained how hypnosis worked, in an effort to allay Alkali of his fears (he was visibly nervous at first).

Eventually, the ferret calmed down, and Mark began his hypnosis regimen. He told Alkali to imagine that a helium balloon was tied to his wrist, and that it was slowly filling up with gas. As it filled, Alkali was told to imagine that his arm was getting lighter as the pull of the balloon got stronger. Eventually, Alkali's arm PHYSICALLY ROSE OFF HIS LEG, and he literally could not make himself put it down. Then, Mark cut the balloon's "string", and Alkali went to sleep. Mark told Alkali to envision that one of his friends had snuck in the room and put googly eyes on Boozy's eyes (Boozy had been sitting there silently the whole time), and to think about how funny that would be.

At the end, Mark told Alkali that he wouldn't remember any of this, but that he would feel very refreshed and happy, and that he would see Boozy's "googly eyes" upon his waking. Mark commanded Alkali to wake up, and Alkali had the biggest, most placid grin I had ever seen on his face. He looked so peaceful, so content, so relaxed...

And then he turned and saw Boozy and LOST IT!

Alkali honestly believed that there were googly eyes on Boozy's face. He was all like "You look like Dr. Doom from Roger Rabbit!" and he laughed so hard that he nearly fell out of his chair. After he had calmed down, Mark asked how Alkali had felt. Alkali responded that he felt "the best I've felt all day."

I really hope that was filmed, because that was an incredible experience.

Moving on, I went to the super-sponsor dinner. More accurately, I stood in line for the super-sponsor dinner. Apparently there were so many super-sponsors that they had to bring in people in stages. I was toward the end of the line. Alkali was really apologetic, and said he would try to smooth things out for next year. But it honestly didn't matter. They had enough food for everyone.

And what a banquet it was. They had a buffet with chicken and mushrooms, roast beef, roasted vegetables, dinner rolls, salad, beer cheese soup, potatoes, cookies, brownies, and Sprecher Root Beer on tap. It was pretty delicious, especially considering how hungry I was. I sat at the table, eating with my fellow super-sponsors, thinking to myself "I'm doing this every year!" And frankly, I think I will. All the cool swag, getting to be in the poster, AND a free catered meal? Considering a Fur Squared supersponsorship is $100 less than one at MFF or AC, I think that's a pretty solid bargain.

Also, there was a proposal at the dinner. It was pretty sweet. I think Alkali cried.

After that was the DRAGGET SHOW! Super fun, like always. The panel was Xander and Alkali, Boozy, Draggor, and Pandez. I forget what all they talked about, but it was recorded, so eh. I do remember Xander mentioning the video I made for them. Context: I had been working on a remix of the JAPAN SONG for the past several weeks (go to YouTube and look up "dragget show japan song" if you want to see the original, or my remix), with my goal being to get it done before Fur Squared. I was successful. I also wanted to get Xander's attention about it (he tends to not check his phone often), so I asked him about it on his Patreon. He mentioned it, and said that he had actually retweeted the song. So yeah, that was cool.

Of note: the Dragget Show was a charity panel, so people were passing around the hat. But towards the end, there were two huge donations. One person donated $666.66. And (IIRC) Tobe donated $1,000. Alkali cried. Combined with the other money, the show raised over $2000, which made it the most generous event at the convention other than the charity auction. It was amazing. And as usual, the show ended with a charity story. It was the story of what REALLY happened on Draggor's birthday, when they all got insanely high. I won't go into detail, though; you need to attend the panel to hear the charity stories. >:D

Following that, I went over to the Foxes and Peppers after dark show. It was pretty funny, like usual. Pepper's guitar string broke mid-set, so he had to fix it WHILE performing. They auctioned off the last printing of one of Fox's CD's. And they performed "Lighthouse", in memory of the kids who were shot during the school shooting in Florida recently. Pepper put it best: "I want to forget the reason I wrote this song, but there keep being more and more reasons to perform it."

The show ran a little long, so I ended up being late to Libation Appreciation. For those who don't know, this event is all about sharing knowledge about alcohol. They talked about various different types of booze, how they like to enjoy them, and various recommendations for brands to try (apparently Nika distillery is good for Japanese whiskey). It was pretty informative. Then Fox and Pepper crashed the panel, and Pepper (who was drunk) started playing around with the giant Jenga set in the corner of the room. Still, good times. They kicked us out at 1AM and I went to bed.

Sunday

Got up at around 9 for breakfast (someone ended up taking our spots, so we had to talk to the wait staff and get new vouchers), and then Jake and I went over to main events for Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes. For those who don't know the video game: one person has a bomb in front of them, with a bunch of puzzles on it. The other person/team has a bomb manual, with instructions on how to solve the puzzles. However, neither can see each other's screens, so they have to talk and work together to defuse the bomb. It's a pretty fun, but stressful, game.

And they took it further at Fur Squared. Firr and Zen Fox were running the panel. They had one audience member at the bomb, and a team of other audience members with paper copies of the manual. While the bomb was being defused, Firr and Zen would do everything in their power to be distracting. They would scream and shout, sing, dance and stomp around, blare annoying music, and more. They even set up crazy "house rules" to make it even harder. One of the "experts" had to speak in a Russian accent. Another time, only one of them was allowed to speak. Another time, the audience had to use their phones to use the manual.

And then it was my turn. I got to be the defuser once (I lost), and it was hilarious. Firr and Zen were yelling and making the stage shake, and they were moving my microphone around. Another time, I was one of the experts, which was shortly after they had taken all of the paper manuals and threw the pages all over the place. We gathered up the papers as best we could, and were ready to start.

And then Harvard walked up to the bomb chair. Harvard is a silent fursuiter. We had to play "Keep Talking" with someone who didn't talk. To make matters worse, Firr and Zen decided to play "helping hands" with us, where they came up behind us and put their arms under ours, pretending to be "our arms." I distinctly remember receiving a nipple tweak from Firr. At any rate, we lost, even on the easiest difficulty. Harvard had the foresight to hilariously dive from her chair just as the bomb was about to explode. "She was the only one who thought to do that," said Firr.

Our next "victim" was Razzy, another fursuiter. Thankfully Razzy could talk. We still had a hard time deciphering what he was saying for some of the puzzles. This wasn't made easier by the fact that Zen Fox decided to lie down on top of all of the bomb manuals. I had to physically roll him out of the way (I thankfully didn't push him off the table). But we won!

For the last bomb, I think it was Zen in the hot seat, and Firr reading the manual. They misread one of the puzzles, but I think they ended up winning? I don't remember. Regardless, Firr does a really good job with the Keep Talking panel, so you should check it out next time you go to Fur Squared.

Following that event, Jake and I went down to the "Coming and GOHing" panel. SemJay, Zen Fox, Pandez, and Firr regaled us with stories about being the previous guests of honor at Fur Squared. They answered questions and shared their thoughts about unexpected things about being a GOH, what their proudest accomplishments were, and how they messed with Alkali's head. SemJay even took off her pants for charity (she was wearing underwear, don't worry).

This panel bled into the following panel, Firr's "Go Forth And Suck." It was a pep-talk panel, where Firr (and the other former GOH's) encouraged people to just go out there and try whatever they wanted to do. If you have an idea, just do it, and don't be ashamed of sucking. We all sucked at one point. And sucking is how you get good. It was because they all took risks and did stupid things, some of which just blew up in their faces, that they ended up where they are now. Pandez's story was particularly poignant; one of his first solo comedy sets was to a crowd of 12 people in a room made for 500. But he kept going, and he learned a lesson from his experience (tailor the room to the size of the event, and do smaller sets).

I was reminded of my panel at the previous year's Fur Squared. The one that only had 3 attendees. As of writing this, I never attempted to try again after that dismal failure (even though someone thanked me for my time). So, next con I go to, I am going to submit multiple panel ideas and see which ones I get. I will do my best, and I will have fun doing it, no matter what happens.

Sidenote: because one panel ended up bleeding into the other, the panelists decided to combine the two and call it "Coming and GOHing and Sucking." We laughed at that for a good 30 seconds.

After the panel, I went with Jake back to the room and we said our goodbyes. He unfortunately had a plane to catch. But I was happy to have been able to share so much of the con with him, whether it was sitting together at panels, or having in-depth conversations during meals. He told me he remembered fondly the time at AC when we just sat and talked for hours at the end of the con. I hope that we can do something like that again sometime.

Then I went to the charity auction. As usual, it was fun times. Lots of great stuff up for auction. I unfortunately didn't win anything. But honestly, it wasn't even about that. The Fur Squared charity auction is one of the highlights of the con, because people really get into it. Cheering, jokes, huge bids; the atmosphere was electric! There were items that went for over $1000 apiece. My roommate, Dezzi, actually ended up buying the creative rights to the Kalerati AND the Church of Adam at the auction. Alkali bought the signed super-sponsor poster, as a way to say Thank You for all the hard work done by Axikor and their team. A mask made by one of Alkali's Nero friends went for $1500. It was incredible.

Oh, and someone bought a collection of Victoria's Secret perfume and then sprayed it all over Alkali, Firr, and Pandez.

Charity auctions, the bar has been set by Fur Squared. Both in terms of money raised, and in terms of the experience.

After the auction, I quickly went back to my room to get into fursuit. I decided that this was going to be a tradition: I would always do "This Is How You Kill A Con" and closing ceremonies in-suit. So I did.

I met up with my friends Linn and Xeila at the panel, and had some snuggles (I know Linn had previously asked for fursuit snuggles, so I was making good on my promise). I gave Linn one of my sprouts. But the real fun was the panel itself. For those who haven't been: "This Is How You Kill A Con" is basically just a time-filler while the board of directors meets to go over the events of the con. As a result, they give Firr free reign to do pretty much whatever he wants. And he took full advantage of that.

Him and Zen (and I think Furry Bobs was there for a bit) just kind of did whatever for an hour and a half. We had a mini charity auction. Several things ended up being up for bid. First, a small sketch done by an artist in the audience at "Coming and GOHing and Sucking". Next, a small piece of string. I think there was something else (I hope they filmed the panel).

And then Huscoon showed up. The conversation turned to Culver's, again. Turns out, the Fur Squared Twitter account only follows one other account: Culver's. This gave Firr an idea. He would put up for auction the ability to send a single tweet from the Fur Squared Twitter account AND the ability to have the account follow any one other account (no unfollows). I think the winner tweeted out that he wanted to be the GOH for next year.

They also managed to convince Huscoon to auction off the ability for someone to post a tweet on HIS account. Yes, you read correctly. The famously conservative, controversy-starting Huscoon. The one for whom #BlameHuscoon was created. Turns out, Dixie was the one who won that tweet. I think she posted "I give my undying love to my sweetheart, Pepper Coyote" or something like that. Good times.

In the middle of the shenanigans, I made my way up to the front of the room and gave my last two sprouts to Firr and Zen. Firr clipped his to his hat (where it stayed for the rest of the con), and Zen clipped his to his beard. I was happy.

Finally (after ending the panel with a round of "Bohemian Rhapsody"), it was time for closing ceremonies. They began with a big Happy Birthday song for Draggor, and he was blown away. He was grinning from ear to ear, and he turned beet red from embarrassment. Turns out he's as big a sweetheart as Alkali is. The staff also brought up a present for him: a hoodie featuring the logo for Dragon's Milk beer.

I won't go into too much detail, as this panel was filmed. I'll just go over the highlights. Kataze had his traditional power point presentation, going over the numbers at the convention. This time he had graphs, and they were HILARIOUS. Final head count: 1101. Total sponsors and super-sponsors: 485. That's right. 45% of the convention chose to upgrade their badges. By contrast, I think AC had a similar number of upgraded badges, but had 7,500 attendees.

Someone brought in a whole cart full of Culver's custard. I didn't get any (as I was in suit) but they had enough for... a lot of people.

And then the waterworks. Alkali read off the totals for the charitable donations from each of the sources. And as he read, his became more and more misty-eyed. But it didn't stop there. I think there were at least 4 or 5 instances of people coming up and going "wait Alkali, I have more money." Including my roommate Gothy donating a LITERAL BRA AND PANTIES MADE OF MONEY, that was worth $69 on the dot. As usual, Firr went around and rounded things up.

The final charity total was $21,000. They beat their previous year's total by about $6,000. Which, as of this post, puts Fur Squared at #3 in the ranking of most generous furry conventions in the world (total donated divided by attendance).

To top it all off, Cy, one of the guests of honor, said that when she sells her house, she would donate 10% of the value of the house to the charity, which was estimated to be a donation of about $12,000.

Lastly, they announced stuff for next year. Vegas themed. Title: The Mouse Always Wins. I do hope that means that Miko is going to do something ridiculous.

They also announced the guests of honor. They doubled up on the artists of honor (I don't remember their names), but they also had a new "Gamemaster of honor" title, which they awarded to Iggy! I was ecstatic, cuz I had roomed with him the previous year, and consider him my friend. I was jumping up and down and clapping like mad. I think Iggy was pretty surprised.

After closing ceremonies wrapped up, Linn went back to my room with me, and I gave her the Christmas present that I had been meaning to get to her for the past 2 months: a board game called Pitch Deck (look it up, it's fantastic). She was so happy, because she's a huge board game nerd, and she immediately recognized the game when I pulled it out. We sat and talked for a while, catching up and talking about future convention plans. After a while, I told that I had to get cleaned up (I was still in my bodysuit), so we parted ways.

After cleaning up, I went over to the hotel restaurant for dinner. This was where things took a bit of a dip. I got to the restaurant, and sat down. I waited for the waitress to come bring me a menu, but she never did. I went over to the bar and sat down, looking over at the bartenders. They never acknowledged me. I sat there for a solid 15 minutes, and was never even noticed. It was stupid. Upset, I decided to give up and head over to the Adventure Time marathon. Thankfully they had pizza there, so I was able to eat my fill without having to spend money.

I discovered that night that I don't like Adventure Time. While it has some funny jokes, it's too full of existential dark humor and body horror for me to enjoy it. Plus, there were like 5 people watching the show. So instead, I decided to take a look around and see what people were doing.

It was then that I discovered the "dead dog karaoke" happening. Firr, being a DJ, had set up a karaoke machine in the main events room. People could give him a card with their requests on it, and he would call you up when it was your turn. It started out kind of slow, but as the night went on, it became increasingly more fun. And there were some AMAZING singers. Citrine Husky in particular did an incredible cover of "Don't Stop Believin'".

People were really getting into it. I ran into Gabi and Angel again, and we hung out for a bit before they ran off onto the dance floor. There were a surprising number of folks dancing. Then Zen Fox showed up and things got a bit more rowdy.

Highlights: closing ceremonies had a big confetti cannon, so people were having confetti fights. A lady in a big white fursuit, with padded digi legs, sat down on Zen in the middle of the floor. She then proceeded to poke Zen with a big "phallic" balloon. At another point, someone had a cardboard cutout of Jesus, and they were dancing around with it. Someone did Andrew W.K.'s "Party Hard" and Firr was backing it up unenthusiastically. One guy serenaded Gothy with R. Kelly's "Bump n' Grind." They did the Time Warp.

And I sang "Your Song" by Elton John. I was kind of afraid of the high notes, so I started out singing the song and octave lower than the original. This ended up sounding bad, so I switched over to the original register and just did my best. Turns out I was able to hit most of the high notes after all. I distinctly remember doing a silly dance during one of the breaks. Firr came up next to me and sang along. And I held out the last word longer than I expected (I looked at my "watch" in an effort to be funny).

I'm not saying all that to brag. I'm trying to remember what happened, because I don't think it was filmed. See, the main reason I write these journals is so that I can re-read them later down the road, and have a solid recollection of the events of the con. My memory isn't that good, and most cons become a blur after a while, so I try to capture everything as best I can.

Anyway, the night ended with another rendition of "Bohemian Rhapsody", which concluded right before the hotel staff kicked us out of the room. Apparently there were business travelers, and we needed to be quiet after midnight. I think they said they'd put the karaoke in another room next year so that it would be less disruptive.

Exhausted, I wandered back to the room with Gothy. We chatted briefly about furry stuff before heading to bed.

Monday

Got up at a reasonable hour and got breakfast with Gothy. We ran into Dezzi at the restaurant. We chatted for a bit, about his newfound "power" as the new owner of a cult and a religion. He's apparently planning on handing over the reigns at next year's charity auction if someone can match his bid.

After our breakfasts, we went back to the room and got packed. Gothy had the foresight to request a luggage cart, which made things WAY easier getting out. However, in her haste to get home, she forgot her slippers, so I had to run them out to her before she left (made it).

I packed my things, and with a little finagling, I was able to get all my stuff out to the car in one trip. After checking out, gassing up, and getting a coke, I put the pedal down and drove home, listening to #Hashtag and The Dragget Show on the way.

Overall

I love Fur Squared. It is a magical, unique, wonderful convention, a true diamond in the rough. Every year, they have new surprises. Every year, new memes, new jokes, new stories, new insanity. They keep donating more and more money, and creating bigger and grander schemes and shenanigans. Every con is special, but Fur Squared is... different. Its craziness, its generosity, its attention to detail, its loving and close-knit atmosphere, its relationship with its hotel and charity... many cons have some of these things, but it is the confluence of all of them that makes Fur Squared worthy of being called my favorite convention.

You should go.

#furry #fur squared #dragget show #furry convention

[beauspirittalks]

What is magical in this world is me! Oh and I can see you are magical as well. Now can you see what I see? #beauspirittalks #beaubender #mysticmessenger #mystic #wizard #merlin #healer #spiritualhealer #mongoose #demoneater #archmage (at Pantai Restaurant) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2aZijKB6SL/?igshid=1d1shi21hz95w

#beauspirittalks #beaubender #mysticmessenger #mystic #wizard #merlin #healer #spiritualhealer #mongoose #demoneater #archmage

[dzamie]

Fuckton of OC questions: Dzamie

Questions from @liaraliara‘s post here. Doing these for Dzamie, will do more for other characters eventually, whether y’all want me to or not.

1. What’s their full name? Why was that chosen? Does it mean anything? Dzamie Deshulian. Dzamie is one of my common pseudonyms (linguistics joke I stole from a family member), and Deshulian... in-universe, he chose that name from a Chinese word for “skill” and the French "de.” It is almost certainly pronounced wrong, but it’s his name now.

2. Do they have any titles? How did they get them? Holy fuck does he have titles. Well, descriptors mostly, though he does carry the moniker of Blue Bandit from his attempts at being a phantom thief, Lord of the Yellow Hive from Equestria shenanigans, and some places call him the Reaper due to his high body count nearby (he decided to get a scythe when he heard that, though he didn’t practice using it much for a long time). Title-wise, he’s described himself as a spellsword, archmage, weaponsmaster, assassin, illusionist, and complete fucking nerd. He self-describably “moonlights as a Lesser Spirit of Chaos.”

3. Did they have a good childhood? What are fond memories they have of it? What’s a bad memory?  Oh man his childhood is tragic as fuck. Birthplace village burned down, his parents presumably killed or captured, and essentially left with his half-brother (HM) to fend for themselves. Managed to find their way to a really helpful... institution, for lack of a better word. Except it’s a place dedicated to teaching people how to kill dragons. HM happens to be a dragon. Dzamie went anyway, and HM sort of let dragon instincts help him survive, with help from Dzamie. Dzamie was at some point convinced to inflict an ambiguously-large amount of torture on a bunch of dragons, at first because... well, dragonslayer school at the time was fucked up, and later because science. And then people kept trying to kill him, but that’s just... that just keeps happening; it’s not a childhood thing.

4. What is their relationship with their parents? What’s a good and bad memory with them? Did they know both parents?  No strong memories. His father died in the fire or shortly after, and his mother is in hiding to keep herself alive definitely dead. No need to look for her.

5. Do they have any siblings? What’s their names? What is their relationship with them? Has their relationship changed since they were kids to adults? H.M. Deshulian is his half-brother (genetics are weird when dragons are involved). They’ve always had a pretty good relationship, though strangely tempered with a mutual feeling of “I don’t want it to happen for a really, really long time, but I’m pretty sure he’ll be the direct cause of my death.”  Dzamie is HM’s favorite food, and HM is the reason Dzamie decided to increase his acid resistance to a ridiculous level.

6. What were they like at school? Did they enjoy it? Did they finish? What level of higher education did they reach? What subjects did they enjoy? Which did they hate? Dzamie was wonderful at the technical stuff, but completely refused the “dragons are evil”-type rhetoric, so he just barely got by, eventually graduating bottom of his class (though the dragonslaying done as the graduation test was definitely the most efficient and least risky of the lot). He’s taken a few college courses here and there, but all after timelines start getting weird around him, so it’s hard to tell when or how many. He enjoys applied math

7. Did they have lots of friends as a child? Did they keep any of their childhood friends into adulthood?  He was completely study-driven, with HM being his only friend - though, it didn’t help that most kids he could’ve been friends with would’ve wanted to kill HM on sight. Interestingly, Kenny was in his year, though they never really liked each other much.

8. Did they have pets as a child? Do they have pets as an adult? Do they like animals?  Well, he has HM No pets to speak of. Closest there is is Smugleaf, a Serperior who occasionally lets him have her Pokeball and direct her in combat. He loves birdwatching, snakes, and a bunch of other animals.

9. Do animals like them? Do they get on well with animals?  Animals are generally somewhat neutral towards him, though he can regularly get pretty close to wild animals without them caring.

10. Do they like children? Do children like them? Do they have or want any children? What would they be like as a parent? Or as a godparent/babysitter/ect? No (but he does well with them anyway), yes, no, neglectful, not too bad (just because it’s not much interaction. Facades are tough to keep up over long times)

11. Do they have any special diet requirements? Are they a vegetarian? Vegan? Have any allergies? Will starve without meat. His species generally views bread as a mild poison, but Dzamie being Dzamie, he no longer has to care.

12. What is their favourite food?  Brownies, the chocolate-ier the better.

13. What is their least favourite food? Sourdough bread.

14. Do they have any specific memories of food/a restaurant/meal? Nothing in particular. He remembers being food a lot, especially for HM, but that’s not really the same.

15. Are they good at cooking? Do they enjoy it? What do others think of their cooking? He’s amazing at cooking, especially at arguably-taboo meals (though he won’t make anything he wouldn’t eat). He has a lot of fun with it, because he “gets to play with knives and fire, and out comes delicious food.” He’s quite the showman while cooking, which can be hit-or-miss, but most people like his cooking, assuming they like the dish he makes (i.e. he obviously can’t make a PB&J that someone who’s allergic to peanuts would like).

16. Do they collect anything? What do they do with it? Where do they keep it?  He hoards knowledge, gold, and some shiny jewels, which he blames on growing up with HM. Additionally, he keeps trophies - the left horn of each dragon he slays, and the sword of any dragonslayer he bests in combat (not usually kills, just leaves weaponless for a while. It’s a slayer thing).

17. Do they like to take photos? What do they like to take photos of? Selfies? What do they do with their photos? Nope! He likes to be on camera, but photos aren’t really his thing.

18. What’s their favourite genre of: books, music, tv shows, films, video games and anything else Books: Fiction with interesting worldbuilding stuff. He tends to visit those places. Music: Anything with a good rhythm and tempo, since he often fights in time to whatever’s playing in his head. Electro-stuff is good. TV shows: No preference, really. He doesn’t watch much. Films: Same as books, though he tends to riff on the films he watches. Video games: Platformers with tight controls.

19. What’s their least favourite genres? Most things to do with rural stuff, come to think of it. 

20. Do they like musicals? Music in general? What do they do when they’re favourite song comes? He likes the idea of musicals, rarely the implementation. Music is very important to him, especially as he can mimic male voices, and move precisely to rhythms.

21. Do they have a temper? Are they patient? What are they like when they do lose their temper? He kind of does. He’s pretty patient, and tends to do the silent-rage sort of thing when upset enough. Though, it’s a little bit of a tell that his magic spikes and its color turns from green (pride) to red (anger).

22. What are their favourite insults to use? What do they insult people for? Or do they prefer to bitch behind someone’s back? He’s definitely the kind of person who’ll insult someone to their face, either backhanded or up-front. Either directly pointing out flaws (”Let’s get this straight, you thought coming at both me and HM unarmed was a good idea? Did you maybe think the price on his head is that big for a reason?”) or just calling them names that probably don’t make sense if not for inflection (”You absolute salmon.”). Mostly for suicidal lack of common sense.

23. Do they have a good memory? Short term or long term? Are they good with names? Or faces? He has good auditory and muscle memory, but can’t remember faces, and names are tough. He knows a lot of trivia, and has memorized a bunch of really useful dragonslaying regulations, but it can be kind of random what he remembers.

24. What is their sleeping pattern like? Do they snore? What do they like to sleep on? A soft or hard mattress? He sleeps whenever. Nobody’s known when or where he’s ever slept for almost two years now, save for a few times people could make guesses from him somehow waking up in a pile of dragons.

25. What do they find funny? Do they have a good sense of humour? Are they funny themselves? It’s really hard to predict, except for puns. He loves puns. He makes a lot of them, too.

26. How do they act when they’re happy? Do they sing? Dance? Hum? Or do they hide their emotions?  If it’s necessary to keep up a Facade, he hides his emotions well. If not, he smiles, sings and hums, and sometimes fiddles with knives.

27. What makes them sad? Do they cry regularly? Do they cry openly or hide it? What are they like they are sad? Not much, actually. He hasn’t cried in years, and nobody’s really known if he’s sad - even him.

28. What is their biggest fear? What in general scares them? How do they act when they’re scared? HM deciding he’d rather not have him around. HM with a large tactical advantage over him. Manic grin, blatant rules abuse.

29. What do they do when they find out someone else’s fear? Do they tease them? Or get very over protective?  Depends on if he likes them or not. If he does, he usually doesn’t bring it up, and warns them if something he’s about to do is gonna be really scary (though he usually does it anyway after telling them how to avoid experiencing it). If he doesn’t like them, he’ll try to abuse that fear as much as he can without letting on that it’s him doing it.

30. Do they exercise? Regularly? Or only when forced? What do they act like pre-work out and post-work out? “Does playing with people trying to kill me count? Because if not, all I’ve got is sparring with Kenneth and HM, and occasionally going for really long walks.

31. Do they drink? What are they like drunk? What are they like hungover? How do they act when other people are drunk or hungover? Kind or teasing? Nope, but he can act it really well!

32. What do they dress like? What sorta shops do they buy clothes from? Do they wear the fashion that they like? What do they wear to sleep? Do they wear makeup? What’s their hair like? He has three modes of dress: comfortable and casual, ridiculously-accurate cosplay, and naked. To sleep, generally just a comfortable pair of PJ bottoms and a t-shirt. Dzamie doesn’t usually wear makeup, but does an excellent job of dying his fur to pass for a tiger or leopard when he needs to have a non-magical disguise.

33. What underwear do they wear? Boxers or briefs? Lacey? Comfy granny panties? Boxer-briefs, if he’s wearing anything.

34. What is their body type? How tall are they? Do they like their body? Lean, somewhat muscular (but it doesn’t show through his fur at all). He’s roughly 6 feet tall, and makes sure he’s very comfortable with whatever form he’s in - he’s very physically expressive, and also does a lot of things that require knowing exactly where every part of him is.

35. What’s their guilty pleasure? What is their totally unguilty pleasure?  His guilty pleasure is probably making up identities to pretend to be online. His totally unguilty pleasures are a good swordfight, casual pickpocketing (though he generally returns the stuff he swipes), and being eaten, usually by HM, Smugleaf, or Sylvia.

36. What are they good at? What hobbies do they like? Can they sing? Dzamie’s good at... a lot of stuff, actually. He’s kind of a Mary-Sue. Most of my OCs for the Combined Setting are poorly-written, really, so I don’t write stories with them. He likes playing videogames, making his hoard look nice, and bothering talking with HM. And yes, he’s an amazing singer, pitch-perfect and flawless rhythm. Has trouble with female-sung songs, since he can’t just mimic those.

37. Do they like to read? Are they a fast or slow reader? Do they like poetry? Fictional or non fiction? Fast-ish reader, prefers fiction (fanfiction especially). Dzamie enjoys poetry and abhors free verse.

38. What do they admire in others? What talents do they wish they had? Fuck if I know. He wishes he could learn a telekinesis spell (he’s fundamentally blocked from doing so, ever), but this fosters resentment, not admiration.

39. Do they like letters? Or prefer emails/messaging?  Definitely emails.

40. Do they like energy drinks? Coffee? Sugary food? Or can they naturally stay awake and alert? “Awake and alert” is his default state, but he’s not known to turn down sugary snacks.

41. What’s their sexuality? What do they find attractive? Physically and mentally? What do they like/need in a relationship? Self-described as “complicated, or alternatively ‘straight plus also into women’” (he has a variety of transformation spells, and form affects mind). Physically, he likes... scales, tails, and forked tongues. Mentally is a bit tougher, but usually stable and steady enough to not go off the deep-end when he, HM, Dream, and/or Kenny inevitably do something... sanity-testing.

42. What are their goals? What would they sacrifice anything for? What is their secret ambition? Dzamie doesn’t have any goals in particular. He’d sacrifice anything but his or HM’s life for, well, his or HM’s life. No secret ambitions, really.

43. Are they religious? What do they think of religion? What do they think of religious people? What do they think of non religious people? He’s not very religious, though if he had to choose he’d say he “observes” Eris (the chaos noodle, not the Greek deity), and he does tend to celebrate major Jewish holidays (Yom Kippur isn’t really “celebrated,” but you get the gist) and Christmas out of tradition. Nobody really knows where this tradition came from. He generally doesn’t really care about people’s religiosity or whatever, so long as they’re not bonkers enough to try to, say, ritually sacrifice him or someone he cares about, or to try to stop his kobolds’ “cult” at the source by killing Azurel (him as a dragon).

44. What is their favourite season? Type of weather? Are they good in the cold or the heat? What weather do they complain in the most?  Definitely autumn, and heavy cloud cover (but not quite overcast). He’s pretty good in the cold (fire spells just in case) but complains about high temperatures, blaming his fur coat for his crabbiness.

45. How do other people see them? Is it similar to how they see themselves?  They generally think Dzamie’s a bit to the side of normal and sane, but almost disturbingly effective. Those who aren’t used to him find him a bit unstable, but HM, Dream, and Kenneth figure he’s surprisingly predictable - just not in ways most people are. He, on the other hand... actually, he’d agree with all of that.

46. Do they make a good first impression? Does their first impression reflect them accurately? How do they introduce themselves? He doesn’t usually have the opportunity to make a good impression; most new people Dzamie meets are met amidst chaos. “Introductions” tend to range from “Hey, I don’t suppose you’ve seen, like, six kobolds run through here?” to “Hi. I’m Dzamie Deshulian, but you can call me your worst nightmare.” to “Don’t worry! This spell should last for at least ten seconds, so you should run that way before it stops working! Name’s Dzamie, by the way.” to “Good evening. I suppose I should mention a bit of a hole in your security system. It’s about Blue Bandit-sized, which is going to be a problem about two minutes ago.” to “Hi. Dzamie Deshulian. I noticed you guys used to have a dragon problem with a nifty reward. Note the past tense. Here’s her horn.”

47. How do they act in a formal occasion? What do they think of black tie wear? Do they enjoy fancy parties and love to chit chat or loathe the whole event? Generally hates them. Plays well, but generally expects a pretty big payoff (assassination target, scoping out a Blue Bandit target, some really good food, etc.) if he’s going to pretend he’s actually enjoying his time there.

48. Do they enjoy any parties? If so what kind? Do they organise the party or just turn up? How do they act? What if they didn’t want to go but were dragged along by a friend?  He vaguely enjoys get-togethers, but often stays away from group conversations, content to just watch people do people things. If it’s a party where a lot of the guests are dragons, he can usually expect to wake up in a pile of dragons. He has no idea how this keeps happening.

49. What is their most valued object? Are they sentimental? Is there something they have to take everywhere with them? Tough call between his twin katanas, his Dragonslayer blade, and the mana-crystal necklace he wears pretty much all the time. The katanas are actually everywhere he goes as well, but they usually don’t actually exist until they need to.

50. If they could only take one bag of stuff somewhere with them: what would they pack? What do they consider their essentials?  His spellbook and a bunch of knives. Everything else can be summoned, created, traded for, stolen, or... harvested, if they’re not the necklace (always on him) or his twin swords (also always on him).

#text #ocs #dzamie #tag

[adashofstarshine]

Hour of Devastation - Story Thoughts

The last story from Hour of Devastation has arrived. Though not my favourite story, it was enjoyable to look down on the Gatewatch through the eyes of Nicol Bolas. Because it’s the last story of a block, I feel like doing a slightly more in depth analysis, picking out a few lines.

There are going to be be spoilers below. You have been warned.

“ Everything Nicol Bolas wanted was entirely deserved.”

It’s enjoyable to get into the mind of an apologetically evil character from time to time. (Especially when it’s the evil mastermind sort and not the horrible caricature of mental illness sort of villain.) Nicol Bolas’ sheer and utter confidence, the fact he was so in control of the situation, made for a story full of great moments.

“Rubble and broken bodies garnished the toppled statues and cracked obelisks”

 As I started reading some of the word choices seemed a little odd -especially garnished which just makes me think me of the unnecessary leaves they put on top of food in restaurants. It’s odd and whimsical language but then I realised why. Nicol Bolas cares about the death and destruction of this civilisation as much as you care for those leaves on top of your food. All the lives lost are just garnish to him.

“ They fancied themselves The Gatewatch. As though for some bizarre reason there were gates scattered throughout the Multiverse.”

I liked this line, he isn’t just going to destroy the people of the Gatewatch, he’s going to pick apart the concept of the Gatewatch too.

“Over the long years, Nicol Bolas knew it served him poorly to be too much the dragon. But it was no fun to be the dragon too little.”

I liked this line a lot. All the way through the rest of the story I was thinking about Bolas’ relationship between a) being a planeswalking archmage mastermind and b) being a dragon. He defeats the Gatewatch by being both. Once again this shows a powerfully confident villain who is comfortable with what and who he is (except for the fact he’s not a god anymore) which contrasts with the doubt and insecurity-ridden Gatewatch.

“They had no idea of the dangers lying in wait, ready to kill them . . . or worse. Their lack of actual power had somehow protected them from all the ways they could have died.” 

My first thought was of Phyrexians. No one in the core Gatewatch knows about Phyrexians, right? (Ajani might from Elspeth, but he’s not here currently.) The next question is, is Bolas giving us some foreshadowing or is he just being judgemental? Both seem equally likely.

“Jace had never seen so much death.”

Not even against the Eldrazi? 

“a mind as smooth and dazzling as a wall of crystal. But even as the thought entered his mind, it erased itself”

Who is this? Alhammaret? Someone that Jace has erased from his own mind or otherwise lost the memories of. My first thought was Alhammaret.

“punctuated only by the continued thwaps as he bounced Gideon off the wall.”

The use of the word thwap makes this sound very funny, from then on all instances of bouncing Gideon were amusing which is cruel to Gideon but the way it’s written... Is Nicol Bolas getting the reader to agree with him through the narrative? That sounds like something Bolas would do.

“But I can help you unlock its power, Liliana. Its true power.”

There was no way Liliana was going to refuse this.  She needed the Gatewatch to defeat Razaketh, she’s going to need a power boost to kill the next demon. She does however cry as she leaves? 

I admit I know a fair bit of necromancy. Do you have an opening in your Gatewatch? Is there some type of application process?"

Nicol Bolas mocks the Gatewatch better than the MTG community ever has.

“Gideon was shocked to realize that a part of him yearned to stay”

Confirmed, Gideon has something of a death-wish. The story made sure we remembered his origin story in detail, with names. The fact Gideon is last and we go through his story places special emphasis on it...is this an indication his personal story will be the next most relevant? Or at least it’ll be relevant soon (Theros return?)

“He glanced around the plaza, looking for bodies of planeswalkers that weren't there.”

Did Bolas (and Tezzeret) have plans for the Gatewatch’s bodies? Lazotep maybe? Would Lazotep have preserved the abilities of a dead planeswalker Or perhaps their plan is something more than that? Why did they need the bodies?

“Go and tell Ral Zarek to come to me”

Ral Zarek? What are you doing with siding with Bolas? From what I remember Ral Zarek has a project that tracks other planeswalkers. Has Bolas being getting info from Ral using that?

“Nicol Bolas, elder dragon, genius, archmage, planeswalker, was finally taking his first steps, visibly and openly.”

Big things are on the horizon! Bigger perhaps than a Lazotep army, at least I hope so because we’ve already seen those.

.

#mtg story #mtg story spoilers #mtg