#and a two rogue party is kind of a mess for most of the game

[gh-0-stcup]

Seramance or Ride the Bull?

#playing cadash and not sure which way to go #was planning on sera at the start #but now i'm wondering if bull's not the better option #and a two rogue party is kind of a mess for most of the game #(at least for me since i tend to play as a mage and with mage or tank warrior heavy parties) #REAALLY want to seramance it's just hard to fit her with most of my inquisitors #like i can't make a lavellan who isn't elfy af and i just don't like their relationship #want to go for blackwell and cullen when i finally get around to a female trevelyan (warrior or rogue for the first and mage for cullen) #ooh - cadash for bull and adaar for sera? #dai #dragon age inquisition #dragon age #inquisitor cadash

[bbunisre]

02: MEGUMI IS LIGHTWEIGHT (1.3k words)

Panda’s parties are always the same—borderline annoying, misogynistic rap music pulsating in your ears and a lot of dancing. A lot. So when you enter the party, swinging your car keys with your fingers and shooting acknowledging nods at mutuals, you’re not surprised to see the same once again.

“They’re here!” a rogue Panda yells, coming through with a red cup.

He hands another one he's holding to you, an unspoken understanding of your frequent drinking habits. It wasn’t that you were an alcoholic (past you would say something else) but you were known for your high tolerance.

“Where’s that bastard Toge? I need to have a word with him.” I ask Panda.

“Oh, I think he’s upstairs. Probably making out with some chick, I don’t know.” Panda shrugs easily.

Even if Panda is the closest to Toge, you know in a heartbeat that Toge is not easily drawn to the temptations of lust as easily as Panda thinks he is. In fact, you guess that Toge's most likely playing on his Switch upstairs, avoiding the party that Panda’s forced him to come to.

You turn to Tsumiki, “I’ll go. Will you be alright?”

“Yeah, all good,” she smiles at me, “Come back soon though. Don’t kill Toge.”

Megumi’s listening to your conversation whilst Yuuji and Nobara argue about who’s the beer pong champion out of the two of them at the entrance of the house. You pull them by their sleeves so they’re not in the way of passing guests anymore.

Sometimes, it feels like you’re babysitting them.

“Can’t promise, babes,” you tell her with a half-shrug.

Tsumiki’s phone starts ringing, “One second.”

She steps out to take the call, leaving you and Megumi a foot apart from each other, “Megumi, how about you?”

“Sorry?” he asks.

Forgetting what Toge's said is a lot more challenging than you expected. You push down the uneasiness in your gut.

“It’s your first party, is it not? How are you feeling?” you ask.

Megumi's expressions are hard to read but after being around him for so long, you’ve become accustomed to his body language.

“I will be alright. Thank you.” he replies politely.

You smile, patting his shoulder, “I’ll come and check on you later.”

Megumi nods and you take your leave to the second floor, a breath of fresh air coddling you at the escape. When you see the familiar Toge in Panda’s bedroom, your estimate is correct. Toge is sprawled on Panda’s bed, playing some Otome game on his Switch. He says he plays it because it’s cringe and he wants to make fun of it...you're starting to think that he really does enjoy it.

“Y/N.” Toge notes.

“Toge.” you reply, sitting on the bed next to him.

He switches off the game and turns to you as you take a languid sip of the drink, “Has Megumi asked you out yet?”

You almost choke in the process, furrowing your eyebrows and swallowing properly. Setting the drink aside, you hit Toge, “You’re out of your mind. He doesn't like me.”

“I mean, it’s always been kind of obvious if you ask me.”

“What are you talking about?” you sigh, “There’s nothing. You’re being delusional.”

Toge rolls his eyes, “No, you are. And he does have a massive crush on you because he was so desperate to believe that you didn’t like girls.”

“That’s a huge sentence coming from your mouth,” you comment, laying down next to him.

The reverberations of the music downstairs make its way up Panda’s creepy staircase and into the bedroom walls.

“He does,” Toge affirms, “I’m sure of it. Besides those tweets, there’s definitely something there.”

“Why are you so insistent about it?” you ask, turning to the white-haired boy.

It’s odd; Toge is usually reserved and calm so when you see him ramble passionately about Megumi, you’re not too sure what it can mean.

“I don’t know,” he answers, turning to you also, “But remember when you broke up with…?”

He waits with bated breath for you to approve.

You sigh, “You can say Choso, Toge.”

“Yeah, Choso...” he nods along, “When you broke up with him last year, he always asked about you through me. You were a mess, a really bad mess, like a really, really, really—“

“A mess. Got it.” you state, remembering those tearful nights.

“Don’t know why he didn’t ask Tsumiki. Maybe he was scared of being found out. Maybe—“

“Maybe he didn’t want Tsumiki to keep thinking about me. Don’t you remember how worried she was about me then? He probably didn’t want to pressure her and he couldn’t ask me because I wasn’t talking to anyone.” you theorise.

“I mean, you could be right but those Tweets.”

“The kids were probably just making fun of him.” you say, getting up.

“Where you going?” he asks.

“Chill, princess. I'm not gonna leave you now.” you respond, walking towards the opened balcony. You can’t believe Panda gets this whole view to himself.

Toge follows you outside and the two of you sink onto the couch outside, watching the neighbourhood as Toge passes you a joint from Panda’s secret stash.

An hour later, you remembered that you’d go check on Megumi. Sure Tsumiki is there too but she’s super popular, everyone will be talking to her while Megumi explores the unfamiliar terrain by himself.

So you say goodbye to the high Toge and walk back downstairs. Everyone’s dancing and hands drag you to dance but you push them away, saying you need to use the bathroom.

“Where is he?” you ask yourself, wondering around Panda’s house.

You see Tsumiki and Panda talking on the couch, Yuuji and Nobara playing beer pong but where’s Megumi? He's gotta be here somewhere.

“Y/N…”

A heavy hand lands around your shoulders.

“Megumi! Are you okay?”

Megumi’s lids are heavy as he leans onto you.

“Did you drink?”

“I…I thought he said it was a mocktail. I think I had too many cocktails.”

Of course he did.

“Okay, relax. I can’t drive right now because I drank too, but we can go out for a breather, how does that sound? There isn’t much space here for you to sit down.”

Megumi nods, barely processing your words with his eyes closed.

You inhale and prepare for the journey through the pushy and overly welcoming crowd as you make your way to the front door. The excited partygoers ask about his conditions but you give them brief summaries as you battle through the crowd. Finally, when you’re through the front door with a heavy Megumi, you make him sit on the porch’s stairs, “Wait here. I’m gonna get Tsumiki to drive you home.”

As you’re about to leave, he grabs your bicep, “Don’t go.”

You’re staring.

Very obviously staring.

“Please…” he whispers weakly.

“Okay, I won’t.” you answer, sitting next to him. There aren’t many people coming in and out of the party now. Most of them are getting drunk.

Right now, you’re trapped in your own world with Megumi. The last thing you wanted to do tonight, especially after what Toge told you. You didn't know he cared for you that much.

But it can't be true. Megumi can't like you. You're his sister's best friend.

The silence is louder than the rap music playing inside.

“How are you feeling?”

“I regret coming.” he responds.

Slowly, his head tips to your shoulder. You’re not sure if he’s realised he’s done it or the alcohol has consumed every working thought in him.

All you can muster is a nod as you’re glued to his side—thighs pressed together, shoulders smashed and his unruly hair prickling your cold neck.

If what Toge says is true, which it’s not, what would you do in this situation? Would you confront Megumi or would you flee?

“I can go get Tsumiki—“

“Y/N.” he states.

“Yes, Megumi?”

You can’t stop that gut-wrenching sensation in your stomach. Megumi looks up at you, long eyelashes fluttering open. You know what’s coming before it even comes.

“I like you. I like you a lot.”

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TAGLIST: @k4romis @moonmalice @ahseyy @loltartaglia @sircatchungus @rinowinne @sad-darksoul @br66klynbaby @nymphsdomain @pastatata @tobaccosunbxrst @zellwa @porcobrainr0t 

LENA'S NOTES - another chapter because ily guys <33

#jjk crack #jjk x reader #jjk smau #jjk smut #jjk fluff #jjk x y/n #jjk x you #jjk reactions #jujutsu kaisen smau #megumi x reader #megumi fushiguro #megumi fushiguro fluff #megumi fluff #megumi smau #megumi fushigure smau

[kukukuna]

Where the Dandelions Grow

Tiefling!Rogue!Sakusa Kiyomi x Elf!Druid!Reader

Chapter 1

Fem pronouns and body

Warnings: slight blood, talk of religion

Genre: fluff with a hint of angst. Slow burn

wc: 1.8k

Masterlist

an: just a warning, i've only played d&d once. It was right before the pandemic and I haven’t been able to find another group to play with. So please be nice if I mess anything up :’) (unedited)

Waking up is just like any other day. The slowly crumbling roof of the inn greets my eyes as I blink awake.

Getting dressed is a hassle because of how many weapons and talismans I have strapped to my armor.

After getting dressed and ready for the day ahead I exit my room and meet up with the rest of my band for breakfast.

The table is quiet this morning as sleep still clings to our tired bodies. Except for Hinata. He’s always buzzed and ready for anything.

Once our bellies are full and our eyes less droopy our party stands to head outside.

A large gathering is happening today. Fighters from all over the region come to show their skills; if they’re lucky a band will offer them a spot to join.

The town is alive today. The townsfolk have been preparing for this event for a whole month. Planning for the fights and the celebration after.

The crisp morning air seeps into my skin and gives me the final push into waking up fully.

Music and laughter flood the large field where bands, townsfolk, and contenders alike gather to watch the fights. At the edge of the temporary arena a large board has been erected and a bracket has been drawn out in white chalk. Many people have signed up this year, but only one will win the whole thing.

Our leader, Bokuto, a half-orc, is recognized as being the head of the most powerful band in the country. Which means that my friends and I get special seats with a perfect view of the arena and first choice on the winners.

The rest of my group is a rowdy bunch.

First there’s Bokuto Kotarou. A barbarian half-orc from the northlands. He is ruthless as he is gentle. Outspoken and kind but serious when he needs to be makes him the perfect leader.

Miya Atsumu, the bard and shifter. Two things that don’t go very well together. With charisma galore and the ability to change into the most attractive people, seduction is an easy game for him.

Hinata Shoyo, a human paladin, is the inspiration for our entire team sometimes. When it seems as though all is lost in battle, he stands on shaky legs and shouts a rousing battle cry that would get even the most cowardly of creatures to stand tall.

Shimizu Kiyoko, I’d say, is the most levelheaded of our group. She keeps everyone healthy with the medicines she brews. As a half-elf and the ranger of our band she is our primary strategist.

Lastly is me. I am an elf from the east and was raised as a druid in one of the holy temples. But the more I grew and the more I learned what the other druids believed I became cautious. The higher power they believed in was not the same as mine. So, one day I ran. I gathered as many of my belongings as I could and left the only place I had ever known.

I traversed the countryside until my legs gave out and fell unconscious.

I was awoken by a low rumbling emanating from the trees surrounding me. Somehow the bright forest I remembered from before seemed much darker now.

I tried to stand and run but a large beast sprung out onto the trail ahead of me. Frothing teeth and beady eyes rooted fear in my veins and froze me in my place. Even when it lunged at me and came for the kill I couldn’t find the strength to move. I closed my eyes preparing for death, but it never came.

Instead there was a gust of wind, a grotesque pummeling sound, and a thump. After a moment I opened my eyes and was greeted by half of the beast's head smashed in. I turned to see who had saved my life and saw a large man standing to my right, a war hammer clutched in his hand.

“Are you alright? You almost just got eaten! Man you’re sure lucky I was here or else you’d look way worse than him.” At that he gestured to the fallen animal. “the name’s Bokuto, you?”

Peeling my eyes away from the bloody oozing mess below me I stuttered out “Y-y/n. u-uhem. Thank you for saving me. I must be going now.”

I side stepped the beast and briskly continued down the trail. Not a moment later Bokuto called out to me.

“Hey wait up! I’m headed that way too! We can travel together.”

Heavy footsteps soon matched up with mine. I gave him a glance but said nothing.

And travel together we did. Getting to know one another and collecting people and memories along the way.

Soon our traveling party turned into one of the most feared and respected bands.

Which brought us to today and the events that are about to begin.

--

Trumpets sounded and flags waved as the announcer introduced the first pair to battle. Cheering and booing from the audience kept the air alive and buzzing with energy.

The first seven rounds weren’t anything spectacular, but it was on the eighth that the audience held their breath.

A name had been whispered through the crowd with prices for bets hanging onto its tail.

Sakusa Kiyoomi.

A silent contender who kept his face hidden at all times. He had only been heard of a few days prior to the event. Someone witnessed him sign up. They swore he was as cold as ice and had an aura that screamed strength.

He was who stepped into the arena next and held the audience captive.

“And now, please welcome Sakusa Kiyoomi and Daishou Suguru!”

Screams erupted, creating a bubble of barely contained anxiety and excitement.

The two contenders stepped up to each other and the beginning stare down began.

Everyone in the stands waited with bated breath as the two assessed each other.

The fights only allowed fists. No weapons. So, both were missing a lot of their usual armor. Kiyoomi stood tall, around six-foot three give or take. Wearing all black with a hood and mask covering most of his face he looked like an embodiment of death.

His hood had slits in the top, allowing his horns to poke through. A tail whipped menacingly behind him. Like a cat stalking it’s prey.

When I had first heard the rumors about him I had thought of an orc or Dragonborn. But him being a tiefling just increased my interest in who this man is.

Daishou, however, was slightly slouched with his hands on his hips. A mocking posture if I’ve ever seen one.

Most of the time in fights the person to attack first is the one to lose. But this fight was clearly going to be different.

Sakusa lunged left and Daishou followed, only for it to be a feint. He instead redirected his weight into a kick to Daishou’s left side, sending him straight to the ground.

The masked man stood and backed off a few steps to avoid any leg sweeps that might occur. At this point his shoulders relaxed and he lifted his head to stare Daishou down over his nose.

The whole display made Sakusa look like he had already won the fight.

Daishou stumbled to his feet with a snarl on his teeth. Probably thinking himself so high and mighty that no one would dare use a feint on him, then getting hit with one.

Fists were thrown and punches landed but Sakusa only received them with his forearms in the form of a block.

Then something strange happened.

Sakusa blocked another hit but it was followed with a squirt of blood. Everything turned into a blur and the next moment Daishou was on the ground with one arm being restrained behind his back.

A medic and the town sheriff came running. Daishou was escorted off the field.

The medic assessed Sakusa’s arm and ended up wrapping a clean white bandage around it.

Murmuring words were whispered over the crowd.

“I’ve just gotten word that Daishou used a trick ring with a hidden knife to slash Kiyoomi!” The announcer nervously shouted.

The crowd gasped and booed.

“Since there are no weapons allowed in these events, Daishou Suguru has been disqualified and banned from joining next year. That means Sakusa Kiyoomi wins!”

As the surrounding people cheered and the next fight was announced Kotarou leaned over to whisper, “I want him to join our band.”

--

Sakusa didn’t end up being the overall winner of the tournament, but he was the talk of the night as people gathered in the inn.

Many theories said that he was toying with Daishou. With how fast the fight ended after he was injured, he could have ended the fight before it had even begun.

Kotarou called us all to his room at the end of the night to discuss our options.

“I think that Oikawa guy was really cool! His punches were like whoosh! And whizz!” Hinata voiced as he made a bad impression of the graceful fighter’s moves. “It’d be nice to have an elegant guy on the team. The only elegant people we have are both girls.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” piped up Kiyoko in her even, yet slightly annoyed, voice.

“N-nothing! Forget I even said anything! Shimizu, have I told you how perfect you are to have on our team today? You manage us so well.”

Kiyoko rolled her eyes and sent me an amused smile as Hinata went on with an apology that wasn’t necessary.

Atsumu sat in the corner not saying much. The glassy look in his eye tells me that he’s spaced out, probably thinking of all the attractive fighters today. Or his brother, he’s been a little down lately and Osamu is usually the reason why.

Atsumu left his village a while ago. Adventure called his name. It had called to Osamu as well but his dream of running a pub called stronger.

The brothers had fought and Atsumu had left in a rage.

Kotarou and I had found him shivering by a tree and mumbling his brother's name in his fitful sleep.

“Thanks for your input, Shoyo. But I’d like to know all of your thoughts on Sakusa Kiyoomi.” Kotarou spoke and thus started the meeting.

“He’s skilled and strong, we know that much.” Kiyoko said.

“He was the mysterious one, right? With the hood? I like him. Seems smart.” Says Atsumu.

“He seems scary, but I like that. Scary in a good way y’know? Like, like a ninja.” Adds Hinata.

“I think the rumors are true. That he was playing with Daishou. So, he’s a little cocky. He knows he’s good but won't act like it till necessary or he gets bored.” I say.

Kotarou nods along with all our comments then says, “I’ve been thinking about it ever since his fight ended and I would really like for him to join our band. I think he’d be a good addition. Any objections?”

The question is met with silence.

“Good. At tomorrow’s selection I will choose him. If Sakusa declines, I will not select another. No one else felt good enough for our band.”

Everyone voices their agreement, says their goodnights, and retreats back to their own rooms to rest.

Chapter 2

#haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #sakusa kiyoomi #sakusa x reader #sakusa haikyuu #haikyuu imagines #haikyuu angst #haikyuu fluff #Bokuto #kiyoko #Atsumu #hinata #fantasy au #dnd au

[thothxv]

Sonic R, Blood 2, and Shogo: Mobile Armor Division all came out in 1998.

Blood 2 is a hot mess. Sonic R is an incredible soundtrack paired with a game that is... misguided, and Shogo is... okay, but also kind of a mess.

In 1998, Tenchu: Stealth Assassin released. Tenchu was highly regarded and extremely influential. I tried to play it for the first time a few years back. It does not hold up well. And I'm sorry, but neither does Sonic Adventure.

There are a ton of moderately successful games that were perfectly fine, have some charm, hold a special place in the hearts of their fans, but never saw wider success and probably never will. Gex: Enter the Gecko came out in 1998, and I have heard of people who adore Gex... but there are far less of them then people who don't even know who Gex is (or only know it for the fact that people not knowing who or what Gex is is an important part of one of Scott The Woz's best punchlines). Croc is in a similar boat, although it seems to be a bit better known (also: hi Croc fans. I love you and recognize the importance of Croc. I honor the incredible achievements of Argonaut Software. Please don't hurt me).

Colin McRae Rally is one of the top-grossing videogames in the UK of 1998. It doesn't seem to be a game that a ton of people remember or talk about. Although I'm an American, maybe Colin McRae Rally is still deeply beloved by UK gamers? It just... doesn't seem that way. Most racing games seem to work like sports games, where they get displaced by their sequels and people mostly see no reason to go back to the old ones save for nostalgia except in rare and exceptional cases where the game was amazing or the sequels or spiritual successors really suck. Likewise, one of the top grossing games in Japan that year was a licensed Yugioh game. FIFA 99 and Madden 99 were both very successful, and feel similarly disposable (although I am not a sports game fan, so if someone more knowledgeable comes along and tells me that no actually FIFA and/or Madden 99 is actually the best game in the series, I will have no choice but to believe you).

I am saying all of this to make a point. That point is that middle-of-the-road works, incredibly successful but ultimately disposable releases, and just plain crap exists in every year and probably in every medium (Music? Yes. Books? It's... harder to figure out, release years aren't as emphasized with books).

Why did I pick video games and 1998? Because 1998 is a legendary year in videogames. Widely considered to be one of the best years of all time for videogame releases. And I was not alive in 1998, but looking at the releases it is... very hard to argue with that. Pokemon came to America in 1998. Ocarina of Time released. Metal Gear Solid. F-Zero X. Marvel Vs Capcom. RE2. Street Fighter Alpha 3. Banjo-Kazooie. Spyro. Starcraft. Parasite Eve. Radiant Silvergun. Xenogears. Tekken 3's home release. Panzer Dragoon Saga, Descent: Freespace, Unreal, Symphony of the Night, Rainbow Six, Fallout 2, Grim Fandango, Mario Party, Rogue Squadron, Thief: The Dark Project, Baldur's Gate, Half-Life, and fucking DDR.

That is to say, a definitive classic, a genre defining game, the start of an important series, or two or more of the above in the genres of action-adventure, 2D fighters, 3D fighters, party games, RPGs (Japanese and Western), stealth, horror, platforming, RTS, space combat, FPS (tactical, arena, and narrative-focused), and rhythm games.

So if you talk about how the past was better in a given medium then the present, remember: you're only seeing the best and most popular works. There's a ton of other junk that got buried by time that makes things look better then they are. Even in a year that you can argue really was that good.

#video games #what the fuck is this

[gallowswhump]

So, again because I can't share anything but the pure facts about what happened in my last session and no speculation because someone who is in the game has found this tumblr. The story is below the cut

So, some pretense. Cadaver is a Teifling who has been nothing but a problem child this whole game. His most recent stunt was sending practically the same letter to all the chaos gods in this universe asking for help speaking for the World Serpent. Universally this was a bad idea that has lead each of these gods to go about cursing him. Now each of these curses are more fun then an actual detriment. This is on top of the three curses this man already had from becoming a disciple of the world serpent. That story is also wild and might also be here somewhere but if anyone does want to ask I will tell it.

The second bit of information that makes this story the way it is. I had a PC that was itching to bring in something new because his character was supper LG and has not been doing well with the party but a DMPC that I have in there so they have a Rogue and some Healing is his love interest.

So our players are: Cadaver a Tiefling problem child Lazerus a Human Celestial Warlock Chosen of Lathander Cirelc Laz's love interest and Aasimar with his linage with Lathander but actually worships Tymora (yes he is also a character I'm writing for here but my characters are not as nearly fucked up in my D&D games) Maraliss Yaun-Ti Artificer LE but the most reasonable person in the group somehow Raz Halfling Pyromancer a one of a kind master of fire kind of Avatar style thing in my game Kushala Dragonborn fighterman who is not ready and is the straight man to Cadaver's act

They are investigating an old temple to the Pyromancer to try and find out more info about the pyromancer and the world serpent. This is deep in the Empire of the Moon a Roman sytle empire that the party has already cause war crimes against. They know the temple was shut down by a Senator and went in looking for information. In the end they find it crawling with undead.

After a couple of fights they come across Senator Vivanus Erxidor Dawngleem the Augustus Fourth Archemagium, Decius of Magi, Quaestor of Proditor, Legati Praetor of the Imperator, Prior Pontifex. They did not let him get out most of his name but did try to talk to him. (My group tends to try and solve their problems with RP because that is the kind of game I run). I really have to remention that these are war criminals to the Empire of the Moon. Vivanus howerver is there destroying something on the main tomb that is in the room that he's in with acid.

Relations break down and Vivanus gets the first word which also means the first spell. Now Vivanus is not a fight to sneeze at. He is an Archmage, with the abilities of an abjurtation wizard. Along with that he also has two ghouls under his command. The party is level 6 and yes this is an increadably hard encounter. 5e characters have the abiltiy to punch way above their belt and the fight didn't go that badly tbh.

So, fight highlights. Wizard gets to go first and Slows the party. Then he gets off early in the initiative and casts Vitriolic Sphere. Those two spells fuck the party pretty hard with the Fighter going down. Healers do their jobs and Kushala is back up and there is some better health going around the party. Raz gets messed up by a critical hit from one of the Ghouls that end up taking her eye (I use a critical hit and miss table). Then Cadaver manages to misty step behind Vivanus and grapple him. This is a smart move actually. Allows a couple of free hits including Cirelc also getting an eye crit on Vivanus. Wizard is pissed at this point in time but happens to know some things about the party. So on his turn he misty steps and then casts Disintegrate on Laz. Laz fails and well that's a dead PC. Vivanus proceeds to start loosing the fight pretty hard.  Well a contignency with a resilient sphere is enough to let this wizard teleport away. (This is a really good tactic for a recurring villain actually).

Well Laz is dead now and the party has now blinded a high ranking wizard of the Empire of the room. They find out the thing he was destroying was a prophacy. The first time it's been introduced. Now everyone is mad but I don't think anyone has really concidered the consequences of their actions.

#D&D story #notwhump #People chose to have families that they care about in this game #Like most of the characters don't have tragic back stories #I know the player who has found this blog isn't one of them but F in chat for you guys #Also if anyone wants to know what is up just send me an Ask and I will spill all the Tea privatly cause my plan is just on it's first steps

[troius]

They should make a single-player Bleach RPG

The story is perfectly set up for it, with slight tweaks to add more allies to fights  it would be tremendous fun. You’d start out as Ichigo, getting your powers from Rukia, and you add/lose party members as you play through the story, except instead of the one-on-one dramatic duels that work so well in a conventional narrative, they’d be group fights, akin to your traditional RPG mechanics. So for instance, you wouldn’t split the party in Soul Society-- you’d just pick your three favorite companions and fight the various captains as a group. Hmm, let me work out how this would go:

Your Party Members

Ichigo, as your main character, is a pretty flexible character able to do a decent amount of damage and take a decent amount of hits. All the party members will have three skill trees they can progress down, but Ichigo’s will unfortunately be the most locked due to how the story tracks his skill development-- you’ll start out with a limited portion of the Zanpakuto (later Zangetsu) tree available, then unlock the rest, and the Visored and Fullbringer trees at the appropriate times. Still, by the time you reach the TYBW portion of the game you’ll have gotten to do a fair bit of customization in terms of which of the three you really want to lean in to. His final ability, in true Ichigo fashion, is just a massive power-up in his merged Hollow-Quincy form.

Rukia is the other character who’s going to be somewhat hard-locked by the story-- she has the Zanpakuto (Sode no Shirayuki), Kenso, and Kido skill trees, but only Kido will be available during the first arc-- so she can do a bit of ranged damage, or provide some healing, but is very fragile. Once you get her back in the party post-Soul Society, she’s got all her trees available, and can be turned into an extremely fast glass-cannon damage dealer. Her final ability is her Bankai, which slows down all enemies and ups her defenses considerably.

Chad I imagine you’d pick up for the Shrieker fight, and just have him roll with you from there. He’s got the Gigante, Diablo, and generic Fullbringer trees, and while they too will be locked, I think it’s probably more appropriate to level-lock them rather than require you to hit a certain point in the story. Gigante is tank skills, Diablo does damage, and Fullbringer is just generic buffs. IDK what I’d give him for a final ability-- maybe a Vasto Lorde form akin to Ichigo’s, but with tremendous endurance instead of damage?

Orihime joins the party to help protect Tatsuki during that big Uryu mess. She starts with all three Shun Shun Rikka trees unlocked, and while you can choose to have her focus on healing or protection, you can also pour all your XP into Tsubaki and just have her shoot things. Her final ability would pay off all the foreshadowing from the Hueco Mundo arc by returning the target to their state from the start of the fight-- it’s a resurrection spell, but also can be used to soft-reset a boss that’s built up too many buffs.

Uryu obviously joins shortly thereafter. He’s kind of a rogue-type: he has the Heileg Bogen, Seele Schneider, and generic Quincy skill trees, giving him two ways of dealing damage and considerable combat utility. However, he cannot take a hit, and has no means of recovery besides his Schrift, which as you can imagine is at the very end of all his skill trees as his final ability.

Renji, the last character to join, is a similar character to Ichigo stat-wise. He has the standard Soul Reaper Kenso and Kido skill trees in addition to the Zanpakuto (Zabimaru) tree, meaning you could theoretically use him to do ranged damage and heal as well. Unfortunately, his stats for those abilities will be kind of rubbish, but they’re ideal for boosting toughness or speed with Kenso, or for intentionally miscasting kido in close combat if you’re fighting something that might be immune to physical damage. His final ability is passive-- Soo Zabimaru upgrades all his bankai abilities.

Anyhow you can tell I’ve though about this quite a bit, lol. If only...

#Bleach

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 142

Another late chapter... I’m really batting a thousand lately, seems like.

So, work has been insane, but @baelpenrose reminds me to post when I forget, thankfully. And this is SUCH a fun chapter.  I hope you all enjoy!

I dropped into a seat in Mess Hall Seven with a groan, so exhausted that I barely managed to get soup and a grilled cheese from the console.  Tyche yawned and nodded in agreement before poking at her sushi bowl idly. It was six Von-days after the last drill, and between coordinating increased training schedules for Shelters Three and Seven and helping Charly plan kink-night at the Undine, we were wiped.

“People are ungrateful,” she muttered before managing to barely balance a piece of salmon into her mouth.

I muttered something that hopefully sounded like agreement before I scooped up a bite of my soup with one wedge of sandwich, too lazy to even bother with the spoon. “Remind me why we don’t have Vati and Hannah handling the practice schedules?”

“Because they are handling the extra evacuation drills with Jokul and Arthur.”

Personally, I thought they were getting the better end of this deal, but since the raging success of their first Food Festival, it really was only fair. “And the relocations for those who need it,” I admitted. “Except mine.”

“Conor may actually strangle one of them if any of your plants don’t make it,” she pointed out, gesturing with her chopsticks for emphasis after having given up and using her fingers to eat her lunch. “Not to mention I wouldn’t wish packing with Maverick on anyone.”

“He’s letting me pack the books and textiles.” I shrugged in acceptance after taking another bite of soup-dipped sandwich.

We picked at our food in silence after that, grateful for something resembling a reprieve, before we were interrupted by a flurry of grey hair and enthusiasm landing in one of the nearby chairs with a heavy thunk. “Good afternoon, Madams Reid.”

“Hey, Jokul,” I muttered as Tyche just waggled her fingers at him. I really think I liked it better when he was trying to kill me. Right now, I might even let him do it.

“I know you are both on your meal period, but I wanted to test the waters on potentially scheduling a community activity,” he rushed out.

Tyche guarded her lunch with an almost feral aggression, having heard what happened the last time Jokul had interrupted my lunch. “That should really be something you run by Al-”

“Worthington, yes, I know,” he interrupted. “However, I know you are both quite busy and I wanted to be respectful of your time. As such, I will make this as brief as - ow!” He snatched his hand back away from the other half of my sandwich, rubbing where I had slammed my spoon down onto it.

“I have no idea where the food stealing comes from, but don’t,” I warned him.

“Rude, got it,” he nodded in a terrifying impression of Charly’s normal demeanor. “As I was saying, I recently learned a new type of game from Terra, from the Before.  It involves teamwork, and encourages creativity and escapism, and I think it would be a very good community activity - “

I surrendered to my urge to groan. “We are not doing a redux of Settlers of Cattan. Arthur stabbed someone last time.”

“I didn’t press charges…” Jokul pouted, glancing at the scar on the back of his wrist briefly. “Besides, it was only a fork. Clearly he didn’t mean it, there were four knives in arms reach counting my own.”

Tyche cocked an eyebrow at me. Seriously?

I pursed my lips and wrinkled my nose in response. Yep.

“So what game is it this time?” I asked hesitantly.

I was reward-bombarded with a grin. “It’s called Dungeons and Dragons! Somewhat like a video game, but with more people, and using writing implements and paper. Oh, and different kinds of dice, very important. One person is something of the narrator, to give the game a kind of structure, while the other players act as characters in the game… Ivan introduced me to it, and it is quite challenging with the right people.  The dungeon master - that is the narrator - has to re-evaluate the story based on the actions of the other players, but the players themselves don’t know what the dungeon master is going to do. It is very much a social diversion, and there are many classes….”

As Jokul continued to gush, he was rather oblivious to the fact that Tyche and I were stuffing our faces as quickly as possible to avoid interrupting him or laughing. We had both played when we were younger - in fact, we had been introduced to the game by our mother.  There had even been a very overwhelming pop-culture movement in our youth around the game, which further emphasized just how far out in the boonies Jokul had grown up.  As shocking as it was that he was just now discovering the game, it came at exactly zero surprise that he enjoyed it so much - it was right up his alley of interests.

About fifteen minutes and two more grilled cheeses into his retelling of the campaign he was part of, Charly and Arthur squeezed in with us, their own lunches in tow.  As seemed to be a growing trend, Arthur reached over and snagged one of my sandwiches before I could react, shoving half of it in his face.

That was apparently enough to snap Jokul out of his story. “Hey! Why didn’t you hit him?”

“His deathwish, not my problem,” I shrugged.

Around the remains of my lunch, Arthur managed to enunciate. “Told you, Noah fissed the dairy allergy.”

“Bleargh,” I gagged comically. “It’s okay, think I’m done anyway.”

Jokul’s hand swatted Arthur’s out of the way to steal the rest of my food. “As I was saying, Ivan was quite clever with his resolution to deal subdural damage to the player who was very much ruining the storyline by insisting his character was immune to magical sleep…”

“Oooooo! I love tabletops!” Charly squealed, bouncing in her seat. “What setting are you playing in right now?  My favorite was always Exalted…”

“Miss Harper, I think we are discussing different activities.” Jokul sounded supremely confused, but my heart broke a bit.

Arthur shook his head. “Maybe not Exalted, but what about Ebberron? Swordhaven, maybe?  Just tell me it isn’t Ravenloft… I know you haven’t been fucking around in a Dark Sun, but I beg you to tell me you aren’t playing Ravenloft.”

“I’m not sure what those are… Ivan introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons. There is only one setting.”

“So… Greyhawk or homebrew,” Arthur nodded. “Best place to start, get the basics down.”

Jokul’s head pivoted toward me and Tyche, squinting in annoyance. “You knew, didn’t you? And you let me prattle on…”

“You were so… happy….” I explained plaintively. “We didn’t want to ruin that for you.”

Tyche nodded. “We both remember how fun that first campaign is. And honestly? We’ve been having a kind of crappy day.  It was nice to hear someone be excited about something that isn’t work related.”

“But I came to you to discuss making it a ship activity…”

“Originally, yeah,” I shrugged. “That was maybe the first thirty seconds.  After that, you were doing what literally every tabletop roleplaying person has done since the beginning of time… telling stories about the fun, dramatic, and frankly stupid shit the people in your party are doing.”

“Says the two-foot eight halfling rogue,” Arthur scowled.

“I rolled it at random, it was fifteen years ago, get over it!” I threw my hands up dramatically. “At least I wasn’t mated to a frickin’ deity.”

Charly giggled uncontrollably while Jokul goggled at us. “Exalted is broken in all the fun ways.”

“You literally sacrificed, and I quote ‘all of your fucks to give’, for necromancy.”

“That was your idea!”

Jokul turned toward Tyche, waiting for her to say something. She just held up her hands defensively. “I was a murder monk-bunny.”

Arthur snorted. “You were the Black Rabbit of Inle….”

“Well if my wife would have just stopped dying…!”

“At least none of us were the Platinum Knight who pissed his pants every time he confronted his favored enemy,” I laughed. “He never did live that one down. Every. Single. Dragon. He would crit fail his roles.”

“Oh, please,” Arthur intoned drily. “Did I ever tell you about the time one of my players managed to make ‘Notice me, Senpai’ into the most terrifying in-universe warcry imaginable?”

Charly choked before swatting his shoulder. “Not in front of my pasta. Please.”

Jokul, however, looked both horrified and intrigued, egging Arthur on. “Barbarian whose entire clan worshipped a god named The Senpai…. Just imagine, a barbarian in a rage, bellowing ‘NOTICE ME, SENPAI!!!’ before just scything down thirty men with a broadsword.”

At this point, I was laughing so hard that tears were rolling down my face. “Please, please tell me there was a kilt and pigtails involved….”

Jokul touched his own hair, before straightening as seriously as possible. “They are warrior’s braids, Councillor.”

That was it, I couldn’t take it anymore. I just put my head down on my folded arms and waiting to either pass out from laughing so hard or from exhaustion.  A few deep breaths and a spinning head later, I managed to wipe my face on my sleeve and realized the conversation was continuing without me.  Just as I was clearing my throat to let Jokul know he should be fine to start organizing something and to send me a rough outline, Arthur dealt the final blow.

Leaning over, he whispered over my shoulder. “By the way, the barbarian’s name was Drystan of the Doki-doki tribe.”

I was proud that I managed to get up and dash into the hallway before collapsing against the wall in maniacal laughter.  I barely registered Hannah’s voice behind me asking everyone at the table if I needed medical assistance, and that did not help.

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#the miys #found family #humans are weird #science fiction #aliens #apocalypse #humans are space orcs #humans are space fae #earth is space australia #post apocalypse #post post apocalypse #original science fiction #original sci fi #original writing

[iwilltranscend]

through Osmosis i think one of ur characters is named vapor n i also think there's one named oliver (??). maybe one that starts with a C too, i think?? please tell me about them!!! what's their favorite food!! they're darkest fears??? what would they do on a sunday morning when they had nothing else to do. im already in love with them and i know nothing, please share 🥺 -ise

this is. probably going to be long so im going to pop it under a read more skfjslfld

so vapor, oliver, and clemency are the little bastards who are like. at the forefront of my mind most often dklsjdf

vapor is my pc in the dnd campaign im in right now, oliver is an idea for a motw pc, and clemency is the next dnd pc i wanna play bc i came up with the idea for them from a twitter meme and i havent stopped thinking about them since (some aspects are a little less fleshed out but,,, here's a start!!)

Vapor's a funky little water genasi rogue with all the classic rogue grimdark backstory stuff because im highly unoriginal <3 but she's a pretty basic gal. I think a favorite food of hers would be nice, hearty homecooked stews her mother used to make or one of the ones that the healer she apprenticed with used to make. darkest fears would probably be getting close to people again only to have something bad happen to them (because that seems to be the single common thread in her intrapersonal relationships). Also i think just. just allowing people she cares about to die? like she couldn't ever do anything about it in the past but if she were to be in that position again and she still couldn't save someone? it's a terrifying thought. as for lazy sunday plans, i think she'd be pretty content to hang with the rest of the party! probably listen to our 16 year old artificer come up with his newest invention, play some card games with the other rogue and the druid, or listen to stories from everyone else's previous adventures (while not giving up many of her own).

clemency is really cool, I have kinda imagined them to be a tiefling death domain cleric who's a real stickler about not like. messing with that (that's right, this cleric is not going to be doing any revivify so Do Not Ever Ask Them) (listen listen listen three guesses as to who served as a bit of inspiration for them and i don't think i need to let you know their deity of choice). I think they grew up in a pretty secluded enclave and are kind of being told to go out into the world before settling back down in the enclave's power structure. I think there's this one hand pie that someone in the enclave makes and it's so hearty and savory and flakey that they do kinda try to make it on their own to little success. A big fear of theirs is simply not being seen as worthy for their spot or to be favored by their goddess. Their entire life has been nothing but dedication to order so if they were to suddenly feel as though they couldn't maintain it any longer, their sense of self would be gone. I think lazy sunday's are kind of a novel thing for them but I imagine they'd like to go for some nice walks, hang out in sun, perhaps sit by the water's edge and skip a stone or two.

oliver is my beloved little bastard who i think has become really inspired by some of the pathetic fellas i wanna keep in my tote bag. his playbook would likely be the flake, leaning heavily in on some of the more unhinged aspects. I totally do see him as a generally mild mannered like. high school science teacher (biology or maybe chemistry?) and just kinda gets walked all over by his students but when he goes home, he is certain he is on the edge of a kind of breakthrough. he's determined to unlock the secrets of the universe, life, and death. i think his diet is real bad. like he lives on black coffee and gas station snacks [no time to cook, too busy] but he does love a good cinnamon roll [used to be a big treat on the mornings of big holidays]. he fears death so completely and terribly. fears wasting away into oblivion and obscurity and he is going to do everything in his power to prevent that. any means necessary. and i do genuinely believe he doesn't allow himself time to rest [though he does love reading a good story every now and then. I think he's a big bradbury and lovecraft fan. of course.]

#rip (reeses in pieces) #vapor #clemency #oliver whimbley #ocs #kalopsia #i just. i just think all my lads are neat #oliver is just the skrunkliest guy #also i linked my pinterest boards for each of them bc im obnoxious slkjsdklsdfj #thank you!!!! #also v good osmosising ! #🧸

[sinsbymanka]

Inquisitor as a Companion: Maria Cadash

@little-lightning-lavellan started this amazing trend and I have gratuitously stolen the template from them. I finished this up this morning as a good distraction for not feeling well! 

Is your OC a Companion in the Dragon Age series? What would it be like for a player to select them to join their party for quests (or romance them, perhaps? 👀)

You have selected Maria to join your party! (art made by   @lavellanvibes)

Race: Dwarf 

Affiliation: Carta 

Gender: Female

Class: Rogue/Archer

Specialization: Assassin 

Background

Maria was born in 9:11 Dragon, the eldest daughter of Roland and Meera Cadash. She has a sister who is two years younger than her - Beatrix Cadash. When Maria was four, her mother died in a Carta mission gone wrong. Her father had been in line to take over the Carta, but fell apart after the death of his wife. He seems to have spent the next ten years in a bottle, but Maria rarely says anything negative about him. 

Most of Maria’s childhood was spent in the care of her grandmother, the indomitable Zarra Cadash. Although funds were frequently tight, Zarra did her best to raise her granddaughters with a sense of dwarven pride. Maria is well aware of the history of House Cadash, the abandonment of her family and thaig by Ozammar, and the fate of most of her Ancestors. Her grandmother is very traditional and while Maria may jokingly laugh at most of her traditions, she still studiously carries them out. 

Maria quickly became her own rising star in the Carta, known for her quick wit, sound mind, and deadly aim. However, she met and fell in love with the son of a prominent Merchant’s Guild member when she was 20 years old - Fynn Dunhark. After a whirlwind romance, Maria abandoned Ostwick, the Carta, and her family to start a new life with Fynn in Hercinia. Zarra disapproved completely - expressing much distrust of the Guild. Although Maria wanted Bea to accompany her, Bea refused because she too was doing well for herself in the Carta.

One year after their elopement, assassins hired by Fynn’s father tracked the couple to Hercinia. They had been hired to kill Maria, but Fynn died at their hands instead and Maria was captured. The assassins, knowing they wouldn’t recoup the other half of their payment from Fynn’s father, ransomed Maria back to the Carta. To raise the money, Bea Cadash made an unsavory alliance with a very distant cousin of their, Dwyka Cadash (also known as the Dasher) who had been “sweet” on Maria before her elopement. 

Bea Cadash helped Dwyka assume control of the Ostwick Carta and Maria came back to her family a broken hearted woman. She resumed her place in the Carta and, eventually, rumors began to grow that she had entered into a relationship with Dasher himself. Fynn Dunhark’s father committed suicide after the failed assassination attempt. 

Maria spent the next several years in the Ostwick Carta. She’s perhaps one of the best smugglers the Carta has ever seen and has a very in depth knowledge of the way most criminal networks in Thedas operate and a firm grasp of the lyrium trade. Although she seems to have no actual power within the Carta to make decisions, she’s widely respected by her fellows and it’s roundly acknowledged the whole thing would fall to shambles without her steady hand. She’s got a long history of handling the most difficult smuggling jobs herself. Much to her detriment when she’s sent to Southern Thedas to supply the templars and mages in the middle of a war. 

Involvement

Maria Cadash can be found at the Storm Coast as soon as the area opens up for exploration. Scout Harding will offer in her report a quest called “Signs of Carta Smuggling” which leads to a hidden cove in the map and a pitched battle between Maria, several templars, and several mages. After dispatching the enemies, Maria can be engaged in conversation. She reveals she was selling lyrium for the Carta, but one of her crew messed up and gave both sides of the dispute the same time and location to meet. Further questioning seems to reveal that Maria was charging the mages less than the templars, when pressed she says it’s because they don’t have as much money. If Varric or Bull are in the party they will both shrewdly interject that she’s a liar. 

Maria will talk about the smuggling operation and the Inquisitor has the opportunity to recruit her by asking the Ostwick Carta to supply the Inquisition with lyrium. Maria says she’s got other skills than smuggling, opening up her availability as a party member. 

When at Haven, she can be found at the archery targets. Once the Inquisition relocates to Skyhold, she spends her time on the battlements near the tavern. When asked why she’s always up there, she jokes that she likes to be tall. 

Approval and Romance

Maria can be romanced by an Inquisitor of any race or gender, but the romance is not locked in or consummated for most of the game. Maria is slow to trust or return the Inquisitor’s affection and doesn’t respond well to being pushed for more before she’s ready. 

She slightly favors the mages over the templars, but much like Varric, tends to look at individuals instead of groups. She approves of acts of kindness and charity, an Inquisitor that jokes with her and others, and actions that favor the oppressed. She disapproves of most things done just to appease nobles, acts that hurt others, and acts that side with who she sees as an oppressor. She also, interestingly, disapproves of executing most prisoners. The sole exception is Erimond, where her approval is guaranteed but the amount of approval is contingent on whether or not Hawke is left in the Fade. 

If Maria isn’t romanced by the Inquisitor, she can end up in a romance with Varric Tethras, but it does require some work on the Inquisitor’s part to move beyond flirtation in game banter. This sequence of quests involve Maria’s companion quest and Varric’s. They can be obtained post-Adamant and done in any order. 

If Solas and Maria are not romanced by the Inquisitor, in game banter seems to reveal that many companions believe Solas has a crush on Maria Cadash. This includes Varric, who oddly seems to not mind even if he is in a relationship with Maria. Despite this banter, there is no way to cause a relationship between Solas and Maria. 

Companion Quests

If Hawke survives the Fade:

The Inquisitor, when saying goodbye to Hawke, witnesses Hawke’s goodbye to Varric. If Maria and Varric have been in the party together often enough to start their flirting dialogues, the camera will show Maria approaching and Hawke will cryptically tell Varric that there is “Always time to start a new story.” The Inquisitor has the option to wave Maria over to say goodbye to Hawke as well. If she’s invited into the conversation, Maria will jokingly tell Hawke she’ll keep Varric in trouble. Hawke seems to approve of this. 

If Hawke is left in the Fade: 

Upon approaching Varric in Skyhold, Varric will talk about how he misses Hawke. If Maria and Varric have been in the party together often enough to start their flirting dialogues, the camera will show Maria approaching. The Inquisitor has the option to wave her over. If she’s invited into the conversation, Maria will ask Varric how long he’s been writing letters. When he says he’s done Maria says she’ll use her smuggling contacts to get them where they need to go and that he needs to sleep. Varric allows himself to be sent to bed. 

Varric’s Quest in Vallamar: 

When Bianca Davri is in Skyhold, Maria will shift locations. She will move from the battlements and into the upper floor of the tavern near Cole. Cole’s ambient dialogue will reveal that she is unhappy with Bianca’s presence. If Maria is brought along to Vallamar, she disapproves. During the quest she frequently interjects into Varric and Bianca’s fond memories dialogue. After the second time this happens, Bianca will begin to ask intrusive questions about Maria. Whoever the third companion is will ask the Inquisitor if they’re happy with their choices for this party. 

Maria becomes angry at Bianca during the culmination of the Vallamar quest. She will ask the other woman how many people she’s hurt to answer a question. Bianca will ask Maria how many people she’s hurt on the Dasher’s behalf. If this quest is done before Maria’s, the Inquisitor will have the opportunity to ask Maria about the Dasher. Regardless of the dialogue exploration, Bianca will eventually reveal that she knows Maria is in a relationship with the Dasher. 

If Maria’s companion quest has been completed, the Inquisitor can refute that, but Maria will disapprove of any dialogue options beyond “That’s not your business,” which gathers great approval. Varric will attempt to interject and calm the situation, but Maria will turn on him and ask him how long he intends on living in his fantasy world or if he’s ever going to grow up. This is the same conversation you can witness at Skyhold post-completion if Maria was not brought along. Either way, Maria storms off. It is revealed that she has left the party (in Vallamar) or Skyhold. She is unavailable to be selected as a companion until the Inquisitor leaves the area and then returns to Skyhold. 

If you have Solas in the party while Maria is missing, he will reveal he wishes he could find her in the Fade, but he cannot, and that he is worried about her. If this takes place after the quest with Wisdom is completed, the Inquisitor may point out Solas is getting a taste of his own medicine. 

The Inquisitor may choose to ask Maria where she was when she returns. If she is asked, Maria will reveal she was almost back to Ostwick before she realized clan Davri had hired assassins to kill Varric. If the Inquisitor asks where the assassins are, Maria says they’re not a problem anymore. Further questioning reveals Maria has not spoken to Varric about what happened and they both seem to have just made up their mind to never mention it again. 

To trigger Maria and Varric’s romance, the Inquisitor must tell Varric that Maria came back to take care of the assassins sent after him. Varric laughs off the assassins, saying he’s dealt with them before, but seems touched that Maria came back to handle them. His dialogue ends with him being thoughtful and murmuring that maybe he hasn’t fucked up. 

Maria’s Carta Problems: 

Maria will mention she’s got unfinished business with the Carta and ask for the Inquisitor’s help. If the Inquisitor agrees to help, no questions asked, Maria greatly approves. If the Inquisitor questions her, she seems exasperated, but does not disapprove. 

Maria reveals that the Dasher has information about her family which means Maria can never leave the Carta. The Inquisitor can ask Maria if she wants to leave and Maria indicates she doesn’t know, but she wants to have the choice, and no matter what happens she can’t go back to Dasher’s Carta. When questioned about the Dasher, Maria will reveal his identity and discuss his cruelty and stupidity with business. At this point in time, the Inquisitor can ask about rumors linking Maria and Dwyka romantically. Maria will say it’s not like that and ask you to trust her. If you say you do, she will greatly approve. 

Maria says she’s heard Dwyka is in Ferelden looking for her to bring her back to Ostwick. Maria wants to find him first. The Inquisitor must track down information on Carta operations. When Leliana is asked she recommends Varric’s own Carta connections as the best route. The Inquisitor can ask Varric to look into it, which he does gladly after surmising it’s for Maria. He does warn the Inquisitor Maria probably didn’t want him knowing what she’s doing. 

After speaking to Varric, a mission opens at the War Table. Upon completion of this mission, Maria can be taken to a spot on the map near the Storm Coast. Exploration  of the map reveals that Dwyka is dealing in red lyrium. When confronted by the Inquisitor and Maria, Dwyka taunts Maria that she’ll never get away from him. This cues a battle. 

After the enemies are defeated, a final cut scene shows Maria firing an arrow into Dwyka’s throat and then standing over him as he dies. She tells him he will never hurt her or her family again, and that they’ll all forget he even existed. If Solas or Varric are in the party, one or both will comment that Dwyka got off too easily. Despite their victory, Maria seems exhausted. The Inquisitor can ask what was between her and Dwyka and Maria will confess that her sister murder Fynn Dunhark’s father after the failed assassination attempt and Dwyka had evidence that would see her family wiped out by the Merchant’s Guild for killing one of their own. He used that knowledge to blackmail Maria and Bea into working for him. She can be pressed further by an Inquisitor asking if all she did was work for him. She’ll admit that’s not all, but she never loved Dwyka, she was trapped. 

If Varric is in the party, he’ll reluctantly confirm the Guild has organized to purge troublesome Carta families before. Maria will bitterly state that the Guild can’t survive without the Carta - they do the jobs “respectable” dwarves won’t do and nobody blinks at their deaths. Varric tries to protest and she pointedly asks him how many Carta members Hawke wiped out in Kirkwall. Varric says that isn’t fair and Maria responds that life isn’t fair. Then she says they should go. 

After this quest, the Inquisitor has the option to inform Maria that Varric helped find the information that led to Dwyka. Maria says she should be angry at the Inquisitor for involving him, but then admits Varric isn’t a bad sort. She says “If things were different…” and then trails off before saying she’ll have to find some way to thank him.

This is also the trigger for Maria’s romance. The Inquisitor has the opportunity to tell her that when she’s ready, they’d love to get to know her better. Maria says she needs time, and if the Inquisitor says she can have as much time as she needs then Maria is on a romance path. 

Helping Cole: 

After both quests have been completed, if Maria and Varric have started flirting in party banter, and Maria was invited to the conversation post-Adamant, the following events can occur after the next storyline quest but before Trespasser DLC is started: 

Cole will come to the Inquisitor and ask for help. He’ll reveal that Maria and Varric are in love with each other but they won’t talk. This starts a complicated chain of events where the Inquisitor and Cole attempt to force Maria and Varric to talk about their feelings. 

A game of truth or dare in the Tavern where Maria and Varric keep doing increasingly bold dares to avoid picking truth. The Inquisitor can dare them to kiss, and they will, but they’ll break away quickly and end the game. 

The Inquisitor can start a bookclub and pick one of Varric’s romances. Cassandra is overjoyed, but Maria spends most of the book club needling Varric mercilessly and Varric doing dramatic readings in silly voices to make her laugh. Cassandra eventually kicks both Maria and Varric out of the book club. 

Finally, Cole and the Inquisitor cause an “accident” where Maria and Varric are trapped alone in the undercroft by a magical artifact Dagna was studying that creates a barrier. The Inquisitor says she will go get a mage to undo it and leaves. When the Inquisitor returns, several hours later, she interrupts Varric and Maria cuddling and looking out over the mountains. This locks in their romance. If Solas is still with the Inquisition, he will be the mage that undoes the barrier. He will say he is very happy for Maria and Varric before quickly leaving. If Solas is in a romance with the Inquisitor or already gone, Dorian will undo the barrier and say “It’s about time.”

If the Inquisitor is romancing Maria themselves, they will skip right to the end of this quest before the Arbor Wilds and end up locked in the Undercroft with Maria because of Cole’s “help”. Maria will confess her feelings and thank the Inquisitor for being patient. She’ll say they have lots of time before Cole gets help and ask what the Inquisitor would like to do. The Inquisitor may choose to talk or consummate the relationship, Maria will approve of either and the relationship will be locked in. Solas will retrieve them after a good amount of time and state he is glad they found happiness eventually. 

Trespasser

If Maria was romanced by the Inquisitor: 

She can be found in the gardens and it is revealed she has continued to work for the Inquisition. The Inquisitor can ask Maria to marry them and Maria confesses she thought she’d never get married again and it would feel like a betrayal. The Inquisitor can say Fynn would want Maria to be happy and Maria will say that they’re right, but she needs some time. After the first foray into the Crossroads, Maria can be approached again and will say yes. This cues a private marriage ceremony. 

As the anchor worsens, Maria begs the Inquisitor not to leave her and says she can’t bear to be left alone again. The Inquisitor can promise to keep fighting or offer Maria comfort. The epilogue reveals a romanced Maria and the Inquisitor finally go visit Maria’s family in Ostwick and that Maria reforms the Ostwick Carta as a shadow organization to serve the Inquisitor in their quest to stop Solas (which she greatly approves of) or redeem Solas (which she’s much more wary of.) 

If Maria and Varric started a romance: 

Maria can be found near Varric at the fountain and will reveal that she’s been in Kirkwall helping Varric. Bran will interrupt your first conversation by calling her “My lady, the Viscount’s Mistress,” which will cue a small meltdown from Maria. She tells the Inquisitor to ignore Bran. If asked, Maria will reveal there’s apparently a special title for the person fucking the Viscount in Kirkwall. She’s unhappy about it. She’ll also talk about how her family has moved to Kikwall and that Varric is having a hell of a time dealing with her sister and grandmother. 

Varric, while giving the Inquisitor their estate in Kirkwall, will say that Maria would love to have a friend in the city that doesn’t call her the Viscount’s Mistress. And then will advise the Inquisitor to never ever call Maria that if they know what’s good for them. The Inquisitor can ask Varric why they’re not married if she hates being his mistress so much. Varric simply sighs and says it’s complicated, but that they’re happy and he wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

An Elven servant brings the Inquisitor a note after the first foray into the Crossroads. This note reveals Maria is expecting a child. The next time the Inquisitor speaks to Maria, they’ll confront her with this information. Maria will attempt to deny it, then reveal the truth. She’s unsure how anyone would know since Varric doesn’t even know, the only people who do are her grandmother and sister. She’s not far along and wants to continue to fight. The Inquisitor can choose to allow this. If they do, Varric disapproves and Maria approves. If they do not, Maria disapproves and Varric approves. Maria is also removed as a party member the rest of the game, although she can still be spoken to. 

Either way, after the second foray into the Crossroads Maria will hint that her and Varric have gotten married by correcting Bran when he calls her the Viscount’s Mistress and saying that it’s not her title anymore. When the Inquisitor asks, she’ll say they can celebrate after and asks the Inquisitor to make sure Varric stays safe if she is no longer a party member. 

During the confrontation with Solas, he reveals that the servant was one of his spies and that he has been watching the Viscount’s Keep. When asked why, his answer varies depending If Solas has been romanced by the Inquisitor. If he has been, he will say that he would not see one of their friends hurt when they are vulnerable. If, however, he was not romanced by the Inquisitor he will tell them that he could not bear to see Varric and Maria hurt by the loss of a child in battle, hinting that he still has feelings from their time together in the Inquisition even if they were never acted upon. Solas indicates approval of keeping Maria out of the battle and disapproval of allowing her to stay. 

After the game, Maria and Varric return to Kirkwall and the epilogue mentions they have a baby girl together and that Maria is the most unique Viscountess Kirkwall has ever had. 

If Maria was not romanced and the romance with Varric did not trigger: 

She can be found in the gardens and it is revealed she is still with the Inquisition, although she is toying with the idea of reforming the Ostwick Carta under her terms. She expresses concern as the Inquisitor becomes more and more ill, which eventually turns to anger towards the rest of the Exalted Council. 

If Solas was romanced by the Inquisitor, Maria’s epilogue says that she returned to Ostwick and rebuilt the Carta there. An Inquisitor who is friendly with her uses them in their quest to stop Solas with Maria’s blessing. 

If Solas was not romanced by the Inquisitor, Maria suddenly vanishes when she returns to Ostwick without a trace. There’s no sign of her working among Solas’ people, however, and most people agree she would not join Solas. Her fate is ultimately a mystery. 

Combat comments

Kills an enemy

“I want that arrow back.” 

“Sod off!”

Low Health

“I’m fine, stop staring and help me kill these things!”

“Right. I need to sit down.”

Low Health (Companions)

(The Inquisitor) “If you go down, I quit.”

(The Inquisitor - if romanced) “You absolutely don’t get to die on me.” 

(Varric, romance not triggered) “Varric’s gotten quiet. Probably check on that.” 

(Varric, if romanced) “Varric! Varric, talk to me!” 

(Solas) “Solas is in trouble!” 

(Bull) “If Bull goes down I’m not gonna have any cover!” 

(Cole) “Stay away from Cole you bastards!” 

Location comments

Crestwood

“What do people even do out here for fun? I’d be bored to tears.” 

The Hissing Wastes

Maria: “Wish my grandmother could see these Dwarven tombs. She always said Orzammar was wrong. You can hear the Stone everywhere if you try hard enough.” 

Inquisitor: “Have you ever heard it?” 

Maria: “I’m not sure. But I know  Orzammar is wrong about us. I’m as much a dwarf as they are.” 

Storm Coast

“I’d like it here a whole lot more if it’d stop fucking raining.” 

The Deep Roads (Descent DLC) 

Maria: “I can hear it, you know.” 

Varric: “I don’t hear anything.” 

Maria: “I don’t think you’re trying very hard.” 

Varric: “You’re probably right, Princess.” 

Companion Banter: 

Varric: “You’ve gotta be the nicest Carta member I’ve ever met.” 

Maria: “That’s because I’m being paid really well.” 

Varric: “Sure, Princess. Don’t worry, I’ll keep my mouth shut.” 

Maria, laughing: “No you won’t.” 

xx

Maria: “Is it an act of protest?” 

Varric: “I haven’t even started protesting, but I’m about to. If the Inquisitor makes us climb one more mountain…” 

Maria: “Your beard. Or lack of beard, I suppose.” 

Varric: “It was distracting from my chest hair. It had to go.” 

xx

Varric: “I’ve been doing some research into the Ostwick Carta…” 

Maria: “Don’t.” 

Varric: “Too late. What are you doing? You could be running that gang. He’s a-” 

Maria: “If I wanted your opinion on my career, I’d ask for it.” 

Varric: “I know a thing about complicated partnerships, you know. I’m just worried.” 

Maria: “You’re not my father. Don’t act like you are.” 

xx

Maria: “Your shots keep veering left.” 

Varric, sighing: “If you ask to fiddle with Bianca’s cocking ring…” 

Maria: “I assumed it was cause you were staring at me.” 

Varric: “At that templar that almost took your head off.” 

Maria: “Uh huh. And the shots veering left were because of the cocking ring.” 

xx

Varric: “Speaking of staring… I can’t help but notice you’re a bit enamored.” 

Maria: “If you don’t want people to stare, you should do up your shirt.” 

Varric: “I absolutely want you to stare, Princess.” 

Maria: “I’ll remember that if I decide to stare.” 

xx

Solas: “I cannot help but notice that you seem fond of Mistress Cadash.”

Varric: “Spend a lot of time noticing Maria?” 

Solas: “She is difficult to miss.”

Varric: “Maybe you should tell her that next time she’s watching you paint.” 

xx

Solas: “You have a lovely voice.”

Maria: “Oh sweet Ancestors. Don’t tell me you were at the tavern too? Bull didn’t tell me what was in that drink and next thing I knew…” 

Solas: “I was above. With Cole. He said you sounded like magic. He was not wrong.” 

Maria: “I… thank you. You’re both full of it, but thanks.” 

Bull, if in party: “Smooth. Very smooth.” 

xx

Varric: “Here you go, Princess.” 

Maria: “A daisy?” 

Varric: “That’s no common daisy. That’s a fine Orlesian Marguerite.” 

Maria: “Very fancy. The Carta just calls them daisies.” 

Varric: “You deserve something a bit fancy.” 

Companion/Advisor comments about Maria Cadash: 

Josephine: “Mistress Cadash is quite good at cards. I’ve not had that much of a challenge since I was a young girl. Do not wager anything you would not care to lose.”

Leliana: “Maria Cadash is putting herself and her family at great danger to stay here. I wish I could believe it was more than self-interest, but I wonder if she’s not willing to die before returning to Ostwick. It… it is a bit sad, isn’t it?” 

Varric, romance not triggered: “Princess is a real Carta dwarf with a heart of gold. It’s probably going to get her killed someday. Carta isn’t kind to people like her.” 

Varric, romance triggered: “Thanks for helping me with Maria. I owe you one. It’s not always easy, we’ve got a lot of baggage. But it was time to start a new story, and I needed a muse who could kick my ass every time I start acting like an idiot.” 

Solas: “Maria Cadash is clever and curious. She’s wasted on the Carta. I suspect if you treat her well, she’ll be an ally to the Inquisition.” 

Solas if Maria is in a romance with Varric or the Inquisitor: “I believe she is happy. That is all that matters in the end. I hope she remains so.” 

Cole: “She locked it away. Couldn’t survive if she felt it. But she’s gone. A ghost. Everything haunts her. She doesn’t want to go back. You have to help her.”

Cole, if Maria is in a romance with the Inquisitor or Varric: “She thinks about how she buried him. Dirt in her fingers. Stone take him back. Ancestors guide him. Then she remembers she’s alive, and someone is waiting.” 

Trivia

Maria reveals throughout dialogue that she’s a fan of Varric’s books, except his romance serial, which she thinks is ridiculous. 

She can sing very well, but rarely does so. A romanced Maria (Varric or the Inquisitor) sings much more often than a non-romanced Maria. 

She has trouble sleeping and spends the nights she can’t watching Solas paint. She’s fallen asleep on his sofa multiple times. 

She is an expert marksman and a bit of a perfectionist. Any flaws in her technique have to be stamped out. 

If her and Varric are in a relationship, their daughter is named Marguerite after the daisies Varric used to give her. 

#dragon age #female cadash #varric tethras #dragon age inquisition #female cadash/inquisitor #female cadash/varric tethras #solas #omg this is so long #i'm so sorry

[fromtheplanethexagon]

the robot problem: a critical look at tobecky, 5 years late

hello wordgirl fandom i am back :) and i have a lot of thoughts that i never got around to expressing before i moved on from the show. so be aware that everything i'm saying is based on my experiences during the 2012-2016 era of the fandom & state of tumblr in general, and i am not familiar with more recent fan content.

it's been over five years since the show ended, and @ifbrd​ reminded me (along with some great analysis) that while tobecky was super popular since before the show technically started (thanks to the play date shorts), it's pretty unhealthy in a lot of ways that tend to be excused or flat out ignored in fanworks. i'd like to reflect on that a bit (a lot); specifically, how both the show and the fandom approached this enemies-to-lovers ship, and how easily this ship can slip into uncomfortable territory if we're careless about how we interpret the ship and create fan content of it.

i will admit, i'm mostly writing this as a response to past me and my old creations - though i moved on from the show as a whole years ago, i do like taking the time to reflect on old interests once in a while, and reevaluating my thoughts on them. and this ship is probably the biggest one that still lurks in the corners of my mind once in a while, so let's go.

cherish is the word: a short positive note before a much longer negative one

i wanted to start this essay off with some positivity, because i am going to be very negative after this. tobecky was, in some ways, cute. it's obvious from the very beginning that these two characters are on pretty equal ground, even if one of them isn't aware of it. and that's part of the fun - the irony of how unaware tobey is that his nemesis/crush/person that pretty much always wins against him is someone that he completely dismisses as incompetent. i want to point this out because honestly, in general i don't like enemies-to-lovers because a lot of them use a power imbalance within the dynamic, and i hate power imbalances, especially when it comes to actual life-or-death scenarios (at least, as much as cartoons can do that). in most episodes, becky is never actually forced to go along with his wishes. she's not held in a 'date' against her will, nor is she ever really outwitted by him. i bring this up because there is one huge, uncomfortable exception, which i will get to later.

another big plus to the ship is the fact that they just... get along? even when fighting? of course we get brief moments where they just hang out and talk about paintings or whatever, but i'm talking about how much they get each other, even if they don't realize it. like the word banter, for example. been there since day one. becky loves words, and while most other people in her life don't really care (ranging from 'eh, that's cool i guess' to her brother calling it annoying), tobey gives her a chance to show off and thus treats her as a worthy adversary as herself, not because of her more generic superpowers - something that we've seen in canon that she feels self-conscious about (see: her motivation in patch game). one of the less noticed examples, to me, is "it's your party and i'll cry if I want to", because it's just - okay. they both are excluded from a social event, and while it's obvious that tobey deals with it by destroying the city, it's also pretty obvious that becky also deals with her frustration by fighting in that battle. like, yes, realistically it's just objectively bad that he's destroying buildings. but they're also providing each other with a way to work through their frustrations, first by fighting and then by talking things out, and finally by hanging out together instead of dwelling on being excluded from the party.

so it makes a lot of sense to me that many tobecky fans gravitated towards writing far-in-the-future fic, usually by implying that some growth had taken place before starting to write the ship. (there are, as far as i'm aware, 2... maybe 3 exceptions, that take the time to attempt a real redemption for him, at least when i left the fandom.) because if you take away his worst moments, either by reasoning out that he was 10 years old and a mess, or that he was a cartoon character in a cartoon world where everyone's actions are over-the-top, or by just flat-out pretending that certain episodes never happened, there's some pretty solid ground to start a ship on.

go gadget go: we all do not see it, we simply close our eyes (review of canon)

when the show began, i was the same age as the characters. a lot of other people were, too - at least in my cohort of the fandom. i think it's pretty safe to say that many of us have fond memories of the show's earlier seasons, and held on to that interest as we got older, for whatever reasons. so like, not to be all 'as an OG fan...', but i remember seeing the shorts air for the first time in 2006. i have a diary entry in july of 2009 about how i, a 12yo with no concept of the idea of 'shipping', was disappointed in the new tobey episode because i wanted more tobecky interactions. (that was robo-camping, btw, lol.) and so i remember how exciting their rivalry felt, watching them as someone literally their exact same age, and then watching that again as a nostalgic 17yo, and then uh... growing up, to put it frankly, and realizing just how unhealthy most of their interactions were.

okay what i meant to say was, this section is an overview of the relationship's canon portrayal throughout the years.

first, we have early tobecky: this includes the shorts and the first few seasons. this is their classic relationship: he likes her and takes robots on rampages to get her attention, she majorly disapproves and has fun taking him down. we've all seen the show, you know what i'm talking about. his backhanded ways of trying to find out her identity often feature prominently in the episodes, which - sigh, i've mentioned this whole issue before, but it's kind of a grey area in the whole uncomfortable-factor thing, because while trying to find out her identity is VERY invasive, it's something that like... everyone in the show tries to do, even her canon crush (scoops). on the one hand, it's really not a great look, but on the other hand, this is a cartoon meant to parody a genre in which this trope is extremely common. so i just wanna say that i have Issues and Thoughts on this aspect of their relationship, but there are other things i find more important to discuss here.

second, we have late tobecky: this is seasons 7-8. this is... a very strange and huge shift from the previous dynamic, though it's not necessarily obvious. what i mean by that is that for some reason, the show writers made it so that half of tobey’s rampages have nothing to do with his crush on wordgirl, even though that used to be the sole reason for his villainy. seriously. we have the birthday episode, where he's upset because he feels left out; wg vs tobey vs the dentist, where he's mad that he has a cavity; and trustworthy tobey, where his robot goes on a rampage... after becky accidentally makes it malfunction. the two outliers are ‘guess who’s coming to thanksgiving dinner’ and ‘patch game’, but they still differ from previous seasons because 1) his destruction is isolated to a forest far away from the city, and 2) his motive is still to impress wordgirl, but his methods are relatively tame. also he completely gives up on the secret identity thing??? i may have missed some things but i think he straight up tells her 'yeah there's no way you're wordgirl, lol' and the subject is just dropped for the rest of the show.

i also want to include 'the robot problem' here, because it's one of two season 6 tobey episodes, and follows the 'doesn't destroy buildings to get her attention' pattern: in fact, he teams up with her to try and stop someone else from going on a rampage (even if his reasons are selfish, lol).

and finally. the other season 6 episode. we have go gadget go, the bane of my time spent in the fandom. because GGG is the single episode where tobey truly manages to take away her autonomy, and proceeds to abuse that power for an extended period of time, for his own amusement. it's bad. it's Very Bad. put in the context that it's a white boy doing this to an (ambiguously) brown girl, it's REALLY REALLY BAD. and the more i look back on it, tbh, the more weirded out i am that the show not only made it seem like she wasn't affected at all within the episode, it just... forgot about it (which is not unusual for shows and especially children’s shows, but WG does make some efforts to either retain continuity or create canon reasons for why things are forgotten about). it's the kind of thing that you can't excuse and honestly you can't redeem (like at this point, you gotta ask yourself why you're spending so much effort trying to redeem this guy when becky has several other possible ships that are nowhere near this unhealthy - violet, scoops, honestly even victoria if you want another hero/villain ship, my absolute fave rarepair rose, etc).

so if you want to still ship it you have to just pretend that it never happened. (i remember trying for weeks to write something exploring the aftermath of this episode, to try and make myself feel better about it, but the more i wrote the more i realized just how traumatic this event should've been, so i eventually just dropped it.) and i brought up my own timeline of experiences earlier to point out that this episode aired eight whole years after the show started. which means that when i saw it, even though i was a huge stickler for canon at the time, i'd built up my own idea of the show and characters strongly enough to go 'yeah, no, this episode sucks and i am going to pretend that it doesn't exist'. and i think a lot of other people did too, because i really saw like... no one mention it, ever, except for some rogue fanfics over on ff dot net that already liked dynamics like that.

because here's the thing, and i don't know if people nowadays are aware of it? but i'm 80% sure (cannot find a source, so the other 20% is that it was just a rumor) that the show was originally supposed to end after season 6. and even if it's a rumor, it makes a ton of sense, because we get 1) an 'ending' to tobecky, which is a bad one, 2) a permanent wordgirl identity reveal that significantly changes one of the major dynamics in the show, 3) an episode where TJ gets to work with wordgirl and get a nice potential ending for their sibling dynamic, 4) an episode where we see Two-Brains explore life without his henchmen... the list goes on, and idk how many of these are just major stretches. but the point is. if the show had ended there, that would've been a pretty solid ending for many things, including their relationship: aka, it would prove that it was only ever heading somewhere bad, and when tobey finally has his moment of triumph, he is truly evil about it. and this provides us fans who HATE go gadget go with an easy reason to dismiss it - we can say that it was an attempt to conclude things in a way that wouldn't have happened if the writers had known they'd get more time. but despite that... it is still a canon episode.

it is odd to me how dramatically the dynamic shifts after that, though, because we seriously go from 'worst case ever, tobecky is toxic, your ship is dead' to 'no actually they get along and hang out and get ice cream together and tobey isn't even pressuring her into it, she's happy to go along with it :)' like, immediately. i never knew much about the show writers, so i don't know if the writers changed in between these seasons, but i would absolutely not be surprised if they did.

the earlier episodes are definitely problematic as well (though they pale in comparison to GGG) but i think everyone who ships it is aware considering that tobey is, yknow, a villain. from memory, he destroys buildings to get her attention, lies to her about the level of danger that people are in to trick her into spending more time with him, blackmails her into reading his poetry, and he creates a robot based on her that’s supposed to be devoted to him (but of course, all of these things backfire). not great stuff of course, but like... he’s a villain, that’s the point of his character. and considering that he’s a child these are things that can be redeemed, if done thoughtfully.

anyway, to sum up this section, the show starts off with a pretty standard 'enemies with an unrequited crush' setup, takes a really dark turn for a single episode, and then for the rest of the show takes their dynamic in a direction that makes it much, much easier to ship. as long as you ignore a lot of previous content.

wordbot: where's becky's autonomy in all of this? (misogyny)

we've finally gotten to the fandom. i recognize that a lot of this is going to come across as hypocritical considering how active i used to be re: this ship, but like... i'm a very different person now. anyway. disclaimer i guess - i don't write this to accuse all tobecky shippers of being like this - i know a lot of us aren't/weren't! but boy do i have things to point out, so without further ado:

it is very hard to ship this without allowing some bit of misogyny to slip into it. very, very hard. the entire premise of the ship involves a girl falling in love with a boy that repeatedly pressures her to date him via threats to the safety of herself and people she cares about, which... it's 2020, i shouldn't have to explain why that's terrible & a terrible example to set for children (which is why i am glad they never made it canon, tbh). best-case fan content has tobey stop pressuring her and start working to redeem himself out of an actual change of heart, which leads to becky seeing him in a new light. worst-case fan content treats his incessant pressuring and sometimes outright threats as something romantic - and even worse, romantic to the point where he deserves her attention and love as a reward for not giving up or whatever. i did see this pretty frequently for a while, especially in the earlier 2010s (didn't read much, Not My Thing At All), but i don't feel like going into detail here because of how obviously problematic it is. one medium (but still bad) case is where the fan content makes him start his redemption, but treats her liking him back as a reward for not knocking buildings over anymore. another not great case is where she tries to fix him with her love, which is a very common and very dangerous romantic trope. both are just... so incredibly unfair to her.

in content where she tries to 'fix him'... yeah i feel like it's really obvious how misogynistic that is. girls and women should not feel responsible for the evil actions of men, plain and simple. idk what else to say here i just really hate that trope and hated it back then and it just sucks! so can we not do that anymore, thanks.

in content that treats her like a reward for good behavior, there really isn't much of an explanation for what she sees in him. if she just goes 'oh wow, you're good now, i am going to fall in love with you for it' the whole thing falls flat because it makes NO sense whatsoever. we get to hear so much about tobey and his feelings and why he likes her and how he feels about it, but where is that energy for becky? why does she choose to trust him, to spend time around him, what does she enjoy about his presence? where is her getting over scoops in the process of falling for tobey? where is her telling her friends about this, confiding in them, asking them for advice? where is her choice in the matter?

win a day with wordgirl: do you guys even like becky or do you just like the idea of her (misogyny... 2!)

it was pretty standard for all fandoms the early-mid 2010s, but that's still not a good excuse for why so many tobecky fanfictions centered specifically around tobey's feelings while refusing to give becky the same level of empathy and nuance. it is true that to ship them comfortably you have to redeem him to some degree, which means spending time figuring him out and trying to find ways to pull him to the light without feeling super OOC. but ships take two people??? and there was so much potential for fanfics to explore becky's complex feelings on the matter - because she is! complex! she's heroic and kind but she's petty and has a competitive streak, she easily befriends villains but also doesn't trust them and doesn't believe they can ever really change, she's the savior of an entire planet but has feelings of inadequacy as her civilian identity and struggles with feeling like she can be successful without superpowers, she's great at the straightforward meanings and uses of words and loves reading but struggles to write passages that aren't dry as hell, it can be easily headcannoned that she's neurodivergent (special interests, issues with fitting in with her peers, taking things very literally, etc)... seriously there is SO MUCH to explore about her character, and a lot of it comes into play when you add tobey into the mix (literally ALL of the things i mentioned are explored at some point using tobey as a parallel or foil), but i rarely saw fanfiction that explored her thoughts on things further than 'he's evil but... maybe good?' or 'he's evil but... i kind of like him anyway?'.

if you want her to fall for him while being a villain, explore it!! why does she go against her morals? does she lie to herself about it to feel better? does she feel like she has to 'fix him' as part of her superhero duties to the city, and if so, how does that affect her as she tries and fails to help him? does she fall for him when she believes that he's turning good, only to feel betrayed when he starts acting worse because he feels like he can get away with it? it's such a shame that fanworks spend so little time even considering these questions, and it is absolutely a product of how deeply misogyny is/was baked into how we approach media (especially back then).

tobey goes good: but wait, i thought this show was progressive (a conclusion, i guess)

ifbrd wrote a great meta recently about how the show is a bit misogynist, despite being progressive in several ways. honestly i don't have much to add, but i'd really recommend reading through this; it makes a lot of great observations about the ways that male and female characters are presented differently through the show

i have little to add, so i'd just like to conclude with a reflection on the ship from my current viewpoint. i do think part of the reason so many of us latched onto the ship, despite how obviously problematic it was, is that the show treats a lot of things that would be serious in real life as normal or even comedic - which is fine lol, i'm not going to pretend that it's not a show for little kids, so they have to keep the tone light.

but if we, as teens/adults, decide to engage with this content in a more realistic manner, we have to be prepared to confront how messed up so many of the things going on really are. and if you still want to ship it, there's nothing inherently wrong with that! there's a lot of interesting things to explore in this ship, no matter what stage of enemies-to-friends-to-lovers you write them at, and it can be really helpful to have a space where you can explore a dynamic such as this in fiction. (speaking from experience here tbh, writing some fic for them helped me deal with complicated feelings about some ex-longtime friends.)

so to write this ship at all means that there are canon issues that you need to deal with if you want to have them end up in a healthy relationship in any manner that makes sense (unless you create an AU where none of that is applicable, which, power to you then). and i’m not saying ‘write them with a healthy endgame or you’re Bad’, not at all lol. but at least please, please take a step back once in a while to examine the dynamic that you’re writing, and please be careful about whether you mean to be romanticizing whatever behaviors you end up portraying as good.

#wordgirl #becky botsford #tobey mccallister #tobecky #tobecky critical #has anyone ever used that tag before LMAO #anyway: i may come back and reword the ending because i am not totally happy with it #but wow this is so many words. so many. send help

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #110.1: Hassan of the Hundred Personas #1: Asako

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’ll begin our exhaustive look into the various lives of the Hundred Personas, and how best to represent them in D&D 5e. If we hurry we should be able to squeeze 3 Hassans in each week, meaning we’ll be done in time for Halloween!

We’re just messing with you- we’ll get all 100 Hassans into a 20 level build if it kills us.

Check out the Hundred Personas’ build breakdown below the cut, or their character sheet over here!

Next up: You have chosen...wisely.

Race and Background

The body that housed the Hundred Personas in life was almost certainly human, but we’re not limited by spritework like FGO is- that means we can account for all 100 personalities taking the reigns instead of just having one main character talking. To make this a bit easier, you’re going to be a Changeling. This gives you +1 Dexterity and +2 Charisma, as well as Changeling Instincts. This would normally give you two skills we’re getting anyway, but thanks to Tasha’s we can swap it out for Any two skills. As one hundred people, you have some leeway in what skills you pick, but I’d suggest focusing on intelligence and wisdom based ones- you’ll be good enough at the other skills to make up for it.

Of course the big selling point of the Changeling is its ability to Change Appearance. As an action, you can change your appearance and voice, as well as gender, race, height, and weight (as long as you stay the same size). You can’t turn into creatures you haven’t seen, and you can’t add or remove limbs (sorry if you were hoping for centaur Hassans). You stay in this new form until you change appearance again or die. Sure, in FGO all the Hassans are human, but why would that be the case in D&D? Toss some extra races in there for flavor, why not?

Similarly, you could probably pick any background you want, but for the sake of consistency we’ll get Acolyte again to match Cursed Arm. This gives you Insight and Religion proficiencies.

Ability Scores

We’re using point buy again, but for the exact opposite reason most people normally do- we’re not minmaxing, we’re maxminning for optimal coverage. When your specialty is Literally Everything, you can’t afford a negative modifier. Make Strength, Dexterity, and Charisma 13, and Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom 12. You’re not the strongest servants out there, but you are the most well-rounded.

Class Levels

1. Rogue 1: Technically there’s better classes for you to start than rogue, but they get a lot of skills, and skills are your bag. You get proficiency in Dexterity and Intelligence saving throws, as well as four rogue skills. Again, any skill are technically fine, but I highly recommend at least picking up Stealth and Deception. You’re all assassins, and if you can keep the fact that all 100 Hassans share a body a secret you’ll be a lot more intimidating.

To make your skill domination even more complete, first level rogues get Expertise, doubling the proficiency bonus of two skills. Again, I highly recommend Stealth and Deception for this. You can also make a Sneak Attack against creatures you have advantage over or are otherwise occupied as long as you’re using a finesse weapon, adding 1d6 damage to the attack.

You also get Thieves’ Cant, and unlike every other rogue we’ve made you can actually use it, since you’ve got 99 accomplices built in with you. Communication’s important in any relationship, especially when you can’t leave.

2. Fighter 1: You probably have some idea where we’re going with this. For now, you get a fighting style. Gozul the Strong isn’t that delicate, so grab Unarmed Fighting to get him some solid damage. It’s not synergistic, but these kinds of disagreements are inevitable in group projects. 

The good news is while one of you is out fighting, the rest of you can spend your bonus action on a Second Wind for a bit of healing once per short rest.

3. Fighter 2: Another benefit to being multiple people is ganging up on idiots who think they’re in a one on one fight. Thanks to Action Surge, you can take two actions in a single turn once per short rest. That’s almost like being two people, right?

4. Fighter 3: I can see that wasn’t enough for you. I get it, you’re a discerning customer. That’s fine though; feast your eyes on the Echo Knight! This subclass lets you Manifest Echo as a bonus action, creating a copy of yourself that you can attack through. I’d argue that as a changeling any one of your forms could still count as a copy of you, but that’s a fight you’ll have to wage with your DM. You can also Unleash Incarnation a number of times per long rest equal to your Constitution Modifier, adding an extra attack from your echo when you take the attack action. ...Don’t expect to use that too often.

Echos have an AC of 14 plus your proficiency bonus and 1 hit point, making them slightly harder to kill than you were in Zero. They use your saves, and you can swap places with them as a bonus action plus 15′ of movement.

5. Rogue 2: We got the obligatory subclass out of the way, so now we can focus back on your main class. Your fighter levels just gave you a great reason to use your bonus action, but your new Cunning Action gives you even more flexibility, letting you dash, disengage, or hide as a bonus action.

6. Rogue 3: We have one subclass, what’s the harm of another? As a Phantom rogue, your Dissociative Identity Disorder comes to the forefront. You hear Whispers in your Head, giving you one skill or tool proficiency that can be changed at the end of a short rest, giving you incredible flexibility. You can also use Wails from the Grave, which I couldn’t think of a good renaming for, to deal half your sneak attack dice in necrotic damage to another creature after using your sneak attack on someone. Imagine this as another you popping out to make the most of the opportunity. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus.

You also get Steady Aim, exchanging your movement for advantage on your next attack. This uses your bonus action, but it basically gives you free advantage with your Echo. Remember, it only shuts down your movement. You’ve got 99 other bodies ready to go.

Also, your sneak attack reaches 2d6.

7. Bard 1: I don’t really have a flavor justification for this one. I guess you could get philosophical and point out how the self is just a story we tell ourselves to make sense of what we do, but that’s reaching. 

Anyway, you get proficiency in any one skill, Bardic Inspiration, some d6 you can pass to allies as a bonus action to give them a bonus on attacks, checks, and saves, and Spells that are cast with Charisma. 

Grab Minor Illusion for another way to make a copy of yourself, Message to keep things quiet on missions, Comprehend Languages because let’s be honest at least one of you probably has heard of Duolingo by now, Feather Fall and Longstrider to keep up with Cursed Arm, and Healing Word. Medicine is a skill in this game, so you’ve got to have a bit of healing.

8. Fighter 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to round up your Strength, and put the other point into Dexterity for later.

9. Bard 2: Second level bards get one of the three reasons we came here: Jack of All Trades. This feature adds half your proficiency to nonproficient skill checks, so the few things you’re not good at, you’re still good at. You also get a Song of Rest, adding 1d6 to healing done at short rests while you’re in the party. Not... totally in character, but it was free. Your friends can also add your Magical Inspiration to their healing and damaging spells now.

Speaking of spells- it doesn’t matter what you get this level, we’re swapping it out next level anyway.

10. Bard 3: Your last subclass is Lore Bard for three more skill proficiencies as well as Cutting Words, letting you spend a use of inspiration as a reaction to reduce an incoming attack by 1d6, possibly making it miss you. You also get another round of Expertise for two skills of your choice.

Your last spells are Enhance Ability to make your skills even more powerful, giving the target advantage on one kind of skill check for the duration. If your DM allows UA, you can also grab Mirror Image to make three copies of yourself that will take damage for you.

11. Fighter 5: Fifth level fighters get an Extra Attack with each attack action. There’s two of you fighting- two attacks should be the minimum.

12. Fighter 6: Use this ASI to become a Skill Expert. This feat rounds out your Dexterity, and gives you one skill proficiency and expertise with one skill.

13. Fighter 7: Our last stop in the fighter class gives you an Echo Avatar, letting you see and hear through your echo for up to 10 minutes. While this is effective, your echo has a range of 1000 feet. The Hundred Hassans made for an effective spy network in Fate Zero, and now they do in D&D as well.

14. Rogue 4: Use your next ASI to gain some more Strength so you and Gozul can tag-team enemies effectively.

15. Rogue 5: At fifth level your sneak attack grows to 3d6, and you can make an Uncanny Dodge as a reaction to halve the damage of a single incoming attack.

16. Rogue 6: You gain Expertise in two more skills, pick whichever are the most effective by this point.

17. Rogue 7: Your sneak attack is now 4d6, and you get a big bonus to your echo’s (and your) survivability thanks to your Evasion. When you make a dexterity saving throw to avoid damage, failures deal half damage and successes deal no damage at all.

18. Rogue 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Constitution for more health and another unleashed incarnation per long rest.

19. Rogue 9: Ninth level phantoms can make Tokens of the Departed as a reaction when a creature dies near you. While holding one of these trinkets, you have advantage on death and constitution saves, and you can destroy a soul trinket to gain one of two effects- either a free use of Wails from the Grave, or you can ask the spirit trapped within a question. I really don’t have a good way to flavor the latter option though-maybe a temporary form of introjection, but that’s really stretching. You should probably just use it to stab people more.

20. Rogue 10: Your capstone level is another ASI. Bump up your Dexterity for a higher AC and better knife skills.

Pros:

You have one of the strongest skill checks so far- if you pick your proficiencies the way I did in the character sheet, you’ll only have one skill with a modifier below a +5, and with Enhance Ability and planning, you’ll have advantage on any important checks. You can also use your phantom proficiency to pick up niche skills that other builds wouldn’t bother to have. Laugh all you want, but the one time you need chef’s tools proficiencies, you’ll be ready.

You are great at being a spy. You have an amazing stealth score, and can use your Echo Avatar to sneak into places and teleport a thousand feet at a time. You can also squeeze info out of the dead, and could probably disguise yourself as any random occupation you could think of.

Rogues and Echo Knights mix together very well. Your echos have a lot more survivability than regular fighters, and they help you get off your sneak attacks much easier, and the extra attacks don’t hurt either. You also get plenty of HP from your fighter levels, and can mix that together with a rogue’s evasion techniques. (Also, your echo has good AC, so your cutting words can be very effective to keep it around) 

Cons:

We’re one level short of Reliable Talent, which is a must-have for a skill focused build. I would almost recommend getting rid of the last fighter level to grab it.

Your spells are pretty useful, but you don’t have many spell slots, so you’ll have to be careful.

The game’s got way too many tools for one swappable proficiency to cover them all, so even with your best attempts, sometimes you’ll just be bad at something. The horror.

#Fate Grand Order #D&D 5e #Hassan of the Hundred Personas #fgo #Fate and Phantasms

[denndrawings]

Hi and welcome to Misha Mixes Unrelated Things. Todays episode is called: The Grishaverse Is A DnD Campaign That Got (VERY) Out Of Hand And Here’s Why

(There are going to be spoilers of. Pretty much everything. Except for King of Scars because I’m only like 3 chapters in so. No spoilers from KoS)

Let’s begin with the SOC duology because that’s the first thing I read and also I feel like it has a more “conventional” dnd-esque narrative (probably because of the multiple POVs and stuff idk).

So, first things first: characters. While I think all of the crows are equally important to the plot of the book I also think that not all of them are players’ characters. I don’t think Kaz is, for instance, and probably Wylan isn’t either. But let me explain the rest first and then I’ll elaborate on this.

Inej is a classic rogue with her amazing skills and tragic backstory and everything. I think the person that plays her would probably be a beginner because Inej’s backstory is so intertwined with the plot and so well fitted to the city where the story begins and she has such a clear role and stuff that it can only be because the DM had a say on this. From my experience at least and I’ve been DMing for like 5 years now so maybe I know a thing or two. I may be wrong tho.

Matthias is an oathbreaker paladin. The drüskelle sounds like the kind of half military/half religious organization able to provide paladins in a dnd game. They would be Oath of Devotion paladins. Or like a twisted version of those but yes. Oath of Devotion to Djel or whatever I don’t really like fjerdans let me be. I also think Matthias’ player and Nina’s knew each other/had player with each other before and that’s why they made a backstory together and made sure their characters were… a thing from the beginning. I think they wouldn’t be as committed to the DM as Inej’s character so they probably chose a far off place to set their backstory so they didn’t have to learn all of the kerch politics and stuff and join gangs and shit (even thought Nina’s player kind of ended up doing it but I think I remember it was Kaz who found her and not the other way around so).

Nina is a cleric but like. Either a Death or a War Domain cleric. Not a cleric suited for healing but for killing. Cool shit, I personally love clerics. I think the player would have the curse of being the only “““healer””” of the group without even being a real healer. It happens to the best of us ;_; (not to me tho I never play I’m a forever DM XDD)

I think Jesper is a fighter. I have considered making him an artificer but yeah, no because he didn’t build his guns or anything he’s just really fucking good at shooting stuff. That’s a fighter to me. And he later double-classes and stuff when they arrive to the Ice Court to be able to do his thing. I think this player is this type of player the DM invites to the table because they have played together before and they are fun as shit and they kinda help them direct the party where they need to go. I personally love that kind of player but I mean, who wouldn’t?

So yes, now on why Kaz and Wylan aren’t players’ characters. Maybe this is gut feeling of mine and I’m wrong but they are like. Too well intertwined with the plot like. Wylan is definitely this npc the DM brought randomly to like maybe kill him at some point and make Loving Father Van Eck want to mess with the Crows and then the party just fell in love with him and so the DM couldn’t kill him and made an incredibly tragic backstory for him instead where Bad Guy Van Eck became the man we know and he just was a terrible man stupid enough to mess with them.

And Kaz… he is just /too/ in control to not be an npc. Literally nobody but the DM would know so much about the city and the npcs and everything. That’s just Not A Thing. It would almost be meta-rol. For me it makes sense that at the beginning Kaz was only going to be like the Crows’ hirer like, the contact between Van Eck and the players’ characters. And this time I don’t think it was the players’ idea that he stayed, it was probably the DM’s. Having a character that knows pretty much everything is just So Useful to a DM. And then the DM fell in love with him, gave him an amazing backstory and issues and everything. And the final miracle of bringing Inej’s parents to Ketterdam is something only a DM can do like. The man is a disaster but I think he totally has the signature of the DM of a chaotic AF party that realized that their party needed a compass to remind them all the time what their mission was.

About the plot per se…man I don’t know what to say. That looks like the DM pitching a simple robbery and everybody getting nat20s in super weird situations and getting away with stuff. But I mean, that’s DnD in a nutshell so.

My headcanon for Matthias’ ending is that the player had to leave the group for some reason. They probably had this super cool redemption arc planned for him that he totally deserved (listen I Don’t Like Matthias like. At all. But the man worked for it ok? I think I could have get to maybe like him if he had a little more time to grow but whatever) but then they had to leave and the group didn’t want to like get rid of him right away or for him to become an npc so the DM and Nina’s player took turns playing him until well. The thing. You know. It was kind of a sudden death like, players’ characters usually have death saves and stuff and they don’t get killed that easily and that’s why I think Matthias wasn’t a player character anymore even though he began the campaign as one.

And because y’all have been good and have read my bullshit until this point, here you have my headcanon for the trilogy:

The Grisha trilogy is an overly complicated off-roading some of the players made up during the campaign like imagine the discord server where they usually play. Well in most DnD discord servers there is a channel where you can roleplay through text as your character. I think the Grisha trilogy was born there from the DM telling kind of the backstory of the world and Sankta Alina and the war and stuff and the players made up characters or maybe just took side characters from that story and made them into Proper Characters to roleplay following that but also kind of ended up developing more aspects about it (I imagine the DM probably had a few details on that, like an outline or something and the players just kinda took it to a whole new level. Players often do that kind of magic). And they were all hyped AF when their DnD characters met their Other Dnd Characters, obviously.

I don’t know which player would play each character, though. Maybe Jesper’s was Nikolai just because they both are /like that/ and Nina’s was Zoya and maybe Inej’s was Genya. Or the other way around, idk. I feel like the whole monologue Nina has at some point of Zoya Is To The Drüskelle Like Jarl Brun Is To The Grisha sounds like Nina’s player is also Zoya’s player but idk.

So yes I can probably elaborate on everything if someone’s interested but this is what I have so far.

#grishaverse #soc #six of crows #hc #headcanon #dnd #dnd au #martin blackwood #the grisha triumvirate #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #nina zenik #matthias helvar #nikolai lantsov #zoya nazyalensky #genya safin #ive been thinking about this for a while so #dungeons and dragons

[monstersdownthepath]

Spiritual Spotlight: Angazhan, the Ravenous King

Chaotic Evil Demon Lord of Apes, Tyrants, and Jungles

Domains: Animal, Chaos, Evil, Plant Subdomains: Decay, Demon, Fur, Growth

The Complete Book of the Damned, pg. 18~19

Obedience: Ingest hallucinogenic jungle plants and then beat a complex rhythm on a large drum made of human skin and bones while chanting prayers to Angazhan. Benefit: Gain a +4 profane bonus on saving throws against diseases and poisons caused by exposure to the jungle or inflicted by creatures native to jungles.

Heurgh, Angazhan has some pretty restrictive requirements here, and his Benefit really only works against a single environment, making Angazhan one of the most environmentally-locked deities since Dagon! It’s fitting, considering Angazhan is basically only worshiped in Darkest Africa the Mwangi Expanse, a massive and terrifying jungle he’s had his six-fingered hands buried deep into ever since humanity began settling the land. Since worship rarely ever leaves a jungle home, any player character wanting to serve the Ravenous King had better make sure they’ll be sticking close to the vine-draped homeland, or they’re just completely out of luck! Not just because they lose out on the benefit above, but because they lose out on a good number of Boons too!

anyway, it’s a difficult alignment to set up for and keep a secret, if you’re trying to hide your worship of the Tyrant King. You COULD pass off the drum as being made of animal tissues, but the loud chanting to a known and famous Demon Lord and the fact you’re likely to be seeing stars and colors due to your Hearty Breakfast is much harder to explain if someone kicks your door in. The fact you need both jungle drugs and a drum means this Obedience is utterly ruined if you get robbed or have your equipment stolen, though at the very least it’s easy enough to replace your belongings... if you’re in a jungle. If you’re not, getting a new drum is simple, but a visit to the black market may be necessary to restock on your Hearty Breakfast.

The benefit is notably weaker than other benefits of a similar theme; a few deities are generous enough to give universal protections from poison and disease, but Angazhan punishes you for going where he cannot tread. Fitting for a tyrant who likes having people under his thumb, but annoying for someone trying to actually extend his reach. In a jungle area, however, it’s MUCH more impressive than it looks in a vacuum; many, many, many, MANY horrors within the deep and mysterious tangles rely on poisons or disease to fell their enemies and their prey, so the added protection will always come in handy!

Boons are acquired slowly: the first once you reach 12 hit dice, the second at 16, and the third at 20. However, the Evangelist, Exalted, and Sentinel Prestige Classes can be entered as early as level 7; doing so grants you the Boons at levels 10, 13, and 16 instead. Servants of demons may also take the Demoniac Prestige Class; you don’t get the Boons any faster than E/E/S, but you may select which Boon set you get, and you get cool demon-related powers!

------- EVANGELIST -------

Boon 1: The Jungle Consumes. Gain Pass Without Trace 3/day, Tree Shape 2/day, or Spike Growth 1/day.

‘Consumes’ indeed; Spike Growth can render a frankly offensive amount of terrain completely inhospitable (ten 20ft squares!), shredding 1d4 HP off every creature trying to pass through a single 5ft square and threatening to halve their movement speed for a full day every time they take damage. As anyone who’s played as or fought against a Druid can attest to, Spike Growth is useful for exactly two things (slowing an enemy’s retreat or advance) but it’s amazing at doing so. The sheer amount of terrain the spell covers and the length of time it covers for (an hour per level) makes useful for stopping everything from a charging dragon to a charging army... provided your foe has less than 4 DR. In order to halve someone’s movespeed they need to actually take damage from the growth AND fail a Reflex save, meaning even the meager DR 5 you’re likely to encounter at levels 10+ is enough to make Spike Growth completely irrelevant.

If you can use it against a foe who’s not immune to it, though, it’s absolutely stellar. Moving through even a single 20ft square triggers four separate Reflex saves to avoid having one’s movespeed halved for a full day, and--as written--the halved speed can’t be undone with Fast Healing or Regeneration, the victim MUST find a Cure spell. Perhaps the biggest downside is that using it to its fullest potential--that is, to cripple a charging swarm of foes--is unlikely to happen, delegating it to crowd control versus a small amount of enemies.

It’s leagues better than the niche Tree Shape, but Pass Without Trace also has its merits, hiding up to 10 people from sniffing noses and prying eyes for half a day, letting you and your allies effortlessly vanish into the foliage. Indeed, all three of these spells are extremely useful in the jungle setting Angazhan demands you remain in, so if you ARE actually hiding around in the Mwangi Expanse, all three of these can be genuine picks depending on if you plan to be a trapper, a stalker, or a sentree that day.

Boon 2: Canopy Crawler. Your feet become prehensile and apelike, allowing them to act as a second pair of hands for every purpose except wielding a shield or weapon, such as to execute somatic components, to aid in climbing, to hold objects, and to maintain your Dexterity bonus to AC while climbing. In addition, you gain a climb speed equal to your walking speed +10, and can attempt a Climb check in place of the following checks: Acrobatics checks to swing or leap between branches and vines; Stealth checks to remain hidden within trees, and you can move at full speed through them without penalty; and Stealth checks to snipe from trees, the penalty for doing so reduced by 10. 

The way this ability is written in the book is kind of a mess, so I tried my best to shuffle it into a more easily digestible form.

Anyway: Freaky monkey feet! For all your freaky monkey feet needs! One of the more unique Boons in the game, and unlike most highly unique Boons, this one is still highly useful! While your handfeet can’t wield weapons or shields, you can use them for more or less anything else while your actual human hands are occupied. Sleight of Hand? No, my friend, I’m on a completely different level.

The big star here is the free climb speed, which automatically gives you a meaty +8 to Climb checks, making the various skill checks it replaces much, much easier to exploit. You become an expert of gorilla... guerrilla... Gorilla Guerrilla Warfare, soundlessly moving from tree to tree and hurling spears or firing arrows with nary a peep but for the whoosh of the weapon through the branches and leaves, moving from position to position as easily as playing hopscotch. Even if you never invested in Stealth at all, you can suddenly pour ranks into Climb and become an ersatz Rogue for the party, leading a silent charge against the foes of the Ravenous King’s cult. 

Side note, this ability combines beautifully with all 3 of the spell-likes from The Jungle Consumes, as your brachiating movements put you above Spike Growth, Pass Without Trace makes you utterly impossible to nonmagically track if you attack at night, and Tree Shape lets you become a horror movie villain that vanishes the instant it appears you’re about to be ‘caught.’

Boon 3: One With The Jungle. While in the jungle, you gain blindsight to a range of 60 feet, you gain a +2 insight bonus to AC and on saving throws, and you are never flat-footed or surprised. You ignore cover and concealment caused by natural features of the jungle, as the very plants and stones twist out of the path of your attacks and spells.

An eternal Diet Foresight if your reward for remaining in the Ravener King’s grip, but this ability--unlike Canopy Crawler--is entirely blank if you adventure outside of your god’s chosen locale, a punishing loss of an otherwise incredibly strong defensive ability. Being impossible to catch by surprise is good enough on its own, especially at levels where enemies can have Sneak Attacks exceeding +4d6, poisons that cause people to hemorrhage ability scores, or fatal grappling embraces, to say nothing of what happens if a spellcaster gets the drop on everyone. The +2 to AC and universal bonus to saving throws will struggle to make a difference, but it’s a rare insight bonus and will thus stack with all your existing bonuses... and, of course, it lasts forever so long as you remain in a jungle.

I enjoy that the jungle will shuffle aside to let you shoot and swat your enemies without penalty, making my ‘treetop sniper’ suggestion in Canopy Crawler even more viable. Now, as long as you can see even the smallest portion of your target, the natural world will bend and sway to avoid your blows so that they always strike true, letting you attack enemies without the possibility of them retaliating unless they begin cutting down the whole jungle... at which point they’ll have much bigger issues than just you.

------- EXALTED -------

Boon 1: Jungle’s Wrath. Entangle 3/day, Bull’s Strength 2/day, or Summon Monster III (1 fiendish ape, 1d3 fiendish advanced baboons, or 1d4+1 fiendish baboons) 1/day.

Bull’s Strength is always nice to have to give the beefy members of your party, giving them an extra +2 to attack and damage rolls for ten or so minutes at a time, among other bonuses. Strength bonuses are some of the most boring but practical things you can hand out, because you never know when you’ll just need to do something as simple as moving a large rock or hit something for 2 more points of damage than normal. Having it at twice a day means it’ll likely carry through the most important battles or puzzles you’ll face.

Entangle, however, tends to be the better option here. See everything I said above about Spike Growth? Paste that here, as well, but trade off the damage for the ability to grapple everything trying to move through the 40ft radius(!) of plantlife you’ve affected. In some ways it’s better than Spike Growth, utterly halting the movement of anyone heading through it if they fail their save rather than halving it, and being difficult terrain even if the victims succeed, which halves their speed anyway.

Seeing summoning abilities on a Boon is usually good, but the painful limitation of only being able to summon various demon apes means it severely lacks its normal Swiss Army application. It’s only really good if you need either a distraction, or something heavy moved, both of which could be accomplished with Entangle and Bull’s Strength without it being tied to a creature with subhuman intelligence. At the very least, apes have humanoid hands and can thus perform tasks very few other summoned creatures could do, such as wielding weapons.

Boon 2: Summon Child of Angazhan. 1/day as a swift action, you can summon an Advanced Fiendish Girallon, 1d3 Advanced Fiendish Dire Apes, or 1d4+1 Advanced Fiendish Apes as if you had cast Summon Monster VI.

In spite of my mockery of the Boon above, the ape restriction here is anything but painful. ... well, it’s painful for anyone who’s not you, mind. An Advanced Fiendish Girallon is a CR 8 monstrosity with enough damage output and resilience from the Fiendish template to punch above its weight class. A Girallon is a four-armed, Large-sized ape beast with five attacks (and Rend!) a round, with enough agility and maneuverability to run down fleeing foes or chase them through just about any terrain easily.

It’s also your best option among the summons; the Dire Apes and normal apes are nice, but the chance of summoning a single Dire Ape or a meager 2 fiend apes means a Girallon is the best go-to unless you need a lot of bodies rather than one large one. The Fiendish template is really what gives this ability the oomph it needs to shrug off most of my criticism of Jungle’s Wrath, granting even your normal apes a bit of Spell Resistance and elemental resistance to Fire and Acid... though, notable, both the normal ape and the Dire Ape have too few HD to gain the advanced benefits of the Fiendish template, and none of the creatures here have high enough Charisma to make the Smite Good ability granted to them useful, even with the +4 to all ability scores from Advanced.

Perhaps the biggest gold star this power has, however, is the fact that it can be used as a swift action. You can instantaneously flank an enemy with a murderous gorilla and then stab them in the back when they rightly turn around to look at said murderous gorilla in disbelief, or you can blast them with another spell, or you can do any number of other things with the distraction you’ve just created. Don’t forget that Summon Monster VI also has a range of Close, letting you hurl a demon gorilla at an enemy from 25+5ft/lvl away. The downside, however, is that SMVI also has a duration of a meager 1 round/lvl, meaning you’ll often run into the issue of saving the use of this ability, often until you no longer need it.

Boon 3: Jungle’s Might. You gain a +2 profane bonus to your Strength score and a +2 bonus on Fortitude saving throws.

Useful but boring. It’s moderately better than most stat-buffing Boons thanks to the additional Fortitude bonus, but final Boons typically give +4 bonuses, not +2. There’s no flash or pizazz here, nothing to really expand upon, so lets move on!

------- SENTINEL -------

Boon 1: Tyrant’s Roar. Gain Command 3/day, Sound Burst 2/day, or Suggestion 1/day.

I almost got mad because I mistook Sound Burst for a different, much worse spell. Nope! That was sonic scream or whatever, one I’m so unimpressed with I didn’t even bother looking it up. Sound Burst is significantly better, anyway, able to stun a small crowd of enemies in a single casting, which is exactly what you--as the Sentinel--want to happen. Either because you’re holding back an enemy(/ies) for your allies to get into place, or because you’re holding them still so you can get in close. The damage it deals is pitiful, but it’s automatic even if they succeed against the stun effect, and you never know when 8 damage to up to a crowd will make a difference!

Like most of Angazhan’s blessings, it gets better if you’re in a jungle, as the hostility of the Mwangi Expanse means invaders are likely to be clustered together as tightly as possible to prevent attacks from all angles. Punish them, hard.

Command is in-character for the Tyrant King, and it rewards creative uses beyond the ‘come,’ ‘stay,’ and ‘drop’ commands, though those serve their purpose well enough. I’m quite partial to KNEEL, which fits Angazhan rather well! The only problem is that its low saving throw scaling means it’s unlikely to affect enemies that matter, and in combat it’s often much better to just rush in and start slapping. Out of combat Suggestion is king, though it’s an odd choice for someone who tends to force people to follow his orders through violence and threats rather than relying on coercive and subtle magic. Personally, I’d let the Face of the party or the dedicated enchanter rely on Suggestion, and carry Sound Burst around for those times you need to explode people’s eardrums.

Boon 2: Reign of Terror. You add your Strength modifier to Intimidate checks (this does not stack with Intimidating Prowess or similar feats and abilities) as well as your Charisma modifier. Once per minute, you may use Intimidate to demoralize a single creature within 30ft as a swift action, or all creatures within 10ft as a move action. When using Intimidate to demoralize a creature in this way, if your result exceeds the DC by 5 or more, the creature is frightened for 1 round and then shaken for the normal duration; if your result exceeds the DC by 10 or more, the creature cowers for 1 round, then is frightened for 1 round, and then is shaken for the normal duration. When you use Intimidate to demoralize an ally, instead of being shaken, that creature gains a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls for the appropriate duration.

While normally Boons are built to be taken advantage of by any class within the margins of those who can enter the Prestige Classes in the first place, sometimes you get one that forces you into a specific path. This one highly, highly rewards having both a high Strength and a high (or at least neutral) Charisma, and focusing a feat or two into making your Intimidate as high as possible can see you sending squadrons of enemy combatants scattering and trampling one another to get away from you. I love, love, LOVE that there’s no per-day use restriction on this power, only that it can be used once per minute, meaning you can bring it out in more or less every fight you encounter.

Exceeding the victim’s Intimidation DC by 10 or more causes them to cower, a status affliction barely above paralysis in how terrible it is to be suffering, opening them up to a whole round of being beat on without any ability to retaliate. Even if they survive the round of helplessness, they’re forced to run from you and use whatever resources they have available to get as far away from you as possible... which can be a blessing or a curse depending on what they were carrying and how badly you wanted it.

Being able to Intimidate a single foe as a swift action or a whole crowd surrounding you as a move action is strong, especially if you can bolster your prowess enough to always score 10 higher than their DC (a challenge, but not an insurmountable one)... And even if your enemies are immune to being intimidated either because they’re mindless, starved, or immune to fear, you can use this ability to give your whole team +2 to attack rolls for 4+ rounds. It’s more of a consolation prize than anything else, but note that the final sentence does not say “in this way,” meaning you can use Intimidate normally without needing the 1/minute bolstering to give your allies a bit more accuracy! Wasteful, but viable!

Boon 3: Unchallenged Tyrant. When you perform your Obedience, designate a number of present and willing creatures equal to your Charisma modifier; these are your Thralls. This designation lasts for 24 hours or until you next perform your Obedience. 3/day, you can infuse all Thralls within 50 feet of you as a swift action, granting them a +4 bonus to their Strength and Constitution scores and a +2 bonus on initiative checks, and granting any teamwork feats you have as bonus feats *for an number of rounds equal to your hit dice. If a Thrall dies within 50 feet of you at any time, you gain the effects of Death Ward (CL = half the Thrall’s Hit Dice, to a maximum of CL 20th).

*this ability originally had no listed duration, making it quite awkward and insanely powerful. I’ve added one that makes sense.

Oh, not bad! Another reward for buffing up your Charisma! Even if it’s just to a +2 bonus! And it’s a fine one, too, letting you enchant your allies with a discounted Barbarian Rage, including a bonus to initiative checks to help them move before your enemies even know what’s happening! THREE TIMES a day!!! And--wait, wait, there’s more? You also transfer ALL your teamwork feats to your Thralls? Teamwork feats are pretty powerful but wholly rely on your allies being willing to give up their own feat slots for them, and they utterly fail to work if you aren’t working together or become separated by enemy shenanigans. This ability (along with the Inquisitor’s Solo Tactics) turns those empty feat slots into something truly game-changing due to applying them to all of your Thralls at once. This means that, even if you don’t or cannot join in the fight, they can still use teamwork with each other, and all you need is one of them to be nearby to make use of feats like Lookout (if one of you can act during the surprise round, all of you can), Precise Strikes (+1d6 damage if you’re flanking an enemy)... or, perhaps the most useful of them, Coordinated Charge, allowing you and your allies to all charge the same target.

It doesn’t take a genius to see why Coordinated Charge is one of the best you can use with this ability, as the +Strength and Con bonus means you can turn even the weakest member of the party into another source of damage however small. It also means all of your melee battlers can get into the fray immediately, and if used in combination with Lookout, it can turn an enemy ambush into a pile of severed limbs and broken armor before they even realize what they’re up against.

I also like that if any of your Thralls die, you get a free Death Ward. If you know you’re going up against a necromancer or an Undead with Energy Drain, making an incredibly weak but tasty-looking creature one of your Thralls and sending them in to die is one less spell slot your Divine caster needs to use on you. I’m amused by the idea of blessing one member of your Sack Of Rats and just crushing it in your hand if you ever need a ward. If you have the Charisma for it, definitely try it out!

You can enter Monkis World here.

#Sinister Spotlight #Spiritual Spotlight #Pathfinder #Dungeons and Dragons

[youknowthelines]

Hello, @eyi125! I'm your secret santa for @fmasecretsanta2020! I'm a bit late for posting BUT I'm here \o I was extremely happy while doing these, so I hope you'll like them ♡ I couldn't decide between the white background or transparent for the Riza thing, so I put the two of them there.

I had a few ideas about those fanarts that ended up not quite growing into whole stories, but! I feel like sharing, I hope you won't mind.

For the first drawing: so, here is the thing. I was slightly obsessed with RPG when I first read your prompts, and my brain zeroed on the idea of a world where Winry was the one with alchemy/magic/you-get-it thingies and Ed, upon seeing her using it to save Al, would have his "oh" of realization of his love for her, which is something I WILL write someday and send to you (no promises about how long it'll take because I am but a humble person trotting my way through life and suffering). As of right now, though, what I have are mostly ramblings of side plots that have gotten slightly out of control, which go more or less like this: → the whole story revolves around Al, Ed and Winry playing a D&D-style RPG game and making friends along the way. Al and Ed are obsessed with it because of the adventure and in-world mechanics, and Winry is the brain of the group because she's the only one who plans their parties ahead, which means she's the reason their characters stay alive in the first place. → they get into a wildly disputed RPG group with a DM who calls themselves Truth, and, though Ed bickers with almost everyone (coughMustangcough) in it, he's definitely NOT sacrificing his fun because of one stubborn dude. → Al is the unluckiest boy in the entire thing, and right on the first weeks he's the one who keeps on almost dying and having to wreck his brain to try and come up with solutions for whatever it is the mess that he's gotten himself into this time. Truth has nothing against him (although Ed's reactions are funny when Al almost dies in game), but boy sure has some issues with rolling dices. → healer!Winry and rogue!Riza are the only useful regular players in their party, sorry, I don't make the rules. Riza's that one person who somehow rolls perfect numbers and gets to do basically whatever it is that she wants, and Winry is the one player who's so well-rounded they kinda save everyone the last minute because she's a genius. Al would be amazing if he weren't so unlucky, dwarf!Ed has the tendency to jump to conclusions and get them in trouble even when it shouldn't be possible, and thief!Roy's usually the reason why there's the possibility of trouble coming their way in the first place. → Roy spends most of his time either trying to annoy Ed or find out what's going on in-world, and his charisma stats are through the roof for reasons unknown to mankind. Truth hates him and his silvertongue, and Ed would be impressed if he weren't too busy fuming. → Ed's convinced the "god" of their game world has something against Al. He's going to punch god in the face and there's nothing on this green earth that'll stop him. Truth's amused and delighted. → anyway, the moment of realization comes when they have an in-game fight with the sins and Al, like, has basically no way of escaping, which means his character would most likely die and he'd have to stay out of their adventures and Ed will NOT have it. → there comes Winry to save the day and sacrifice HP points and some other things to bind Al's soul to a warforged, and, watching her wrecking her brain to keep his brother in the game and having fun, Ed bluescreens and realizes he loves her. A lot. The fanart is kind of this moment, in-game, when dwarf!Ed looks at healer!Winry and real-life!Ed goes "I'm gonna marry her one day".

For the second drawing: I was going with a Pride and Prejudice plot bunny that ran away from me as soon as I realized I have no idea how to draw Roy lol (which is why he only shows up being KO-ed by Riza's beauty, I'm sorry Roy) Point is: it could be seen as thief!Roy from the first AU seeing Riza wearing a dress for the first time and going "oh" for her (as if he wasn't before already) OR a pride and prejudice au OR an arranged marriage au??? prom night??? I have no understanding of events where wearing dresses is a requirement so I'm kinda lost here >///>

I hope you didn't mind my rambling! I also wish you happy holidays and an excellent new year! ♡

#fmasecretsanta2020 #i started writing the rpg fic but life's been kicking me in the face so i never got to finish it in a way i felt satisfied with #a sketch of roy in a tuxedo might or not might exist within my files #but his face looks so weird no one will ever be able to prove it #i might redraw it one day

[alarriefantasy]

It seems that the author NoShitSherlock has deleted their account and fics. Here are all the fics they had! If anyone has any of these, I’d be very very grateful if you could share! Thank you so much! :)

Like You’ve Been Gay All Along

by NoShitSherlock

Harry is Louis’ very straight boss, the person who Louis’ got a crush on.

It’s in Louis’ nature to wind Harry up until he can’t keep his hands off him, straight or not.

P.S. Don’t Drop the Soap

by NoShitSherlock

“Thank you,” Louis mumbles, returning Harry’s smile with a small one. “And please stop acting like I’m a disease that will infect you. It’s hurtful.”

“Listen, it’s not that you’re a disease. It’s just that I don’t want to be obliged to help you just because your family is linked to mine. Whatever shit you got yourself into, the aftermath of prison shouldn’t be free food and a decent bed when you haven’t got a penny to live off. You don’t deserve free food and a decent bed when there are homeless people out there more deserving who haven’t just spent five years in prison. Don’t you get it? You’re being excused because you’re pregnant and because of some stupid oath and I just don’t think those are good enough excuses to welcome a criminal into my life. Why couldn’t you go to another homeless shelter? Why here?”

The blue eyed boy blinks, eyes wide, unable to say anything.

∞

Or a prison AU where Criminology student Harry, who runs a homeless shelter with his dad Robin, has no choice but to let fresh-out-of-prison Louis into his life, and a newborn baby.

As Sweet As You Are

by Larriegal, NoShitSherlock

“Do you not have something more expensive?”

The alpha gives him a weird look, resting his hands on the table.

“Definitely not something the cost of that shade of blue that are your eyes,” he responds effortlessly.

“Why is a male omega on his own out in the middle of the woods at this time of night?” Harry speaks, staring intensely at the prince, smirk lingering on his face. “Your kind is rather rare. You should be more careful. There are a lot of rogue alphas around that won’t blink until they’ve knotted and bred you up.”

The blue eyed omega swallows, shuffling in his seat awkwardly and looking anywhere but the alpha before him.

“I ran away from home,” Louis admits, occupying himself by taking a sip of the lager instead of thinking about the fact that the alpha hasn’t yet taken his eyes off him. “My parents want me to marry someone I do not want to marry, so I ran.”

•

Louis is a runaway omega prince unaware of the dangerous alphas outside of the castle walls. Harry is the rogue alpha he meets at the 17Black tavern, but Louis doesn’t know that. Not when he appears so sweet.

Sweet Cheeks

by NoShitSherlock

Louis is an innocent, pretty in glasses, flustered mess of a high school sex-ed teacher who gets far too many dirty compliments and taps on the ass from his students. Harry, the lacrosse senior star and bad boy of Rowan High, gets transferred to Mr. Tomlinson’s sex-ed class after humiliating his previous teacher. It’s just what he likes to do.

Harry becomes set on humiliating his sex-ed teacher who just so happens to be his next door neighbour, but it backfires when sexual comments get made. There’s one thing about Harry Styles: he don’t do teachers.

MASE.

by NoShitSherlock

Louis Tomlinson is the father to a two year old he doesn’t want. Mason’s mother has disappeared into thin air and a witty comment from Louis’ best friend Niall has left Mason calling Louis, “mama,” only to call Harry, “daddy,” instead.

Harry Styles is the heavily tattooed student with piercings at Trinity College in Boston. Bullied for his looks, he is offered a change in dorm room. He meets Louis, who isn’t psyched about sharing his and his son’s dorm room with him.

Since Mason, Louis hasn’t been with anyone nor has he been attached to anyone and definitely not a man. He isn’t gay. However, a high end boat party in Amsterdam reveals that Louis isn’t just attached to his secretive roommate.

He is attached to a criminal, and so is his son.

Whitewater

by NoShitSherlock

“What would your boyfriend say if he found out his precious baby had the cock of his rival stuffed up his ass?”

“You mean what would he do? He’d rip me off you and fuck me ten times harder, make me scream daddy, carve into my brain that I’m his and make me beg him to ram into me. Then he’d kill you.”

“How much do you want to bet he won’t lift a finger when I do fuck you?”

“My asshole.”

“Done.”

•

Whitewater High is known for Harry Styles. His hair, his tattoos, his emerald green eyes and his holy body leaving the ladies leaking in the bleachers as he aces down the field in Lacrosse. Captain, legendary fuckboy and now senior.

Ridgeview High, Whitewater’s competition, spits out Louis Tomlinson, a spoilt crossdresser with a kink for pink. He’s the new cheerleader at Whitewater and the boyfriend of Harry’s rival, Julian.

Or, Carolina is home to Lacrosse captain Harry who’s set on spending his senior year hosting slutty parties and smoking weed and gets Louis fresh off a motorbike at Whitewater’s entrance and all Harry wants to do is show his rival fucking Julian that a Styles always wins.

I Don’t Come Back

by NoShitSherlock

“Why’d you save me?”

“I have a soldier kink…?”

THE DUNKIRK/MERMAN AU ONE SHOT THAT NO ONE ASKED FOR BUT EVERYONE IS GETTING.

Forfeit

by NoShitSherlock

Harry Styles, known for his illustrious low-toned, rough voice, his raw edgy side and tattoos, his habit of smoking and his dominance - the host.

And for every game host, you need a player.

SULK

by NoShitSherlock

“And… action!”

“Cut!”

“Harry! What the fuck?!”

“Do I have to kiss this son of a-”

“Styles, don’t you fucking-”

“That’s it! Take five!”

Harry and Louis are actors. They hate each other. Everyone knows it.

They also hate the fact they’re having a baby together.

Are You Deranged, Like Me? (I Can’t Contain This Anymore)

by NoShitSherlock

“And you know what the most deranged thing about me is? That I could simply place a court order for the 100k back, but I’d rather fill your ass up with my juice and watch it leak out slowly than fuck it with my eyes from the other side of a court room.”

Or where ordinary little Louis gets fucked to hell by famous Harry.

Raw

by NoShitSherlock

“Put the damn dildo down before my mum walks in and sees a fucking dick floating in mid air, Harry.”

Ghost!Harry Ordinary!Louis AU

And yes.

Yes they can touch each other.

Whisper In Small Words (So I Won’t Forget)

by NoShitSherlock

“I bet you anything that he’s been fucked before yet his hole is still as tight as a virgin’s, no wonder why his head is still wedged far up his arse and is stuck there.”

Or the one where Harry and Louis both hate each other but that doesn’t stop Harry from wrecking the tiny, blue eyed lad.

[kotsamguide]

Chapter 2

Choice 1

[If you left Astrid and completed the simulation with Yakov]

“I’m fine, I’ve gotten used to dying by now.”

No effect

“I slept about two hours last night and woke up only to get pecked to death.”

No effect

“I just got murdered by a flock of overgrown chickens. How do you think I’m doing?”

No effect

Choice 2

“I know!”

Cunning +1

Lawful -2%

Astrid relationship +2%

“I’m just glad it’s over.”

No effect

“She’s not that bad.”

Lawful +2%

Astrid -3%

[If Astrid relationship<50%] “Not as much as you are.”

Kind -2%

“Look, can you just tell me where more of the normal food is?”

No effect

Choice 3

“That sounds nice.”

Astrid relationship +3%

“I guess…”

Astrid +2%

“No, no, no! You can’t just say sorry and think that everything is okay!”

Logical -2%

Choice 4

“Sounds good to me.”

No effect

“It’s not like I have anything better to do”

No effect

Choice 5

I have a terrible sense of direction. That whole thing was wasted on me.

I think I basically know where everything is and won’t accidentally wander into the lake.

Choice 6

“You were quite the scholar, weren’t you? You had great grades and five awards for academic achievement.”

Intelligence +10

“Your athletic accomplishments were of particular note. Playing varsity as a freshman as well as three club sports is very impressive.”

Fighting +10

“You were obviously very charismatic. I couldn’t find one administrator or teacher who has something bad to say about you.”

Cunning +10

“You were quite the joiner. Half a dozen clubs that you participated in and another dozen that you led, that must have taken a lot of determination.”

Willpower +10

Choice 7

Nod

Resistance -1%

“What other classes am I taking?”

Resistance -2%

[If resistance>50%] “Look, I really don’t want to be here right now. You can just do whatever you think is best with my schedule, or better yet, not enroll me at all.”

Resistance +1%

Choice 8

[Only available if you did NOT choose “Try to use magic.” during the simulation with Astrid/Yakov.] “You’re human, MCFirstName, but you’re not exactly normal.”

“You’re not human,MCFirstName.”

[Locks you into choosing from Cambion, Nephilim, Kitsune, Elemental, or Drakaina later in the game.]

Choice 9

“How does getting pecked to death by bird women determine magic abilities?”

No effect

“What’s control magic?”

No effect

“Okay.”

[Move onto choosing classes.]

[If you chose, “Look, don’t really want to be here…]

“I’ll pick.”

[Move on to class selection]

“You choose.”

[Enrolls MC automatically in Ritual magic and Potions]

Choice 10

[This choice will not appear if you are playing as a human.]

“I’ll take Telekinesis.”

[MC takes telekinesis their first semester.]

“I’ll take Ritual magic.”

[MC takes ritual magic their first semester.]

Choice 11

“I’ll take Combat.”

[MC takes combat their first semester.]

“I’ll take Potions.”

[MC takes potions their first semester.]

Choice 12

“This is all happening so fast…”

No effect

“Okay.”

No effect

Choice 13

“Can you tell me more about Astrid Adtaz?”

Cunning +1

“Can you tell me more about Leon Dalton?”

“Of course I won’t”

Logical +2%

“Sure, sure.”

Lawful +2%

“I tend to side with my friends, sir.”

Logical -2%

“She hasn’t mentioned any nephilim. What are those anyway?”

No effect

“Can you tell me more about Kol Foster?”

No effect

“Can you tell me more about Thalia Sato?”

No effect

“Can you tell me more about Seraphina Delacroix?”

No effect

“Can you tell me more about Yakov Vasilyev?”

[Allows MC to ask Yakov the difference between cambions and wraiths when meeting him.]

“That’s all the information I need.”

[Ends conversation, move on to next choice.]

Choice 14

[If resistance>50%] I already hate it here.

Resistance +1%

So this is what a magical city is like…

No effect

I can’t believe that all of this is real.

Resistance -1%

This is wonderful. It’s so incredible.

Resistance -2%

This is intimidating. And what’s with the lion?!”

Resistance +1%

Choice 15

[If Astrid relationship>50%] “I trust you, whatever you think is best.”

Astrid +2%

“Spelled sounds okay.”

Astrid +1%

“I’ll go with Neverland.”

Resistance +1%

“Kerse would work.”

No effect

[If resistance>50%] “I really don’t care.”

Astrid -2%

Choice 16

“Wait. Vampire gang?” [Other options will still be available after choosing this.]

No effect

Rosewater, a bottle of nightshade, and a flask of crushed dandelion root.

Ritual Magic and Potions +1

Resistance -2%

A gryphon pelt, a bottle of dragon blood, and a vial of manticore venom.

Resistance -2%

Ritual Magic and Potions +1

Astrid -2%

Assorted candles, a pocket sized mirror, and a variety of herbs.

Resistance -2%

Ritual Magic and Potions +1

A cat’s footsteps, bottled blue moonlight, and a fate string.

Resistance -2%

Ritual Magic and Potions +1

[If resistance>50%] No, no way. I’m not getting any more tangled up in this magic crap.

Resistance +1%

Choice 17

[If Astrid relationship>50%] “Well, you owe it to me for getting me into this mess in the first place.”

Resistance +1%

Astrid -1%

“Aw, did you feel guilty about kidnapping me?”

Astrid +2%

“Thanks again for that.”

Astrid +1%

Choice 18

[If you stayed with Astrid]

“Are you Cressida?”

No effect

“Hey, I’m Alice.”

No effect

…

No effect

[If you completed the simulation with Yakov] 

No dialogue option.

Choice 19

“Break it up you two.”

Astrid -2%

Leon  -3%

Kol +5%

“Astrid, back off.”

Astrid -3%

Kol +4%

Leon +3%

“Leon, back off.”

Astrid +4%

Kol +4%

Leon -5%

EDIT “ Well Astrid you’re a bitch and Leon you’re a jerk”

Astrid -3%

Kol -3%

Leon -5%

Whatever…

Resistance +1%

Astrid -1%

Kol -3%

Leon +1%

Choice 20

I can’t believe I have to deal with them fighting all year.

No effect

I guess Astrid has finally met her match.

No effect

At least this year won’t be boring.

No effect

Can I change suites, like, yesterday?

Resistance +1%

Choice 21

“Hi everyone.”

Resistance -2%

Astrid +1%

Kol +4%

Thalia+2%

Leon +2%

Yakov +2%

“It’s nice to meet you all.”

Kind +2%

Resistance -2%

Kol +4%

Thalia +1%

Leon +2%

Yakov +2%

“I never would have thought I’d be rooming with such attractive people!”

Astrid +4%

Kol +2%

Thalia -3%

Leon +5%

Yakov -2%

“So you’re the people I’m stuck with for the next year.”

Kind -2%

Resistance +3%

Kol -2%

Thalia +2%

Leon -2%

Yakov -3%

Choice 22

[Read this section if rooming with Leon, if you are rooming with Astrid please skip to “If rooming with Astrid.”]

Part 1

“How did you know Astrid was a cambion anyway?”

No effect

[If Astrid relationship<50%] “Well Leon we already agreed that Astrid is a terrible person.”

Leon +4%

“What’s the deal with all the Nephilim/Cambion stuff anyway?”

Leon +4%

“Well I’ll see you…”

No effect

Part 2

“I had my parents.”

[Triggers ___ background.]

“I had my mom.”

[Triggers Dupree background.]

“I had my dad.”

[Triggers Castella background.]

Part 3

“Yeah, I will, and  yeah, it was.”

Lawful +2%

Resistance +3%

“I don’t know anymore.”

Logical -2%

Lawful -2%

Resistance -2%

“No, that wasn’t a life.”

Resistance -2%

Part 4

Visit Astrid in her room.

[If you left Astrid in chapter 1]

It’ll be nice to meet some new people here.

No effect

At least she’s putting in an effort to be friendly.

No effect

I wonder what a party’s like for the supernatural…

No effect

[If Astrid relationship>50%] I don’t get why she decided to invite me.

No effect

[If Astrid relationship>50%] Not that I’d ever actually go.

No effect

[These options appear first if you completed simulation with Astrid]

“Who are you rooming with?”

It must be weird to adjust to going to college.

No effect

I wonder why they have to be so secluded.

The solstices must be very special for them.

“What classes do we have together?”

“Sounds fun.”

No effect

“What element can I use?”

No effect

“Boooring.”

No effect

“What are you looking forward to most?”

No effect

“Do you know anything about the teachers.”

No effect

“Okay.”

[Leads to next choice branch.]

“Do you get along with anybody around here?”

[If Astrid relationship>50%] “Don’t worry, I don’t hate you. Too much.”

Astrid +1%

“Yeah, those people are all sort of evil.”

Astrid +1%

“Sure, sure.”

No effect

“I doubt it.”

No effect

“I just wanted to tell you something, Astrid: You’re a demonic, sociopathic bitch.”

Kind -2%

Astrid -2%

“I’ll see you later.

[Ends the conversation.]

Stop by Thalia and Kol’s room.

“MCFirstName works.”

No effect

“Sure, I have a nickname…”

[Choose a nickname.]

“So, how do you two like rooming together so far?”

[No effect]

“Do your roomates not normally make it out alive?”

“I’m sure you can learn to shift invisible while you sleep, Kol.”

No effect

“It would suck to have to move to off campus housing.”

No effect

“Do I have classes with either of you?”

No effect

“Kol, I hope you understand that if I need tutoring in shifting, I’m coming to you.”

Kol +3%

“Thalia, why does the staff seem to think you’ll murder someone?”

Thalia +2%

That could still be worrying, in any case.

No effect

I wonder how the school gets animal blood.

No effect

I just hope blood isn’t in the drink dispenser…

No effect

I certainly hope Thalia’s not a rogue.

No effect

“Do you have any advice for staying alive this year?”

No effect

“See you later.”

[Ends the conversation.]

Visit Yakov in his room.

“This is all so awesome!”

Resistance -2%

“All right, I guess.”

No effect

“I...I just need some time.”

No effect

“What was your life like before you came here?”

Yakov -2%

“So, how are wraiths different from cambions?”

Yakov +2%

“What are your powers?”

Yakov -1%

“Well, I’ll see you then.”

[Ends the conversation.]

[Choosing this first will prevent you from picking the other options.] Hang out in my room, maybe take a nap. 

Resistance +6%

Kol -3%

Leon -3%

[Only available after one of the previous options has been chosen.] I think it’s almost time for dinner.

No effect

[If rooming with Astrid]

Part 1

“Sounds fun.”

No effect

“What element can I use?”

No effect

“Boooring.”

No effect

[If Astrid relationship>50%] “How are you doing? That gorgon attack must’ve been awful for you too.”

Kind +2%

Astrid +3%

I hadn’t expected her to be so remarkably self aware.

No effect

That seems like as good an idea as anything, to be honest.

No effect

At least she already knew about magic before this, though.

No effect

That’s not really a healthy coping strategy…

No effect

“Do you get along with anybody around here?”

[If Astrid relationship>50%] “Don’t worry, I don’t hate you. Too much.”

Astrid +1%

“Yeah, those people are all sort of evil.”

Astrid +1%

“Sure, sure.”

No effect

“I doubt it.”

No effect

[If Astrid relationship>50%] “I just wanted to say thank you for everything you’ve done to help me.”

Kind +2%

Lawful +1%

Astrid +2%

[If resistance<50%] “I just wanted to tell you something, Astrid, I’ll never forgive you for bringing me here.”

Astrid -4 %

[If Astrid relationship<50%]“I just wanted to tell you something, Astrid: You’re a demonic sociopathic bitch.”

Kind -2%

Astrid -2%

“Well…”

No effect

[Ends the conversation.]

Part 2

“I had my parents.”

[Triggers ___ background.]

“I had my mom.”

[Triggers Dupree background.]

“I had my dad.”

[Triggers Castella background.]

Part 3

“Yeah, I did.”

Lawful +2%

Resistance +3%

“I don’t know anymore.”

Logical -2%

Lawful -2%

Resistance -2%

“No, that wasn’t a life.”

Resistance -2%

Part 4

Stop by Thalia and Kol’s Room.

“MCFirstName works.”

No effect

“Sure, I have a nickname…”

[Choose a nickname.]

“So, how do you two like rooming together so far?”

[No effect]

“Do your roomates not normally make it out alive?”

“I’m sure you can learn to shift invisible while you sleep, Kol.”

No effect

“It would suck to have to move to off campus housing.”

No effect

“Do I have classes with either of you?”

No effect

“Kol, I hope you understand that if I need tutoring in shifting, I’m coming to you.”

Kol +3%

“Thalia, why does the staff seem to think you’ll murder someone?”

Thalia +2%

That could still be worrying, in any case.

No effect

I wonder how the school gets animal blood.

No effect

I just hope blood isn’t in the drink dispenser…

No effect

I certainly hope Thalia’s not a rogue.

No effect

“Do you have any advice for staying alive this year?”

No effect

“See you later.”

[Ends the conversation.]

Visit Leon and Yakov in their room.

“We’re supposed to get to know each other, aren’t we?”

No effect

“Suitemate bonding, and all that.”

No effect

“I wanted to talk to you.”

Leon +2%

“I wanted to talk to your roommate.”

Leon -2%

“How do you and Yakov like rooming together so far?”

No effect

“Do we have any classes together?”

No effect

“Leon, how did you know Astrid was a cambion?”

No effect

“What’s the deal with all the nephilim-cambion stuff anyway?”

Leon +4%

Wow. I understand why the nephilim are so against cambions.

No effect

This entire thing is completely ridiculous.

No effect

That seems like an incredible distortion of the facts.

No effect

“Well, I’ll see you--”

[Leads to conversation with Yakov.]

“This is all so awesome!”

Resistance -2%

“All right, I guess.”

No effect

“I...I just need some time.”

No effect

“What was your life like before you came here?”

Yakov -2%

“So, how are wraiths different from cambions?”

Yakov +2%

“What are your powers?”

Yakov -1%

“Well, I’ll see you then.”

[Ends the conversation.]

Hang out in my own room, maybe take a nap.

Resistance +6%

Kol -3%

Leon -3%

I think it’s almost time for dinner.

No effect

Choice 23

What was all that about?

Lawful -2%

What are they doing here?

Lawful -2%

Dinner sounds way more interesting than whatever they were discussing…

No effect

Choice 24

[If you chose for your MC to be human, get this choice first.]

Maybe at some point in the future

Logical +2%

Probably not

No effect

No. No, no, no, no, no. And did I mention, NO?

Logical -1%

[If you chose for you MC to be supernatural the former option will NOT appear]

“I don’t know what I am yet.”

No effect

“Um…”

No effect

“I’d rather not say.”

Leon -3%

Yakov -4%

Choice 25

“That whole saving the world deal typically comes with having powers.”

Lawful +1%

“Well, definitely not the food.”

Kol +2%

“Learning more about magic. It’s all so amazing.”

No effect

“Meeting new people.”

Kol +2%

“Getting away from home.”

Lawful -2%

“Break.”

Resistance +1%

#kotsam #keeper of the sun and moon #kotsam guide #chapter 2 book 1