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bonkusdonkus · 3 years

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So a while ago I made a list thingy of ideas for different dynamics between a Warlock and their Patron. Honestly, the relationship between the two is such an important part of the class, it really seems like a waste not to play around with it.

Since that first post though, I’ve had more ideas, and since people seemed to like the first one, I thought I’d spew a few more. So here we go!

The Warlock’s family has been working closely with the Patron for generations upon generations, to the point where they’ve pretty much become a part of the family. The Patron has accepted their makeshift adoption, and acts as a beloved, if eccentric, aunt/uncle to the Warlock and their family. Bonus points if the Warlock refers to their Patron by a family nickname rather than their title/actual name. Which of course leads to hilarious misunderstandings, and the inevitable horrifying realization that the Warlock’s “Aunti Morg” that they’ve been talking fondly of the whole time, is in fact their Fathomless Patron, Morgilana, Devourer of Foes and Queen of the Endless Deep. (Morgilana is just an example, I’m not insinuating that this idea is locked to Fathomless patrons. Pretty much anything big and scary would be funny.)

The Hexblade Patron is an ancient sentient sword, and the bearer of a terrible curse/prophecy: Any who wield the blade will be granted the power to achieve whatever they desire most, but once they achieve that goal, they will die. Kings, heroes, tyrants, villains, all have used the blade to achieve their dreams, and then payed the ultimate price. The Patron is... Mostly resigned to all of this. It’s their lot in life, they don’t know how to change it, so they don’t try. Until one day the get a new Warlock/wielder. And they’re a child. The Patron is horrified, they are not okay with killing a kid, thank you very much! But their new Warlock is stubborn and determined to achieve their dream, and they won’t be dissuaded by the Patron, no matter what argument they use. So now the Warlock is charging headfirst into danger and inevitable death, while their Patron desperately tries to keep them alive, find a work around to the curse, and just generally is an exhausted parent.

The Celestial Patron was sent on a mission from the gods to find the Chosen One of prophecy, the one who was foretold to save the world from a great and terrible evil. They were to find them, and guide them on the path to their destiny. Which would have been all well and good, if there wasn’t a... Complication. See, when the Patron appeared to the Chosen One, they died of a sudden and tragic heart attack. (Probably because a big dang angel/kirrin/unicorn/cuoatl/other celestial appeared out of nowhere,) In a panic, the Patron desperately looks around until they find a mortal who at least vaguely matches the prophecy and basically says: “You’ll do! Congratulations, you’re the chosen one now!” Bonus points if the Warlock and Patron keep having to come up with increasingly elaborate cover stories to explain why the Warlock doesn’t quite match up with the Chosen One of the prophecy. Extra bonus points if Warlock is an entirely different race than the Chosen, making their excuses even more ridiculous.(Like, for example, if the Chosen was a gold dragonborn, and the Warlock is a kobold who is a kind of yellow that could be described as gold. If you shined em’ up a bit and squinted.)

The Warlock’s original Patron was your usual manipulative jerk Patron, the kind that swindles their Warlock into some kind of terrible devil’s deal that will only end poorly. But, they also had a terrible gambling problem. Namely, that they were really bad at it. So bad that they gambled away the Warlock’s contract to an entirely different entity. Now the Warlock has a new boss, and they have no idea what to expect from the new magement. Bonus points if the new Patron is an entirely different type of patron.(like, going from an Archfey patron, to a Celestial.)

By some kind of cosmic clerical disaster, the Warlock accidentally signed a contract with three (or more) Patrons at once. Now all of them are constantly fighting each other to be the Warlock’s “favorite.” Bonus points if they manage to put aside their differences and work together to aid their Warlock, however temporarily, when the Warlock really needs them to.

The Warlock and the Patron met as children, and quickly formed a bond of friendship. Being a child, they saw no problems befriending a otherworldly entity, and the Patron was just glad to have a friend, mortal or not. Eventually they had to part ways, but not before swearing to be best friends forever. No one believed the Warlock when they told people about their best friend, they would just say they had a big imagination. And over time the Warlock begins to believe these people, seeing their friend as the creation of a lonely child. Only, one day they meet their old friend again, and they are very much real, and very, very powerful. And also now their Patron, because as it turns out, when you swear to be best friends forever with someone who is basically made of magic, it’s got quite a bit more oomph than your average promise.

Someone very close to the Warlock (a friend, a family member, a lover, whatever,) owes the Patron a massive debt, and is either unable or unwilling to pay it. The Patron is about to punish the loved one for their transgression when the Warlock offers themselves up instead, begging to take the punishment instead. Impressed by their loyalty and and willingness to sacrifice themselves, the Patron agrees, and takes them on as their servant to pay off their loved one’s debt. Bonus points if the loved one turns out to be an A-hole, and immediately abandons the Warlock to their fate and/or takes advantage of the situation to screw over the Warlock.(Gotta have some of that aaaaaaaangst.)

The Patron has been assigned by the powers that be to be a sort of guardian angel to the Warlock. As a punishment detail. Normally, watching over some mortal wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but this Warlock is a special case. They are one of, (if not the) most danger prone being in existence, bad luck and misfortune are drawn to them like a magnet. Keeping them alive on a day to day basis takes most of the Patrons power, and pretty much all of their attention. The Patron did something to piss off some very powerful beings, and now they’re stuck babysitting some mortal who can barely get out of bed every morning without dying.(side note for this one, the Patron doesn’t have to be an angel, even though I used the term “guardian angel.” They don’t even have to be a Celestial, they can be anything. Heck, can you imagine a Fiend patron getting strong armed into protecting some poor mortal? That’d be hilarious!)

#5e homebrew #dnd character concept #dnd 5e #warlock patron #warlock

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aceredshirt13 · 2 years

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So this definitely isn't as original as I once thought haha, but after discussing it with some friends, I wonder if Dojima was originally supposed to be the killer.

I’m not pulling this out of the air just because I think it would be cool (though it certainly would have been interesting), but for a couple of reasons. For one, we have the trains of thought that the in-game narration goes down when you choose the wrong answers. Most of them find solid reasons why a character couldn’t have done the murders - you were with your friends often enough that you’d likely have seen them participate in its cover-up, you have no significant evidence that any of the uninvolved randos can even get into the TV, Nanako can’t push an entire woman into a TV because she’s too small, etc. Of course, when you choose Adachi, the evidence, such that there is, stacks up against him, and he becomes the prime (and correct) suspect - but the longest incorrect thread of events is Dojima’s. It describes how he fits every single possible criteria (means, window of time, lack of suspicion, etc.), and only rules him out because of his love for Nanako, and his desperate move to save her. But this point ultimately ends up being rendered moot, as Adachi had no hand in who the TV chose next and was as surprised as Dojima was (and given that he seems to genuinely care for Nanako, I doubt he would have chosen her of all people to throw in). Even though Nanako had been put in danger, there was no way to anticipate it, and thus Dojima could absolutely still have been behind the crimes.

There’s also a curious element of the narration in the concept art bonus segment of Golden, where it goes over each major character and discusses their beta designs. Both Dojima and Adachi were redesigned (Dojima from his sort of yakuza-adjacent look, Adachi from looking like a horrible fish man) for the specifically described purpose of making them look “less suspicious.” It’s possible that they said this to avoid outright spoiling that Adachi is the culprit, but if that was the concern, why even mention suspicion at all? They could have just said their current designs were more likable and pleasant. So why else would Dojima, as well as Adachi, be changed to look less like stereotypical scary criminals?

I think this theory may also explain some of the oddities in the writing - namely, the somewhat clumsy nature of both Adachi’s motives and Nanako’s “death.” A lot of the reason I wrote another essay about my extensive alternative hc for Adachi’s murders (posted shortly after this because I have no sense of order, maybe read that first) is because it feels a little slapdash - like they were tossing things at a wall and seeing what stuck. As a result, his murders and his attempt to destroy the human race have almost no motivations in common except that he’s a misanthrope. Nanako’s death and subsequent revival also seems poorly explained other than the doctor's vague comment about "she must have heard your voices" - what changes between the ending where you kill Namatame and the endings where you don’t that would affect whether or not Nanako lives or dies? It’s not her death that doesn’t make sense so much as it is that her coming back to life goes completely unexplained... and both of those clumsy parts would be easily explained if Dojima was originally going to be the villain, and they had to change it relatively last-minute, thus the feeling that parts of the game were rushed. Maybe Adachi's motivations feel a bit slipshod because they were slapped together last minute... and as my friend suggested, maybe the reason Nanako's return to life was poorly explained and plotted because she was originally supposed to stay dead, thus combining with Chisato as a reason that Dojima would somewhat suicidally try to wipe out the human race at Ameno-sagiri's behest.

When my friend and I were discussing it, we figured the reason the developers didn't go through with it was probably because they couldn't find a motive for Dojima's murders, because we sure couldn't come up with one. It's true that the murders may have gone differently in the original concept, but in the game's current state, I couldn't see them happening with Dojima as the culprit. Whether you go by what the developers attempted to portray about Adachi, or whether you go by my personal opinion of his motives, it doesn't matter, because neither could be logically applied to Dojima - he can't have a motivation based in yandereish expression of attraction/love when a significant portion of his character is having been so shattered by the death of his wife that he's spent the last three years trying to avenge her. He also can't have blamed these two characters who had no association with each other with his wife's death - sure, Mayumi's from the city and maybe she could have been the hit and run driver, but Saki has no association with her and might not even be old enough to drive, so there'd be no reason for him to kill her too.

(The only possible motivation we could come up with was a joke that my friend made a while back on an unrelated post, where the “true motive” for killing Mayumi and Saki was that they were both secretly TERFs. We both agreed that would be a pretty sympathetic motive for murder as murders go.)

#red randomness #persona #persona 4 #ryotaro dojima #tohru adachi #nanako dojima #we don't ACTUALLY think Mayumi and Saki are TERFs #god knows I wouldn't be so invested in Mayumi and Namatame's relationship if I thought she was #but Dojima being the culprit is a fascinating and depressing alternate universe #that I wish I could write but since I can't come up with any genuine murder motives it probably isn't gonna happen #guess I'll have to save that angst for my bad end universe fic where Nanako stays dead and everything subsequently goes wrong #Dojima might not be the murderer in that one #but I wouldn't be surprised if he in his grief lends a hand in the destruction in the world (assuming he hasn't killed himself already)#persona 4 spoilers

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grailfinders · 3 years

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Fate and Phantasms #91: Ryougi Shiki (Saber)

Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re going a bit out of our way to an entirely different Nasuverse production, Kara no Kyoukai, to build the mysterious 『Ryougi Shiki』, a.k.a. Void Shiki, a.k.a. Ryougi Shiki (Saber)! Shiki is the host personality of both Shiki and Shiki, and due to her connection with the Root, is effectively omniscient and omnipotent. She’s trying to keep her potence down to what a servant could do at the moment, so don’t expect a power build.

Check out Shiki’s build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: Second verse, surprisingly different from the first.

Race and Background

Shiki is obviously a human, but she’s a human implanted with an additional personality as well as the origin of 「　」, so you’re probably closer to a Kalashtar. I would’ve thought “person with an extradimensional intelligence inside of them” would be a bit niche, but I guess I was wrong. Regardless, you get +2 Wisdom and +1 Charisma. Your Dual Mind gives you advantage on all Wisdom saves, your Mental Discipline gives you resistance to psychic damage, and you can use your Mind Link to speak to a creature within ten times your level in feet telepathically, provided they understand a language. This is a great way to get around that pesky language barrier. You can also spend an action to give a creature the ability to speak back telepathically for up to an hour, and you can only give one creature this ability at a time.

Finally, as a Kalashtar you are Severed from Dreams; you sleep, but don’t dream, so spells like Dream don’t work on you.

As the most reclusive of Shiki’s personalities, and the one with the greatest knowledge of the universe, you’re a shoe-in as a Hermit. This gives you Medicine and Religion proficiency, as well as a great secret of the world chosen by your DM.

Ability Scores:

Put your highest score into Wisdom, you’re literally omniscient and it’s a more useful ability score than Intelligence. Second is Dexterity- you move faster than most people can see, and you’re really handy with a sword. Third is Intelligence, because you’re still omniscient. Your Charisma isn’t that high, but we won’t be using it for much besides multiclassing anyway. Your Constitution is also pretty low, we just needed other stuff more. Finally, dump Strength. You don’t really get out much- it’s hard to go to the gym when you’re letting someone else run your body.

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: Your power comes more from your knowledge of other’s lines of death and your skill rather than brute force, so we’re going Monk instead of Fighter. It’s also way easier to fight in a Kimono this way, thanks to your Unarmored Defense giving you an AC of 10 + your Dexterity mod + your Wisdom mod. You also gain Martial Arts, making the minimum damage you can do with a monk weapon or your fist 1d4. You can also make an unarmed strike as a bonus action, and you can use Dexterity instead of Strength when attacking with a monk weapon or unarmed strike.

You also have proficiency in Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as Acrobatics and History. You’re nimble and know everything, a powerful combo.

2. Monk 2: Second level monks learn how to use Ki points to dash, disengage, dodge, or make two unarmed blows as a bonus action. You also get Unarmored Movement, helping you move 10′ faster when not wearing armor. New to Tasha’s you can also use a Dedicated Weapon with your martial arts, picking a non-heavy, non-special weapon to use as a monk weapon at the end of a long rest. We’re still not proficient with a long-sword yet, so we can’t quite use it yet, but we’ll get there.

3. Sorcerer 1: We’re popping into sorcerer for a bit to awaken your Aberrant Mind, letting you cast Spells using your Charisma as the casting ability and also make Telepathic Speech. You can use your bonus action to link yourself with another creature nearby. Afterwards, for a number of minutes equal to your sorcerer level you can speak telepathically with them as long as they’re within a number of miles equal to your Charisma modifier. The bond lasts a number of minutes equal to your sorcerer level, and only one creature can be affected by it at once. It might be technically possible for something to run over a mile away in less than a minute, but that seems like an edge case. It’s a bit confusing, but this telepathy has a longer range than your other telepathy, at the cost of lasting a shorter time.

For your spells, pick up Message for yet another way to speak to your party, Dancing Lights, Light, Sleep, and Minor Illusion for some dreamlike effects, and False Life to turn your magical energy into your lifeforce.

The aberrant mind is especially useful because you also get some Psionic Spells for free. At first level you get Arms of Hadar, Dissonant Whispers, and Mind Sliver. Most of those aren’t that close to what you need though, so thankfully you can also replace one of these spells with any divination or enchantment spell of the same level from the sorcerer, warlock, or wizards spell lists. So let’s toss out Dissonant Whispers and replace it with Identify; you know literally everything, including what the cool magical artifact you just found is.

4. Sorcerer 2: Second level sorcerers are a Font of Magic, giving you Sorcery Points equal to your level that you can spend to regain spell slots now, or other neat effects later. Speaking of spells, pick up Shield for more AC- it’s not that in-character, but we needed something replaceable for later. You should also replace Arms of Hadar with Detect Magic to further expand your omniscience.

5. Sorcerer 3: Third level sorcerers learn two Metamagic options to enhance their spells. Distant Spell lets you double a spell’s range or turn a touch spell into a 30′ range, very useful for extending your spying spells even further. You also pick up Subtle Spell, which eliminates the need for verbal or somatic components. You don’t use magic to learn things, you just know, that means you shouldn’t let anyone catch you casting.

You also grab 2nd level spells this level: Magic Weapon lets you slice though lines of death instead of flesh to avoid resistances and deal a little more damage. You also get the psionic spells Calm Emotions and Detect Thoughts. We don’t really need to calm people down though, so replace that right away with Locate Object so you’ll never lose your car keys again.

6. Sorcerer 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to grab the Weapon Master feat, bumping up your Dexterity and also giving you proficiency in four weapons, including the Long-sword.

You also grab True Strike, because it’s hard to dodge an attack when you can’t even see what it’s aiming for, Mind Spike for more psychic damage and omniscience, and replace Shield with Shadow Blade for a more magical monk weapon as well.

7. Monk 3: Speaking of monk stuff, let’s head back there for our subclass. Monks that follow the Way of the Long Death study death and incorporate their findings into their martial arts, and it’s really easy to study death when you’re able to see it in person. When you take the subclass, you learn the Touch of Death, gaining temporary hp when you reduce a creature’s HP to 0 within 5′ of yourself. You can also Deflect Missiles to reduce incoming damage or throw it back at them for a ki point.

8. Monk 4: Use this ASI to round out your Dexterity and Wisdom for a better AC and better swordplay. You can also Slow Fall to reduce your falling damage by five times your monk level, or use Quickened Healing to turn your Ki points into health based on your martial arts die and your proficiency bonus.

9. Monk 5: At fifth level, your Martial Arts grows to a d6, and you can make an Extra Attack with each attack action. You can also make a Stunning Strike with your melee attack, spending a ki point to force a constitution save (DC 8 + your wisdom modifier + your proficiency modifier) against being stunned.

10. Monk 6: Sixth level monks can make Ki-Empowered Strikes, making your unarmed attacks magical. It’s not incredibly useful, since you could already magic up your sword, but hey, now you can save a spell slot. You can also signal the Hour of Reaping as an action, frightening everything within 30′ of you that fails a wisdom saving throw. You’re an omniscient swordswoman who can see the death of all things, and may or may not even exist. That’s pretty scary.

You also get an extra 5′ of movement. It’s not quite as scary, but still pretty useful.

11. Sorcerer 5: Fifth level sorcerers can use the new Magical Guidance, spending a sorcery point to re-roll a failed ability check. You know everything, so you should succeed at everything; that’s why it’s so boring.

For spells, you get Haste as your normal spell for doubled speed, +2 AC, an extra action per turn, and advantage on dexterity saves. You’re fast, what can I say. You also get new Psionic Spells, Hunger of Hadar and Sending. You have plenty of ways to speak your mind already, but let’s replace Hunger of Hadar with Clairvoyance for more all-knowing goodness, letting you place a sensor in a location you’ve been before or an obvious place you haven’t been, like around a corner. You can see or hear through the sensor, but not both at once.

12. Sorcerer 6: Sixth level Aberrant Minds get Psionic Sorcery; you can now cast Psionic Spells either by using a spell slot or by spending sorcery points equal to its level. Doing the latter lets you cast it without verbal, somatic, or unconsumed material components. You also have Psychic Defenses, giving you resistance to psychic damage and advantage on saves against being charmed or frightened. This almost entirely overlaps with the Kalashtar abilities you got at level 1, but who knows, maybe there’s a weird spell out there that charms with a constitution save.

For your spell, Blink loosens your grip on this reality, causing you to blink out of existence at the end of your turn if you roll eleven or higher on a d20. At the start of your turns and the end of the spell, you blink back into reality for more fighting. It lasts up to a minute, and isn’t concentration, so pair it with your favorite buff to really become a frightening anomaly.

13. Sorcerer 7: Seventh level sorcerers get fifth level spells, like Far Step, which gives you the cool anime-level speed we’ve been looking for. As a bonus action each turn the spell is up, you can teleport up to 60′ away for speed so blinding people literally can’t see you do it. You also get Evards Black Tentacles and Summon Aberration as Psionic Spells. Neither are in-character, so replace the one you’ll use less with Arcane Eye for one last way to learn things you shouldn’t. This spell creates a magical sensor within 30′ of you, but you can move it as an action with no limit to how far it can go.

14. Monk 7: We’re done switching around classes now; back in Monk, you learn Evasion, which gives you half damage on failed dexterity saves and no damage on successes when you’re trying to avoid damage. Your connection to the Void also gives you Stillness of Mind, letting you end a charming or frightening effect as an action.

15. Monk 8: Pick up the Tough feat for 2 extra HP per level- you’re a monk and your constitution is bad, you’ll really want this.

16. Monk 9: At ninth level you can run over liquid or up walls thanks to your Unarmored Movement Improvement. Just be sure to end your turn somewhere solid.

17. Monk 10: Tenth level monks have a Purity of Body, making them immune to diseases and poisons. You don’t have to deal with poison, Shiki does. You should probably apologize to her one of these days. You also get another 5′ of extra movement, because why not.

18. Monk 11: Eleventh level Long Death monks have a Mastery of Death; when you would hit 0 hp, you can instead spend a Ki point to stay at 1 hp instead. You’re pretty hard to kill, which is just as well- I don’t want to force your DM to have to figure out what happens when the origin of the universe dies. Also, your Martial Arts increases to a d8, for stronger unarmed attacks and more healing.

19. Monk 12: Use your last ASI on more Dexterity for a higher AC and more deadly weapon.

20. Monk 13: Your capstone feature is the Tongue of the Sun and Moon, letting you understand and be understood by anything that speaks a language. I’m almost getting tired of saying this, but you’re omnipotent; Duolingo should be pretty easy by now.

Pros:

You have 50′ of movement normally, the ability to dash or teleport as a bonus action, and access to the haste spell. You’re pretty goddamn mobile, is what I’m trying to say. And unlike a lot of these builds, you can run straight up walls and teleport into the air, so vertical mobility isn’t that much of an issue for you. As long as you don’t mind falling.

You have plenty of options to heal yourself, and you have to die almost a dozen times before you actually stay down. As befitting of The Thing the Universe Is Recorded On, you’re pretty hard to kill.

You’re not as omniscient as you should be, but you’re still really good at learning things you shouldn’t. With plenty of divination spells that you can cast subtly, you’ll be able to spy on events without anyone knowinng you were ever there.

Cons:

A lot of your buffs and divination spells require concentration, which would be annoying enough even if your constitution wasn’t bad in the first place.

Your best way at dealing with flying enemies is to throw yourself into the air and hope you land okay. I mean you’re a high level monk, so it’s not that big an issue, but it’s still not dignified.

This build is a little bit complicated, with different kinds of points to keep track of. Have fun keeping your sorcery points, spell slots, and ki points all straight.

#fgo #fate grand order #D&D 5e #void shiki #Fate and Phantasms

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nerdythebard · 3 years

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#6: Anhur, Slayer of Enemies

Gods and Goddesses!

This time, we journey to the land of Egypt. The realm of scorching deserts, mysterious magic, and ancient kings. And on this journey, we're protected by Anhur. Sometimes also known as Onuris or Han-her, this son of Ra is the personification of elite royal warriors. Master of tactics and spear, Anhur is a cunning and deadly foe to anyone foolish enough to disturb peace in Egypt.

Next Time: WHO LET THE DOG OUT!? (from his coffin)

Okay, with the mandatory reference done, we now get to think about what we need from Anhur:

Spears for Days: Anhur's spear is able to pin enemies to walls and structure, and his Ultimate hurls a volley of spears all around. We need to be of almost equal spear mastery to Achilles... except we use ours to hunt.

Sand Manipulation: Anhur can create obelisks with swirling sand vortexes, which slow any enemies that come in contact with it.

Not-so-Cowardly Lion: Seems obvious, we're a lion god (yes, I know Ancient Egyptians didn't believe their gods have animal heads, shush) and we're one of the best hunters and warriors of the Egyptian pantheon.

---

Starting with Anhur's race, we're lucky Wizards of the Coast provided us this time with a clear and canon solution. Anhur is a Leonin, this lion-folk race gets +2 Constitution and +1 Strength, 60 feet of Darkvision, and slightly faster than average walking speed of 35 feet. We know Common and Leonin languages, and we are equipped with natural weapons – our Claws, which let us make an unarmed strike that deals [1d4 + our Constitution modifier] slashing damage. We also have Daunting Roar, which lets us unleash a mighty roar as a bonus action once per short or long rest.

Creatures of our choosing within 10 feet of us must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw (DC: 8 + our proficiency + our Constitution modifier) or be frightened of us until the end of our next turn (or 6 seconds, for out-of-combat use). We also have Hunter's Instincts, which lets us pick two skills from a list; let's go for Perception and Intimidation.

For Anhur's background, we're gonna modify the City Watch option a little bit: we're going to keep the proficiencies in Athletics and Insight (along with two languages of our choice), but we're shall swap out the Watcher's Eye feature for Fearsome Reputation from Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica. Basically, we are known for being ruthless and scary, and the NPCs will think twice before trying to provoke us. We can also get away with minor criminal offences.

ABILITY SCORES

We'll start with Dexterity since we're going to need it for our weapon. Constitution is next, always good to have a solid Hit Point base. We need Wisdom to follow, as we're a competent tactician and hunter (and also for multi-class later... spoilers).

Strength is next, as our weapon - the spear - is not a finesse one, we need this for basic attacks. We continue with Intelligence, and we'll dump Charisma.

CLASS

Level 1 - Fighter: We'll start with the classic warrior. We start with a d10 Hit Dice and [10 + Constitution modifier] Hit Points. We gain proficiency in light armour, medium armour, heavy armour, shields, simple weapons, and martial weapons. For Anhur, I'd choose a studded leather armour (AC: 12 + DEX) and, of course, we gotta go with a spear. Our saving throws proficiencies are Strength and Constitution, and we get to pick two class skills: let's go for Acrobatics and Survival.

This is also where we select our Fighting Style, and for Anhur it's crucial to get good with the spear, so we'll choose Thrown Weapon Fighting. Because ranged weapons and thrown weapons are two different things, we need some boost to our spear (who uses Strength for its damage and attack rolls) - with this, we get a +2 to the damage roll of our spear if we throw it.

We also get a quick healing option with Second Wind. Once per short or long rest, we can use a bonus action to heal [1d10 + our Fighter level] Hit Points.

Level 2 - Fighter: Here, we get Action Surge, which lets us take another Action doing our turn once per short or long rest. This effectively lets us attack twice in crucial moments.

Level 3 - Fighter: We pick our Martial Archetype, and it's going to come off as a surprise to some of you because we're going Eldritch Knight with this one!

With this, we get access to the Weapon Bond feature. This makes us and our spear practically inseparable; we cannot be disarmed if we're conscious and not incapacitated, and if we throw our weapon (or lose it) and it is still on the same Plane as we are, we can use our bonus action to teleport it to our hand.

Eldritch Knights also get some Spellcasting ability. Intelligence is our casting ability and the Save DC is [8 + proficiency bonus + Intelligence modifier]. We start with two cantrips:

Sword Burst creates a circle of blades (or spears :D) around us, forcing all creatures within 5 feet of us to make a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 force damage (damage increases when we level up).

Gust lets us unleash a puff of wind to either push a creature away, move an object weighing 5 pounds or less up to 10 feet or create a sensory effect like howling of the wind or closing the shutters/doors.

We also get three 1st-level spells (with two spell slots), two of which must be either abjuration or evocation type:

Jump triples the jump distance of any creature we touch, for 1 minute. In D&D there is a Long Jump – after 10 feet of running start we can cover a number of feet equal to our Strength score (NOT modifier) – and a High Jump, which is simply [3 + Strength modifier] feet of jumping up in the air.

Magic Missile creates up to three magical darts (or mini-spears :D) that always hit the selected target. Each dart deals 1d4 + 1 force damage and we can choose to target three separate creatures.

Shield is a reaction spell. If we're being attacked and it's a hit, we can add a +5 bonus to our AC until the end of our next turn.

Level 4 - Fighter: Time for the first Ability Score Improvement of this build! We increase our Strength and Dexterity with this one.

We get another spell slot, and we can pick another 1st-level spell: Earth Tremor causes the ground to shake. Each creature in 10 feet radius around us must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone.

Level 5 - Ranger: Time to develop our hunting skills, by multi-classing into Ranger. I was considering playing around with the Spell-less variant of the class from Unearthed Arcana: Modifying Classes, but let's stick to the Revised class for now.

We still have the d10 Hit Dice, and we get to pick one Ranger skill to be proficient in; let's go for Investigation. We start with a Favoured Enemy, which if you've seen my Ah Muzen Cab build means we once again invoke the power of Fantasy Racism™ to be more efficient against a certain type of creatures (beasts, fey, humanoids, monstrosities, or undead). Just pick the type that fits your campaign the most to get a +2 bonus to damage against it and an advantage to Survival checks when tracking the chosen type.

We are also a Natural Explorer, which gives benefits to us and our party. For us:

We ignore the effects of difficult terrain;

We have an advantage on initiative rolls;

On our first turn during combat, we have an advantage on an attack against a creature that hadn't attacked yet.

Meanwhile, while travelling for 1 hour or more:

Difficult terrain doesn't slow the group down;

The group can't become lost, unless by means of magic;

The group cannot be surprised/ambushed;

If we're travelling alone, we can move stealthily at a normal pace;

We find twice as much food and water while foraging;

When tracking creatures, we learn their size, exact number, and how long ago they passed through the area we're in now.

Level 6 - Ranger: This is where Rangers get their Spellcasting ability. We gotta manage two of those now, as the Rangers' casting ability is Wisdom. Rangers don't learn cantrips, we have two 1-st level spell slots, and we learn two 1-st level spells:

Ensnaring Strike is a bonus action that causes vines and weeds (or, in our case, perhaps a vortex of shifting sands) to wrap around the target if we manage to successfully hit it with our weapon attack. The target must make a Strength saving throw or be restrained until the spell ends (1 minute, concentration). While restrained, the target also receives 1d6 piercing damage at the start of each of its turns.

Hunter's Mark is a bonus action, designating one target as your prey. For the spell's duration (1 hour, concentration), we add extra 1d6 damage to the target if we hit them with our weapon attack, and we have an advantage on Perception and Survival checks related to tracking the marked target. If the target dies before the spell ends, we can use our bonus action on the next turn to mark a new target.

We also get to pick a second Fighting Style (yes, they stack if we multi-class). Defence style is nice and simple, it gives us a +1 to our AC.

Level 7 - Ranger: We get Primeval Awareness, which lets us communicate simple ideas with non-hostile beasts, and read their mood and intent. They are not under our control, so we might still need to roll Persuasion or Intimidation (and face consequences), but because of this, encountering wild animals doesn't instantly result in a fight. We can also spend 1 minute in concentration and determine if our Favoured Enemy creature type is within 5 miles of us. If they are, we learn their numbers, distance from us, and general direction.

Three levels into the Ranger class, we get to pick our Ranger Conclave. For Anhur, we're going to pick the Hunter Conclave (duh). Our starting feature is Hunter's Prey, which lets us pick one of three benefits; let's go for Colossus Slayer – once per turn, we can add extra 1d8 damage to a successful weapon attack if our target is already injured ("below their Maximum Hit Points").

We also get another spell: Cure Wounds is a good healing option, letting a creature we touch (or ourselves) regaining [1d8 + our spellcasting ability] Hit Points, with the number increasing by 1d8 if we use higher spell slots.

Level 8 - Ranger: Time for another ASI! This time, let's boost our spellcasting abilities by putting points in Wisdom and Intelligence. We don't learn new spells at this level.

Level 9 - Ranger: Our Conclave gives us some more attacking options with Extra Attack. We can now attack twice instead of once whenever we choose to attack on our turn. In practice, this means we can combine it with the Fighter's Action Surge to attack one enemy four times.

We also unlock 2nd-level spell slots and get to pick another spell: with Spike Growth we can select a 20-foot-radius area within 150 feet of us and transform it into spikes (or perhaps spiky, sharpened sand? :D). When a creature moves into or through the area, they take 2d4 piercing damage for every 5 feet they move.

Level 10 - Ranger: Halfway through the build and we get Greater Favoured Enemy, which upgrades the creatures we're more efficient against into one of the following: aberrations, celestials, constructs, dragons, fiends, or giants. Again, tailor your choice to the overall campaign theme (if you're playing Horde of the Dragon Queen, it'd be pointless to pick 'giants', wouldn't it?)

Level 11 - Ranger: At this level we get another subclass upgrade. With Defensive Tactics we get to pick one of three options to get us some better protections. Multiattack Defence gives us a +4 to our AC, when we're hit and for all subsequent attacks done by that enemy for the rest of the turn. Many enemies use multiattack, so it's good to be prepared for that.

For this level's spell, Magic Weapon transforms our non-magical weapon into a magical one for up to 1 hour (concentration). Until the spell ends, that weapon has a +1 to both attack and damage rolls, and counts as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistances. The bonus increases if we use higher-level spell slots.

Level 12 - Ranger: Time for ASI! Let's tend to some of our weak spots: Intelligence and Charisma.

We also get the Fleet of Foot feature. We can now use the Dash option as a bonus action, which means if we really need to book it, we can now move 70 feet on our turn (105 if the DM agrees to utilize Dash as both action and bonus action - the wording is can not must ;D)

Level 13 - Ranger: At this level we get... well, nothing. Except access to 3rd-level spells, that is. And we shall take Conjure Barrage for this one; it lets us use a piece of ammunition (or a thrown weapon) and multiply it in a 60-foot cone. Each creature within the cone must make a Dexterity saving throw or suffer 3d8 points of damage (type of which is determined by the ammunition/weapon used) and half as much on a successful save.

Level 14 - Ranger: We get the Hide in Plain Sight feature, which makes our sneaky hunter lion extra sneaky. When we're hiding on our turn, we can opt to sacrifice our movement this round to impose a penalty (-10 to Perception checks) on enemies that search for us. If we move or fall prone (no matter if we want to, or are forced), we loose the benefit. Otherwise, we can keep using it indefinitely.

Level 15 - Ranger: Here, we get another subclass upgrade. Multiattack gives us an option to go against multiple foes at once. If you have a ranged weapon in your build, pick Volley, but here we'll go for Whirlwind Attack – it lets us make a melee attack against any number of creatures within 5 feet of us (we roll for each attack and damage).

We get another 3rd-level spell in our repertoire: Protection from Energy lasts for 1 hour (concentration) and grants us resistance to one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder.

Level 16 - Ranger: Another ASI! Time to scrape those high-levels of ability, so let's get a +2 to our Dexterity.

Level 17 - Ranger: Once again, we get no class features, just access to 4th-level spells. Freedom of Movement protects us from effects that would normally hinder our... well, movement. For 1 hour we (or any willing creature we touch) are immune to difficult terrain and spells that would cause us to lose our speed (such as Haste), as well as paralysis and being restrained. Nothing can stop the hunter from chasing its prey. We can also spend 5 feet of movement to escape non-magical restraints, such as shackles or ropes.

Level 18 - Ranger: Here, we learn how to Vanish. We can use the Hide action as a bonus action from now own, and we cannot be tracked by non-magical means, unless we decide to leave trail.

Level 19 - Ranger: We get our last subclass upgrade. Superior Hunter's Defence gives us a choice to enhance our defences.

Not necessarily, T'Challa...

We will, however, get Evasion, as it's too good not to take. If we're forced to make a Dexterity saving throw, which results in taking half-damage on a successful one (such as Fireball), we instead take no damage.

And for our final spell of this build, Stoneskin gives us resistance to non-magical piercing, bludgeoning, and slashing damage for 1 hour (concentration).

Level 20 - Ranger: Our capstone is... an ASI? Apparently, so let's bump up our Strength by 2 points.

---

A'right, that is Anhur. Let's see what we have:

Well, we are a very nimble, spear-throwing lion. With a +4 to our Initiative, we are almost guaranteed to be somewhere in the beginning of a fight. With an average of 184 Hit Points and 17 AC at level 20, we can take some damage. We also have a nice combat-related abilities with two 16s and one 18.

Charisma is, unfortunately, our lowest and most hindering ability. With that, we might be in trouble when facing such spells as Banishment, Zone of Truth, involuntary Plane Shift, or trying to escape the Forcecage.

---

Anyway, I hoped you enjoy this hunt with Anhur, and I'll see you in the next one!

- Nerdy out!

#anhur #dnd #dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #character building #leonin #fighter #eldritch knight #ranger #hunter

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amethystdarkwolf · 4 years

Text

My ‘Orange Side’ predictions, theories and a lot of Logan angst.

So I've had this theory for a hot second, and only recently decided to finally sit down and write it out. This goes on for quite a bit, and is a little bit on the heavier side, as it has my predictions for the last dark side, and a bunch of little patterns that are interesting to point out, that mostly lead to angst.

Okay, enjoy!

TL;DR is right before the little bonus thing at the end that's just more angst stuff for Logan that kind of applies.

So if you've been in the fandom for really any amount of time, you will know about The Rainbow Theory. Basically, all it is, is that the sides colors will make up the rainbow, and it seems to be nearly canon. We have all the colors except one. And that color is Orange.

Using the knowledge that this side will (most likely) be orange, we have a clue about him. That he's watching, and that he's aware of the audience.

From 26:34 to 26:44, in the upper left hand corner there is a score in orange text, the number is '07734'. Now, if you were to put that number into a calculator and turn it upside down, it would spell out, 'hello.'

Now this is mostly common knowledge at this point due to the fandom (me included) absolutely losing it over the hint of a new dark side. Especially since he shows up seemingly out of nowhere. I just needed to get those establishing bits out of the way before I continued on with the theory so it's a tiny bit easier to track my thinking (I tend to not explain my points correctly before moving onto the next one so I hope I did a better job of it this time through).

He is speaking to us. He's not saying hello to Patton or Roman or even Thomas! They don't even notice it! He is speaking to the viewer, which leads to the question of what exactly this side knows, and more importantly what this side is capable of.

There is also speculation that this dark side is going to be somehow attached to or the opposite of Logan. The opposite of Logic, that implication alone should be at least a little unsettling. Now, I love Logan, I love him a lot, him and Janus are my favorites. But he does seem to have kind of not the best relations with the others at times. However, I do not think we've reached him actually despising any side, not even Remus or Janus. I think that is going to change.

The color schemes Thomas and the team have been using are really clever. They convey a lot about the character just by having the color associated with them. They have also been working with the idea of opposites. And those opposites seem to conflict quite often.

What I mean is, violet on the color wheel is the opposite of yellow. Virgil and Janus' colors. Now, it is very, very plain to see that Virgil and Janus do not get along. Whatever history they have is still up in the air for specifics, but it's obvious that they have one. And at least Virgil hates Janus.

Red and green are also opposites on the color wheel. Even though they have barely interacted, it's clear by Roman's language towards Remus that they don't have the best relationship. Roman breaks down at the mention that him and Remus are similar. Also the funhouse simile, (DWIT: 35:56) "It's a little like, looking into a funhouse mirror, but instead of a giant head, or, like, long legs and a tiny torso... It shows you... Everything you don't want to be." That's more than enough evidence to prove they aren't on the best terms.

Now, onto blue. Blue, more specifically, Logan's shade of blue, is opposite to orange. And judging by the pattern we see developing with the opposite colors. Logan will not like the orange side one bit. Hold onto that piece of information for a moment while I make a few more predictions based on some more patterns.

Someone has already pointed this out, (if someone will be so kind as to remind me of who pointed this out that would be lovely <3), but back in Moving On Part 2, in the background, there is a picture hanging on the wall that will typically change to fit whatever topic they're currently on, (ex: it changed to a picture of Thomas preforming in the show he won the golden apple for when it was brought up, or a zoomed in picture of the children's book he made.) At 1:30 the picture changes to show Thomas doing the 'speak no evil, hear no evil and see no evil' poses. (Covering his mouth, ears and eyes)

The dark sides and Virgil seem to each have a connection to one of these.

Virgil: See no evil. (Embarrassing Phases: 7:32. Virgil makes the room go completely black, blocking everyone's field of vision while he changed Logan's costume.)

Janus: Speak no evil. (Self-explanatory)

Remus: Hear no evil. (DWIT: 5:36-5:48. Remus muffles the other sides conversation, making Thomas hear him clearer than anyone else with the "Have you ever imagined killing your brother?" line.)

The last one in that same vein, would be 'do no evil'.

So what does this pattern have to do with the other patterns I've pointed out?

Well, in order to get there, I need to point out, yet another pattern. (I'm so sorry)

Logan has always been a bit more physical than the rest of the sides I think. I don't really like using pre-Fitting In information in my theories, as I'm unsure of exactly how much they had planned at that point?, but I'm unsure of how to explain my point that well without this example. In Accepting Anxiety part 1, at 6:36 you can see Thomas rubbing the back of his head where he was hit with the laptop, immediately after, you can see Logan do the same thing.

To me this sort of establishes that what happens to Thomas can happen to Logan, making him a bit more of a physical presence than the others. The brain is what stimulates pain after all, it controls all the nerve endings and pain receptors.

Another much looser example, is his puppet choice in LNTAO, the whole 'not made of felt' thing was most likely just because of what Logan said that y'know, he didn't feel anything. It is also the fact of, all of the others puppets had felt somewhere on them, except his. Which makes the puppet, in contrast, feel more sturdy and physical.

I don't think this one applies all too much, but it is worth noting that out of all of the sides, Logan tends to always end up holding something/having something more physical in his possession more than the others. (Moving on being the exception)

The note cards.

The yerkes-dodson curve chart.

In Can Lying Be Good he was given a little headset.

Logic Vs. Passion he had a notebook (Which also made an appearance in Embarrassing Phases) as well as the drawings and graphs, while he wasn't physically holding them, they were real and not animation like Roman's examples.

(If you wanna count the crofters go ahead...?)

LNTAO also had the paper ball throwing physically hurting Roman.

In SvS when he was summoned (lmao summoned to appear in court I just got that as I was typing this out.) He is holding a law book.

In DWIT he gets physically hurt, twice. Having his teeth pulled out, and the throwing star. [Side note: the little interaction at 19:07 could also apply here, showing how he's more grounded as he stays almost completely still when Remus practically jump scares him.]

In the Healthy Distractions video he has what I'm assuming is coffee-

Then in the redux, he physically ends up hurting Patton by popping up too close. An odd little detail that really didn't apply, don't you think? And it's immediately followed up with Patton reiterating that they were just figments of Thomas' imagination.

Logan is much more grounded in reality and more physical than the other sides. Which is a very good thing for Logic to be, that's what it has to be.

Now what is the actual theory?

Virgil can blind the others

Remus can mute the others

Janus can silence the others

My theory is that the 'orange side' is going to have the ability to physically or mentally control the others.

And Logan is going to be his chosen victim, at least at first.

Logan is going to have an antagonistic relationship with this side because of the fact that he takes control away from him. Which order and control is what Logan seems to thrive on!

Keeping schedules, having everything in order, being taken seriously, attempting to make sure that Thomas is punctual, all of those things are Logan trying to maintain control. Now that isn't a bad thing in this circumstance at least, he's trying to make sure Thomas doesn't do anything that would cause his life to devolve into chaos.

But when it's taken away from him it's going to send him into some kind of spiral, and lead to his two-part video. Losing control of things is scary as hell. It was one of the points brought up as to why Remus was being a pest more than usual (DWIT: 29:37-29:56). And obviously being ignored and pushed to the side isn't helping either. It could just be the straw that breaks the camels back.

Long story short, Logan's arc is going to be directly tied to that other dark side, at least in my predictions.

And it's going to hurt.

Okay, this last little bit, is purely speculation, with very little connection to anything in canonicity. All of the dark traits seem to have a connection to some kind of animal, and they're typically ones that are seen as gross or creepy in some form, spider, snake, octopus.

What if the last dark side's animal was some kind of bug? A beetle or something. Like seriously the thought of a bright orange beetle or cockroach is, disgusting.

The only reason I'm saying this is because of a random thought I had. We all know Logan's 'robot' persona he puts up, he can't feel anything, he's mechanical, right? Well, a side coming in and completely flipping all of that on it's head, and ruining the control Logan had...

That would be a real bug in the system, now wouldn't it?

Well! Thank you for reading through all of this! I know it got a bit long-winded I just like having as much evidence as possible before stating a theory.

But those were just my thoughts and I'd love to hear yours! So please tell me what you think!!!

TL;DR: My prediction is that the orange side will be able to take control over the other sides, and he will take control of Logan which would cause Logan to spiral enough to warrant his two part video.

------------

BONUS: Some more angsty bits about Logan and control, that didn't apply to the theory too much!

So first off, to me Logan seems like a very straight-forward (ha.) problem solver. If there is a problem there is no need to go through extensive loopholes or anything, no emotional mires or musical numbers unless necessary, the problem just needs to be fixed, period end of sentence.

I have a feeling that Logan applies that same logic to himself.

In the videos prior to Losing My Motivation, Logan was very very happy and bubbly. Easily excited and willing to participate in things he probably wouldn't have otherwise. He was much more expressive. (I know this is most likely because he was not a fully fleshed out character yet, but it can tie into some angst.)

Then in Losing My Motivation, Logan was brought the conclusion that he was the problem. (Note: this was also where the infinitesimal mistake was also made.)

From then on, we can slowly see minor changes to him in the videos, he starts becoming more reserved, serious, as well as trying new things to sort of fit in? (i.e the note cards) He saw the problem, and he tried to fix it. He became the definite voice of reason. Him smiling also went down a lot.

Looking back on this better explains why Logan was so upset at the beginning of Logic Vs. Passion, 2:28-2:41. To him he's already fixed his problem, he's fixed himself, he was the problem, how could Thomas run into this problem again!

Then we get to the crofters musical, where he just completely drops his walls down and sings and has fun with something he enjoys. Then of course, Virgil and Patton kinda come and unintentionally embarrass him. And he starts getting more feelings of inadequacy which build up to the whole problem of LNTAO.

Then in SvS almost his entire time on the witness stand was Janus subtly poking at him, and at 15:04, he talks about wanting to make sure Thomas is punctual and productive. He in fact calls it his passion project, something he is PASSIONATE ABOUT.

After two or three years, Logan is still trying to fix the problem. He's still trying to fix himself.

Now this link to control is mostly in what Logan is trying to get Thomas to do, be punctual, follow schedules, produce adequate content at a steady pace, and follow the same pattern every day, according to the chart in Logic Vs. Passion. This habit forming, tends to nearly eliminate variables from Thomas' life. Earning Logan more control. Which is clearly what he's wanting, as he feels that is the way to prevent problems from happening.

#sanders sides #logan sanders #ts sanders sides #theory #sanders sides theory #the orange side #roman sanders #patton sanders #janus sanders #virgil sanders #remus sanders #ts logan #ts roman #ts patton #ts virgil #ts janus #ts remus

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prose-for-hire · 3 years

Text

How Btvs characters would spend Halloween with their s/o:

A/N: This is based on the assumption that the reader really enjoys Halloween 🖤🦇

Buffy summers:

Buffy really likes Halloween

Surprisingly

Often her one night off

But she loved it from being a kid

Having fond memories of trick or treating and then squabbling over candy with Dawn

Being allowed to stay up late to watch movies

When she told you her fond memories you were determined to create more fond memories for her on Halloween

Will absolutely love the idea of a couples costume

But won’t want you to tease her about it

Once you get the hints she’s dropping you would totally pick the cheesiest outfits to compliment each other

You spend all day making Halloween treats with Dawn and not allowing Buffy in the kitchen

And you share them with her before you go to a Scooby gathering/party

you dress up and Dawn hypes you both up (she loves you together)

the party is fun

you laugh along with your friends and even bob some apples

(Xander’s idea)

You rent a bunch of movies to watch for when you get in

you want to recreate something that feels like home for her

She cuddles up to you and kisses you softly thanking you silently

she really loves you and now she loves Halloween more

Xander Harris:

big Halloween fan

he really enjoys it

Won’t shut up about it as soon as October first hits

It’ll be infectious and he’ll love it if you’re as enthusiastic as him

Will have horror movies all lined up for the whole month

you’ll settle in, dim the lights and cuddle up

On the 31st he will have saved the best line up until last

Will want to spend as much time with you as possible

So movies will be his ideal

You’ll both for sure be dressing up even if you’re not going out in the evening

he’d do a couples costume but may actually prefer surprising each other with your respective costumes

Bonus points if you dress kinda sexy he won’t be able to keep his hands off you

Will have so many films lined up you’ll have to stay up basically all night to finish

He’ll have the classics and some more modern ones too to mix it up

He’ll know a whole bunch of facts about the filming too

You bring the snacks and just enjoy your night together

It’s perfect cos it’s the two of you

Willow Rosenberg:

Will be as enthusiastic as you

Will have planned out a costume way in advance

(one made not bought just in case and will insist to make yours too)

It’ll be all part of the

Lots of time for kissing and snuggles in between making the costumes

Plenty of time together through October

you make your costumes and finally they are perfected

the best part has been spending so much time with her though

Halloween night finally came and you spent the entire day eating candy and adding the finishing touches to the costume

you were both giddy with excitement

At the Halloween party you will be the coolest and most historically accurate

you enjoy yourselves, not caring what anyone else thinks of you or your costumes

you have each other, that’s the best part

you meet up with the Scoobies and have a great time

she’s so comfortable with you she can actually let loose

you leave really late, stumbling home together

Willow loves the way you bring her confidence out

you get home and curl up in bed together

you wished the day would never end, you had so much fun

Rupert Giles:

Enjoys the holiday

Didn’t celebrate so much in England

But has fully embraced Halloween since moving to Sunnydale

He’ll dress up, he used to wear the same costume every year but now switches it up a little

his favourite is the trusty wizard costume

He does prefer to stay at home but would go out if you asked

but you don’t, you’re content to just be with him

he has his nose in a book as you make Halloween treats

you entice him to join you

(promising it means he gets as many as he wants)

He came over and immediately helped with weighing everything

He’s actually a good cook so he could have taken over

but loves sharing the responsibility

you put some Halloween themed music on and dance around the kitchen

he adores seeing you so happy

makes him melt more than the caramel for the candy apples

you laugh together and just generally enjoy the time you share making sweet treats

he loves every moment

you decorate them and share them when they’re done

you ask him to tell you ghost stories

and he does. Although they’re all true and from his Ripper days

it makes it even more interesting (and he loves sharing his past with you)

Spike:

Loves it

everyone knows he (not so) secretly loves Halloween

will have stolen any and all candy left outside people’s homes

will split it with you if you ask nicely

may tease you and ask for his treat first

but will definitely share the candy cos he’s fond of you

may take some convincing to get him to leave the crypt after dark

but if you do, by some miracle, manage it

you will find him warming up to it

wont dress up himself but won’t mind that you do

might even teasingly offer to help get you into your costume

you go to some bar or the Bronze

had the impression that dressing up was some kind of insult

but figures eventually that you all must just think he (as a vampire) is very cool

makes him very full of himself

(more so than usual)

Won’t dress up at all but will mutter under his breath his thoughts and a primitive rating system on everyone else’s costume

this will make you laugh

a lot

he’ll enjoy making you laugh and continue until someone overhears and it gets him in trouble

You’ll end up being kicked out of the bar but neither of you will mind

Halloween is so much better when you were together

Angel:

Angel doesn’t like Halloween so much

But when he sees your love of the holiday he will change his tune

Instantly

he just likes to see you happy

it’s not selfless really, to see you happy gives him so much joy

so he sets off on his October-long mission

Will find every Halloween themed activity you can attend

Sunnydale unsurprisingly has a lot to offer

Haunted houses, pumpkin carving, the works

You name it he’s looked into it

by the time the week of Halloween arrives, you’ve done everything on offer

you tell him one evening that you want to go ghost hunting

he looks at you and frowns

it sounds dangerous

and he would rather you didn’t die (especially not on Halloween)

but you manage to convince him to go ghost hunting

on Halloween

You said it was your Halloween wish. only for you would he do this.

you go to a graveyard and look around with a torch

you were one step away from dressing as a ghost buster

but decided it would probably be disrespectful

You turned and there was a ghost! A real one

you slipped your hand into Angel’s as you communicated with the ghost

Angel planned this. He knew as soon as you saw one you would want to leave and do normal Halloween stuff again

would admit to it eventually, but the most important thing was your face when you met a real (and friendly) ghost

Anya Jenkins:

Anya loves it. She loves making money

She loves dressing up. And she loves you

A winning combination. She also loves learning about everything

Does try her best to get used to being human (and doesn’t get enough credit)

You and Anya will spend the entire day in the Halloween department of the store

Not kidding, you get there early and are there well into the afternoon

You can’t decide what to buy

there’s so much candy so little time

and the decorations! You squabble over what’s worth buying

eventually you manage to convince her you need everything you’ve chosen no matter the cost

she smiles at some of the items and shrugs

she’s new to Halloween, she finds it very cute though

not at all scary

when everything’s decorated and candy is left out, you can relax

(she will have definitely checked on the Magic box while you were in town to make sure it’s going okay)

she can stomach the worst, most gruesome horror movies without so much as batting an eyelid

She’s seen and done worse. will protect you if you struggle to watch

Tara Maclay:

Tara used to get a bit weird around the holiday

You found out later it was because she thought she was a demon

And just decided to sit Halloween out

You had always missed her and offered to stay in but she wanted you to go out and have a good time

Finally this year you knew everything about her past

And so did she

Surprise: she’s no demon

So you make sure she has the best Halloween ever

Cos she’s missed out on so much

you start with pumpkin carving

a staple

you plan out your designs and spend time perfecting them

they look super cute lit up later that night

she smiles a lot

its the first time in a while she’s just done fun things for Halloween

without something in the back of her head telling her she’s wrong

you decorate the dorm you share and play spooky music

You watch Halloween specials and family friendly movies through the entire afternoon

you dress up and hand out a whole bunch of candy

she really likes it, finding herself able to relax

the Scoobies come over and you have a little party

nothing too outrageous just you all hanging out

some of you are in costume, some not

but you have a really great time

and Tara has plenty of plans for celebrating next year

Oz:

Oz doesn’t hate halloween

He isn’t enthusiastic either

Kinda hard to pinpoint his feelings on the occasion

Either way? He’s a sucker for you

he’s usually booked at some gig for Halloween

But this year, he tells the guys he isn’t doing it

knows how much you love the spooky day

so he’s going to spend it solely with you

took him ages to figure out what to do

he will help you decorate

eventually says he needs to go out to the store

when he was out he found a lot of Halloween goodies for you

Decided to use the Halloween themed treats and decided to hide them around the (well decorated) home

its like a little treasure trail. You get clues and you get a treat and another clue until the end

he loves to buy gifts for a s/o and Halloween is no exception

you love Halloween and he loves you so he wanted to make it special

you will come to the end of the trail and gush about how much you love it

he’ll shrug but that smile’s there

he’s pleased

as the night draws in you cuddle up and every time the door goes you insist you both go

so you can see the cool outfits and hand out candy together

Drusilla:

wouldn’t celebrate Halloween unless you wanted to

Might not be aware of how big the holiday is

Would humour you if you wanted to celebrate though

Might find it cute the way you love it

Would want you happy so would make sure there were Halloween decorations everywhere in whichever lair you were in

Decorations would stay up all year round

It kinda blends with the rest of the place

If you’re really into Halloween would hold a ball/party in your honour on the 31st

She would be very proud of it

Would invite every demon she knew but most probably wouldn’t show

demons don’t party. Not on Halloween

Even if it was just both of you attending the party, she would dance with you slowly in the middle of the room

Even with no music

Will pepper your face in such loving kisses

May offer to sire you as she knows you love the date so much

But is happy to wait if you refuse

you are her favourite so Halloween is her favourite of it’s yours

you show her the cuter side of Halloween

Will hum to you softly

maybe a tune like the Addam’s family but will hum it very seriously

Faith:

Faith always thought Halloween was lame

until she met you

she likes to pretend she doesn’t care

and she’s too cool for all that stuff

but melts into a puddle when she sees your enthusiasm for the holiday

Will basically do anything you ask so long as she gets to see you happy

But what you really want is her and you tell her this

you make a plan to go for a ‘spooky walk’ before coming back to get cosy and watch Halloween tv

on your walk, you point out all of the spooky decorations and lights

she thinks its cute but won’t admit it

you end up dusting a few vamps that didn’t get the memo

but you convince her it was perfect, very Halloween-y so she doesn’t get so mad at them for interrupting your evening after that

She will stop and kiss you every few streets

loves stolen kisses, especially like this

you enjoy looking at the cool costumes but eventually walk back home

her favourite part of the night, however was when you turned the motel room you now shared into a cosy fort

blankets everywhere and candles

very romantic and to you it had the right amount of spooky too

You hide under the blankets and start to tell outrageous ghost stories into the night

she held you close and insisted it was now her favourite holiday

Cordelia chase:

Cordy loves Halloween

Especially the excuse to dress up however she wants

Would 100% want to dress you up

Wouldn’t ask, would tell you it’s happening

And you ofc would agree

(Or else)

She’s a sweetheart really and wants a lot of input on what you’re comfortable wearing

Will use her dads credit card to buy anything she thinks you’ll need

You will probably be wearing something worth more than your entire wardrobe for the night

She will dress you up, maybe do your spooky makeup if you’re into that

She would make sure to get you both invites to the coolest party going

I’m talking the coolest

anyone who’s anyone is going

Will walk you in as if you’re both on the red carpet

Will not let anyone compliment one of you without demanding they compliment the other

You will have the best time

Dancing and laughing the entire night

Riley:

Probably wouldn’t enjoy Halloween so much

He sees enough demons on a normal week day

Might want a night off but won’t be too into going out

But If he sees you all excited he’ll start to change his mind

Slowly

He’ll do some activities if you ask and smile as he watches your enthusiasm

When he sees you dressed up he may rethink

Wants you to have a good time so he asks what you wanna do

your choice all day

you wanna go and make dumb decorations? He’ll get the craft glue

you wanna eat your weight in candy? He’s down to share

will take you to a party if you ask

(and maybe even join in with any activities on offer if he’s in a good mood)

will enjoy himself, especially with you on his arm

but you will leave early

He will make an excuse to go home with you

weirdly his job hasn’t called him in tonight

maybe the demons have time off or something?

Weird

you go back to his place and are able to spend a whole uninterrupted night together

you have Halloween themed movies on in the background but mostly you’re spending it together in bed

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muffintonic · 3 years

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Alright, I think i’m done BOTW 2 spamming for today. Anywho, time for some thoughts in general!

1) I hated how the shrines in BOTW were so cold and dark compared to the bright and lively nature outside (I wish they had all looked like the Master Trials challenge where there were trees and stuff incorporated inside), so I hope if we’re forced to have dungeons they’ll be more like the Wind Waker ones. 2) I hope they don’t make us use the grappling hook or anything like in Wind Waker to move around the sky islands (I hated that mechanic). 3) I’m probably one of the few people who wanted less Zelda and more of the Champions in HWAOC since i’m only really attached to BOTW (and we saw a fair amount of Tetra in Wind Waker)/apparently Zelda’s been sidelined in all the other games, so i’m hoping in vain that we get more Champions material in BOTW 2. Also, Link could stand to have some more cutscenes centered around him as well (the few we got in some of the sidequests in BOTW were great). 4) I only really somewhat care about Riju and Sidon, so I won’t mind if the new gang gets sidelined in BOTW 2 (I still think Nintendo wasted the found family/band of brothers aspect on the dead characters--I love them so much and they’re all I want!! The problem is, they’re dead and I don’t really care all that much about their replacements!!! I dunno, maybe i’m hampered by the fact that I can replay the original champions’ memories whenever I want/read their diaries, but I can’t rewatch the new gang’s cutscenes AKA i’ve forgotten their characterization since they don’t talk to me much now that the game’s over). It’d be great if they have some weaving storylines in BOTW 2 that will get me more invested in them, but currently i’m not that interested. 5) Speaking of which, I know it’s 100% not going to happen, but goddang if I don’t want the Champions to have been returned to life. Nintendo totally squandered HWAOC by not making it a true prequel/canon to BOTW (the Champions Ballad confirmed that the Divine Beasts had trials in order to be synced to the champs, so the new gen use of them wouldn’t have happened without that + Mipha thought Link had changed in BOTW yet says in HWAOC that he hasn’t changed + some scenes like “Champion Revali’s Song” never happened at all/got replaced with alternative scenes that really changed some dynamics + basically all of Revali’s time-relative characterization from his diary/pre-100 years of solitude got thrown out + I feel like Daruk got totally sidelined), so i’m still craving that Champions content. Also, I feel like it’s totally unfair that Zelda came out of 100 years totally unaged while everyone else died. Life seems to really suck for people in the LoZ universe who aren’t chosen by divine powers. 6) They’d better keep it open world and non-linear. I can’t go back to being forced to backtrack/trudge through things, I just can’t. BOTW was everything i’ve ever dreamed about in a game (truly open world + non-linear + interactive + meaningful story + lots of outfits + beautiful landscapes) with Skyrim previously being the only thing that came close to what I wanted, so I really hope BOTW 2 doesn’t deviate too much from that. 7) I really liked Kass in BOTW, but i’m not sure what direction they’d go with him in BOTW 2/i’d be fine if he sat BOTW 2 out. I worked so hard to complete all his quests in BOTW so he’d go back home to his family, GODDANGIT, KASS. 8) Someone mentioned that since the first trailer had underground aspects, we’re probably going to be playing as Zelda with the Slate there, and I agree. They didn’t make a playable model for her in HWAOC for nothing. 9) I want to be able to stable the deer and bears and stuff, but I know that won’t happen. Being able to ride the moose and rhino things from the Hebra area probably won’t happen either, but I want to ride them!!! 10) I hope there’ll be at least a few new buildings and stuff in the towns/they’ve started construction on some areas in Central Hyrule, but I guess that’ll depend on how long it’s been in-universe since BOTW. Or maybe not, considering how there’s still Karson and Hudson even though Bolson retired from Bolson Construction--insta-towns like Tarrey Town could totally be feasible if they wanted! 11) I have one foot in the camp that believes there’ll be time shenanigans in BOTW 2. HWAOC totally threw me off with it being an alternate timeline, so i’m not sure whether we’re going to be experiencing that again or time travel itself, but I definitely won’t be surprised this time around if Nintendo goes that route again (and it would be super interesting to see the Link from 10,000 years ago). I’m not entirely convinced that the Link we see exploring the sky in the second trailer isn’t our Link, mainly because he seems to still have on the blue boxers from BOTW. 12) I also heard that maybe this will be the last LoZ game ever since something something Demise something Skyward Sword something something lore from games i’ve only vaguely looked into (i’ve only ever played BOTW --> Wind Waker --> HWAOC)??? If so, it kind of sucks that I came in just when they started making games with playstyles palatable to me (I had to look up every single thing when playing Wind Waker, but BOTW let me solve things according to MY logic/I missed being able to explore in HWAOC), but at least it’ll end on a super high note/I won’t experience later disappointment, I guess. If BOTW 2 involves breaking the reincarnation cycle for the Triforcers, I would be really surprised. (On a related note, Nintendo making Ganondorf good would also be a 100% shock to me, but it would be great to end on that as a subversion. Yes, I want them to bring back the semi-complicated Ganondorf from Wind Waker.) 13) I hope they don’t rush releasing it. I heard they pushed back BOTW originally (I got it in 2019), but it came out fantastic for it! I know COVID’s been affecting things, so I really hope they’re treating their staff right and are mindful of crunch. 14) I want even more outfits (there seem to be at least two new ones, if the variant of the Hylian Tunic crossed with Link’s Champion’s Tunic counts). Give me all the outfits!!! Also, I hope we get even more hair variations in addition to the hair down option (which is all i’ve ever wanted since I saw the mod that altered the Ancient Helmet). 15) I wonder if we’re going to get a bonus for having both BOTW and HWAOC save data. 16) I wonder if we’re going to be keeping the Champions’ skills. I’m going to miss being super overpowered, if not. 17) I hope Nintendo doesn’t cave in and make surfaces climbable in the rain. Having that limiter is more realistic and Link would otherwise be too overpowered with a super climbing ability. 18) I liked BOTW’s scattered music that got more noticeable in populated areas because it was fitting for the post-apocalyptical/nature aspect. Hearing your footsteps in an open field and the buzzing of insects was super nice and prevented me from getting music fatigue (which i’d probably experience since whenever I play BOTW it’s for 5-10 hours at a time). I hope Nintendo either keeps that or makes audio options. 19) I heard that BOTW 2 is going to be super dark or something, and i’m okay with dark, but not GRIMdark, so I hope it doesn’t go that far. From what we’ve seen in the second trailer it still looks beautiful, but I hope it doesn’t do that thing that some games do where after the midpoint/a certain story point all the scenery permanently changes to be dark and scary (that’ll seriously hamper post-game playability for me if so). 20) If they expand on the Zonai, that would be super cool! Doubly cool if the time travel shenanigans involve them/ancient Link being one! 21) I kind of want windstorms to be a weather feature. We had lightning, heat, and cold, but no wind! No, I don’t count the wind geysers and the occasional breeze in Tabantha. 22) I want a chest in my house to hold more weapons than just the gear mounts. BOTW only had enough mounts for the champions’ gear, but it also had rare items like the Kite Shield and Forest Dweller’s Sword that you can’t get anymore once you use them up! 23) I want to be able to stable my horses at my house. What’s the point of that little area if you can’t stable your horse there! 24) Speaking of Link’s house: where is Zelda going to live? If the castle’s not reconstructed, it’d be neat if Link adds an extension to his house for her. 25) I hope they open up part-time jobs (think Mabinogi) as an option to earn rupees. Having to hunt for Luminous Stone deposits or feed Trott to make money can be such a chore. I think some of BOTW’s minigames/sidequests might count as those, but those minigames were either frustrating if your goal is to earn money (since most of them cost money to play in the first place and the mechanics weren’t always easy), or didn’t earn that much in general. 26) I wonder if Kilton is going to have updated items since the monsters seem to have changed. 27) I want to be able to dive underwater (mainly so I can explore the beautiful reefs over at Lurelin). A dive meter like the one from Super Mario Sunshine would be cool. Also, it’d doubly be neat if you had a separate stamina wheel for swimming and could permanently upgrade your swim/diving stamina (the speed+ swimming items just consumed your stamina faster, which was a pain)! 28) It’s definitely too late for this, but it’s a shame that the Hylians have so many face/body/hair and outfit variations, but the Zora, Rito, and Gorons don’t. The Gerudo were kind of okay with the hair and body variations, but the other races seemed to have a serious copy-paste problem. I guess technically some of the more important NPCs (ones with quests/cutscene triggers) had different coloring, but they were severely lacking in clothing variation. Also, the only old Rito was the elder??? At least the Gorons and Zora had some old folks besides their leader walking around. Very weird, but I don’t think BOTW 2 can fix any of this. 29) I wonder how they’re going to do the final boss battle, considering how epic/cinematic the BOTW 2x battle was. What can top fighting (on horseback, no less) a giant, flaming boar made out of malice? 30) I wonder what the Yiga are going to be up to, considering how Ganondorf seems to be somewhat kicking in BOTW 2.

#in other words: BOTW 2 HYPE REAL #i'm still going to queue things so there'll probably another BOTW 2 glut from me in a few days bwaha #(and probably some general BOTW stuff because MAN am i hyped)#i'm so glad i got into BOTW in 2019 because there's been content for me every year since and i am Living #botw 2

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constantviewings · 3 years

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The TV Show Trials - Inside No. 9

Inside No. 9 is a British black comedy anthology series that first aired in 2014. It is written by Reese Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton. Each 30-minute episode is a self-contained story with new characters and a new setting, and all star both Pemberton and Shearsmith.

12 Days of Christine

When Christine brings Adam home from a costume party, her life begins to unravel. Her happiness slowly turns to sorrow.

It’s only fitting that this episode is the most popular as it is what introduced me to this entire series. This episode is phenomenal and I really enjoyed it, even though I knew the entire plot going into it. Shearsmith and Pemberton where really smart in placing the elements of the conclusion throughout the entire episode for you to piece together at the end.

Rating: 5

The Devil of Christmas

In a film within the episode, The Devonshires arrive at the alpine chalet for a holiday. The caretaker, Klaus, tells them about a local legend of Krampus, the Devil of Christmas. Meanwhile, the film’s director provides audio commentary.

I really like the production of this episode, with it being shot entirely on equipment from the 70s, but I have issues with the ending. The ending, and the twist, feel unceremoniously tacked onto the third act and come out of nowhere, which left me confused and unaware of how to feel.

Rating: 3

Cold Comfort

Andy takes a job at Comfort Support Line’s call center, a helpline for the lonely and desperate. Will he be able to cope with the emotional stress after he becomes the target of a stalker?

The choice of having this all shown through security cameras is fantastic, as you can watch camera-by-camera as a character does something and provides visual interest to otherwise standard framing methods. The story is also pretty good with the twist being satisfying, but it doesn’t make much sense in the context of the characters.

Rating: 3

The Riddle of the Sphinx

Nina breaks into the office of Cambridge Professor Nigel Quires, who publishes cryptic crosswords in the student newspaper as “The Sphynx”. Squires proceeds to teach Nina how to solve cryptic crosswords using the next day’s puzzle.

This is my favourite of the episodes that I watched. I’m a big fan of ‘double twists’ where a character thinks they’ve won, but they’ve actually lost everything and that happens twice in this episode.

Rating: 5

Tom and Gerri

Tom is a frustrated primary school teacher and aspiring author. One night, a homeless man named Migg returns Tom’s lost wallet, and Migg ends up living with Tom, to the frustration of Tom’s girlfriend Gerri. Tom’s life changes dramatically as a result.

This episode doesn’t stand out to me like any of the others, it’s reasonably enjoyable but didn’t leave a lasting impression.

Rating: 2

The Bill

A group of friends go out for tapas at Number Nine after a day of golfing; but tempers escalate quickly when they can’t agrees on how to settle the bill. Who will pay the ultimate price?

I’m going to be completely transparent, the bickering between the four main characters is extremely grading and I was over it ten minutes into the episode; but I’m interpreting that as fantastic writing. I also think they could have been a bit more inventive with the ‘No. 9’ element of this episode by having it take place at table nine instead of the restaurant “Number Nine”. Despite those two less than stellar elements, the final twist almost makes the thirty minutes of grading bickering worth it.

Rating: 3

La Couchette

A group of passengers in carriage nine on a train from France try to get some sleep, but the compartment quickly fills up and the possibility of sleep dwindles away. Then one of the passengers suddenly dies.

Similar to Tom and Gerri, I could take or leave this episode. It’s not that it’s particularly bad, it just isn’t particularly good or memorable. In a hypothetical situation where you can only choose five episodes of Inside No. 9, this one wouldn’t make the cut unfortunately.

Rating: 3

Once Removed

According to the Holes and Rahe Stress Scale, the three most stressful experienced in life are the death of a spouse, divorce and imprisonment. Moving house is only 32nd on the list. But anything could happen in the last ten minutes inside no 9.

I’ll be honest, most of the points for this episodes rating can be chalked up to its unique story structure where it jumps back in ten minute intervals whenever the plot catches up. Other than that, I found this episode quite standard.

Rating: 3

To Have and To Hold

When Adrian’s career as a wedding photographer starts to get in the way of his own marriage, his wife Harriet is determined to find out why.

This episode is somewhat mediocre, until the twist rears its head and then it’s all uphill from there.

Rating: 4

Bernie Clifton’s Dressing Room

It’s been 30 years since Northern double-act Len and Tommy last appeared on stage together. Then Tommy walked out on Len, and that was curtains for Cheese and Crackers. Until now – and one last gig in front of an invited audience.

This episode hits different, the entire episode (apart from maybe a minute) is just Shearsmith and Pemberton doing old, outdated skit comedy and it’s fantastic.

Rating: 4

Thinking Out Loud

Inside house no. 9, seven extremely disparate characters share their stories with a camera, their fats inevitably, inextricably, and unknowingly set for a head-on collision.

I’ll be completely honest and say that I was let down with this episode. Every time a new character was introduced I was piecing together the ways in which they could be connected to the others, only for them to all be split personalities. While I can’t comment on the accuracy of the portrayal of DID, it still felt stereotypical as a narrative device.

Rating: 3

And the Winner Is…

We join jury no. 9 of a television awards company as they decide on who is going to win the Best Actress award. But only one of the eight actresses can be chosen.

This episode was a little bit, dare I say it, uninspired? While it stars an impressive cast, it doesn’t make up for the lacklustre story. Maybe you need to know more about the industry to get it…

Rating: 2

Zanzibar

Strangely-farcical goings-on are in store for a group of unwitting guests, who have all booked adjoining rooms on the ninth floor of the Zanzibar hotel in London. This episode’s dialogue is written entirely in iambic pentameter.

On top of all taking place in a single hallway, this episode has another gimmick in that it is all performed in iambic pentameter which adds a unique charm to an otherwise unimpressive story.

Rating: 4

The Harrowing

In this horror comedy with a grim twist, a teenage girl is hired to housesit a gothic mansion, but it appears that there are scary things going on inside no 9.

I’ll give them this much, they tried something different. Did it work out? Not for me. Though Shearsmith singing Lord of the Dance flung me back into catholic school mass…

Rating: 2

Sardines

Rebecca and Jeremy hold their engagement party as Rebecca’s family mansion. The guests play a game of sardines, and as Rebecca’s friends and family are packed into a wardrobe, secrets are gradually revealed, leading to a dark and sinister discovery.

Like the 12 Days of Christine, I cheated slightly with this episode. This was the first episode I ever watched of Inside No. 9 and is the whole reason I am reviewing the show. This was my third time watching the episode, and it’s still just as good as the first two.

Rating: 5

(Bonus Episode) Dead Line

When Arthur finds an old mobile phone in his local graveyard, he makes the mistake of trying to contact the owner. But some mysteries are best left unsolved, and as Halloween draws near Arthur is plunged into a nightmare of his own making.

The plot description above isn’t exactly what the episode entails, because this is the live broadcast Halloween special from 2018 where they faked the whole thing going wrong. While it doesn’t have the same effect watching it on a laptop two years after the fact, if you can put that aside and fully immerse yourself into believing what they want you to, it’s still amazing.

Rating: 5

Did I like it? Most of the episodes, yes.

Will I continue watching? God yes, thank god it’s been renewed for two more seasons…

#The TV Show Trials #Inside No 9

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sunflowersonthehill · 4 years

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Harry J. Potter and the Sorting Hat (really long post)

‘Hmm,’ said a small voice in his ear. ‘Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There’s talent, oh my goodness, yes – and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that’s interesting ... So where shall I put you?’

Harry gripped the edges of the stool and thought, ‘Not Slytherin, not Slytherin.’

‘Not Slytherin, eh?’ said the small voice. ‘Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it’s all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that – no? Well, if you’re sure – better be GRYFFINDOR!’ (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone, The Sorting Hat)

I believe that everyone has talked about this scene at this point but I wanted to say something. The most important thing in this exchange of lines is that the sorting hat thought that Harry should be in Slytherin and Harry chose to “belong in Gryffindor,/ Where dwell the brave at heart,/ Their daring, nerve, and chivalry/ Set Gryffindors apart". Now I want to concentrate on the other things the hat says:

1. Plenty of courage

If we want to stay on book 1 the first example that comes to my mind is the Troll scene. I know that the line between “bravery” and “stupidity” is really subtle but:

“Harry then did something that was both very brave and very stupid: he took a great running jump and managed to fasten his arms around the troll’s neck from behind. The troll couldn’t feel Harry hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Harry’s wand had still been in his hand when he’d jumped – it had gone straight up one of the troll’s nostrils.” (Hallowe’en)

Yep, that was very stupid, but Hermione was crying, the fear froze her and he did the first thing he could think of in that moment to protect her.

There are so many more moments, but my favourite is in Deathly Hallows when he acknowledged that he had to die.

Harry understood at last that he was not supposed to survive. His job was to walk calmly into Death’s welcoming arms. [...] Would it hurt to die? All those times he had thought that it was about to happen and escaped, he had never really thought of the thing itself: his will to live had always been so much stronger than his fear of death. […] This cold-blooded walk to his own destruction would require a different kind of bravery. (The Forest Again)

2. Not a bad mind

Ok, we all know that harry is not a Ravenclaw because of a lot of things but his mind is still really great and, sometimes, is fast. He IS smart:

‘Stop moving!’ Hermione ordered them. ‘I know what this is – it’s Devil’s Snare!’ ‘Oh, I’m so glad we know what it’s called, that’s a great help,’ snarled Ron […].

‘Shut up, I’m trying to remember how to kill it!’ said Hermione. […]

‘Devil’s Snare, Devil’s Snare ... What did Professor Sprout say? It likes the dark and the damp –’

‘So, light a fire!’ Harry choked.

‘Yes – of course – but there’s no wood!’ Hermione cried, wringing her hands.

‘HAVE YOU GONE MAD?’ Ron bellowed. ‘ARE YOU A WITCH OR NOT?’ (Through the Trapdoor)

Ok, of course he is not Hermione-solving-Snape’s-potion-riddle smart but in the Goblet of Fire he answered correctly to the sphynx so... I can live with this and I don’t know if this is an unpopular opinion, but I really liked DH Harry, really. I loved how he was able to interpret Voldy’s mind and how he solved the puzzle Dumbledore left him. I know he did some stupid things like take Mad-Eye Moody’s eye from the Umbridge’s door but come on... he couldn’t leave it there. But now an example:

‘Harry,’ […] Are you saying there’s a Horcrux in the Lestranges’ vault?’

‘Yes,’ said Harry. ‘Bellatrix was terrified when she thought we’d been in there; she was beside herself. Why? What did she think we’d seen, what else did she think we might have taken?

Something she was petrified You-Know-Who would find out about.’

‘But I thought we were looking for places You-Know-Who’s been, places he’s done something important?’ […]

‘I don’t know whether he was ever inside Gringotts,’ said Harry. ‘He never had gold there when he was younger, […] ‘I think he would have envied anyone who had a key to a Gringotts vault. I think he’d have seen it as a real symbol of belonging to the wizarding world. And don’t forget, he trusted Bellatrix and her husband. They were his most devoted servants before he fell, and they went looking for him after he vanished. He said it the night he came back, I heard him.’

[…] He probably told her it was a treasured possession and asked her to place it in her vault. The safest place in the world for anything you want to hide, Hagrid told me ... except for Hogwarts.’

When Harry had finished speaking, Ron shook his head. ‘You really understand him.’ (The Wandmaker)

3. Talent

Now tell me that he is not a good wizard. In his third year he produced a Patronus, during his fifth year he taught DADA to other students and have you seen his O.W.L.S?

Astronomy A /Care of Magical Creatures E /Charms E /Defense Against the Dark Arts O /Divination P / Herbology E /History of Magic D /Potions E /Transfiguration E

They are good. He is not exceptional, but he is a very good wizard and we know the story behind Divination and History of Magic.

4. Thirst to prove yourself

Ok, this I like very much. In my opinion, almost everything he does during this series is because he wants to prove others and himself that he can be, will be and is a good wizard. At the start he didn’t know ANYTING about magic, he didn’t even know that magic existed in the first place. Then someone told him that everyone in their world knew his name for something he didn’t remember he had done... I mean, is scary and he was eleven. He wants to belong in that world from the bottom of his heart.

‘... and until Hagrid told me, I didn’t know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort –’

Ron gasped.

‘What?’ said Harry.

‘You said You-Know-Who’s name!’ said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. ‘I’d have thought you, of all people –’

‘I’m not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name,’ said Harry. ‘I just never knew you shouldn’t. See what I mean?’ I bet,’ he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately, ‘I bet I’m the worst in the class.’ (The journey from platform 9 and 3/4 )

And at the end of the book

‘D’you think he meant you to do it?’ said Ron. ‘Sending you your father’s Cloak and everything?’ ‘Well,’ Hermione exploded, ‘if he did – I mean to say – that’s terrible – you could have been killed.’ ‘No, it isn’t,’ said Harry thoughtfully. ‘He’s a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don’t think it was an accident he let me find out how the Mirror worked. It’s almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could ...’ […] (The Man with two Faces)

Dumbledore said that the real power of Harry was to choose the good side after all that happened to him. For him to suffer meant to love again and again and to forgive bad guy after bad guy. I mean... HE TRIED TO REDEEM VOLDEMORT!

“But before you try to kill me, I’d advise you to think about what you’ve done ... think, and try for some remorse, Riddle ...’

‘What is this?’

Of all the things that Harry had said to him, beyond any revelation or taunt, nothing had shocked Voldemort like this. [...]

‘It’s your one last chance,’ said Harry, ‘it’s all you’ve got left ... I’ve seen what you’ll be otherwise ... be a man ... try ... try for some remorse ...’ (The Flaw in the Plan)

He never wanted to be a Slytherin, he never wanted greatness, he never asked to be the hero, he had to be it because of a prophecy, because everyone wanted him to be it, because Voldemort made him “The chosen one”, “The boy who lived” and he became the hero everyone asked for.

Voldemort asked him if he wanted to join him in the PS:

‘SO WHAT?’ Harry shouted. ‘Don’t you understand? If Snape gets hold of the Stone, Voldemort’s coming back! Haven’t you heard what it was like when he was trying to take over? There won’t be any Hogwarts to get expelled from! He’ll flatten it or turn it into a school for the Dark Arts! Losing points doesn’t matter anymore, can’t you see? Do you think he’ll leave you and your families alone if Gryffindor win the House Cup? If I get caught before I can get to the Stone, well, I’ll have to go back to the Dursleys and wait for Voldemort to find me there. It’s only dying a bit later than I would have done, because I’m never going over to the Dark Side! I’m going through that trapdoor tonight and nothing you two say is going to stop me! Voldemort killed my parents, remember?’ (Through the Trapdoor)

‘Don’t be a fool,’ snarled the face. ‘Better save your own life and join me ... or you’ll meet the same end as your parents ... They died begging me for mercy ...’

‘LIAR!’ Harry shouted suddenly. […]

‘How touching ...’ it hissed. ‘I always value bravery ... Yes, boy, your parents were brave ... I killed your father first and he put up a courageous fight ... but your mother needn’t have died ... she was trying to protect you ... Now give me the Stone, unless you want her to have died in vain.’

‘NEVER!’ (The Man with two Faces)

Dumbledore himself said to Harry that he had some characteristics that Voldemort likes but Harry was loved by so many and so much and he knew that. Harry James Potter is the most not-Slytherin person on this planet, he is a true Gryffindor (maybe with a tip of Hufflepuff for his loyalty) ... change my mind.

Bonus:

‘It’s not a case of what you’ll permit, Minerva McGonagall. Your time’s over. It’s us what’s in charge here now, and you’ll back me up or you’ll pay the price.’

And he spat in her face.

Harry pulled the Cloak off himself, raised his wand and said, ‘You shouldn’t have done that.’

As Amycus spun round, Harry shouted, ‘Crucio!’

[…] ‘I see what Bellatrix meant,’ said Harry, the blood thundering through his brain, ‘you need to really mean it.’

‘Potter!’ whispered Professor McGonagall, clutching her heart. ‘Potter – you’re here! What –? How- ?’ She struggled to pull herself together. ‘Potter, that was foolish!’

‘He spat at you,’ said Harry.

#harry potter #harry james potter #the sorting hat #gryffindor #I know everyone has already talked about this #but I really love him #he is my hero for sure

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sirloozelite · 4 years

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Civilization VI AI Battle Royale: The Empires of Asia

So, as per @eru-kats request, I am going to simulate the AI battle for the Asian empires first! This should be fun.

But, before I do, let me give you a brief overview of our competitors and what they each excel in:

Our first competitor is: Japan: Led by Hojo Tokimune

The Japanese Empire in Civ 6 is a jack of all trades, except for religion. Hojo likes to focus heavily on bonuses based on terrain and the various districts he builds. He also possess bonus production towards infrastructure for his empire and the cities, building districts with a bonus 100% bonus! Hojo also has a unique unit known as the Samurai, which unlike regular units does not suffer from penalties when wounded. Japan is a strong contender throughout all era of the game, and will likely last a while. @eru-kat, this was a strong choice for your champion, I wish Japan luck.

Our second competitor is: India: Led by Gandhi

India led by Gandhi is a scary force, and that’s not only down to his high chance to use nukes when he acquires them. Gandhi relies on a strong religion to buff his empire, and his unique elephant units rival the durability of a tank! He’s known to expand and produce a huge population throughout the entirety of the game, but he can fall victim to over-expansion quite easily. If he survives to the atomic era and beyond he will be a deadly threat to all.

Our third competitor is: India: Led by Chandragupta

Much like Gandhi’s India, Chandragupta uses religion to buff his empire and give him unique bonuses and influence in the world. Unlike Gandhi however, Chandragupta is a dangerous threat to anyone near him. He hates contested borders, and will always go to war with you. Early game he rules. Late game however is when he begins to fall off. If he wants to win this for me, he needs to move fast! XD

Our fourth competitor is: China: Led by Qin Shi Huang

China is without a doubt one of the most powerful Civs in the early game. They gain bonus everything early on, making them unrivaled when it comes to getting a strong start! Their builder start out with an extra use, allowing them to build up their farms and mines faster than any other Civ. Furthermore, they build wonders faster than most other Civs. Chances are if anyone going to build the Pyramids or the Oracle, or any other Wonder, it will be the Chinese. Their military is scary as well! Their unique unit, the Crouching Tiger, replaces the Field Cannon, and is a master of defense. Couple this with the ability to build the Great Wall around their borders, and China is next to unbreakable. However, late game is where they become weaker. Once artillery and tanks are unlocked, the Great Wall becomes obsolete. If China wants to survive, they will have to brace themselves and hope they can hold out, or destroy all that oppose them early on! Good luck to your champion @rangerslayer-97. Hopefully they do well!

Our fifth competitor is: Mongolia: Led by Genghis Khan

It should be fairly obvious what the Mongols are all about. War! That’s pretty much all they can do... but they do it so well. Next to no one can stand up to a Mongol horde at any point in the game. The Mongolians will sweep across the field in fire and blood, destorying anyone who gets in their way. That however, may be their biggest folly. If the world comes together to destroy them, then they will not stand a chance. The Mongols will have to move fast and destroy each of their foes before they have a chance to work together to defeat them. Hopefully their horse swarms will do the trick. Good luck to your chosen empire @swgoji2001. May they spread the blood of their enemies everywhere.

Our sixth competitor is: Korea: Led by Seondeok

Korea is not a military powerhouse in the game. In fact, they are rather weak on that end. However, what they lack in brute strength, they make up for in science. Korea will far surpass anyone else in terms of technology. Whilst everyone else is using spearman or pikeman, Korea will be using cannons and musketmen! She may not have the numbers of the others, but she will be superior in terms of tech through the entirety of the game. If she has a good game, she may even reach Giant Death Robots before anyone else gets nukes. If that is the case, it will be an easy victory. Korea gets stronger as the game progresses. If she is targeted early though, she is a goner!

Our seventh competitor is: Khmer: Led by Jayavarman VII

The Khmer, much like India, are religion based. They recieve unique buffs to food and culture, though their army will be lacking. They have a strong rate of expansion and trade, meaning they may have most of the political influence in the World Congress, but aside from that they are weaker than most Civs. Their chances of victory are slim, unless they are left alone to their own devices. The chances of that happening though are even slimmer!

Our eighth and final competitor is: Indonesia: Led by Gitarja

Indonesia excels at being at sea. Their coastal cities receive unique buffs to everything, much like how Japan does. They have a high growth rate, and again are predominant in religion, adding further strengths and buffs to them. Their navy rivals that of the Norwegians or English, but when it comes to ground combat they are unfortunately lacking. If they can survive long enough and, like the Khmer, are left alone, they might just prevail. It all depends on what sort of game they have.

And so those are the Asian AI’s that will be taking part in this first round. Who will win I wonder? Well, I’ll let you lot know once I finish the simulation.

Good luck to your champions once again @eru-kat, @swgoji2001 and @rangerslayer-97. May the gods of Civ look out for you.

#civilization vi #ai battle royal

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1-800-444-tune · 5 years

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Open for Tarot Readings and Astrology/Numerology Reports

If you still care about my little Tarotscopes Shop you can show your support by donating any amount larger than 4$ CDN today and during this week as appreciation for my daily, weekly, and monthly Tarotscape's Visions of Fortune and Fate Readings I post for free every day. I will also consider doing my super scary-accurate astrology reports for the zodiacs, I will write weekly and daily horoscopes for every sign if I get my goal marker by the middle of the week!;🔔So Please Donate! 🔮 I am starting to get back into my old style Readings of runes and I CHING Readings, and also the infamous Chakra Readings! I am providing my full time 24hrs a day full services for the rest of this week , starting right after this post. So if you want in on this action and want an actual personal reading of any type, I offer....

3 Card Tarot Readings of the general : past/present/future predictions

Other 3 card Readings that I choose to do will be discussed between us

2 card Readings for yes/no choices you want or need to make in your life

There are other 2 Card Readings that I do, however I will not list them here, well talk about it beforehand in the booking of the appointment conversation

Full Access Reading- gives you a full disclosure on your situation at hand

Truth Spread - to gain some insight as to the truth of what's happening right now

Celtic Cross Reading - gives more clarity to an idea or situation you bring to me

4 Cards Of Depth Read - is the greatest for really tough or tricky events this reading will tell you exactly what is going on, these cards are designed to help you understand the difficult situation at hand, and .advise you to overcome the challenge.

4 Cards Of A Very Bad Day Spread- this is for those days you just feel terrible and nothing is going your way, the cards are designed to give you comfort and simple clarity on this real tough rough patch. The best advice comes from here!

The next best advice is one of the many many Oracle Decks to give the very best top notch healing advice that you might need to hear.

The Angelic Guidance Spreads come in a variety of forms, you can get angel messages straight from the Divine through me in a 1 basic card reading, but it's not going to be very good, often you'll need some follow up to that , it comes in 2 card spreads for awesome amazing messages, then 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 card

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There's so so so many more decks that offer such to great wisdom and great wealths of real true knowledge about our lives but I am not going to ramble on about them all here today, this is enough I explained the best most important ones, in my opinion. So, give me a chance to share this wonderful news of guidance that you will truly find so useful in your life. There's no way you will be let down, there's just no way. I am too good at my craft, what I do is just, k, people cannot thank me enough and you'll, be shocked!

Galaxy Spiral Spread is six cards that's 6cards at $3.00 a card, or if you get this reading plus the angelic guidance I'll put them together for just $11.00

I have a few spreads that I use for Realationships , but the standard one is a 7card reading that tells you just how your partner feels, and what they think , and their intentions too!

Bonus feature for the next two months only/I started doing the Valentine Spread it's a featured reading that will tell you the ins and outs of your relationship, it carefully lists your roles and your participation as a partner and then it says something else I think it's will this relationship work out or something, like the outcome, and it does the same for your lover it lists his roles and advice for him to fix things and what he does in the relationship, It's bugging me cause I forget the other details currently and do not have my book, sorry .

Then for Relationships I also read their energy their spiritual realm guides and read the advice from yoyr partners, also spirit guides, that's another thing I can do that's just so great!!

I can tell you your Spirit Animal Guides and the message they being to you, everybody has over 50 Animal Guides but I will likely pick up just on the most potent ones spiritually apparent to me. I give usually 3 Guide Animal Cards and you do not have to stop there because there's so many more that the oracle will tell me about and alert my attention to, my intuition is key, I trust it like family, yo

Spiritual Realm Messenger Advice Reading- and Spirit Guide Wisdom- this is for your usually, loved ones who have passed on and they're always always trying so very hard to reach out to you, so this is a chance fir you to actually communicate with the deceaxsed for once and finally get a chance to see what they're saying and thinking about your life choices, this reading can also be done for just simple spirits that have chosen to be your guides or to communicate with your actual Guardian Angels, yes I am for real!

Which brings me to this point that I can actually give specific guidance that's from the real #Archangel Michael, if you're really having a hard time or ever thought about what if the angels forgot about me type thing, then this is a reading just for you to lift up your spirits and give you that much needed appreciation and love that you alot of you anyways so often craves, I suggest this reading strongly!

Chakra Readings, these are simply great examinations for your heart mind body and soul , I pick up on your total vibe of yoyr energy centres and points on you and this reading can reveal some major insights as to where you could have blockages and also too gives the remedy, just what you need to do to fix it. This is so intense if you're into the healing arts yourself and are ready to finally level up, or maybe you're someone who's into spirituality or trying to astral project or maybe open your third eye? This Readings for you most definitely if you answered yes to any of those , please seek my help.

Shooting Arrow Spreads, these are just for special dates like New Years, Birthdays, Marriages, Starting a job, Anniversary events of any kind, Traditional or Seasonal Celebrations, I use this one for the Moon Phases, I do one for New Moon and one for Full Moon, you might also be wanting this in general for actually I just thought of this but the 1st of the month, to predict the motivational energies surrounding the coming months like, or at any other important marking dates you associate with movement forward .

6 card Week Spread, to predict your future fir the week ahead, this is a wonderful tool to use to plan your week around these pointers and also to just remember the times that a certain something is going to occur, so you can dodge it or embrace it depending on the event or situation!

Horseshoe Spread - will depict the themes of a signifior and their motives and how their belief systems affect their future at least help to shape the outcome

What Should I Do ? Spread. 3 cards. Tells exactly the situation you are dealing with in the top card then the two on the bottom are your What Not To Do and What to Do cards in the spread, the actual best best for making tough decisions or if your in a position and you just feel like you're really stuck at the moment this spread will absolutely clarify the issue and give you peace of mind n knowing that you have finally got the correct answer now all you have to do is apply your advice you ever been given right? Not so bad after all, see.

This decision/That Decision, when you're at a fork in the road, you know your two options but aren't sure which one is the correct one😇have no fear, my dears, because this is the spread right here! It tells exactly the outcome if you pick say option A. And the outcome if you pick then option B, or I can say #1 option or #2option, and gives you yoyr results and then based on that you can then choose which path you feel you'd like to see your life head in, if you still aren't sure which isn't likely, then we could possibly do it either again or do another spread I'd say to clarify and boost your confidence in one of the options, I have ever got so many more spreads that are not listed here and I just do them if we need to, I just giving you all something genre to choose from , the basics to my self healing art and just my ways of tarotcraft okay, so check these out carefully and try decide what in your life you really need most , and you just don't worry about my end I'm all covered always, and truly won't be a disappointment to you, if anything you'll become a weekly of daily customer I think, after u see what I can provide.

The Big Story Spread- tells you of many different areas in your life, it's by far the largest spread that I really do most often, and it's the most comprehensive.

Houses of Astrology Spread, tells you some insight into some different areas of your life using the 12 houses of astrology. This is one of my faves!

Then I have a few other love and relationship spreads of which, one is for a Broken Heart, one for the Compatibility of a Couple, General Relationships Spread, Readiness for Love, and the Torn Between Lovers Spread, alot more but I'd have to talk about the issue with you first to a session whether they're what you need, so hit me up for love advice and just look into the future of love

There are a few specialty spreads desixgned to tell you about your Financial situation and how to improve it, also my Career Spread to tell you advice of where to head in that regard , all the time money matters eh!

And of course I do dream interpretations , I have a 3 card spread that I love doing that directs your entire dream it tells you what it truly means in your waking life

Then we can discuss if you want some other specialty spreads that I offer we can chat about this one okay I'm stopping the list shortly right after I explain, that everyone abopsolutely must get

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And amazingly detailed and intriguing I ching Readings that you won't wanna miss

There's my fairy oracle deck which I find I'm most connected to, I saved best for last, well, I can basically do all of these spreads with them oracle cards giving the fae wisdom definitions but I simply like to stock to the 2 or 3 card Readings for these oracle cards, this deck is temperamental, it doesn't like to be pressured, but it works well l on shorter answered things I find, just it's personality haha

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victoria-astor-fiction · 5 years

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The Past Lives of Amy Jones

Prompt: Someone who has been dead before comes to terms with their rebirth/new life.

Amy had done this before. She’d been through this – the trauma of leaving the womb, the shock provoking tears and screams that had people in white coats and blue gowns alike cooing in delight. She’d been here before, and she wasn’t altogether pleased to be back here now. They had told her at HQ that all of her cycles had been used up. She’d learned all of her lessons. Her soul had reached completion. She shouldn’t have been sent back to Earth again. Oh well. There wasn’t anything to be done for it. She was here. She might as well make the most of it.

This was the last coherent thought that Amy had for years. It was so difficult to hold on to one’s soul essence when one was in the body of a newborn infant. You had no way to communicate, and all you could really do was be uncomfortable, sleep or cry. There was very little variety. It would be a relief to be able to take care of herself again, but Amy wouldn’t know that until she was much older.

Her new parents, Siobhan and Howard, gave her some ridiculous name. Amy didn’t care for it. As luck would have it, or maybe it was the Fates intervening, as they seemed to do, they gave her the middle name Amy. “I don’t want to be called Jacqueline,” Amy said when her new body turned six. “I want to be called Amy.” A chagrined glance was shared between Siobhan and Howard, but they agreed. It had only taken them nearly a year to settle on Jacqueline. How were they to know that their new daughter would hate the name that they had lovingly chosen?

Amy’s awareness of her past life came on in flashes.

At first, it was just the general sense of déjà vu. Her old body had lived in the same town that her new one lived in. They had even gone to the same public school – Lord Beaverbrook Elementary. “There’s a stain on the floor behind that door, Mommy,” Amy said when her parents took her with them on parent-teacher conference night. She had pointed behind the staff room door. “A big brown one. It’s shaped like a puppy!”

Siobhan had just smiled at that. Clearly the child had seen it when a teacher had opened the door. She hadn’t been involved in making it or anything. That would be absurd.

The next flash happened when the family had decided to move house. Amy’s new parents were expecting another baby, and the little bungalow that they had lived in since Amy’s rebirth would be too small for them all to have their own rooms. That’s what they told her, anyway, when they pulled up to it in their wood-paneled station wagon. “When your new little baby brother or sister comes, don’t you want to be able to have your own room? Babies can cry all night! You don’t want to have to sleep with that, do you?” Howard had asked her as he unbuckled her car seat.

“Well, no,” Amy had grumbled. Her new father set her down on the pavement outside of the little stone farmhouse. “But does it have to be this house?”

“Let’s just go and take a look, okay, Amy?” her new mother said, taking her by the hand and leading her up the front steps. Howard looked like he wanted to take his wife’s other hand, but he kept his hands in his pockets. House hunting had not been going well, and Siobhan thought that he was too soft on their eldest child.

The realtor was inside the house already. She pasted on a smile as the little family opened the door. Amy didn’t trust her immediately. The realtor was hiding something, or maybe that was just the way that Amy felt. Amy let go of her new mother’s hand, wandering up the creaky wooden stairs to what she knew would be a playroom.

“Be careful, honey!” Amy’s new mother called up after her. “These old houses can have lots of surprises in them. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Yes, Mommy,” Amy called back automatically.

The play room had a sloped roof with a window seat set into it and buttery coloured hardwood floors. They were right under the gables of the house, and the room was stuffy with the mid-afternoon sunshine streaming in through the window. The wallpaper was bright and cheerful, with a pattern of toy boats. Styrofoam puzzle pieces lined the floor in garish multicoloured blocks. Someone had overturned a bucket of Legos on the mats.

Amy walked past all of this, sending a stray brick skittering across the hardwood. There was a door set discreetly into the back wall of the playroom. It wasn’t covered in wallpaper, but it was painted in a similar pale blue to the background. Most children wouldn’t have noticed. They would have sat right down on the foam mats and begun building a Lego city. Amy stretched up to turn the knob.

“Oh, and here’s your beautiful daughter,” came the sickly-sweet voice of the realtor. “She’s found this little bonus room, which could be converted into a nursery until baby is old enough to need a little more space. Then you could use it as either a playroom or an office. It gets plenty of light, as you can see, and it even has its own closet. Such a difficulty to find storage in these century homes, but you can’t find character anywhere else.”

“Where is she?” Amy said, turning away from the open closet door.

The realtor gave her a funny look, but turned on her heel and began clomping down the hall in her heels, Howard trailing after her.

“What do you mean, Amy?” her mother asked, anxious to get on with the rest of the showing.

“There was a girl here,” Amy said, pointing into the closet but keeping her eyes fixed on her new mother’s. “She was hiding in the closet, and her face went blue. My daddy found her and started screaming.”

Siobhan raised her eyebrows. “There’s no girl here,” she said slowly. “And your Daddy has never been here, so he couldn’t have found anyone in that closet.”

“No, not this daddy,” Amy said impatiently. “My first daddy. The one who used to milk cows and ride horses.”

“You only have one father, Amy,” Siobhan said. The hairs on her arms were standing up straight, despite the heat. “Now let’s finish looking around at this house so that we can go and get some ice cream, okay?”

“Okay!” Amy said happily. She ran out of the room, little pink sneakers thumping down the uneven hallway towards the master bedroom, where the realtor was explaining how the lack of an en suite and upstairs laundry room was really what they had asked for when they had given her their budget. Amy ran up to her new father, grabbing his wrist from where it was still shoved into the pocket of his khakis. He glanced down at her and smiled slightly.

“Howard, it’s time to leave,” Siobhan said from the doorway.

“But… Shea…?” Howard said slowly. Amy could hear the questions in his voice.

“Amy, why don’t you go and wait for us at the front door. We’ll meet you there in a second,” Siobhan said, stepping back a little to let her daughter pass through. “Don’t go out to the car yet. Just wait for me at the front door.”

Amy skipped down the hallway to the staircase, but she didn’t go down just yet. She wanted to hear what they were talking about. It sounded important.

“Is there a problem, Mrs. Jones?” the realtor asked.

“Yes, Sandra, I think so,” Siobhan hissed. “You failed to mention in your quote that someone had died in this house.”

“It’s over a hundred years old! Of course, someone has died in this house! I didn’t think it was relevant to list every single death that there’s been!” the realtor said peevishly.

“It’s relevant when my daughter goes up to the playroom and asks me about the girl that hung herself in the closet!” Siobhan yelled.

Amy heard a sharp intake of breath from both her new father and the realtor. “That – that – I mean, yes, that definitely happened, but it was around the time that the house was built. How could she possibly know that? There isn’t – how could – I mean…” The realtor’s voice trailed off.

Siobhan made a harrumphing noise then clicked her tongue in disgust. “Howard, we’re leaving,” she said flatly. Amy could hear her new parents’ heavy footsteps coming down the hallway, and she scrambled down the stairs to wait at the front door. Amy looked down at the scuffed toes of her sneakers. There was a big black mark on the left one. Her new mom would be mad about that if she saw. Amy tucked her left foot around her ankle as her new parents made their way down the stairs.

“Come, Amy,” her new mother said, grabbing her hand. She didn’t look down at Amy’s foot. Her new father followed after them silently, pausing only to open the door for his heavily pregnant wife. Amy settled herself onto her booster seat (she had the sneaking suspicion that she ought to have been taller, but didn’t have the words to articulate this thought at the time) and waited for Howard to buckle her in. He did, and they drove home in silence.

They didn’t end up getting ice cream, but Amy wasn’t going to bring that up right now. Her new parents were too grumpy right now. She didn’t want to get yelled at the way that her mother had yelled at the lady in the red pantsuit that had shown them her old house.

Maybe if they had stopped for ice cream that day, Amy would have been able to reassure her new parents that there wasn’t actually anything wrong with her. She had known that a woman had been found in the closet of the playroom in the little stone farmhouse because she had seen it a long time ago. Maybe she would have been able to say that it had come to her in a dream.

Instead, Amy’s new parents had packed her off to every psychologist and psychiatrist that they could find. Even though none of them could give Amy a diagnosis as anything other than a normal little girl of eight. Amy didn’t mind really. They let her colour and draw pictures. Sometimes they asked her if she had scary dreams and if she could please draw them on the paper. Amy tried, but she didn’t really remember her dreams. The scariest one that she could remember was a nightmare that she’d had about her new baby brother being born with two heads like something she’d seen on the news the night before. It didn’t occur to Amy until years later that they were asking her about her previous lives.

The final time that Amy became aware of the fact that she had died before, was in fact just before her next death.

She had grown up by this point, gone on to university and finished her degree. She was just about to start her new job as a social worker for inner city schools when she was struck by a falling air conditioner.

Amy had woken up that morning with a sense of unease. “Something bad is going to happen today,” she told her boyfriend when she got out of bed that morning.

“You’re just nervous for your first day, babe,” he’d said, rolling over and going back to sleep. He worked a two weeks on, two weeks off shift at an offshore drilling rig.

Amy had privately disagreed, because she knew that she had felt this way before. She’d had this feeling the day that she had died as a teacher in Lord Beaverbrook Elementary, and she’d had this feeling when her father had driven her to kill herself at the farmhouse. It was comforting, in a way. This was going to be her last day.

Of course, she didn’t think this until she was lying on the dirty sidewalk in front of her new office.

She lived in an apartment that was close enough to her new office that she was able to walk to work. It was a great cost-saving choice, especially in the summer when it was halfway pleasant in the mornings. Amy had packed a lunch using the good containers that her parents had gotten her as a house-warming gift.

Amy made sure to check both ways before crossing every street. She even pulled a teenager back from the edge when a bus rounded the corner unexpectedly. “You need to be more careful!” she’d scolded her. “Turn your music down a little bit so that you can hear the traffic coming, even if you can’t see it!”

Bolstered by her good deed, Amy didn’t think to look up when she was walking underneath a row of apartments. A couple had been arguing about the air conditioner, at one point hitting it with their palms, and the rotten board that they used to block off the rest of the window gave way and toppled to the ground. Amy looked up at the noise, only to see the air conditioner falling on her.

“Not again,” was all she had time to think before being whisked away to a now-familiar white room.

“Sorry about that,” a harried young man said from across the glass desk. “We didn’t realize that you’d been sent out again until just now. You wouldn’t believe the backlog of paperwork here. As soon as I noticed the error, I rectified it. Hopefully it wasn’t too painful.”

Amy froze in her chair. She’d just been crushed by a falling air conditioner, and this guy had the audacity to be complaining about paperwork? She opened her mouth to cuss him out, but he cut her off with a gesture.

“Oh, right,” he said, scrubbing a hand through his hair. The brown strands lay back down almost immediately, falling perfectly into place. “You probably won’t remember all of this right away.” He sighed, shuffling papers around and pulling out a manila folder. “I’m Dashaniel, but everyone just calls me Dash. Well, you used to anyway.”

“Wait, how did I – do we – ?” Amy started. She looked down at the hands in her lap, which had taken on a golden, luminescent quality. Oh. Oh. She hadn’t been a human girl for a very long time. She was Amaniel and she had been sent back to Earth several times to guide people back to their own paths. With varying degrees of success, evidently, as she kept being killed in brutal ways.

Dash waited patiently behind the desk. “How could you possibly think that it wasn’t going to be painful to drop an air conditioner on my head?” Amy said, crossing her arms and leaning back into the white chair. “Those things are heavy, Dash.”

He froze. “Did I not pull you out in time?” He looked scandalized, genuinely concerned that she had suffered until she snorted.

“I’m fine, Dash,” she said. “But what I don’t understand is why I was ever sent back in the first place. None of the people that I had interactions with in this life needed any kind of intervention. They were all good people with good intentions.” Well, maybe not the realtor that she’d met when she was 8, but they didn’t have a significant enough relationship to really be able to influence her life.

Dash sighed, running his hand through his perfect hair again. “Like I said, it was a clerical error. You were never meant to go back in the first place. It was my fault really, and I’ve put in an organizational system that’s been approved by the big man himself but – ” Dash shook his head when he noticed Amy’s raised eyebrow. “Right, not important. There was a mass send-off, trying to prevent some sort of catastrophic event in the northern hemisphere. It seems to have failed. People just aren’t listening to children the way that they used to.” Dash sighed heavily again. “I’ve been informed that you’re not to be sent out again. At least, not for some time and only at your request. The big man is saving you for his next big plan for humanity.”

“Right,” Amy said, uncrossing her arms. “I guess I’d better go and see the big man then.”

Dash smiled, his grin splitting his face and lighting up the room. “He told me that you’d say that.”

#writing prompts #past lives #ghost story #fantasy #ya fantasy #Young adult fantasy #young adult fiction #tw: suicide mention #rebirth #new life #fiction #past life regression #new #my writing #please follow #original fiction #original characters #victoria astor fiction #angels

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grailfinders · 4 years

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Fate and Phantasms #69: Oda Nobunaga

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re making the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven and the Great Unifier of Japan, Oda Nobunaga! With this build, Nobu’s anti-divinity army will march forth, bringing unity and prosperity to what remains of the country after she’s done burning it to the ground.

Check out the build breakdown below the cut, or the character sheet over here!

Race and Background

Despite being a demon king, Nobu’s still a Human, giving her +1 to all stats. She’s also one of the most famous generals in Japanese history, so Soldier’s an easy pick, giving her Athletics and Intimidation proficiency to march on cities and make it look damn scary.

Stats:

Somehow your Dexterity is tied to how powerfully a gun can fire, so let’s make that really high. Fighting is only half the battle-you also have to make sure everyone under you plays nice. For that, you’ll need plenty of Charisma. Your Wisdom is also pretty high-you can’t shoot someone you can’t see, and you tend to come to your own conclusions about what’s going on around you. Fourth is your Constitution, you have to be able to stomach army rations. You’re a good strategist, but you’re pretty heavily affected by Being a Comic Relief Character, so your Intelligence isn’t too high. Finally, we’re dumping Strength. Firing a rifle only requires muscle if you’re holding it, and you’ve got an army to do that for you.

Class Levels:

1. Fighter 1: If you want to be good with a gun, there’s nowhere you’ll be more spoiled for choice than the fighter class. First level fighters get a Fighting Style, and Archery adds 2 to all ranged attack rolls so hit more of them. Eventually we’ll have enough shots flying that missing one won’t matter, but that’s later on. You also get a Second Wind, using your bonus action to heal yourself by 1d10+ your fighter level. Self-care is a valid strategy.

Nobu likes flintlock rifles. Like, a lot. But guns aren’t always going to be in D&D, so we’ll count it as a Heavy Crossbow instead. If your DM’s cool, feel free to replace it if you can.

2. Fighter 2: Second level fighters get an Action Surge, letting you slap another action onto your turn once per short rest. Normally this would be the part where I say you can attack twice, but you can’t, because you use a crossbow/gun. Still, an extra action is very useful if you have to disengage before you can shoot somebody.

3. Fighter 3: When you pick your archetype at third level, slide into the Monster Hunter group to become an expert at dealing with the supernatural. You get two bonus proficiencies-Arcana and Investigation- as well as Combat Superiority Dice, four d8s that you can apply to attacks for bonuses and get back on short rests. Precision Attack lets you add the roll to an attack roll, Sharpened Attack adds the roll to damage and imposes disadvantage on concentration checks that damage causes, Sharpened Senses adds the roll to a Perception or Insight check, and Superior Willpower adds the roll to an Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma save. Gods and demons really like messing with your mind, so keep a tight grip on that. Finally, you get Hunter’s Mysticism, letting you cast Detect Magic as a ritual and Protection from Evil and Good once per long rest, both using your wisdom to cast. You also learn Infernal, but that’s mostly just flavor.

We’ve started getting your revolution ready, but we’re not really a demon king yet, mostly just a really cool general. Let’s fix that next level.

4. Warlock 1: Pick a patron when you become a warlock; The Fiend puts the “Demon” back into “Demon King”, granting you some Pact Magic that uses your Charisma to cast and the Dark One’s Blessing, giving you your charisma modifier + your warlock level in temporary hit points when you reduce an enemy’s HP to 0. Now your campaign literally fuels itself.

For spells, Eldritch Blast gives you blasts of energy that could be rifle fire, and Create Bonfire creates a bonfire in a 5′ cube that forces dexterity save. Fire is kind of your theme, best to start early.

Speaking of fire, Hellish Rebuke makes fire pop out of you when you get hit, like an angry piñata. Command forces a wisdom save on a creature, and if they fail they have to follow a one word command you give them, so long as the command isn’t directly harming itself. Commanding your army is easy. Commanding someone else’s is impressive.

5. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get some Eldritch Invocations to customize their demon-worshipping experience. Grab Armor of Shadows because your outfit really isn’t tough enough for fighting and Another, replaceable invocation.

For your spell, Hex buffs your attacks with some necrotic damage and makes the target’s ability checks worse to boot. Your events tend to make servants act a bit goofier than normal, so wisdom or intelligence are good choices.

6. Warlock 3: Third level warlocks get a Pact Boon, and Pact of the Blade will give you a cool magic weapon that you can summon as an action. You can also grab the invocation Improved Pact Weapon now, adding 1 to your weapon’s attack and damage rolls, turning it into a spell focus, and letting you make your Heavy Crossbow your pact weapon.

For your spell, Flock of Familiars will help you summon some loyal soldiers. They’re not good soldiers, since they can’t attack and you don’t have any touch range spells, but they can help you hit your target.

7. Warlock 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Constitution and Charisma to be tougher and more deadly with your magic.

For your spells, Chill Touch gives you some skeleton fun, and Scorching Ray will help you put the “hot” back in “hot lead”. You can blast up to three targets with a fire attack, and hey look at that you just learned how to make three things to help you do that.

8. Fighter 4: Use your next ASI to become a Crossbow Expert, letting you ignore the loading property of your crossbow and attack at melee range without disadvantage. Give it a level and that first part will be a lot cooler.

9. Fighter 5: This level you get an Extra Attack, letting you fire twice with an attack action instead of once, for up to four bullet wounds made in a single round with your Action Surge.

10. Fighter 6: Another ASI means another feat, and the Martial Adept feat will let us leverage our existing combat superiority dice to cheat a bit. You get a fifth superiority die, and two combat maneuvers. Distracting Strike gives advantage to the next non-you attack to head that enemy’s way, and Snipe lets you make a ranged attack as a bonus action. Both also add the superiority die to the attack’s damage.

11. Fighter 7: At seventh level, monster hunters become Monster Slayers, giving you a sixth superiority die, and allowing you to spend two dice on a damage roll instead of one. If you do that and the target is an Aberration, Fey, Fiend, or Undead, it deals maximum damage instead. It’s unfortunate that celestials aren’t included in that, but you can either talk to your DM about it or hold on for a couple levels, because we’ll get something to help out on that front later.

12. Fighter 8: Use another ASI to bump up your Dexterity to make those bullets hit even harder.

13. Fighter 9: Ninth level fighters are Indomitable, letting you reroll a failed save once per long rest. Your wisdom isn’t great, but combine this with your Superior Willpower, and you’ll be pretty good at resisting the supernatural.

14. Fighter 10: Your last level of fighter gives you some Improved Combat Superiority, turning all of your superiority dice into d10s.

15. Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks get third level spells, and Dispel Magic can help remove spells affecting an area like, say, a summoning circle. You’re good at fighting extraplanar things, but skipping the fight altogether is way easier and way funnier.

Also, grab the Agonizing Blast invocation to make your magical gunfire as dangerous as your martial gunfire.

16. Warlock 6: Fiendlocks gain the Dark One’s Own Luck, letting you add a d10 to a check or save once per short rest. Grab Fireball to launch a salvo of gunfire in a 20′ radius, and reflavoring it like this makes the dexterity save make way more sense.

17. Warlock 7: Seventh level warlocks get fourth level spells, and Wall of Fire will help you control the battlefield and make it look really cool at the same time, a win-win.

Also, grab the Eldritch Spear invocation to bring your eldritch blasts up to the same range as your crossbow.

18. Warlock 8: Your last ASI will bring your Charisma up to near maximum (unless you rolled really well) for stronger spell saves and attacks. If you’re too late to the summoning to dispel it, you can always use Banishment to kick whatever came through back to where it belongs.

19. Warlock 9: Your last warlock spell is the fifth level Hallow, turning an area of 60′ around where you touch into your own little slice of the 6th heaven. Celestials, Elementals, Fey, Fiends, and/or the Undead (your choice) can’t enter the area or charm, frighten, or possess creatures in it. You can also add an additional effect to the area, which will affect a category of creatures you choose on casting, such as a specific faction, a kind of creature, or anything that gets in. There’s a lot of effects, and your DM can give you even more, so I won’t list them all here.

You also get the Eldritch Smite invocation, letting you really pile on the damage with your crossbow, and knock it prone without a save if it’s Huge or smaller.

20. Warlock 10: Your capstone level gives you Fiendish Resilience, allowing you to resist one damage type chosen at the ends of your rests, as long as it isn’t coming from magical or silvered weapons.

For your final cantrip, pick up Minor Illusion to complete your ensemble with a giant flaming skeleton behind you.

Pros:

If you score a critical hit, you can really make it hurt. Tossing two combat superiority dice, a hex, and a smite on a crossbow bolt means you can punch through with some burst damage of 2d10+4d10+2d6+12d8+5 damage in one shot. There’s a lot of spread there, but it’s generally somewhere in the 100+ range.

You’re also really good against extraplanar threats, including gods and demons. Your mental saves aren’t amazing, but they’re well supported with superiority dice and your luck. You’re also good at dealing damage to them if they show up, or even kicking them back to their own plane if you don’t feel like fighting them.

Most spellcasters have to rely on area of effect spells to hit multiple targets, but with eldritch blast and scorching ray, you can pick and choose your targets, making you less of a threat to your own soldiers.

Cons:

You have limited spell slots and limited superiority dice, so you’ll have to take breaks between fights if you want to be your best. Don’t try to take on all the gods at once, it won’t go well.

Most of your spells deal fire damage, which is one of the most resisted types in the game, especially for demons and fiends. Your gun still works fine on them, but it does limit your options.

Next up: Best shishou!

#Fate Grand Order #fgo #Oda Nobunaga #D&D 5e #Fate and Phantasms

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dillydedalus · 5 years

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what i read in january

too many books....

the unwomanly face of war, svetlana alexievich (tr. from russian) oral history of soviet women who served in ww2 (whether as soldiers, pilots, field nurses, laundresses etc, plus partisans) - interesting and harrowing, but honestly (& this just comes with the format i guess but it still made the book less enjoyable for me) pretty repetitive. 3/5

my sister, the serial killer, oyinkan braithwaite dark & snappy novel about beautiful ayoola, who has a habit of killing all her boyfriends, and her resentful but protective older sister korede, who always ends up cleaning up after her - until ayoola starts dating the man korede is in love with. not suuuper substantial, but an entertaining, twisty read with some hidden depths and great dark humour (ayoola about her trip w/ a boyfriend: ‘it was fine.... except he died’). 3.5/5

the private memoirs & confessions of a justified sinner, james hogg (uni) fucking wild ride of a book about (and mostly narrated by) a young calvinist radical who believes that, like, since he is one of the elect of God and his place in heaven is guaranteed no matter what he does, he might as well DO SOME MURDER!!! it’s fun, the theology is absurd, and one of the main characters (our young calvinist’s shapeshifting friend) is probably the devil! 4/5

friday black, nana kwame adjei-brenya collection of mostly speculative/dystopian short stories, some of which work very well, some of which don’t really. the stories based on racism in america are mostly very good, satirically heightening current issues to absurd levels while still feeling true. some others are not as good, including one where a man talks to the ghosts of the fetuses his girlfriend just aborted (like. bad.) the last story, a post-nuclear-apocalypse groundhog day type thing, is brilliant and i almost wish he’d turned into a novel/novella instead. 3.5/5

mythologies, roland barthes god, i wish french crit was always as fun as roro ‘kill the author’ barthes making fun of the myths of american evangelicalism and french imperialism. 3/5

moon of the crusted snow, waubgeshig rice set in a northern canadian first nations reservation, where one autumn, electricity, communications etc. fail. when no news (or scheduled deliveries of food etc) come from the south, the community has to figure out how to get everyone through the winter, relying increasingly on traditional survival skills. quiet & reflective twist on the post-apocalypse/social collapse narrative; occasionally the writing is a bit clumsy, but i’d still recommend it. 3.5/5

the haunting of hill house, shirley jackson a psychological haunted house story, more quietly disturbing than downright scary, but i really enjoyed the way the characters interact with each other and the visceral wrongness of hill house. also interested if anyone has done a queer reading bc i def feel like there’s some subtext between eleanor and theodora that plays into the horror (time to check jstor). and i just love jackson’s style of writing. 4/5

tentacle, rita indiana (tr. from spanish, i read the german translation) weirdo dominican queer post-apocalyptic time travel book involving yoruba/voodoo mysticism, time travel via anemone, art collectives, a trans protagonist who is the chosen one, destined to save the ocean, and a mention of einstürzende neubauten (automatic 0.5 point bonus). really cool! there is a lot of sexual & gendered violence so uh. that’s something to be aware of. 3.5/5

the orenda, joseph boyden ugh. so this is a historical novel set in 1600s northern america, centred around the huron/wendat nation and three characters: the wendat warrior bird, a jesuit missionary called christophe who lives among the wendat, and the young iroquois girl snow falls, who is... forcibly adopted?? by bird to replace his murdered family. interesting concept and a promising first third or so, but unfortunately the book is way too long, the characters and their relationships seemed shallow and their development was more Told than Shown to me, and it just never really came together for me. plus, halfway through i found out that boyden has apparently been either greatly exaggerating or completely making up his own native heritage so uh. bad. 1.5/5

nichts was uns passiert, bettina wilpert smart & very precisely observed story about an alleged rape in a lefty/academic social circle. anna claims jonas raped her at a party, while jonas says the sex was consensual. anna eventually goes to the police and as rumours begin to spread, the people around them begin to take sides and try to figure out how to deal with this thing that Does Not Happen To Us (the title) and is definitely not Done by People Like Us. in a smart twist, this is presented as testimonies collected by an unnamed first-person narrator who questions jonas, anna, their friends and family, which i found very effective as a narrative tool, making everything just ambiguous enough. ends on a legalese gutpunch. 4/5

o caledonia, elspeth barker lovely dark book about janet, outcast at school and in her family, always too intense, too earnest, too clumsy, as she grows up first in wartime edinburgh and then in an old house in the scottish highlands, feeling at home only among animals and the wild & harsh & romantic landscape. lyrically written, sometimes morbid and grim (the book opens with janet murdered at 16 y’all), but often funny and bittersweet as well. loved it! 4.5/5

espedair street, iain banks look, this is a novel about a burnt-out rockstar looking back on his rise to fame and wild life, which is like. incredibly unappealing to me from the beginning. tho i gotta give props to banks for managing to make me at all invested in this story with good writing & well-engineered weirdness - so i guess i need to read something from him where the very premise does not make me roll my eyes. 2/5

eiger dreams: ventures among men & mountains, jon krakauer i would never willingly go mountain-climbing but i sure am highkey obsessed with reading about it. this is a collection of short essays about mountain climbing, some about krakauer’s own experiences (trying to climb the eiger nordwand etc), some about special areas of climbing, infamous climbers etc, and krakauer is a good writer & funny dude (don’t smoke weed in your tent while on an expedition lmao). krakauer says in his foreword that “most climbers aren’t in fact deranged, they’re just infected with a particularly virulent strain of the Human Condition”, which is a great sentence, but based on this and into thin air it seems like that’s in fact the same thing! 3.5/5

fool’s errand (the tawny man #1), robin hobb y’all. i missed my silly silly son fitz who is now significantly older than me, and i was immediately captivated even tho the first 200 pages are mostly fitzy’s Hermit Homesteading Routine with Occasional Visitors. i loved that shit. i loved fitz being reluctantly-but-maybe-not-that-reluctantly being caught in court intrigue & schemes again even more. anyway, hobb’s strength as always is amazing characterisation that makes every character immediately seem real & rich and the relationships between those characters, which are nuanced and fraught and painful and wonderful (also when will fitz & the fool kiss JESUS). also it made me cry a lot about nighteyes, so well done there. 4/5

anyway i am now forcing myself to not just abandon all else and just speed thru tawny man but i really really want to so everything else is going quite slowly

#this looks like a lot of books (and is actually a lot of books) BUT #most of them were super short! like under or just over 200 pages!#i love 'infected with a particularly virulent strain of the Human Condition' but yeah that does 100% equal 'deranged'#the books i read

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stageonmay · 5 years

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PERFORMANCE ROUND: MAY’S LAMENT

Pokemon:

Blaziken: Fire Spin, Sky Uppercut, Brave Bird, Blaze Kick

Beautifly: Silver Wind, Morning Sun, Psychic, Aerial Ace

Venusaur: Vine Whip, Petal Dance, Solar Beam

Shinx: Wild Charge, Double Team, Scary Face

Music:

Jack’s Lament – Vitamin String Quartet

Outfit Reference:

By Whitley ( @imbicilite )

Word Count:

Without Intro: 2205

With Intro: 2645

Notes:

Every use of/reference to a move is Bolded. The first time a move is referenced in a combo it is BOLDED AND ALL-CAPS.

Click here to read on Google Docs.

Tagging: @allhalllows && @heartists

introduction

“I wanted you guys to know…”

May smiled, pausing in her speech as she focused on putting the last touches on Venusaur’s giant leaves. He was so tall to her; even on her tiptoes she was stretching, and for a second she almost forgot she was talking. “...There!” Dusting off her hands, May took a proud look at Venusaur. He really did look the part!

“Anyway, I wanted you guys to know that no matter what happens today? I’m really grateful I got to experience all of this with you!”

Her smile relaxed, a little bit contemplative and every bit sentimental. It was easy to get drawn into the big orange gourd Venusaur had been painted into. His leaves and plant were now entirely green--as close to a pumpkin as she’d probably ever see a Pokemon be without stitching. But as proud as she was at who seemed to be the star, May made sure to catch every one of their eyes. Blaziken stood firm, his body now greyed and looking so convincingly like stone after all of the speckling that she had surprised even herself. He was making a fantastic gargoyle, especially with the added wings. Shinx was just too cute for words--easily the simplest to paint, since he was pretty much just in all white except for the yellow tip of his tail that she had painted red. And Beautifly. Unlike their last performance, the detailed stitching and patches of blue, pink, and yellow May had filled in her natural pattern with made her definitely look like the counterpart to May’s skeletal outfit. She really was gorgeous with just a touch of creepy, and yeah--maybe she wouldn’t get more bonus points this time, but she was proud of their work. This performance, she was sure of it, would stand on its own.

“Seriously, it’s been so fun learning new things with you all. I know I’ve been distracted by all of the stuff going on backstage, but in a few minutes, it’ll be just us. Just like what we know and love best, right?”

The team, all four of them, clearly agreed--piping up vocally and even bouncing in excitement as they awaited their cue. So May couldn’t help but smile--couldn’t help allowing her insecurities to take a backseat for a little while. Besides, she couldn’t call herself the trainer if she was doing all of the freaking out--even if it was a little in-character for being sort of a girly Jack Skellington.

“Alright, then,” she breathed, pulling a smile onto her painted face. The backstage lights were flashing. It was finally their turn. “Let’s go have some fun!”

performance

To the audience, it may have seemed very much that May was reprising her first performance. The stage was dark, and were it not for the fact that white practically glowed anyway, all four of them would’ve been totally enveloped by the unlit stage. For now though, only the slight wagging of Shinx’s mostly-white body, the skeleton hands that seemed to float in the air, and bits of May’s white makeup could be made out. Everything else--the twelve piles of PETALS that circled most of the cast; the fact that Blaziken stood a few paces behind the rest of the team; even the iconic white pinstripes of May’s long-tailed crop top were hidden from the audience.

And so their stage was set, and the performers waited for their music to begin.

Although May had chosen an instrumental cover, she knew that the four opening notes of Jack’s Lament would be instantly recognizable to much of the crowd. And it was hardly her intent to keep the connection between piece in performance a massive secret. As measures began to pass them by, Blaziken took carefully practiced leaps between the piles of flowers that Venusaur had laid out prior to their performance. With every BLAZE KICK inflamed step, a pile of stilled Petal Dance was set to flame, lighting up the stage and, with the assistance of the stage lighting itself, revealing the performers.

But May, her Zero, her pumpkin and her Sally would not begin to move until a silence fell onto the stage. As Beautifly took perch on May’s head, Venusaur, with practiced timing, lowered the vines from his VINE WHIP to May’s level, allowing her to hold each Vine as if they were a hand.

The motions were gentle, allowing May to flow right into the easy bowing of the first verse of the song. Venusaur may not have been moving much, but his Vine Whip was guiding May’s waltz as though he were any other lead dancer. Not that they were starting off with anything too fancy. Yes, May’s thick tulle skirt flared as she twirled, and the tails of her coat fluttered when they picked up speed, but if she were to move too quickly, Beautifly’s carefully timed flaps of her wings would go unnoticed, and May would never try to upstage her princess.

Of course, simplicity could only stay interesting for so long. Two plucks of the strings popped over the music, and Venusaur gently lifted May off of the ground; her Shinx, who had been faithfully following her along, jumping into the air as though to try to reach her and, in particular, the fluttering Beautifly who was now using the glow of her PSYCHIC attack to highlight the wings that adorned May’s head.

And so a rise and fall seemed to happen. As the music repeated itself, so did May and her Pokemon, starting off slow and low to the ground, picking up into the air when the music did the same.

This phrase, though, would not end on the exact same note. Shinx, excited for his turn in the spotlight, built up a spark around its body, soon becoming so encased in the yellow glow of WILD CHARGE that merely his silhouette remained visible to the naked eye. And yet he would only Charge upstage a few paces, stopping dead in his tracks to throw a SCARY FACE towards the crowd, instead. Blaziken too, who had waited patiently for another time to shine, charged forward alongside Shinx, blowing a controlled FIRE SPIN right at the Scary Face that Shinx had created.

On its own, the flame attack was plenty poised to disintegrate Scary Face and blow right into the crowd. But Beautifly would launch off of May’s head, catching both moves with PSYCHIC instead.

The power of the move spoke for itself. Scary Face and Fire Spin alike were both aglow in magenta, the mouth Shinx had created opening wider to make room for the fire Blaziken had provided to fill it. The face was no longer just Scary; it posed a warm threat to the front row and, seemingly, to May herself, who had become hidden (along with Shinx and Venusaur) behind the suspended display.

May, though, would be fine. With a wave of her hand, and Venusaur’s well-placed moan, she stepped through the now-parting flames, untouched on the strength of Beautifly’s control alone. Still though, Beautifly was only one Pokemon, and May hardly expected her to hold onto the two moves forever. Once she was safely through, May threw her gloved hand into the air, signifying to Beautifly that it was time to move forward. And it was clear, this time, that Beautifly was putting all of her might into the Psychic attack. Her fluttering cry could be heard over the music as teeth and flame alike crunched into each other; a somewhat crude display of the mouth eating the flames that was immediately compressed until the three moves exploded into harmless sparkles.

And with that first big display passed, May allowed herself to exhale. Blaziken would offer her a hand as Venusaur offered her a VINE, and she would gladly accept both, allowing the two to guide her up to the top of Venusaur’s head. (A display that might have been boring on its own had Shinx not been circling them with WILD CHARGE again. And although Beautifly would now perch on May’s head once more, she was far from done with her part in the performance.

Again, Beautifly was putting PSYCHIC to good use. This time though, it was clear the task was less work; her voice chanting in sing-song along to the music as she lifted the very electricity off of Shinx’s back and created a simple circle with it in the air behind May and Venusaur. And now that the stencil was set, Beautifly lifted off of May’s head to fill the circle with the light of MORNING SUN; perhaps an ironic choice for a Halloween-themed performance, but the perfect one to fill their shining moon with appropriately pale yellow light.

So now, May was perfectly poised to make her announcement--to sing along to the song that she was ‘The Pumpkin King’ in her native tongue, extending her arms on each exact beat. But, if she knew one thing about anything ever, it was never to boast for too long.

Ever trusting, May leaned back into Blaziken’s arms. He had been standing, spotting, ready to catch her; and now it was time to actually do so--to twirl her gently before setting her back onto solid ground. Soon, say for the butterfly hovering over May’s head, everyone was in a straight line again.

Now, finally, it was time to show the world that Beautifly was more than just the Pokemon that made things float. Shinx, whose voice began to echo several times across the auditorium, used DOUBLE TEAM to launch many copies of himself into the air. And Beautifly, not once losing focus of the prop she was responsible for, dodged each duplicate with seeming ease, careful not to destroy a single one.

No, destroying the duplicates was Venusaur’s job, and much like Beautifly, Venusaur was finally getting to show off what it could do with its VINE WHIP. Now he actually used it as an attack, skillfully popping duplicates without so much as grazing Beautifly.

Yet despite the more aggressive show above them, May and Blaziken simply waltzed. No fancy flaming steps, no throwing into the air or secondary attacks--just a waltz, May and her very first Pokemon, an appropriate moment for just the two of them even if no one else would get it.

Above them though, the duplicates were quickly dwindling. It was when they were down to the last few Shinx copies that May and Blaziken parted, allowing Blaziken to launch himself into the air, fist extended to SKY UPPERCUT the ring of electricity into nothing but fizzling pops. Shinx--the real Shinx--fell into May’s arms just as his attack disappeared into the air, an easy trust fall for a Pokemon as young and hyper as this one.

Although that drop was apparently easy, May was coming up in the most nerve-wracking parts of their performance. Arms hugging tightly around Shinx, May performed her own trust fall into Venusaur’s vines, the two VINE WHIPs showing surprising strength as they easily caught the pair. With the help of Beautifly’s shining SILVER WIND, Venusaur flipped the pair almost as high into the air as his vines (and the stage) would allow, ensuring the audience that the show was hardly over.

May, for as many times as she had practiced this, could feel her heart trying to burst out of her ribcage. If she didn’t have Shinx for this part, she wasn’t sure how she would’ve done it--she was up SO HIGH! But Shinx’s bubbly laughter helped May remember the fun things about this part of the performance, like dipping Shinx and seeing his wide, toothy smile, or hearing the way he chuckled his name when she tossed him even higher into the air. (Blaziken, once again, was ready to spot them, cleverly disguising his precaution by circling Venusaur with a simple display of his BRAVE BIRD attack that really showed off those wing-props of his.)

Finally, after having tossed and caught Shinx a couple of times, May hugged him close again; a quick goodbye before she threw him seemingly at nothing towards center stage.

If May didn’t one-thousand-percent trust that Beautifly was going to catch him with her PSYCHIC, she never could have done such a thing. But Shinx was hardly allowed to fall, and he pawed at the air in amusement as he cause caught by the purple light of Beautifly’s attack. Usually, someone would use Psychic to stop someone in their tracks and then throw them around a bit to do damage. But today, Beautifly and Shinx danced in the sky like partners, May taking the backseat by simply gesturing to the happy dancers. Who said Sally only got to dance with Jack, anyway?

But the more the two danced, the closer, May knew, she was getting to her stunt. Maybe people knew the song really well. Maybe they knew that around this time, Jack started singing about how no one could scream like he could, and so it made sense that Venusaur loosened his Vines and let May ‘free fall’ back towards earth--Maybe it made sense that May’s own scream shook the stage.

But if the audience didn’t know that--and there were probably plenty who didn’t--the girl probably seemed like she had lost her mind. Because the music briefly paused, allowing her scream to echo a bit over nothing and give people some time to process what they had just seen--to wonder if she was okay.

Of course May was okay, though. It may not have been her favorite stunt in the world, but Venusaur would never drop her, and the fact that she was draped across his head now was entirely for show.

But May couldn’t leave them in suspense for too long. She could barely leave herself in suspense. Her arms were still working, right? She hadn’t passed out or anything? No, the fact that she stood up (with a bit of Blaziken’s help) and managed to make her cue of drawing a smile in the air with her hands proved pretty definitively that she wasn’t harmed--she hoped.

At least, if nothing else, they were headed to the big finale. And May loved the big finale--everybody really started working together here. Venusaur, knowing it would take time, began to charge SOLAR BEAM. Shinx, ready to make a new show out of an old trick, began to charge up his WILD CHARGE. And as soon as Solar Beam was released, Blaziken and Beautifly would get the chance to show off their aerial skills. Beautifly, truly the master multi-tasker of this performance, took off with AERIAL ACE, using PSYCHIC to drag a trail of electricity along behind her. Opposing her, Blaziken launched another SKY UPPERCUT, this time lighting his feet with BLAZE KICK to leave a flaming trail of his own. Together, they wove around the pillar of light that Solar Beam had created, clearly headed for the same point as the original Beam of light began to fade out.

As the two reached the top, May picked up Shinx so they could enjoy the show together. Beautifly, making great use of the electricity she had borrowed from her partner, used Psychic to push the sparks into the air above her. And Blaziken, showing off what he did best, angled himself to Kick the ball of electricity dead in the center, capping off their piece with the kind of flashy display of faux-fireworks that were signature to these kinds of shows.

Finally, the music was starting to dwindle into the kind of whisper it had opened with. The two airborne Pokemon touched down, and as the music died out, May gestured to her team, effectively timing them for their bow.

That was it--they were done. Everything now was up to the judge and the audience. But May could safely say this about her performance: they really did have fun.

#allhallows2k18 #allhallows2k18freestyle #long post #-puts most of it under a readmore-#-it's still long-#☙❀❧⎬i'm holding onto this forever! ❀ ⌠saved⌡

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