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damfinofanfiction · 1 year

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Chapter 19: At The Premier

it was belated but here’s a christmas gift from me to you!

It was a hot day filming at the ranch. Buster felt it upon leaving his joint bunkhouse. He regretted using a blanket due to the nightly chill that he woke up to his undershirt damp with sweat the following morning. He thought he could sleep in a buff if the heat remained constant, but having bunkmates present would keep him from doing so.

The knowledge of the desert climate came prepared for Keaton and the crew as they brought resources from their temporary headquarters in a Kingston Hotel. They had a flask of water for whoever needed it as well as a block of ice that had to be delivered 50 miles to keep the camera cool lest the film inside would melt.

When Buster hoped there wouldn't be any obstacles on set, Brown Eyes wasn't right that day.

Before the camera rolled again, the crew had her out in unbearable heat, but she didn't follow Buster when he walked. Even Buster tried to use the fine string, but it wouldn't do a thing as they struggled to make her move. It was surprising for the company because the cow was fine before and then she disobeyed orders the next day.

A rancher was called to examine the brown cow in her corral to determine what was wrong. Buster sat in a director’s chair while waiting for the results, hoping it was not for the worse.

Buster stood up when the rancher came to him, “Have you found anything wrong with Brown Eyes?” he asked.

“Yes, That cow’s in heat,” He told Keaton.

“No kidding, we’re sweating like we’re in the Turkish bath.”

“No, she is in heat,” then the man explained that his animal co-star was in a cycle where she was eager to mate with a male species. Buster felt a bit uneasy hearing of this. “She won't be of much use until she gets over that,” he concluded.

“How long does that take?”

“Oh, about ten days or so.”

Then it was made aware that the only way to help the cow in heat was to have her find a mate.

The crew was able to escort the cow to the cattle residing at the ranch. Brown Eyes was interested in that one bull but rejected it. The other bull attempted to charge her in jealousy then she was saved from being gored by the ranch cowboys. Buster was disappointed with the failed result and the crew discussed another option.

One of them told Keaton, “We’re gonna have to bring another cow as a double.”

“To hell you can. She has already worked in many scenes. She was insured and I trained her to go through a damn door.”

Another said, “She’s a brown Holstein, no soul could tell her apart.”

Buster pointed to the cow’s face, “With those markings, I bet they’ll notice the difference. We’re not using another cow and that’s final!”

They decided to wait it out.

They would film a few scenes that didn’t involve the cow. Later the company retreated to Kingston for a break from the heat. Buster would visit the ranch daily to check on the animals and the cameraman who chose to stay behind to take landscape shots for a few hours, although neither of them wasn’t sure they would use the country scenes for the feature. Buster sighed at the sight of his lonely animal co-star, sympathizing with her while hoping she would get better luck with the steer next time.

Back in the hotel, Buster had thought of Gail. Her arm had improved by now, and he had considered contacting her to see how she was, but she might be working with Sennett again. He knew that Gail still had feelings for him, but she had to protect her virtue. Buster appreciated her values but doesn’t think he should remain with another fella who had nothing to do with sex.

Buster didn't want to break a woman’s heart before seeing her present form so he called Natalie instead. He asked how things went and reluctantly told her of the situation and the wait due to this going to Norma.

Then he was informed by his wife of the event in Hollywood that would give him a reason to take a trip back home.

**************

A fine-looking car arrived by a modest house. A man with an athletic stature stepped out and fixed his bowtie, ready to impress his sweetheart. Almost immediately, T-Mobile had shown up also. The driver was a thin guy of average height. He had no bowtie; he glued a loose one to his shirt. Gail came out of that house to happily greet her two admirers. The muscular man proudly wipes the vehicle with his arm. The other guy did the same to his car, only to suddenly break down to pieces.

“And cut!” Del Lord called through the megaphone. He was satisfied with the scene they had done. “You all did very well. Just for one take, we didn't want to put that thing back together,” he said about the car.

Harold, Maxwell, and Gail had resisted moving except on commands from their director.

She raised her hand, “I can do a variety of expressions if necessary.”

“Oh yeah sure thing,” he nodded, not seeming to care. Gail had worked with directors before. She never expected to be anyone’s favorite and she’s just another pretty face so she’s nothing different. Moving on to the scene, Del called, “And action!”

Gail hoped her new role was worth it. She enjoyed every minute in front of the camera. On her first day back, she was surprised to have been greeted by most of the players and bathing beauties. She was glad to be appreciated in the studio.

Soon after the filming concluded, a studio secretary came to Gail in her standard dressing room, “Pardon me, Mr. Sennett would like to speak to you at his office.”

Gail gulped. Did she not meet Mr. Sennett’s expectations? Is he gonna fire her? She took a deep breath to get her emotions in check as she went into his office.

There a middle-aged man who had yet any grays on his hair was lining up one of his framed pictures of comedians who used to work for him, “Good afternoon Miss Anders, would you please sit here?” After she obeyed, he asked, “Do you have any plans for Friday?”

“No, I don't think so. Why?”

“Charlie's film The Gold Rush will premiere that evening. How about showing up at Sid’s theater?”

The request baffled Gail to the point that she could not speak.

He explained, “I’m bringing the employees here as plus ones, and because you worked in that film; I would like you to come along. So what do you say?”

Gail had never been to a premiere before. She didn't think she would attend one that soon. She had visited the Egyptian theater before but not as much as the simple movie houses she regularly attended, she gave it a thought before she responded, “As a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I’d be happy to accept the invitation.”

On that Friday, she rode in a Rolls-Royce with Sennett, an actress Alice day, and her co-star Maxwell, the thin guy from the recent short. Sterling and Sally accompanied them because Sennett invited them since Sterling had associated with Chaplin. Another factor was that Harry Langdon had already had his own reservation. Gail wasn't happy that Sterling was included but was glad her best friend came along. Gail rented a beaded dress with a chiffon wrap around her shoulders. Her accessories were a gold-colored headband, a black velvet clutch bag, a white boa fan in place of a parasol to ease distraction, and her grandmother's necklace for Gail to feel her spirit during the gay night.

The chauffeur of their ride drove closer to the moving spotlights on Hollywood boulevard and lined up behind several cars. Gail kept checking the mirror above the driver to ensure the makeup wasn’t smudged.

Although she accepted the invitation, Gail had been feeling the butterflies in her stomach for days at the thought of being surrounded by the stars she usually sees on the silver screen and worrying about what they would think of her. She could have changed her mind and made an excuse if it wasn't for her learning from the paper that Buster would be attending. She didn't know that he had come back from Arizona. She didn't get a visit from him nor had any time to visit his studio. Gail didn’t get to let him know that she would be showing up and hoped they’ll meet by chance.

Gail whispered to Sally, who sat behind her, “Please, I cannot be embarrassed. Not tonight. Be remain civil and control him,” she was referring to Sterling.

“No problem I’ll have him on a leash when things get loose,” the blonde joked.

“You promise?” Gail asked with a slight grimace.

“We’ll be good even if it’s the last act of our lives. Don't worry.”

The assurance did help ease her nervousness for a bit.

Names of the guests were heard and grew louder as the vehicle went closer to Grauman’s Egyptian Theater. When they reached the theater, Mack Sennett's name was called upon entry as his attendees stepped out. Despite being nearly blinded by the sudden flashes of the cameras, Gail gathered her courage to smile and wave at the crowd of locals held back by the police.

When the group entered inside, the lobby was full of attendees. Some of them had come up to say hello to Mack. Gail spotted Harold Lloyd, Elinor Glyn, Gloria Swanson, Rudolph Valentino, John Gilbert, and Lew Cody in the crowd. Skimming in the crowds was to no avail when she couldn’t locate Buster.

Her glum turned to astonishment when she saw Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford greeting Mack. Gail wasn't used to seeing them in real life but was also surprised that America's sweetheart would be out and about after learning about a plot to kidnap the starlet nearly a month prior. Alice shook their hands and then Mack turned to Gail to summon her. She obeyed despite her nerves.

Sennett presented her to the couple, “This is another of my actresses, Gail Anders.” The most famous Hollywood couple was dressed to the nines. Pickford wore a sheer pink dress and Fairbank’s white shirt contrasts his tanned face.

“It's been an honor meeting you,” Gail curtsied to them. “And Mary, your hair looks lovely in real life.” Gail remained composed while feeling embarrassed about how she blurted out the part about the hair.

To her relief, Mary gladly appreciated the compliment and responded in a silvery voice, “Why thank you miss.”

Mack added, “She also played in the background of Charlie’s new picture.”

“Do tell,” Douglas said. “Where’s your scene? We like to look out for you.”

“Only the ballroom scenes. Just hoping Mr. Chaplin doesn't edit me out.”

“How long have you worked in movies?” Mary asked.

“A year and a half. I also worked in other films and used to be a bathing beauty. I’m now playing as a love interest in Mr. Sennett’s new short.”

"Your career seems to be progressing well. Keep up the good work.”

Gail widens her grin with joy. “Oh, thank you.” Gail felt better since she hadn’t messed things up for herself. If she didn’t find Buster that wouldn’t matter as the primary purpose was to see herself in Gold Rush and mingle with some stars. Fairbanks and Pickford went straight to the auditorium after ending their conversation.

Then Mack handed the tickets to the usher and the group moved on to the auditorium where they were given an exquisite program. It was like holding a flat storybook. The usher led them to their seats in one of the back rows before the overture played. Gail was in awe looking above the stage. She forgot how wonderful were those authentic decors around it.

“Bloody hell!” The brit cussed upon reading the program, “Ten acts before the flickers!? Is that Grauman bloke trapping us here?”

“Shut it,” Sally clenched her teeth at him. Some of the guests looked behind for a bit.

Mack said, "Now, Sid is well known for staging prologues. You'll enjoy it. They're always magnificent.”

After the overture concluded, a man with short wavy hair, Sid Grauman, stepped on stage. In their view, he was small though they weren't in the far back. Grauman presented a speech about the hard work his friend Charlie endured making the feature and then introduced the prologue.

The curtain opened after he left the stage and music played again to set the mood for the beautiful scenery in the klondikes. The dancers were dressed as Eskimos and the performers were dressed as seals. While her friend and paramour got bored and almost fell asleep as the show went on, Gail didn’t mind the stage performance. Her enjoyment wasn't just because a famous showman staged it, but because it reminded her of the time when she became interested in performing arts as a child. It wasn't Pirates of Penzance however, she was much obliged to be in the audience.

Almost two hours later, there was a short intermission. The audience stood up to stretch their arms. The group disassembled after returning to the lobby. Gail and Maxwell both ordered Coco-Colas to help rejuvenate for a late night. Then He paid for both of their drinks, “Maxwell, this is very kind of you, but we're not dating, just pals,” Gail said to him gently as she could.

He replied, “I know. I wouldn't let a lady buy her drink.”

She had seen Maxwell at work for a while and didn't know him until they were cast opposite each other. He showed chivalry to the opposite sex but it was a wonder he was single. The man had claimed he was married but separated due to irreconcilable differences and going on dates although no one had seen him with a woman.

Gail was sipping the soft drink that just came up when she heard a woman’s voice next to her, “Gail, is that you?”

She turned to see Eliza.

The woman grinned ear to ear, “Hey I’ll be damned, I haven't seen you in a while. How have you been?”

“I was healing from an injury,” Gail answered, “I was in a car crash but, now I got better. It was in the local paper.”

Eliza felt confounded due to her being unaware of her past condition, “Oh, that explains it. What a goof, I seldom read the news.”

“No matter, what are you doing here?”

“Charlie,” Eliza replied. “I have connections, remember? Who brought you here?”

“Mr. Senett,” Gail explained. “He invited me along.”

Gail sensed Sally rejoined them before saying, “Bae, is there someone you'd like to introduce to me?”

Gail turned to the blonde, “Sally, this is Eliza, a background actress I told you about. She turned to Eliza again, “This is Sally, a good friend of mine.”

Eliza shook her hand, “Nice to meet you. I had been acquainted with Mr. Chaplin for some time. Lita Grey was going to play his love interest. But then after he knocked her up, she became Mrs. Chaplin.”

“Yeah, womanizing really caught up to him,” Sally chuckled.

“So Gail, do you still have that sweetheart in New York?”

She responded with a down expression, “Not anymore, I don't want to see him again.”

“And he better not show his face here, or I’ll kick his ass,” Sally said after ordering her drink.

“Look on a bright side, you're free to flirt with your crush,” Eliza winked.

“She found a new guy soon enough.”

Eliza saw Maxwell talking to other guys. “Oh is that him?”

Sally replied, “No, he’s not here. Also, I haven't seen him yet.”

“That’s so mysterious, how else could he be?”

“I’ll explain later,” Gail told Eliza. Then she whispered, “When we're alone.”

The women talked a bit more until it was time for them to return to the auditorium to catch the feature. The group was back in their seats when The Gold Rush finally played. The new film received laughs. Gail enjoyed the part when the Tramp was imagined as a human-sized chicken.

When the dance hall scene came on, Gail whispered to everyone that’s where she was on. She couldn't be worried about being edited out since it was where he met the love interest. It took a bit long for anyone in their group to find her until she pointed at herself with a dance partner. They weren’t vocal about it to avoid disturbing the audience.

Sally, whispered to Gail, “Bae if this flick becomes a big hit, you’ll be the luckiest former bathing beauty I've ever known.”

Gail replied softly, “Thanks, Sal. His films are always successful. This won’t be any different.”

“I didn't know you favored Chaplin.” Alice quietly chirped in.

“He’s alright but he’s not top of my list.” Gail skimmed for every back of the head but Buster was hard to find despite having seen him in person multiple times.

After the film ended, Chaplin came out onto the stage to thank everyone who came by and received a standing ovation.

Soon after, Gail departed from the group to go straight to the women’s room, having held on since the last part of the film. They were staying for a bit while to mingle. She used her time in the stall to think of conversation pieces and then checked the mirror for makeup as she washed her hands. It didn't need touching up. Gail came out of the women’s room to find the crowd more extensive than before due to them waiting for Charlie. She felt ignored aside from glances, and a grin but then she felt a couple of taps on her shoulder.

“Excuse me,” the voice came from a woman. Gail’s face nearly turned pale upon turning her back to see Mabel Normand, “You look familiar. Are you Theda Bara?” She wore a white dress and held onto a train lest someone would trip over it or leave footprints.

Gail replied nervously, “No, don’t you remember me?”

She shook her head, “Have we met before?”

“Yes, we met at a party over a month ago, It’s Gail Anders.”

Mabel was a different person than the last time they had spoken, “I think I was quite intoxicated. Give me a minute,” the has-been was searching for her thoughts. “Was I unpleasant to you?”

Gail explained, “At first yes, then you warmed up to me when I said you're my inspiration.”

“Oh yes, I remembered that. I hope you can forgive me. I was off.”

“There are hard times, I understand.”

“Can you hand me your notebook and a pencil?” When Gail asked why, she replied, “I’d like for us to exchange numbers so we could get together and makeup.”

Gail was speechless. She did take out those items and handed them to Mabel. She scribbled a bit before her expression went disgruntled “God, I can’t remember my fucking number.”

“Don’t worry, I remembered mine,” Gail got them back to her to write down her name and the numbers and tore off the page.

Mabel folded the piece and shoved it under her dress, “Thanks, I hope we run into each other again.”

Gail went across the hall, hoping that Ms. Normand wouldn’t lose her number. Before admitting defeat she finally found Buster talking to the group sans Alice, but Keaton wasn’t alone, he was with Natalie. They both were dressed to the nines. Nervous, She knew it was likely that his wife would accompany him though she wasn't prepared to interact with her.

Sally noticed Gail and pointed to her, “Speak of the devil there she is now!”

With all eyes on her, she forced a smile and greeted with a, “How do you do?” Buster didn't act ecstatic seeing her with a now recovered arm. She also noticed the spouses had their arms linked, like any couple. Thoughts of their possible reconciliation made her stomach uneasy. Gail drove them out with a deduction that it was only for show. Sally and Sterling left the group to mingle with more stars.

“We were just talking about you,” Maxwell said, ushering her next to him and Alice.

She replied confidently, “How nice, what did you mention about me?”

To her dismay, it was Natalie who responded, “Well for starters, your current project for Mr. Sennett. It’s going well, yes?” Gail nodded. "Oh, and I'm sorry to hear about that crash," she added. “There's not a sign of damage on you."

“Well, I healed up quite efficiently,” Gail couldn’t address her as Mrs. Keaton, but rather a simple “Ma'am.” to everyone, she was content, but she was actually petrified to be in front of the woman whose husband she had kissed a few times. Natalie didn't seem to suspect at first but when something slipped out, she would see right through her and Buster.

Only Buster’s words got her out of this state, “Is this your first premiere?”

“Why yes, it was fantastic and I’m lucky to be here.”

“Mr. Fairbanks told us that you were the background actress on Gold Rush.”

“I had been in background roles in other films, I also happened to be in Buster’s feature recently.”

Mack pitched in, “Buster here had requested me to borrow Gail for his upcoming feature before Miss Myers took over. Poor girl.”

It wasn't long before Buster convinced his wife should rejoin her sisters while he had to go out for some air. After Natalie left and Mack went to look for Alice, Keaton asked Maxwell, “How about that autograph for the nice fellow?” while he obliged, Buster stood next to Gail and then discreetly whispered to her to meet him outside. Soon she excused herself from Maxwell to follow Buster. She found him on top of the exterior steps leading to the smoking area near the roof. It was so discreet that not a passerby would even find him and Gail

Buster put out a cigarette before he looked at her. Without any passion, he said, “You look great.”

She appreciated the comment, she asked him, “What happened with Go West? Is the production finished?”

He began puffing the cigarette he had just lit, “It’s still ongoing but we had to pause because the cow, Brown Eyes, wasn’t feeling herself. She’ll recover, but there’s something important I had to ask you; Who’s Michael?”

“Huh”

“Your lady friend mentioned that you’re seeing a guy named Michael Willams when Nate was asking about you. Who’s he?”

“You,” Buster widened his eyes at her response. “Sally suspected I have a sweetheart and I came up with a name to hide our secret.” a contrite expression landed on the stone face. “You don’t think I found another man soon after you left town and while rehabilitating my arm?”

His tone became apologetic, “Christ, I’m sorry. I might be a bit jealous or afraid of being replaced.”

“I felt the same when I saw you with your wife.” the couple went silent for a bit. “You should've called when you got back.”

“I know, I’m planning on coming over tomorrow. I didn't expect to see you tonight until Mary Pickford told me you’re here.”

Gail didn't forget that Buster once mentioned in New York that he loved Natalie. She wondered if it was true or not. She didn't have the heart to bring up that subject.

“I reckon you were thrilled meeting the king of Hollywood and his queen?” Buster asked.

“I was nervous, but I was able to impress them, and Mabel Normand got my number.”

Buster gave a slight grin, “You are quite lucky”

“I think I had been despite the setbacks.” There were hardly any visible stars in the sky due to the spotlights. But it didn't matter because the only star Gail would stare at was Buster.

Having puffed a few times, Buster decided to put out his cigarette to run his arms around her. Gail hugged him back for the first time without any plaster to get in the way. Gail missed the scent of his cologne and wished she could embrace him forever. “If you're still concerned about Nate and me, nothing has changed. We're still at arm’s length. Also, I missed you at the set. If it wasn't for the accident, I'd convince everyone you make a better leading lady.”

Gail exited the huddle but her hand held his, “Buster, I told you I didn't care if I was your leading lady. I only want you.” then the words of Eliza Smith echoed in her head, True, but then where is the fun? She asked him, “How long until you return?”

“For the weekend, I had to take a train. It’s quicker to get here and back than by vehicle.”

“You can still come over if you want and take me to bed.” Her eyes grew sultry, “Should I say more?”

Buster was surprised, “Are you serious?”

“I have never been so sure in my life.”

“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Gail kissed him, not caring about the scent of the tobacco. She led herself inside and started to look for her comrades while taking in the joy of recent events.

Yep the next chapter will be spicy!!! hope you enjoyed reading this as much you enjoyed the holidays! also have a happy new year!

#Buster Keaton #buster fanfic #actor RPF #buster keaton fanfiction #buster keaton fandom #mary pickford #Mabel Normand #douglas fairbanks #Charlie Chaplin #the gold rush #1925 #silent comedy

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freyayuki · 9 months

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Fate/Grand Order Oberon Pickup Summon Banner

The Part 2 Chapter 6 Conclusion Commemorative Oberon Pickup Summon banner just started in the Fate/Grand Order (FGO) mobile game.

This is to celebrate the conclusion of Part 2 Chapter 6 "Lostbelt No.6: Fae Round Table Domain Avalon le Fae - The Moment a Planet Is Born".

This banner features the following Servants and Craft Essences (CEs):

5-star SSR Pretender Oberon (#ad)

4-star SR Saber Tam Lin Gawain (Barghest)

4-star SR Archer Tam Lin Tristan (Baobhan Sith)

4-star SR Saber Gawain

4-star SR Archer Tristan

5-star SSR CE Great Marshal of Magic

Note that Great Marshal of Magic isn’t on rate-up. It’s just been made available or “summonable ahead of its official Story Summon release".

Thoughts about 5-star SSR Pretender Oberon

At the time I’m writing this post, currently still in Part 2 Chapter 5.5 “Naraka Mandala, Heian-kyo - Thunderous Flash”. So haven’t seen Oberon in the story yet and don’t really know anything about him in terms of his personality and character.

All I know is that he’s one of the top or meta supports in FGO. Aside from buffing Buster-type cards, Oberon also buffs Noble Phantasm (NP) damage which all DPS Servants can benefit from. He can also charge the party’s NP gauge.

Interested in pulling for Oberon to further boost the damage output of my DPS Servants.

Thoughts about 4-star SR Saber Tam Lin Gawain or Barghest

Don’t know anything about Barghest either but I ended up pulling 3 copies of her on the 5-star SSR Berserker Morgan banner. I talk more about my Morgan, Baobhan Sith, and Barghest pulls in this post.

Tam Lin Gawain seems like a pretty good Saber from what I’ve seen so far. Got to use her in a few fights, and she did pretty well. Since she’s NP3, her NP deals pretty good damage. Definitely wouldn’t mind getting 2 more copies of her to NP5 her.

Thoughts about 4-star SR Archer Tam Lin Tristan or Baobhan Sith

Have 1 copy of Baobhan Sith. Only got to use her a few times so far. She does seem pretty good but already have lots of other Archers who have higher NP levels than her so don’t really feel like I need her, especially since I don’t have my own 5-star SSR Caster Scáthach-Skadi, the premier support for Servants with Quick-type NPs.

Thoughts about 4-star SR Saber Gawain

Currently have 1 copy of Gawain. I like him but don’t get to use him that often since I have lots of other Sabers, and I don’t have any of his skills leveled to the max. Certainly wouldn’t mind getting more copies of him though.

Thoughts about 4-star SR Archer Tristan

My Tristan is currently NP2. He has a Quick-type NP and don’t have any of his skills leveled to the max so don’t really get to use him much at all.

If I could choose between the aforementioned 4-stars, then I prefer to get Barghest first then Gawain followed by Tristan then Baobhan Sith. But of course, my main priority is getting Oberon.

Fate/Grand Order Guaranteed Summon Function

Fate/Grand Order now has a “pity system” but it costs 900 Saint Quartz (SQ) for 1 rate-up SSR. If you happen to get the rate-up SSR before spending 900 SQ, you’re not guaranteed to get another copy even if you keep pulling until you spend 900 SQ. In short, this so-called pity system sucks.

Fate/Grand Order Pulling Plans

Pretty sure I don’t have 900 Saint Quartz since I ended up using a lot of my SQ pulling for Morgan and 5-star SSR Assassin Koyanskaya of Light. I talk more about my Koyanskaya pulls in this post.

The Morgan and Koyanskaya banners showed up pretty recently. Heck, the Koyanskaya banner is actually still up in the game right now. So haven’t had the chance to recover from pulling for Morgan and Koyanskaya.

Thankfully, I was able to get those 2 but with the current state of my SQ, I can only hope that I’ll be able to get Oberon without having to pity him because I can’t afford to pity him.

Ahh, if only the rates in this game were higher and/or the cost to pity a SSR Servant wasn’t so high.

Part 2 Chapter 6 Conclusion Commemorative Oberon Pickup Summon Banner Pulls Results

Currently have 185 SQ on hand. Still have a few more that I can get from my present box, from the SQ fragment exchange shop, and from rewards from clearing missions and such.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get Oberon right away. Also hoping that I can get at least 1 or 2 copies of the 5-star SSR Craft Essence The Black Grail.

My copy of this CE is stuck at Level 60 of 60. Need 2 more copies in order to be able to fully MLB this CE.

The Black Grail is one of the best CEs in FGO. It increases NP damage by 60%. When fully MLB, it increases NP damage by 80%. The downside or demerit is that the Servant equipped with this will lose 500 HP each turn but that’s a small price to pay for such a powerful effect.

Anyway, here are the results of my pulls on the Part 2 Chapter 6 Conclusion Commemorative Oberon Pickup Summon banner. Only gonna list the notable stuff I get though.

Have some summon tickets so started with single draws. When I tapped on the summon button, a textbox showed up. It had the following text:

About the locked Saint Graph

Oberon’s Saint Graph from Stage 3 Ascension and higher is locked. By completing “Fae Round Table Domain Avalon le Fae” and reaching Stage 4 Ascension, a “Spirit Origin Release Quest” will be unlocked in Interludes, and the Saint Graph will be unlocked upon its completion.

After tapping the close button on the textbox, was able to summon already. Got the usual 3-star trash as well as 2 dupe 4-star CEs.

But aside from that, a gold Saber card showed up.

This soon turned into a dupe of 4-star SR Saber Gawain. Nice.

After that, did a multi-draw. The only gold I got from this pull was a dupe of the 5-star SSR CE Heaven’s Feel. This is similar to The Black Grail.

Heaven’s Feel increases NP damage by 40%. When fully MLB, it increases NP damage by 50%.

Honestly, it felt like the game was trolling me by giving me a Heaven’s Feel dupe. I mean, if I was gonna get a 5-star CE anyway, why couldn’t this have been a copy of The Black Grail instead?

I remember getting a dupe of Heaven’s Feel on the Morgan banner. Thanks to that, I now only need 2 more dupes in order to MLB said CE. After getting another dupe on the Oberon banner, I now only need 1 more copy to be able to MLB Heaven’s Feel.

Anyway, my next multi-draw just gave me dupes as usual. Meh.

At least my next multi-draw actually gave me a new CE. Just got my very first copy of Great Marshal of Magic.

This CE is actually pretty good because it lets a Servant start the battle with their NP gauge already charged to 80%. When fully MLB, this CE will give 100% starting NP charge. The only issue is that it boosts the HP stat instead of the ATK stat.

I thought for sure that I was about to get all crap as usual with my next multi-draw and, well, I did get lots of trash but aside from that, I also -

Just got a dupe of The Black Grail! Yes, yes, yes! So, so freaking pleased to see this. Now I just need 1 more copy of The Black Grail in order to fully MLB it.

My next multi-draw gave me another copy of Heaven’s Feel so now I can finally fully MLB this CE. That’s great and all but - ahh, wish this had happened with The Black Grail instead.

A gold Caster card showed up in my next multi-draw.

This turned into my very first copy of 5-star SSR Caster Scheherazade.

Well, at least she’s new but still couldn’t help but wish that this had been Oberon instead. Heck, if I was gonna get a Caster, I wish it could have been 5-star SSR Caster Anastasia instead.

After getting Scheherazade, I thought that was it. But then a silver Archer card showed up. It then started turning gold.

This soon turned into a dupe of 4-star SR Archer Tristan. Nice. But still wish I’d gotten a Pretender card instead so I could have gotten Oberon already.

Aside from Tristan and Scheherazade, this pull also gave me 2 dupes of the 4-star CE called Divine Banquet.

Ugh. By now, I’m so sick and tired of seeing Divine Banquet. Also got dupes of this CE while pulling for Koyanskaya. Already have 1 copy of this that’s fully MLB so really don’t need any more.

Tried single draws next but didn’t get anything worth taking note of.

So went back to doing a multi-draw. This one gave me yet another dupe of Divine Banquet alongside the usual crap. Ugh, wish I could get another copy of The Black Grail again. Also, Oberon, doko da?

Tried single draws again but, again, got trash and more trash. Man, eff the crappy rates of this game.

By now, am starting to run out of SQ so was beginning to lose hope of ever being able to get my first copy of Oberon.

Tried another multi-draw. Was already bracing myself for disappointment yet again, but then, to my complete and utter surprise, a gold Pretender card actually showed up.

OMFG! Also hell, yes! Oberon is the first and so far only Pretender in Fate/Grand Oder so already know the gold Pretender card was gonna turn into my first copy of him. Really so glad that he showed up before I ran out of SQ.

After Oberon appeared, I thought that was it but then I saw some rainbow and gold sparks, which was soon followed by the appearance of yet another gold Pretender card.

Welp, color me surprised. Could hardly believe that I just got another copy of Oberon.

It’s too bad that I wasn’t able to get more copies of Barghest and even Baobhan Sith but now that I have Oberon, done with this banner.

Don’t want to keep pulling anymore. Need to save the rest of my SQ for future banners.

4-star SR Saber Gawain and 4-star SR Archer Tristan

Got Gawain to NP2 and Tristan to NP3.

5-star SSR Pretender Oberon

Got Oberon to NP2. Then I leveled him up to 90.

After that, started leveling up Oberon’s skills. Was able to get his second skill, Morning Lark Ex, to level 10 but unfortunately, found that I don’t have any more of the required materials or items to max level his other skills.

Oberon’s first skill, Evening Shroud Ex, is stuck at level 7 since I don’t have enough Small Bells of Absolution while Ending of Dreams Ex, his third skill, is stuck at level 8 since I don’t have enough Scales of Fantasy.

I could use Pure Prisms to quickly get more of these items but for now, opted not to since it’s not like I really need to use Oberon right now anyway. After all, there are no ongoing events in FGO at the moment. So for now, focused on trying to catch up with the story.

5-star SSR CE Heaven’s Feel

Fused the Heaven’s Feel dupes I got to my main copy so it’s now fully MLB. It’s currently at level 23 of 100 with 833 ATK. Opted not to level it up further since it seems like The Black Grail is still better even if mine still isn’t fully MLB yet.

5-star SSR CE The Black Grail

Fused the The Black Grail dupe I just got to my main copy. This made it possible to level it up some more.

Readily spent the resources needed to get it to level 80 of 80. Just need 1 more copy in order to fully MLB it and allow me to level it up to 100.

Back when my The Black Grail was stuck at level 60 of 60, its ATK was 1671. Now that it has been leveled to 80, its ATK is now 2034.

Really pleased to be able to further level up my The Black Grail. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get the last copy I need to MLB it soon.

Conclusion

So, what about you? Did you pull on the Part 2 Chapter 6 Conclusion Commemorative Oberon Pickup Summon banner? What do you think about Oberon, Tam Lin Tristan, Tam Lin Gawain, Tristan, and Gawain?

Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging this post.

Notes:

screenshots are from my Fate/Grand Order game account

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doctor-roman · 3 years

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Oh yeah, we’re cookin’ with gas now

#can you imAGINE if Hans’ attack buff had landed #or if I had had any other Buster buffs for her!!!#I’m torn between the Atlas Institute Mystic Code and Anni Blond for this team because both are so good for it #ahhhhhhhhhhhhh #fate

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chiseler · 3 years

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The Mysterious Death of a Hollywood Director

This is the tale of a very famous Hollywood mogul and a not-so-famous movie director. In May of 1933 they embarked together on a hunting trip to Canada, but only one of them came back alive. It’s an unusual tale with an uncertain ending, and to the best of my knowledge it’s never been told before.

I. The Mogul

When we consider the factors that enabled the Hollywood studio system to work as well as it did during its peak years, circa 1920 to 1950, we begin with the moguls, those larger-than-life studio chieftains who were the true stars on their respective lots. They were tough, shrewd, vital, and hard working men. Most were Jewish, first- or second-generation immigrants from Europe or Russia; physically on the small side but nonetheless formidable and – no small thing – adaptable. Despite constant evolution in popular culture, technology, and political and economic conditions in their industry and the outside world, most of the moguls who made their way to the top during the silent era held onto their power and wielded it for decades. Their names are still familiar: Zukor, Goldwyn, Mayer, Jack Warner and his brothers, and a few more. And of course, Darryl F. Zanuck. In many ways Zanuck personified the common image of the Hollywood mogul. He was an energetic, cigar-chewing, polo mallet-swinging bantam of a man, largely self-educated, with a keen aptitude for screen storytelling and a well-honed sense of what the public wanted to see. Like Charlie Chaplin he was widely assumed to be Jewish, and also like Chaplin he was not, but in every other respect Zanuck was the very embodiment of the dynamic, supremely confident Hollywood showman.

In the mid-1920s he got a job as a screenwriter at Warner Brothers, at a time when that studio was still something of a podunk operation. The young man succeeded on a grand scale, and was head of production before he was 30 years old. Ironically, the classic Warners house style, i.e. clipped, topical, and earthy, often dark and sometimes grimly funny, as in such iconic films as The Public Enemy, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, and 42nd Street, was established not by Jack, Harry, Sam, or Albert Warner, but by Darryl Zanuck, who was the driving force behind those hits and many others from the crucial early talkie period. He played a key role in launching the gangster cycle and a new wave of sassy show biz musicals. At some point during 1932-33, however, Zanuck realized he would never rise above his status as Jack Warner’s right-hand man and run the studio, no matter how successful his projects proved to be, because of two insurmountable obstacles: 1) his name was not Warner, and 2) he was a Gentile. Therefore, in order to achieve complete autonomy, Zanuck concluded that he would have to start his own company.

In mid-April of 1933 he picked a public fight with Jack Warner over a staff salary issue, then abruptly resigned. Next, he turned his attention to setting up a company in partnership with veteran producer Joseph Schenck, who was able to raise sufficient funds to launch the new concern. And then, Zanuck invited several associates from Warner Brothers to accompany him on an extended hunting trip in Canada.

Going into the wilderness and killing wild game, a pastime many Americans still regard as a routine, unremarkable form of recreation, is also of course a conspicuous show of machismo. But in this realm, as with his legendary libido, Zanuck was in a class by himself. He had been an enthusiastic hunter most of his life, dating back to his boyhood in Nebraska. Once he became a big wheel at Warners in the late ’20s he took to organizing high-style duck-hunting expeditions: the young executive and his fellow sportsmen would travel to the appointed location in private railroad cars, staffed by uniformed servants. Heavy drinking on these occasions was not uncommon. (Inevitably, film buffs will recall The Ale & Quail Club from Preston Sturges’ classic comedy The Palm Beach Story, but DFZ and his pals were not cute old character actors, and their bullets were quite real.) Members of Zanuck’s studio entourage were given to understand that participation in these outings was de rigueur if they valued their positions, and expected desirable assignments in the future. Director Michael Curtiz, who had no fondness for hunting, remembered the trips with distaste, and recalled that on one occasion he was nearly shot by a casting director who had no idea how to properly handle a gun.

But ducks were just the beginning. In 1927 Zanuck took his wife Virginia on an African safari. In Kenya Darryl bagged a rhinoceros and posed for a photo with his wife, crouched beside the rhino’s carcass. Virginia, an erstwhile Mack Sennett bathing beauty and former leading lady to Buster Keaton, appears shaken. Her husband looks exhilarated. During this safari Zanuck also killed an elephant. He kept the animal’s four feet in his office on the Warners lot, and used them as ashtrays. If any animal lover dared to express dismay, the Hollywood sportsman would retort: “It was him or me, wasn’t it?” Zanuck made several forays to Canada with his coterie in this period, gunning for grizzly bears. Director William “Wild Bill” Wellman, who was more of an outdoorsman than Curtiz, once went along, but soon became irritated with Zanuck’s bullying. The two men got into a drunken fistfight the night before the hunting had even begun. In the course of the ensuing trip the hunting party was snowbound for three days; Zanuck sprained his ankle while trailing a grizzly; the horse carrying medical supplies vanished; and Wellman got food poisoning. “It was the damnedest trip I’ve ever seen,” the director said later, “but Zanuck loved it.”

Now that Zanuck had severed his ties with the Warner clan and was on the verge of a new professional adventure, a trip to Canada with a few trusted associates would be just the ticket. This time the destination would be a hunting ground on the banks of the Canoe River, a tributary of the Columbia River, 102 miles north of Revelstoke, British Columbia, a city about 400 miles east of Vancouver. There, in a remote scenic area far from any paved roads, telephones, or other niceties of modern life, the men could discuss Zanuck’s new production company and, presumably, their own potential roles in it. Present on the expedition were screenwriter Sam Engel, director Ray Enright, 42nd Street director Lloyd Bacon, producer (and former silent film comedian) Raymond Griffith, and director John G. Adolfi, best known at the time for his work with English actor George Arliss. Adolfi, who was around 50 years old and seemingly in good health, would not return.

II. The Director

Even dedicated film buffs may draw a blank when the name John Adolfi is mentioned. Although he directed more than eighty films over a twenty-year period beginning in 1913, most of those films are now lost. He worked in every genre, with top stars, and made a successful transition from silent cinema to talkies. He seems to have been a well-respected but self-effacing man, seldom profiled in the press.

According to his tombstone Adolfi was born in New York City in 1881, but the exact date of his birth is one of several mysteries about his life. His father, Gustav Adolfi, was a popular stage comedian and singer who emigrated to the U.S. from Germany in 1879. Gustav performed primarily in New York and Philadelphia, and was known for such roles as Frosch the Jailer in Strauss’ Die Fledermaus. But he was a troubled man, said to be a compulsive gambler, and after his wife Jennie died (possibly of scarlet fever) it appears his life fell apart. Gustav’s singing voice gave out, and then he died suddenly in Philadelphia in October 1890, leaving John and his siblings orphaned. (An obituary in the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent reported that Gustav suffered a stroke, but family legend suggests he may have committed suicide.) After a difficult period John followed in his father’s footsteps and launched a stage career, and was soon working opposite such luminaries of the day as Ethel Barrymore and Dustin Farnum. Early in the new century the young actor wed Pennsylvania native Florence Crawford; the marriage would last until his death.

When the cinema was still in its infancy stage performers tended to regard movie work as slumming, but for whatever reason John Adolfi took the plunge. He made his debut before the cameras around 1907, probably at the Vitagraph Studio in Brooklyn. There he appeared as Tybalt in J. Stuart Blackton’s 1908 Romeo and Juliet , with Paul Panzer and Florence Lawrence in the title roles. He worked at the Edison Studio for director Edwin S. Porter, and at Biograph in a 1908 short called The Kentuckian which also featured two other stage veterans, D.W. Griffith and Mack Sennett. Most of Adolfi’s work as a screen actor was for the Éclair Studio in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the first film capital. The bulk of this company’s output was destroyed in a vault fire, but a 1912 adaptation of Robin Hood in which Adolfi appeared survives. That same year he also appeared in a famous docu-drama, as we would call it, Saved from the Titanic. This ten-minute short premiered less than a month after the Titanic disaster, and featured actress Dorothy Gibson, who actually survived the voyage, re-enacting her experience while wearing the same clothes she wore in the lifeboat. (This film, unfortunately, is among the missing.) After appearing in dozens of movies Adolfi moved behind the camera.

Much of his early work as a director was for a Los Angeles-based studio called Majestic, where he made crime dramas, Westerns, and comedies, films with titles like Texas Bill’s Last Ride and The Stolen Radium. In 1914 the company had a new supervisor: D. W. Griffith, now the top director in the business, who had just departed Biograph. Adolfi was one of the few Majestic staff directors who kept his job under the new regime. A profile in the February 1915 issue of Photoplay describes him as “a tallish, good-looking man, well-knit and vigorous, dark-haired and determined; his mouth and chin suggest that their owner expects (and intends) to have his own way unless he is convinced that the other fellow’s is better.” It was also reported that Adolfi had developed something of a following as an actor, but that he dropped out of the public eye when he became a director. Presumably, that’s what he wanted.

Adolfi left Majestic after three years, worked at Fox Films for a time as a staff director, then freelanced. During the remainder of the silent era he guided some of the screen’s legendary leading ladies: Annette Kellerman (Queen of the Sea, 1918), Marion Davies (The Burden of Proof, 1918), Mae Marsh (The Little ‘Fraid Lady, 1920), Betty Blythe (The Darling of the Rich, 1922), and Clara Bow (The Scarlet West, 1925). Not one of these films survives. A profile published in the New York World-Telegram during his stint at Fox reported that Adolfi was well-liked by his employees. He was “reticent when the conversation turned toward himself, but frank and outspoken when it concerned his work. Mr. Adolfi is not only a director who is skilled in the technique of his craft; he is also a deep student of human nature.” Asked how he felt about the cinema’s potential, he replied, with unconscious irony, “it is bound to live forever.”

III. The Talkies

In spring of 1927 Adolfi was offered a job at Warner Brothers. His debut feature for the studio What Happened to Father? (now lost) was a success, or enough of one anyway to secure him a professional foothold, and he worked primarily at WB thereafter. Thus he was fortuitously well-positioned for the talkie revolution, for although talking pictures were not invented at the studio it was Sam Warner and his brothers, more than anyone else, who sold an initially skeptical public on the new medium. After Adolfi had proven himself with three talkie features Darryl Zanuck handed him an expensive, prestige assignment, a lavish all-star revue entitled The Show of Shows which featured every Warners star from John Barrymore to Rin-Tin-Tin.

Other important assignments followed. In March of 1930 a crime melodrama called Penny Arcade opened on Broadway. It was not a success, but when Al Jolson saw it he sensed that the story had screen potential. He purchased the film rights at a bargain rate and then re-sold the property to his home studio, Warner Brothers. Adolfi was chosen to direct, but was doubtless surprised to learn that Jolson had insisted that two of the actors from the Broadway production repeat their performances before the cameras. One of the pair, Joan Blondell, had already appeared in three Vitaphone shorts to good effect, but the other, James Cagney, had never acted in a movie. Any doubts about Jolson’s instincts were quickly dispelled. Rushes of the first scenes featuring the newcomers so impressed studio brass that both were signed to five-year contracts. While Adolfi can’t be credited with discovering the duo, the film itself, re-christened Sinners’ Holiday,remains his strongest surviving claim to fame: he guided Jimmy Cagney’s screen debut.

At this point the director formed a professional relationship that would shape the rest of his career. George Arliss was a veteran stage actor who went into the movies and unexpectedly became a top box office draw. He was, frankly, an unlikely candidate for screen stardom. Already past sixty when talkies arrived, Arliss was a short, dignified man who resembled a benevolent gargoyle. But he was also a journeyman actor, a seasoned professional who knew how to command attention with a sudden sharp word or a raised eyebrow. Like Helen Hayes he was valued in Hollywood as a performer of unblemished reputation who lent the raffish film industry a touch of Class, in every sense of the word.

In 1929 Arliss appeared in a talkie version of Disraeli, a role he had played many times on stage, and became the first Englishman to take home an Academy Award for Best Actor. Thereafter he was known for stately portrayals of History’s Great Men, such as Voltaire and Alexander Hamilton, as well as fictional kings, cardinals, and other official personages. The old gentleman formed a close alliance with Darryl Zanuck, whom he admired, and was in turn granted privileges highly unusual for any actor at the time. Arliss had final approval of his scripts and authority over casting. He was also granted the right to rehearse his selected actors for two weeks before filming began. All that was left for the film’s director to do, it would seem, would be to faithfully record what his star wanted. Not many directors would accept this arrangement, but John Adolfi, who according to Photoplay “was determined to have his own way unless he is convinced that the other fellow’s is better,” clearly had no problem with it. His first film with Arliss was The Millionaire, released in May 1931; and in the two years that followed Adolfi directed eight more features, six of which were Arliss vehicles. He had found his niche in Hollywood.

One of Adolfi’s last jobs sans Arliss was a B-picture called Central Park, which reunited the director with Joan Blondell. It’s a snappy, topical, crazy quilt of a movie that packs a lot of incident into a 58-minute running time. Central Park was something of a sleeper that earned its director positive critical notices, and must have afforded him a lively holiday from those polite period pieces for the exacting Mr. Arliss.

In spring of 1933, after completing work on the Arliss vehicle Voltaire, Adolfi accompanied Darryl Zanuck and his entourage to British Columbia to hunt bears. Arliss intended to follow Zanuck to his new company, while Adolfi in turn surely expected to follow the star and continue their collaboration. Things didn’t work out that way.

IV. The Hunting Trip

It’s unclear how long the men were hunting before tragedy struck. On Sunday, May 14th, newspapers reported that film director John G. Adolfi had died the previous week – either on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on which paper one consults – at a hunting camp near the Canoe River. All accounts give the cause of death as a cerebral hemorrhage. According to the New York Herald-Tribune the news was conveyed in a long-distance phone call from Darryl Zanuck to screenwriter Lucien Hubbard in Los Angeles. Hubbard subsequently informed the press. The N.Y. Times reported that the entire hunting party (Zanuck, Engel, Enright, Bacon, and Griffith) accompanied Adolfi’s remains in a motorboat down the Columbia River to Revelstoke. From there the body was sent to Vancouver, B.C., where it was cremated. Write-ups of Adolfi’s career were brief, and tended to emphasize his work with George Arliss, though his recent success Central Park was widely noted. John’s widow Florence was mentioned in the Philadelphia City News obituary but otherwise seems to have been ignored; the couple had no children.

V. The Aftermath

Darryl F. Zanuck went on to found Twentieth Century Pictures, a name suggested by his hunting companion Sam Engel. One of the company’s biggest hits in its first year of operation was The House of Rothschild, starring George Arliss and directed by Alfred Werker. The venerable actor returned to England not long afterwards and retired from filmmaking in 1937. In his second book of memoirs, published three years later, Arliss devotes several pages of warm praise to Zanuck, but refers only fleetingly to the man who directed seven of his films, John Adolfi, and misspells his name.

In 1935 Zanuck merged his Twentieth Century Pictures with Fox Films, and created one of the most successful companies in Hollywood history. He would go on to produce many award-winning classics, including The Grapes of Wrath, Laura, and All About Eve. Zanuck’s trusted associates at Twentieth-Century Fox in the company’s best years included Sam Engel, Raymond Griffith, and Lloyd Bacon, all survivors of the Revelstoke trip. Personal difficulties and vast changes in the film industry began to affect Zanuck’s career in the 1950s. He left the U.S. for Europe but continued to make films, and sporadically managed to exercise control over the company he founded. He died in 1979.

In 1984 a onetime screenwriter and film critic named Leonard Mosley, who had known Zanuck slightly, published a biography entitled Zanuck: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Last Tycoon. Aside from his movie reviews most of Mosley’s published work concerned military matters, specifically pertaining to the Second War World. His Zanuck bio reveals a grasp of film history that is shaky at times, for the book has a number of obvious errors. Nevertheless, it was written with the cooperation of Darryl’s son Richard, his widow Virginia, and many of the mogul’s close associates, so whatever its errors in chronology or studio data the anecdotes concerning Zanuck’s personal and professional activities are unquestionably well-sourced.

When Mosley’s narrative reaches May 1933, the point when Zanuck is on the verge of founding his new company, we’re told that he and several associates decided to go on a hunting trip to Alaska. The location is not correct, but chronologically – and in one other, unmistakable respect – there can be no doubt that this refers to the Revelstoke trip. From Mosley’s book:

“There is a mystery about this trip, and no perusal of Zanuck’s papers or those of his former associates seems to elucidate it,” he writes. “Something happened that changed his whole attitude towards hunting. All that can be gathered from the thin stories that are still gossiped around was that the hunting party went on the track of a polar bear somewhere in the Alaskan wilderness [sic], and when the vital moment came it was Zanuck who stepped out to shoot down the charging, furious animal. His bullet, it is said, found its mark all right, but it did not kill. The polar bear came on, and Zanuck stood his ground, pumping away with his rifle. Only this time it was not ‘him or me,’ but ‘him’ and someone else. The wounded and enraged bear, still alive and still charging, swerved around Zanuck and swiped with his great paw at one of the men standing behind him – and only after it had killed this other man did it fall at last into the snow, and die itself. That’s the story, and no one seems to be able to confirm it nor remember the name of the man who died. The only certain thing is that when Zanuck came back, he announced to Virginia that he had given up hunting. And he never went out and shot a wild animal again, not even a jackrabbit for his supper.”

VI. The Coda

Was John Adolfi killed by a bear? It certainly seems possible, but if so, why didn’t the men in the hunting party simply report the truth? Even if their boss was indirectly responsible, having fired the shots that caused the bear to charge, he couldn’t be blamed for the actions of a dying animal. But it’s also possible the event unfolded like a recent tragedy on the Montana-Idaho border. There, in September 2011, two men named Ty Bell and Steve Stevenson were on a hunting trip. Bell shot what he believed was a black bear. When the bear, a grizzly, attacked Stevenson, Bell fired again – and killed both the bear and his friend.

That seems to be the more likely scenario. If Zanuck fired at the wounded bear, in an attempt to save Adolfi, and killed both bear and man instead, it would perhaps explain a hastily contrived false story. It would most definitely explain the prompt cremation of Adolfi’s body in Vancouver. Back in Hollywood Joe Schenck was busy raising money, and lots of it, to launch Zanuck’s new company. Any unpleasant information about the new company’s chief – certainly anything suggestive of manslaughter – could jeopardize the deal. A man hit with a cerebral hemorrhage in the prime of life is a tragedy of natural causes, but a man sprayed with bullets in a shooting, accidental or not, is something else again. That goes double if alcohol was involved, as it reportedly was on Zanuck’s earlier hunting trips.

Of course, it’s also possible that Adolfi did indeed suffer a cerebral hemorrhage. Like his father.

John G. Adolfi is a Hollywood ghost. Most of his works are lost, and his name is forgotten. (Even George Arliss couldn’t be bothered to spell it correctly.) Every now and then TCM will program one of the Arliss vehicles, or Sinners’ Holiday. Not long ago they showed Adolfi’s fascinating B-picture Central Park, that slam-bang souvenir of the early Depression years in which several plot strands are deftly inter-twined. One of the subplots involves a mentally ill man, a former zoo-keeper who escapes from an asylum and returns to the place where he used to work, the Central Park Zoo. He has a score to settle with an old nemesis, an ex-colleague who tends the big cats. As the story approaches its climax, the escaped lunatic deliberately drags his enemy into the cage of a dangerous lion and leaves him there. In the subsequent, harrowing scene, difficult to watch, the lion attacks and practically kills the poor bastard.

by William Charles Morrow

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My sources for this article, in addition to the Mosley biography cited in the text, include Stephen M. Silverman’s The Fox That Got Away: The Last Days of the Zanuck Dynasty at Twentieth-Century Fox (1988), and Marlys J. Harris’s The Zanucks of Hollywood: The Dark Legacy of an American Dynasty (1989). For material on John Adolfi I made extensive use of the files of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Special thanks to James Bigwood for his prodigious research on the Adolfi family genealogy, and to Mary Maler, John Adolfi’s great-niece, for information she provided on her family.

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dp-marvel94 · 3 years

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Face to Face- Chapter 32

Summary: When Danny went through the ghost catcher, he expected to be cured of the ghostliness that had haunted him since the accident, not to wake up on the lab floor with his parents saying he’d been overshadowed but everything’s back to normal now. But why does Danny Fenton cry himself to sleep to then dream of flying? Why does Phantom, the ghost who was supposedly possessing Danny remember a life that wasn’t his? Most of all, why do both the human and the ghost feel that something vital is missing, in their very soul? Or: Trying to cure himself of his powers one month after the accident, Danny accidentally splits himself but neither his ghost nor his human half know that that is what they did

First -> Last -> Next

Word Count: 6,098

Also on AO3 and Fanfiction.net

Note:What is this?! Another Face to Face update. I'm still struggling through my first phic phight story and hoping some comments on this will encourage me. Thanks for reading as always!

Phantom stayed still for a long moment, looking out over the Ghost Zone. He took a deep breath and watched the floating rocks, the swirling clouds, and the purple doors. He braced himself and slowly floated to his feet. He needed to head out there. Tentatively, he reached out with his mind and plucked at the line. Like Fenton said, it was there, the link between him and his other half. And….a moment later, he received a tug in kind. His confidence grew. Yes, he could do this. He could find his way home.

With that, the ghost flew. He carefully followed the line, over islands and past doors. He slipped between rocks and paused, looking upward to what looked like a river suspended in mid-air and flowing downward. Phantom’s eyes widened in awe at the sight but he kept going. All the while, he looked around with keen attention. It wouldn’t do, to be attacked by another ghost again. Luckily, he didn’t see or sense anything large or notable. Instead, his brow wrinkled as he flew past a small group of what looked like globs of ectoplasm with eyes. One of the little ghosts (at least he thought they were ghosts) looked at Danny. It blinked slowly before letting out a chirp and darting away with the others.

Phantom watched for a moment as the small creatures flew away. Then He sloped downward, below a tree covered island. He gaped at the sight. Trees?! There were actually trees here, even though there didn’t appear to be any sun, moon, or stars. So...wait...where did the light come from? And were those the ghosts of dead trees or-

The ghost shook his head, clearing the questions about his surroundings from his mind. It really was incredible being here, even if the circumstances were...not so great. He might just have to come back, after everything was sorted...assuming that things could be fixed with Mom. The boy bit his lip. He couldn’t worry about that, not right now.

“Focus, Phantom.” He chided himself. He had to follow the line, get back to the real world.

The ghost boy’s brow then furrowed, eyes falling on something in the distance. A rectangular shape. White, standing out in stark contrast against the green atmosphere. And…. he tugged the line again….the way home was in that direction.

Less than five minutes later, the object became clear in his view. “It’s...Casper High?” Phantom muttered.

There in front of him was a black and white version of the school, complete with the American flag and the name plastered above the door in big letters. It was strange, bizarre. Why would there be a version of his high school in the ghost zone? And….he frowned, feeling his tether. Why did the path he was following back to Fenton lead him here? Phantom furrowed his brow. He hadn’t come this way before; he would have remembered seeing this weird building. But…. yep, the line was leading him here and...he could feel he was really close.

The ghost straightened, bracing himself. Cautiously but with forced confidence, he floated up to the doors and slowly pushed them open to find…. an empty hallway, identical to the front hall at Casper, even if it was in monochrome.

“Hello?” He called quietly as he crossed the threshold.

No reply came as Phantom continued onward. His core pulsed nervously at the silence of the eerily familiar space. It was strange, seeing it so empty and quiet. And it was fittingly haunting for a ghostly double of his school. But why was this here? Why did it look like Casper High? And why was it in black and white?

The ghost boy swallowed, pushing the questions away and floating down the hallways. He looked side to side, watching for any movement. His ghost sense hadn’t gone off, but being in an enclosed space was making him anxious. But at the same time….he was so close to….something. Something that would lead him home. But what?

Suddenly, the doors he’d come through slammed shut, earning a gasp from Phantom. “Who’s...who’s there?”

Something flickered at the edge of his vision. Head jerking to the side, he turned to find...nothing. The boy frowned, opening his mouth to call out. Then there was a bang behind him. Startled, Phantom wiped back around to find locker doors banging open and closed on their own.

“I don’t want any trouble.” The ghost boy started, voice wavering with fear.

Again, something flickered beside him. There was a staticy laugh. Phantom turned again and…. His heart would have skipped a beat, if it was in his chest. There was a monochrome teenager, a buff looking guy with slicked back hair and a leather jacket. He reminded Ghost Danny uncanningly of Dash. The figure opened his mouth, static exiting. Then he pushed the ghost boy.

Phantom stumbled, letting out a surprised cry as his back hit something solid. He turned, looking up at a scowling girl in a poodle shirt. She turned up her nose, pushing the ghost boy away. “Wait! Stop!” His eyes widened as he fell forward again, this time hitting another jock. “I don’t wanna fight!” The other teen, in a letterman, grabbed Phantom’s arm and shoved him to the floor.

The ghost boy hit the ground with a start, the impact knocking the air from his only semi-illusionary lungs. He rolled onto his back, paling at what was around him. A crowd of black-and-white teenagers, all wearing retro clothing, maybe from the fifties? They towered over him, scowling and jeering down at him.

“Stop! Please!” Phantom covered his ears, wincing in pain at the sound. It was static, hundreds of voices speaking over each other. And they were laughing, mocking. It was years of insults. Freak, coward, geek, nerd, weak, worthless, dead, wrong, unnatural, monster.

The ghost boy curled in on himself. “Please! I’m lost...I’m sorry I…”

Don’t belong here...Don’t belong. Invader.

“I don’t….”

Trespasser. Invader. Leave! Leave, freak!

“I… I know I’m not supposed to be here. I’m lost..I…”

Leave! Dead! Go! The voices hissed. Don’t belong, monster!

“Please! Stop!” Phantom begged.

The words pressed down on him and his chest heaved with panic. He whimpered as the volume rose, growing into a roar. Phantom bit back a cry as he pressed his hands to his ears, like he could block out the noise, keep out the words. He wanted to move, like the voices were demanding but he couldn’t, too frozen in fear. Instead he sobbed. “I just wanna go home.”

“Enough!” A single voice shouted. There was a whirl, a sound like gall forces winds. And then silence. “You can’t just barge into someone’s lair!”

“I...I..I’m sorry.” Phantom fixed his head down, whole body shaking. “I just...I got lost and was trying to get home but I ended up here ‘cause-” His words cut off as his ghost sense billowed out of his mouth and he coughed.

The ghost boy paled, looking cross eyed at the mist. He slowly looked up, eyes falling on the speaker. Like the other teens, he was monochrome but looked like a stereotypical nerd, with coke bottle glasses, a bowler haircut, a polo, and a bowtie. He fit the same fifties aesthetic yet somehow...there was something different about him compared to the other. He was more vivid, more solid than the others, almost like….

“Are you gonna say anything buster?” The crowd around them was still and silent even as the nerd floated half a foot closer, his fists balled.

“Yeah..Umm...Sorry, I..” Phantom stuttered. His eyes then widened as his ghost sense billowed out of his mouth again. That had only happened once this singular figure showed up, not before and not by the others. The others that had stopped when the nerd told them too. “You’re a ghost.” Ghost Danny whispered, meeting the glasses-covered eyes.

The other ghost scowled. “You don’t say.”

Phantom averted his eyes again, blushing. “No...sorry...I..I mean..you’re not...you’re not like…whatever these are.” The ghost boy motioned to the crowd around them, shivering. “You’re an actual ghost.” He whispered the last part, before glancing up, at the other, now confused looking ghost.

The other ghost’s brow furrowed behind his glasses. He raised his hand, making Phantom flinch. But instead of swinging his arm to punch or lighting his fist with ectoenergy like Ghost Danny expected, the nerd snapped his fingers and commanded. “Leave us.”

With that, the teenagers around the ghost boy seemed to flicker, their outlines wavering. Without any movement, the crowd disappeared, leaving Phantom and the other ghost alone. The nerd lowered his arm, his fist relaxing.

That did little to comfort Phantom. His pulse pounded in his head as he wrung his hands. “So...okay...we’re alone now. And...you said this was your lair? I...uh...don’t know what that means but...I can leave...I can leave now since those guys didn’t seem to want me here-”

“Sorry about that.” The quiet words interrupted the ramble.

“What?” Phantom blinked, looking up at the other ghost.

The nerd didn’t look angry anymore but instead almost….bashful, holding his hand out. “My shadows got out of hand. They aren’t supposed to be that cruel.”

The ghost boy just gapped, looking between the offered hand and the other ghost’s face. His mind raced, wondering what was going on. What was with the sudden change in attitude? He bit his lip. The other ghost wasn’t attacking him or...using those not-ghosts (he called them shadows?) to attack him. Maybe that apology was authentic.

Phantom took a deep breath and chose to be brave. Tentatively, he took the offered hand and allowed the other ghost to pull him up.

Then there was silence. The ghost Danny shifted nervously in the air as he studied the other ghost. And the other ghost studied him, his expression curious yet vaguely sad.

Phantom finally coughed, pointing back the way he came. “I’ll just...I’ll leave now. Sorry again for barraging in. And uh…bye.” Slowly, he floated backward, keeping one eye on the other ghost.

“Wait.” The nerd reached forward. “You’re new, aren’t ya?” The ghost boy stopped, turning more fully towards the other ghost as he continued. “You haven’t been a ghost for a long time.”

Phantom’s eyes widened, his mouth opening and closing. “Um..uhh...yeah… I haven’t been...like this very long.” He swallowed. “How did you...how did you know?”

The other ghost’s expression softened. “You’re still trying to breath.” At the words, Phantom reflectively stopped, holding his breath with wide eyes. “It’s alright. That’s a tough habit to break.” The other ghost held out of hand, as if to shake. “I’m Sidney Pointdexter, by the way.”

The other ghost blinked at the hand. After a long pause, he grasped it. “I’m Danny….Danny Phantom.”

“Phantom.” The nerd nodded. “So you already picked a name.”

“Yeah?” So apparently, that was a thing? Phantom rubbed the back of his neck. “You can call me Danny though.”

“Danny.” The other ghost half-smile. “You can call me Sidney then.” Sidney’s expression then turned more serious. “Obviously you didn’t know but... if you want to go inside someone’s lair, you need to announce yourself and ask permission to enter.”

“Oh, okay. Sorry” Phantom blushed. “I’ll...I’ll do that next time.”

“Good.” Sidney crossed his arms. “You’re lucky you barged in on me, mister. If it’d been Skulker, he would have skinned you.”

The ghost boy swallowed, suddenly anxious. His eyes bulged. “Really?!”

The other ghost nodded. “That hunter can be very possessive and mean.” Sidney then scowled. “But I’d never do that. I’m not a bully.” The other ghost then shook his head. “Anyway...why did you come here?”

Phantom’s core pulsed awkwardly at the question. “I..uh…” It wasn’t said with any anger or accusation, but innocently curious. But still, the ghost boy struggled to explain why he’d come inside. The line connecting him to his other self had led here but...how could he explain that? He swallowed. “This looks like my school, Casper High.”

Sidney blinked, eyes widening. “You went to Casper?” The corner of his lip turned up.

“Yeah.” The ghost boy bit his lip, not knowing what to say. Instead, he turned towards the door and pointed. “Yeah...thanks for the advice but...I should go so…”

“You don’t have to yet.” The other ghost’s eyes were slightly pleading. “Why don’t you rest for a bit? And I get you something to eat and drink? You look like you need it.”

Phantom blinked. “Ghosts eat?”

Sidney frowned, slightly alarmed. “Yes? Come on.” He grabbed the other boy’s arm. “That’s it. I’m making you some tea and a sandwich. I think I still have some cookies too.”

The ghost boy didn’t resist, instead gawking as the other ghost pulled him down the hallway and towards the cafeteria. His mind sputtered, trying to overcome the emotional whiplash. Seconds later, the pair floated in the cafeteria’s kitchen. Sidney grabbed a tea kettle off the stove, filled it with what looked like water from the sink, and placed it on the burner. Then he opened the fridge and pulled out what looked like slices of cheese and luncheon meat.

Phantom just stared in disbelief. Sidney turned back towards him. “I have some tiger fruit too. I grow it in the courtyard. Do you want to try some?” He held up a round, stripped fruit, the orange and black standing out in bright contrast to the monochrome environment.

The ghost boy wrinkled his nose. “What is it?”

Sidney looked down at the fruit. “It kind of tastes like an apple. It’s native to the Infinite Realms though. I don’t think it has a Material World counterpart.” He smiled. “It’s really delicious.”

“Alright?” Phantom shook his head. There was a lot of information there. Then he shrugged. “Sure.”

The other ghost nodded, quickly preparing a plate and two cups of tea. He turned back to ghost Danny. “Let’s sit in the cafeteria.”

Without question, Phantom followed. Nervously tapping his hand on his leg, he sat down and took the steaming cup offered to him. The ghost blinked, studying the liquid. It actually felt warm in his hands. He moved the cup, closing watching the liquid sloshing in the cup like water. It did actually look like tea. Tentatively, Phantom looked up, glancing at the other ghost who was sitting across from him. Sidney was blowing his own cup before taking a small sip.

It was only then that where he was and what he was doing actually hit the boy. He was sitting in a ghostly version of his school cafeteria, with the ghost of a teenage boy who died in the fifties, based on his appearance. Phantom looked down at his plate again. And there was weird, slightly glowing ghost-food in front of him.

Sidney’s words drew his attention. “Go ahead. Try the tea. It’s not poison” The nerd half smiled at Danny with a nod.

Phantom looked down at his cup again, doubtfully. His stomach flopped as he considered. He was wary of trying the beverage. What actually was it? It couldn’t be actually tea, like his sister liked to drink. Could it hurt him? Weren’t there myths or something about how if you eat something in the land of the dead you can’t leave? Or was that fairies? Or...wait...did that only apply to humans? He wasn’t exactly human right now; he was a ghost. And this was food meant for ghosts. And….

“It won’t hurt you. And it’s good. I promise you’ll love it.” The other ghost encouraged patiently.

Phantom picked up the cup, again noticing the comforting warmth. It was still softly billowing steam. And it smelled so good, sweet and citrusy. Tentatively, he blew on the cup to cool it. He really did want to try it. Ignoring his doubts, ghost Danny finally took a small sip.

Phantom blinked rapidly, taking another sip. “I can taste this.” He muttered numbly before taking another sip of the fresh, lemony liquid.

Excitement grew at the realization. He then looked down at his sandwich. Putting the cup down, he took a small bit. The savory taste of bread, cheese, ham. He took a larger bit. “I can taste this!”

“Of course you can.” Across from him, Sidney said in disbelief.

Phantom looked up, talking through his full mouth. “No I...I haven’t eaten in weeks.” He swallowed. “I mean...I tried but I couldn’t taste anything so I gave up.”

“Gave… up?” The other ghost blinked.

“Yeah. But-” Phantom stuffed a cookie in his mouth, groaning in pleasure at the taste. “But how?”

“How?” Sidney held out his hands. “It’s just lair made food.”

“Lair made?”

“Yeah, as in the lair made it?” The other ghost’s mouth fell open at the lack of recognition. “The lair basically took free ectoplasm and shaped it into food that we can eat.”

Phantom dropped the sandwich. “Ectoplasm?”

“Yes. Everything here is made of ectoplasm, even us.” Sidney answered like it was obvious. “Why wouldn’t the food be?”

At that, the ghost boy looked down at the meal with new realization. “That makes sense.”

The ghostly nerd nodded. “Yes. How don’t you know that? And why couldn’t you taste anything earlier?” His brow furrowed in deep confusion. “You said you tried food. But….you didn’t know that ghosts can eat….or need to eat?”

Phantom picked up the sandwich again, taking a few more bits to finish it. His mind whirled. “We need to eat? But we’re dead so….” He took another cookie, smiling at the taste.

Sidney gapped. “Of course we need to eat! Haven’t you been hungry?”

“Hungry?” Phantom put a hand over his stomach. No, he hadn’t been hungry in that way but...he moved his hand over his core. He’d gotten tired from overusing his powers and...he’d felt the Zone calling to him, like...like he needed to go to it for nourishment. “I have been.” He whispered.

“But you hadn’t realized?” The nerd face palmed. “No wonder you look so sickly.”

The other ghost looked up, mouth falling open. “What?”

“You’re barely glowing. And you’re so pale. They’re no color in your skin.”

Phantom pointed. “You’re likely in black and white?!”

Sidney raised a brow, motioning down his body. “This is an intentional aesthetic.” His image wavered briefly, before the other ghost was in full color. His skin was a pale green and his eyes a glowing silver.

“Oh.” The ghost boy muttered.

“Yes.” The other boy nodded, motioning to the plate. “Go ahead and finish. You’re lookin’ better already.”

Phantom didn’t need to be told twice. He finished the sandwich and the cookies.

Sidney crossed his arms. “I don’t understand how you didn’t realize. You should have at least been passively absorbing ectoplasm through your skin.” So apparently, that was something else ghosts could do.

The ghost boy shrugged, taking a bite of the fruit. He paused, staring down at it. “This is really good.”

The other ghost smiled. “Isn’t it? I can give you some seeds. The bushes grow very well in lairs, if you want to plant some.” He tapped his chin. “Is your lair near here? You were trying to get back there, right? You did say that you were lost earlier.”

“I did say I was lost.” Phantom said, swallowing a bit of his tiger fruit. He then bit his lip nervously. “But...I’m not trying to get back to my….lair? I don’t have one of those, I don’t think…..Not that I’m that clear on what exactly a lair is.”

Sidney again furrowed his brow, looking bewildered. “This is a lair.” He motioned around them.

“No, I get that.” Phantom sighed. “But...what is this? Why does it look like a high school? Where did that food come from? And those people...you called them, shadows? What are those?” The other ghost was still looking at him in confusion as an idea suddenly hit the ghost Danny. “Wait...is this like your house? Like you live here. Or...err...I guess that’s not the right word. Afterlive?” His speech quickened. “If it is, I’m so sorry for barging into your house. I get why you’d be mad about that but I swear I didn’t mean-”

“Danny.” The other ghost said pointedly, making Phantom’s mouth snap shut. “It’s fine. I understand. Just…” Sidney pinched the bridge of his nose. “Let me explain?”

Phantom nodded, blushing in embarrassment.

“A lair is like a ghost’s house but...It’s more personalized. It might reflect somewhere from your life or a place you’ve always wanted to see. It’s different for every ghost but based on your subconscious desires and your obsession.”

“Alright.” The ghost boy glanced around. “So this is your school from when you were alive. But still...who were those people that...attacked me?”

“Those weren’t people. They were shadows. They’re part of the lair.”

“So you do control them.”

“Somewhat?” Sidney waved his hand in a so-so motion. “As I said, your subconscious is what molds the lair.” He balled his fists. “So those shadows are reflections of people, bullies, I knew when I was alive.”

Phantom bit his lip, nervous at the anger in the statement. And he wondered. Obviously the shadows were something of a security system. But there must be more as well. There was the anger that the other ghost had shown twice now when talking about bullies. And what was that he said about obsessions having a role?

“Alright, okay.” Ghost Danny bit his lip. “But...what about your obsession? How does that-”

“Don’t.” Sidney suddenly snapped, his eyes flashing. “Never, ever ask another ghost about their obsession.”

Phantom shrunk in on himself, his shoulders falling. “Sorry.”

The other ghost’s expression softened. “You didn’t know. It’s okay. But...that’s personal to me. I don’t like to think about it, much less talk about it to someone I just met. So...don’t ask unless someone brings it up first, okay? Other ghosts aren’t as nice as me. If you asked Ember, she would fry you.”

“Okay.” The ghost boy paled, nodding furiously.

Sidney also nodded, taking a sip of his tea. Phantom finished his fruit, while his mind struggled to process all he’d learned. About how ghosts had to eat and about ghostly food. About lairs and shadows and not asking about obsessions. It was a lot, and there were so many more questions he could ask. But he had no idea what to ask now.

And again, the reality hit Phantom. He was sitting in a ghost’s lair, having a genial conversation like he was just a new neighbor. Not one half of a human-ghost hybrid who was trying to get back to his other half in the real world. With that, there was a small push in the back of Phantom’s mind. Yes, right. He needed to get back to following his tether to Fenton. But again...why had the line led him here?

The ghost boy put down the core of his tiger fruit once he’d finished. That got Sidney’s attention. “You’re done. Do you want anything else to eat?”

“No, thank you.” Phantom shook his head. “Actually...I need to go home.”

“Back to your lair?” Sidney questioned.

“No, I don’t have one of those.”

“Oh that’s right.” The other ghost said, frowning. “So where are you going?”

Ghost Danny bit his lip, considering. “The...the human world or...err...I think you called it the Material Realm?”

Sidney blinked, a strange mixture of shock, confusion, and worry on his face. “What? Why?”

Phantom sighed, rubbing his head. How to explain this. Guess he’d have to start at the beginning...and keep it simple. “That’s where I’ve been ever since I…..you know…” He motioned up and down his body. “About a month and a half.”

The other ghost’s mouth fell open, his eyes bulging. “You’ve been...In the living realm?”

“Yep.” Ghost Danny nodded.

“In the living realm?” Sidney put his hands on his head. “The material realm? Really, the living realm? And….” His voice pitched up in disbelief. “For a month and a half? Since you died? Wait...you’ve only been dead for a month and a half? And...that’s where you were...the whole time...but...how? And…” He waved his arms. “No wonder you look so starved!”

“Starved?” Phantom muttered, even as the other ghost continued.

“And how did you even form in the material realm?” Sidney exclaimed. “That just doesn’t happen, ever! And then how did you get here? Portals are so rare!”

“Sidney!” Ghost Danny interrupted, causing the other ghost’s mouth to snap shut. Knowing he’d gotten his host's attention, he continued. “So...long story short. My parents are ghosts hunters and researchers. They’re scientists who made a portal to...this place. They call it the Ghost Zone. And well...I went inside their portal, turned it on, and...umm...it..well...it killed me.” Phantom looked down, his core clenching at the words and the pitying look on the other ghost’s face.

“But...I walked out of the portal. I’m still here...even if I’m different now.” He paused for a moment, considering the words. He’d said as much to Mom earlier. And he believed them. But…

“I did...I did try to act like nothing was different for a month after that accident, like I hadn’t changed. But….it’s really obvious now. Mom and Dad know what happened and…” He shivered, recent memories hitting him. “Mom and I had a fight. I wanted to talk to her about...some very hurtful stuff she’d said but….”

Phantom bit his lip. “It went bad. We were both yelling and Mom got really upset and said...she said…” The words sputtered to a stop as what Mom had said repeated in his head. He was supposed to be normal, human, alive. He wasn’t supposed to be a ghost. He swallowed. “I started crying….and…” Mom’s shocked and distressed face flashed in his mind, her desperate expression as she reached towards him. “I ran away. I didn’t even think. I just flew through the portal ‘cause I just couldn’t be in the same room as her. I just had to get away but…” He put his head in his hands.

“Now I’m lost somewhere in the Ghost Zone and Mom is probably freaking out. Dad and Jazz too if she told them.” Phantom then shivered, looking up. “I need to get back to them.” He balled his fists in determination. “I need to get back to my parents, my sister, my friends, and my hum-”

Phantom snapped his mouth shut on the last word as doubt suddenly flickered through him. Human half, he was going to say. But...he hadn’t mentioned that little fact at all. And the idea of explaining was daunting. His insides squirmed. What would a real, actual proper ghost think of that, of him? Both human and a ghost, living and dead, at the same time. Or...half of each, somewhere in the middle. Or maybe even neither, something else entirely. He didn’t know and he was suddenly terrified to find out.

So instead, ghost Danny kept his mouth shut as he slowly looked up. He blushed. “I can’t believe I told you all that.” His shoulders fell. “I must sound so pathetic.”

“No, of course not.” Sidney said kindly. He was studying Phantom curiously, yet also oddly sad. He raised a brow, looking like he still wanted to ask about the other’s near slip up. But he didn’t. Maybe he sensed it was personal, maybe he thought Phantom would refuse to answer if asked. Either way, Sidney didn’t press. Instead, after a long pause he finally said. “But I know why you came here now.”

Phantom blinked in surprise. “What?”

“You’re looking for a portal to the living world.” The other ghost stood. “I might have something to help you. Follow me.”

Ghost Danny’s eyes widened at the statement but he obeyed without question. He floated out of his seat and took his place behind Sidney as he flew out of the cafeteria. The pair hovered down a familiar hallway. Soon enough, they stopped in front of a rusty looking locker numbered 724. Phantom looked at the door curiously.

Across from him, Sidney asked. “Did another ghost tell you about my portal?”

Ghost Danny turned to face the other ghost, brow furrowing. “Your portal?” He shook his head. “No one told me.” He blushed. “You’re actually the first ghost I’ve ever talked to.”

The other ghost frowned. “Then how did you know this was here?”

“I didn’t.” Phantom glanced at the door again, reaching out with his mind. He tugged on the tether connecting him to Fenton and the line grew taunt. His eyes widened. There, behind the door, he sensed...something. “But...I sensed something. It...the line...it was leading me here.”

“Line?” Sidney asked.

The ghost boy glanced back at his host, eyes widening. “Yeah..I’m...uh..I’m” He bit his lip nervously. “I’m….connected to someone in the material world...like mentally.”

The other ghost raised a brow, clearly wanting to know more.

Phantom coughed, changing the subject. “So...uh...how does this work? How do I get through?”

Sidney frowned but answered the question anyway as he opened the locker door. “The mirror is the portal. It leads to the real Casper High.”

Ghost Danny blinked, studying the mirror. “That? But it’s so small and… where’s the swirling green light?” His brow furrowed as he remembered his parents’ portal.

The ghostly nerd shook his head. “It’s not always active. It’s only open for a few minutes during the witching hour of the full moon...and on the equinoxes and solstices. But” He raised a finger seriously. “There is a full moon tonight.”

Phantom raised a brow, wondering how exactly the other ghost knew that. But he didn’t ask. Instead, he looked at the mirror again. Was it really through there, his way home? Closing his eyes, the ghost boy reached out with his mind once again. Yep, yes. He was sensing something. Fenton...Fenton was through there but…. He glanced back down the hallway, towards the way he’d come. Theoretically, he could try to find his parents’ portal or he could stay here and go through when the portal opened in a little over 12 hours….and leave his loved ones worrying for longer.

Then there was a gentle tug on the line. Something tickled in the back of his mind. The corner of Phantom’s lip turned up. He could feel Fenton’s keen interest on him. Oh yeah, he could tell or show Fenton what was happening and ask him to tell their family and friends that he was okay.

Finally, Phantom sighed. “I guess I’m waiting then.”

Sidney nodded. Then his expression turned more serious. “Make sure you’re sure you want to do this, though.”

The other ghost blinked. “Of course, I want to do this. Why wouldn’t I?”

The nerd bit his lip. “Well...I should tell you not to go through the portal. You could get trapped on the other side and ghosts that get trapped in the material realm...they starve. They get weak and desperate and angry.” He shivered. “It’s a horrible way to exist but…” He looked up. “If you think you need to do this, I’ll help you.” His eyes flickered to the floor. “If I had another chance to talk to my parents, I’d take it.”

“Your...parents?” Phantom asked quietly.

Sidney wrapped his arms around himself. “They moved away from Amity Park after I….you know.” His voice quieted. “By the time I found this portal, it was too late. They’d already moved.” He shivered. “I know it would have hurt them to see me like this but...I still wish I could have. I should have told them how much I loved them, how sorry I was that all this happened.”

That sobered Phantom. For a long moment, he stared at the other ghost and it really hit him. This was a dead teenager, a dead kid who’d had family and friends. Hopes, dreams, memories. A life...just like him. “We’re not...we’re not that different.” Ghost Danny muttered.

Sidney finally looked up. “No, I don’t think that we are. So…” The other ghost shifted nervously in the air. “I don’t know what all happened with your mom but….talk to her.” His voice pitched up, hopeful yet sad. Not demanding but a kind suggestion from someone with experience...and regrets. “Try to make things right with her if you can. Don’t give up yet.”

Phantom swallowed, considering. He didn’t really know what to think of the other ghost’s advice. Earlier, right after the fight, he might have been angry at the suggestion. He’d tried to make things right and had failed; it wasn’t his responsibility to try again if there was no fixing things but...Mom’s face flashed in his mind again. Her guilt, her desperation as he darted through the portal. And it was simple. She was his mom and he loved her, damnit. He couldn’t just turn that off, couldn’t stop wanting her to love and accept him. He couldn’t stop hoping that she would.

“Alright.” Ghost Danny wrung his hands. “I’ll...keep that in mind.” The way he saw it, another conversation was inevitable. Knowing his sister and dad, they would insist on talking about everything as a family. But he had a choice about how he would approach that conversation. Maybe he could approach it with the hope that things would get better, even if he’d be wary to trust again.

With that, Phantom pushed the thought away, focusing on the ghost in front of him, “Thank you for the advice. And for telling me stuff. I’ve learned a lot.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Man, I knew I didn’t know much but...I don’t seem actually to know anything at all.”

Sidney nodded. “No sweat, pal.” He half-smiled. “This is the most exciting day I’ve had in years. We can hang out ‘til the portal opens and I can answer more questions.”

“That would be awesome.” Phantom finally smiled. “You’re actually a really cool dude, Sidney.”

The other ghost beamed and ghost Danny was happy he’d managed to wander into this ghost’s lair. He’d be in big...err...bigger trouble if he hadn’t. He’d learned a ton about ghosts, gotten a much needed meal, and would be home in a few...hours. His thoughts trailed off at the end as he felt an excited mental nudge.

In the lair, Sidney physically nudged him. “Danny?” He questioned, pointing towards the mirror. His voice turned sad. “Is that what you looked like when you were alive?”

“When I was….alive?” Phantom turned and his eyes widened, taking in his reflection. In the mirror, he had black hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a white and red t-shirt.

Phantom! There was an excited exclamation in his head. At the same time, his reflection’s eyes widened.

“That’s not my reflection.” The ghost’s mouth stretched into a grin. He placed both hands on the mirror. “I’m here! I’m right here! I can see you.”

Across the mirror, Fenton smiled. You’re okay. The words were mouthed through the mirror and communicated in the ghost’s head.

“Yeah! I’m fine. I’m-” Phantom cut himself off as Fenton placed his own hands on the mirror, directly opposite his other half’s. Instantly, a warmth coursed into the ghost boy. His eyes widened as a wave of green passed over the mirror. “It’s open.” He muttered, sounding awed.

Phantom didn’t quite understand how but the portal was opened. And he needed to be on the other side of it, now. With little effort, he pressed his fingers out of the mirror. He curled them around the back of Fenton’s hand as if he and his other self were holding hands.

Fenton grinned and he pulled.

Behind Phantom, Sidney called. “What are you-”

Without resistance, Phantom slipped through the mirror and right into his other self’s arms.

#Danny Phantom #My fic #Face To Face #split danny #sidney poindexter #Ghost Catcher #double danny

19 notes · View notes

shuttershocky · 4 years

Note

Thinking about how boring grand order's gameplay is & how if it had nothing to do with the holy grail war we coulda had a much more interesting customizable magus/dead apostle strategy game

The setting is rarely at fault for the shortcomings of a game’s design (and anyway I’m quite a fan of FGO’s Time Squad setting) but now that you’ve brought up FGO’s gameplay I guess it’s time for me to nerd out about game design I like. Sorry in advance.

I’ve been playing another turn-based card-based RPG recently called Gordian Quest, and while I’ve not played the likes of Slay The Spire and other deckbuilding RPGs and thus have nothing to compare it with, I really enjoyed this game. It made me think a lot about FGO’s battle system, and how by modifying Gordian Quest’s design a little you could implement something similar to FGO’s implementation without the design weaknesses of its current class advantage system (e.g - The Caster class), card distribution system (not getting any card for a servant you really need to attack right now), etc.

To put it very simply, Gordian Quest’s battle system has you pit three heroes vs multiple waves of monsters in a turn-based battle where their moves are determined by drawn cards. Sound familiar? Of course it does. But it also looks like this:

Each battle features two 3x3 (or 3x4) grids, one for your team, and one for the enemy. Each grid cell acts as a tile, which determines things like attack ranges, attack priorities (obviously a melee enemy can’t hit your guy when he’s hiding behind your beefy cleric) and other effects, lending some simple tactical RPG elements to the battle system.

In the middle, you can see the cards drawn. These act as the possible attacks / actions that the character can take for that turn. The numbers in the blue circles on the cards show the card’s AP cost, and the character’s current AP is shown on the bottom left. As you can see, you usually get around 3 cards to use at most (unless you move, moving 1 tile costs 1 AP! ) Some of these cards are nothing more than generic attacks - something like “Strike: deal 5 damage” or “Parry: gain 5 guard” where guard is damage reduction for a hit. Others are much more flavorful, such as the card Observe, which grants you bonus critical damage on your next attack for every enemy you catch in its AOE, giving you a tremendous damage boost when they’re all clumped up together.

At the start of a fight, all 3 of your characters roll for initiative to determine turn order, and then you control each character in said order as you play out their turn. This way, you still get the RNG factor of relying on a card draw to get your list of available actions, but now you’re guaranteed that everyone will be able to make a move, unlike FGO which puts everyone’s cards in the same pool and thus you can get screwed by RNG giving you a turn where you get literally no cards from the servant you want or get a whole turn where nobody moves except for one servant.

You can see who enemies are targeting by mousing over them while planning out your moves, meaning you know when to apply guards to your characters, or if RNG was not kind enough to let you draw any guard cards, let you move your other servants into the line of fire to protect the vulnerable member.

With some modifications, you could totally make an FGO spin from Gordian Quest’s battle system. Just turn everything into cards. Skills? Cards. Passives? Cards with passive effects that are played when they’re in your hand. Noble Phantasms? Special cards you automatically draw into your servant’s hand when their NP gauge is filled.

Now you might have heard me complain about FGO’s class advantage system, which I personally feel was poorly implemented and gave rise to problems such as needing a specific class to counter a specific class, which is a problem when most members of a class you need are supports and deal no damage. Copying Gordian Quest’s design however, would give us ways to implement servant classes without needing to resort to class advantage triangles.

Each class for example, can have its own set of generic attack cards, and one class-specific skill or passive card. Individual members of a class can then distinguish themselves from each other by adding on their three skill cards, their noble phantasm, and maybe two unique cards of their own.

So for a set of generic attack cards, you would see something like

Sabers

2 copies of Strike - deal x damage.

1 copy of Cleave - deal x damage to the main target and reduced damage in the tiles around it.

2 copies of Thrust - deal reduced damage to HP, but deal more damage vs guard

2 copies of Parry - gain x guard

And then these would be colored as Buster, Arts, or Quick depending on the Saber servant that owns them, with Buster having more damage, Arts more NP gain, and Quick dealing less damage but gaining bonus damage for next turn.

You could also mess with the system a bit and make up some class-specific traits, kind of like how FGO already makes all archers and riders have huge star weight regardless of whether they want to crit or not, or how classes have specific damage modifiers that fuck over Assassins and Casters for no reason.

Off the top of my head, you could do something like

Sabers:

Class-specific card is Counter (passive) When this card is in your hand, take 0 damage and deal a weak attack to the next enemy that tries to melee you. Discard after one use.

This class is immune to all effects that lower maximum AP.

Berserkers:

Class-specific card is Berserker Rage: Take extra damage from attacks for the next 2 turns. Half of your current missing health becomes bonus damage on all your attacks until the buff ends.

Once the Berserker reaches half HP, all their attack cards deal bonus damage and the berserker gains 2 bonus max AP, but the Berserker first moves to be in front of an enemy (and thus waste AP) before starting. Berserker does not move if already in front of one.

In this way, you could give servant classes a solid identity without needing to implement type advantages. A rough look at a full servant deck might look something like

Artoria Pendragon (Saber) - Max 3 AP, High HP, All debuffs end 1 turn quicker.

Strike (Buster, 1 AP)

Cleave (Buster, 1 AP)

Strike (Arts, 1 AP)

Thrust (Arts, 1 AP)

Thrust (Quick, 1 AP)

Counter (Passive)

2 x Parry (1 AP)

Charisma B (Skill) - Grant minor bonus damage to Saber and allies in 1 tile around her for 3 turns (Costs 2 AP)

Mana Burst A (Skill) - Grant major bonus damage to Saber on her next attack (costs 1 AP)

Radiant Road EX (Skill) - Charges own NP gauge. Draw an Avalon card next turn (0 AP)

Excalibur (Noble Phantasm) - Saber charges for 1 turn. In the next turn, deal massive damage to all tiles directly in front of Saber. Deal half damage to enemies on the tiles next to the direct blast. Draw 2 cards after attacking. (3 AP to activate)

Invisible Air (Unique 1) - Ranged attack, deal damage and knock the opponent backward by 2 tiles. (2 AP)

Stomp (Unique 2) - Disarm melee enemy, preventing attack cards from being used) for one turn. Draw 2 cards. (2 AP)

Avalon (Unique 3) - Only accessible from Radiant Road. Gain a large amount of guard. Heal self and 1 random ally beside her for a moderate amount of HP

Anyway please check out Gordian Quest on Steam. It was a fun time and I love seeing these cool indie games come out of Southeast Asia!

#Fate #FGO #long post #wow this was pretty fun to write #reesespuffsofficial

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hakunonon · 3 years

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i have conflicted feelings on zerker kintoki as a playable unit.

i wouldn’t say he’s bad exactly, and it’s hard to complain about him when there are characters who definitely need buffing/reworking far worse, but i also think his toolset is undeniably aged compared to more recent releases, and it’s hard for me to justify bringing him to quests that actually pose a challenge over some of my more flexible lower rarity berserkers.

monstrous strength is a beefy 50% damage bonus at level 10, with the caveat that it only lasts a turn. i don’t feel i’ve compared it to enough similar skills to say decisively whether its longevity is a fair tradeoff for its power (though it may be worth noting that gorgon has since had her equally ranked monstrous strength respecced on jp, soon coming to na). aside from that his only damage amplifiers are a very mediocre passive buster buff from mad enhancement (2%), a small flat passive damage bonus from divinity, and a 2 turn buster resistance debuff that was recently added to his np on jp.

animal communication’s 50% (again, at level 10) np battery is powerful as well, but even then more recent ssrs with 50% batteries usually pair them with at least one other effect (ereshkigal’s comes with a buster buff, larturia’s has a debuff cleanse, ishtar’s has a chance of invuln and invuln pierce, skadi’s is targetable, etc).

natural body is definitely kintoki’s weakest asset, being at most a 3k heal + 120% resistance to attack debuffs. not technically useless, but imo heals in fgo are a lot less effective than outright damage mitigation unless they’re huge (like enkidu’s) or sustained (like merlin’s). kintoki’s is neither and it’s made even less effective by kintoki’s innate berserker fragility and low hp (for an ssr). unless you’ve got taunters taking fire for him or you’re getting lucky, the heal might let him cling on for another turn or two at best, and if you’re unlucky he’ll just straight up get obliterated before you can even use it. meanwhile the attack debuff resist is very tame by the game’s current standards. the best comparison for this is penthesilea, a 4* who is similarly fragile to kintoki, but her second skill makes her outright immune to any and all debuffs for 3 turns, while also charging her np every turn it’s active. aside from that, kintoki’s only survivability tool is a very unreliable stun that comes with his np.

altogether, kintoki’s kit suggests a character meant to end fights quickly with huge single-turn damage bursts, which probably worked very well for him in the early days of fgo, when fights were more or less straightforward and he had less competition. however in the current climate, where there’s a lot more competition for his role as single-target buster berserker and pretty much every boss worth their salt has break bars and their own personal gimmicks, kintoki’s fallen behind the times.

berserker cu is probably kintoki’s most direct competitor, being a 5* single target buster berserker, but his entire skillset is devoted to survivability, and while he lacks an on-demand damage steroid outside of the 1 turn attack buff attached to his np, his higher base attack and mad enhancement rank means he’s going to be dishing out more damage per turn overall, while also long outlasting kintoki on the field.

among 4* berserkers, we have the likes of heracles, beowulf, penthesilea, berserker nobu, ibaraki, and jerker, all of whom have have better survivability skills and usually more sustained and versatile damage buffs while also being far easier to obtain higher np levels for due to being lower rarity and almost all of them available from the general summoning pool (and in jerker’s case, being a welfare you can np5 for free) compared to limited 5* kintoki.

pretty much the single advantage kintoki has over all of these is the 50% np battery, and between his one arts card and terrible survivability, odds are he’s only going to get to use his np once per fight, unless he has a team built around babysitting him.

personally i’d suggest either giving kintoki more tools to keep him alive and deal sustained damage (e.g. respeccing monstrous strength a la gorgon’s huge monstrosity’s outrage, and completely overhauling natural body into something actually useful), or if they’d rather keep him in the niche of single target burst, improving his damage dealing capacity to compensate for his skills’ short uptimes, his poor survivability, and difficulty in gaining np levels for him (for which i guess his recent np upgrade on jp is a start).

#man i wasn't expecting this to turn into an essay lmao guess i'll put it under a readmore #but the tl;dr is @dw give me more reasons to let kintoki off the leash once in a while #hakunonon vs the gacha

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hasmashdoneanythingwrong · 4 years

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Fan Servant: Playable Tiamat

This is the final version of my discussed Tiamat Fan Servant Idea. As such, several skills may be differently that previously imagined. Under a read more for length.

Class: Foreigner

Rarity: SSR (★★★★★)

Attack: Slightly Lower than Average

HP: High

Alignment: True Neutral (Returned to as she was pre-Beasthood through the events that led to her Foreigner Class, she now exists simply to create and mother. She fights for Chaldea simply because you fight things that would prevent her from doing that. Though that said, by Bond 5 she’s enamored with you and Chaldea as some of the best of her “descendants”)

Attribute: Beast (Tiamat was always meant to be a Beast, Shub-Niggurath’s power won’t change that.)

Deck Composition: AAQQB

Hit Counts: 4(A)/4(Q)/2(B)/7(E)

Star Absorption: 140 (Low for a Foreigner, to partially help others use them, but Arts crits certainly help her spam her NP so she still has a pretty decent Star Absorb rate)

Star Generation: 15%

NP Charge ATK: 0.7%

NP Charge DEF: 4% (Same as Kiara, another Beast turned Playable, and Kingprotea, her technically Moon Cell descendant)

Death Rate: 0.75% (She does still have the Concept of Death within her from Babylonia, but what power she has nicked off of Shub-Niggurath has enabled her to cling to life really well, as has a newly gained sense of thanatophobia.)

Gender: Female

Traits: Divine, Dragon, Large, Threat To Humanity, Weak to Enuma Elish. (Dragon and Large are still there even though she’s in her Femme Fatale form because A: If Summer BB can have the Large trait so can Tiamat, and B: Dragons are cool.)

Stats:

Strength: A++

Endurance: EX

Agility: C

Mana: EX

Luck: B

NP: E

Active Skills:

Independent Manifestation (Eldritch) B+: Remove all buffs from all enemies, remove all buffs and debuffs from the party except Tiamat, remove all debuffs from self. For every buff removed from allies apply an ATK Up Buff to all allies (20% per buff removed at Level 10) for 3 turns, for every debuff removed restore HP (1000 per debuff at Level 10) to all allies. 5 turn cooldown at Level 10.

Black Star’s Eyes A: Chance (125% base chance at Level 10) to apply random debuffs to the enemy when attacking for 3 turns (Apply one debuff per hit, random debuffs are as follows: ATK Down (-5%), DEF Down (-5%), Debuff Resistance Down (-10%), Quick Down (-5%), Arts Down (-5%), Buster Down (-5%), Poison (-250 HP per turn), Curse (-250 HP per turn), NP Damage Down (-15%), Critical Chance Down (10%), Critical Damage Down (10%). Debuffs last 5 turns). 5 turn cooldown at Level 10.

Sea of Mother’s Milk EX: Charges all allies NP gauge (120% at Level 10), Applies a NP Damage Up buff that cannot be removed once applied (it can be blocked however, +50% at Level 10) for 1 turn, 75% chance to apply Buster Up, Quick Up, and/or Arts Up (+120% each at Level 10, each buff’s chance calculated individually) to all allies for 3 turns, 25% chance to instead apply Buster Down, Quick Down, and/or Arts Down (99% each, only two can be a debuff (i.e. if Buster Down and Quick Down are applied, Arts Up must be applied) for 3 turns.) 7 turn cooldown at Level 10.

Passive Skills

Core of the Foreign Mother Goddess EX: Increases Debuff Resistance by 35%, increases all damage by 350, grants 3 Critical Stars per turn. (Normally this should be two skills, Core of the Goddess EX and Entity of the Outer Realm EX, but Shub-Nigguraths power synchronizes so well with Tiamats (that is, they are both Mother Goddesses) that the skills have not only fused, but had their effects enhanced)

Unlimited Mana Supply (Sea) B: Increase all allies NP gauge by 4% each turn. (Tiamat can make the Sea of Life surge to give energy even outside her Foreigner Form, but with Shub-Niggurath’s power as a Foreigner, mana flows out of the Sea and is easily absorbed.)

Territory Creation (False) D+: Increase own Arts performance by 5%. (Tiamat is using her Sea of Life to simulate the effects of Territory Creation)

Noble Phantasm

Nammu Duranki

Child, Abide the Laws of Creation

Rank: E

Classification: Anti-Life

Type: Arts

Hit Count: 3

Deal Damage to all enemies (+300% at Level 1, +500% at Level 5), removes buffs from all enemies (first hit removes them, meaning invincibility and dodge will still nullify the damage from the first hit), applies a two turn, five use Buff Block and a Buff Success Rate Down (debuff strength determined by NP Overcharge, 50% at 100% overcharge, 80% at 500% Overcharge) for 5 turns.

My Room Lines

(Tiamat speaks through the Powers of Shub-Niggurath, the Outer God making the impossible (Tiamat being in any way comprehensible to humans) possible. Tiamat uses plural first person when speaking, singular only used when she speaks of herself in the sense that her newfound power does not factor into her current thoughts.)

Summer BB: AAAAAA!? Him! The Black Goat has warned us of Him! Master, I know you to be a kind soul who would accept the help of any to save the Human Order... But you cannot honestly expect us to believe The Crawling Chaos is not whispering fell instruction into the head of that damnable false grandchild! ...He is very lucky you hold some measure of sway over his chosen emissary, otherwise we would have little reason not to end the threat they represent to all our children.

Kiara Sessyoin: Another of Us? We do not trust her. Though we comprehend more that we did as Beast, even we cannot see how one who consumes life for a pleasure that is very much a mere office to them should be allowed here. ...A vow? Very well, but know our eye is on you, little temptress.

Abigail Williams: That a child should be forced as we are... I am sorry, little one. Rest as you can, and know we shall ensure you make it to the end. I shall ensure it.

BB: Hm? That A.I., from a realm not our own. Does she believe we will let her continue to act as a nuisance? No. Creation of our children or not, we disown her. As she is no longer family, we expect proper respect shown towards us and Humanity proper next the sun arrives. Failure on her part shall be... unpleasant.

Minamoto-No-Raikou: Ah, we meet another mother! It is a joy to know her! ...Hm. Her personality and overbearing nature... Was that me in that forsaken time...? No. What is done is done. We cannot change that.

(any other ideas for servant reactions are appreciated. Kingprotea left off because I cant think of anything satisfying.)

#Fate #Fate Grand Order #FGO #Tiamat #Fan Servant

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ask-the-party-god · 3 years

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SIEG! His name was sieg, I just remembered. -HNK Anon

hi hnk anon! im using this second ask of yours because its shorter, and putting your other one under the readmore to answer more extensively! X)

Okay. So I just got through the prologue, and I have a few things to say.

1. I’ve only had mash kyrielight for a day and a half, but if anything happened to her I would kill everyone in this and then myself!

youre absolutely RIGHT shes such a good girl! i love her and she only gets better and better as the same goes on! speaking of ‘better’ as it goes on, the game starts kind of slow? okay, so- the company that started fgo unsupervised, and they were making a cash-grabby game with less effort than it deserved... around the fourth singularity, though, nasu, the owner of the ip, saw the state of the game, stepped in and went like “nope, youre making this good, or youre not making it, period”, so... yeah he stepped in, put quality standards, lowered the saint quartz cost, added third skills to a lot of lower-star servants that didnt have them, reworked some other servants... also every milestone they include a quality of life change! earlier this year they increased the saint quartz you got from daily missions, then a retroactive change to interludes that gave me like, 100 pieces of it all of sudden... its good, i actually really appreciate them for that X)

2. The leveling up is a bit confusing for me.

yeah, the levelling up is, gacha levelling up, it was a bit weird at first, buuuut:

there are a few different things with exp in the game! you have your mystic code (your clothes, which have special skills), and your master level, both of which increase by just, doing any quest at all! master level determines your ap point limit, how many friends you can have, how many servants and ces you can have in your team at a time, etc... the mystic code level increases the effectivity of your mystic codes skills

theres bond level! this is how ‘close’ you are with your servant, and you raise it by fighting with those servants in your team! levels 1 through 5 unlock new information about them and new flavor text while theyre in your room! levels 6 through 9 give you rewards, like extra saint quartz, apples, etc... and if you get to level 10, you get a specific craft essence! some are like, “as long as the servant has it equipped, everyone in the team gets a buster buff”, but theres specific effects like, heracles gets a stack of 3 guts- which is insaaaaane

theres craft essences! theyre basically ‘buffs’, and levelling them up gives you some extra hp or attack, but ultimately theyre proooobably the least like, necessary thing to level up? still, you get spare craft essences out the wazoo so you probably want to feed the ones with effects you use a lot... anything with default np charge is GREAT for example, as it lets you charge up nukes all that much easier

and finally we get to servants! so you have the normal servant level up, THIS is what youd consider the classic ‘rpg level up’, but instead of levelling them up by fighting, you need items! specially, embers... feeding a servant embers and other spare servants you dont want (low rarity, pls dont feed people gold servants-), you level them up! this is a basic increase of all stats, but theres a level LIMIT! once they reach the level limit, you can ‘ascend them’ to their next stage, usually accompanied with unlocking new skills, and new cool outfits! you can ascend them up to four times, and once theyre at max ascension and max level, you CAN technically feed them holy grails (palingenesis), to break that max level limit to eventually reach 100... this is mostly unnecessary? but if theres a lower-rarity servant you REALLY like, that can put them on par with 4-stars, for example, or giving them a well needed extra boost to hp and attack

finally you have np and skills! skills are just that, servant-specific abilities! evades, healing, debuffs, buffs... levelling up skills reduces their cooldown at level 6 and 10, and generally increases their effect! np level up needs you to have multiple copies of the same servant, you can boost their np to be more damaging or to give you stronger buffs, depending on what it is

so basically, fighting will increase your master and mystic code exp, and your bond level! to actually level up servants, you have to feed them embers (you can farm them in the chaldea gate quests, or simply get them from story missions and free rolls)! to ascend them or level up their skills, you need special materials, which can drop in some free quests in singularities, be sold/drop during events, or drop from other chaldea gate free quests! not all materials are available from the beginning, so i suggest just, going through the story and upgrading your characters as you can, rather than obsessively farming to get them super high up before continuing with it

3. What’s the deal with the unregistered spirit origin currency? Because they are blocking me from getting the servants I want. That leads me to—

oh yeah no, dont worry about that, you are never, ever EVER going to use that X) basically, if you get 5 copies of the SAME 5-star, that is, if you get them to np level 5, and you get a SIXTH copy, which, again... insane odds? you will be given an unregistered spirit origin currency! basically its the way the game has of saying “sorry you keep getting this same servant so much, here, you can CHOOSE which one you want instead”

basically, insurance so you can never get a useless extra 5-star after fully upgrading a previous version of them

you gotta roll the gacha to get servants! its random! there is NO ensuring which one you will get, you just gotta try! well- there ARE occasionally events, like, twice a year, where you get to PICK a free 4-star actually

4. There are currently six servants that I want, everyone else doesn’t matter at the moment. The first is mash (so that’s one down) the second is artotia, third is Jeanne d'ark. Fourth is Jeanne alter, and firth Lancelot! And sixth- I SAW A MAID ALTER WITH A SNIPER RIFLE- WHAT? THATS COOL/FUNNY AS SHIT! I WANT THAT! (Maybe astolfo and uhhh... what was his name with the gray hair, he’s a caster- but that’s for later, the ones I listed are top priority,

lets see, six servants you want! believe me, you WILL get attached to more, but...

mash is obviously in your possession!

artoria is always, by default, in the summoning pool! theres occasionally ‘rate up’ banners, which give certain characters more weight, but ultimately, every saint quartz roll you do always has a chance of summoning her... specially right now, the more of the game you complete, the more servants you will unlock in the summoning pool, so technically shes at her highest drop rate right now

same with jeanne, shes part of the default summoning pool

jeanne ALTER is limited though! she does not appear normally, she can only be summoned when shes on a rate-up banner! i am not sure if she will be on rate-up before this, but the next banner i know she will for SURE be in is in may! oh! but- if you dont get her, there IS a 4-star, summer version that will be FREE this next summer, if you complete the summer event!

i think lancelot is also in the default summon pool!

maid alter is the summer outfit version of artoria X) i am unsure when she is available again honestly :o we had her event rerun not that long ago, so she may not be available for a while...

astolfo is in the default summoning pool AND theyre going to get a 5-star version this next year i believe! so, double stolfo!

sieg is, the free servant you get for the apocrypha event! it happened earlier this year, so i think that means theres a rerun of it still pending! eventually though, they will add a thing where you can replay events you missed and get the free servants from them, so while ideally youd wanna be playing while the event is up, theres a contingency in case you missed someone you REALLY want!

5. Please tell me how the start system works- I’m very new to this and I wanna be invested. Please help-

-HNK Anon

i think thats pretty much all there is! you get saint quartz through the story, by doing interludes, bond-levelling servants, through rewards, etc, as well as summon tickets, and you use those to roll the gacha! free friend currency only gives 3-star and under servants, while saint quartz can give you pretty much anything

theres almost always a ‘banner’ up, which offers ‘rate-up’ servants! the normal summoning pool has all the default servants and the story-locked ones you have unlocked, but the rate-ups can bypass the locks entirely! some servants are limited, so if they seem cool in a banner, you may wanna try to roll!

even if you dont get the servants you want- and believe me... it WILL happen... you WILL get more and more and more cool servants so, dont worry about that X) also a lot of lower-rarity servants are actually really good and can be used for a lot of things, so if you have a favorite, do not be afraid to level them up!

but yeah thats kind of the loop? you do stuff, get sq... roll the gacha for characters you like, level them up, do events... i honestly play mostly for the story, the main story gets really good, and the events are all charming and nice, but id be lying if i said i didnt want some specific servants... most of which are alter egos-

yeah sorry im rambling X) just... ask me anything else you may need! :D

#party god #ask #fgo

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300iqprower · 2 years

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Hypothetical Rank Ups No. 29-32: Henry Jekyll & Hyde (Rework)

Disclaimer: Special thanks to all who gave me advice on this and especially @devowostation and @duelsoul for direct feedback since I knew very little about the character (or rather the fate version) going in or how they’re used in gameplay! Between a complete overhaul of effects and falling down the Fate/Prototype rabbit hole in general this is definitely the one that’s taken the longest thus far. I honestly went a bit overboard and this is borderline an SSR Prototype Alt rather than a rework of the 3 star FGO version, but ya know what Meta is evil and every unit deserves to be perfectly usable. If you want what a 3 star overhaul would actually look like you can probably just subtract all the upgrades that apply to the Hyde personality except the last one, but that’s more a retroactive thing because due to how bad he currently is it was pretty hard to draw a line when it came to improving him. But it’s not like this series by now hasn’t already shifted more towards “what if every servant was good” than simply fixing the issues present. Rambling done, now without further ado!

Passive: Powerless Shell EX (Jekyll only).

Increase your Critical Chance Resist by 15%. Increase your Critical Star Drop Rate by 15%. Decrease target focus by 15%.

Something new to start, a passive that the game should be ashamed for not making use of since it’s too RNG to actually be unbalanced and covers a lot of bases while being completely lore friendly. In not just Prototype but FGO as well Jekyll is explicitly a phantom spirit so weak he passes for a normal human to the point of possessing A rank Presence Concealment which is why he’s an assassin in FGO. Powerless Shell is supposedly “ineffectual” in fgo but on top of the story itself showing that’s a lie with Jekyll pulling one over others through that ability, in gameplay HeFakestion now disproves that entirely by having her Camouflage passive translate to the effects of critical resist and increased star drop rate; that’s why on top of those I’m giving Jekyll a small inherently lower chance of being prioritized (and the game IS coded to prioritize certain units so this isn’t actually introducing a new mechanic it’s simply being more transparent about it). The crit star drop stacking with PC is much needed since Jekyll has terrible star gen due to abysmal early game hit counts, and the crit resist is small but alongside the lower targeting rate and a couple survival tools planned it all adds up to fit the idea of Jekyll skulking about until he can build up to Hyde who of course doesn’t have this ability at all.

Monstrous Strength B (Jekyll & Hyde) -> Grotesque Humanity EX

Increase own ATK (3 turns). As Jekyll, apply [Tincture of Evil] to self (1 turn) As Hyde, further increase own ATK (3 turns) and Increase own Buster Card Star Gather Rate (3 turns). - Tincture of Evil: When an enemy is defeated, increase own NP Gauge.[50%-100%]

Yeah that’s right massive battery on Jekyll. it’s actually a pretty fair trade off. In exchange for a chance at instant Hyde you’re sacrificing Hyde’s main stim since you lose out on 70% of his attack up buff and a very powerful buster crit gather that as you’ll see would be invaluable in any situation without an overflow of stars. Furthermore that battery is only easily available in random fights since almost all REAL fights are against 1 enemy and those that aren’t have break bars/hundreds of thousands of HP across all enemies. The numbers themselves, for any of these abilities actually, didn't need changing both scaling and cooldown wise since J&H’s issue was the fundamentals and lack of utility rather than the effects they already had, like a far worse example of what was outlined with Frankenstein before. Now for the fun part: the flavor. The effects are self explanatory, Buster Gather for Hyde’s brutality he embodies and the gain for how as death and sin surrounds Jekyll it draws out Hyde, but it’s the names I had the most fun with. Tincture of Evil is obviously his potion, a tincture being an extract for drinking or medical purpose. It’s a double play as well based on its other definition of a stain or trace of something, as it also refers to the how no matter how separate Jekyll is from Hyde, they are the same and there will always be a trace of Hyde. I had several options for a skill name by the end of a very long time coming up with them and ended up deferring to a friend who picked this one, Grotesque Humanity, which refers in a more straightforward sense to the fact that Hyde is all the worst things of humanity to the point of becoming an inhuman monster, something like taking elements opposite the Innocent Monster and Natural Demon abilities of FGO. The more deep seated meaning comes from the literary and artisitc idea of the Grotesque, a physical caricature of humanity that the actual novel “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” is believed to be somewhat rooted in, after all the entire idea is a side you empathize with and a side you are disgusted by.

Panicky Voice A -> Manic Cadence A

Increase own Stun Success Rate (1 time). As Jekyll, Apply Target Focus to all other allies (1 turn) As Hyde, further increase own Stun Success Rate (1 time) and if stun is successful gain Critical Stars. 10% Chance to inflict Stun on a single enemy (1 turn).

As funny as the idea of Hyde also having the same skill name of “Panicky Voice” is, yeah that was the first change. Stun is left alone as well because the entire point is that as Jekyll you really shouldn’t rely on it and as Hyde it’s basically guaranteed, since at max rank it easily eclipses any servant's natural debuff resistance even factoring in passives. That said, it IS going to be a near guaranteed safeguard for Jekyll specifically now by doing that Odysseus reverse scapegoat thing to himself for 1 turn, meaning even if the stun doesn’t land he wont be damaged by non-aoe attacks. As Hyde this, like the last skill, becomes a much more straightforward offensive buff. I’ll reiterate the reason is because you have to remember, as Hyde all these skills are already actually quite good. Flavor wise this adds to Jekyll’s ‘heart weakening’ effect the simple function of doubling as a cry for help, while as Hyde the name change is a manifestation of Hyde’s violently unpredictable combat style. Through his ‘method to madness’ type movements, which can demonstrably outpace and outmaneuver even top tiers like Brynhildr, he can function as if possessing a pseudo-intuition.

Self Modification D -> Self Modification (Elixir) D+

Increase own Critical Strength (3 turns). As Jekyll, increase own NP Gauge. [10% -> 30%] As Hyde, further increase own Critical Strength (3 turns) and apply 1HP Guts to self (Revive with 1 HP. Stacks with other Guts, triggers first) (1 time, 3 turns).

Simplest both effect and flavor wise. Taking the elixir obviously accelerates the Hyde transformation, but taking it as Hyde draws out the lycan form with its “Restructuring” ability that allows him to survive even multiple Noble Phantasms. Due to the distortion to his spirit origin, however, its effect is greatly reduced, and due to the imperfect nature of the elixir that became more contaminated with each use, the skill’s rank is actually quite low. The guts does, however, stack meaning it can be mixed with guts support (or far less ideally CEs), and the battery for Jekyll is still enough to cross some important thresholds.

AND NOW, THE BIG ONE.

The Most Dangerous Game C+ -> The Most Dangerous Game C+ (Jekyll)

Swap your personality (Change into Hyde, Class change to Berserker). Increase your Max HP. [Unremovable]^ Fully restore your HP. <Overcharge> Increase your Buster Card effectiveness. [Unremovable]^

The Most Dangerous Game C+ -> Seventh Circle EX (Hyde)

Apply Buster Brave Chain effect to self and change all Command Cards to [Buster] Cards (1 turn). Apply Debuff Immune to self (3 times) Apply Ignore DEF to self (1 turn). Increase NP Gauge when using Buster normal attack cards (4 turns). Apply Delayed Buff to self. - After 1 turn, swap your personality to Jekyll, apply Evade to self (2 times, 3 turns), lose all unremovable buffs, and decrease max HP by 3000 for 3 turns. [Demerit] <Overcharge> Increase own Buster Card Effectiveness (1 turn).

LYCANTHROPE HYDE TIME, with some obvious Super Orion influence on the skillset. Most important to start, an animation update: When Hyde uses his NP (which obviously was the first change I made, giving him a freaking NP) he gets an Angry Mango-like NP form for the rest of the turn with exactly 3 new attack animations that consist of a basic attack, a followup attack, and a unique pesudo-NP animation 14 hit Extra Attack. The only change for Jekyll, by the way, is to make Hyde’s inherent buffs unremovable at the cost of Hyde’s NP removing those unremovable buffs (look there’s not really a better way to word it and Ignore ignore invincible is a real thing so nyeh). So moving onto why those unique attacks, the gist of Hyde’s NP is to save it for when he has 2 command cards available, ideally 2 buster ones but any will do, and to use his NP like Super Orion’s as the start of a super buffed chain; to put it another way this massive setup turns Hyde into a unit who can deal Super Orion levels of single target damage at the cost of being a far more long term setup for an IMMENSE one turn bust, whereas Super Orion is the opposite as he only needs 2 of his skills to burst and his his NP is mainly for extending the amount of time he can output that damage. Flavor wise, of course, they’re not similar at all. In Prototype Hyde is shown to have a completely different skillset as a lycan that focuses on close quarters combat by matching brain and brutality with sheer endurance. In FGO however even if Hyde could achieve this form it would be incredibly short lived and act as a burst of strength rather than a method of survival. To match this I gave him a full turn of Ignore Defense as well as multiple Debuff Immune charges, a massive buster buff, and a unique effect that can retroactively change all his cards to Buster AND apply the Buster Brave Chain power boost regardless of what cards were picked, though it will still only have the Extra attack if it was all Hyde cards as per usual. Furthermore the crit stars will not reset after picking the cards and Hyde’s gather is restricted to his Buster cards, so there’s still merit to trying to line up Hyde’s buster cards specifically unless there is an overflow given while not as bad a normal berserker, Hyde’s assassin rate base gather is not powerful enough to mitigate RNG like an Archer or Rider. Hyde’s “Love of the ‘Game’” if you will manifests through NP Gain on Buster hit, not dissimilar to a certain bloodthirsty chihuahua, and lasts for several turns meaning it can facilitate another transformation after reverting to Jekyll at the end of the turn. Doing so will, however, leave Jekyll is a semi-vulnerable state. He’ll lose his HP and Buster Hyde buffs and further lose max HP as he recuperates, but he will retain the Debuff immunities and gain a 2 hit evade as he falls back into his undetectable Powerless Shell.

As for the name, because I am disproportionately proud of it, it’s a threefold reference. Hyde did not have a proper name for any special attack as Heracles does with Nine Lives (which is what I mentally base that 14 hit attack off of, 7 with each claw) so I went with a reference to Dante’s Inferno. There is of course the 7 Deadly Sins of man, which Dante refers to as the 7 Terraces or Purgatorio, but more famously known are the Nine Circles of Hell which are based on active rejection of redeeming oneself from those sins, and the 7th circle in particular is Violence. Specifically, it refers to three kinds of violence: Violence against Neighbors, Violence against the Self, and Violence against Nature/God/Art. Hyde committed all three; obviously he committed murder, but the potion he used was an abomination against nature by trying to reshape his own humanity for the sake of committing sin without remorse, and the story ends with Jekyll taking his own life for fear of Hyde taking permanent control.

EXHALE. Got all that? to TLDR: Hyde now has an NP designed for a Super Orion style Single Target Burst turn, and rather than buff the pre-existing aspects of his kit I focused on making it more of an actual decision on whether or not you should save his skills for Hyde by giving Jekyll utility that accelerates his transformation into Hyde or increases his survival, and giving Hyde effects that make his output more consistent rather than explicitly stronger due to the nature of his inherently powerful [now] unremovable buffs.

#fgo #Fate Grand Order #Fgo hyde #fate henry jekyll #Henry Jekyll & Hyde #fgo meta #hypothetical rank ups #wall of text #long post #artist: neko0805 #artist: kaiyo15 #why is there only 1 art of Lycan Hyde out there and one that doesnt fit the aesthetic i was going for damnit #seriously massive thanks to those who helped

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spidersmiceandeverythingnice · 4 years

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Been sitting on this for awhile, I think it still needs some polishing and I haven’t settled on my design ideas yet (I need to pick a face-claim/potential VA/figure out some armor references if I want to draw him) but ya know what I think we need? Some more Greek heroes. I love me some Greek heroes. Here’s a Memnon profile for ya:

MEMNON PROFILE

Rider (B/AAA/Q)

Origin: Greek Mythology / Africa

Brynhildr’s Beloved / Sky / Lawful Good / Greek Mythology Male

Passive Skills:

Divinity B

Affection of the Goddess

Riding B

Active Skills:

General’s Honor – Increases party’s attack, star generation, and NP damage (three turns).

- When introduced to King Priam, the leader of Troy loudly proclaimed that Memnon will be their savior. Memnon merely smiled, and said that his strength would be obvious on the battlefield, but it would be impolite to boast at dinner. A mighty general who was admired by all his men and feared by all his enemies.

Affection of the Divine (A) – Grants guts to self (one time, five turns), raises attack and defense and apply ignore invincible (three turns).

- Raised by nymphs at the shores of Okeanos, doted on by his divine mother, admired by Zeus and Hephaestus for his combat prowess. Rarely has a man ever walked the Earth who has been so blessed.

Proof of Immortality (B) – Charges NP gauge (20-50 percent), gains critical stars (10-30), gain de-buff immunity (one time, three turns).

- Though his story is lost, the mark of his legend is felt across the world. It is said that his blood gathered in a river upon his death, and every year on the anniversary of his slaying, the river smells of blood. Memnon, unlike Achilles, does not draw power when he is present in his homeland, as his tale is lost to history. However, he can draw on this power instead, a manifestation of proof that he lived and was considered a hero.

Noble Phantasm: Chariot of the Rising Dawn. (Buster). Chance to inflict burn (apples to all enemies), deal heavy damage to a single enemy. Apply Burning Field to the surroundings after taking effect.

- Invokes the protection and power of his mother, Eos, the primordial dawn goddess. Memnon has access to her chariot, which is pulled by two horses, Firebright and Daybright. Setting a trail of fire and sparks, he charges towards the enemy, leaving chaos in his wake.

- Because Memnon prefers single combat and dueling, this works as a Single Target Noble Phantasm. The burn, however, is applied to all targets.

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Introduction: The hero always arrives at the last minute… or, so they say. I am Rider, Memnon. Please allow me to serve as your defender.

Profile One: The rival of Achilles, who was summoned from Aethiopia after Hektor’s death to participate in the defense of Troy. The son of a primordial dawn goddess, a humble and great leader who inspired countless men. His tale is lost to history with all but a few fragments remaining, so much of his life is a mystery.

Line One: If you wish to rest, please do so mindfully. The battle will begin again when the sun rises.

Line Two: The relationship of a Master and a Servant is simple enough to understand. I was a general, so the chain of command is nothing new.

Line Three: You are still young. Please allow me to advise you in combat. If necessary, I shall take the lead myself. Leave everything to me.

Likes: Hmm… I suppose my hobbies are making music and gardening. Why, is that strange? I was raised by nymphs, you know.

Dislikes: Things that I hate… I’d have to think about it. I’m sure that there are things I dislike but nothing comes immediately to mind.

Holy Grail: A wish-granting device is certainly interesting. Would it be selfish to…? Never mind. I’ll have to think about what I could wish for.

Event: A new battle begins. Remember your obligations!

Birthday: The day of your birth is cause for celebration. May the gods bless you on this day/

Character Interactions:

Penthesilea: Ah, the Queen of the Amazons. It was a great honor to serve alongside her. Her prowess in battle is like none I’d ever seen. She’s really amazing. You know, she used to wear a decorated helmet that obscured her face… well, when it came off in the middle of combat, Achilles stopped what he was doing and just stood there! She nearly took off his head! Can you imagine, the great Achean, standing there looking like…? [clears throat] I mean, of course, I’m glad I got to witness such a glorious exchange. A battle between two warriors of that caliber is a rare thing.

Hektor: Hektor. It is a shame that we never met in life! I’m honored to be fight alongside – oh, no thank you. I don’t smoke.

Paris: … I’m a bit worried. They say Apollo is a great god, but this is…

Artemis: Ah, the goddess of the moon! My mother spoke of you often. I am truly blessed to meet you. Strangely… you remind me of… Oh, never mind.

Achilles: Yes, I remember him quite well. I don’t have any grudges. Zeus blessed our battle, and it was an exhilarating fight. I’m honored to have been able to cross blades with someone like him. Though… I do wonder if it’s alright to speak to him. I suppose, in his position, it’s possible… Perhaps if I offered to duel him once again, he would forgive me! Yes, I shall do that.

Queen of Sheba: I have traveled through many lands, but there is something about you that is familiar. Please tell me more about your kingdom – I would like to hear of it, even though we were not alive in the same era. Hmm? What do you mean, knowledge costs extra? Is this some kind of border tax?

Iskandar: You want to hear about Okeanos? I’m happy to tell you - but I’m afraid it’s not very exciting. I was raised there, you see, so a lot of my stories involve me doing chores and... oh? You still want to know? Very well.

Scheherazade: A woman who collects stories. I wonder... Hmm? Oh, it’s nothing. Never mind.

Nordic Heroes: They seem to be looking at me. I wonder – do they know something about me that I don’t? Is there something on my face?”

Profile Two / Bond One: “Are you comfortable? How may I assist you?”

The story goes that after Hektor’s death, King Priam of Troy summoned an army from a distant land. Alongside the Queen of the Amazons, Penthesilea, Memnon sailed to Troy from Aethiopia, to defend the besieged city from the wrath of Achilles.

Profile Three / Bond Two: “A lost hero, you say…? Well, it can’t be helped. “

Where Hektor was Achilles’s great enemy, it’s more accurate to say that Memnon was his rival. Memnon was also the son of a goddess, and had many powers that made him equal Achilles in combat. The Greeks feared him and his army. However…

Profile Four / Bond Three: “Yes, my mother is the goddess of the dawn. I even had relatives in the royal family at Troy, but I was raised by the Hesperides on the shores of Okeanos. Yes, it’s a real place. I’m serious. Perhaps one day, you will be able to reach it.”

Zeus was impressed by Achilles’s strength, but also favored Memnon. It is said that he blessed their battle, making them tireless, and the god of the forge, Hephaestus, had also given both of the heroes indestructible armor.

The written text of this story is lost, except for all but a few sentence fragments. The glorious final battle of Troy faded into myth, and then nothingness. Though many writers carried on describing Memnon’s legacy and fame, his shining hour was eclipsed by time.

Profile Five / Bond Four: “I was given many blessings from the gods. I would not say I have any regrets about how I lived my life. After all, if there is even one person who remembers that I lived…”

After the death of Achilles’s most beloved partner, Patroclus, the hero was inconsolable, and it seemed that he would lose the will to fight. However, Antilochos - the youth who cared for his horses and occasionally helped Achilles steer his chariot in combat - cheered him up and convinced him to continue living. Later, during a battle, Memnon struck Antilochos down, forcing the hero of the Acheans to grieve yet another loved one.

Profile Six / Bond Five: “I would like to tell you a story. It’s a great tale about a man who travels the world from end to end. Would you care for tea? It’s a bit long, so we may be here for awhile.”

Not long after Memnon’s death, the Trojan War ended, and a new tale began. It’s said that his mother wept inconsolably at her son’s death, and so Zeus granted Memnon immortality.

The ancient world of Northern Africa was said to have many statues of Memnon, marking the places where he had stayed or traveled to. These too are now lost.

However, despite all odds, the enduring soul of Memnon remains alive in human memory. It is for this reason that he can be called from the Throne of Heroes.

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Personal Notes:

He’s BAAAQ with a single target buster because I wanted him to stand out from other Five Star Riders, basically, and the weird mechanic thing with burns is just something I think would be Neat because again I have no clue how a lot of the funky mini-mechanical technic-stuff works in FGO even after a year of playing. But like, if Space Ishtar can change her NP Card-type, then Memnon can have a single target NP that de-buffs all enemies.

So basically, he’s one of Penthesilea’s allies/an ally of Troy. He and Penth terrify the Greeks, at first Achilles is distracted by the hot new Amazon and his cute new rebound boy (I’m not a fan of Antilochos just like, on principle because this is a Patrolcus stanning household, but oh well), but then he eventually gets his act together and while he defeats Penth, Memnon winds up killing Antilochos. This leads Achilles to going on another rampage, and slays Memnon in the process. And after this, Paris (a known fool and idiot) finally asks Apollo for help in killing Achilles, leading to the end of the Trojan war.

There seems to be sources about Memnon that show he was well-known in the ancient world as a mythological figure (writers such as Herodotus reference him in their works/tales about Africa and he was probably memorialized in statues in various temples) but the primary text (the lost epic detailing the end of the Trojan War: Aethiopis) is basically gone. Which is a shame, because he’s a fascinating character - a true foil to Achilles in almost every way.

So basically, IT’S FREE REAL ESTATE.

Obviously because I’ve been deep in Achilles Loving Hell, I’ve been deep-diving into the lore, and even though there isn’t a lot to go on, the things I do find are rich and juicy. I imagine Memnon to be a bit older and wiser than Achilles (probably has a beard tbh, but not like a bushy beard) and a bit more relaxed. The guy was raised by nymphs and was basically nice to everyone, so it seemed. Memnon is not the type to go berserk in combat, but he also doesn’t hold back when it comes to beating your ass. There’s a sweet spot between Hektor “I Suppress All Emotions and Only Strategize” style of fighting and Achilles “I Am Strong and Fast and Have a Lot of Feelings so Fuck You” style of fighting, and Memnon is probably riiiight in there, crunching on some golden apples that his mom gave him for a snack.

(There’s also apparently a weird and funky piece of very obscure and maybe fake lore which states that Memnon might related by blood to Thor, which idk how true that is but I think it’d be hilarious to include.)

#fate grand order #fgo #servant profile #memnon #fate series #rider of red

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novaeagle · 4 years

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Death has graced you with his presence

I can’t photoshop the Trust Picture but I really wanted to make one of these ;-;

Selection: “Let our enemies tremble at our footsteps.”

Casimir is a very aggressive, but wise Tank. He is fiercely protective of the Healer, and trusts the DPS to do the Mechanics of a boss fight he can’t do while he clears a path for them.

Weapons: Shivas Diamond Breaker

Passives: Casimirs Tank stance is called “God-like Aura”, and can sometimes be seen when doing big pulls as a small aura of ice around him. “VoidStalker” is a passive buff to allies damage when fighting Voidsent beings by 25%, and a buff of 10% when dealing with other Aetherical enemies like Lightwardens or magically created beasts. “True Memory” gives the party a shield negating 25% of all damage for 30 seconds when an ally goes down and stacks for multiple deaths.

AI Behavior:

Casimir will always ensure his party is ready to go, and focuses on keeping his healer alive. If the Healer is a PC, Casimir will start out pulling slow, but will gradually pull bigger and bigger as the dungeon progresses. If the Healer is Urianger or the Exarch, Casimir will pull as big as he can, trusting the two to keep up. When pulling into a boss fight, Casimir always keeps an eye on the Healer, and will only pull when their MP is at full capacity. While idle, he’ll either cross his arms and stare at the next ad/boss, or pull out his icicle blade and lean on it. Once the Healers MP is full, he’ll glance at them once then attack.

If during a big pull, he begins loosing agro to the Healer or the DPS, he’ll immediately disengage whichever enemy he was attacking and launch Unmend at the target. He uses GCD AOE attacks a lot at the start of big pulls, and will usually cast a few Quietus attacks to ensure max AOE Damage output and Agro gain. He will then focus on the ad doing the most damage, Reprising it and beginning to attack it. He’s very aggressive, and very risky, staying within AOE’s and shielding himself with Dark Mind to negate the damage and receive the Blood Weapon buff.

Casimirs Souleater Combo is replaced with a four-hit sword skill combo. The first being a cone slash attack, the second places a Vulnerability on the single target until the end of the combo, the third regens MP and the fourth regens HP. The attacks are also very showy, usually being wielded as if the blade weighed less than usual with lots of stabs and feints. His drawn weapon running style is also different, he holds it backwards down by his side, almost akin to how a Samurai has his Katana.

Casimirs has multiple different Shades, but is only able to call them out at certain times and only one at a time. “Compassion” takes the form of an Au ra female, and is called out near the beginning of Dungeons and with medium pulls and most bosses. Casimirs AI is very friendly to this Shade, sometimes seen blowing it kisses if it is still out after a fight. “Ferocity” takes the form of a female Miqo’te, and is called out when fighting sea based ads or sea based dungeons. “Ferocity” can also appear when fighting Voidsent beings, and Casimirs attitude towards it is almost fatherly, shouting words of encouragement and waving to it after a fight. “Intimidation” takes the form of a Giant Highlander, and is taken out in desperate situations. “Intimidation” can only be summoned when “True Memory” is active, and lasts for about a minute. This Shade is different from the rest as it follows Casimir around, staying by his side and attacking the ad that is doing second most damage to him, and even taking hits for him as well. No other Shade is able to take hits or Agro from Casimir except “Intimidation”. “Desperation” is very rare, and takes the form of a tall, skinny Elezen. This Shade will follow the Healer around, and gives a buff to its Healing abilities and MP regeneration. “Desperation” is summoned usually after “Intimidation”, and can only be summoned if it is Casimir and the Healer. If Casimir goes down while “Desperation” is summoned, he is instantly Revived next to the Shade with no debuffs and full health. After reviving Casimir, “Desperation” will immediately leave.

Casimir uses his Shields and Cooldowns wisely, casting Dark Mind as much as he can during pulls, and waiting for a Tank Buster with Bosses. Reprisal is also used as much as possible in big pulls, and only before a room wide attack or Tank Buster with Bosses. Casimir will also almost never cast LB, and will usually call out to a Melee DPS to cast the LB.

Battle Lines:

“You are weak!” -Usually said when casting Reprisal, or when facing against Voidsent beings.

“Life is pain, consider this my only mercy” -Usually said after killing an enemy.

“Had me worried there for a second, Doc!”/”You never cease to amaze me with your healing skills...” -Said when his health drops below 10K during a fight, and he doesn’t have to pop Living Dead.

“I DIE ONLY WHEN THE GODS WILL IT!” -Yelled when he casts Living Dead.

“Why are you running? WHY are you RUNNING?!” / “GET BACK HERE!” / “Don’t touch them!” / I am your ONLY enemy here, not them!” -Said when chasing down an enemy that he’s lost agro to.

Death:

“Valhalla awaits me....”

“Father... were you proud of me?....”

“Finally... I can rest...”

Revival:

“Ah... back again I see.”

“The Light lives in ALL things...”

“DAMNIT! Again?!”

“Forgive me my love, I was careless.” -Said when revived by “Desperation”.

Ally Death:

“YOU’LL PAY FOR THAT!!”

“Forgive me friend... I was not able to protect you...”

“NO! I won’t loose anyone else!”

“I am... Desperate...” / “I won’t let them hurt you!”-Summoning “Desperation”.

LB:

“You will not hurt my friends!” -All LB.

Victory:

“Let them hear this in Valhalla, and rejoice in the sacrifice we have given!”

“Damn... not a bad start to your Cairn, eh?” / “Haha! A glorious fight and a glorious fighter by my side to share it with!” -To PC DPS.

“We couldn’t have done it without you!” / “I won’t forget what you’ve done for me.” -To PC Healer

“Let the Bards sing our names in praise, and our enemies wail our names with fear!”

“You think the Tavern will give us free drinks for this?...”

Others:

Casimir is very friendly towards most of the Scions. If Y’Shtola is with him, he will flirt with her a lot during fights, and compliment her clothes or hair at the beginning of the dungeon. During lulls in the battle, he’ll also throw out some corny pickup lines about battle. Casimir will talk to Y’Shtola the most out of all the others. If Alisaie or Alphinaud is with him, he will call out encouragement, and compliment them after fights. With Alisaie he throws out lots of uplifting statements, usually saying he’s glad to have her with him, or that he couldn’t think of any other Red Mage he’d rather have by his side. With Alphiaud, he does much the same, but in a teasing manner, usually along the lines of a Politician or Scholar knowing how to fight. With Ryne he’s fatherly as well, but mentions Thancred in a good light a lot and stating how he had taught her well. Urianger gets a lot of Star related jokes, and before the start Casimir will usually ask him how the stars align for this dungeon. There’s a rare death voice line where he asks Urianger to create a new constellation of him. The Exarch gets flirted with a lot, but most of it is teasing... or so the Exarch hopes. Before battles, Casimir will pose before the Exarch, or blow him kisses and laugh.

#TRUST MEME #Casimir Moreau #CASIMIR #FFXIV OC #FFXIV RP #FINAL FANTASY XIV ROLEPLAY #FINAL FANTASY XIV OC #FINAL FANTASY ROLEPLAY #final fantasy oc #FFXIV DRK #FFXIV TRUST #TRUST

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freyayuki · 10 months

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Fate/Grand Order Avalon le Fae Morgan Pickup Summon Banner

The Part 2 Chapter 6 "Lostbelt No.6: Fae Round Table Domain, Avalon le Fae - The Moment a Planet Is Born" (Act I) was just released in the Fate/Grand Order (FGO) mobile game.

This came with the Avalon le Fae Morgan Pickup Summon banner, which features the following Servants:

5-star SSR Berserker Morgan (#ad)

4-star SR Archer Tam Lin Tristan

4-star SR Saber Tam Lin Gawain

3-star R Caster Cú Chulainn

Tam Lin vs Fairy Knights vs Fae Knights

Was surprised when I saw that the 4-stars featured in the Avalon le Fae Morgan Pickup Summon banner had “Tam Lin” as part of their name.

Never heard them being called that before. It was always either Fairy Knights or Fae Knights or Barghest for Gawain and Baobhan Sith for Tristan.

Haven’t played through Lostbelt 6 yet so maybe Tam Lin will be explained there but for now, I prefer either Fairy Knights or Fae Knights, partly because it seems to have a nicer ring to it and partly because I guess I got used to Barghest and Baobhan Sith being referred to as such.

Thoughts about Caster Cú Chulainn

Caster Cú Chulainn is a story-locked 3-star Servant. Already have a copy of him and mine is actually at Noble Phantasm (NP) level 3.

My Caster Cú is at max level but I never leveled any of his skills. Can’t recall ever using him because if I need a DPS Caster, I either just borrow one from a friend support or bring one or more of my other Casters or even Alter Egos instead.

However, I heard something about how Caster Cú will get some buff or upgrade or something that will make him pretty good.

Don’t really know much about it, and not really interested enough to bother looking it up, so just waiting for this rework or whatever to drop in the Global or English version of the game to find out more.

Don’t mind getting more copies of Cú, of course, but he’s not really my priority in the Avalon le Fae banner.

Thoughts about Morgan, Fairy Knight Tristan, and Fairy Knight Gawain

Been hearing a lot about Morgan since she first appeared in the Japanese version of Fate/Grand Order. Even read somewhere that she’s one of the Servants that most players have Grailed to level 120.

Apparently, she’s really good and can work in different comps. For instance, she can be paired with 2 copies of 5-star SSR Assassin Koyanskaya of the Light to Buster loop. And adding 1 copy of 5-star SSR Pretender Oberon will help to further increase her damage output.

Well, there are others who are saying that Morgan’s damage is on the weak side and she needs more investment such as by having more NP levels to deal with enemies who have higher HP.

Since I haven’t read through Lostbelt 6 yet, don’t know anything about Morgan other than the fact that she’s apparently a queen. Haven’t felt the need to look around for any Lostbelt 6 spoilers since I haven’t even finished playing through Part 2 Chapter 5 "Lostbelt No.5: Interstellar Mountainous City, Olympus - The Day to Bring Down Gods" yet.

But I did take a quick look at Morgan’s skills and her Ascension art and such. Her skills seem pretty good. She even gets a 50% NP gauge charge like 5-star SSR Avenger Space Ishtar.

Also ended up liking her design so was interested in rolling for her. Besides, was also interested in trying out the Buster looping system so I wanted to roll for her, Koyanskaya of the Light, and Oberon.

As for Tam Lin Gawain and Tam Lin Tristan - don’t know anything about them either. Most of the talk and hype are all about chars like Morgan, Koyanskaya, and Oberon.

Never bothered to look up the skills of the Fairy Knights. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen all of their Ascension art at one point but that seems so long ago that I can’t remember them anymore.

Just based on the first Ascension art of the Fairy Knights that can be seen in the in-game news, I prefer the design of Tam Lin Tristan. But I guess Tam Lin Gawain seems okay enough as well.

And just based on the short bit of info the in-game news says about these 2, it seems that Tam Lin Gawain has a nicer personality when compared to Tam Lin Tristan. At the very least, the former isn’t being referred to as “selfish, capricious, cruel” and “just the worst”. She’s apparently the “epitome of violence” though so maybe neither are all that good.

Guess I’ll find out more about these 2 and Morgan when I finally get to play through Lostbelt 6.

Anyway, hoping to get multiple copies of Morgan and maybe even 1 or 2 copies of the Fairy Knights plus 2 more copies of Caster Cú Chulainn so I can get him to NP5 already.

Also hoping that I can get at least 1 or 2 copies of the 5-star SSR Craft Essence (CE) The Black Grail. My copy of this CE is stuck at Level 60 of 60. Need 2 more copies in order to be able to fully MLB this CE.

Fate/Grand Order Guaranteed Summon Function

In short, this so-called pity system sucks. Don’t know if I even have 900 Saint Quartz. Currently, have 216 SQ on hand. But I have more in my present box and in the form of SQ fragments. Also have some as rewards from clearing permanent missions and such. Didn’t collect any of these SQ yet so I wouldn’t be tempted to spend them.

Fate/Grand Order Pulling Plans

As mentioned, wanted to roll for Morgan, Koyanskaya, and Oberon. And, assuming I even have some more SQ left, was also interested in pulling for 4-star SR Archer, Anastasia & Viy. Well, there are more Servants who I want to pull for, so just listed the ones who are coming really soon.

Morgan has a lot of rerun banners. She’ll actually show up again pretty soon after the Avalon le Fae Morgan Pickup Summon banner. In contrast to that, Oberon’s rerun won’t be for like another year or something so the best thing to do was to prioritize pulling for him.

Besides, Oberon and Koyanskaya are both meta supports like 5-star SSR Caster Altria or Artoria or Castoria. Koyanskaya buffs Buster cards and NPs similar to how Castoria buffs Arts.

Oberon buffs Buster too but aside from that, he can buff NP damage which all DPS Servants can benefit from. These supports can also charge the NP gauge of their allies which helps with looping or 3-turning fights.

Avalon le Fae Morgan Pickup Summon Banner Pulls Results

In short, I should just skip the Avalon le Fae Morgan Pickup Summon banner since Morgan’s getting a rerun soon anyway.

But I ended up pulling on said banner. Maybe it’s just because it’s been a long time since I last pulled using SQ, and I guess I kinda felt like pulling now instead of having to wait some more for Oberon’s and Koyanskaya’s arrival.

Can’t remember the last time I used SQ on a banner. I think it was when I pulled for Space Ishtar. I talk more about that in this post. After that banner, pretty sure I started saving in preparation for the arrival of Morgan and the other Servants who I'm hoping to get.

I should be saving my Summoning Tickets as well but I ended up using these on some banners. Like, just recently, I remember throwing 10 tickets (IIRC) on the 5-star SSR Rider Medb banner and even the 5-star SSR Berserker Vlad III banner. Unfortunately, failed to get either of them.

Anyway, here are the results of my pulls on the Avalon le Fae Morgan Pickup Summon banner:

I told myself that I’ll only do a couple of multis for Morgan. Don’t want to spend all my SQ on this banner since I still want to be able to pull for Oberon and Koyanskaya and even Anastasia & Viy.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to get at least 1 copy of Morgan soon. Then, if I want more copies, I can just try rolling for her again on any or even all of her rerun banners.

Anyway, not gonna bother to list every single Craft Essence or Servant that I get, especially not if they’re only of 3-star rarity.

Already have all of the 3-star Servants at NP5 unless they’re story-locked. Also pretty sure I already have all of the 3-star CEs unless they’re new and have just been added to the game recently.

So I started with a multi-draw. To my surprise, a gold Saber card actually showed up.

This turned into my first copy of 4-star SR Saber Tam Lin Gawain.

Always pleased to see a new Servant, of course, and at least I actually got something good in my first pull.

But also couldn’t help thinking, welp, it’s like the game somehow knows that Morgan is who I really want to get and that, design-wise, I prefer Tam Lin Tristan over Tam Lin Gawain, so of course, FGO gives me the Saber. LOL.

Ah, well. At least she’s new. Also got 2 4-star Craft Essences from this draw but neither were of use to me since they were both dupes. One of these CEs was the Art of Death, and my copy of this is already fully MLB.

Currently have 5 Summoning Tickets on hand so decided to use these now. When I ran out of Tickets, used SQ until I was able to get the 1 Bonus Summon.

Didn’t really get anything of note from these single pulls so went back to doing multi-draws.

To my surprise, my next multi-draw gave me a gold Saber card again. Welp, totally wasn’t expecting that at all.

The gold Saber card turned into my second copy of Tam Lin Gawain. So she’s NP2 now, assuming I decide to fuse the copies together.

My next multi-draw only gave me dupes of 2 4-star CEs. Meh. Would have preferred to get a third Tam Lin Gawain instead.

Got another gold Saber as well as 2 more 4-star CE dupes in my next multi-draw. Thought for sure that I was about to get my 3rd copy of Fairy Knight Gawain but instead I ended up with a dupe of 4-star SR Saber Chevalier d'Eon.

Ugh. Frankly, would have preferred to get another copy of Tam Lin Gawain instead since she seems to be way better than Chevalier d’Eon.

Chevalier d’Eon doesn’t even have a Noble Phantasm that deals damage. And pretty sure the only time I ever bothered to use this Servant was during those events where you can’t use the same Servants all the time since they get “exhausted” and need to “rest” for a few hours before you can bring them to battle again.

My next multi-draw gave me 2 more 4-star CE dupes as well as a new 4-star Craft Essence. Also got a dupe of Caster Cú.

Ahh, Morgan and even Tam Lin Tristan, doko da? Also, if I’m gonna get a Craft Essence, could I please get a 5-star one? Would really love to get another copy of The Black Grail.

To my surprise, a gold Archer card showed up in my next multi-draw.

Was super pleased to see this, of course. Could only hope that I wasn’t about to get another dupe.

Thankfully, got something new. Just got my very first copy of Tam Lin Tristan. Yay!

I thought that was it but then, to my complete and utter surprise, a gold Berserker card showed up too.

OMFG! Please tell me I’m about to get Morgan and not some dupe or some other Berserker.

The gold Berserker card slowly reveals itself and - yes, yes, yes! It’s Morgan! It’s my very first copy of 5-star SSR Berserker Morgan. Hell, yes! Super pleased to see this.

Aside from my first copies of Fairy Knight Tristan and Morgan, this multi-draw also gave me dupes of 3 4-star CEs.

Was down to 21 Saint Quartz on hand when Morgan showed up. Really so glad that she didn’t take all my SQ. Even managed to get copies of the 2 rate-up 4-star Servants.

Now I can go back to saving for Oberon and Koyanskaya and even Anastasia & Viy. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get at least one copy of them as well.

Anyway, here are some more screenshots of Morgan:

4-star SR Archer Tam Lin Tristan and 4-star SR Saber Tam Lin Gawain

For now, haven’t done anything with either Tam Lin Tristan or Tam Lin Gawain. Haven’t bothered to level them up or even to get Gawain to NP2. For now, want to focus on Morgan first. Will get back to these 2 sooner or later.

5-star SSR Berserker Morgan

Spent the resources needed to get Morgan to level 90 and get all of her skills to level 10. Not sure yet if I want to Grail her or not so for now, just gonna leave her at level 90.

Was gonna unlock Morgan’s second Append skill called Mana Loading or Load Magical Energy but then I realized that I couldn’t because I don’t have enough of her Servant Coins.

I need 120 Coins to unlock Morgan’s Append 2 but summoning her only gave me 90 of said Coins. Gonna need either another copy of her or increase her Bond levels some more in order to get more of her Coins.

Man, this Coin system thing is awful. It’s even worse for the 4-stars. The Fairy Knights only give 50 Coins when summoned. Heck, Chevalier d’Eon only gives 30.

IIRC, story-locked 4-star Servants like the Fae Knights will give more Coins while permanent 4-stars like d’Eon will give less. You also get a different amount of Coins when summoning a limited 4-star Servant.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, if you want to Grail a Servant past level 100, you will also need to spend Coins to do that. As such, those who want to unlock all 3 of a Servant’s Append skills and Grail them to level 120 are gonna need a lot of Coins.

Was annoyed that I couldn’t unlock Morgan’s Mana Loading skill yet. At level 1, this will let her start the fight with 10% NP charge. At level 10, this will give 20% NP charge.

I told myself that it was fine even if I couldn’t unlock Morgan’s Mana Loading skill yet. After all, she gets so many rerun banners so if I still felt like it, I could try rolling for more copies of her on those banners.

The important thing was that I have her now and even the Fairy Knights. So should save the rest of my SQ for Oberon and Koyanskaya.

After leveling up Morgan and getting all of her skills to level 10, decided to try her out in one of the Ember Gathering or exp quests. The highest level of this quest has 3 waves with the first 2 waves having 3 enemies each and the last wave only having 1 enemy.

My setup for this fight with Morgan is as follows:

Have Morgan equipped with my first and only copy of the 5-star SSR CE called Kaleidoscope. This lets her start the fight with her NP gauge already charged to 80%.

Equipped the Mystic Code called Mage’s Association Uniform. The second skill of this Mystic Code lets me charge one Servant’s NP by 20%. Using this on Morgan lets her fire off her NP right away. Ideally, this should clear out all the enemies in wave 1.

For wave 2, I use Morgan’s first 2 skills to get her NP gauge charged to 50%. Then I use the first 2 skills of the friend support Castoria that I borrowed to further increase Morgan’s NP gauge by 50%. Now Morgan can fire off her NP again to clear out all the enemies in wave 2.

For wave 3, I bring a Servant with a single-target NP. This is usually whoever has class advantage against the last wave’s enemy.

Caster Altria can charge the entire party’s NP gauge by 30% so when I use her first skill to charge Morgan’s NP by 30%, my single target DPS also gets the 30% charge.

As such, this Servant just needs 70% more charge in order to fire off their NP once we get to wave 3. So I either make use of CEs with NP gauge charge or bring Servants who can charge their own gauge and/or have their Mana Loading skill unlocked and/or maxed out or any combination thereof.

I always borrow a friend support Caster Artoria who is equipped with a fully MLB 5-star CE called Chaldea Teatime. This increases Bond points gained by 15% when used as support.

Then my back row is filled with Servants whose Bond levels I’m trying to increase. And these Servants are all carrying Bond up CEs.

Anyway, was very annoyed when Morgan failed to kill all the enemies in wave 1. Don’t know if she just rolled low or something but - ugh. Was still able to 3-turn this fight since the remaining enemy in wave 1 only had a bit of HP left so face-cards quickly took care of them.

Morgan was only level 90 and at NP1 and I haven’t even used her or Artoria’s ATK up skills since those charge the NP gauge too and was saving them for the second wave so I suppose it’s understandable why Morgan’s damage was kinda bad. And I recall hearing how her damage wasn’t that impressive at NP1.

Plus I didn’t even bring a Mystic Code that can increase a Servant’s attack or NP strength or something.

This made me think about trying to increase Morgan’s NP level now. Found myself thinking about pulling some more on the Avalon le Fae Morgan Pickup Summon banner.

This was a bad idea. I don’t need to keep pulling. I really don’t. It’s not like Morgan is unusable right now anyway.

Besides, getting Koyanskaya and Oberon should help to further increase her damage output, and if I really want more NP levels for her, I can just roll on one or more of her many rerun banners.

Avalon le Fae Morgan Pickup Summon Banner Pulls Results Part 2

Unfortunately, telling myself all that did nothing to dissuade me. Still felt like pulling anyway. Sigh.

Anyway, here are the results of the rest of my pulls on this banner:

Don’t have enough SQ to do another multi-draw so just went to get more from my present box. Every time I need more SQ, just kept going back to my present box for more.

Like I said, this was a really bad idea since it’s not like I have thousands of SQ saved up. And besides, I'm supposed to be saving the rest of my SQ for Oberon and Koyanskaya.

So I shouldn’t be wasting any more of my pulling resources on the Morgan banner but couldn’t seem to help it so here we are. Sigh.

Anyway, my next multi-draw gave me 1 more copy of Caster Cú Chulainn and dupes of 3 4-star CEs. Meh.

Another multi-draw gave me a new 3-star CE, 1 dupe 4-star CE, and 1 dupe 5-star CE. Unfortunately, the 5-star CE wasn’t a copy of The Black Grail or even a Kaleidoscope. Eff this banner.

My next multi-draw gave me another Caster Cú dupe but pretty sure I already have enough to NP5 him so don’t really need anymore copies.

Well, I guess I could use more if I want to unlock his Append skills, but not sure if I want to bother doing that. Don’t even have any of his skills leveled yet.

This pull also gave me dupes of 3 4-star CEs. And I got a dupe of the 5-star CE called Heaven’s Feel. This is similar to The Black Grail.

Heaven’s Feel increases NP damage by 40%. At MLB, it increases NP damage by 50%.

On the other hand, The Black Grail increases NP damage by 60%. At MLB, it increases NP damage by 80%. The downside or demerit is that the Servant equipped with this will lose 500 HP each turn but that’s a small price to pay for such a powerful effect.

Honestly, it felt like the game was mocking me by giving me a Heaven’s Feel dupe. Argh! Why couldn’t this have been a dupe of The Black Grail instead?

I know Heaven’s Feel is a pretty good alternative to The Black Grail but my copy of this has only been limit broken like once so I’ll need a lot more dupes to fully MLB this.

Anyway, another multi-draw gave me 4 dupes of 4-star CEs. Ugh. Really beginning to regret continuing to pull on this banner. Was able to get Morgan and the Fairy Knights pretty early and without having to spend so much SQ.

Should have considered that good and lucky enough then just left this banner alone. Now it looks like I’m about to waste the rest of my SQ for nothing but trash.

My next multi-draw gave me a silver Berserker card that suddenly started turning gold. OMFG! Was so, so hyped when I saw this, full believing that I was finally about to get my second copy of Morgan. And then the gold Berserker card finishes revealing itself and -

Argh! Turns out I just got yet another dupe of 4-star SR Berserker Atalante Alter. Damn it. And eff this game. Eff this banner. Why? Why’d this have to happen? Damn it.

So, so freaking disappointed. This is like my 3rd dupe of Atalante Alter. Still haven’t bothered to fuse the copies I have of her since I don’t really use her. It’s like with Chevalier d’Eon. Only use her when I have to. Also don’t have any of her skills leveled.

Man, this is so depressing. I feel like I’ll just end up running out of SQ with nothing more to show for the loss of all of these resources. Really shouldn’t have continued to pull here.

Should probably just stop now. But, at the same time, it feels like I’m too far gone to just suddenly stop now. But the more I pull, the more depressed and disappointed and frustrated I get, and the more it feels like I’ll never be able to get Oberon and Koyanskaya.

Anyway, my next 2 multi-draws basically gave me trash. There’s no new or dupe gold Servant or 5-star CE so meh.

Since the results of my multi-draws were all so bad, decided to try doing single draws but this didn’t give me anything good either.

So I went back to doing multi-draws. The next one I did gave me a new 4-star CE. Also got 2 more 4-star CE dupes. And 1 5-star CE dupe that isn’t The Black Grail because eff this game.

My next 2 multi-draws gave me nothing but crap again. Man, the rates in this game are so awful. Wish they’d improve it even just a bit.

Another multi-draw actually gave me my third copy of Tam Lin Gawain. Well, that was a nice surprise. At least I finally got another gold Servant even if it was a dupe.

This pull also gave me a new 4-star CE and 2 more 4-star CE dupes plus 1 more copy of Caster Cú Chulainn.

I tried single draws again but got crap again as usual. Well, one single pull did give me yet another dupe of the 5-star SSR CE called A Fragment of 2030.

Ugh. Seeing that was so freaking infuriating and frustrating because that could have been a copy of The Black Grail instead. Really wish that had been a copy of The Black Grail instead.

A Fragment of 2030 is a pretty good CE since it gives 8 critical stars each turn. But I already have a lot of copies of this CE so really don’t need any more. Just went and double-checked and apparently, I now have 6 copies of this CE so I can fully MLB one already.

Argh! That just pisses me off even more. Why couldn’t something like that happen with The Black Grail instead? Eff this game.

Anyway, a gold Berserker card actually appeared on my next multi-draw. Was really pleased to see another gold Servant card and a Berserker one at that. But, at the same time, was really worried too. I could only hope that I’m not about to be trolled by yet another Atalante dupe or even some other Berserker.

To my surprise and relief, it was another 5-star SSR Berserker Morgan who showed up.

Hell, yes! Super pleased to see this. Now I can get my Morgan to NP2. Will also be able to instantly unlock one of her Append skills now. Yay!

More importantly, I can finally be done with this banner. Sure, more copies of Morgan will be most welcome, but it really is best to just wait for her rerun banners.

Trying to get a second copy of Morgan cost me way too much SQ. Now I don’t even know if I’ll be able to get Oberon and Koyanskaya unless I somehow get lucky or a miracle occurs or something.

I kinda, sorta regret continuing to pull on this banner. I can only be glad that Morgan eventually showed up again even if it took her what felt like forever to do so. I'd regret things more if she didn’t show up again at all.

But since she did come home again, this pulling session wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Still wish I didn’t have to spend so much SQ though. If only I’d been able to stop myself from throwing more Saint Quartz on this banner - But, ah, well. What’s done is done.

5-star SSR Berserker Morgan

Of course, I immediately went to increase the NP level of my Morgan.

Also unlocked her Mana Loading or Load Magical Energy Append skill and leveled it up to 10.

Then I tried her in the aforementioned Ember Gathering or exp quest again and now her NP was able to finish off all the enemies in wave 1. Yay!

Now I found myself considering Grailing her to 100. Was unsure about this since I don’t even know that much about her yet. Haven’t even unlocked Part 2 Chapter 6 "Lostbelt No.6: Fae Round Table Domain, Avalon le Fae - The Moment a Planet Is Born" (Act I) yet.

And, at the time I’m writing this part of this post, my Morgan isn’t at Bond level 5 yet so haven’t unlocked the entirety of her in-game profile yet.

But from what I’ve seen so far, I do like her. Her design is nice and her personality seems pretty okay too.

So after thinking about it some more, I decided to go for it. Spent all the resources and Holy Grails needed to get Morgan to level 100. Ooof, this cost me lots of QP and exp cards. Thankfully, I had enough of these resources on hand.

Note: at the time I took a screenshot of my level 100 Morgan, she just hit Bond level 5.

Anyway, now that my Morgan is level 100, she’s dealing even more damage, which is great.

4-star SR Saber Tam Lin Gawain

Got my Tam Lin Gawain to NP3. Ahh, wish this had happened with Morgan instead.

Anyway, I started leveling up Tam Lin Gawain. The moment I Ascended her for the first time, her name changed to Barghest.

When I got to see the rest of her Ascension art and heard the rest of her level up lines, I was like, wow, what in the world is going on here? What happened to Barghest? Guess I need to play through Lostbelt 6 to find out.

Looking at Tam Lin Gawain’s skills, she actually seems pretty good. She can charge the party’s NP gauge which is nice.

But when I looked up the values online (seriously wish this was available in the game itself), it looks like she doesn’t do it by that much at all which is too bad.

Tam Lin Gawain also gets a buff “when on a [Sunlight] field”. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have a skill or passive or something that can change the field to [Sunlight].

Leveled up all of Barghest’s skills to 4. Been trying her out in battle and she does seem pretty good.

Been looking at her voice lines and and the parts of her profile that I’d already unlocked, and her personality doesn’t seem that bad as well.

I think her first Ascension art is growing on me. Well, it wasn’t like I ever really disliked it or hated it anyway. It was more like I was neutral towards it. Besides, wasn’t really paying that much attention to her or Tam Lin Tristan since my focus was on Morgan.

Anyway, I guess I mean it’s more like, right now, I prefer her first Ascension art. Her second Ascension art doesn’t seem that bad too but the rest of her Ascension art is currently a no for me.

4-star SR Archer Tam Lin Tristan

Too bad I only ever got 1 copy of Tam Lin Tristan. After leveling up Barghest, started doing the same for Tam Lin Tristan. The moment I Ascended her for the first time, her name changed to Baobhan Sith.

Was shocked and surprised when I saw the rest of Baobhan Sith’s Ascension art and heard the rest of her level up lines. What in the world happened to her? Also don't really like the rest of her Ascension art.

Leveled up all of her skills to 4 too. She seems like a pretty good Archer. She can even get up to a total of 60% NP gauge charge when 2 of her skills are leveled to the max.

Been trying her out in battle and she does seem pretty good. But hearing her voice lines and looking at the parts of her profile that I'd already unlocked, she seems like a really awful char. Her personality seems so bad. Can't say I like her right now but maybe I'll change my mind once I get through Lostbelt 6 and learn more about her.

Conclusion

So, what about you? Did you pull on the Avalon le Fae Morgan Pickup Summon banner? What do you think about Morgan, Tam Lin Tristan, and Tam Lin Gawain?

Have you read through the Part 2 Chapter 6 "Lostbelt No.6: Fae Round Table Domain, Avalon le Fae - The Moment a Planet Is Born" (Act I) story yet?

Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions by leaving a comment below or by reblogging this post.

Notes:

screenshots are from my Fate/Grand Order game account

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