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#so rally and trick titles it is for now
tea-time-terrier · 4 months
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I’m getting back on tumblr for the first time in at least 5 years. Now I have a Rat Terrier too!!! I got so excited when I saw your sweater post ❤️❤️ this is Joyner! We compete in conformation, fastcat, and scent work through the AKC. Do you compete in any dog sports?
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Ahh that's so awesome!! I love seeing more rat terriers! Joyner looks like a solid guy👌
We are dabbling in dog sports. Pike's titled in conformation, rally, scent detection, and tricks. She's a really fun dog to try a variety of sports and activities with!
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mdhwrites · 9 months
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Why the Name Belos?
So this isn’t entirely criticism with some research and more of a showers thought sort of thing but it started with me realizing that Belos could have foreshadowed something... And didn’t. I’ll reveal it after getting into what his name actually means.
So Philip genuinely is just a basic bitch, English name. It means Friend of Horses which we never see anything of. Wittebane is actually obvious if you think about it as yes, it does in fact translate either to ‘White Tormentor” or to “Witch tormentor” if the Wiki is right at least. That’s pretty standard and the like so *shrug*.
But then there’s Belos. The name he gave himself. Now there are three ways to interpret it. One that theoretically takes into account his background, one that fits the same way Wittebane does and one that I think fits both and is a lot more sly. First: Belos is from the New Testament to mean “Javelin, Dart, Arrow, a missile”. This is why it’s more just “This does fit for his background as a religious extremist but not really for deeper meaning.” He isn’t very direct or targeted in his methods after all. This meaning would be a lot better if he were a specter, assassin, or just did a lot more of his dirty work himself to reflect the single purpose and single target drive of the items it correlates to. One could claim he has the singular purpose but even that isn’t just about murdering witches as he does reveal his goal is as much about titles and fame that it will gain him back home or else he wouldn’t care when Luz gets the title wrong. Also he’s just really bad at his goal so that also hurts the case.
The one the wiki states and that a name definer relates it to is an Ancient Greek term for Lord or Ruler. It’s like when Toriyama named the god of his world Kami. It does work, even if bluntly (though I’ve used the same sort of trick to inspire names I’ve used before) and it is imposing and it fits his egotism. Kind of my only real issue is that while he does become the emperor... His goal isn’t conquest. It’s murder. Worse yet, it’s not like the people of the Isles would know what it meant so it means nothing to them and doesn’t have a double meaning except for making title “Lord Lord” and Belos doesn’t seem like the one to want his name to be a literal joke. Why not make it a sly warning then? Have the people call him what would eventually doom them all?
So here’s the third way: Phonetically what it sounds like. Belos is pronounced effectively the same way as Bellows. You know, those things you use to strengthen and stoke a fire in a furnace. Or a pyre perhaps? And this was the shower thought: Why wasn’t Belos’ big final move fire? It is his backstory that he is a WITCH HUNTER. Witches weren’t just shot or the like on the spot. They were burned. Or stoned admittedly I believe but famously they were mostly burned.
Why not burn away the Isles, with his power, influence, etc. like that as the bellows that helped stoke the fire that saw it all burn away? If you want to go more metaphorically, why not fuel the flames of rebellion? He clearly didn’t have the most amount of control over his lands despite being a tyrant, or told to us to be one since his actions don’t actually correlate with one, so he could have been trying to make a rebellion happen. Killing Eda, the most famous wild witch, and petrifying her could do both. Solidify the terror in believer’s hearts while also enraging those who believed this was too far.
Of course that would have required everyone rallying to Eda to actually make... sense at the end of S1? Like this isn’t a desire that’s unfounded due to S1′s finale very much so feeling like it’s setting up for the entirety of the Isles to rebel against Belos when that never happens. Of course, the claims even in the show are pretty fucking weak. Like for this crime to be unjust, Eda would have to not be a know, actual criminal who did do more, at least supposedly, than just being a wild witch. She would have actually had to have had allies and friends and not been a complete bitch to literally everyone she met, including Luz and King for the first half of the season, for the entirety of S1.
Again, as far as the name goes, it’s fine. Belos works as just being a cheeky reference to him being the Lord of the Isles and it fits the general naming scheme of TOH. King is literally a King of sorts. Luz was at the beginning the light of the show and looked like she was meant to bring light to a dark place which... Yeah, that’s a different blog. Amity is amicable (as well as maybe Amityville?) very quickly and that closeness feeds into her being the love interest. Even Willow is named after a tree that is known to look sad and pathetic while being actually really strong.
It’s just interesting to me that a witch hunter’s name coincidentally also sounds like something that helps fuel fires. You’d think that’d be on purpose or someone might have noticed, though admittedly I didn’t until today so *shrug*. Again, not the biggest deal in the world, just kind of started making my brain buzz a bit.
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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!
I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.
And finally a Twitter you can follow too!
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dujour13 · 5 months
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Owlcatober 18. Dancing lights
Part 1 of 2 of "Blue Skies Over Mendev" - also on AO3
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When in her unnaturally long life, Galfrey wondered, had the storms of chaos ever ceased thundering on her horizon? She squinted across the valley to the fortress prison of Threshold where it squatted atop the next ridge under writhing black clouds, bolts of Abyssal lightning flickering on her upturned face.
Could this truly be the end?
And she, no more than a spectator?
No—she must come to peace with it. She’d done her part all these hundred years and more. Worked until days and nights bled together into a ceaseless, weary march. Fought until her bones felt they would crack under the blows. The black blood of the balor Khorramzadeh stained her white-and-gold armor but even that felt like a trivial victory next to what the Knight-Commander faced even at this moment.
She could only hold vigil. Watch and hope.
If he failed and the Abyss was unleashed she and her armies would never have time to retreat; they would all perish here. Their lives, the future of Mendev and that of Golarion itself hung in the balance and all she could do was helplessly search the maelstrom over Threshold for a sign.
And pray. But she’d been doing that so fervently for so long it felt like empty, rote words now, a senseless child’s rhyme answered only with silence. The Inheritor had come down from the Heavens not to her, but to Siavash Mirani, some feckless Andoren diplomat with no title and no heroic deeds to his name, just a guitar and a charming smile.
And, she reminded herself, a genius for rallying the myriad forces of good to one final, triumphant push against the Abyss, guided not by careful planning but what could only be divinely inspired reckless impulse. So be it, she told herself for the hundredth time. If it was Desna’s star that guided them to victory who was she, the faded old Paladin Queen, to think she could outshine it?
She felt rather than heard them gathering, common soldiers and generals alike, shoulder to shoulder, all watching, all holding their breath, all daring to hope.
That was it, wasn’t it? Hope. After four failed crusades Galfrey herself no longer inspired such emotion. But Siavash did, rising from the ashes of Kenabres to victory after victory with his songs and his azata wings and his arms that embraced all, even those Galfrey’s Mendev had rejected and disdained.
And after all, she too dared to hope.
That was why she was here on the ridge rather than spending her final hours in her chapel tent in meditation. In tense and silent vigil she watched daylight wane, and by the time the baleful purple Abyssal lights began to soften she wasn’t sure if it was a trick of a mind deeply fatigued by decades of fighting. Of eyes that had hardly dared to blink in a century.
But she heard a murmur go up around her and felt a thrill in her heart such as she hadn’t since she was a blushing debutante.
No, her eyes did not deceive her—from Threshold there now grew a rosy hue like a spring dawn, lighting the angry clouds from below. The boiling storm began to contract and retreat, dark vapors dissipating on a fresh breeze.
A roar rose around Galfrey. Awed voices, so moved they could only moan incoherently.
Her eyes grew round and her vision swam; and suddenly, refracted through the pools of weary tears blazed a vast, glorious rainbow that split the night sky like a holy blade. Dazzled she squeezed her eyes shut just as her heart too squeezed with an ache that was deep and old and bitter.
Could it be?
Over at last?
“Inheritor.” Her breath rushed out in a sob.
If she weren’t the Queen she might have fallen to her knees as the rest of the crusaders did, but instead she stood rigid at their head, her breast rising and falling like that of a panicked bird.
And then Threshold lit up like an enormous Elysian beacon, beams of spring sunlight exploding from its walls, a shockwave of unearthly force blasting through the crusader ranks and nearly toppling her, and then like a gargantuan breath sucked back in, another shockwave blew through them from behind and nearly knocked them off the ridge.
Now the ridge and the valley all around her erupted into triumphant shouts and she felt her shoulders buffeted as crusaders surged forth roaring to greet the new dawn.
Something in Galfrey gave way then. Crumbled like a dam of sand.
Through her tears, the lights of Elysium danced.
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eemoo1o-sunnyoo · 10 months
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E.A.R.: Season One Round-up
⚠️ Please note that this season includes the episode “Charlie Got Molested”, in which several sensitive terms are used, as per the title. Discretion is advised.
So now I have finally finished S1 of It’s Always Sunny, I am here to present you with my notes from the season. The majority is of Dennis and his actions, with some additional notes on Mac as well.
Keep is mind I intend on keeping these round-ups brief, and as such I may not share all of my notes, simply the consensus of them. And with that, we have:
“The Gang Gets Racist” (1x01):
Dennis is weirded out by Terrell looking him up and down.
Dennis naturally attracts gay men when the pub becomes a gay bar. It’s assumed that Dennis gets the most tips during this time.
◦As such he then embraces the attraction. This could be seen as him valuing money despite his wealthy background (perhaps a season one-exclusive ideology), perhaps in excess, and — as Dee even points out — vanity.
Mac tricks Dennis into getting blackout drunk but pretending to being unable to follow directions over a tequila-and-lime salt lick.
◦This shows their closeness and manipulative undertones early on.
◦This also shows how Dennis perceives Mac as dumb, whilst Mac was able to trick him.
It’s at first inferred that actor friends of Dee’s are used to trick Dennis into believing that he had sex with them (actually, them with him, while he was absurdly inebriated). It later turns out that the actors couldn’t make it, and that this actually happened.
“Charlie Wants an Abortion” (1x02):
Dennis goes with Charlie to his supposed son’s house. He tries to support him, somewhat.
Then, the mother of Charlie’s “son” then asks if the two are “together”.
◦This, like natural Dennis’ attraction of gay men, could later foreshadow his close relationship to Mac and Mac’s crush on him.
◆ While Mac’s “thing” used to be remarks about his “questionable sexuality”, Dennis’ could have been incorrect assumptions about him and Mac/Charlie.
◦Additionally, the prostitute at the blood testing clinic also assumes that Charlie is Dennis’ boyfriend in the next scene.
◆ When he then denies the prostitute who later offers to blow him for ten dollars, he then insults her to Tommy when she can still hear him.
When Charlie advises Dennis not to engage with Tommy as he had just done, Dennis disregards the advice and proceeds to engage him anyway. This shows social ignorance and hardheadedness.
When Mac later reports that pro-life chicks are “dirty/freaky”, and Dennis is convinced to attend a rally with him, Dee asks him if he’s “really going to throw away all of [his] convictions for a chance to get laid”, to which Dennis replies, languidly, “I don’t really have any convictions.”
◦This appears to be the first suggestive highlight of Dennis’ detachment to social and political views.
Dennis thinks that it is appropriate to hit on women at (the pro-choice side of) an abortion rally. After a failed attempt he retries. This seems to be the start of Dennis’ inappropriate behaviour, particularly towards women, during the series.
◦After two women reject him, he approaches Dee and claims that he thinks that all the women there are gay.
◦He then promptly switches sides.
“Underage Drinking: A National Concern” (1x03):
Dennis is the first to ask why weren’t they carding (asking for IDs). The rest of The Gang says that it isn’t their job, to which Dennis replies, “It’s everyone’s job!”. This could raise the question as to why Dennis wasn’t carding himself.
In this episode, we see the first instance of what we will later discover to be Dennis’ false recollection of his middle/high school popularity.
◦Mac and Charlie then point out that the only reason Dennis ever had a girlfriend in school was because he always went after freshman, because he’s “always had a creepy thing for younger girls”, which Dennis contests.
◆ This demonstrates his need for control for the first time in the series. This need for control presumably comes from his molestation by the high school librarian.
Dennis is then later easily seduced (this does not lead to sex) by Tammy. This is presumably the first time in the series, beyond Maureen Ponderosa, where Dennis has been the one seduced/pursued.
After getting the go-ahead from Mac and Charlie, Dennis immediately embraces Tammy’s advances. This could suggest that the only thing on Dennis’ conscience over begging with Tammy was his friends’ ridicule, and not her status as a high schooler.
“Charlie Has Cancer” (1x04):
In the opening of the episode, Charlie says that he’s been crying. Dennis replies with an awkward laugh, “Oh, I’m sorry,” but it’s obviously insincere.
◦Even after acknowledging that Charlie has been crying, he then goes, “Oh, and I thought my place looked like shit,” when stepping into his apartment. This demonstrates an emotional detachment as he’s set on getting the basketball that he’d come for.
Dennis’ immediate reaction to Charlie informing him that he may have cancer is “W-What?”, but then as Charlie starts to talk about it, he asks, “Did you want to talk about it, right now?” which shows that he is relatively uninterested. This could suggest that his initial shock was due to being taken by surprise, and not out of empathy or sympathy. After some back and forth, the two stand in awkward silence.
In the next scene, Dennis then lies to Dee and Mac that he Charlie “cried together and [he] held him for a while”.
Mac and Dennis then concoct a plan to cheer Charlie up by finding him a woman to look after him. When Dee declines to help, Dennis calls her a “pain in the ass”.
In an effort to put his plan into motion, Dennis exploits Charlie’s sickness by referring to him as “sick and injured” with no remorse. This shows that the plan is to make Dennis and possibly Mac feel better, under the guise of it being Charlie.
To get Dee in on the plan, Dennis promises that she can punch Mac in the face. He makes this promise with seemingly no remorse.
◦Additionally, he sided with Mac for punching his sister during the Christmas party.
Dennis quickly discards his plan to help Charlie for what he believes to be “a hot new waitress”. This shows that most of his morals are like paper, and that he thinks of himself first and foremost.
Dennis shames Mac for planning on going out with Carmen.
When Mac voices his plan to tell the Waitress that Charlie has cancer, Dennis vetos it immediately. When asked what he would rather do, Dennis hesitates before the scene cuts and he is doing what is essentially Mac’s plan, but moderately softer, perhaps more flirtatiously. This results in him getting with the Waitress despite him knowing that Charlie has a crush on her.
◦After this, even when Mac points out that Charlie has liked her for months, Dennis hardly shows much remorse.
When Dee asks for help carrying a keg, Dennis declines with an easy lie without even sparing a glance.
Dennis’ reaction to Charlie telling him that he doesn’t have cancer is very similar to when he was told that he had it.
◦He then gets angry at Charlie for lying (which he then admits that he was). This shows that, like any other person would, Dennis feels betrayed at being lied to, feeding into the “I have feelings” speech from “The Gang Tends Bar”.
“Gun Fever” (1x05):
The episode opens with Mac making fun of Dennis’ health drink, asking if it will help erase the damage he caused to his liver the night prior. Dennis digs back with if Mac’s coffee will help him forget the whale he slept with the night prior.
◦This remark could come across as unjustified.
◦This also feeds into Dennis’ view on women, calling the “whale” gross and even suggesting that she had diseases that might have spread to Mac.
Mac says that if Dennis lowered his standards “a little bit”, then maybe he would get laid more.
Mac and Dennis find that Dee “has the worst taste in men” when Colin makes his first appearance. Dennis even calls him an “80s stereotype”.
When Charlie mentions that last week, Colin had his hands down the back of Wendy’s (a bartender from another bar) jeans, which Dennis replies with “Gross.”
◦Perhaps this could suggest that Dennis is disgusted by PDA.
Dennis finds it gross when Mac makes a remark about Dee potentially sleeping with Colin.
◦It is at this point that Dennis works out that Colin is the safe thief.
It’s actually Dennis who intends on reprimanding Colin outright as opposed to Mac. Dennis then goes along with Mac’s plan to “trick” Colin.
Dennis is the one to shoot Charlie when he steals money from the register. He is clearly apprehensive to use the gun, as he runs forwards and shoots with his eyes closed.
Dennis is reluctant to drive Charlie to the hospital as he “doesn’t want bloodstains all over the interior” (of his car). He then ‘compromises’ by suggesting that they put a trash bag over him.
“The Gang Finds a Dead Guy” (1x06):
The first line of the episode from Dennis is his first thought over the dead man: a sarcastic, “Well this ought to do wonders for business.”
◦He is also more concerned about the mess than the death, as is the rest of The Gang.
Dennis is the first to jump in to stop Charlie’s power-washing method with facts about spreading germs. This could show that he is built to be the most logical out of the group.
Mac and Dennis fight over who owns the pub when Rebecca (a conventionally cute girl) asks for the owner to discover where her grandfather had spent his last night.
Mac starts talking about her grandfather, and she asks if he knew him, to which Mac starts to disagree, but Dennis jumps in, easily, with a “I knew him pretty well,” so that her focus may be on him. He also says before she leaves that he has some “pretty incredible stories about [her] grandfather that [she] will just not believe”.
When Dee seems concerned over the death of the girl’s grandfather, saying it reminds her of her and Dennis’ own grandfather, Dennis shuts her down, saying that Pop-pop is an asshole and that he bets Rebecca’s grandfather is too, and that “People don’t just abandon their parents for no good reason.”
◦Charlie passively disputes this.
◦Later, Dee asks Charlie to visit their grandfather with her because Dennis won’t go.
When Rebecca comes in to find the two bickering, and asks if it’s a bad time, Dennis immediately swoops in with a lie, saying, “We were just talking about your grandfather. Emotions are running very high here today. (…) I try not to think about me, in these circumstances, though. How are you?”
When Rebecca asks for a favour from Mac and Dennis (putting together a memorial service), Mac is the first to jump in. Dennis doesn’t answer until Mac says that it may be difficult (to find people who knew her grandfather well), to which Dennis jumps straight in saying that he knew many of his friends, saying, “It’s not gonna be hard for [me].”
Dennis’ plan for this is to go to the homeless shelter and pay some men to attend the funeral. Even Mac says that it’s shady. Dennis replies with, “If you wanna back out now, go ahead. I’d be happy to take all the credit for this,” to which Mac refuses despite his convictions with the scheme.
◦In addition to this, Dennis is the one to ask an encroaching homeless man if he’d like to make twenty bucks. When the man agrees, he then asks if he has any nicer clothes. There is an awkward amount of time before he and possibly Mac realise what he had just asked.
◦Later, Dennis (and Mac) take five homeless men to Rebecca’s grandfather’s memorial, under the pretence that they were close friends of his.
Rebecca asks Dennis and Mac to give a speech, to which Dennis says that he has something prepared, shocking Mac (proving his previous statement a few scenes ago about being one step ahead), and then going even further to embarrass/foil Mac by saying that he’s a terrible public speaker.
◦He also goes into additional detail about this and ends the list of embarrassing symptoms with, “His third grade stutter comes back, it’s adorable.”
When Mac asks to borrow Dennis’ car to go to Charlie’s “emergency”, Dennis says, “You can’t, you’ve been drinking.” After Mac leaves with a grunt of frustration, Dennis then turns to Rebecca and tells her that Mac “has a bit of a drinking problem”, proving that he can so easily throw his friend under the bus.
◦This is also proven to be ironic later in the series.
Dennis then lies his way through his speech quite naturally, using some clichés like “He was a bit of a curmudgeon, but he had a heart of a lion.”
◦Dennis also throws in an anecdote about Lionel (Keane) wanting to give and so he persuades him and himself to go down to the mission where they “fed every last poor, miserable, precious soul, but [also] washed the feet of every man, woman, and child there in the spirit of Christ”.
◦He finishes the whole speech with a wink to an honoured Rebecca.
Dennis then goes back to the bar where he finds Charlie and Dennis burning the nazi uniform (paraphernalia unbeknownst to him) and then asks Mac if he’d like to know about that girl. Mac declines repeatedly but Dennis continues to taunt and egg him until Mac admits defeat and gives up. Dennis says that he doesn’t get to give up as they went “head to head” and that “he won fair and square”. He then proceeds to explain at an aggravating pace about how he and the girl went home and “sweet, passionate love”.
◦Then, Mac hands Dennis the photo of young Pop-pop and tells him that his grandfather’s a nazi, breaking Dennis’ spirit upon finding out that the picture looks like him.
“Charlie Got Molested” (1x07):
Upon discovering the newspaper headlines about Mac and Charlie’s former P.E. teacher, Dennis (and Dee) show concern, even calling it “awful”. When Charlie leaves in a rush, Dennis concludes that he, too, was molested by the teacher.
◦This immediate accusation is popularly surmised to be a byproduct of Dennis’ own molestation in middle school by the librarian Mrs. Klinsky at 14. (“Takes one to know one”).
Dennis tells Dee that the first step to dealing with molestation is understanding. Dee disputes that it’s acknowledgement, meaning that some of the things that Dennis may say in confidence aren’t always true or can be disputed, especially in the region of psychology.
Dennis mocks Dee’s idea of giving Charlie an intervention and inviting his whole family to it.
Dennis shows dismay/disgust at Mac focussing on whether or not the abused kids were “blown”.
After Mac rushes off to his bedroom due to the prior point, Dennis and Dee follow him, though Dennis is the one in the lead, and the first to ask if he’s okay.
When Mac is upset over “not getting blown”, Dennis says, after some silence, “You’re goin’ to hell, dude.”
◦Perhaps this aligns with the theory of Dennis assigning his own trauma/molestation onto the situation?
Dennis and Dee follow Charlie to the McPoyle’s apartment, which demonstrates a lack of boundaries in the group (as we know).
Surprisingly, it’s Dee who wants to “drag [Charlie] back to the bar and tell him that they know he got molested” whereas Dennis wishes to take the softer approach and “ease him into it”.
◦THIS IS IMPORTANT. Perhaps this is the tactic that Dennis would like to be used on himself?
Dee says to Dennis, “You have no room to talk, all the girls you’ve molested-” which Dennis stops her and says, “Woah, woah, don’t start throwing that word around like it’s meaningless, okay? This is serious.”
◦The fact that Dennis adds, “This is serious,” could infer that he doesn’t take such a claim seriously unless it was to harm him in some way (hence the woah-ing).
◦Unfortunately, this claim could also be seen as true. Dennis’ hypersexuality and controlling tendencies when it comes to sexual relations (especially later in the series) could be an attempt for his subconscious to regain control since Mrs. Klinsky.
When Dee and Dennis go find Charlie at his mother’s house to try Dee’s plan, Dennis says that he thinks that it’s a terrible idea.
When Bonnie starts hyperventilating over the news, Dennis is the first to ask if she’s okay.
At the end of the episode, Dennis is smoking a cigarette down to the butt. He’s mostly holding it.
Additional Mac Notes:
(1x01) Seeing as their hateful “frenemy”-esque dynamic is yet to be thought out, at the end of the episode Dee and Mac are sat alone drinking together in the bar counting their earnings of the night ($114).
(1x02) Mac is immediately attracted to the Pro-Life Centre’s secretary, Megan, indicated with a “Hoo, mama.” This must indicate this season is set “before he was gay” (consecutively, not canonically).
(1x02) Mac signs off his and Dennis’ phone call with “Later, gator.”
(1x02) Mac’s morals seem to be easily abandoned when they put himself in jeopardy. (I.e. Abortion is right when he may be the father.)
(1x03) At the high schoolers’ party, Mac is playing beer flipping / flip cup. After several failed attempts he finally lands one and appears to be a sore winner.
◦The irony here is due to how many attempts at flipping his cup that Mac fails at, as in “The Gang Reignites a Rivalry” (5x12), Dee is continuously chastised by the rest of The Gang for being terrible at flipping cups.
(1x03) Out if the entire Gang, Mac is the only one without a prom date.
◦This could perhaps suggest that he hadn’t a prom date for his own prom, which could be why he slept with Dennis’.
◦There is also the possibility that due to his initially closeted status and crush on Dennis, most of not all of the girls that Mac would pursue would have to have something to do with Dennis (i.e. His mother, his prom date, the Waitress, etc.).
(1x05) Mac’s immediate reaction to the breaking and entering (and everything in the safe stolen) is, as though it is obvious, “to buy a gun”.
(1x06) In the opening conversation with Dee, Mac disputes that he break Tom Brady’s arm, then saying, “No more super bowls for that pretty boy.”
Additionally, I made a tier list for the season’s episodes:
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You can find the Tier List here.
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pawsitivevibe · 3 months
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2024 dog sports goals
Bree
Have a good retirement
Be healthy
Lots of belly rubs and short walkies
Haley
BE HEALTHY
Have fun with whatever she wants to do. Little bit of rally, some Hoopers, some scentwork. No pressure, no trialing probably. Just fun fun :)
Oh the one thing we will specifically work on is more work with actual distance boxes in Hoopers, and challenging us as a team with them
Also both the girls are now allowed to do whatever they want. Ah, you don't feel like holding a stay? That's fine. You would rather lie down than sit? Cool whatever you want! You're barking for cookies instead of doing literally any behaviour? Here you go girls, have cookies! Senior Dog Privilege! You served your time!
Arthur
... So many things. A baby is growing up and ready to do things!!
Conformation:
Championship?? Maybe??
Going to the Canadian English Cocker breed national speciality!
Agility:
Work the 2x2 weave pole method
Solid stopped contacts
Distance distance distance skills
Keep focusing on impeccable foundations and skill building. No full height jumps. No long courses. No pressure to trial. I want him to walk into a starters level trial for the first time with masters level skills. So most likely no trials in 2024.
Hoopers:
Distance distance distance obvs
Umm be an awesome demo dog for my classes
Rally:
Beautiful maintained happy heeling please
Amazing stunning perfect pivots
Keep up equal training on the left and right sides. No heeling side preference allowed!!
Possibly trial in CKC novice at the breed national
Ratting:
Keep building that really solid alert. His alert is pawing at it.
Build independence in finding the rat blind
Maaaaaybe trial in Rats Canada
Dock Diving:
Jumping off the dock!
Splishy splashy!!
Disc Dog:
Maybe. Catch a frisbee. One day. :)
General Training stuff:
Build a really solid stay. I've been slacking on this.
Train a good hold. He's a natural!
Encourage this beautiful calmness and neutrality we're starting to get for in public
Train more tricks! See how far we can get with trick dog titles perhaps.
Specific trick goals: roll over, roll in blanket, hop forward on back legs, put away toys, jump into arms, spin at distance and on verbal, leg weave, wave, handstand, put "hug" on command/have him do it for other people, sing/howl, hopefully more but let's not get ahead of ourselves lol
Especially focus on cute tricks that would be good for therapy work, performances, etc.
I must remember not to rush anything. I like trialing, but I will not race to it as fast as possible. I want him to be well beyond the beginner level before he trials in any sport, and be truly comfortable and have a very high value for the activity.
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unseenphil · 7 months
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Prompt #5: Barbarous
The thing about an empire falling apart is that even with the progress made in the homelands there's always remnants of it out there who are willing to give the dream of Empire another go, sure that they'll do it properly this time and it won't end up like the last.
Said would be emperors often look for a scapegoat to unite their followers around, like, say, a man they call the Eikon Slayer, among other titles.
If they can't get their hands on their main scapegoat, however, they might well turn to what victims they -can- attack with impunity; either those they deemed traitors for not bowing to the nascent new imperial regime, or those they consider unworthy or barbarous; savages who might conceivably threaten them if they weren't already busy trying to rebuild in the wake of the near end of the world.
Which, conveniently enough, is almost guaranteed to draw the attention of that previously mentioned first target.
When Ray Marlowe arrived, tossing a two handed axe up and down in one hand with an air of deceptive calm as it flipped end over end to land in his palm once more, the soldiers were in the midst of a show trial for several Amal'jaa, listing their crimes of repeated summoning, which was a neat trick, Ray thought, given that they were close enough to Zolm'ak that these were probably just simple herders and hunters.
"So. Rallying around the threat of summoning, eh? The oldest trick in the arsenal, and one made up almost entirely out of whole cloth, actually. A lot of the devastation..." A pause, and Ray smirked to himself, as if remembering something funny only to him. "Blamed on the Eikons wasn't actually the doing of any of them. Just one more way to turn us on each other. And in any case, it's not as though the empire is -less- guilty of it now, is it? After all, I should know. I fought the nightmare that was your national ideal made flesh."
The would be new imperial regime had paused in their attempt at an execution, turning to face him. One of them started shouting orders to seize him.
"On the upside, recent advances mean we've worked out the bugs that were deliberately implanted in summoning magics. He flipped the axe into the air one more time, but what landed in his hands this time was a book, and he dramatically paged to a section that was glowing red.
"Ifrit, my old friend and enemy. Come on out to help your people."
And then there was fire.
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grailfinders · 2 years
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Fate and Phantasms #2P: Artoria Pendragon
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Today on Fate and Phantasms we’re rebuilding the King of Knights Artoria Pendragon! Unsurprisingly, Artoria is a Champion like Mash, but you’d be surprised how different two characters can be even if they share a class. She’s also a Marshal to rally her knights to action, a Duelist to summon her sword just a little bit faster, and a Swordmaster to focus on skill above brute force.
Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here! Yeah! We have character sheets again, go nuts!
Ancestry
Despite Tristan’s arguments to the contrary, Artoria is still a Human, which gives her two free stat boosts which we’ll put in Strength and Charisma. You gotta king and you’ve gotta swing. That giant freaking sword, I mean. If you swung more often the thing with Lancelot might not’ve happened. As a Versatile Human, we get the Ride feat right away letting you command an animal without making any checks. The riding skill’s so much easier to set up in this game! You can also Keep Up Appearances when you’re affected by an emotion effect, letting you make a deception check against the observing creature’s perceptions. On a success, they can’t tell you failed the save and thus can’t benefit from that effect. If they can’t tell you’re hurting, nothing can go wrong! Right? Right?
At level 5 you can Sense Allies, so undetected friends who want to be noticed are just hidden instead (so at least you know what space they’re in), and you can sense these hidden allies with a check DC of only 5, not 11.
At level 9 you become a Hardy Traveler, increasing your Bulk limit by 1 and increasing your speed while traveling. Heavy armor is heavy, and that riding skill is coming in handy on road trips.
At level 13 your Stubborn Persistence becomes truly legendary. If you’d become fatigued, you can attempt a DC 17 check to just… not do that. We’ll definitely be using this again when it’s Casgil’s turn, but Artoria’s no stranger to pushing herself too hard as well.
Finally, at level 17 your Heroic Presence can inspire your knights to victory. Once a day you can cast Zealous Conviction on up to 10 willing creatures, giving them temporary HP and a bonus to their will saves against mental effects. Also, if you tell a target to do something, they have to do it unless it’s something they would normally find repugnant. You don’t exercise the king part of your title too much, but you are trying to rule a country here.
Background
Artoria is a Chosen One, giving her two ability boosts and a skill training in something related to the prophecy plus Fortune-Telling Lore. I’d pick Deception here, since a big part of being king is tricking people into thinking you’re perfect, and also a guy. For your abilities, Charisma and Constitution.
You also get the Prophecy’s Pawn free action, letting you re-roll a failed save, attack, or check. After doing so, your DM can then force you to re-roll a successful save, attack, or check to balance things out. You can use this once every 24 hours or after the DM screws you over. You’re gonna be a great king. Just don’t expect too much else to work out for you.
Class Levels
1. Once again we’re taking the Champion class, and once again Strength is your Key Ability, giving you a free boost. This makes you Trained in Perception, Religion, Reflex saves, all attacks, and all defenses. You’re also an Expert in Fortitude and Will saves. Once again you get retroactive skill training every time your intelligence goes up, so we’re just including the whole list here and now: Diplomacy, Intimidation, and Medicine.
You also get four more ability boosts to increase your Strength, Constitution, Wisdom, and Charisma. You follow the Tenets of Good like Mash, but unlike the soft-hearted shielder you are a Paladin, a Lawful Good champion. You still get Lay on Hands as your devotion spell, which you can cast once a day or by recharging with a 10 minute focusing session. You’re not much of a healer, but servants have their own healing factor, so it kind of works. Also, thanks to our Champion Feat Deity’s Domain, you can use that focus point to cast Oathkeeper’s Insignia instead since you’re all about that Duty. When you cast this spell after making a promise, a trinket is created. If you complete the promise while the trinket exists, it fades away with a pleasant chime. If you violate the promise, it breaks instead. At level one it lasts an hour. At level 5, a day. At level 9, a week, at level 13, a month, and finally at level 17 it lasts a full year.
Also, if one of your knights gets hit near you, you can make a Retributive Strike against the idiot attacking them. The ally gets resistance 2+your level to the attack, and you can make a Strike against the enemy if they’re within range.
One last thing, you can use the Shield Block feat, though we’re using a greatsword, so it’s not going to come up much.
2. As a second level champion, your Divine Grace makes you a little harder to rattle, giving you a +2 bonus to a save against a spell as a reaction. Wow, you’re getting magic resistance right away too, we’re on a roll!
We’re actually going to pick up the Marshal Dedication first, giving you a marshal aura that extends 10’ around you, giving yourself and your allies a +1 bonus against fear effects. This dedication also gives you Expertise in Intimidation, which opens up our skill feat, Terrifying Resistance. If you demoralize a creature, you have a +1 bonus to all saves you make against that creature’s spells. You cut a terrifying figure in battle, might as well put it to use, right?
3. At third level you gain a Divine Ally in your blade, letting you add the effect of a disrupting, ghost touch, returning, or shifting rune to your greatsword. You also get the greatsword’s critical specialization effect, making the target flat-footed when you score a critical success. This means they have -2 AC until the start of your next turn. You probably can’t use that too much, but that’s why you’re part of a team. You’d be totally lost without the round table!
Also, to go over the runes: disrupting deals extra damage to undead, ghost touch can touch ghosts, returning lets you throw a weapon and get it back, and shifting lets you turn your sword into another weapon as an action. I personally think disrupting is the best option, but none of them are that in -character.
Your healing factor kicks up again with the general feat Fast Recovery. You successful saves against diseases and poisons cause you to reduce their effectiveness by an extra 1 point per success, and sleeping reduces being drained by 2 points instead of just 1.
Also let’s get Deception up to Expert, just in case anyone looks too closely at the paladin ripping ghosts apart.
4. At fourth level you get another point of focus as well as the Sun Blade devotion spell, letting you properly EX-CALIBAAAAAH at a target, firing a ray of fire damage. The target also takes good damage if they’re evil, and positive damage if they’re undead. Each damage type deals 1d4 damage, or 1d6 if you’re standing in direct sunlight.  At fifth level and every two levels above that, increase each damage type by 1d4/1d6 in sunlight. So if you’re fighting an evil undead, this beam can do 3d4 damage in a single attack, which is roughly as much damage as an actual sword swing could do. In ideal circumstances at level 20, you’d be dealing 27d6 damage in a single beam, truly an attack worthy of being your noble phantasm.
But wait, there’s more! You can also don a Backup Disguise in three action, allowing you to quickly transform into your knightsona before any of the other members of the round table can wake up.
For your archetype feat, the Inspiring Marshal Stance, using a diplomacy check to determine how powerful your stance is. On a success, your allies get a +1 bonus to attacks and saves against mental effects. On a critical success, the aura increases to 20’.
5. Fifth level is pretty quiet in terms of new stuff. You get a buff to Charisma, Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, all weapons, and Religion, but nothing new happens outside of your race stuff.
6. Sixth level definitely makes up for it though! You can now Smite Evil, picking out one foe to deal extra good damage against with each attack until the start of your next turn- unless they’re dumb enough to attack one of your knights, in which case the duration is extended a round. This can last until they wise up or until they’re a pile of ash on the ground, whichever happens first.
You can also make a Group Impression, making a Make an Impression check against two targets at once. This hits four at Expert level diplomacy, 10 at master, and 25 at legendary. You’re the king, you’re going to turn heads wherever you go.
From the Marshal class, you gain a Rallying Charge, moving yourself and striking an enemy. If you hit and deal damage, each ally nearby gains temporary HP. That’s the power of charisma! The feature’s also literally powered by charisma- it’s how you determine how much THP everyone gets.
7. At seventh level you become an expert in all armors as well as Diplomacy. I was really hoping we could avoid levelling diplomacy since you’re actually kind of bad at talking to people properly, but intimidation is more Alter’s style.
On the plus side, your Weapon Specialization lets you deal extra damage with weapons you’re an expert or better in, which is practically all of them!
You can also Exhort the Faithful, letting you use a religion check instead of diplomacy or intimidation if you’re requesting or coercing members of your religion. You get a +2 to the check if you do this, and on a critical fail their attitude doesn’t get worse. Just tell them you need it to get the holy grail, I’m sure they’ll go along with it.
8. At eighth level your Focus Pool is filled with all three points thanks to your Advanced Deity’s Domain, allowing you to cast a Dutiful Challenge against a target for up to a minute. A challenged creature gets a -1 penalty on attacks, damage, and checks targeting creatures other than you, and you take the same penalty for creatures other than it. Duels were big back then, right?
You can also use Quick Coercion to coerce someone after 1 round instead of one minute. If the king yells at you, you’re gonna shit a brick. You can’t do this mid-combat, but I think you’ll have other issues to deal with in a fight.
Finally, you can fight Back to Back with your allies. If the two of you are adjacent, both of you have to get flanked before you become flat-flooted. You can have this bonus for everyone around you, but it stops working as soon as you and one other ally get flanked.
9. Ninth level is another nothing happens level. You get a Divine Smite, but that just adds persistent good damage to your retributive strike. Outside of that, you get a boost to your Class DC, Fortitude and Reflex saves, and Diplomacy. Not every level has to be chock full o’ stuff like level 1 was.
10. Tenth level is a different story. You get four more ability boosts in Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma, as well as the champion feat Radiant Blade Spirit which lets you pick three more runes for your blade: flaming, axiomatic, or holy. The first deals fire damage on each hit, as well as persistent fire damage on crits. Useful, if more gawain’s thing. Axiomatic weapons deal extra damage against chaotic targets, and crits always deal average damage on each die. Holy weapons deal extra damage against evil creatures, and once a day you can react after dealing a critical hit to heal yourself for twice the evil creature’s level. Personally I like the Axiomatic effect, but that’s mostly since I’m not much of a gambler.
You can also make Shameless Requests, reducing outrageous requests’ DCs by 2, and you can’t critically fail a request any more. Again, just tell them you’re going after the holy grail in sixth century Wales, because obviously Christ had been hanging around there in that time period.
We also pick up a pretty weird archetype. The Duelist Dedication isn’t good for much since we’re using a greatsword, but it does grant you the Quick Draw feat, letting you attack with the same action you draw your weapon. Almost like you’re summoning it mid-swing. I know it’s a stretch, but returning runes only work if you throw the damn thing.
11. Level eleven is another pretty quiet one. You’re an expert in perception and a master in will, and we’ll also pick up some training in athletics so you can stay on your horse better. Aside from that, you can now Exalt when using your Retributive Strike, so every creature within 15’ of you and within melee of the target you’re hitting can also use their reaction to attack them with a -5 penalty. Ganging up on someone might not be chivalrous, but damn if it isn’t effective.
The only other new thing is now you’re Diehard, which means it takes five stacks of Dying to kill you, not four. If Saber was easy to kill, she wouldn’t be the protagonist of the whole franchise, would she?
12. A twelfth level champion can become a Blade of Justice, spending two actions to deliver a Strike against someone who’s harmed an ally or innocent being. The strike deals two extra damage dice against evil creatures, as well as adding all benefits from your Retributive Strike like Divine Smite and Exalt.
You also gain an Intimidating Prowess, giving you a +1 bonus to all checks made while coercing or demoralizing someone, and you ignore the penalty for not sharing a language, so not even the French are safe from your steely glare now!
Finally, you can lead a coordinated charge- you can stride and strike like the last one, but this time if it hits and hurts every ally within 60’ can react to move closer to the poor bastard you just hit. Easy out guys, easy out!
13. Thirteenth level is another slow one. You’re a master in weapons and armor now, plus you’re an expert in Athletics. Mana burst is one hell of a drug.
14. At fourteenth level you can bring down a Litany of Righteousness down on your foes, since it’s not really a Nasu game until we spend half an hour detailing our exact ideology on life and What Good Means. Sadly this doesn’t increase your Focus Point amount since the max is three. The litany can target an evil creature and give them weakness 7 to good for a round.
You can also put your mana burst to good use with a Powerful Leap, adding 5’ to your horizontal and vertical leaps. When your only weapon is a sword, you have to make your own ranged attacks.
As a marshal you can also let out a Cadence Call as an action once per minute, quickening everyone in your aura until the end of their next turn, giving them an extra action to stride with. If they use that action, they become slowed on their next turn, losing one action. No, you’re not calling that Cadence. Probably. (That’s my “jokes only like eight people in the audience will get” quota marked off for the day.)
15. Use this round or Ability Boosts to bump up your Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Charisma again, and then use your mana to become a Hefty Hauler and increase your bulk limits by 2. Artoria might be scrawny, but she’s packing a lot of muscle under that armor. Also, her Greater Weapon Specialization lets her deal more damage with weapons she’s trained with- a +6 as a master, and a +8 if she’s legendary. Speaking of skill stuff, let’s get trained in Nature for another boost to your riding skills.
16. At sixteenth level your Aura of Righteousness protects you and your allies from evil. Specifically, it gives you evil resistance 5. You also become an Express Rider to pick up the pace while riding, using a Nature Check to speed up your mount while traveling.
I also want to get another Archetype, but first we need to get two feats from Duelist. Literally none of them are worthwhile since a greatsword is two-handed, so grab whatever you want.
17. Another boring level. Class DC go up, Armor go up, Nature go up. Moving on.
18. At eighteenth level we can finally do that cool thing where Saber sheds her armor to fight a particularly powerful opponent or lancer thanks to Sacrifice Armor. When you take a hit, you can reduce the damage as a reaction by twice your armor’s level. This breaks your armor, or if it was already broken, it’s destroyed instead.
You can also find a Bonded Animal now by spending a week of downtime hanging out with a friendly animal. If you pass a DC 20 Nature check (which you should you’re level 18 for god’s sake) they become permanently helpful to you, though you can only have one Bonded Animal at a time. I know Artoria doesn’t love horses any more but damnit I can dream!
Oh right also pick up a second duelist feat so we can ignore that archetype again I’m sick of looking at it.
19. You’re a protagonist, so we should probably pick up Untrained Improvisation to add your level to your untrained skills while we still can. You can also use focus points to cast Hero’s Defiance, healing you when you’re about to take an attack that would reduce you to 0 HP. You can’t do this again until you refocus, or until your next long rest. It also can’t be used to protect you from Death effects or disintegrate.
We’ll also boost your Nature skill one last time, why not.
20. For our final level, use your last Ability Boost to increase your Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom. You also become a Sacred Defender, giving you a permanent resistance 10 to physical damage types caused by evil creatures. Also, regardless of alignment, creatures and effects that score a critical hit on attacks against you don’t gain any bonus effects.
To guarantee your riding skill is always at its peak, you have Nature Assurance, allowing you to forgo a roll to instead score 10 plus your proficiency bonus  on Nature checks.
Finally, now that our Archetype is free once more, you can become a Swordmaster. This gives you a +2 bonus to the DC against being disarmed. You could swap this and the duelist archetype around to get swordmaster feats that actually help, but waiting til level 20 to get something she could do from the word go doesn't sit right with me, y'know?
Pros
As you’d expect from the strongest class, Saber is great at combat. With almost 300 HP and 40 AC she can eat up damage like Shirou’s cooking, and her Excalibur- sorry, Sun Blade- is a powerful offensive option, dealing plenty of damage against evil and undead targets.
Even though you can stand on your own, you don’t have to thanks to your various auras coordinating your party as well as yourself, granting them protection from mental effects, extra damage, and even helping them move and attack as a unit.
With untrained improvisation and an Axiomatic sword, you’re also really consistent when it comes to both combat and exploration, along with several tricks to save your hide in social encounters as well. It’s almost like the saber class has no weakness…
Cons
That no weaknesses thing was a blatant lie. Your range is awful. Yes, Sun Blade is a ranged attack, but you can only use that three times per focus, and your focuses also power your Not Dying ability which is pretty fucking useful. Sure you can add the returning glyph to your sword, but I seriously doubt throwing your greatsword around will do much of anything.
Despite not having many weaknesses in terms of skills, you’re also not a master in any of them. I mean you are in quite a few actually, but I’m talking about Legendary tier training. Not being legendary locks you out of the high-end skill feats which can be super useful for a low-magic character.
Your best buffs are also pretty situational, working only on evil or chaotic creatures. Sure your regular knightly questing will be fine, but if you find yourself fighting another honorable knight you’ll be up the creek! Thank goodness that’ll never happen!
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nagasakidivision · 2 years
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Damien: 35 facts meme
The absolute amount of dancing around things I had to do when writing this. click button expand it's long etc
He has a pet dog named Lucia!
She is a Schipperke, a small breed of dog once used for controlling rat populations on ships.
They're the little black dogs I've been periodically reblogging in his interest queue!
Everyone loves her. She is aloof around total strangers but can warm up quickly depending on the person.
Damien trusts her judgment in strangers absolutely: if she decides she likes you, as far as he's concerned you're a good person.
She has an extremely extensive trick vocabulary of about 80 commands.
I wish I knew more about Japan's dog show circuit so I could give specifics, but she is titled in rally obedience and agility (albeit only at low levels since Damien can't show her regularly.)
Damien's had her for about three years, but she's a bit older than that. She's likely five years old, once you get past two years it's kind of guesswork.
She's a rescue and that's why her background is a little ambiguous.
"hey raz aren't you supposed to be writing about a human here" ok. :c Damien is a diehard metal fan.
His favorite band is Holy Blood. Waves Are Dancing for best folk metal album of all time. (volume warning: there's screaming)
He's an extremely talented dog trainer (if you hadn't guessed by now) and probably had a missed calling doing it professionally.
It's one of those side jobs he'll do occasionally though.
He has...a lot of side jobs he drifts between. Writing, speaking, dog training, anything that lets him set his own schedule and that he can back away from at a moment's notice.
Capricious, yes he is.
The mall goth clothes stay on even during the dead of summer, so it's a miracle he hasn't died yet given how hot and humid Nagasaki is. He's dedicated.
He's got a good sized wardrobe, on that note!
How he can afford it is unknown. He doesn't seem to have anything approaching a consistent job.
He alternates between crashing with Shirou or Haruto.
He's fluent in Russian and English!
He's on a polyphasic sleep schedule and breaks up his sleep into two 2-hour periods and one 1-hour interval.
This...theoretically works for him but he is powered by energy drinks.
He can use "post-millennial dispensationalism" correctly in a sentence.
Like Shirou, he is devoutly religious.
However, he's within the mukyoukai/churchless movement! I'll have to do a separate post on this because I hit the character limit on this but it's genuinely fascinating as a social/theological movement.
Nagasaki has a sizeable minority of Catholics (the largest in Japan!) but having a somewhat smaller size population for a city in Japan means that his group might be...literally just him and maybe two other people.
He's a Tolstoyan anarchist which is more or less synonymous with religious anarchism...and yes, that's Tolstoy as in Leo Tolstoy, as in the guy from Jakurai's introductory quote, as in the guy who did War and Peace, he's an anarchist and effectively is the guy who codified a lot of religious anarchist philosophy.
He baptized himself when he broke into a park and jumped in a lake. Nobody helped but like, it's the intent that matters, so close enough.
He's exceptionally lucky in that he hasn't got a record yet strictly because the petty trespassing and being a public nuisance hasn't gotten him arrested yet. Mostly because he hasn't been caught yet.
When he says he's a public speaker...that's more in the Emma Goldman/Benjamin Lay sense of preaching about major social ills.
Speaking of talking, he's one of those people who talks with his hands a lot. He's extremely animated.
Not pictured: aside from the snakebite piercings, he also has lobe piercings and two helix piercings!
Obviously the fringe is dyed but the rest of his hair is also dyed black.
Looks and attitude aside...he's an exceptionally fast (and voracious) reader who spends a lot of time in libraries
He's in pretty good shape! Very acrobatic. A fast runner in spite of being short.
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Note
What’s your novel about?
I like this question. Because It technically has three answers.
1. My epic fantasy novel set in a far off kingdom with a Fae princess named Aithne who does not, absolutely does not, want to marry the human prince (Frederick) she's been betrothed to because he saved her life one time when they were kids. Frederick has grown into an epic asshole, and Aithne wants nothing to do with him, even though she will outlive him more than six times over. Also, because of the customs of Frederick's kingdom, Aithne would lose all rights to her voice, and essentially be forced into what we consider conventional gender roles. So, she goes on a lot of epic adventures, ends up rallying a lot of people quite by accident, and ends up overthrow Fredrick and his father Gregory, because they're tyrannical assholes, and everyone is fed up with their shit. Afterwards, she ends up uniting all the kingdoms by having one person from each serve on the new High Council. It's going to be a series.
Been kinda pressed for a title on this one though.
2. The help book I'm writing, mostly targeted towards men, for dating/romance advice, especially when it comes to women. I get it, not all men, but there are those who desperately need it. Basically, how to be a decent human being. But, if I frame it as "how to get laid", then surely someone will actually take my advice.
Only part of that answer was satirical, but, seriously, some people really need all the help they can get, and if I don't write it, then who will? Instead of playing the guessing game, why not take it from the horse's mouth?
This one's called "Get a Clue". I'm not sure about the subtitle thought.
3. My other fantasy novel, in which a Fae trickster (It's Puck, I'm not gonna lie, it's Puck), ends up luring and tricking a young woman into going to the Fae Realm with him. Basically, he kidnaps her, and she's supposed to be his now. That's all I really got, but I do know that I've been visualizing a movie version of Puck being played by Jamie Campbell Bower.
Again, not a completely fleshed out thought, so it doesn't have a title yet either.
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thef1nalb0ss · 9 months
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Faction Rankings: Week of June 19, 2023- June 25, 2023
Not a great week for factions, but we're doing this anyway!
10. Alpha Academy
They lost to The Viking Raiders, but at least that loss came after Maxxine got to show off what Chad has been teaching her. When Otis and Chad were congratulating Maxxine on taking down Valhalla, they were distracted enough for The Viking Raiders to sneak up with a pin.
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9. Damage CTRL
Okay, so, bad news out of the way first: Bayley's match with Shotzi got canceled, so Damage CTRL wasn't on at all this week. The good news is that since that match was canceled, Bayley is still in the MITB ladder match (at least for now).
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8. Imperium
Vinci is still not back after Matt's backstage attack, and Matt won against Kaiser last week. It seems unusual that a European native like Gunther isn't yet on the MITB card, and there's only one Raw to go. Because of this, its likely a match with Matt will make its way onto the card this week.
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7. Gallus
As is business as usual for the NXT parking lot, Joe got kidnapped by Stacks. Mark and Wolfgang have to defend against Edris and Malik this week, and if Joe's not back by then, they won't have the numbers advantage like they usually do.
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6. Chase U
A pep rally before a championship match went just about how you'd expect- the champion showed up. Tiffany told Thea, with all of Chase U watching, that there was no way she was getting the title. Thea, in response, put her in the Kimura Lock. They'll face each other for the championship this week.
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5. The Viking Raiders
They got the win over Alpha Academy after a distraction, but Valhalla can't rely on chasing Maxxine out of ringside anymore. After an arm drag two weeks ago, Maxxine hit her with a suplex this week.
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4. Indus Sher
They had another match with Cedric and Shelton, although this one actually had the bell ring. Cedric and Shelton got a little offense, but it was really always going in Indus Sher's direction, and their winning streak continues.
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3. The Bloodline
After Solo spiked Ridge backstage, Sheamus demanded a match. The match ended by referee stoppage after Solo ran into Sheamus on the barricade. Afterwards, though, The Usos arrived to deliver a few superkicks ahead of the tag team match at MITB.
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2. The Judgement Day
Finn ruined Seth's open challenge by attacking him before it started, and then attacking him backstage as well, leading to it being canceled. He also attacked Seth after his match in NXT against Bron, but Melo and Trick made the save that time. In addition, Finn, Damian, and Dom lost a six-man tag match against Cody, Sami, and Kevin. Rhea attacked Natalya before their match even started, and then exchanged words with Raquel backstage. Now, though, it appears Raquel is back in the tag division after Liv returned, so who knows if Rhea has to worry about her or not.
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1. Meta-Four
Lash and Jakara made their tag team debut on NXT, defeating Valentina and Yulisa. They had the hertiage cup table ringside, despite Noam losing it when he had Oro stand in for him in the match against Nathan two weeks ago.
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welcometomy20s · 1 year
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February 12, 2023
For a long time in my life, I have been focused on making the world better. I wasn’t very good at the prospect, but I was very invested in the potential of this project. I foolishly thought many people had the same intention when living their lives but I think as I engaged with the world and learned from the experience, the fact that it was otherwise was my biggest takeaway.
“We all want to be heroes on the good side…” - Villain, Stella Jang
Think about the reason the social gatherings you went to exist. I know it’s oddly phrased, but what was that gathering about? Did it have a purpose? If it did, what was it?
Recently, many people gathered together for a social event. In fact, it was one of the largest annual social gatherings in America. Of course, I was talking about the Super Bowl. A month or so later, there will be another large social gathering of a similar scale. That would be the Oscars.
Compare these two gatherings to something like raising a barn shed, or community gardening. These are prosocial events. The goal of the events is to elevate the community. Super Bowls and Oscars are not about elevating the community, or at least the community in which you belong, you go there to worship someone or something else. This is a parasocial event.
I do not know if the balance between these two events has shifted over the centuries, but I reckon that in the olden days, most people visited one parasocial event, going to church. God was the only parasocial figure necessary, with the occasional visit from a Lord, not to be confused with the Lord, a title bestowed upon the Christian god.
Now you can’t have just god on your side, but also anime. Or sitcoms. Or sports. Or the countless other forms of parasocial infrastructures that were developed in the past couple centuries. Parasocialism, perhaps related to Guy Debord’s The Spectacle, is one the hidden backbone of late capitalism, the main trick to generate profits where there is none.
As Debord explained so deftly, Parasocialism, paralleled with financialization, is one of the most complex systems that the universe ever conjured upon itself, that both work to hide the true goals of denying life's rebellion under the inexorable march of universe’s destruction.
Our days, if you are deep into the jaws of Parasocialism, are preoccupied with a terraces of turf wars that portray their side as the ‘good side’ and the other as the ‘bad’. Making the world better is, at best, an incidental goal, the true goal in these fights is to rally the lumbering beast that is their own feelings into the One True Reality. It is collective solipsism at its deepest.
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elvenferretots · 3 years
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isolemnlyswear · 3 years
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hey ev 🤭 could u pls write something abt remus showing the marauders map to the reader and explaining how to use it? tysm 😁😁😚😚
i solemnly swear | r.l |
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warnings/content : remus lupin x fem!reader , platonic!marauders x reader , swearing, mentions of sex, lots of cheeky lil jokes,
taglist : @oldschoolkiddo @amourtentiaa @anchoeritic @faeinorbit @mistress-riddle @inks-and-jinx @jxsperhxle @punkrific @mellifluous-cosmos @krasivayadarling @orifortheweeknd @fallin-4-ya @daisyyy2516 @hoe4cedricdiggory @vsawyer1989 @fathermarty @silly-little-bl0g @outerspacecalum (tell me if you’d like to be added!)
note : thank you for beta-reading @miss-starkov <3 if any of you would like to beta read for a future fic lmk <3
a/n : yes i chose the title for my username. no i don’t regret it. and i’m sorry there is not much romantic interaction between rem and reader in this!! it’s more platonic w the marauders and remus is cute at the end but. <3
•••
You're curious; that's all there is to it. You're desperate to open the complex folds of parchment and reveal whatever may be inside – that is, your boyfriend didn't tell you what it was before accidentally leaving it on his desk. And now he was gone, attempting to rally up the rest of the boys and prevent them from doing a reckless prank or two, leaving you alone to fight your urge to open it.
And it's stupid, really, but you give in. You sit down carefully on the desk – attempting not to make any noise, although not another soul is in the room – and pick up the paper.
You clasp gentle fingers around it, trying to open it up, but it doesn't open. It's as if it's locked; so you pull out your wand and tap it gently, reciting a quiet “Alohamora”.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work, and you berate yourself mentally for not realizing that Remus, along with the others, the master of all spells and tricks, would make it as simple as that.
You huff in annoyance, turning it around and inspecting the small lettering and drawings scrawled there.
Suddenly, you jump out of your seat, practically throwing the paper across the room when you hear the boys entering the room, clamoring loudly and speaking over one another.
“Where’d you put it, Moons? We need it, now,” Sirius asks, clearly annoyed.
“I don't want to give it to you if you're going to be gits about it–” the lycanthrope pauses as he turns around, finally setting his eyes on you. You're curled into the chair, worried you'll be chided for looking at this clearly important thing in the first place.
There's a few moments of silence, and Remus walks over to you, leaning against the wall flush to his desk. You open your mouth to speak, but Remus does the same.
“I'm sorry–”
“Now, what did you find?” Remus’s voice overpowers yours, for the cadence is slower and deeper, but it's not haranguing in the least; he, like you, is merely curious.
“I-I dunno,” you respond, eyes wide, and Sirius fights back laughter in the background, with James sitting opposite him wearing a prideful smirk.
“Well, I think you have what these twats want,” he says, shooting them a pointed glare, then looking back to you. He offers out his hands for you to give him back the paper, and you do so, cowering back into your chair, still scared of being reprimanded for looking through his private items.
“I'm sorry, I–” you begin, but Remus merely smiles.
“Don't be sorry. Y’were bound to find out somehow,” he says, fetching his wand from his back pocket.
“What-what is it?” you ask, now eyes wide with inquisition rather than fear. He doesn't respond, but he grins, raising an eyebrow and tapping the paper with his wand - much like you did.
“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”
The map - yes, you can see it's a map now - unfolds, intricacies making themselves seen as it flattens into a complex web of footsteps and pathways on the faded parchment.
You exhale in pure bewilderment, eyes wide and mouth agape.
“The marauder's map,” James says from the other side of the room, grin plastering his features, and Sirius has a similar one embellishing his.
“What does it do?” you finally ask, leaning toward Remus to get a better look at it.
“Hmm… Have a look up in that corner, yeah, there,” he says, and you point your finger to where you are - the Gryffindor tower - and find four pairs of footsteps in a dorm room. This door room.
And sure enough, there is one pair of footsteps directly next to another; one is labeled “Remus Lupin” and the other “Y/N L/N”.
You take in a sharp inhale, looking up at Remus, who has a shit-eating grin on his face, and then he straightens up to take a step. Your eyes flick from him, walking across the dorm to James, and to the map, which mirrors his movements exactly.
“Did- how did you make this?” you ask, eyebrows furrowing in inquiry, and if possible, Remus’s smile gets even wider.
“Take a few spells, tap into the ward system that Hogwarts already has… easy going, really!” Remus says, biting his lip as he grins again.
“Says the man that took four months to make it, let alone thinking up the idea since we fuckin’ got here,” James jabs with a roll of his eyes and a smirk, and Remus punches him in the arm, scrunching his nose.
“Hey, Prongs, I helped too,” Sirius pouts in feigned annoyance, and Remus scoffs.
“If by helping you mean telling me exactly who on the map we've pranked and attempting to list off every student in the whole bloody school, then sure, Pads, you helped,” the sandy-haired boy replies, raising his eyebrows.
“Oh fuck off, I got to about seventy.”
“The greatest wizard in our year! An uncanny ability to list off names of his peers! Get this man an award!” James says with great bravado, slapping his hands to his cheeks and getting up to kneel below Sirius.
“Bugger off, you two, or I'll maul you as Padfoot.”
“Ah! the big bad wolf! Let me protect you, Y/N, or he’ll come for our necks!” Remus says, holding back laughter, but you don't. You're giggling obsessively as the boy runs over to sweep you in his arms, feigning a growl at Sirius and guarding you with his limbs.
Sirius laughs, but it's distorted as he transforms into his animagus, a large, fluffy black dog, and runs at you.
He jumps at you – not with any attention to hurt, of course – and paws at your shoulders, grinning his doggy grin and you reach your arms from Remus’s grasp to ruffle the fur behind his ears.
A few minutes of gentle playfighting pass, and after your laughter subsides you're able to focus your attention back on the map.
You've moved to the couch now, and you're sprawled across Remus’s lap with his hands playing delicately with your hair. Sirius, the dog that is, is lying on top of you, and you're petting him idly as James rattles on about his latest endeavor with Lily.
The map catches your eye again, and you pick it up, diverting your attention from the dog on your lap and to your wand. You recite the words as Remus told you, and it opens, revealing two footsteps on top of each other where you're sitting.
James stops talking, and you look up at Remus.
“Where's Pads?” you ask, and the mess of fur on top of you perks his head up at the mention of his name.
“It doesn't show people in their animagus form,” Remus explains.
“Ah, that's why the animagus shit is useful, huh? Other than the, y’know, full moon,” you say, and Remus nods, smiling at you. “It does show us overlaid on each other, though,” you observe with a raised eyebrow, and James scoffs in laughter.
“That means we can see you when you-”
“James,” Remus warns, cutting off the bespectacled boy with a firm look, and Sirius lets out his dog laugh (a sort of snort and shake of his big head). James holds his hands up as if in surrender, and you laugh.
“Just sayin’, don't try anything.”
“Oh believe me, I will have this with me at all times we are–”
“Fucking?” James interrupts bluntly, cocking his head to the side.
Remus sighs. “I was going to say alone.”
“Same thing,” you say quietly, giggling, and Remus fights back a smirk.
“Moving on very quickly from that,” the lycanthrope says after a few beats, and you grin, sitting up in his lap to cuddle into his chest. Sirius jumps up and into his human form, laying back onto the couch and opening his mouth to speak.
“Ah-” Remus chides, “no ruining it. Twas so nice when you were silent,” he sighs in feigned wistfulness, and you laugh.
“Fuck off, you twat,” Sirius says, beginning to ramble on again, and you nestle into Remus’s lap, inhaling his scent with your face in his neck.
“M’tired,” you speak into his collarbone after a few minutes, and he smiles, kissing your forehead.
“Sleep, pretty girl. I'll be here when you wake up.”
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rattlerinthewheel · 3 years
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Fight Like Siblings: Scud/Reader
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You fight like siblings. That’s where anything "familial" ends.
For the Season of Kink bingo square: wall sex, at @phoenixblack89’s request along with a gender neutral reader (well, female, but I couldn’t manage so we settled on gender neutral). Sorry for the delay! Got a migraine towards the end of the night and wanted to do one last proofread this morning.
Title is a wink to Eric and his "sister" Nora from True Blood, when he says they fight like siblings but fuck like champions. No incest here, though.
- - -
The van’s cluttered. Weapons, junk, junk food out in the open or stuffed away under ratty blankets. There’s hardly a place for you to be without something clanging off your hip or crinkling under your foot. It’s unavoidable, because not only is the van trashed, but it’s dark. A bank of TVs is your only light source, some of them switched off, the rest displaying grainy feed that just barely gives you the shapes of the other familiar against the opposite wall.
You slump against the back wall, eyeing the doors the familiar slammed shut after you leapt in. You don’t hear anything, and the feed’s utterly boring, so you relax by a fraction—and stiffen when you feel something with give to it sag under the hand you put down. Soft, sticky, and it flakes off onto your palm when you snatch your hand back.
It’s a goddamn donut.
"Could’ve left you out there, you know," Frohmeyer—Damaskinos is too formal to call him Josh, or Scud, which you don’t blame; it’s fucking stupid—says from where he’s a lump on the floor, seeing your look. Content with the rest of the trash.
"Couldn’t kill you to clean up," you scoff, tossing the donut at him. It’s childish, but so’s the cartoon he’s got playing on one of the TVs. "Damaskinos would be disgusted."
"Damaskinos ain’t here," Frohmeyer scoffs.
He fishes out a cigarette, and the orange spark of the lighter that materializes like some magic trick hurts your eyes. Nicotine burns your sinuses, but at least it isn’t the earthy weed you get a whiff of, seeped into the blankets.
"’Sides, keep your voice down," he snaps, clapping the Zippo shut and tossing it into the middle of the van. You guess that’s what he does with most of the junk scattered around when he’s done with it. "Damaskinos wouldn’t be too thrilled if you gave us away."
"Oh, so now you’re worried about it?"
You fall into bickering. Fighting like siblings, some of the familiars do. Part of it’s the need to get out of familiar status alive—well, turned. Prove to the one you’ve given yourself over to that you’re worth it, carrying their name, representing them.
Part of it’s that the only thing that bonds you is that you are familiars, otherwise you’d likely never interact with one another a day in your lives.
With Frohmeyer, you’d be sure of that.
"You should smile more," pulls you out of scowling at the donut where it landed against his leg.
You’d finally fallen quiet, too—but it’s just like Frohmeyer to ruin things. "You should get drained."
"Aw," he hums, and another cloud of smoke burns your nose, "the baby jealous Big Brother got the job instead? Had to hold Nyssa’s hand after I did all the work?"
You’re livid, and you make that clear by your lack of response. You’ve only been sent in after Frohmeyer’s done the hard task of getting in the daywalker’s good graces. You know why, that logically, Frohmeyer was the better choice to lure those two females at that campsite—and by default, the daywalker, once they started tearing into him.
But it still stings. And by the smokey grin that leers at you, Frohmeyer knows it still does, too.
"Fuck off," is what you settle on, pushing to your feet and not caring when you kick his ankle by accident.
"Fuck off yourself," gets scoffed up from below, with another thick cloud of smoke. You expect that.
But you don’t expect the foot he lashes out, that hooks your instep and sends you stumbling. "Asshole!" would probably draw a reaper or two, if there were any shown skulking around in the feeds; but there aren’t, so you let it bellow, and because he just grins at that you can’t do anything but lunge at him.
It isn’t fair. Tinkering and building—he calls it art; you call it clutter to stub your foot on—has given him strength, from having to clamber and lift his bigger projects. You don’t have any hobbies that give you an edge, so it’s you that ends up against the van’s wall, thumped into it, with his hands bracing yours in the curve where wall and ceiling bend.
It’s not fair, either, that he isn’t even bad-looking. That would make hating him easier.
At least it does so for the fucking.
His bangs are greasy, unwashed, but you like the way they both hide and make his eyes pop. A blue that’ll be downright deadly, once he’s turned. That’ll go bleach-blue, once he’s drank his fill, silver in the worst of blackness. Cheekbones that cut, soft-looking arms that bunch with hidden steel when you try to wrangle yourself free. It’ll cut harsher, harden to bedrock when he’s earned his place.
Maybe there’s something in that nicotine that isn’t, after all. The cigs did look home-rolled.
You’re too busy taking in his tongue to ask.
You feel his laugh buzz around your teeth as you cringe back, at first; he was halfway through puffing out another damn cloud, and it dries out your throat and chalks your tongue.
You get back at him by kissing deeper, biting into his bottom lip where the tattoo is. He has a penchant for rubbing the spot on the outside, you’ve noticed, the nerves scrambled from the overeager vampire that inked it. Yours doesn’t bother you—the meat of it’s raised, but that’s all—but he bites down on yours in retaliation. But the growl he follows it with is light and playful.
"Quit fucking around," you huff.
His grin’s wide and flashes teeth that aren’t sharp. They will be, one day, you can practically see the fangs he’ll get wink down with it. "Get right to it, then? Sure, baby."
"Don’t," you warn, even as he lets your hands go so you can paw at the front of his pants. Baby is too often used when he’s dangling the fact that he’s older (and was found and picked first) over your head. You can’t associate it with anything but the fact that you’re not-really-siblings.
You don’t need some incest angle forced into this. Jesus, no.
He lets it go, not because he’s being nice. You pulling him out is distracting—one of the guaranteed ways you’ve figured out, over the years, that will shut him up.
It doesn’t quiet him entirely. He pants against your cheek where he leans his head against yours, curling his fingers in your hair to keep them busy—they always need to be doing something—and his sharp inhales shake back out thready. He moans when you start stroking him, at a slow and even pace because this is the only peace you’ll get from him anytime soon. You want to take advantage of that. Even if his weight pressing on yours slowly drags you down, until you both kneel on the floor with the junk and trash.
You hiss at the burn in your legs as the hands that are plucking at a knot in your hair drop to your shoulders and bend you back, pinning you back. But the noise gets swallowed as he kisses you again, his hard-on pressing into your stomach.
You get a hand back on his cock, the other pushing his hip out so you can get to it.
"Just think how good this’ll be, when we don’t need air," he hums, panting.
You roll your eyes, but you help him get your jeans down, and he turns you to the van’s wall to get things going.
And it’s going well, his rhythm eager and greedy, your meeting thrusts keeping up, until the van shudders as something heavy drops on its roof.
Your swear gets muffled by the hand that clamps over it. You’re too frozen to bite it like you want to, and you don’t get the chance when you get your wits back because it’s off your mouth just as fast. He’s out of you, with it, and you can’t help but ache at the abrupt end even as he points to one of the TVs and you get your jeans up.
On top of the roof, a reaper’s crouched, scenting—and down the street, from another angle, you watch more lope towards the van.
"Shit," he hisses, fumbling with the panel under the TVs and you get ahold of his gun. You’re already pointing it towards the doors, waiting, as you hear a shriek too awful to even be vampire. Normal vampire.
"Get your pants up," you tell him distantly. If you have to make a run for it, you aren’t risking your own neck to help him up if he trips over himself.
He does, and you shove his gun at him while you grab yours, when a quick glance to the feeds show you aren’t going to be overrun in the second you’re defenseless. But it’ll happen, soon enough; the reaper overhead snarls and the blow it aims lags after the dent and crunch that bursts down, mangling the roof. It’s some kind of rallying or hunting cry, because the reapers in the street begin to sprint.
"Ready?" He’s got a thumb on one of the panel’s switches, ready to flick. "UV’ll smoke most of ‘em, ‘cept the dipshit on the roof."
It’ll try to get in any way it can. You get what his nod to the door means: control where it gets in, so you aren’t surprised.
"Do it."
He does, and when what’s left of the pack is still flaking and sizzling, you put more than enough rounds in the remaining repeal. Just to be safe, one of the UV lights are angled it’s way, where it’s already wilting and curling like a dead spider.
Then it’s gone, too.
It’s a mood killer, but once you’re back in the van and he’s done radioing the team to let them know what’s been dealt with, you get into light petting easily enough.
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Kávé got his intermediate trick title (TKI)! Now I want to focus more on his skills for Rally so we can hopefully submit for his RN virtually within the next few months!
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pawsitivevibe · 1 year
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Not everyone is lucky enough to have a dog sports trial a half hour away from them every weekend of the year pretty much, so I was thinking about making some informative posts about virtual trialing options. A lot of people know about the trick titles, but there's also options for agility, rally, disc, Hoopers, etc. Virtual trialing is a really really great option, and has exploded in popularity thanks to the pandemic. There's way more venues offering it now.
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