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creacherkeeper · 3 years

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read ur pacific rim fh au and am LOSING it!! like the implications!! if you’re still doing the headcanon thing and okay w this, can i ask for more headcanons about that au? specifically are fig and kristen piloting together or doing other non combat roles? also jawbone piloting HELLO!! and god just. everything you said about the sisters.

OH I AM MORE THAN HAPPY TO OBLIGE

so jawbone was actually one of the original pilots, and the only one still in commission. he's definitely getting too old for it but he trusts in his abilities and overall wants to keep his niece, tracker, as safe as he can. also he doesn't want to leave the base because he thinks of all of the young pilots as his kids and they frequently come to him when they're having problems. the moonlit werewolf is the only mark-3 still fighting

among the other original pilots was sandra lynn. she and gorthalax piloted the demon ranger. fig was much closer to her (as she found out later) step father gilear (who acted as a government liaison for the jaeger program) than she was to sandra lynn growing up, due to her always being based elsewhere or out on missions. fig's world got shaken in her high school years when it came out that sandra lynn was having a long-time affair with her co-pilot, and she and gilear divorced. sandra lynn and gorthalax were benched. sandra lynn was kept on base as a consultant, but gorthalax ended up traveling to where fig was to try and explain himself and repair their relationship. while on a music tour several years later, mostly running away from her problems more than anything else, fig witnessed first hand a kaiju attack. she realized how important the job of pilot was, and applied to the program. aguefort accepted her right away

pok was one of the original minds behind the jaeger program. together with aguefort, he created the pons system that linked pilot's minds. people speculated that pok 'disappearing' was because of this. that either his research killed him, or someone else did because of it. riz only ever wanted to figure out his father's disappearance. becoming a pilot was just the easiest way to do it (at least in his eyes). he really didn't mean to start caring about all these people along the way

aguefort was the first jaeger pilot. it was said he had a partner, but no one knows who it could've been. there are rumors he piloted the chronophoenix all by himself. but those are just rumors. his daughter, ayda, won't speak on any of them. she doesn't really like talking about her father in general. though she certainly grew up with a knowledge of combat, knowledge of tactics, knowledge of jaegers and how to pilot them, she only ever meant to be a scholar. she studied kaiju and how they worked. she studied the oceans they came from. she studied the earth and how it changed. she was a scientist. she didn't count on meeting fig

fig's relationship with sandra lynn was incredibly strained when fig first got accepted as a pilot. sandra lynn never meant for fig to follow in her footsteps. the years of combat had gotten her fucked in the head enough, she didn't need to worry about her daughter too. when fig came back injured from her very first mission, her partner, penelope everpetal, dead before their medics could reach her, two things changed:

one: sandra lynn realized her daughter wouldn't be dissuaded, and that if she couldn't be a mom, she could be a teacher

two: ayda realized there were some things worth fighting for (fig was one of them. the biggest one she could think of)

fabian piloted like he had something to prove, because he did. his papa had made a name for himself. fabian would too. and if that meant killing kaiju for his father to harvest and sell on the black market, that's what he would do. he thought he'd be paired up with a guy like gorgug, maybe ragh, not some scrawny little nerd who knew more about the mechanics of the brain than how to throw a proper punch. the first time they drifted, he got it. he got why riz was there. and riz understood him, too. that was the thing about the drift. no secrets. they vowed to keep each others. when ragh threw riz into a trashcan their first day of practice, fabian broke his nose. the two of them were pretty close after that. and they eventually got chummy with ragh, too, after dayne was expelled from the program. ragh was moved to combat trainer. fabian and riz eventually came to pilot the gilded spyglass. it took time to master the balance between grace and force, strength and dexterity, damage and speed. but they found it. and they were unstoppable. almost.

gorgug never wanted to be a pilot. his parents were mechanics. that was the whole thing, really. you grow up around jaegers, you understand them, and you're good at it. even if you don't want to be. even if you wished you could have the brains and not the brawn. or be a medic, like kristen. kristen actually helped people. gorgug was big enough to throw a mean punch. some things changed when zelda came. she needed a co-pilot. the world needed heroes. gorgug never thought of himself as one, but he knew how to fight. and he knew he wanted to protect zelda. not that she needed it. but he wanted to. he wanted to if she would let him. the enormity of his decision didn't really hit him until they were facing their first kaiju. he understood jaegers. he didn't really want to understand monsters, too

kristen wasn't a pilot, and that was fine. she patched people up. when fabian and riz came back with electrical burns, she patched them up. when metal frenzy got a building to the face and gorgug and zelda both had concussions, she patched them up. when tracker came to the clinic with yet another random, minor, 'accidental' injury, kristen patched her up

when the storm oracle was pulled to the bottom of the ocean, and both adaine and aelwyn nearly drowned, kristen sat by their bedsides and did not leave for three days

it was what she did

and that was fine, for a while. but the kaiju kept coming. and people kept getting hurt. and kristen thought, for the first time, that maybe she was very tired of cleaning up messes. maybe she wanted to go out and make some of her own

the thing was that kristen was charismatic, in that awkward, foot-in-the-mouth, guard-down-around-them kind of a way. she talked to people. and she knew things. she got along with almost everyone, except for the people that she didn't. it was just ... no one expected her to be drift compatible

no one expected her to be drift compatible with ... literally everyone

she chose tracker, though. of course she chose tracker. who else? and jawbone deserved some rest, after all this time, even if he did refuse to leave the base. leave all his kids. they gave him a trauma counselor position, and he got ... close with sandra lynn. it was a little weird at first. it made sense, though. everyone admitted it made sense. and the de facto parents of the base didn't ruin everyone's fun too much. when there was fun to have, at least

and there wasn't always. there wasn't at the end. not with how many kaiju were coming through the breach

moonlit werewolf could close it. it was mark-3, after all. nuclear. no one thought kristen should be the one to do it. she was so new. she was a medic, for whoever the fuck's sake people were praying to now. but, it was kristen. she'd make the sacrifice play, if she had to. every time

gilded spyglass, metal frenzy, storm oracle, wizard's paramour, and moonlit werewolf touched down at the breach

and kristen, with a hole in her chest, was the last one to surface

they save her, though. of course they do. this is a happy story. and because it's a happy story, eventually there are no jaeger pilots. there are no jaegers. there are scientists and medics and teachers and musicians, and there are the bad kids, which they all say ironically, because they don't really feel like they ever got to be kids at all

there's time, after. there's a lot to rebuild. to fix. to figure out, in the aftermath. but they have time

for the first time in a long, good while, for most of their short and fragile lives, they feel like they have time

#fantasy high #dimension 20 #the bad kids #pacific rim au #YOU CANT DO THIS TO ME NONNY #YOU CANT JUST BE LIKE #HEY DO YOU WANT TO EXPAND ON THAT AU OF YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE #BECAUSE YES #YES I DO #fuck i listened to the pacific rim ost twice over while writing this #i need to go the fuck to bed #ENJOY GOODNIGHT!!!!!!!!

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r0sebutch · 3 years

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okay so. as someone who’s in love with aelwyn abernant. can i talk about bad end fig i would LOVE to talk about bad end fig.

a fig where sandralynn got kalina just a bit earlier. where fig’s had kalina for a long time, not since birth, but since she was young enough for her mom to kiss scrapes better to stop fig’s crying. fig who grew up with her mom’s friend kalina, coming over for afternoon gossip and smiling at fig and telling her that she was growing up so quickly, looking just like her mom, you know. the kind of mom’s friend that becomes aunt kalina, that fig can turn to when she’s thirteen and growing horns and furious with her mom and her “dad”.

a fig that auntie kalina tells that she’s justified in her feelings, that tells her she’s right to feel that way. a fig that auntie kalina tells that her feelings are valid, but she shouldn’t be mean to her parents. a fig that ends up repressing all of that rage and heartbreak and betrayal and staying their perfect little cheerleader, sweet and peppy and furious and perfecting the art of crying silently enough that your parents can’t hear you.

and then… well, aguefort cheerleaders are all… of a kind. and penelope is really such a good friend and role model to the freshmen! and oh, you know kalina? i know her too! isn’t that a coincidence? and oh, do you want to come to this party i’m throwing? and oh, do you want to help me and kalina out with a little thing we’re doing? and she wouldn’t be a bad kid, would she, because she wouldn’t get detention on her first day and she’d probably make a party with some other frosh cheerleaders and would she even meet any of the bad kids? maybe adaine, if aelwyn was still part of kalina’s plans- she might not be, fig being as useful a tool as she could possibly be- but even then, adaine would just be the little sister of a coworker, a friend, maybe. adaine would be a kid her age, yes, someone she could connect to, in a different life, but in this one? kalina tells her that it’d be safer to stick to her adventuring party, to her friends on the cheer squad, and she trusts her aunt, right?

i think bad end fig would have a lot in common with aelwyn. repressed emotion coming out in the form of self destructive tendencies in the form of partying and substance abuse and being the Perfect Child. obviously, their situations are different- vastly so, even in this universe- but they would still have that connection. that one person that they can actually let loose around and with, that one person that- even though they both know the other would betray them at the drop of a hat if kalina told them to- they actually kind of trust.

and then for aelwyn to get caught at ostentatia’s house party, for her to get broken out by the fallinel agents and brought to an elven prison, for penelope to be killed at prom… in this universe, i don’t think fig takes that splash damage. i think that she lays low, and i think that she represses that hurt and that fear just like everything else, and i think she was at ostentatia’s party and i think she saw the bad kids (minus 1) in action and i think that the other freshmen cheerleaders in her adventuring party bore her and i think adaine recognizes herself, in fig, just a little bit. a little scared, and a little furious, and a little hurt, and a lot hiding underneath. and i think that the bad kids just kind of… take fig off the cheerleader’s hands, even though she’s still cheerleading. and kalina loves this for her, tells her everything that will make her act the right way, keeps her on track as her little double agent.

and if she wasn’t with them, didn’t have that connection to gorthalax, they would probably still have found johnny spells’ patron somehow. would probably have stumbled into letting him out. would probably not trust him, but he’s too powerful for them to beat him if they tried, and we know him. first thing he does when he’s let out is find fig. and of course she loves him, of course she’s happy that he didn’t just abandon her, but she’s still repressing her emotions just like kalina manipulated her into doing and on top of that she’s also still hurting because even though he didn’t abandon her outright he kind of still did so she gives him a big perfect smile and hugs him and he can tell that it isn’t quite real, isn’t quite right, but she’s trying and he can try too, for her.

and then they go on their spring break adventure and she’s still not right because kalina has been over her shoulder this whole time and the other bad kids know somethings wrong but this version of her is actually the closed book canon fig thinks she is and so they don’t push it because they don’t want to push her away but they’re going to stop the nightmare king and fig… fig doesn’t suggest they bring sandralynn OR gilear. fig pretends she can’t see kalina in the photo. fig smiles sweetly and does as she’s told, and she intentionally fails her dominate person save because kalina told her to and she trusts kalina, so she should do it, right? and fig knows something’s wrong by now but if she tries to stop now, after everything she’s done, that’s worse, somehow, because that would mean acknowledging that it was wrong all along instead of just pretending otherwise and she would lose everyone she loves but she’s going to lose them anyways and isn’t it better to just have them for now? to just keep them for as long as she can? but then gorthalax is in a gem again because she failed that save, even though kalina told her she wasn’t going to hurt him, and then she almost killed riz, and everything is going wrong and it’s her fault, isn’t it? and the bad kids think they understand why she’s upset but they don’t, not really, because they couldn’t even begin to grasp the whole of it from what she’s let slip. and she loves them and she’s betraying them and she has been since before she even knew they existed and she loves them, dammit, why can’t they just see that?

and then they get to the forest.

and fig has to make that decision all over again.

#long post #fantasy high #fh #fig faeth #bad end fig #PLEASE ask me things about this or add more to this i really want to talk about this with someone #can we talk about the cheerleader repression and how fig must miss them at least a little bit i’ve been dying to talk about the ch

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supercantaloupe · 3 years

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@dimension20alphabet prompt #11: kitten

title: Un/Welcome - campaign: Fantasy High: Sophomore year - 1114 words - set post-canon

The girls discuss what to do about the newest member of Mordred Manor.

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Sol’s son, are you always going to be this much of a hardass about everything?”

“Some things, yes.” Aelwyn folds her arms and looks stern.

“You’re really going to say no to this?” Kristen coos, holding up the kitten to be eye level. Aelwyn makes a face and leans back.

“Yes.”

“Aw, come on,” Kristen whines, pouting. “Even you have to admit she’s cute. Right, Fig?”

“It’s pretty damn cute,” Fig shrugs and smiles. “What do you have against it?”

“You all know damn well what I have against it,” Aelwyn says acidly, first scowling at Fig and then back at Kristen and the little cat in her hands. “I don’t know why you don’t feel the same,” Aelwyn adds suspiciously.

“I dunno,” Kristen shrugs and sets the kitten down on the table. She can just about cradle the little thing in one hand, it’s so small and delicate. “Not nearly as scary as the last one.”

“Ugh. This is--” Aelwyn shakes her head again and huffs. From the table, the kitten looks up at her with its big green eyes, at once curious and indifferent (yet distinctly absent of malice). Its fur was so dark as to transcend black into shades of purple and blue, like the sky over the Celestine Sea at midnight, and shimmers as though flecked with just as many stars. Aelwyn looks away, in time to catch sight of her sister passing in the hall. “Adaine, you must tell them how ridiculous this all is.”

“What are you arguing about now?” Adaine asks, entering the room and looking among her sisters both biological and honorary.

“Kristen wants to keep the cat, Aelwyn doesn’t,” Fig explains, gesturing to the kitten on the table before them. “I’m team ‘keep it.’ I think it’s cool.”

“Where did you even get a cat?” Adaine asks, coming over to the table and kneeling down. She rests her elbows and chin on the table and extends a finger to wave at the kitten, who watches it intently and occasionally bats at it with a paw.

“Cassandra sent it to me,” Kristen says. “I think.” The others look at her, confused and curious. Kristen sits forward in her chair and begins to gesture with her hands as she explains. “I woke up this morning and there was just this fucking cat in the chapel, right? So I went to the altar and asked them like, ‘Yo, Cass, what’s up with the cat? This yours?’ And Cass was like, ‘yeah Kris, that’s your familiar.’ And I’m like, ‘I don’t have a familiar,’ and they’re all, ‘you do now.’”

“So you just...have a cat now,” Adaine repeats slowly, making sure she’s got the story down.

“Yup.”

“So we’re keeping it?” Fig asks.

Adaine glances back up at Aelwyn, who still looks displeased. “Um, there’s a lot of people in this house. I don’t think it should be only up to us?”

“Perhaps you should consult the werewolves first,” Aelwyn adds.

Kristen frowns. “Tracker’s still in Fallinel,” she says sadly.

“And Ragh’s with her, so they don’t get a vote,” Fig chimes in.

“Okay. What about Jawbone?” Aelwyn prompts.

“And Sandra Lynn?” Adaine continues. “I mean, it is their house. I think it’s only polite to ask them first.”

“Better to ask forgiveness than permission?” Kristen shrugs.

“I don’t happen to agree,” Aelwyn responds flatly. Fig laughs.

“Okay, well…” Kristen says, reaching over and grabbing the kitten off the table. She cradles it in her hands on her lap. “If we really don’t want to keep her, we don’t have to.”

“Can’t you just tell Cassandra to…” Aelwyn waves a hand. She sounds a little bit softer. “Take it back?”

Kristen purses her lips and mulls it over, looking at the cat on her lap. “I dunno. I guess I could try...Cass made it seem like it was gonna be here whether I wanted it or not, though.” She scoops the kitten up in her hand again and holds it up to eye level again, looking at its bright, inquisitive face. “I could probably drop her off at the church and it could stay there. Like a temple guardian.”

“Keep the rats out,” Fig offers. She looks back at Aelwyn. “You sure you’re not cool with keeping it? It’s no big deal either way.”

Aelwyn frowns and looks pensive. After a beat, Kristen leans forward and holds the kitten out. “Would you like to…?” she offers gently.

Aelwyn stares at the cat, then darts her eyes up to study Kristen’s face. There’s a flash of something in her eyes, maybe fear or nerves, but also something else. After another beat, she takes and lets out a breath and hesitantly reaches forward. Kristen gently places the kitten into her hands and leans back, smiling.

“There you go. What’d’ya think?”

Aelwyn bites her lip and cradles the cat like it’s the most dangerous item in the world, and the most precious. She rubs her thumb along its dark, shimmery fur. “It’s quite soft,” she says. Kristen smiles.

“You like her?”

Aelwyn takes another breath and lets it out. She shrugs a little. It’s about as close to a ‘yes’ as any of them will get from her, and they’ll take it.

“Hells yeah!” Fig says as Aelwyn leans forward to give the kitten back to Kristen. “Now she needs a name.”

“I was thinking ‘Cooler Kalina,’” Kristen says. Aelwyn makes a face and recoils sharply, prompting Kristen to laugh.

“Absolutely not,” Aelwyn insists firmly. “If you name it that, I’m banishing it to whatever plane it belongs on.”

“Calm down, it was just a joke,” Kristen giggles. She holds the cat up again and regards it thoughtfully. “Hm. Little Tracker?”

“No.”

“Midnight.”

“That’s so boring,” Fig comments.

“Metallico?”

Adainen squints. “That’s kind of a strange name, don’t you think?”

Kristen hums in thought. “Anilak?” she finally suggests.

The cat lets out a little mew. Fig and Adaine coo and aw in response.

“‘Anilak,’ that’s cool. I like that,” Fig says, nodding her approval. Adaine nods in agreement.

“I think she likes it too. Don’t you, Anilak?” Kristen says. The kitten mews again, and the girls giggle again. “Sounds like a ‘yes’ to me. Welcome to Mordred Manor, Anliak!”

Adaine pulls a pink collar out of her jacket and clips it onto Anilak’s neck, complete with nametag and tiny bell. Kristen bends down and sets her on the floor, letting her scamper off into the next room. Sitting up, she sighs happily and glances back to Aelwyn.

“What’s that look for?” she asks to Aelwyn’s grumpy face.

“‘Anilak?’ Really?” Aelwyn says.

Kristen giggles. “Hey, no changing it now.”

#d20alphabet21 #fanfic #fantasy high #fantasy high sophomore year #dimension 20 live #dimension 20 #kristen applebees #fig faeth #figueroth faeth #aelwyn abernant #adaine abernant #let the poet bless this round #im going to work my way back through these prompts if it kills me #sorry i just got rly busy and demotivated ejhbdfg but im gonna try to catch up eventually

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cactusnymph · 3 years

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Prompt fill #1 for @dimension20alphabet:

Alone

Riz knows that he’s a good detective. He has solved many mysteries, big mysteries even. He solved the case of his missing friend Penny, he solved the case of his dad, he solved—or well, helped solve—the puzzle of The Nightmare King. He’s good at his job.

But there is one mystery Riz has trouble solving, and that is the mystery of himself.

He’s not good at asking for help even though he’s sure he could need some. Maybe he could talk about this with his mom. The thought of that alone makes him break out in a nervous sweat. It was already kind of the worst to talk to his dad about it. Jawbone is probably good at this, but Jawbone is poly and had sex with many people just like everyone else he knows.

Everyone else he knows is just so goddamn horny. All the damn time.

Riz stops pacing in front of his desk and stares out of the window for what feels like two minutes straight but is probably only a millisecond.

Finally he decides to be brave. He managed to walk through the forest of the nightmare king, this is going to be a piece of cake. No big deal. As easy as stabbing a huge dragon, probably.

His mom is sitting at the kitchen table buried in a bunch of papers and thick textbooks.

“Hey mom. Can I—uh. Can I ask you something?”

His mom looks up from her work and she seems a little disoriented for a split second until her eyes focus on him and she nods.

“Sure, sweetie. What’s up?”

She pushes away a stack of papers from the second chair at the table so he can sit down. Riz feels the need to start biting his nails, so he stuffs his hands into his pockets and sits down on the chair, his leg bouncing and his throat dry.

��So. Uh—“

He searches for the right words. Words are hard and he’s never been very good at them. He knows clues. Feelings are just weird.

“Have you ever—uh. Did you ever, like—um. Feel. Totally alone about something? Like, something that makes you you?”

Sklonda blinks for a second and then her gaze softens as she stretches out her hand to reach for his. Riz hopes that she can’t feel how sweaty his palms are as she squeezes his fingers.

“Honestly? I think that is a very integral part of being a teenager. You think you’re really weird and no one would ever feel the same way and then somewhere along the way you find out that there are actually tons of people who are going through the exact same thing”, she says.

Riz stares at the only spot on the table that hasn’t been covered with papers or books.

“So, what you’re saying is... I have to look at the clues again and—and find out who else fits the profile?”

His mom ruffles his hair and Riz can see her shake her head fondly.

“I wouldn’t have put it like that, sweetie. But. Sure, yeah. Find another suspect and interrogate them until you find the truth.”

Riz can work with that.

“Thanks, mom”, he says and flees from the kitchen to leave Sklonda to her studies. Back in his room he looks at his pin board that, during the last two weeks, has been carefully prepped with Riz’ most difficult case yet—the case of Riz.

His eyes follow the differently colored threads across pictures of his friends and notes that he took.

All his friends are on the board and Riz looks at all their picture, one after the other.

Everyone is horny. Everyone.

Everyone except—

Riz grabs his crystal. He knows that, if he thinks about it too much and starts making plans, he is not going to do it because this is scary. And if he learned one thing on their quest for the Nightmare King’s crown, it’s that sometimes scary things are easier if you just rush ahead without a plan.

“Do you have time to talk?”, he texts.

Riz chews on his bottom lip without realizing that it started bleeding because his teeth are too sharp. He looks at his crystal and tries to will his beating heart to go slower but he fails miserably and as soon as he sees the three small dots that indicate typing on the other end of the line, he sucks in a breath and stares at the display as if he might will the answer to appear faster.

“I have free time. Do you want to come over? Is everything alright?”

Riz sucks the blood off his bottom lip and weighs the options. He loves the manor, but it’s loud and noisy. Noisy in a way that sometimes makes his skin crawl. He swallows, lets his fingers hover over the keyboard for a second.

If everything goes to shit he can always leave the manor, but it would be awkward to throw a friend out of his office.

“I’ll come over. Be right there.”

Riz stuffs his phone into his pocket and rushes out of his room with adrenaline pumping through his veins. Maybe he isn’t such a great detective after all if he never really connected the dots about one of his closest friends.

He remembers a conversation about “please don’t have sex in our tent when we’re also in there” and “this is too much information and I’m very uncomfortable right now” now that he really thinks about it.

Adaine isn’t interested in dating anyone. Just like him. Well. No, that’s not correct, Riz thinks, as he rushes down the street to catch the bus. Maybe he would consider dating someone. But sex. Sex seems. Well.

Maybe Adaine doesn’t want to talk about sex. Maybe she will look at him the same way Aelwyn looks at people sometimes. Riz really doesn’t want to think about Aelwyn, because that makes him think about Fabian and that on the other hand makes him think of them together and how much Riz wishes they weren’t a thing.

If Riz cannot solve the mystery of Riz, maybe Adaine can help him like when they were investigating her mom’s room back on spring break. He goes through his pinboard in his mind and comes to the conclusion that Adaine is on there, but she has only been connected to Biz by a green threat, meaning one-sided sexual interest.

He is so occupied by his own oversight that he barely registers getting to the manor. The thought of going through the whole house and potentially risking questions about why he’s visiting makes his skin crawl uncomfortably, so he uses his sword and teleports directly into Adaine’s bedroom. A loud shriek accompanied by the sound of a heavy book dropping to the floor makes him turn his head.

“Was it really necessary to do this? We have doors”, Adaine says and Riz looks around to find her sitting on the bunkbed she shares with Aelwyn. Thankfully Aelwyn is nowhere to be seen so Riz can freak out in peace about what he’s supposed to talk about.

“Yes. Sorry, uh—I thought maybe I might meet Kristen or—or Jawbone or. Someone else. And then they might look at me and ask questions or maybe Kristen would joke about something sex related and then I might have to vomit all over the stairs and—“

“Riz, slow down. Do you want to hold Boggy?”, Adaine asks and scoots over on her bed to make space for him. Riz doesn’t really feel like sitting down so he starts pacing instead but he does take Boggy into his hands. His brain has gone into overdrive, he knows it as soon as it supplies him with the question of whether or not frogs feel conflicted about sex.

“What’s wrong?”, Adaine asks, her pale blue eyes following him as he walks through the room as if the movement could calm his nerves.

“So—uh. You know. I was wondering if maybe... I could talk to you about. You know. Sexandstuff.”

“Sorry, about what?”

“Sex. And... stuff”, Riz repeats and he can feel his face burning as he stares down at Boggy so he doesn’t have to look at Adaine’s face.

“Oh, um. Well, I’m not sure if I’m the best person for that—“

“I know! That’s why—that’s why I wanted to talk to you. Because. Like. You know. You think it’s icky when Kristen talks about sixtynine and stuff.”

Riz takes a quick glance at Adaine and is relieved to find that she doesn’t look at him the same way that Ragh looked at him the first time they met each other. That is certainly encouraging. She actually looks a little thoughtful. Maybe even understanding. Maybe he’s reading her all wrong. Maybe she’s about to punch him out of the window because he mentioned Kristen and sixtynine and—

“You mean because I’m probably asexual.”

“Yeah, you’re—what?”

“Asexual. And aromantic, but I suppose this is about the sex part, not the romance part.”

“You’re. Wait. Ohhh—“

Adaine pulls up her shoulders and gestures to the free space on the bed beside her. Riz’ brain has frozen over because he’s heard a term he hasn’t heard before and now he wants to find out what it means.

The truth is that he considered searching for stuff like this on the crystalweb, but the thought of typing anything sex related into a search engine had him almost vomiting all over his office floor because it made him feel so terribly embarrassed and nervous that he quickly put the thought aside.

“So—uh. What’s... that?”

“Well, I talked about it to Jawbone and he gave me some things to read and I’ve been doing some research, because... you know, everyone is going on dates and talks about kisses or masturbation and all that and—um. Well. This stuff mostly just always makes me uncomfortable. And I thought, you know. It’s maybe because elves are a bit prudish, but Aelwyn is certainly not like that and she talks about sex like it’s no big deal, so I... I wanted to figure out what it means.”

Boggy makes a sound like a squeaky toy as Riz accidentally squishes him a little too hard in his sudden excitement in the face of new clues and he quickly hands him back to Adaine.

“So. You’re saying that—that it’s like... normal?”

Adaine shrugs.

“Probably not normal, if you’re going by the textbook definition of normal. But not normal doesn’t equal bad, you know. Just how being poly isn’t necessarily normal but that doesn’t mean it’s inferior to monogamy. It’s just a thing that some people are.”

“So. So, uh—can I read that stuff? That you read?”, he asks, trying very hard not to keep chewing on his bottom lip again.

Adaine gives him a smile that makes warmth spread all through his body.

“Sure. I can lend you the book”, Adaine says and gets up from the bed, hands Boggy back to Riz and goes over to one of her numerous bookshelves to pull a small, purple book out from the top row.

“It’s really interesting, from a strictly scientific standpoint, you know”, she says as she hands it to him. Riz looks down at the book. A whole book. Just about feeling weird about dating and sex. His mom was right after all.

“Thanks”, he croaks and blinks rapidly.

“I’m really glad there’s at least one other person who isn’t so terribly horny all the time”, Adaine says and Riz looks up at her, his heart twice its normal size.

“Yeah. Me too.”

#d20alphabet21 #dimension 20 #fantasy high #riz gukgak #adaine abernant #fanfiction #mi writes

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dapper-nahrwhale · 3 years

Note

for the writing ask, number 3!

Asiksj thanks so much for the ask!! (Under the cut is some fantasy high riz and aelwyn friendship I've been writing)

"One scene you want to write but cant because its difficult"

I guess it's hard for me to write like cohesive scenes like I'm used to writing slightly connected oneshots like 5 + 1 type stuff, shortish scenes that arnt connected much. But writing like stuff with connected plots is difficult, coming up with ideas for plot is easy actually writing it all together is hard.

Like theres like this fantasy high mafia road trip thing au (the title would be Pretty like a Car Crash from some song I think) I'd want to write but... trying to put together a whole plot ugh I enjoy writing lil oneshots and scenes but trying to get it all figured put is hmm not my strong suit.

Like writing out whole scenes that are connected with actual plot is hard so I just write unconnected scenes and all I'd like to figure out how to do like whole stuff but idk.

Actually some writing (fantasy high riz and aelwyn friendship I've been cooking up) under the cut cuz it got pretty long

I'm not going to write out a whole entire plot multiple chapter thing here so I'll just write some stuff that I've been working on. Even though this is a multi chartered plot thing so.

The road to recovery is paved in sleepless nights and tired mornings. (Title)

The bad kids are rightfully wary about letting them hang out together. Partly because they're both paranoid enough to think the other would take an attack of opportunity on them. Of course what the bad kids didn't expect was for them to band together when someone else gets murdered. Basrar gets framed for murder. Riz and aelwyn are on the case.

Riz doesnt like or trust Aelwyn. Aelwyn doesnt care about his opinion, but it's easier to try and get along with each other to make this long suffering case go by quicker.

Aelwyn decided to stop doing super toxic things because her sister and jawbone have gotten her to and because she doesn't like or enjoy going to parties getting rekt and kissing strangers anymore. So she needs new, slightly less toxic habits and if staying up late researching stuff while not sleeping is that then the only one to also do that would work. Putting her high intelligence to good use. (Sleeping is hard for both of them, so why not be productive instead of going to have a bad time sleeping.)

They've both killed more people then they should have. They both refuse to talk about too much with jawbone, even though at this point they really should. Instead they avoid all of their problems by solving cases and researching stuff. They both value knowledge. Adaine isn't here because she'd only discourage them and they know it's not healthy to burn out like this but. Well. It's the only way they know how to function. So. They don't talk about their feelings or anything. They both don't sleep at all if they can help it. They just work themselves to the bone, refuse to sleep because of really bad nightmares and hope it's enough. It isnt. But they'd really like to think it was.

Combined, they would sleep about 6 hours, riz passed out for 4 and aelwyn trancing fitfully for 2.

(Aelwyn will trance for just a few hours, sitting in a creaky old chair while riz works on something or other. They make it a rule to always have one of them awake if the other is sleeping when they end up working late. Paranoia and all that. So whenever riz inevitably passes out in his desk aelwyn will keep watch and go over spells in her book to keep herself awake. It's a shot system but it works for the most part. Sometimes they'll both stay up the entire night, sometimes theyll both be too exhausted to stay up anymore and fall asleep at the same time.)

To solve the case they hole up in rizs office for a few days, everyone panics at first when neither go to school and then riz and aelwyn dont answer their crystals cuz it wasnt charged and they were so focused on the case they forgot to do school. They freak out considering what happend last time and actually bust down the door of his office and find them both sleeping. It's cute but they wake up and start fighting them before they realize oh it's just the bad kids.

(Undetermined time later)

"Just had to get away from adaine for a bit. She worries about me too much."

"Are you giving her reason to be worried?"

"Probably"

"I dont know how sam and adaine and everyone else can forgive me. I'm a terrible person." Alewyn

"Were. You were a terrible person. You arnt anymore. Even if you think you still are, you arnt anymore. The horrors you have done are not who you are. Or something like that. The you who did all the terrible things is still you and that sucks but you just have to do better now" Riz

"It doesnt make up for all the stuff I've done."

"Probably not. It might never."

"Ostentasia still hasn't talked to me or even been in the same room as me. and I cant blame her. I cant forgive myself."

"Yeah. I mean you did put her in a palimpsest prison for several months. And then almost get her and the other maidens sacrificed to our evil vice principle dragon. That's pretty messed up "

"Yeah."

She feels she doesnt deserve her new family. She hasn't done anything to deserve their free love. She in fact has done more to hinder it than anything.

Adaine reminds her of love without expectations. It's hard to remember but shes getting better at it.

Jawbone tells her he wanted to adopt her. She didnt understand why. Shes almost old enough to be on her own she doesnt need anyone to look out for her. But it would be nice to have a parent who cares. At least that's what adaine tells her.

Everyone else is getting better and they both feel like they're not.

This is by no means all of it or in any way done or edited and I'm still working on riz parts of it, those are much more difficult than aelwyns for me to write as of now because they're so based on my own personal stuff kinda but I'm so wicked excited to be writing this! I just think they're friendship would be so intersting and all!

#fantasy high #fh #fantasy high sophmore year #fhsy #dimension 20 #fh fic #ask thing #answer thing #writing thing #fanfiction #riz and aelwyn friendship #added my mystery buddies tag for them!!!

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jq37 · 4 years

Text

The Report Card – Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 19

The Ties That Bind

The penultimate Fantasy High: Sophomore Year episode is upon us and not a moment too soon. Seems a little counter-intuitive to seek comfort from these objectively wild current events we’re experiencing from a fictional Nightmare Forest but we know what we’re about so let’s jump back in and start with the death of a beloved main character.

Yay.

Rewinding back to two episodes ago, last we saw Kristen, she got stabbed through by a skeletal unicorn and died. We pick back up there and, as she’s dying, she feels a sense of pain, betrayal, and anger--very similar emotions to what Brennan told her the goddess was feeling with her Nat 20 Religion Check. Kristen gets a vision of the goddess being destroyed in cracks of lightning by her own followers--the same vision Fig saw in the dream scrying pool when she scry-ed on Kristen last week--and then she wakes up on the chapel floor.

She’s not...dead exactly. But she’s not super alive either. She’s bleeding, but more oozing blood than the normal mechanical way of bleeding out because her heart isn’t beating. There’s a hole in her chest and, within it, her heart is crushed. Her skin is pale because the blood isn’t pumping through it properly anymore. Her breathing isn’t regular. And a piece of her finger tip (the piece taken by her friends for a possible Revivify) is missing.

She sees evidence of her friends having been in the room--footprints and the smashed wall--and to place this in the timeline, she can’t remember Fabian right now. When she checks her crystal, she sees it’s been 90 minutes since they walked into the forest. She does Cure Wounds on herself to stop the blood from dripping. Then she heads out towards the forest, passing the Oracular Pool Fig used in the last episode as she goes. She stops as she sees it and something in her heart glows with golden light. When she looks into the pool, she sees the sun reflected in the pool (and also Fig’s boot prints leading up to it). That’s weird because it is super not a Sol/Helio aligned Chapel/Area they’re in. She also sees the moon reflected and she feels like she’s being called in. It doesn’t necessarily feel safe but it feels like she might get some answers and also she already died today so how much worse can it get? She dives in and come up and when she does, she’s suddenly in the outer planes. Specifically, she’s in Elysium which is like the Neutral Good heaven. She hears a voice that she mistakes for her dad’s because of the major dad energy she’s getting from it: You can come home.

As she walks, she finds herself--as Kristen weirdly often does for some reason--in the presence of gods. Specifically, Sol (god of the Sun) and Galakaya (goddess of the Moon and his sister as we find out). Helio is also there, like the screw-up son of a CEO, hanging out in his office. Both of them are good gods but not neutral good so Kristen gets the sense that they brought her here to have a neutral place to talk to her.

Kristen is hilariously nonplussed by being personally Uber-d to heaven by arguably the biggest gods in the pantheon and when she is asked to take a walk with Helio so she can get some important information, she’s like, “Nooooo, can literally anyone else do it?” Galakaya agrees to do it instead.

They take a lap and she asks about Tracker. Galakaya says that Tracker isn’t dead but she’s in major danger. Then, she changes the subject. Has Kristen ever wondered where her spells have been coming from when she’s been between gods? Because, as Galakaya says, doubt is nothing. She reveals that even though Kristen rejected him, Helio has been providing Kristen spells this entire time. He sent the philosophers and the grad students to be her spirit guardians. Kristen rejected him but not the light. Galakaya likens it to a child running away from home to the front yard. Kristen isn’t too far gone. She can still come back to the fold. And, if she doesn’t want to be Helio’s champion, she can be hers instead and become a Moon Cleric, which would still be keeping it in the family. But that’s the problem Kristen has with it. Helio to Galakaya? It seems like more of the same--especially the way she’s been acting, like she would fit right in at a brunch table with Arianwyn and Anguin. Except, when Tracker comes up, Kristen notices she gets a little snarly, almost like a tic she’s trying to keep under control.

Kristen asks for her pitch, and it’s basically the same deal she was getting with Helio but with different window dressing. The Moon, sisterhood, and unquestioning obedience. Galakaya can’t see into Sylvere to check on Tracker like Kristen asks but if she had a Champion, say Kristen, she could send her all kitted up with new powers. She says she wants the Nightmare King dead more than anyone seeing as the Nightmare King killed her baby sister (the Mystery Goddess). She calls her baby sister sweet and sometimes confused, seeing as she thought destroying her name would make her more powerful. But Kristen knows that’s not what happened. It was her followers who destroyed her name as she desperately warned them not to. Some chicanery is going on.

She says she will take the job as Galakaya’s champion and when she makes like she’s going to pray to her to seal the deal, she instead reaches out to the mystery goddess again. The golden light in her chest disappears and is replaced with cool shadow. She feels shock from the goddess, that Kristen would still choose to reach out to her after she died at her hand. The goddess says, emotionally, “I’m sorry, I’m just so scar--” But, before she can finish the word, Galakaya grabs Kristen by the shoulder and snaps her out of it, face snarling and wolfed out. After a second, she composes herself and seems almost embarrassed that Kristen saw that, which makes Kristen realize what’s going on with her. Tracker is a cleric of Galakaya, but knowing Tracker, she wouldn’t worship someone so reeking of high elven prim and proper-ness. And she also knows what the number one rule of godhood is: As above, so below. Galakaya has basically been claimed as a high elven goddess. Which means that the vast majority of her followers aren’t like Tracker. They’re snooty high elves. Which means so is she and her wolf part is still there, but it’s buried and distasteful to her now.

Which, coincidentally, is how Kristen feels about this entire godly family. She “respectfully declines” both of their offers. And by “respectfully declines” I mean she socks Helio in the face and makes a run for it. Sol, full of rage, says, “I told you that kid was trash! Now get her!” The philosophers on Sol’s payroll look at each other and instead mob him (why is the literal sun god so easy to 1v1?) and help Kristen escape. As she does, Helio calls out after Kristen something she kind of already sensed upon arriving in Elysium. Most people are a soul in a body. But Kristen, at the moment, is a soul *as* a body. If she dies again, with no god to intercede for her, she’s dead-dead. No afterlife. But that’s not enough to make her stay. She keeps running and makes it to the pool. For the first time, she feels herself fully cut off from her spells.

Back in the cave in Sylvere, Kristen chats with the Philosophers. They tell her they were working for Sol so they couldn’t tell her what the deal was but they were always rooting for her. One of the philosophers quotes her own words back to her: Doubt can’t be a belief but it can be a practice. And as she says this, she turns Kristen’s Shepherd's Crook cool and metallic and turns it into a question mark. She can’t hold doubt in her heart but she can hold it in her hand (stats for the Staff of Doubt below; also what a sick line from Brennan).

She knows that to get to the center of the forest where she needs to be, she has to follow her fear, so she goes in the direction she doesn’t expect to find Tracker.

Shifting gears, we find Gorgug and Fabian at the mouth of the cave (and no longer high on duskmoss) in their floating rock island surrounded by the others. They see that there are other openings and decide to check them to see if they can find any of their friends. They spend a good two hours, tied together and climbing this rock face which is some extremely solid male bonding. When they reach the cave they were aiming for, they find Baxter, riddled with arrows they know to be Sandra-Lynn’s. He’s dying but not dead. I am outraged at Brennan until I learn a fact that I don’t think has come up until now: Artificers get spell slots. Which means that Gorgug has Cure Wounds. He only cures him for 3 points but that’s enough to stabilize him at least so we can all stop sharpening the pitchforks. However, Baxter is clearly dejected and confused. He has no idea why Sandra-Lynn would suddenly turn on him. So maybe the pitchforks are still called for.

They want to leave Baxter in the cave so he can rest up but, on a 1 Animal Handling, Baxter absolutely demands to follow them. It’s faster than climbing at least. They do so.

And we switch again, this time to the Abernants.

Adaine is still trapped in a prison orb and barred from doing most of her spells. She can, however, do the Message cantrip and Aelwyn is still in the room along with Anguin. She Messages Aelwyn and asks, What’s going on? Why is she working with their parents still? Aelwyn replies that she doesn’t like her parents but she does love them. Doesn’t Adaine? “They don’t love me,” Adaine shoots back. Aelwyn parrots back ideology that she’s clearly learned from her parents: Love has to be earned. What value does something that hasn’t been earned have? Adaine, fresh off of therapy and with full knowledge of Aelwyn’s broken psyche, fully calls her out. She is so closed off to love, to everything that abjuration is her school of magic. Aelwyn tries to wave her off but Adaine, very seriously, says, “I don’t love our parents but despite the fact that you have not earned it, I do love you.” Aelwyn fully dissociates (and I’m not far behind).

Adaine notices that Anguin is readying some kind of Sending spell and that he’s wearing a sword that he usually doesn’t have. He tells Aelwyn to ransack her sister’s brain for the info they need from her while he prepares her punishment. Aelwyn, clearly in a slight panic, tries to (not at all) casually persuade Anguin to just leave Adaine in the orb, unharmed, when they are done with her. She tries to do it in a, “This isn’t worth our time,” kind of way but betrays herself when she blurts out, “She’s a baby!” Anguin raises a hand at her and she flinches, apologetically casting Detect Thoughts on Adaine who has already (via Message) said she’d support her no matter what she did.

Enter, Adaine’s Mindscape: A series of interconnected rooms--and her Aelwyn’s rooms--repeated over and over. Adaine has her surface thoughts be all of her memories of Aelwyn *almost* being nice to her and then pulling back at the last second for fear of her parents. Aelwyn doesn’t press deeper than these thoughts and says that if Adaine’s goal was to humiliate her then she’s done so. But that’s not what Adaine wants. She wants to rebuild their relationship. They’re gonna be sisters for the rest of their quasi-immortal lives. These memories suck but they can make new ones.

And then, through a window, Aelwyn sees another memory. The memory of herself in the hot-tub post Calethriel Tower rescue mission. She doesn’t remember this because of the events in the memory itself. Adaine went into her mind and, at her written instructions, reboot her memory and personality. They’re able to Inception themselves into Adaine’s memory of Aelwyn’s mind and they walk through it. Aelwyn is confronted with the knowledge that this is how she is and that Adaine knows this. Siobhan, from her sniper perch, gets the kill order from Brennan to take the shot directly into my chest.

“Would you be my big sister? I would really, really love to have you as a big sister.”

So now it’s both Kristen and me who have crushed hearts this episode.

Aelwyn fully loses concentration on the spell and snaps out of it. When Anguin asks for the information, she, on full glassy-eyed autopilot, says she didn’t find it. Anguin decides to go for the nuclear option, readying a bolt of magic to throw at Adaine. “Prepare to be better, dear, sweet daughter.”

The magic races at her, ready to do something Stepford-ian to her mind I’m sure, but, suddenly, Aelwyn steps forward, still out of it but following her true, deeply buried but natural protective instincts. Protective magic covers Adaine and the spell is Counterspelled.

Adaine quickly dispels her orb but then it’s Anguin’s turn and he goes for Aelwyn. Adaine attempts to return the favor she has just been given and Counterspells but Anguin Counterspells her Counterspell and Lightning Bolts Aelwyn. The second before she’s hit, Aelwyn looks at Adaine and says, “I’m sorry”. She goes down.

Adaine’s turn.

And, if you recall, Adaine just received two boons: A bonus to her Strength score and a little spell called Adaine’s Furious Fists.

And, my dude, if Adaine has ever been furious in her life, it’s now.

5th Level. And it’s a strength saving throw but, just to be certain of her success, Adaine gives her undoubtedly weak father her 4 Portent roll. That’s 10d10 damage.

77 points of damage.

She charges forward at Anguin.

“Guess what bitch? I’m strong now.”

And she full Dragon Ball Z energy punches her dad, dealing more than double his max HP. You know what that means? Ding Dong the bitch is FULLY DEAD.

Deed done, she rushes to Aelwyn’s side and gives her her 11 portent roll for her first death save (super clutch use of a mediocre portent). Then, on an 18 Medicine check, stabilizes her without the need for any more checks. Aelwyn is immediately weepy about how she doesn’t deserve the kindness she’s being shown. Adaine, again, gently says that love isn’t about deserving or not deserving, though she definitely doesn’t deserve the crappy situation she’s in right now. And, maybe when this is over, she can exchange her bed for a bunk bed and Aelwyn can move in? If Aelwyn wasn’t crying before, she super is now, and spilling her guts. She’s the one who sank she ship the previous elven oracle was on, she worked for Kalvaxus and Kalina--things Adaine is willing to attribute to being under the thumb of evil, abusive people but that Aelwyn seems desperate to atone for. She gives Adaine an important piece of information for their mission: In the past, heroes going after the Nightmare King have failed because they failed to undo all five curses. They need to make sure they do that.

Adaine gives Aelwyn the tincture she has on her, freeing her from Kalina’s influence, and then Aelwyn gives her one more piece of information before she slips into unconsciousness. Before Aelwyn had the previous Oracle killed, she was sure that Adaine was going to be the next Oracle and she told Kalvaxus that. Why was she sure? Because the elf that becomes the next Oracle is always the most skilled Diviner alive at the time.

“I love you too,” Adaine replies.

Then she nicks the dope sword (and 30 gp) off her dad’s corpse, leaves Aelwyn there to rest, and goes to find her friends.

And, speaking of, let’s pop over to see how Riz and Fig are doing.

In a word, bad.

They’re still tied up and cornered by the skeletal unicorn who says they’re captured and soon their friends will be too. Nightmare Fig shows up with Baby (who is shortly tied up as well) and reveals herself to actually be this many-armed, snake-woman demon. A whole army of demons show up, ready to start wrecking house as soon as they’re ordered to.

Fig wants to try and use her lighter to set her bonds on fire and Riz wants to use his spy-watch to laser her bonds off. They both fail but Riz notices they’re not being stopped from trying. It’s like the demons want them to escape so they have an excuse to chase and kill them. He also notices a jiggling from his briefcase.

At the same time, Fig gets a Sending from Bill saying he just hawked all of Gorthalx’s stuff, including the six suits of magic armor. But, wait a minute. There were seven suits. On a Nat 1, she thinks Bill is screwing her over.

But then.

All of a sudden.

Riz’s briefcase of holding springs open and out pops a figure in gleaming gold Pride Armor. The armored figure, holding a brilliantly gold halberd, cleaves through some demons and the raises his visor showing that it’s none other than the chosen one himself--GILEAR! You see, the Deadly Sin armor feeds on its respective sin in the user and consumes them, but, as Gilear puts it, he has no pride.

He absolutely wrecks house, killing demon after demon. Riz records it on his tie-camera for posterity. Gorgug and Fabian on Baxter see the commotion and fly down, seeing the tail end of the fight. Gilear kills the last of the demons then gets spit out of the armor like it’s an Iron Man suit, fully dead. Again. He may have had no pride when he put the armor on but watching himself kick ass have him just enough to be fatal.

Fig gets free from her bindings and, on a 27 with Bardic from Fabian, beats the 25 DC she needs to make an illusory diamond (which turns into a real one) of high enough quality to cast Revivify. She does so, after a heartfelt statement about being proud to be like him and a sick lick on her bass.

Gilear comes back up and we learn that he’d been hiding in RIz’s briefcase with the armor since they sent him away because it was the only way he could think of to be useful to them and protect Fig. Fabian and Riz (along with the audience) also unfortunately learn that Gilear is hung like a horse when they fail their saves to look away quickly enough.

Adaine rushes in with her new sword and the information that she killed her dad which everyone congratulates her for. She then ritual casts Identify on the sword. Aelwyn told her earlier that it’s the sword that belongs to whoever the current Oracle is and she also learns it’s called the Sword of Sight, it can be used as an arcane focus, and was made by Fabian’s Grandad (full stats below).

Riz gets the footage from his tie onto his crystal and posts it on Fig’s account which has got to be the wildest social media account on Magic Facebook.

The Bad Kids are mainly reunited, but let’s get back to the final missing member.

Kristen, alone in the woods, starts using her blood to draw a picture of the Mystery goddess. She hears a creepy voice say, “Be careful what you give a face,” and some other ominous stuff. But Kristen ignores it as she lies prostrate in front of her drawing because she understands something extremely important.

As above, so below.

Galakaya is worshiped primarily by stuck up high elves, so she has become that.

If Kristen is now the only follower of the Mystery goddess and she says that she’s real and she’s good then as above, so below. The math checks out.

The bloody image changes to a beautiful woman’s face. The Mystery goddess. She says she only ever wanted to comfort her followers and tell them that the night itself was nothing to fear. Kristen sees flashes of the chained Court of Elders--the representatives of the five races who worshiped the Mystery Goddess and were convinced to destroy her name (ignoring her warnings not to). Among them are the unicorn and the decaying elf Adaine saw in her Scry.

Fear of the NK breaks her out of the vision and she finds herself surrounded by Twilight (that she’s generating) with Tracker in front of her, fully wolfed out with a bloody muzzle. Tracker is going feral, all, “You’re so selfish, everything is always about you.” Something is going wrong with her. Now, good news/bad news:

Good News: Kristen is fully committed to this Mystery Goddess so she gets her spells back and she is now a Twilight Domain Cleric.

Bad News: She goes Invisible (eliciting a, “Why are you running? I knew you would leave me. Why won’t you accept me like I am?” from Tracker) and tries to cast Greater Restoration but all she needs is a 4 and she rolls a 3. Tragic.

She finds that she is insubstantial still and is whisked away from a snarling and lamenting Tracker. As she is traveling, she sees the face of the Nightmare King who asks why she would follow a dead goddess whose path is just going to make her life harder. Kristen feels a pang of doubt and fear that she has just done exactly what her religious upbringing warned her against and put herself and her friends in grave danger for no reason by straying from the path, but then she has another classic Kristen-ism: Everyone is basic and wrong. She’d rather follow a goddess who is like, “Hey y’all, I also don’t have it all figured out but I will for sure do all I can to help you navigate it,” than a god who demands unquestioning faith and loyalty. And with that, she finds herself floating above her friends.

She feels the pull of her missing finger bone in Adaine’s pocket and she feels like it might be impossible for her to fully, properly, come back but on the other hand, she’s died like three times at this point. What does impossible even mean? She gets the sense that she can cast Raise Dead on herself and she does so.

Welcome back to the Bad Kids, St. Kristen Applebees of [REDACTED], halo aglow, newly reattached finger shedding a bit of light.

(“That’s hot for being gay,” Ally says about Kristen’s new glow.)

Everyone hugs everyone and catches up everyone on everything. Kristen heals up Baxter for 20 HP and gets a +2 bump on her Intelligence mod for her ordeals in the forest. They all make a plan to get everyone in one place so Kristen can put some of her new AoE healing spells to use. Fig wants to go on Baxter to get Ayda. Adaine, bringing us full circle, invites Fabian on a rescue mission to get her sister.

And we take a break.

Deep breath y’all.

Detention

Brennan for Cursing us With Knowledge About Gilear’s Penis

@allsevenmaidens put this very reasonable request in and I have to concur because what’s the alternative? Giving Anguin this spot AGAIN? Like, I don’t even want to give him the satisfaction of being the best of the worst. Adaine gave him the death penalty which is what he deserves and all he’s gonna get.

So, Brennan gets this spot for forcing me to hear the words “Gilear” and “hung like a horse” in the same sentence.

Honor Roll

Gilear for Kicking SERIOUS Ass

Listen, SO many Honor Roll-worthy moments happened this episode. Kristen’s Amazing As Above, So Below moment. Aelwyn finally stepping up to protect Adaine. Adaine absolutely obliterating Anguin in a single punch.

But, at the end of the day, I have to give it to Gilear “Just a Guy” Faeth for cramming himself and a suit of cursed armor into a mostly airless briefcase out of desperate need to do whatever he could to help protect his daughter and her friends who are basically demigods. He truly is the Anti-Anguin and I’m so glad Riz got that on tape for posterity. Way to go man.

Random Thoughts

I already wrote so many words and we have a five hour finale tomorrow so I’m going to try and keep this section brief.

We’re staring down the barrel of the last episode (coming Friday at 8PM EST) and I want to say this now rather than later: thanks for reading these and leaving nice comments in the tags and stuff like that. I’m not always the most confident person and the support really means a lot.

We’re also staring down the barrel of a global crisis right now so, you know, be nice to yourself and escape through fiction when you need to, reach out to people, and eat a vegetable if you can. Read a 5000 word recap of an episode you presumably already watched. Whatever you need to do.

The Staff of Doubt has ten charges and can cast the following spells at the cost of the amount of charges listed: Detect Magic (1), Lesser Restoration (2), Dispel Magic (3), Banishment (4), Greater Restoration (5).

The Sword of Sight gives +1 to attack and damage rolls. It gives a base 12 AC which bumps Adaine’s to 15. It lets her cast Divination cantrips as bonus actions. She gets to take the Dodge action when she casts a Divination spell. And she gets no disadvantage on attacks on Invisible creatures (seems very useful against Kalina possibly).

EDIT: I forgot to say! Gorgug saying very sincerely to Kristen, “I’m sorry I wasn’t there,” “there” being, “at her most recent death” broke me.

Where in the World is Ragh Backrock? We have at least an approximate idea of where the rest of the hirelings are but nothing on Ragh. I’m concerned. His vision was asking Gorgug if he was his dad. Maybe it has something to do with that?

Very curious about what the mechanics of the final confrontation will be. What Aelwyn said seems like it could be setting up for some shenanigans. Plus, there are still all the hirelings to worry about.

Another question, I feel like we still have almost no idea what’s going on with the NK. Half of me is almost expecting some kind of Te Fiti/Te Ka situation. On another day I might try to speculate and play detective but that’s not where I’m at today so I’m just gonna leave it at that.

I feel like Kristen is always negging deities to their faces. Like, girl. Her Axe/Dove metaphor was *chef’s kiss* though. Anyway, when (hopefully) Tracker is back to normal, I hope Kristen has a take that’s different than, “I met your goddess and she sucked.”

Kristen makes me feel bad for Helio. He’s just a surfer dude who likes corn, OK. He never did anything to her except give her magic!

Didn’t have a good place to mention this earlier but Fig alerted Bill to their situation and location so if there’s a Bill Ex-Machina next ep, it’s not out of nowhere.

(Also, just a small point of order, Gorgug did say he had a bone from Kristen last ep but so did Adaine. Doesn’t really matter but just wanted to explain the mismatch with my last recap).

Making everyone roll a save to not see Gilear’s dick is so funny. As was Zac invoking danger sense to roll with advantage.

“I cast Spare the Dying on Gilear’s Penis.”

“I am no man,” from LOTR but instead it’s Gilear saying, “I have no pride.”

“Drink deeply Gilear.”

Why is Kalina working for the NK? She’s supposed to be the Mystery Goddess’s familiar, right? Just another thing that doesn’t add up. Where’s that puzzle piece we’re missing?

The thought of Baxter being so confused and dejected and fatally injured, not understanding what he did so wrong to have his mistress riddle him with arrows makes me wanna throw down with Brennan IRL. Also, I’m Concerned about Sandra-Lynn.

I need to say this on the record. Ally Beadsley does some bonkers things in D&D that I could not even begin to understand but that As Above So Below Gambit was Galaxy Brained.

You knew this was coming. Abernant Time Bay-Bee (the abridged version because I need to get this out before Friday)!

First off, I am very happy to say that basically exactly what I predicted/hoped for in my last recap for this scene is what happened, with Anguin making Aelwyn cast Detect Thoughts on Adaine. And basically EVERYTHING I had on my Abernant Sisters Reconciliation checklist was checked. The Detect Thoughts. The pointing out that they’re gonna live for a long time and do they want to do it at each other's throats? Aelwyn finally stepping up to the plate and leaning into her Abjurative Instincts in a positive way and shielding Adaine from their father. And then the stuff that I wanted so bad but didn’t know it. The bunk beds moment? The “I love you too” moment. “She’s a baby!” I mean, “Will you be my big sister?” F off Siobhan. That was beautiful.

A little concerned about Adaine having left Aelwyn unconscious so close to where their mom is but I am glad she remembered to cure her of Kalina.

When Brennan said, “In Aelwyn’s last moment,” for a second I thought he meant she was about to be perma-dead and my heart legit stopped.

I was up until about 2 AM last night, popping bottles with @camwritery (my Abernant Sisters confidant) about Brennan and Siobhan giving us everything we wanted and I’m going to get yelled at by her if I don’t mention something I said while we were talking. Last week, during the fireside chat, all of the players talked about what future lives/jobs they’d want for their characters. I posited the same question for Aelwyn and offered my answer--CPS Case Worker. Because, like, think about it. She is an extremely protective person. She wants to atone for what she did and failed to do for Adaine. When she gets all the therapy she needs, she’s going to be equipped with deep, personal knowledge of what abuse looks like/what it can do to a child and an extremely long lifespan. Can’t you see an adult Aelwyn, in the living room of a well appointed house, speaking cordially to some high class A-hole with his terrified kid sitting next to him, trying not to say anything or do anything that will get them punished and Aelwyn does a surface level Detect Thoughts at the same time so she can mentally kneel before the kid and tell them, “I’m on your side. You can be honest with me. I’m here to protect you. I promise. Don’t be scared.” This is all I want for her.

This episode Fig rolled one Nat 1 and Gorgug rolled two but one was cancelled with advantage. No Nat 20s were rolled.

#fantasy high #fantasy high spoilers #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #fantasy high live #(kind of a rush job bc the next ep is so soon so def hit up my asks if I missed s/t you wanted to hear about)

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jamiebluewind · 4 years

Text

Ayda and Fig's Sleepover

(Takes place during Fantasy High episodes 2.10 and 2.11)

*Ayda leaves Aelwyn with Adaine and goes to find Fig in her room*

Ayda: I think Adaine is very grateful that we rescued her. Um-

Fig: -Yeah-

Ayda: Ah, you fight very bravely and ah-

Fig: -Thank you. This was not my best work today.

Ayda: Um... you are extremely loud and funny and charming and you talk loudly um... and that's so exciting.

Fig: *giggles* Thank you so much! I mean, you're really direct and analytical and you kind of deconstructed things before my eyes and make me see them in a different way. And I really like that.

Ayda: Mm-hmm.

Fig: A lot of things I take for granted, you really think through.

Ayda: *tears of flame stream down her face*

Fig: Also? You cry fire, which is awesome. And check it out! *reaches out and touches a tear which doesn't burn her finger*

Ayda: Ha! That's something we have in common.

Fig: Yeah. Yeah-

Ayda: -That's bonding.

Fig: That's bonding.

Ayda: Yep. Um, I live on an island full of nasty, dirty pirates, so I don't have any other young women to hang out with and this has just been so huge for me and you're so cool and kind.

Fig: Why don't you just come hang out with us?

Ayda: Okay.

Fig: Why don't you just keep hanging out with us?

Ayda: Okay.

Fig: The library can run itself.

Ayda: I'm s-

Fig: -I mean, the man who works at the front, he was really on the ball. Really fast.

Ayda: That's not been my experience of Rolands.

Fig: Okay, but from my experience I was like hooo! that's a fast man.

Ayda: Running's all he's good for. I think Adaine and her sister Aelwyn probably just need to rest.

Fig: Yeah.

Ayda: Um, are you... I need to fully sleep. Do you fully sleep as well?

Fig: Yeah.

Ayda: Are you feeling tired from the battle?

Fig: Yeah.

Ayda: Okay.

Fig: Let's do it up. Are you asking to have a slumber party? 'Cause if you're not-

Ayda: *starts crying*

Fig: -I am.

Ayda: Okay. You're asking that because you want it and it wouldn't be weird for me to also want that.

Ayda: Look. I understand- I understand that you probably meet at lot of people that say what they don't mean, but I pretty much across the board say what I mean, but I'm usually look like someone else.

Ayda: Okay.

Fig: But I mean what I say.

Ayda: Okay. I'm gonna lie down next to you while we sleep-

Fig: -Okay-

Ayda: -because I have not had a friend like that before-

Fig: -Yeah. Let's do it-

Ayda: -and I'm gonna really take my cues from you about what's normal about that.

Fig: Okay. Physical contact is totally cool. We've talked about it. We can just do whatever we want.

Ayda: Great. Fantastic. I'm gonna really follow your lead on this.

Fig: Yeah.

Ayda: *lays down and immediately starts to snooze*

Fig: *wakes her up* Sorry. Part of the slumber party is actually that you stay up late talking.

Ayda: Fantastic.

Fig: Yeah.

Ayda: I got that wrong out of the gate, but now I know and I won't make that mistake again.

Fig: Yeah. First cue is we stay up for a while.

Ayda: Great. Fantastic.

Fig: -Okay-

Ayda: I love that.

Fig: Um... I wanna apologize for being Aguefort. My plan was like to try to get out of fighting them and make them think I was your dad and like that I would call off, you know *air quotes* the military effort *air quotes* if they gave us- I wasn't trying to mess with you at all.

Ayda: That makes total sense and I won't lie. I caught the short end of the staw-

Fig: -yeah I know-

Ayda: -with this disguise, but normally your disguises are extremely delightful.

Fig: Thanks. Yeah-

Ayda: So, it's alright that this one didn't pan out for me. I'm sure the next one will.

Fig: I-I'm sorry that it seems like... he's a really powerful guy and it must be really annoying seeing everyone idolize him so much, cuz it doesn't sound like he was a great dad.

Ayda: No. He was not a great dad.

Fig: It's... it's-it's okay okay to admit that.

Ayda: I'm admitting it.

Fig: Yeah.

Ayda: I'm very forthright-

Fig: -He might just be a bad dad forever.

Ayda: Oh well.

Fig: But! That's okay because you find cool people in your world that take the place of that you were looking for from him.

Ayda: A different, other dad.

Fig: Well... rather the emotions you were hoping to get from him, you might find in unexpected places.

Ayda: *whispers* I have to find these places.

Fig: *laughes* Not a phys- well actually yeah. It's a physical place, yeah. Let's go into some caves and look for emotions.

Ayda: Fantastic.

The pair stay up very late talking. Fig goes out and plays bass for a dancing Fabian as Ayda sleeps deeply before going to bed herself.

~~~

Fig wakes up next to Ayda who naturally sleeps with her bird legs up next to her chest. Ayda sleeps hot, like an ember burning with little trails of smoke out of her nostrils.

Ayda: *loud squawk as she startles from sleep* Ah. I was unconscious.

Fig: No. I think you were asleep.

Ayda: Right, right. That's what I meant.

Fig: Well, same difference. Good call.

Ayda: Thank you.

Fig: Yeah.

Ayda: Uh, so now that we're awake, is the sleepover still happening or is that considered concluded now?

Fig: You know what? I'm glad you asked. Let's keep the sleepover going throughout the day.

Ayda: Okay. I don't fully understand, but I'm going to basically take your lead and-

Fig: -cool-

Ayda: -follow along. Does this mean that I have to remain in my night garb or can I put on my normal daytime clothes?

Fig: Um... the thing is, at a sleepover, you could sleep in your daytime clothes, so sleepover the-the wardrobe is kinda like do as whatever feels right to you.

Ayda: Okay. Things rarely feel a hundred percent right to me. I'm very self critical-

Fig: -You don't have any outfits that feel good to you?

Ayda: I have outfits that feel good to me-

Fig: Yeah.

Ayda: -but I worry rather other people will like that. Does that make sense?

Fig: Okay. Well first off, everything you're wearing? Everyone's been liking.

Ayda: Fantastic.

Fig: Yeah.

Ayda: God what a huge success.

Fig: Yeah!

Ayda: Great.

Fig: It's definitely been a huge sucess. So I think- you know what? I think you should go out on a limb and put on something that you like that you think other people wont like.

Ayda: *starts sweating* And you would like that?

Fig: Okay. I mean yes I would like that, but don't do it because of that.

Ayda: Okay. You have constructed a-a hellish riddle and um... okay. I'm going to attempt to solve the dilemma you've put in front of me and I am going to go eat. Uh. Um... I am hungry so I'm going to go get food.

Fig: Yeah.

Ayda: And I'm not doing that because I think you'll like that. I just need to eat. Is that a success?

Fig: Do you think it's a success?

Ayda: Okay. This is hell. *walks out of the room*

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #fig faeth #ayda aguefort #d20 quotes #fantasy high live #fantasy high spoilers #figayda

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