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ramshacklefey · 2 days

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No but serious. Dungeons & Dragons is one of the least flexible systems out there. So whenever I hear someone asking, "Why can't I do X in DnD?" or "How would I do (thing that the system is totally ill-suited for)?" my first response is just "GURPS."

For those of you who aren't familiar, GURPS stands for "Generic Universal Role Playing System." I always say it's like the Linux of ttrpgs, in the sense that it's less a system and more a framework that you can use to do whatever you want with.

And I really do mean whatever you want. You want high fantasy? Done. You want gritty realism in a dystopian world? Got it. You want superheroes? Good to go. Super tech space opera? Oh boy we got you there. You want magic systems that aren't based on spell lists? Go for it. Horror games where character death is a constant and very real threat? Sure thing.

You can set up your game to be anything from a complex data driven grinder to a cinematic rules basically optional flight of fancy.

You can play characters who are anywhere from realistically squishy humans to god-like super beings.

Characters personal flaws and strengths can have a direct impact on mechanics. Character species can have a direct and serious impact on mechanics.

The existence of so many options can make GURPS seem overwhelming at first glance, but if you are willing to put in a bit of effort, it's actually a very simple system to play. Most of the hard work is front-loaded into setting and character creation. Once play starts it runs as smooth as can be.

It's totally possible to play it with just the two core books, BUT there are dozens of books that are nothing but tips and advice for how to build a particular type of world or a particular flavor of campaign.

And the books, while not nearly as pretty as DnD books, are laid out in a way that makes it incredibly easy to find exactly the information you want.

Some more mechanical things that I particularly like about it (under the cut):

Characters are created on a point-buy system, but you don't just buy your basic stats, you also buy your skills, advantages, and secondary stats. And you can gain points back by dropping stats below average or taking disadvantages.

The advantage/disadvantage system. This is sorta the core of the character building, and it is *so* much fun. See, rather than pick out a class or species, you have a list (selected by your GM from a much larger list) of things you can buy that will have mechanical impacts on you in the game. Basically, an advantage is anything that opens up more possibilities for you in-game, and a disadvantage is anything that closes off possibilities. They can be superpowers, species traits, cinematic plot armor, personality traits, or things like chronic illness, bad temper, physical or mental disabilities, or being doomed by the narrative.

Simple dice system. To play a GURPS campaign you need three d6. That's it. All checks and saves are done by rolling 3d6 (low rolls are better than high). This has an additional advantage over the d20 system in that there is a probability curve. You're more likely to roll numbers in the mid-range, which makes both critical successes and critical failures rarer, and therefore more satisfying.

Your target roll is adjusted, rather than adding/subtracting from the roll itself. Say you're trying to, idk, hack a computer. Your skill level doesn't affect your dice roll, it affects the number you need to roll in order to succeed. This makes things a lot simpler on the player's end, imo, because there's less they need to keep track of. (You're trying to roll under the skill check, so whatever the base difficulty is, the GM just adds or subtracts your skill level from that).

The basic stats are on a much tighter scale, and they make a lot more sense. Human average is a 10 in everything. When you make your character you can buy higher stats or take lower ones and get more points to spend on other things. All stats cap out at 18, because that's the highest number you can roll. At a 10 strength you are a normal person. At 18 you're basically Superman. You'd have to roll a critical failure not to succeed in a strength check, and remember: critical failures are far less common than in a d20 system.

I could keep going ad infitum here, but instead I'll just close with:

Come with me boy, play my games! We'll have cowboy times in space!

#gurps #ttrpg #i will shill for this game at every opportunity

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inbetweenhours · 2 days

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@adina123 also for the lost ask! You had put Cleo as a member of Rivendell emphasizing her immunity to the cold for being undead. That was really fun and I wish I had your og thoughts to share because I went an entirely new direction aha.

The idea of putting non esmp characters into the esmp was fun to me in the context of making them fit into how my personal fanon has explored the esmp world. So I made Cleo a member of Mezalea!

She herself is a clay construct like many others, and she chooses to have a form that is bigger and greener than most. Construct creation is an art, and she among them, so she has no qualms looking different. She works making sculptures in Mezalea, but more often is commissioned as a "body builder" for her fellow constructs looking for a new form or to have the mother tree imbue life to a child construct. Cleo is the one molding all that clay! Very much inspired by her armour stand expertise, and her workout skin + body builder building from season 8!

#zombiecleo #empires smp #hermitcraft #empires smp 1 #esmp #hourspost #hoursart #hoursasks #sorta

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absolutelybifurious · 3 days

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no one follows me from the 911 fandom so i feel mostly safe in whining to the abyss about this, so like i feel bad for not caring as much about buck's bi rep at face value... i can appreciate that buck - as a stereotypically masculine guy, who is for all intents and purposes the main character of a procedural prime time show - coming out as bi is a big deal, and i appreciated the set up with tommy. it was fun/fine. as a bi person, as someone who wants the world to get better - it makes me happy in an intellectual sense.

but for me, as a viewer of 911 the show - i don't really care. emotionally, in the context of the story it didn't do anything for me. tommy is (mostly) a random guy who showed up and buck realizes he's bi and now they're dating, but there's nothing to draw on earlier - and if it's a stepping stone, then i'll love it wholeheartedly in hindsight but if buddie doesn't happen - i just don't quite know how to feel other than like, detachedly glad we got a queer relationship for someone like buck.

and full disclosure, i wholeheartedly admit to being an eddie girlie, but even if eddie had gotten the storyline with tommy - i don't think i would've had a super strong reaction?

like yeah, i appreciate rep and of course it matters, but what would feel revolutionary for me is to take this relationship thats been implicitly on screen - to basically look at all these queer fans and be like, okay, yeah, you were right. all this subtext you've seen in a dozen other mlm ships over the years is valid. you aren't crazy and it's not gross or weird to make it REAL. you aren't rabid. (not counting the people who send weird hate to women actors just trying to do their jobs) and god - more than that, i'm just here for the fuckin STORY of it. tommy is fine. lou is lovely and i'm plenty interested to see where the buck and tommy train goes, but i don't have investment in it, not significant investment anyway, and i don't think i will? i mean, we're 7 seasons in. i can't get all in with tommy and buck at this point, i've been frothing at the mouth for another ship. and you brought me THIS close just to swerve at the last second.

so while i get that canonizing buck as bi is a big deal - it is always going to feel hollow for me personally because the story is what i'm here for. the relationship. the depth of it. and tbh i just want to see something beautiful and unintentional building in the background and have it fuckin happen for onceeee.

just sometimes i feel like i'm missing something, because i see the like... level of reaction some people have just to the bi-ness of it, and for me - if there's not a satisfying story, then, i don't have many emotions about it. i've gotten plenty of bi characters over the years, and very few of them felt fully actualized in the story being told around them.

#buddie #911 #i don't wanna tag this as too many things bc i feel like ppl would hate it and #i'm not out here trying to ruin anyones good time #but also its kinda something i wonder if other people feel #or if i'm just weird #911 abc

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silverskye13 · 1 day

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I don't think I've ever had a fanfic possess my muse so much before. I feel so compelled to make a Hels oc and it's becoming the go to daydream thought when I'm bored atm. RnS has taken over my creative thought process and I'm so grateful because it had kind of stagnated and I'm having a great time now. Kudos to the amazing characters and world building! I'm turning it around in my head all the time because it's all so very compelling

Make a hels OC! Show me your hels OC! Add to the population of critters in your head!

I have been thinking about making one too tbh. The idea of a little hels spazzcat with white fur and many blue eyes and a docked tail just scurrying around hels is fun to me. They are stealing books and reading them and screeching incoherently outside windows like a raccoon or fox in your garbage can.

Thank you for all the kind words <3 I've had a lot of joy building this little world, and I'm glad that joy can spread.

#answering asks #helsmet ocs #helsmets #hels ocs #anonymous

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entropyvoid · 3 hours

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Honestly with all the overlap between sci-fi and fantasy fans, I’m really surprised that “high fantasy in space” isn’t more of a thing.

There are some things generally assumed by most to be sci-fi that I’d personally label space fantasy, like Star Wars, where the high tech is just there as a backdrop to a classic heroic story of good guys vs. bad guys, who are definitely doing magic (by using the force). The point of Star Wars isn’t the tech or anything, it just happens to be a tale told in space. It contrasts pretty starkly with something like Star Trek, where the vast majority of episodes revolve around exploring whatever scientific or philosophical concept the writers thought would be kinda neat that week, using established characters as a vehicle for said exploration.

I think one of my favorite things about Honkai Star Rail is that it freely and unabashedly mixes sci-fi and fantasy. It just goes “You are a walking neutron bomb. Also turns out your bestie is from a self-reincarnating race of dragon people with powerful water and illusion magic. They live on this big, planet-sized ship that’s dedicated to hunting down this one cosmic horror that cursed all the ship’s inhabitants with immortality, under the banner of this other cosmic horror that exists solely to kill the first cosmic horror. Let’s go on vacation to the theme park planet, the actual resort is technically an Alice-in-Wonderland style dream triggered by the same kinda cosmic-horror-gifted bomb as you. Your new friend is a meme. By the way, did we tell you about the one time this super-genius harnessed the power of *imagination* to build a death ray that instantly obliterated a bunch of planets? That was kinda fucked up, huh.” Sometimes Star Rail tries to give explanations for its tech in a way that seems believably sciencey. Sometimes shit’s just straight up called magic or it’s from some deity or another and none of the characters present have a good understanding of why, so you all just go about your bullshit. It makes it work within the context of its established universe.

Cosmic horror in general is often (but not always) found in sci-fi, but where the point of sci-fi is to expand on and detail a concept in a believably scientific way or explore the impacts of a scientific thing, the point of cosmic horror is that there is a Thing that is beyond human understanding or comprehension. Sci-fi is a fun thing to insert it into, because the more scientifically sensible and well-understood elements of the world you have, the more jarring that becomes.

Then you’ve got things like Dungeon Meshi, which exists in an inverse of something like Star Rail: it takes a very Tolkien-inspired Dungeons and Dragons-esque setting, and then details it in a very scientifically sensible way. There is magic, and there are these fantastical monsters, yes, but the monsters are parts of their own delicate and intricate ecosystems, they are edible, and they have very particular nutritional values and ways you can cook them! The protag’s biggest strength lies in him being a nerd about monster biology. Magic, too, by the end of it, ends up with a plausible enough explanation as well. And the explanation is a cosmic horror! In this way, Dungeon Meshi, despite being built entirely off of very easily recognizable and classic fantasy tropes, is probably more accurately classed as sci-fi.

I just love all of it. Can I get like 50 more of these fucked up lil mixtures of science and magic please?

#ch.txt #honkai star rail #dungeon meshi #star wars #star trek #sci fi #fantasy #tagging all these bc I wanna hear if other people have cool thoughts on the subject #hopefully this isn’t considered bloating those tags or w/e #this came about from musings and conversations abt what kinda world/story I wanna write? since I’m redoing my lil sci-fantasy project

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yummyyummie · 12 days

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is yumi just a lil creature or do they have a name for the species?

Yummie is like a lil kobold-ish creature or at least in a similar vein, just more fuzzy rather than having scales. Haven't named their species per say, in universe they'd probably just be referred to as a kobold if anything. Some other creatures in said universe also has the names of mythical things, even if only somewhat inspired in spirit and vibes. The dragons are probably the ones who are the most "traditional" in appearance, aside from the wyrms, who are a little silly compared to what one may initially think hearing the word. There's quite a bit of worldbuilding as thanks to setting the polycule girls, Chipz, Munchy, and Peaches in a already made one i have, though that goes for Mari, Luna, and Vexx's world too. Along with the other ocs. I'm just a sucker for having actual worlds for em to be in rather than just exist to exist. It adds flavor, if that makes sense.

Right, i think i went on a tangent there huh. Long story short, Yummie is a kobold in that setting.

#ask #text #doodles #my characters #oc yummie #oc sock #oc penelope #oc amira #oc chipz #oc peaches #oc munchy #i could go on and on about that stuff and that world along with the one that Mari and Co. are from tbh #both those settings along with one third one make up the trifecta of my worldbuilding projects made entirely for fun #just one of them happens to be a dnd setting that's a collaboration as per the dnd group building onto it #it's very fun #meanwhile the other two are entirely personal worlds made to house the respective groups of ocs in em as they fit

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langernameohnebedeutung · 8 months

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The thing is, if the Borderlands ever really happens and if it's successful enough to warrant a sequel or even start a franchise (doubtful, with the way franchises and blockbusters are doing at the box office rn) and if they choose to include Nisha at some point and if they choose to be true to her characterisation from the games in any meaningful capacity (biggest fear: casting some white lady a cowboy hat give her a one-line cameo in the tenth movie of the franchise), I do find myself wondering how what would be the most interesting way to do it:

Either: They choose to go in the same order as the games and make Borderlands 2 before Pre-Sequel: (pro: legendary game and legendary characters, people would be hyped enough for it to forgive possible sins of Borderlands 1, contra: not chronological), they would be introducing her as the Sheriff of Lynchwood first. This might be a little difficult for a movie because Lynchwood is not part of the main storyline so they would have to find a way to tie it back into the main Vault-Hunting/Stop-Handsome Jack/Defeat the Warrior lot. I could see them giving Nisha the role of some sort of danger following behind - the main characters just hear occasionally some rumours or see some signs that someone is following them, inquiring about them, having some goons report on them until there is eventually a twist (much like the Wilhelm fight) until she suddenly shows up in a vulnerable moment and almost ruins everything. The other option is that they do find a plot-reason to go to Lynchwood and the events unfold similarly to the way they happened in the game.

Or: They choose to do Pre-Sequel before Borderlands 2 in order to do things in a more logical order

Now, I feel like this provides some really fun options actually because here we get Nisha as a member of the main-gang and she's a pretty multi-faceted character:

they could focus on the seemingly 'chill, laid-back' aspect of her character first, possibly even introducing her as being somewhat relatable to Timothy because she's not a freaking stoic freaking soldier warrior war-machine like Wilhelm or Athena or as extra as Aurelia (I love you, queen) or ...well...Claptrap being Claptrap, so he starts out being somewhat grateful to have someone "normal" around - until she gets going and he finds out that there are Some Very Fundamental Things Wrong About This Woman

they could lean into the hero/lawbringer side and introduce her that way (this would also make sense if they did Borderlands 2 first and the audience knows her as the Sheriff of Lynchwood) and introduce her during the fight against the bandits on the Hyperion rocket in the opening of Borderlands TPS as someone who just really hates bandits and wants order for the universe - except then we begin to find out that she's also wanted for a BUNCH of crimes - which is where were get into the "the bandit who hunts bandits" thing - except as the movie goes on, we realise that she really always was that way and it's not so much a story about her losing herself or losing any ethical perspective but that she's really taking on a form and taking on roles that allow her to exert the violence she craves.

They could start with the "token evil team member" role right away (I mean, Wilhelm and Aurelia are also Wilhelm and Aurelia but Wilhelm is at best neutral evil and the whole point of Aurelia is that she does in the end become disgusted with what Jack is doing, while from Nish's perspective, Jack is (slowly, and arguably never completely) catching up to her level of single-minded viciousness and sadism.

Another thing I can imagine (because they cannot do the audio logs the way they did in the games) that the characters get a really quick O-Ren Ishii-style introduction with their backstories in different styles that fit the theme of their characters (e.g. a western style for Nisha)

#I mean very likely none of this is ever gonna happen and they're just going to make a very weird re-imagining of Borderlands 1 that flops #and no one ever talks about again #but it is fun to think about #borderlands #nisha kadam #fandom #honestly I think the different borderlands games would fair best as a short mini-series each game #possibly each episode focussing on a different character #because basically all these characters have their own story and fandom #and I feel like for a movie they would need to throw a lot of characters and world-building under the bus to make it work #plus I'm a bit worried that whether and how they include Nisha kind of comes to hinge on literally how despicable she is at times.#I don't want them to soften her or erase parts of her :(

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noriaki-kak · 3 months

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Can I hear more about Ava possibly?

HELLO! Sorry for taking truly an eon to reply, around the time you sent the message I was in the middle of moving. Between that and the holidays responding got away from me but I still really wanted to answer! Better late than never I suppose, so without further ado...

So explaining Ava's story requires explaining a good amount of world building. I think Thea has mentioned Demiphics before but the tldr is that they're the children of angels and demons. Heaven and hell have a long history not just with each other but also with Demiphics. Officially, while in the current era relationships between angels and demons are allowed, they're heavily stigmatized and they ARE banned from having children.

As an aside about heaven and hell for context. When I was building this world I knew I wanted it to be an angels and demons/heaven and hell, everything and the kitchen sink sort of setting. But to also kinda look at "Hey a world where people are judged by an arbitrary set of rules and sent to a nice place when they die or a place that sucks would be kinda bad no matter how you slice it."

I wanted to explore a world where heaven and hell are made, not by divine order as a machine that works naturally as intended, but as a concept that multiple institutions are seeking to fulfill. Hell functions as a collection of scattered monarchies, hell wears it's antiquated ideas on it's sleeve. There's the pits of burning hellfire and the society down there is unjust and nightmarish to live in, but demons and the humans cast down there ultimately just have to go about a daily life. It's not fun, it's hard to make a living, but you can still make friends and go to karaoke on the weekend.

Heaven is a very different brand of evil. They hide their ills behind fake pleasantries. They take the lions share of the work when it comes to "judging" humanity (hell is less interested in partaking in heaven's bureaucracy, as long as heaven sends them souls the higher ups are happy to leave the work to them). Heaven and hell are both vast but the first levels you'll see of heaven are seas of clustered office buildings. People's souls are judged by committees of angels, and there's a lot of people thus a lot of committees. A soul hangs in the balance and it's fate can be decided because George the Angel didn't drink enough coffee this morning and just really wants to wrap this up so he can go home.

There is no authority on who's good and bad, there's just rooms full of people arguing with bias and sticking people where they think they should go to meet a quota for the day. Over centuries the guidelines on good and bad actions are constantly being updated and changed, the fates of hundreds of humans are left to the whims of management. There have even been scandals in regards to higher ups pushing for harsher judgement when the budget for processing new souls into heaven gets a little tight.

Thanks to their intent to fulfill a role, humans who make it into heaven are treated fairly well! It's still a living moving society with quite a few problems and not some utopia but your average human is treated to a decent standard of living. This comes with the neglect of their own angels however. They pat themselves on the back for being better than hell, for being a more democratic society, but the angels at the top are largely from well off established families. Working class angels are sort of viewed as disposable.

That's actually a huge problem shared between heaven and hell, demons and angels both are treated as VERY disposable. An attitude largely influenced by the fact that both come into being in wide variety of ways. They can still be born the good old fashioned way but they're just as likely to be born from heaven/hell itself. "I don't have parents, I just popped out of the ground one day as a baby." is not an uncommon story sdfgh.

That brings us to demiphics, I think @dapper-comedy mentioned some of this when talking about Bishop (who will come into the picture again later with Ava hehe) I began writing down all the lore I could off the top of my head about them but then I remembered that I have an entire google doc concerning them! So thankfully I can just share this. (theres a tiny bit of info abt halos at the end which i havent covered BUT yknow more extra fun facts)

ASSUMING the document has been read, I can dive right in with Ava now! Ava ended up under heaven's care as a baby, she lived in the training facility for as long as she could remember and knew absolutely nothing about her birth parents or the circumstances in which she ended up there.

As a young child, the rotating cast of caretakers mean she didn't truly have a constant presence in her life, there were familiar faces but she wasn't allowed to grow truly attached to any of them.

They fed her the propaganda from a young age, telling her how if she's successful and that if she can learn to control her feelings, she can be free and travel not just heaven as an honored solider but see other realms as well.

Very early on she becomes fascinated and obsessed with having wings, demiphics wings manifest as non-physical extensions of their magic. So without her magic, she cannot have wings. It becomes the one thing she truly consciously wants for. The researchers and caretakers notice this and use this to "motivate" her.

Another formative memory for her when she's little, is meeting one of heaven's few success stories. A fully fledged Demiphic solider by the name of Zenith. She's not exactly the warmest and to put it bluntly she speaks like a bloodborne npc (She's got her own whole thing going on sdfghj) but the meeting inspires Ava and cements in her mind that she wants to be a soldier so she can be free and earn her wings.

Her childhood can be described as 1. Monotonous Martial Training and 2. Daily Evil Dark Therapy. She is raised with the intention of having her be able to fully control her feelings constantly. She's not allowed to form emotional connections, she's never allowed to have her own organic feelings.

As you can imagine this creates an intense disconnect between Ava and her own emotions. It's interesting because she's not trained to be emotionless, she's trained to be able to feel any emotion she needs at any moment. She's taught emotions in regards to what kind of magic it corresponds to.

She comes off as very congenial and cheerful because she's also taught about what emotions are expected from her in visible social settings as well.

She lives this deeply lonely, isolated, controlled life until she's 18 years old (or whatever the equivalent in angel/demon years, time moves weird in the different realms)

Around this time a new face enters the picture, an angel by the name of Katrina. Katrina is an angel that works for the government, she used to be a diplomat who traveled to hell but after a year long sabbatical on earth she returned to heaven and transferred to a different position within the government.

Her new position had her visiting the demiphic training facility very frequently and around this time is when she met Ava. When Ava turned eighteen she was given a lot more freedom around the facility. Thanks to her very consistent and good behavior, she was given permissions to move more freely and speak to more people as a sort of test of her training.

Most people passing through that spoke with her were cordial but kept their distance, either out of fear of her or fear of getting in trouble with heaven. Katrina is the first exception, she immediately has a fondness for Ava the first time they speak for a very specific reason. She sees her own child in Ava.

See, when Katrina was a diplomat she spent a lot of time in hell around a lot of important demons. During a party she may have had a one night stand with the ruler of the first layer of hell (He may be the ruler of the first layer aka The City of Dis but he's honestly more of a figurehead that just kinda swings his power around and parties. His many many children and employees do most of the actual work).

And that year long sabbatical she spent on earth afterwards may have had something to do with that. But yeah Katrina had a demiphic child of her own, and being a government worker she was deeply familiar with how her child would be treated in heaven if they knew. So she had her kid in secret and left him at the doorstep of the castle in hell with the hopes he'd have a better life as a prince in hell. (This is a whole entire other character I have named Odd who has a whole ton of other stuff going on but sorry my sweet lad, this aint about you right now asdfgh)

Anywho, Katrina was honestly sort of haunted by this and parts of her regret not trying to find a way to stay with her kid. She had always wanted to raise a kid but life never worked out that way for her. But she was also terrified of being found out and thus having him be taken in by heaven, and so she swallowed that pain and told herself that it was for the best. (She had a small hope that one day she may be able to meet him, and though she never expected he would forgive her or consider her his mother, she bought him a little birthday gift on his birthday every year and stored it away for him just in case.)

When she meets Ava, it's impossible for her heart not to ache, she's around the same age her kid would be. It only takes a few conversations to see how badly heaven messed this kid up. As for Ava, it is instant. Katrina is the first person in her entire life to honestly show even a bit of openness to her. It's like a wildfire, heaven kept the flame burning low but the moment it had any fuel it flared.

It terrified Ava in a way because losing the slightest bit of control of her feelings threatened her future freedom. That plus... it was almost hard for to recognize what she was feeling at all, it was hard for her to even understand what was different or that this was the first person she'd met who considered how she felt when they talked.

It was a kindness she almost couldn't understand, so for a year they consistently crossed paths and spoke. It was rare they had a moment alone to speak, almost always being monitored, but when they did immediately Ava would ask questions she knew she wasn't allowed to and Katrina answered despite the risk.

Katrina is an impulsive person, and she's very aware of this, so she tried her best to not get too invested. She told herself she'd visit and try and be a positive influence on her life but she absolutely couldn't do anything that'd run afoul of heaven......... well she tried sdfgh.

One conversation about six months into knowing each other strikes a real cord. Katrina has realized how hard Ava has bought into heaven's propaganda and Ava's talking about how hard she's working to earn her wings one day.

Katrina is absolutely taken aback by this, because Ava already has wings, they're just sealed away. When Katrina say this, Ava retorts with well yeah, but the only way my magic gets unsealed is by becoming a soldier. And Katrina tells her that other magic user can break that seal, that it's not that heaven will give her wings, it's that they're keeping something that's already hers away from her.

This is a turning point for both of them, this forms a crack in Ava's perception of heaven, and this makes Katrina know she needs to get Ava out of here.

In the following six months, Ava opens up more and starts to question things, starts to struggle with her own feelings and realize she doesn't know who she is. That she doesn't know anything about herself. She feels suddenly lost as her interactions with Katrina makes her realize she hasn't been living as a person. She struggles to find her own preferences, and comes up short, the only things she's ever desired is her ability to fly.

And Katrina makes a plan with her for her escape, promising her that she'll help her fly.

I won't get into the nitty gritty details of the escape plan (mainly because i change my mind of the specifics frequently sdfghj) but around her nineteenth birthday, with the help of Katrina, Ava escapes the facility.

Katrina manages to get away with it despite being questioned because she has a close friend who can secretly harbor Ava.

Avery (another character who has a whole entire in-depth story because I have Too Many Characters and they are all interconnected.) Has a workshop for his art and tinkering on the floating islands of third layer of heaven.

So basically what happens is Katrina shows up to Avery's workshop in the middle of the night with a blanket draped over Ava and goes like "Okay listen, I can explain, you have to promise not to get mad at me." Before revealing Ava and her very obvious horns that stick out like a sore thumb in heaven.

Despite his complaints about the recklessness of the entire situation, he allows her to stay. They eventually get her a pendant to glamour her in her day to day, so she can go around without being immediately spotted.

And with that she joins a little crew of people who hang out with a common goal in heaven! I call them the heist crew bc everyone who hangs out there has a bone to pick with the government in heaven, as well as their own goals. Sometimes that culminates in them stealing objects or information from various government facilities and using it to further their own means. But also it's kinda like that thing where it's like "Oh we're a club that does this!" but ninety percent of the time they just hang out and slack off instead of doing what they're supposed to sdfghj.

I won't go over everyone since this is supposed to be about Ava and this is meant to focus on her but she becomes quite close with a number of people who frequent Avery's workshop!

Avery himself is the first person she latches onto. He has an aloof detached sort of air at first but it very quickly becomes clear how caring an attentive he is. He was once a classically trained artist turn tinkerer and many years ago he suffered an "accident" (it's a long story) that injured the left side of his body greatly, causing him to lose an arm, leg, wing, and eye. With the help of his father long after the event, he crafted himself prosthetics out of marble and gold and enchanted them to move lightly and fluidly.

He can't always wear them, and most of the time he gets around his shop in a wheelchair, but he is particularly attached to the arm he designed and created. So even when he isn't using it, it's never far from him. His current project is even more ambitious, he's attempting to design wings from scratch through a fusion of machining and magic.

Aside from a desire to create a new wing for himself, he believes that any and all denizens of heaven deserve access to flight. Humans, angels who've lost their wings, and even more controversially, demons.

Ava is intimidated by Avery at first because he's difficult to read, but one night she comes across him experiencing rather bad phantom pains and helps bring him his medication. This breaks the ice between them and once he's feeling more himself, he shows her some of the little trinkets he's working on. Clocks and music boxes and stuff like that. Ava finds herself absolutely enraptured and Avery is amused and excited by how truly interested she is.

They talk long into the night and when dawn is barely peeking over the horizon, he gifts her a little music box that he made some time ago before they part ways for the night (day?) . From here they slowly develop a sibling-like relationship and when Avery tells her about his big project attempting to make wings, she's besides herself with excitement.

See, she's free now, she could unseal her magic, but as she discovers who she is as a person, a creeping fear takes hold. She fears she won't be able to control her magic, and that she could accidentally lash out at the first people she's come to care about. So Avery, as well as Katrina, let her know it's perfectly okay for her to take as long as she needs to. Avery assures her that even if it takes her a lifetime to feel comfortable unsealing her magic, he'll be happy to make mechanical wings for her the moment he gets them working.

Speaking of Ava discovering who she is, the second person she becomes close with is Bishop. Bishop is @dapper-comedy's character and I believe they've spoken about them before! Demiphic, escaped from a cult, fought in fighting rings at the heart of the third layers main floating islands. Currently frequenting Avery's shop and struggling to figure out their relationship with their estranged mother, amateur carpenter. (Thea could probably tell you more details about Bishop overall especially since it's been a moment since we discussed these characters and some details are a little foggy on my end sdfghj)

Ava immediately gravitates towards Bishop. They are MUCH more standoffish than anyone else they've met at the workshop, but I don't think anything could stop Ava from wanting to get to know them. Bishop is the first other Demiphic she's met outside of her confinement, and on top of that their magic is unsealed.

Ava has a deep admiration for them, for the way they wield their power. Their friendship is much more of a slow burn, neither really knowing how to approach each other. But Bishop is one of the first people that helps Ava discover more about herself.

She was trained all her life to act a certain way and so her default is a very pleasant bubbly sort of attitude. As she starts to figure out how to be herself however she discovers that at heart she's really much more of a subdued person. She tends towards a quiet, more monotone set of mannerisms. Her friendship with Bishop helps her discover this.

Around people she doesn't know or when she's uncomfortable and out of her element, she adopts her pleasant exterior. Only around people she's really comfortable around does she let it drop, and Bishop is one of the first people that sees that side of her.

The final person she forms a very strong bond with is a familiar face. None other than Giselle! This takes place a VERY long time after everything that happened with the Braithen Kids (+wonky time dilation stuff with the planes), after Giselle died she was sadly the only one who went to heaven dfghj.

I don't recall exactly how Giselle fell in with the heist crew. (I think it had something to do with Bishop's mother, Rose. But I may be misremembering, Thea correct me if I'm wrong dfghj) but! Once she's there she and Ava really hit it off.

Due to often being bedridden in life Giselle is practically cartwheeling through heaven, unrestrained summer fun. Ava immediately befriends her (she meets her after she's gained a bit more confidence interacting with people) and their friendship acts as a vehicle for Ava to catch up to all the mischief she never got to get up to before.

Giselle shares an intense interest in flying as well, and they both are very invested in Avery's mechanical wings project. Frequently asking him about it and planning their own ill advised test flight experiments to help him gather data (which he Did Not ask them to do).

And that's most of the info about Ava! There's small things I could mention. Like how she develops a love of birds spurred on by a little bird necklace Katrina gets for her on a day they decide is her birthday (since she doesn't know the actual date) And how it's the first gift she receives in her entire life, but certainly not the last.

Or how Avery and Katrina take her out to buy clothes for the first time since she really doesn't have much to wear. She struggles making choices for herself, since her clothes were always given to her. Her entire life was light flowing white dresses, embroidered with constellations, and supplied to her directly. She initially picks out similar things, uncertain what else to do. But then she sees a sturdy bomber jacket, and feels a fragile yearning for it.

With Avery and Katrina's encouragement, she gets it for herself. It's the first time she makes a choice for herself based on what she herself really wants. Plus it starts her on a path to discovering she prefers more sturdy androgynous fashion.

There is one more thing, a thread me and Thea haven't quite finished... As time passes and she grows more comfortable with her current life and the people around her, she starts to have strange dreams. Dreams of a garden... and in these dreams she sees someone, and feels as though this someone is calling out to her.

The person she sees looks an awful lot like her, a little bit older... She looks almost like... a sister perhaps? *dramatic musical sting*

BUT YES, she has a demiphic sister named Odette (another character from the Epic Mind of Thea) who begins to reach out to her through her dreams. And through this connection perhaps she'll discover more about the circumstances of her birth and just Who this familiar stranger is. Tune in next time to find out more (when me and Thea actually write more of this story sdfghj)

Aside from that as a little bonus for this taking so long, I scrounged up some Ava art! I haven't drawn her in quite a while so these are kinda ancient but they serve their purpose. Writing this is making we wanna draw her again...

and then these three are a series I did drawing some of the Demiphics! In order from left to right we have Ava -> Bishop -> Odd

#i really hope i explained this well I wrote this in multiple sittings so if its a little disjointed That is why #part of why this took a while was bc i had to go back and reference old convos me and thea had to refresh myself on character details #EVEN THEN! this probably isnt everything #This is such a simple question but shes SO entrenched in the world building I truly went wild answering this #THANK U FOR YOUR PATIENCE....#Ava sits at the crossroads of so much world building and so many characters #i didnt even mention half the members of the heist crew just the ones closest to Ava in the interest of actually getting this posted #oc tag #this entire world is the most self indulgent thing in the world and i love it dearly #taking the very middle school idea of 'what if there was a half angel half demon and they had magic controlled by their FEELINGS'#and taking it very seriously #extremely fun and freeing

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selkiecoded · 2 years

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What isekai are you reading if you don’t mind me asking?

okay... but youre not allowed to make fun of me... its called "50 tea recipes from the duchess." korean woman gets fired, gets isekai'd into the body of a duchess who is timid to the point of patheticness and everybody fuckin hates her. is like uggghh well i dont care if im hated as long as i have my special interest: TEA. and with her autistic girl swag (label pending) she makes both the society and her cold intimidating husband love her. 70% of it is her infodumping about tea to the delight of everyone around her.

#ask me no questions and ill tell you no lies #started reading it on tapas bc i was bored and it was free. embarrassingly got invested.#more uhh romance isekai? rather than like an action based one. its cute enough. not really groundbreaking but i like the FL.#we did manage to achieve a conversation between the protag and her body swapped soul so that was fun.#generally i dont support ppl who go on abt art that they only engage w for mindless fun or whatever bc theyre usually talking abt fuckin.#idk marvel movies or the latest army propaganda films or whatever. and generally the media they talk abt verges to harmful.#but i am an avid supporter of reading dumb shit you know is silly. all art has value including stupid stuff.#other dumb stuff ive read: at least two ~sexier~ manga/manhwa. former had surprisingly decent world building.#latter had an INCREDIBLY TOXIC cast of characters. it was absolutely fascinating.#those are the more embarrassing ones and the ones i WONT be dropping titles for.#others include furry shoujo isekai; aromantic shoujo; mousou telepathy (ive mentioned that before)#gag comedy where a dude gets ~magicked~ into a girls body but the joke is hes so lazy that he doesnt give a shit (mood)#stupid bl manga with a hot fat character who is very much the main object of desire #a lot of it is manga/manhwa bc its easier to get into something kinda dumb if its bolstered by having nice visuals rather than like a book #or whatever where you have to slog through it with your imagination alone. even when reading 'dumb' art i try to engage it properly bc i #very sincerely believe that every story has some form of meaning if youre just willing to engage with it #(<- plot of orv btw for an ACTUALLY good story)#like i said the sexi manga has surprisingly good worldbuilding. the toxic story the sexu manhwa was telling was earnestly fascinating.#idk! sorry i know you were just looking for the name but while i do consider it just kinda silly its broader impact has a deep effect on me #this is why i love orv❤️ please read orv. while i already had these fond feelings prior to reading orv it really cemented it for me.#oh and i read romance novels sometimes. i like stuff thats cute and silly! idk. youve been on my blog you can see my icon this isnt news.

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dent-de-leon · 1 month

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daggerheart does have some fun stuff to it, but I think I'm actually enjoying making a candela character even more--

#I don't know why but I just?? really like the list of abilities and the atmosphere and all the fun little details of the world and building #a circle within it #was going through the dagger character builder first but then tried the candela one and I just got so caught up in it #Im reading the rulebook for it again and man. I don't know this world really vibes with me for some reason its so very fun #I cant wait to see what they do with the crimson mirror circle next episode im just so excited for it #anyway am i making a silly little medium? yes yes i am

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death-rebirth-senshi · 11 months

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I love just abandoning Elden Ring playthroughs I'm just like "okay that's enough" and start a new game...I've been playing Elden Ring almost nonstop (with a little mass effect break) since I got it in November and it's now June. And I'm still like...hm I think I'm done with this strength/int endeavor I want to try blasphemous paladin again

#I just love roleplaying a sad paladin learning their oath is kind of shit #and trying but failing to abandon it and instead striking a balance where they redefine their oath for themselves #which isn't. *really* a paladin. In the DnD sense. There's Consequences to breaking an oath there isn't it? which is very fun actually #but this isn't DnD #me vs elden ring #I'm always captivated by the concept of what it means to have faith in the world of dark souls #where objectively factually the things you have faith in are failing/have failed and fallen #and the figures central to your religion turn out to be flawed and human #and yet at the same time miracles are tangible things and your faith allows you to heal and defend yourself and spread blessings #what is 'faith' in this scenario exactly? Faith in what?#I can never make a dumb faith build who just walks forward with entirely blind belief I always have to angst it a bit #in dark souls I always lean back towards it being faith *in* the miracles. The tales of the gods you recite to receive their blessing #or copy their abilities with lightning spear etc.#Elden Ring is especially funny of course because faith allows you all kinds of incantations. And I think the fact that you have all kinds o #incantations. MOST of which are kind of blasphemous and have nothing to do with the Erdtree itself #and yet you can cast them just the same as any other incantation #is an interesting concept to me. For a character to struggle with.#Alongside the whole 'Marika was the one who shattered the Elden Ring' thing.#I also like making devoted faith knights who swear oaths and are secretly really repressed gay boys.#what if I wielded a blasphemous blade of unholy flame and you wielded a sliver of a cold dark moon and we were both boys

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farragoofwires · 9 months

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don' dweeblog

I need to acquire more poly v and or triad ships that are two women and a dude, for equality, but of course that would require media to include two female characters having a fun dynamic with both each other and a dude, which is apparently illegal.

#grinding my teeth about it. shout-out to that one jane/darcy/thor fic.#stares at chase park and adams. i guess this will have to do. :(#the problem is adams has a fun dynamic with park and park has a tolerable dynamic with chase #and adam and chase are just like #[arrested development voice] them?#f: house tag #you know who have a fun dynamic. stacy and every single female character she's ever interacted with; by virtue of i love her exceedingly.#stacy/house/cuddy. go cry about it wilson.#to your wife. who you're married to.#edit: reread the darcy/jane/thor fic. god 2012 era mcu oteveryone was compelling. what if everyone really WAS friends who lived in an #apartment building together so they could have their own separate spaces and still be in a shared living space. THE DREAM.#JUST MAKE EVERYONE YOU LIKE LIVE WITH YOU.#ye olde bugshouse fantasy. quite frankly.#edit part 2: forgot about the wake/pyrrha/giddy-one situation. tm is consistently writing the best dynamics.#why hasn't literally everyone in the entire world written a poly v around a lady trying very hard to kill you while you fail to let your #best friend in the entire universe know you exist; while he also tries very hard to kill your mutual girlfriend.#the bodysharing is just an added bonus it's not a requirement here.#anyway. that one cam/pal/pyrrha shipper is doing god's work. could never be me but they are absolutely doing it.#f: tlt tag #f: mcu tag

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lollitree · 2 years

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I finished the XY series, now halfway through the sun/moon series and I miss Manon...

#and james' inkay because I'm not a huge fan of his mareanie #pokemon #I liked Serena but her arc ended and the new friends are fun #oh wait looking up manon her name is different in english #eh I'm used to manon #professor kukui though best anime professor #I didn't care for him much in the games but he's so good in the anime the entire series is so cute and sweet and wholesome I love it #and the world building is very good #and just the subtle storytelling in sun/moon is the best of all the pokemon series I've watched #just in the personality and performance of the characters #the adults are much better written than in xy as well #they put so much effort into the main kids the adults were kinda flat #I'm binging pokemon so I can catch up to journeys before it ends fkjdsh

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jessicatredes · 4 months

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if you're comfortable, i'd love to learn more about your hunger games oc, sutherland. she seems so cool! do you have anything you could share? 💖

awww thank you!!! im still kinda workshopping her character but here's what i currently have established for her :-) i wrote more than i though i would so under the cut lol

because suzanne collins named her characters with the influence of their district (i.e. glimmer from d1), i wanted to do the same for sutherland! district 10 is typically shown in the southwest of north america on panem maps, & sutherland literally means "southern land."

her faceclaim is emmy rossum! sutherland is around 5'6, and with her work in the fields of d10, she's got a slightly better build than those from other districts. she has brown hair & eyes, and is mainly dressed in a palette of oranges & browns.

at first she isn't really sure why she volunteered. she didn't know marlo or the hacketts well at all, but there was just something about seeing a family already so affected by the games having another child reaped. she was also going to be kicked out of her community home soon, because she's 17 at the start of the 68th games. during her interview with caesar, she plays up that she volunteered to win & is confident in her ability to, but really she didn't think it fair that a victor's child was reaped.

her main mentor is falabella hackett, marlo's mother. she coached sutherland to turn everything surrounding her reason for volunteering away from marlo & her family, and instead because she wanted to win the games. falabella didn't want any fallback on her family because sutherland decided to say she thought it was fucked up victor's kids get reaped.

in d10, she worked with both horses & cattle. compared to the other livestock raised there, she was happy to work with cattle since it felt "freer" working in the pastures & riding horses. bc im making her a #horse girl, if she hadn't volunteered, she would've liked to work solely with the horses raised for the capitol (tribute parade, etc.). as a victor she owns a couple herself & rides as her talent.

she knows the basics of leatherworking, but she prefers embroidery as a craft. after she won her games, her stylist always dressed her with something that had embroidery throughout it.

she had a similar mindset to gale (how different can it be killing an animal vs tribute) when entering the games. because of this, she made no attempt to make allies, even with her district partner tatum. she stuck to herself and avoided other tributes for the first few days of the game. she eventually would use bear traps scattered around the arena to take out most of the career pack.

speaking of bears!!! she almost dies to a muttation that's basically a crazy bear monster. it was down it the final three when it attacked her, but the other two tributes took each other out before she could be killed by it. the capitol initially had her keep the scars it gave her, since the citizens were so enamored by her survival. she is often gifted bear trinkets or furs, and she cannot stand it.

im not having her story have a huge influence/change on the source material, but i am retconing the d10 tribute dying in catching fire lol. i haven't decided if i want her to have been rescued during the games OR from the capitol yet though (either way she was in on the plan).

for the 75th games she volunteers again (technically making her the only person to ever volunteer twice lol) she's the youngest out of all the living tributes, doesn't have children, & knows she can help keep katniss alive during the quarter quell.

by the time cf & mj roll around, sutherland has been a victor & mentor for 7 years. she also has spent a significant amount of time in the capitol. while it appears she's paraded around by the same guy (justinian) all the time, they're both actually part of the underground group plutarch was a part of to overthrow the capitol. he also manages to get to district 13 for mj.

sutherland would absolutely vote no for a ceremonial final hunger games. ik the math wouldn't work out then with the vote at the end of mj, but idc enough to figure that out LMAO. she knows justinian's nieces/nephews & also can't imagine any child being put through that.

#sorry i wrote a lot LMAO #thg is a very fun world to try building a character into (in what i hope is a realistic way)#oc: sutherland acosta #myocs*

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