#I PROMISE THIS IS THE LAST TOA FOR A WHILE

[literallyjusttoa]

I have been obsessed with the idea of Paris coming to the modern day in the same way Midas, Lityerses, and Medea did. Like, If anybody had some unfinished business, it's every citizen of Troy. Anyway here are some different little scenarios I've cooked up about how this silly little war criminal fared after making a mad dash for the doors of death in HoO.

Ok, so in this scenario, Paris is recruited by Gaea just like all the other spirits who come back from the dead. He ends up being tasked with working alongside Octavian. At first, he's driven only by grief and anger at the loss of his own family and city. As they approach Camp Half-Blood, Paris regularly remarks on how happy he is that's he'll be the one storming the walls this time. But over time, he slowly finds himself growing worried about Octavian's sanity. He tries to steer Octavian away from making reckless decisions, but Octavian refuses to back down. Paris sees the deadly fervor of his fellow soldiers in Octavian, and pulls away. From here we split off into two endings. 1. (the sad one) Octavian's fate plays out the same as the books and Paris just has to deal with how his actions unintentionally spurred the young man towards his own death. Or 2. (the happy one) Paris leaving is the wake-up call Octavian needs, and he pulls himself out of battle at the last second, breaking the cycle of hatred and wrath that started at Troy. Pick your fighter I guess.

In this scenario, Paris is not the only one who comes back from the doors of death. Half of the Argo II crew find him in Ancient Greece (Don't ask why he's there instead of Turkey idk shhhhh) And he's very helpful to them in whatever quest they're trying to complete at the time. All's well that ends well, except the OTHER half of the Argo II crew actually just met up with Hector on the other side of Greece lol. Turns out neither brother knows the other is alive, and the Argo II take the time to reunite the pair. I would specifically set this in BoO, and have the focus be on Jason and Leo as parallels for Hector and Paris, especially with them both thinking about sacrificing themselves bc of the prophecy (the whole "storm or fire" thing). Like, my idea is that a lot of emphasis would be put on Hector dying first, and how he sacrificed for Troy, and how Paris wishes he could've saved Hector. And Jason would come away from that thinking "Yes, I want to be Hector, i've made peace with making the final sacrifice to keep my friends safe" and Leo thinking "I'll do what Paris couldn't and give my life so that Jason doesn't have to" and ahhhh angst.

This is a ToA scenario instead of an HoO scenario. Paris and one of his siblings come back to life like in the last one, but instead of it being Hector, this time it's Cassandra. Idk when this would happen in the timeline of ToA, bc those books are so tight knit (maybe the infamous TTT to TON roadtrip) But I would add a little side quest where Apollo and Meg have to find Cassandra bc Nero's trying to kidnap her or smth. They run into Paris while they're searching for Cassandra, and the three of them team up for a lil bit. In this scenario, Paris works as a direct parallel to Apollo, all though he's a bit further behind on his redemption journey. Basically, Apollo feels like he's looking at slightly embarrassing old pictures of himself. When they find Cassandra, Apollo offers a genuine apology for everything he did to her. Emboldened by Apollo's example, Paris also opens up to Cassandra in a way he'd never done before. The two are finally able to air out their shared grief from Troy, and they set out to ... idk New Rome or the Waystation or smth. Either way they're a lot closer as siblings now, and Apollo promises to visit them once the Trials are over.

Of course, these are only my ideas that kinda fit into canon, I have a whole bunch more that go entirely off the rails. Anyways this pathetic little failure of a man has bewitched my body and soul or whatever I love rolling him around like a balled up chewing gum wrapper.

[bekolxeram]

7x03 analysis part 1 — Everything Air Ops

I promised helicopters, so now we get helicopters. I want to look into how Air Operations work in the 9-1-1 universe, in comparison to its real life counterpart in this first part. Then, I will try to figure out the location and intensity of "hurricane Ethel" during the clandestine operation in the second part. And finally, I will prove how risky it is to fly a helicopter into a storm and why Tommy deserves every bit of his Medal of Valor.

Location

Real!LAFD Air Ops operate (Station 114) out of Van Nuys Airport (VNY/KVNY). It's not only one the busiest general aviation airports in the world, it's also smack dab in between major green areas of the city of LA itself.

This location makes perfect sense in real life. Air Ops might get the occasional highway car wreck or urban structural fire calls, but most of their missions still consist of wildfire suppression and rural search and rescue. Being based at Van Nuys makes sure they can respond to emergency in a timely fashion.

in the 9-1-1 universe, the LAFD Air Ops are based at "Harbor Station", or Station 217. (Harbor and 217 are the same station, Chimney especially asked if Tommy was still at the 217 in 2x14 when requesting air support, unless the 911-verse LAFD has 2 different air operation units, which I highly doubt.) Obviously it has to be at an airport, because that's where the hangers and helipads are, and going by "harbor" I can only speculate that it's in the Harbor Region of LA.

The only non-military airport in the LA Harbor Region is Long Beach Airport (LGB/KLGB), but it's quite a busy commercial airport, probably not a good one to run emergency services from. There's also the Zamperini Field (TOA/KTOA) nearby in Torrance, although not exactly inside the Harbor Region, it's coastal and close enough to the 2 LA ports I guess? Feel free to create a whole new airport using your imagination though, as you know 9-1-1 is set in an alternate universe where geography and physics work differently.

Helicopters

The LAFD Air Ops have 5 medium (FIRE 1-5) and 2 light duty (FIRE 6/7) helicopters, you've heard Tommy in 7x04. Everything applies to the real world counterpart, but the medium type that real!Air Ops operate is AgustaWestland AW139, the Italian-made medium sized twin-engine helicopter with a 5-blade main rotor primed for emergency response and off-shore oil rig transportation.

It has auto-pilot, an anti-icing system for harsh weather and even auto-hover suitable for hoist rescue missions. In a passenger transport configuration, it can carry up to 15 passengers in a 3 row seating plan. In an SAR (search and rescue) configuration though, the middle row can be removed for gurney space. It's big and powerful enough to transport multiple patients, but at the same time, light and agile enough to get into difficult terrain.

The AW139 is designed to be flown by 2 pilots, flying solo is also possible, but only under VFR (Visual Flight Rules), with an additional certification, which LAFD pilots can and do. To fly it under IFR (Instrument Flight Rules), it always requires 2 pilots according to the FAA last time I checked.

The light helicopter type real!LAFD flies is the Bell 505 Jet Ranger X, a single engine twin-blade made in Canada. It's an relatively new airframe, set to replace the aging Bell 206, which the LAFD used to operate. It's quite a bit smaller than the AW139, it can only fit 1 pilot and 4 passengers.

While it's perfectly capable of carrying a Bambi bucket to assist with aerial firefighting missions, it's mainly used as a training aircraft for new pilots and HLCO (Helicopter Coordinator) when there is a major catastrophe that requires on-the-site air traffic coordination.

These are all brand new and sophisticated aircrafts that a mere TV channel can't get their hands on without a government budget. So for 911!LAFD Air Ops, ABC went to their usual helicopter service company for prop aircrafts.

Helinet Aviation provides all sorts of helicopter services from aerial journalism, medevac, delivery to regular chartering. All the 911!Air Ops scenes in 7x03 and 7x04 are naturally filmed in the Helinet hanger, for convenience's sake, at VNY, just a runway across from real!Air Ops.

911!Air Ops

Helinet hangar Street View

I believe I've identified all the helicopters shown in 7x03 and 7x04, but let's get the 2 in the background which probably do not belong to 911!Air Ops out of the way:

N72EH, a Sikorsky S76C++, still in its Boston MedFlight livery. Sold to Helinet in 2022, possible used as a medevac vehicle currently? Unlikely to have anything to do with 911!Air Ops, probably just happened to be in the background to make it seem like there were many helicopters.

The one Tommy flies Eddit to Vegas in is N67TV, an Eurocopter AS350B2 Écureuil (aka squirrel). No fire department would ever let employees take their expensive equipment out for a joy ride so it's likely that in universe, Tommy rented it from somewhere outside of the station. IRL though, according to this forum post, it's used as a backup helicopter for all its customer news stations, but also any TV or film production purposes outside of journalism.

Now, for the one seen in the hangar, therefore explicitly belonging to 911!LAFD:

N29HD, also an AS350B2, also a news helicopter. According to this reddit comment, it used to be shared between CBS and FOX, but now it seems to be configured as a dedicated aircraft for ABC7.

The one the who cares gang stole to rescue Bobby and Athena though has a fake registration number on it:

You just have to look up Helinet's fleet, and you will see this is obviously a DHL livery, and it's quite easy to find out that this is actually:

N211FN, an AS350B1 (so an even older variant than the previous two), operated on behalf of DHL for package delivery service.

Don't get me wrong, the AStar (how the AS350 is called in the US) is a versatile and reliable aircraft. It the 4th most produced rotorcraft in the world, someone even managed to land one on top of Mount Everest. But it's kind of small? It can seat only up to 5 passengers with 1 pilot, and there is hardly room left for any gear. There is also no space for stretcher, so anyone they rescue would have to sit upright. It's just not very realistic.

I have no idea what medium duty helicopters 911!Air Ops operate, we're unlikely to see them in the future. There is this Bell 205 in 4x12 Treasure Hunt, but it clearly says L.A County Rescue on the tail.

Pilots

Real!Air Ops pilots wear beige flight suits, it's the aeromedics who wear blue, and helitac crews wear orange. I'm not complaining too much though, Tommy looks good in blue. (I think the chief pilot wears dark blue, but I'm not sure.)

Helicopter pilots in general usually wear helmets, in case a particularly strong pocket of turbulence slams you against the body of the aircraft, or a bird decide to fly through the windshield into your face, but I get that it gets in the way of the camera, so I'm just gonna enjoy Tommy's beautiful face.

Real!Air Ops pilots work on a 24/48 shift schedule just like any platoon firefighters. Due to the danger of pilot fatigue on aviation safety, they do try to limit their continuous flight time to 6 hours before taking a prolong break.

There are 5 levels of pilots: pilot I (trainee), pilot II (probational), pilot III (full pilot), pilot IV (lead pilot) and pilot V (chief pilot). The chief pilot oversees the entire Air Ops and work on a 10 hour per day, 4 days a week schedule. The rest of the pilots are put into 3 shifts, each shift with a pilot IV, 2 pilot IIIs and 2 trainees/probies, together with 4 aeromedics. (Can't find the most updated version, the lastest one I can get my hands on is from 2022, so good enough?) Therefore Tommy's Bobby would not be a captain, it would be a lead pilot.

I've already explained in detail the timeline of Tommy's career as a firefighting pilot, but here is the short version of it: Once accepted into the LAFD pilot training program, he would have to train with the LAPD for 180 hours then back to the LAFD for 200 hours, that takes around 2 years, and by then he would be a probie. After that, he would have to slowly build up flight hours then train and certify for all types of missions on the medium duty helicopter, that would take another 2-3 years, and after that he would be promoted to a pilot III, which is probably the rank he holds now.

We can see from the form Hen submitted in 7x03 that she initially asked for Lucy as their pilot, as she's forgotten that Tommy also worked there. Fortunately Chimney called Tommy, as Lucy most likely would've still been a probie if not just a trainee.

Melton

I have no idea who he is.

I can sort of see his badge says "firefighter"? At real!Air Ops, everyone wears a flight suit as uniform, so that they can hop into a chopper in an emergency. I don't know what a dude in a regular uniform with the regular LAFD patch on his arm doing there.

Tommy's arm has the Air Ops helicopter patch on it.

Real!Station 114 though do have a crash unit staffed with regular firefighters, maybe Melton is with them? But then, why is he doing with Hen's helicopter requisition?

[pjofan25]

I'm just wondering what your guy's favourite series in the Percy Jackson universe is because mine is the Trials of Apollo, but I do love all of them.

( Spoiler if you have not read ToA )

I am very new to the fandom ( I only started to read the books in February ), and I really enjoyed ToA. Lester/Apollo's character development is, in my opinion, the best throughout all of the PJO books. In the beginning, he can't believe that he is mortal, complains a lot, and can be kind of annoying at times. But when he goes on his journey to free the oracles and become a God again, he realises the hardships demigods have to go through, the pain, the suffering.

In the Burnin Maze, Jason said to Lester, "Promise me one thing. Whatever happens, when you get back to Olympus, when you're a God again,remember. Remember what it's like to be human." Apollo even stabbed himself with our favourite talking arrow to hopefully give Meg and Jason time to escape. It distracted Caligula and Medea as Apollo needed to be alive so that Caligula could become the Sun god. Medea plugged up his wound, and since she was distracted, Meg and Jason broke out of their wind prison. Jason was fighting Caligula to buy them some time, but had arrows in in limbs and was stabbed in the back twice by Caligula. The last word of Jason Grace was, "Go! Remember!" ( I actually cried while reading that book ).

We can see that throughout the next two books, Apollo listens to Jason's wish, and when he gets his godhood back, he remembers. He remembers what it is like to be human.

Reading ToA gave me a new perspective on Apollo. I think he may be the best godly parent and one of the best olympians, if not the best. I love the Trials of Apollo, and it is my favourite books series that Rick Riordan has written or my favourite series in general.

Tell me what your favourite books series in the PJO universe is and why. I would love to hear your opinions.

[lightly-toasted-ice]

The Steltian held his right arm out to brace against the wall, the impact jolting the spiked protodermis coursing through his body. He held his other hand up to his temple in a vain attempt to quell the pounding in his head as he shuffled towards the door to the inn. When he reached it and stumbled through, he was caught by another, somewhat more steady patron. The two smiled and exchanged pleasantries before separating once more. Oh, how the Steltian longed for the warm embrace of bed and blanket; sweet release from the storm hammering his skull. The stairs in his path were a daunting adversary, even when sober, but he was no stranger to hard fights after hard nights. Slowly but surely, he climbed his way up, step by eye-twisting step. Now, was it the third door on the left, or was it the fourth? Maybe it was on the right? The Steltian resolved to just keep shambling until he remembered. It didn't take long at all before he found the door to his room, identifying it by a particularly ragged gash that ran near the door handle. He turned that handle, nearly running into the door before it had opened, and slowly made his way into the room. He felt around for the lightstone near the basin, which was shielded by an overturned cup. He found it by nearly knocking it from its perch, but saved both it and the cup from falling. He looked into the mirror above the basin and froze. He was far from superstitious, and certainly wasn't religious, but what he saw in the mirror was as good as Karzahni to him. He whipped around, nearly sending himself to the floor. He locked eyes with a being from his long-buried memories, her armor gleaming black and violet in the lightstone's glow, golden light shining from beneath her chestplate and mask, a terrifyingly large bladed disk held loosely in her right hand, her left lightly gripping the back of the chair she sat in. "It's been a long time," she said, her voice dripping with malice. "Close the door and take a seat. We've got a lot to catch up on."

A few hours later... Traven let out a heavy sigh as he pressed a knuckle to his forehead. "You're absolutely certain he was telling the truth?" Cantor nodded. "Positive. Doubt he could've thought straight enough to try lying. I could smell the booze on him before he even made it through the door." Traven stood up, stretching as he did. Cantor doubted he'd slept at all last night. The Toa of Iron turned to her. "If he had no information on Nastrond, we have no reason to stay on Stelt. If you have anything else you need to take care of here, please do so quickly; I fear we are overstaying our welcome." Cantor nodded. Their peace treaty with the Steltians wasn't a long-term deal, and with the utter lack of leads on Makuta Nastrond, they were sure to be ousted when word reached the warlords. She moved closer to Traven and put a hand on his shoulder. "I won't be gone long, brother. Try to get some sleep, while I'm out." A flicker of protest crossed Traven's face, but it passed quickly. He smiled at Cantor. "No promises," he said. He pulled Cantor into a brief embrace, and the Toa of Gravity left the hut, turning towards the center of the island for one last tour of the Great Arena.

[why-are-all-the-users-taken]

Post-toa headcanons

ok so I recently finished the toa series, and lEMME TELL YA I HAVE NEVER CRIED SM WHILE READING A SERIES OK? LIKE I ONLY TEARED UP A LIL IN THE FIRST BOOK, BUT I WAS FULL ON SOBBING IN SOME PARTS BY THE LAST BOOK. anyways here are some head canons to ease my misery

Apollo visits all his friends at least once a month

Artemis and Apollo become closer after toa

apollo helped make demigod safe phones

The gods only actually started looking at how Apollo was doing after he almost died from that poisoned cut he go in the tyrants tomb so they didn't rlly know what happened during his trials

So they were actually rlly concerned when they learned of all that happened

Hera became slightly nicer to Apollo and zeus' children after seeing that Zeus deadass does not care abt them

Apollo hating himself

Meg sometimed turns to tell Apollo smth and then remembers he's not there

Shit these are kinda depressing

Apollo getting terrified when Zeus gets angry even if it's not directed at him

Apollo HAD ASTHMA WHEN HE WAS LESTER AND ONLY FIGURED IT OUT ONCE HE TALKED TO ATHENA ABT IT ABT A YEAR LATER.

Apollo being rlly rlly sad when one of his demigod friends dies.

Him walking into the throne room one day bc of Olympus meeting looking like he just bawled his eyes out (bc he did) when Meg dies.

And the other Olympians not knowing what's wrong

(I THOUGHT THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE HAPPY WHAT HAPPENED)

Apollo visited Jason in Elysium after he became a god again

WHEN MEG TURNED SIXTEEN APOLLO LET HER DRIVE THE SUN CHARIOT AND IT WAS EVEN WORSE THAN WHEN THALIA DROVE IT.

Apollo fussing over his children

Apollo zoning out in Olympus meeting bc he would rather be anywhere else and only coming back into focus when someone says his name and he realizes he has no clue what's going on

Mr. D calling Apollo Mr. A whenever he comes to chb (canon)

Apollo literally not knowing wtf is going on in Olympus half the time bc he literally does not give a shit abt drama anymore

Everyone slowly realizing how different Apollo is after his trials

Zeus making everyone read the toa books in an act to embarrass Apollo but it ends with all the gods being very confused and concerned for Apollo

"U WERE ABT TO KYS????"

"WHY DID ZEUS DO THAT?? "

"ARE U OK??? "

"APOLLO U IDIOT WHY WOULD U DO THAT?? "

and lots of hugs

so it basically just blew up in zeus's face

Apollo hardly getting romantically involved with anyone anymore

He also stops flirting with the hunters.

When ever he is near the hunters it's normally so that he can talk to Artemis

Also Apollo taking a long time to get used to godlyhood again

The Styx finally being proud of him bc he's learning to keep his promises and not make promises he can't keep

Apollo visits Meg the most and gives her a hug at least once a week

[blackjackkent]

As I have done for the last two major patch drops, here's a collection of things that stood out for me in the Patch 7 patch notes! :D

There's quite a lot of them - and this isn't even close to the whole list of changes, so definitely check out the full patch notes here if you're interested.

-----

First of all, the things I'm actively excited about:

Introducing 'Evil Endings': Brand new cinematic endings for the truly villainous playthroughs. (Exciting! I've started pondering what my next BG3 liveblog will be - though I might switch to another game for a while first after Rakha is done - and I am starting to lean towards reworking Alexis, my bard, into an evil-run Minthara-mancer. So... intrigued to see more of this in the future!)

Added our very own Mod Manager, which lets you browse, install, and use mods created by the community. (I don't know details about the existing modding process but the new system seems like it'll be pretty intuitive so - hype!)

You can now start Custom Mode games using Honour Mode mechanics when starting a new playthrough. You'll be able to do this via the 'Ruleset' dropdown. (Neat! I may do this as well on my next liveblog playthrough - not the difficulty changes but just forcing me to stick to my choices with one save.)

The kuo-toa that promised to build you an army will now support you in the final battle. Unless they all died in Act I. (Amazing. I'm unironically in love with this addition.)

The help that the Gondians promised for the final battle will now arrive in the form of a friendly Steel Watcher. Apologies from Zanner Toobin for the delay.

Added a dialogue option asking for a kiss in more paths of Wyll's epilogue dialogue.

A bug that had been preventing Wyll’s romance greeting from triggering has now been fixed, so players in Act III who have a stable, loving, and committed relationship with Wyll will now see his romance greeting triggering correctly.

In Act II, Minthara will now react to you having knocked her out in Act I.

Made the romance scene at night with Wyll in Act III unskippable if it triggers to avoid accidentally skipping it and not being able to finish the romance arc.

To improve her chances of survival, Hope now has a new passive called Last Hope that grants her Death Ward for free when she enters combat.

Fixed a bug causing Dark Urge characters to get renamed after using the Magic Mirror. (This threw me for such a loop when I accidentally did it with Rakha.)

When playing as the Dark Urge, if you invite her, Alfira will now actually join your party as a controllable character if there's room for her in your party setup. Temporarily, of course.

Fixed several issues with the portrait that Oskar gives you. Principally, the image on the portrait will now be that of the active character claiming the reward, regardless of their position on the Party Line. (THANK THE GODS. I'm still not over having so many feels about Hector commissioning a portrait of Karlach to have after she was gone, and Oskar cheerfully handing him a painting of Jaheira to look at instead. XD )

Karlach will now tell you her backstory if you reach the point of no return in the Shadow-Cursed Lands even if you didn't confront the paladins of Tyr.

You can now return Mol's eyepatch to her when you find her in the Guildhall.

Fixed the Monastic Robes stretching into a violent-looking point when you wake up on the beach after falling from the nautiloid. (Thank god - this happened all the time with Hector and it drove me crazy. Hopefully this means it's been fixed in other parts of the game too.)

-----

And then the changes and bug fixes that made me laugh:

If Dror Ragzlin finds himself inside the spider pit [in honor mode], he'll try his best to befriend the spiders residing there with a new spell called Arachnid Compulsion so they can band together to fight the real enemy - you.

Malus Thorm has a new Legendary Action called Grasping Appendage. ( Oh dear. 😬 )

We noticed some of you hiccoughing bubbles, so the action for washing yourself with soap and sponges is now called 'Use' instead of 'Consume'.

You can no longer cheese the Leap of Faith trial at the Gauntlet of Shar by just clicking the final platform and letting your character pathfind their way there. Shar threatened to smite us if we didn't fix this one.

Fixed Minthara's body sometimes turning invisible on the Level Up screen. (We sorta liked the floating-head-and-hands look, but hey.) (Eyyyy, I ran into this in Rakha's run and it made me laugh a lot. XD )

Added a new idle animation for Minsc at camp - Boo may or may not have taught him some tai chi.

Karlach will no longer brush the shaved side of her head.

If you're in holographic form in the epilogue, Wyll won't automatically assume he's talking to Lae'zel.

Companions should now be more sympathetic to Astarion fleeing from the sun.

Fixed several issues (related to resurrecting characters via Withers, restructuring the party at night, and automatic camp night scenes) that would trap you in an eternal slumber, unable to end a Long Rest.

Fixed several occurrences of Wyll still having an exclamation mark above his head when he already told you everything he had to say. 

Minthara does, in fact, now have something to say about Orin after you kill her.

Fixed the fade-to-black after Karlach's scene in Avernus at the end of the game, which would give you a very brief glimpse of Game Developer Land.

Fixed some issues with Long Rest: Loading a save made during a Long Rest could cause a crash and you could sometimes get stuck in a Long Rest forever and ever, amen.

Fixed a blocker related to Orin's dagger, which will now respawn near the altar if you hurled her into a chasm and a cultist picked it up before you did. (Because it's bound to her, it would zip back to her corpse in the chasm, lost forevermore.)

Monks' Clench of the North Wind spell now targets up to 2 characters at Level 9. They just have to clench a little harder.

Priestess Gut will no longer hit herself with her own conditions. Silly gob-gob.

We've suggested to Yurgir that when he's invisible he should take advantage of it and actually try to move around a little so that he's harder to find.

Fixed some technical names showing up for each of Ansur's limbs. Naming them all 'Ansur' was the ansur.

Raphael can no longer steal souls from creatures that narratively don't have souls, such as Undead and Constructs.

Kled doesn't have Dror Ragzlin's Legendary Actions anymore. Dror's not one for sharing.

Fixed how the Chest of the Mundane handles item stacks higher than its maximum. (It should no longer gobble up your enormous coin stack and spit back a measly 21 cups in return.)

Prevented summons and followers like Glut from being able to consume Noblestalk. Yes, your Mage Hand probably ate it. No, we don't know where its mouth is.

When Withers resurrects an avatar, the Dream Guardian will no longer immediately prompt another nearby avatar to loot them for a tadpole. Similarly, dead, dismissed avatars will no longer trigger this same prompt. Some decorum, please.

When multiple characters in the party discover a trap or hidden item, only one will comment on it. We figured you don't need four people telling you to watch out for the same trap at the same time.

You can now swap out party members by speaking to the companion you want to replace even if the one you want to replace them with is Wild-Shaped. What your companion will think of you replacing them with a sheep is another story.

Fixed multiple spots where Perception checks were being made through solid objects.

Elminster should no longer react to crimes that don't affect him. (We distracted him with some Stilton.)

Fixed an issue on multiplayer where Gale would briefly appear to be in his undies for the client if the host has the Donate UI open and Gale is wearing magical robes that he can consume.

Fixed a bug that would let you waltz your way through destructible walls without actually destroying them. (You could attempt to attack the wall and your character would pathfind right through it in search of a comfortable spot from which to take a swing.)

Bald characters with the Wet condition will no longer have darker scalps.

You can no longer loot the underwear of non-recruited companions when you knock them out. (Justice for Minthara's dignity! \o/ )

Fixed a split screen issue where Invisible characters would sometimes not render at all for a second player joining the game. We need them to be invisible, but not that invisible.

Fixed a bug where your party members would very quickly change out of their armour and into their cosy camp clothes when you talked to them after having left the Astral Plane. We don't really blame them for being so desperate to hit the hay.

Fixed an issue where resurrecting a mind-controlled Nightsong would cause enemies to become allied to you.

During the final battle, backup companions being called upon with ally abilities will now appear with some clothes on for the occasion.

You can no longer use the Active Search feature to bypass the booby-trapped display case in Ramazith's Tower and pick up the key inside it. Smarty-pantses.

Improved Lumbar support: Lumbar will now stand still after you paid him to hit him.

Fixed a bug where interacting with the crate full of explosive toys in Rivington could cause you to get stuck in an endless loop of crime dialogues (being interrogated and sent to prison) and/or in combat with temporarily hostile NPCs.

Fixed a bug where dropping or selling certain items looted from the Lower City graveyard could cause NPCs to react as though you'd committed the crime of moving a corpse.

Fixed Cordrane the Recent being able to raise a zombie in Sorcerous Sundries when he shouldn't be able to, like when he's dead or Silenced.

Shadowheart is now more engaged with the flora and fauna at camp. (I don't know what this means but I hope it means she plays with the owlbear and Scratch.)

A camp night scene with Shadowheart will no longer trigger if she's not in the party and, uh, also dead.

Fixed Gale's 'splosion sometimes not showing correctly, meaning you'd get a Game Over without knowing why.

Fixed your player character introducing themselves with the wrong name when talking to Mizora.

Fixed Avatar Lae'zel behaving like a companion at the end of the tutorial and telling you (or telling herself) to hurry.

Kagha will now be imbibing if she's at the tiefling party. (I didn't know Kagha could even COME to the tiefling party. O.O Is this if Halsin's dead? )

Fixed Abdirak's self-flagellation idle animation. (Game dev must be a weird job sometimes. :P )

Ward Magmar and Ward Pistle, the duergar at Grymforge, will now make a snide remark if you're playing a small race.

Shadowheart and Lae'zel will now have new equipment if it was taken during the nautiloid escape and they have travelled sufficiently far to realistically acquire it before getting recruited.

Benryn will no longer follow you to camp or leave with you through a waypoint while you're in the process of escorting him out of the burning building at Waukeen's Rest.

Fixed Korrilla being killable in the goblin camp prison after she kills Priestess Gut. This was causing her to spawn as a corpse later on in Act III.

Fixed a bug where leaving the Shadowfell could resurrect an unrecruited Shadowheart and have her turn up at your camp anyway. She just liked the cut of your jib.

Karlach's death scene no longer ends abruptly when a non-gith player chooses to leave with Lae'zel.

Fixed a bug where, if you promised Cazador to bring Astarion to him and Astarion was in your party, you could go to Astarion at camp and tell him to replace himself in your party.

Zanner Toobin will now trigger the self-destruct sequence correctly instead of suddenly forgetting he was supposed to be in a panic because of the Steel Watcher Titan.

Told Devella to be more patient and wait until the end of the dialogue before she moves on to Basilisk Gate after being saved from Dolor.

Jogged Nine-Fingers' foggy memory - she will now recognise you when you bring Jaheira to her after she asked you to.

Shadowheart no longer sometimes still thinks that Viconia is alive after having killed her. Poor thing.

Wulbren will no longer comment on Toobin's daughter being dead if Toobin is not present.

Gave Sticky Dondo more lines to yell to sell his wares in the Guildhall. (Thank fuck tbh.)

Fixed player characters and the Narrator talking over each other when interacting with Minsc's relics in his hidden chamber. (MINSC HAS A HIDDEN CHAMBER? I have some hunting to do with Rakha lmao.)

You can no longer open the barricaded doors at the Crimson Draughts apothecary from the inside. We forgot barricades are supposed to work both ways.

Yoinked Sceleritas Fel's hat back from Helsik's desk.

You should no longer potentially see the great empty void of Game Developer Land after starting the epilogue.

Added more lines for Jaheira and Minsc to exclaim during the battle with the Stone Lord.

Fixed a bug where it was possible to get stuck in a dialogue with the Emperor about killing Gortash if you clicked on Gortash's corpse with Karlach (which starts a dialogue, after which she leaves the party and goes to camp) while, with another character, you also clicked on Gortash's body and sent his gauntlet to Karlach via the context menu right before her dialogue ended and she left the party. Yep. You can read it again if you want.

If you fail a pickpocket attempt at High Hall, your allies will no longer become hostile towards you. We reminded them that the fate of the world lies in the balance and that you play a pretty big part in it, thief or not.

Fixed Gortash's title potentially reverting back to 'Archduke Nominee' when reloading a savegame after the ceremony.

Wyll will no longer talk about hunting down Mizora when she's, like, right there.

The 'Embrace Your Potential' quest will now close if you choose to squelch the Astral-Touched Tadpole beneath your toes like a sentient little grape.

Jaheira's journal could at times say she had something to talk to you about, but then she wouldn't discuss it. She's a bit less tight-lipped now, so you know what to do in the city.

Someone pulled the ol' switcheroo on the Eldritch Knight and Battle Master subclass icons. We've switchereed them back.

Fixed a bug where examining a character and then examining an item would merge both character and item into a monstrous model in a single Examine window. The character would also be T-posing and naked.

Removed the turrets from the ground floor of Wyrm's Crossing since they weren't supposed to be there in the first place and never worked.

Fixed an unreachable fruit porridge in Wyrm's Rock. Makes you wonder how it got there in the first place.

Moved an unreachable book ('On the Greater Healing Potion') at Last Light. (Unironically this has driven me crazy on every playthrough.)

If Minthara's camp trousers get blood on them, the spatters will now be spread across them more tastefully rather than concentrated between the legs. (Holy shit.)

Kerz, the half-orc hireling, was wearing clothes that didn't fit properly. We found a tailor and everything's looking spiffy now.

Fixed some particularly intense and alarming-looking smoke coming out of the chimney at the Rivington General.

Gave a skirt to the chicken lady who mentions a skirt.

Companions in Wild Shape at camp will no longer perform their idle animations as though they are still humanoid.

Companions in Wild Shape at camp will no longer perform their idle animations as though they are still humanoid.

Fixed the animation for the Crawling Claw's footsteps. (Fingersteps?)

Fixed Brynna's clothes clipping through her arm and revealing her armpit. She informed us she was not, in fact, begging for a tickle.

Fixed the Graceful Cloth and Mighty Cloth looking like crop tops on male halflings.

The magicians outside of Sorcerous Sundries were yelling and casting spells so loudly that it was hard to hear your companions over them if you spoke to them nearby. We've toned this down and cleaned up the mix.

Added death vocals ('uurghghhh's) for dragonborn and half-orc NPCs.

Fixed the name of a decorative pot in the Colony, which was lying about being a cookpot.

Tweaked the spikes on the artefact in the dialogue where it passes from Shadowheart over to you so it doesn't look like it's impaling you.

Fixed your hand clipping into your face while smearing poo on it.

Told Wyll he doesn't need to hold his sword threateningly close to the chest of small races during his recruitment dialogue.

Fixed Mizora's body popping when she comes to pay Wyll a visit at camp. Save the popping and locking for the club.

Fixed Volo's hand clipping into your head while he performs his highly professional and sanitary surgical intervention.

Fixed the Dream Guardian's leg getting all jittery when they kneel down to let you stab them. The facade of stoicism breaks a little when you can see their legs turn to jelly.

Fixed a bug where biting off Crusher's toe and then defeating him in a fist fight would result in a cinematic where the toe was still present. An embarrassing inconsistency in an otherwise realistic chain of events. (I noticed this on Rakha's run and was judging you so hard, Larian. XD )

Fixed Shadowheart sometimes turning her head concerningly far over her shoulder during her recruitment dialogue at the Emerald Grove.

Fixed minor pops when playing as Avatar Shadowheart if the artefact explodes and kills Lae'zel. (This can happen???)

Fixed your character snapping their body backwards and wibbly-wobbling around as though trying to pass beneath a cursed limbo stick in the cutscene where Kar'niss approaches you in the Shadow-Cursed Lands.

Fixed the chalice that you hold when talking to Jaheira at Last Light vibrating suspiciously after you set it down on the table.

Fixed a Reconstituted Duellist's line getting cut off prematurely. He really, really wanted you to hear him finish saying 'come to my inner chambers'.

Dark Urge characters who have not cured themselves of Bhaal's influence or who have embraced Bhaal at the end of the game will no longer appear in Karlach's final scene as though they didn't just stalk off on a mad hunt for blood.

During Gortash's inauguration, Ravengard's head, sword, and legs will no longer leave his body suspended in the air behind him when he walks down the steps. (😱 )

Fixed a cinematic bug where the submersible would approach the Iron Throne and, the moment it arrived, would nope out and appear to reverse back to the surface.

[blaiddllodi]

TOA Anniversary Munday

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

(Previous answers here on Raven's blog. Thanks for putting this together Neffi!)

Name: tches!

Pronouns: she/they

Birthday (no year): 22 Dec

Where are you from? What is your time zone? From Germany, but I live in Colorado

How long is your roleplay experience? A few years in 2005, and now my tenure here

How were you introduced to roleplaying as a whole? Uhhhhh probably Yahoo chatrooms if I'm honest, but I spent most of my time in Livejournal communities

How were you introduced to TOA? I found it scrolling the Raven tag and I saw mirae's drop. Didn't join at this time. Then Elf advertised in a mutual server and I was like Hm. Maybe I will.

Do you have any pets? The server knows my beloved Coriander my baby my light my heart. I also live with two GSDs, Ursa and Solo.

What is your favorite time of year and why? (Season, holiday, general period) I love you winter, I love you snow, I love you December, I love you.

What is your IRL occupation? Handwaves IT. I'm helpdesk at my current place, but I've begun learning network infrastructure stuff recently.

Some interests and things you like/enjoy? I like languages and history, esp Meiji Japan and Mughal India. I used to be a lot more active, and I still generally enjoy yoga and rock climbing, but I've accrued some injuries which prevent me from doing this as much as I'd like. Sadge.

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Ace Attorney, Assassin's Creed, Dragon Age, Bloodborne, Witcher, Kingdom Hearts.

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: Ice or Dragon I think; and Gyarados my beloved my friend my partner (although Delibird is a very close second I love that little dude)

Tell us some funfacts and trivia about yourself! (Optional bonus challenge: if you filled this out last year, try not to repeat what you said back then!) One time a drunk driver scraped my ex-husband's car pulling out of the bar and while he was so flabbergasted that it had happened, me and a friend who had just gotten out of the Navy broke into a sprint to chase the girl down for three blocks before she left the neighborhood.

How did you get into Fire Emblem? My father and I were in the PX and I grabbed Blazing because it had just come to the States and it looked interesting.

What Fire Emblem games have you played? All but Archanea and Tellius. I started Path of Radiance, and put it down at chapter 15 when I got busy. I'll pick it back up again I promise :sob:

First & Favorite Fire Emblem games: First is Blazing and favorite is...probably Blazing still. Elibe is just home to me. I really really like Three Houses and Shadows of Valentia though.

List your 5 favorite Fire Emblem characters across the series! Oh gosh. Raven number one forever, and Dima and Berkut are up there. I'll list five who aren't my roster, in no particular order: Hubert, Hector, Lyon, Priscilla, Lachesis.

Who was the first character ever to make you go “ooh I like this one in particular” and why? Can be any context and reason! Wil. Wil was my first favorite, followed by Matthew. I genuinely loved them so so much my first playthrough I gave them everything.

Any Fire Emblem crushes? 😳 Jeralt can still get it.

If you’ve played (or are familiar with) the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays?- Awakening: Another accidental Chrom victim - probably Lonk or Freddie Fates: I genuinely don't remember if it was Kaze or Jakob - Probably still Kaze Three Houses: Claude - Hubert is my favorite S support he's really good Engage: I literally hard swerved from Diamant the moment Pandreo came on screen I don't think anyone's taking his crown.

Favorite Fire Emblem class? I just really like the Merc-Hero line 🙈But I also love wyverns

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class and stats? Would you be playable? Infantry sword. I hate to say I'd be a Navarre archetype but I honestly probably would be. Middling strength and con but workable with attention, decent speed, absolutely ridiculous crit stat. Surprisingly high resistance. I'd be a good candidate for Dancer or Mortal Savant.

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? Unaffiliated civilian, but can be swayed to join a cause after some effort. I tend to keep myself a bit at arms length, and it can be difficult sometimes to get my genuine loyalty.

If you were an Officers Academy student, what would be your boons, banes and potential budding talent? Boons: Sword, Bow Bane: Flying Budding Talent: Heavy Armor

If you were an Engage character, which nation would you originate from? No lie, probably Brodia. My family is full of soldiers on all sides

How do you pronounce TOA? 🤔(separate letters, to-ah, other?) Depends on the flow of the sentence. Sometimes toe-ah, sometimes T-O-A

Current TOA muses: Raven, Dimitri, Berkut

Past TOA muses? Sigurd, Igrene, Saber, Petra, Beowolf, Lyn

Who was your first TOA muse? If you no longer have them, can you see yourself picking them up again? Raven my heart my forever. If he hasn't been pried from my grasp for the last twenty years, I can't imagine what might.

Do you believe you have a type of character you gravitate towards writing? I like it when grief and love carve someone into a weapon. I love rage and deep, boundless sorrow. And I occasionally like when they get a little slutty, I'm not a monster.

Do you have characters or types of characters you don’t think you can handle writing, but wish you could? 🤔Hard to say. I like to think my range is pretty good. I've been writing for long enough that I don't really wish - I just do it. I think anyone could write anyone if they genuinely put their heart into it.

What kind of scenes, situations etc do you believe you enjoy writing the most? I like when the narrator is a little unreliable. I like when there's so much emotion that everything becomes just a little bit fuzzy an indistinct, like they're suddenly underwater and haven't realized they're drowning. I like when the narrative is circular and I can call back five posts, or when I can bookend things - dramatic irony my beloved. I love miscommunication, especially when one person takes something and runs with it (RIP Sigurd you were the king of this and your never-shuts-up).

Do you have any scenario in mind for your muse(s) that gets you thinking “man I hope I get to write this one day”? I've been in an AU mood lately. I want more AUs - coffeeshop AU, horror movie tropes AU, cross-fiction AU. There was an idea that I had that I'd like to build up a bit more that I may drop a call for 🙊

Favorite TOA-related memories? All of Raven's threads with elysia's Priscilla and kanoesa's Lucius 🤲I hold them like this. And unrelated to my muses I to this day can't get over And Now All Of TOA Knows You Tried To Kill Ryoma.

Present or past tense? Past. I use present tense pretty sparingly, and almost exclusively for one-off asks. Feels weird though.

Normal size text, small text, no preference? No preference. I use normal size out of laziness. The most formatting you'll get from me is italics for emphasis or for thought patterns.

Got any potential muse delusions to share? 😉 One day I will app Sommie and everyone will have a heart attack. You think I'm joking? You think this is a game?

[anotheroceanid]

Hello! I just wanted to share with you my full appreciation of your fic <3 I only discovered PJO with the show (since then I've read all the books except the two last TOA). While I'm multishipping Percy, Perpollo is my last obsession.

I LOVE everything about them, I LOVE dark Apollo, and I LOVE all the angst that could fit with this ship. However, as I've read several of the Perpollo fictions on AO3, some of them did hurt me too much with their angst... </3 For example, I always feel so bad when, in some ff, Apollo ends up killing Percy; so bad it makes me cry and makes me feel kind of sick. Some of my friends told me I'm ridiculous to feel so many things with a fiction, but I can't help myself :(

Your fiction has a fair share of angst, but it's eveything I love and I don't feel like it'll be hurting me in the end. (Or maybe not?) I really enjoy reading Foreboding and WTHB, they're like my confort fics, especially since my life is a little bit hard right now.

I don't know if my comment is understandable, english is not my native language and I had a hard time writing it, but I just wanted to thank you for writing both of these wonderful fictions <3

I hope you have a wonderful day <3

This is so sweet 💕💕💕 thank you

Perpollo is also my obsession, when I first wrote foreboding I considered letting the “who’s the father?” as an unanswered question, but then I realised (at that point I wasn’t aware I’d ever write the sequel, though I had the story in my mind) I wanted us to have a glimpse of them together.

While I also love the darker fics with the sad outcomes, I decided I wanted to go with something different. Yeah, the story is very sad, but in the end everything in foreboding and WTHB is about love and how much we need it. Not even in a cheesy way, we literally need companionship as we are social creatures, loneliness can drive us crazy.

Despite being a Perpollo fic, the themes I wanted to write about (which are the themes I like to write about in general) are family and healing. This also is something that exists in Apollo’s storyline, when we get to his pov. So though I also like dark Apollo, for this fic I wanted them to actually have a nice relationship and a connection. I can’t wait till we get to the flashbacks of their past together.

Though I admit, it’s easy for me to go angsty with PJO fics because these are child soldiers. They have a lot of abilities and none of them are healthy coping mechanisms, I fear. We’ll see that a lot in Annabeth’s chapter, when we get to see the adults that came from these child soldiers.

Her chapters is the hardest to write so far, not only because it’s the first non-Percy chapter we’ll see, but because a lot of things happen, things that impact much more characters than just Annabeth, even if her arc and her bitterness is explained through these many things that happened these past years.

And if it makes you feel better, these are also my comfort fics but in a writing way. My life is a mess rk, and this years was rough. I’m definitely using it to organise my feelings and thoughts and to keep myself as calm as possible. February, when I posted foreboding, was a terrible month, and the only good thing that happened was that I posted the fic and had something else to talk about. So yeah, I want these characters to have happy endings.

Ofc, I can’t promise everyone a happy ending, but the fic will end in a warm way.

And don’t worry, I’m not native neither. And I understood you perfectly!

Thanks for reading and commenting 💕

[algumaideia]

Part 1

Part 3

@pjo-hoo-toa-freakazoid thank you so much for the help!!!!!!

Disclaimer: I know tsats was supposed to be about Nico, but I'm making this about Octavian and everyone else is collateral damage.

Also the nightmare part was supposed to be in italics to be more clear it was a dream, but for reasons it ended up not being italized.

Enjoy the confusion Octavian felt.

...

"Mother, did you request us?"

"Shouldn't the demigods have nightmares?"

...

Octavian saw himself. Not as he was now. He saw him alive, without the burns and injuries, with his body and teddy bears. His face expressed disdain.

Octavian saw himself, planning the attack about to happen. The centurions around the map, him making last minute adjustments, the Greeks making a mess.

He was furious. He wanted to kill every single one of those Greeks, and to think one of them was a son of Apollo. What a waste.

“Can you believe how stupid you were?” 

The face of disdain had become scorn.

“No wonder Apollo stopped talking to you, abandoned you. Who would want to keep a deal with a buffoon?”

“You are seeing what is happening!! It was not my fault!! The stupid Greek-”

“If they are stupid, what does that make you? Afterall, they were able to fool you.”

“Apollo promised-”

“What does it matter what he said? You’re on Tartarus while all the Greeks are well and alive and even going to Camp Jupiter.”

Octavian could feel himself trembling with anger while imagining all the atrocities Perceus was doing at his home. If he had no respect before, now that New Rome lost the war, the little piece of shit would be going nuts.

“It is not my fault.”

“Then, whose fault is it? Didn’t the god of prophecy make you a promise?”

Octavian didn’t sleep. He couldn’t sleep. He was a ghost. But somehow he had a nightmare. It wasn’t a memory which made him unsure if he was in the past or the present. It was a nightmare. 

Maybe it was Tartarus. Maybe that was why he had a bad dream. Tartarus.

A hero on Tartarus. Something was wrong. Instead of hearing his own self mocking what happened, he heard Reyna. She would find this very funny. He remembered feeling humiliated and looking at her for aid to only find a smirk.

When Octavian paid attention to what was happening again he saw himself going in the direction of a river. He walked as far from it as he could. He would not be tricked by it. He refused to become one more ghost to be forever suffering on it. Stupid tricks. Stupid burns. Stupid broken bones. 

Would he be bleeding if he had a body? His injuries would be way better if he had a body. A body could heal. He could only be permanently in pain.

“Where are we going? Why are you following me?”

Amphithemis. Octavian had the same conversions with him over and over again. Some words changed, but the essence did not. It should be tiring. It was nice talking to someone. It was nice to be dragged out of his thoughts a little.

“You said we were leading me to a safe place to rest since the Giant was not in his cave.”

“He was not?! That is so weird he was always there! But don't you worry, we can find another safe place to rest. I feel light."

Light. Apollo.

His dream-self was wrong. Apollo didn’t abandon him. Amphithemis was the proof of it. Apollo would take care of all mistakes and he would finally leave Tartarus and be treated as the hero he was. 

…

“I’m worried about him. I thought he was getting better, but after the talk he had with Percy and Annabeth…”

“It seems more likely that he was just bottling everything up and that was the last straw.”

Hazel nodded. Reyna was the few people who truly understood Nico and after everything that happened it was nice having her to talk about him because she honestly didn’t know what to do.

“Do you think we should give him space?”

“I don’t think being alone is the best for him right now.”

“But if we invited him to come, how would we help him?”

Reyna looked at Hazel and they just stared at each other without an answer. 

…

“Maybe he will not help, he made his sentiments for his legacy very clear.”

“Then we need to find another person to help Nico.”

“Which demigod? And don’t you think the other gods would get mad at you? They need to perform good parenting from time to time and Nyx is too much for all of us.”

“Do you think they would mind if the demigod was already dead?”

…

It was weird to stand there looking at Michael Kahale. Last time Will saw the guy he probably was with a concussion and let his friend die. And now…

…

Everything on the field was dead. You would walk and walk and only see dead plants. Nico couldn’t care less. There was no place for guilt over this on him at the moment. There was no space for anything. He felt empty. He filled himself with void. 

Bob. 

Not only him, everything.

[allyphase]

silent tactician - mark + speech (meta)

Hello TOA! Birdie here. 

While Mark is a cozy and welcome addition to my muse lineup, I really regret how I’ve characterized her in the last two months or so. It turns out it can be really difficult to nail down a character with zero canon dialogue ^^; I’ve thought a lot about it, and I’ve decided to pivot her to better match my idea of who she is and where she comes from, now that I’ve filled in her past. 

To be clear - this is not a muse reset. Everything she’s done and said will remain canon for her appearance in TOA. The only changes that’ll really be happening is on my end, or if you’re a castmate who was particularly close to Mark - feel free to reach out to ask me how this may have impacted their relationship! 

Mark is a silent avatar insert in FE7, so I’ve decided to scale back her dialogue significantly. I’ll be explaining my reasonings and such under the cut, but that’s really all that needs to be announced on the dash. This will affect her ongoing threads as well as new ones. 

Based on what information I have (almost nothing), I’ve decided that Mark has trouble speaking and articulating her thoughts. This is on top of her dysgraphia, but I’m scaling back the severity of it to give her another way to communicate. In addition, Mark knows sign language, which she can use to communicate with other fluent muses. This makes Mark’s silence mostly voluntary, because she gets embarrassed by how she sounds when speaking. She is capable of giving orders on a battlefield, because she uses specific phrases she’s practiced enough to feel confident with, but her voice is still quiet and perhaps hard to hear over a fight. 

Based on my research, Mark probably didn’t talk much as a child, if at all. She could understand things told to her fine, but wasn’t able to articulate her thoughts herself. Her Heroes appearance supports this - as a child, she says nothing, and relies on Lyn to articulate her feelings for her. 

Lyn: Of course! Mark has enough brains for the both of us. Hector: Why do you say that like you're bragging? Lyn: Well... Mark isn't exactly the talkative type. And there's such a thing as too much...uh, mudesty... Eliwood: Might you mean "modesty"? Lyn: Right! Too much modesty!

When she was pulled into the Bern school system, her issues became much clearer, as she couldn’t speak clearly enough to cast any magic. While I do believe that Mark would have received some amount of support, she still wasn’t able to fully overcome her difficulty, so she was transferred to the school of tactics when she was around 10 years old. There, she was able to practice specific phrases to command her troops, and here’s where I headcanon she made a few friends who were willing to both learn some sign and help interpret Mark’s words. The few people she knew there who understood her gave her the confidence to try speaking more, and she made leaps and bounds in those years. By the time FE7 rolls around, Mark has had years of practice, but still keeps quiet around people she doesn’t know. It’s an insecurity she can’t quite shake, but she wants to talk to more people, so she tries her best! 

What this means for TOA is that Mark is going to get a lot quieter. Her feelings and personality aren’t changing - she’ll still try to stand for what she believes in - but she may have to take more time to articulate what she means. She’s more likely to speak more with her castmates and friends, but if she needs to be heard she will do her best. She is trying to work on her speaking while she is here, so if she jumpscares your muse with a conversation, it’s an act of love, I promise. If your muse signs at her or attempts to speak through gesture, she will respond in the same way. 

As a sidenote, it’s a popular almost-canon bit of trivia that Mark in FE7 is telepathic somehow - able to speak to her units without words, with a big arrow or something similar. Lyn says so in her support with Robin in Warriors, here - 

Lyn: I'd be glad to introduce you. But I must warn you, they can be a bit...aloof....?I'm not even sure they would carry on a conversation with you. Robin: Ahh, the strong-but-silent type. But you're on good terms, right? Lyn: Well, sort of... They're always very quiet, even on the battlefield. Not everyone needs to talk to issue orders. Robin: I'm sorry... What? How does one order the troops without words? Lyn: Good question! I can somehow always tell. It's like there's an invisible arrow. Robin: Are we talking about...telepathy? This sounds like a very advanced tactician.

While I think it’s fun for one-offs and AUs, I don’t picture Mark having any sort of supernatural ability like this. A big part of Mark’s character has been, and will remain, that she could have been anyone. Despite her skills, she fell into this position she occupies now and doesn’t pretend otherwise. She was able to direct her friends with a combination of preplanned strategies, gestures, and practiced phrases she can use to direct attention. 

In summary, it didn’t feel right for me to have a silent tactician who talked so much, so I’m going to attempt to correct that now. Mark’s not going anywhere! She’s just getting quieter. 

I’ve linked a Google Doc with all of the sources I used for my research here. Feel free to reach out to talk to me about this! I’ll admit I’m not as experienced in this specific field of learning disabilities, but I’ve done some research and am happy to correct myself if I got anything wrong. If you read all this uhh thank you!!

[lutethebodies]

More Notes on a Duo Act 1/Act 2 Playthrough

Here's Part 4 of tracking my swords bards' 14th playthrough day-by-day in-game, sans hirelings and (most) companions. Continuing from Solo Notes, More Solo Notes, and Duo Notes. This entry wraps up all the Act 1 stuff in the span of six jam-packed long rests, all below the cut:

Day 11. Nuked the spectator first thing; Minthara baited it and then Cannor shot the smokepowder/oil barrels behind the creature to incinerate it in one hit. Went for the drow studded leather afterward. Then relieved the kua-toa of their fake god. Then did for the hag and redcaps in the swamp (smites work wonders) and sent Mayrina and her zombie-husband on their way to the city. Our heroes were running low on barrels, so Minthara stole four smokepowder containers while Cannor distracted the Zhent with performance. Called on the ogres again to help with defeating Filro and the hook horrors. Decided to keep them on to see what they could do vs Grym or the phase spiders. Warped to Moonhaven and camped.

Day 12. Finished up Moonhaven by making the sussur dagger, destroying the phase spiders, and snagging the Poisoner Robe for Minthara's collection. Feather-fell back into the Underdark and returned to the Forge area. When four Zhent smokepowder barrels failed to make a real dent in Grym, Cannor called for the ogres to use them as bait, then while they died horribly, he crushed Grym with the forge’s hammer. That reduced it to 2hp, but then Cannor and Minthara had to do the super-heating thing again to finish it off. Underdark and Grymforge complete, they returned to the Myconid Colony and camped.

Day 13. Turns out the Zhents were salty about smokepowder barrel theft. How unfortunate—for them. After dealing with that, our heroes did other sorts of Act 1 cleanup, like drinking Omeluum’s potion (Cannor), and snipe-bombing the bridge gith (without Voss and Lae’zel, they were no match for Level 6 Minthara). Proceeded to the monastery and demolished the gremishkas. Camped in the creche (also shoutout to this location in general, one of my favorites in-game, for the late-afternoon sunlight, weird alien vibe, and eerie ambient soundtrack).

Day 14. Deciding to get the gith before the gith figured out they were infected, our heroes took on the whole creche stealthily and methodically, clearing the main hallway, infirmary, dorm, training room, and hatchery (where Minthara decided to swipe the egg for Esther after all). Hit level 7 after the latter. Camped in the crags.

Day 15. Finished the job, clearing the entrance, back door, captain's quarters, and inquisitor's room (both of the latter with barrelmancy). Lied to Vlaakith's face by promising to kill the person in the prism. For the first time ever, Cannor nuked the monastery—getting out with no injuries. Camped in the crags.

Day 16. Used some standard kettle-barrelmancy for the Death Shepherds first thing, because fuck them. They traumatized me so badly on my first playthrough a year ago and I've never forgiven them. I've always despised undead and give them radiance and fire in-game whenever I can. Anyway, our heroes traded with Esther one last time and then warped to Last Light and Act 2, leaving Act 1 permanently. Day 16 will continue next time.

[creativenicocorner]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by nobody! I saw this and felt like doing it to get back in the writing groove of things and maybe procrastinate just a teeny bit ♡

Tagging @babblish @dreamcrow @niemalsetwas @mangatxt @plantpretender and anyone else who would like to!! Also no hard feelings if you don't feel like doing this

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

32 and counting!

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

605,281 and counting!

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I used to do a LOT of Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons) but a few things happened in the show / movie that made me feel... idk, I'm on a bit of a break for the time being. I also write a couple of Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game) fics to explore my silly DnD OCs While my current writing obsessions being Discworld - Terry Pratchett and モブサイコ100 | Mob Psycho 100 

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Unbecoming 2 Electric Boogaloo (ToA)

Terpsichore - The Comedy of the Danse Macabre - ACT I (ToA)

Cold Green Tea and Colder Feet (mp100)

We'll Meet Again (ToA)

A Study of Avium and Apium (ToA)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do!! I try to respond to all comments!! I can't always promise my response will be prompt, and sometimes I get in my own head and feel...worried? As if my response will somehow sway someone to not want to keep reading? But that's a me thing I'm working through Long answer short: Yes! I do respond to comments!! I adore them and they make me so very very happy!! Honestly a comment can be such a game changer, and a relief to my heart and I just HAVE to express my gratitude for taking the time to tell me such nice words!! I'll always try to respond to them!

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm I have yet to finish the fic with the angstiest ending planned. I don't tend to write angst unless there is an ending that has some level of hope and happiness in it - for now.

But yeah, I suppose Unbecoming 2 Electric Boogaloo and The Last Changeling will eventually have some pretty angsty endings.

As well as several fics within the The Collected Tellings of Shigir and Other Changeling Folktales series which can be quite grim.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Another tricky question!! The majority my fics tend to have a happy ending planned despite the highs and lows I hope I manage to put my readers through.

Bit of a cop out answer I know, but it is what it is lol

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've only had that happen to me once lol. Once so far and for the silliest reason that left me just shaking my head for the most part

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do! Not as often as my other stuff though. Hmm quite a bit of orgasm control I suppose.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

IVE WRITTEN ONE CROSSOVER AND ITS MY FAVORITE AND I HOPE THE STARS ALIGN FOR ME TO FINISH IT!!!

A Funny Old World MY BELOVED!!! It is essentially the Discworld and Mp100 crossover fic no one asked for hahaha

Quite literally "Reigen Arataka 🤝 Moist von Lipwig" the fic

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that...I'm aware of...

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Again not that I'm aware of...and no one has yet to approach me to do so. Though sometimes I think of translating it myself into Italian.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have! It was a great time with @megan0013 on the 23rd chapter of their fic Fallout where we combined the Fallout story with my made up Changeling Folktales.

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

I'm too bisexual for this question, I have, like, a fat stack of ships I adore. But of the ones I've written (in no specific order of importance) I really love Adora Belle and Moist, Serizawa and Reigen, Barbara and Strickler, Mort and Ysabell, Polly and Mal, and the list just goes on haha

15. What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I don't think I appreciate the defeatist tone of this question haha. I'm sure I'll finish all of them...eventually. Some go in hibernation a little longer than others, that I won't lie. Hmm though, I'm going to be honest with myself the Terpsichore series seems to be the loftiest of goals at the moment. Who even knows when I'll finally finish it...but, like I said, I'd like to hold out hope that, someday it'll get done lol

16. What are your writing strengths?

I've been told I'm quite good at keeping characters in character, and my writing 'voice' is quite charming sometimes. I've also been told I'm quite good at writing cozy comfort fics. I hope, one day, I'll be able to add horror and suspense to the list of writing strengths.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Making things concise, I think. Sweet short and to the point. I'd love to get better at suspense and horror, just making readers sweat - you know?

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Oh man I have a lot of Thoughts about this actually XPP here's hoping they make sense!!

Depends on the characters, and what language they are speaking and what language the characters know beyond what they are speaking.

I viscerally do not appreciate it when, okay... here's an example: Character A and Character B are both speaking Italian, because the characters are Italian - so even though the fic and author is writing in English we ALL know that Character A and Character B are speaking Italian - so why add in an English dialogue bits of actual Italian?? We all know they are speaking Italian to begin with!! UNLESS, for instance, Character B for a moment spoke in a regional dialect which is different than the standard language.

I tend to call this the "Silenzio Bruno!" situation. Why are you having a character who is supposedly already speaking in a language suddenly say something of that language. It shouldn't be "Silenzio Bruno!" but "Quiet Bruno!" though in some cases I get it...and who knows maybe it'll perk up the interest of people and kids to learn other languages but oof does it rub me the wrong way sometimes

Wait hmmm perhaps thats too confusing

OKAY

EXAMPLE: In Glow Worms I have Serizawa as half Brazilian (there's in fact a huge Brazilian population within Japan! As well as a huge Japanese population within Brazil! Here are two fascinating video essays on the subject if interested [X] [X]).

When Serizawa is speaking with Reigen it is clear and obvious they would speak Japanese amongst themselves and around them, I wouldn't include actual Japanese unless it's a word that I can't really translate well, or is very clearly specific within the Japanese language (the difference between writing 'screen door' and 'shoji door' - both doors, but evoke different specific things). However, when Serizawa speaks with his mother there are often times Portuguese would crop up - an indicator that Serizawa is no longer speaking Japanese in that moment, or phrase or sentence.

The same can be said with Moist von Lipwig, and when he's speaking Morporkian vs Überwaldian. It is agreed that everyone tends to speak Morporkian to some degree as a defect-o Lingua Franca Quirma, and when they're not they're very clearly not!

NOW! In those moments when characters are speaking another language I prefer either it's something that can be figured out via context clues, or a translation is provided either in a footnote or by the character(s) themselves. This is something I feel more confident with if a character is speaking Italian, because then I don't have to worry about translator engines not translating something properly lol But I try to be as respectful and accurate as possible, and if I can't then I wouldn't attempt it and describe in the text that Character A and Character B are speaking another language amongst themselves.

OR (and this is something else I'm doing in Glow Worms) I'll describe a character speaking another language, and another character acts as translator - this is something I always adored in Discworld when characters interact with The Librarian as well as Death of Rats.

Which, again, I try to approach as respectfully as possible. Language is important!! It's a culture and a thought process! And should always be treated with respect

WHEW! I hope this all made sense!!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Trollhunters!

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

I don't know about Favorite, but there are several that I'm very proud of myself with...

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Stupid Kid [working title] series, Hand Rolled, The Runaway's Gamble, AU REVOIR, to name a few. Several Trollhunter fics (especially Terpsichore, sometimes I look back on that and go "Wow I really wrote All of THAT?!")

And most recently: Glow Worms or rather: In the Depths of the Safflower Hills a fic that honestly? I find myself going back and rereading what I've written and posted more than once! And has helped me grow as a writer I think  

Welp! ___〆(・∀・) That's it for me folks! Thank you so VERY much for your interest, and I look forward to seeing your answers as well!

Best wishes! Nico ♡

[ctrl-alt-tahu]

A Bionicle Advent Calendar: December 3rd (Day 3)

The Prompt: Write a story that takes place in the snow.

The first winter on the reformed Spherus Magna came upon the northern hemisphere as a surprise to both the former Bara Magnans and the inhabitants of Mata Nui. Though the wise among them soon worked out the logic of seasons and the orbit of the planet, the first snow that blanketed the still-temporary lodgings of the Metrui Nuian Matoran were an unlooked for miracle of sparkling white.

"Ko-Wahi is back!" whispered the Ko-Matoran to each other, looking about to share the mystery with wonder. But their Turaga was nowhere to be seen.

"The settlement is covered in snow!" grumbled the other Matoran, the Ta-Matoran most of all, but even they had to admit that the thick, white coating was beautiful at first glance.

"Can we clean everything out in time for Naming Day?" asked the Matoran.

"Toa Tahu can melt it all," suggested some. "I'm sure the Golden Armour has another trick or three he could use too," suggested others."

"Absolutely not," Toa Kualus told the Matoran. "This is the nature of this planet: we shall not unnaturally warm the climate just to enjoy a feast. I will clear the roads of drifts and we shall have fires in the Great Rotunda, but this is the season of Ko-Wahi and we shall enjoy it."

"Enjoy it," echoed some of the Ta-Matoran doubtfully.

"Indeed," said Kualus. "The sun is bright, and the snow is fair. There are many pastimes that can be enjoyed in the snow. Find your Ko-Matoran friends and let them show you how to sled and ski and skate, and then huddle tired around the fires of the Ta-Matoran at the end of the day in burrows of the Onu-Matoran, snug and warm."

It was a merry day for those who heeded the Toa's advice, but not all did. While Onewa and Matau dragged a reluctant Dume sledding down the slopes of Lhikan River gorge, to the amusement of all, two of the Turaga stayed behind.

"Nuju is missing," Nokama told Vakama. "He has not been seen all day."

"It is Naming Day tomorrow," said Vakama. "I am not surprised. He is withdrawn."

"Will you speak to him?" asked Nokama. "You are his closest friend these days."

"He will not listen to me where his sorrow is concerned," said Vakama, "but I will ask Kualus--when he has finished clearing the roads."

Kualus listened to Vakama's words and promised to seek Nuju. He found the Turaga not far from the settlement, covering in snow save for his eyes. He had gone out in the night and let the snow accumulate upon him, only a flickering of his Matatu now and again brushing the snow from his gaze.

<<Nuju, your brothers and sister sent me to find you,>> said Kualus in their shared secret tongue. Nuju said nothing.

<<It is the first Naming Day you have celebrated without him,>> said Kualus. <<The first since before you returned to Metru Nui.>>

Still, no answer.

<<Vakama told me how it was custom, in Ko-Koro, for you to give each of your Matoran a gift on Naming Day, that this was really the doing of Matoro, who said it was on your behalf. He thinks you cannot bear to let the day pass without the tradition, and that yet without Matoro you think you have no voice.>>

<<Matoro made Naming Day special,>> said Nuju at last. <<Without him, it is a void that pleads to be filled. I do not wish my Matoran to sorrow on this day, but I cannot rejoice with them.>>

<<Grief and joy are lungs of the same breath,>> said Kualus. <<Let me translate for you, as he did.>>

<<He left the gifts,>> said Nuju, ignoring the offer. <<He started them early: one for each Ko-Koronan, and he had the first ones made even before we returned to Metru Nui. After he... after the news that... I finished them, meaning to give them to Ko-Koronans as a last gift from him, but... I cannot speak. You cannot be my voice, as he was. I will take no interpreter, save Kopaka.>>

<<Kopaka is not back,>> said Kualus, thinking the absence of the Toa Mahri to rescue him and Pohatu from the Red Star likely wasn't helping Nuju's grief. <<And he did not speak our tongue the last time we met.>>

<<He will learn,>> said Nuju firmly, without explaining.

<<Then let us give his presents without a speech,>> said Kualus, <<in the dead of night, when none are watching. We will saythey are from Matoro, and they will be.>>

Nuju thought about it, and then nodded, and with the movement, his Matatu cleared him off the snow.

The next morning, the Matoran woke to find gifts sitting at the doors of their shelters: all alike, small trinkets carved of soapstone: the not-forgotten shape of Mount Ihu seen from the slopes behind Ko-Koro, and a small figure of Toa Kopaka Nuva as he had first appeared upon emerging from the victory over the Bohrok in tiny relief in the foreground.

"It is the Naming Day gifts Matoro used to give on behalf of Turaga Nuju," Kopeke explained to a Po-Matoran neighbour, as he rushed to gather with the other Ko-Matoran to see if Nuju had returned home. All worried for their Turaga, knowing the depths of his mourning.

To their surprise, Nuju was standing before the doors of his home, expecting them, and when he saw that all his tribe had gathered, he whistled sharply for silence. Then he nodded firmly to Kopeke.

"It is as though Matoro were here with us now," said Kopeke and Nuju nodded, gesturing to him to go on.

"Matoro gave himself for the Mask of Life, to save life--the life of the Great Spirit and the life of us all," said Kopeke. Nuju nodded. "As long as we live, we reward his sacrifice, and he rejoices in our joy. Our life is his last naming gift."

"Well said, Chronicler," whispered Turaga Whenua on the edge of the crowd as Kopeke tried to vanish into the dispersing crowd. The Ko-Matoran, seeing that Nuju was not, apparently, distraught, were turning to their own small celebrations, when Toa Gali soared over the city in her adaptive armour.

"The Toa Mahri have returned!" she cried in a loud voice over the mostly gathered Ko-Matoran. "Toa Kopaka and Toa Pohatu have returned!"

And with the Toa Mahri around them, the two missing Toa Nuva strode into the settlement, being given a greeting fit for conquering heroes returning in triumph, but as they approached the gathering, the Ko-Matoran parted, and Kopaka saw Nuju running toward him, and descended to a knee to bow to the Turaga, who took his head in both hands and looked into his eyes with never-before-seen emotion.

"It is a miracle," whispered Nuju in Matoric, his voice croaking with disuse at the long-forgotten sounds. "Matoro has brought you home."

It is still said, long years after, that Toa Matoro still lives in the eternal snows of Spherus Magna's northern pole, and every year when Naming Day comes and winter has covered the planet's northern hemisphere, he leaves his home with his magic Rahi, and brings the gifts of the Mask of Life to all the Matoran who have served the Great Spirit well during the past year and the Ko-Matoran recite his name first in their naming ceremonies.

[twistedisciple]

Reward vs Punishment

// I came across Griss' unused victory lines recently and they had me thinking about just how extrinsically motivated he is. Specifically "How was that?" and "Where's my reward?"

First of all, as an aside, for someone who loves pairs of things, the way the Four Hounds are broken into pairs is fun to think about. You have visual pairs: Zephia and Griss (revealing clothing, horns/spikes, etc.), and Mauvier and Marni (head to toe armor). But you also have thematic pairs: Zephia and Mauvier (intrinsically motivated by a sense of duty to someone), and Griss and Marni (extrinsically motivated by punishment and praise, respectively). With respect to the last pair, this makes Griss the most hound-like of the Four Hounds, winning over Marni only because he has 11 years on her, and that's a long time to let extrinsic reward rot away one's internal sense of right and wrong. Griss would give all those pigeons, rats, and dogs in conditioning experiments a run for their money.

REWARD

When we talk about conditioning, we use the words "reward" and "punishment." Griss uses the words "punishment" and "pain" interchangeably in canon, but what he means is pain as a reward. This is what motivates and reinforces his behavior and, paired with his low (or lack of) morality and personal opinion, makes him extremely trainable. Promise him pain and he'll turn tricks until he hits the one that rewards him. Marni is similar with praise, and we even see her going out of her way to find the right thing that will earn her that praise (e.g. volunteering for missions). Animals that are just beginning to learn a trick tend to do this, too, and that's what trainers take advantage of to scaffold the behavior that they ultimately want to reward. Griss was likely the same when he was younger, and now in TOA, without Zephia and Sombron's expectations, he's back at that stage again.

While pain is at the top of the list, I do think there are other things that can serve as adequate reward for Griss. He's conscious of the physical ones: gold, food, alcohol, smokes. But acceptance/acknowledgment is one that he responds to on an unconscious level ("How was that?"). For the most part, this makes him a pretty good mercenary. Give him some money and a bed and he'll do whatever you want. Mostly. But he's never going to do more than what's asked unless he's getting something out of it, and he'll almost always take the shortcuts because the faster a job gets done, the faster he gets his reward. Knightly types like Mauvier would find this sort of slapdash approach unacceptable, but Griss is all about working smarter, not harder. Maximize that reward-to-effort ratio. It's amusing that one of his victory lines is "Where's my reward?" since it sounds like the moment a body hits the ground, he's immediately holding his hand out to whoever gave the order. Treat now? Treat Now? Treat Now?

However, this also means that the effort Griss is willing to expend for someone is directly related to how much he trusts that they'll reward him. He's not going to go out and do something hard for a brand new employer if he doesn't have proof that they'll pay him when he's done. Likewise, Nel and Rafal might fill a certain void made by Zephia and Sombron's absence here in TOA, but they'll still have to prove that they're worth being loyal to. Rafal has a leg up already, supposedly having Sombron's blessing, but he could still easily lose that trust.

PUNISHMENT

Given his disposition, Griss would be as equally sensitive to punishment as he is to reward. Pain just doesn't work, and there is very little indication in canon about what might serve as a punishment for him so this is almost entirely headcanon.

Withholding pain would be one way to punish him, but pain would first need to be established as the reward. If pain was not expected to begin with, then not hurting him isn't going to send any sort of message. There are too many situations without pain that Griss willingly participates in, so instead what I think he's most sensitive to is disownment and confinement. He doesn't want to be cut off by the people he respects, and threat of both exile from and abandonment by the fell church would have kept him in line. He understands the importance of his service to Sombron as well, and acts in accordance with Sombron's will to avoid being disowned as one of his "favorites." and yet, in the end, griss realized no amount of service would stop sombron from abandoning zephia, so what did that mean for him? Of course, this only works from those he's aligned with. To anyone else's disapproval, he just says "fuck 'em."

The second, confinement, would work well due to his love of sensation. If you lock him up in a tiny room somewhere for a few hours, where he can't hurt himself or talk to anyone, it's going to get the message across real fast. He can't stand being left alone with nothing to do. Responds well to time-outs if there's something fun going on elsewhere. Might throw a fit though.

Anyway, ultimately these new lines made me want to expand on Griss a bit more beyond his obsession with pain, and reason out how punishment DOES work on him. Every day, a new little gem dug out from the game's data.

[thessalian]

Faerun!Alisaie vs Politics and Cults

After an awful lot of wandering and more than a few dead things

Alisaie: Oh, hey, look - mushroom folks.

Gale: Please let them be friendlier than the last few encounters... Not that I'm not grateful for you taking us into that arcane tower - I learned a great deal - but it wasn't fun. And as for the kuo-toa...

Alisaie: Look, I was not going to tell the fish-people that I was a fucking god, okay?!? That's how you piss off real gods and get smited! Smote? Smoten? None of that actually sounds right.

Shadowheart: Just stick with 'angry gods'. Either way, it's getting ugly.

Gale: Um. Yes. About that. I ... may know a few things about angry gods.

Alisaie: Part of me doesn't want to know.

Wyll: And ... the rest of you?

Alisaie: Is a bard. Do the maths.

Gale: Well ... I may have pissed off Mystra. Just a bit. I had the best of intentions! I promise! Lovers give gifts to their--

Wyll: Hang on. Did you just say lovers?!?

Gale: I ... I have game. What can I say? But I decided to do something big and impressive and there's a bit of the tainted Weave in me and that's why I've been asking for magical artefacts, you see - I have to drain them to feed this bit of Weave so it stays in a ball and doesn't erupt and destroy half the landscape but it doesn't seem to be working particularly well anymore.

Alisaie: ...And you waited until we were in the Underdark for this because...?

Gale: Well, if we find an illithid colony, just leave me at the gates with some of that wyvern toxin and run like hell. I can at least do some good as I go out.

Alisaie: .........We. Are. FIXING THIS.

Gale: But--

Alisaie: No. You -- you just shut up. I've got Wyll with that Mizora bitch and Shadowheart getting repeatedly stabbed in the hand by her goddess and Karlach's own body trying to kill her and Astarion's stupid fucking master sending monster hunters after us and now there's this. Fuck's sake, could I just have friends who aren't going to implode?!?

Wyll: Well ... there's Lae'zel...

Alisaie: I haven't found a way to warm up to her yet.

Wyll: What about Halsin?

Alisaie: I am not ready to confront whatever guilt is lurking in there. I'm just not. I have enough to deal with right now. And I guess it starts with mushroom people. Whole colonies grow down here, looks like. And they say nothing grows underground...

A short chat with mushroom folk later

Alisaie: Welp. The duergar around here are chumps. The raising the dead's a bit of a pisser, though. Thanks for the assist there, Shadowheart.

Shadowheart: Shame I couldn't use it much. All our large friend over here did was raise his own corpses, and I wasn't sure if Turn Undead works on myconid-puppeted undead. Why did we bring this ... individual with us again?

Glut: AVENGE MY CIRCLE.

Alisaie: I am not getting involved in mushroom politics. *yeets Glut into the void*

Eventually, on a boat somewhere

Alisaie: So now I go murder the hell out of another drow. I'm not sure if this is politics or just being Saviour of the Mushroom People.

Other Boat: *cruises up alongside*

Duergar: Why've you got our scout's boat?

Alisaie: Your scout's dead. We're reporting back.

Duergar: True Soul, too. Huh. Handy. C'mon.

After a fair bit of negotiation, while stabbing up a Scrying Eye

Alisaie: So half these duergar want Nele saved and the other half want him dead. And either way we have to get him out, if just to get his head. At least it's not mushroom politics. It's just ... brain-worm cult politics. Fuck my life entirely.

Wyll: Still Saviour of the Mushroom People, though.

Alisaie: As a title, it lacks something. Blade of the Frontiers has way more oomph.

Gale: Look - you not only dug into the ... 'brain-worm cult politics', as you put it, enough to get help in our objective, but you convinced them to pay you for the privilege of helping you. Handsomely, in fact. We need an entirely new title for the nonsense you pull.

Alisaie: Just remind me not to ask Volo. Sometimes he's ... yeah, no.

Gale: And that's another thing - you may not have got a cure out of what he had in mind, but now you can see through Invisibility spells. You trip into the damnest luck, you know that?

Alisaie: My command performance got interrupted by mind flayers, Gale.

Gale: And they didn't kill you. And they put you in a position to make a lot of money and save the worlds. Plus the wonderful company you now keep.

Alisaie: Well, I got a Shadowheart out of the deal. That makes everything worth it.

Shadowheart: *blush* ...shutup.

Alisaie: I will not. You're adorable when you blush. And I need some nice picture to keep me going through the upcoming ugliness.

And, sure enough

Nele: Ah, good, civilised company! These idiots took too long to get me out; kill them for me.

Alisaie: Y'know ... I thought this was an awful lot of effort wasted when we could've just let you suffocate and take your head at our leisure, but ... no. No, this works. This gives me the privilege of killing your nasty, unctuous, cruelty-endorsing, worm-infected, gnome-enslaving ass. Bonus points if I lop your head right off your overprivileged shoulders while you're still standing!

Nele: ...wut?

Elder Brithuar: ...Okay, that was worth the extra gold. Let's go, my lads!

Stabnation: *ensues*

And, after an awful lot of running around...

Gale: Alisaie ... not to complain, but...

Alisaie: Yes...?

Gale: We just murdered a metallic abomination at great cost to ourselves. You nearly died doing it.

Alisaie: Well, you're the one who eventually killed the fucking thing, so thanks for that.

Gale: Well, it seemed to be weakest to just being hit with blunt objects and thankfully my staff doesn't melt in heat and-- Anyway! Just thank me by explaining why we're traipsing through lava!

Alisaie: I wanted Karlach to feel at least a little bit at home. Besides, there's a lava elemental she might like to kill.

Karlach: All right! Time to break in this hammer!

Alisaie: Besides, I need to get used to having someone martial on side. If we're hitting that gith'yanki creche, we need to have Lae'zel with us. So I figured I'd start with the more personable melee fighter and work my way up.

Gale: Fair. I'm personally looking forward to travelling with Lae'zel. Maybe she could tell me what life is like in the Astral Plane.

Alisaie: Yeah, because she'd actually tell you shit all--

Karlach: Maybe the people with ice stuff could help me kill the lava monster?

Gale; Alisaie: Oh; right. Sorry.

Gale: *fires Ray of Frost*

Alisaie: *rapid-fires ice arrows*

Stabnation: *ensues some more*

[antoniettap1303]

Little guide to Battle spirits's Contract Saga

Hi! Exactly in a month and 8 days, Battle Spirits's BS64 will be avaiable. And while also the western world is Awaiting Battle Spirits Saga BSS01, I think is the case to get a little Recap of what happend during the previous chapter, the contract saga. So...

BS60: Contract Saga Volume 1 – First Partner

After exactly 2 years of knowing nothing on his whereabouts, Finally Dan Bashin, now known as The Wanderer Dan, makes his comeback. We found him in Recris, a spiritual world consisting of countries, regions, forests, kingdoms,Cities and even an empire under the sea, including some card shaped Slates ( highly probably the ones in the first PV). Over this background, Dan meets The dragonpartner Glow, a spirit that wants that aims to be the strongest. With Dan's help to overcome a pinch, Glow offered to establish a partner contract with him, becoming his first partner. Always in this part Bat, Lampo,Stark, Feaniel and Shack joint the group as Contract spirits.

BS61 : Contract Saga Volume 2 – Liberation of God

The group reaches the burning land, meeting The OracleTwentyOnePillars I The Magician, who reveals that Recris was created by Six oracle spirits and the soul slates were created by minor arcana. To save Recris, it's necessary to meet all the oracle spirits that created it. At Glow's resolution to save their world, the magician promise help. However they get attacked in the old tree forest by The PartnerMusha Oboro and The PartnerBug Gataru, along The Grandwalker Tezcatlipoca. After surviving a hard fight, who's become even way Risky due to The OracleTwentyOnePillars XVIII The Moon, Dan and the spirits continue the journey.

BS62: Contract Saga Volume 3 – Rise of Rivals

In the frozen city Riesgraad for information about one of the 21 oracle pillars, Dan and his group meet Kai, a second contractor, who's signed the world destruction contract. He's joined by The Grandwalker Kukulkan, The PartnerWingedDragon Terad and The PartnerLion Raon. A battle between Glow and Raon ensues, while Kukulkan goes on Dan, who manages to reach the contract spirit. The AnnihilationDragonArmor Omega-Dragonis reaches the place, attacking everybody while near to destroy the city. Thanks to The OracleTwentyOnePillars II The High Priestess's powers, The PartnerMachine Stark advents in The AuroraWarrior Knight-Stark, who succeeds to stop Omega- Dragonis and protect the city. As Kai's group retires, the journey continues.

BS63: Contract Saga Volume 4 - Beyond Evolution

Dan and the contract spirits finally summons all the oracle spirits at the center of Recris. However the real deal comes up as the oracle spirits have to resist The OracleTwentyOnePillars XX The Judgment. As suddenly the Judgment's vanguards appear desroying the soul slates, the contract spirits choose to fight the vanguards at every side of the world. At the same time the final battle between Dan and Kai begins. Dan manages to win, thanks to Bladra who advented into The SunBladeDragon Rising-Bladragon. The truth about Recris is revelated. The world is structured in 3 Layers, as the the Otherworld and the God's world are disappearing due to Recris. As the 2 Layers must not intersect, Tezcatlipoca also says that Dan mustn't been summoned in the God's world. The final showdown between the Judgment and the contract spirits, who joined forces with kukulkan begins, but even they aren't match for the oracle spirit. As Dan finally regains his determination, little small Judgments were born. With the last action from Dan with the newborn fragments, as a light Envelopes anything, Recris is saved. But Dan and the Contract spirits have disappeard into the nowhere. At the end of everything, Kai still asks if somebody (?) Will " repeat the same thing again".

And that's it, for now, folks! Now like said before, at may there's gonna be this new saga, Contract:World Chapter 1 , who will feature the contract shrine girl Toa.

I don't know if Dan and the contract spirits will come back in there or not, but i hope and feel that they can and will. Also, it will be good to see Toa interact with Dan and maybe also Kai.

Gate open, Relase!