#I only had 24 hp left!!!

[soot-and-salt]

I know no one cares about other people's D&D games but listen, LISTEN, our DM whipped out an 19 AC, 158 HP green dragon on our level 8 adventurers and in response, as a Hail Mary for our broken, battered, low health and low slots group, my Paladin cast Command. The dragon rolled a goddamn TWO on their wisdom saving throw. Absolute failure.

"What do you tell the dragon to do?" asked my bewildered DM.

And I said, laughing in utter shock, "I tell it to leave."

AND SO IT DID.

Just fucked off entirely! Just flew away! Fight averted! Game won! Battle over!

I feel insane right now. I told a dragon, who almost certainly would have killed us, to fuck off AND THEN IT DID.

[novarowan]

Sagau draft

This is just a snippet of something that I wrote a couple of months ago, and I just want to know if anybody wants me to write more. I had a lot of fun writing it. Anyway, let me know what you think.

‘Well, isn’t this ironic?’ You think to yourself. You had just been reading SAGAU fanfics, (cause lets be honest, who wouldn’t want to be an ultimate creator god?) and now you find yourself running away from angry NPCs.

You gasped when you felt cold pain on your back. One of the knights had caught up to you and hit you with his sword. Choking from the sudden agony, you felt the adrenaline kick in and ran faster. You were coming up on the top of Starsnatch Cliff, and if only you could just jump into the ocean below, you could get away.

You heard them shout something at the same time that something popped up in your line of sight. You had no time to look at it though, and you couldn’t hear what they said. Your breathing was too loud to hear anything but your lungs working overtime.

There, THERE, THERE.

Without hesitation, you jump. The ocean was fast approaching, and you prayed that you would be able to make it out of this alive. If you entered wrong, it would be like landing on concrete from this height.

Feet first, you dropped into the calm waters.

You broke the surface with a gasp and began swimming to shore, laying on the sand in exhaustion.

“I can’t b-believe that fucking worked.” You let out a short, hysterical giggle before what looked like a black rectangle appeared in the corner of your eye. “What now?” You groaned. Today had been a long day already, and you had only been awake for an hour at most.

When you concentrated on it, it filled your vision.

“Welcome to Teyvat! As the creator of this version of Teyvat, your leveling path will be slightly different to the characters you have come to know. I am your handy assistant, Tutor, who will help you accomplish your ascension.”

“Uh… ok. At this point, I don’t think anything can shock me.” A little red dot appeared at the top of the rectangle, and a little arrow appeared on the right. You lifted your hand and touched it, a new message popping up.

“Quest one: Increase all elemental and physical resistances.”

“Hint: To increase resistances, you must experience the elements.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Your eyes shifted over to a new tab that came into existence after you finished reading. Touching it took you to a screen with a lot of stats.

Max HP:                      3,027

ATK:                             89

DEF:                            94

Elemental Mastery:      0

Max Stamina:              240

A new message popped up on the message screen. You quickly switch back over.

“ +1% Physical Resistance.

Total Physical Resistance: 1%”

You stare in disbelief. You had no idea what you could have done that you give you any sort of resistance. It wasn’t until your wound started to throb that you put the pieces together. “Are you fucking kidding me.”

“I have to literally get attacked with every element to complete this quest?”

“Correct.” The message came through on the screen before disappearing.

“So you can answer my questions.”

“Within reason. That is why I am called Tutor. I am created by the system to help the chosen players.”

“So there are others like me?”

“Correct. There were 1,000 players chosen to take this path.”

“Would you like to see your current talents?”

“Um, yeah. Sure.” A new tab appeared, and you moved over to that screen.

Resurrection: In case of death, Player will resurrect within 24 hours in a safe location.

Blessing of nature: Taking damage will increase resistance to that type of damage permanently.

“There’s only two.”

“Indeed. As you grow and ascend, you will receive more.”

“There is a chest 127 feet to your left that contains a dull blade. Please retrieve it to complete your quest.”

You blink and the screen disappears. You can see a little black dot in the corner of your eye. You quickly figured out that focusing on that dot opened the screen, and looking elsewhere closed it.

“Well, let’s get to it then, shall we?” You couldn’t say that you were necessarily excited about the prospect of intentionally being attacked, but if it helped you out, then it helped, end of story.

In the distance, you could see a little wooden chest. Upon opening, it did contain a sword, along with a couple of miscellaneous items.

“There they are!”

You whipped your head around to see a group of knights and…

“Oh shit.”

The acting grandmaster. Well, you were screwed. Might as well see if Resurrection worked like it was supposed to.

Standing your ground, you watched warily as they approached you. Your back was still hurting you, but you tried not to let it show.

“Imposter.” Jean spoke with authority. “Stand down and come with us peacefully.”

‘I have to get her to attack me.’ You thought and put on an arrogant air.

“And why would I do that, exactly? Have I committed a crime?”

Jean didn’t waver, or show much emotion other than the stern animosity on her face. “You are being charged with the heresy of impersonating our creator.”

“That’s a little bit overplayed, don’t you think?”

You swore that you had read so many SAGAU fics that you could quote every reason they had for killing you before they could say them.

“What?” Jean’s eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

“I mean, do you really think that it’s my fault that I just so happened to get this exact face? You should blame my parents for being horny and conceiving me.”

Her mouth dropped open is shock and disgust. “Watch what you say, imposter.”

“Hey Jean, guess what?”

She glared at you.

“Your creator must be an insecure little bitch to have you guys kill anyone who looks like them.”

She moved faster than you thought she would. One second she was standing ten feet away. The next second, she was right in front of you, sword glowing teal and murder in her eyes.

‘Oh shit.’

A line of pure anemo energy slashed across your abdomen and chest, painting the sand red and drawing a scream of pain from your lips.

                                                            “+1% Anemo Resistance.

                                                            Total Anemo Resistance: 1%”

Searing pain unlike anything you had ever before. Distantly, you thought ‘Oh come on. Only one percent?’

“Is that all you got?” You grinned through the pain. She lifted her sword and swiped it across your face. Everything went black. She must have gotten your eyes. “C-come on, Jean. Really go at it.”

Sharp pain in your shoulder and your arm went dead.

“Physical Resistance +1%”   “Physical Resistance +1%”  “+1% Anemo Resistance.  “Physical Resistance +1%”  “Physical Resistance +1%”  “+1% Anemo Resistance.  “Physical Resistance +1%”  “Physical Resistance +1%” “Physical Resistance +1%”   “+1% Anemo Resistance.  “Physical Resistance +1%”  “Physical Resistance +1%” 

                                                “Total Physical Resistance: 10%”

                                                “Total Anemo Resistance: 4%”

                                                      Resurrection activated

                                                             23hrs 55secs

                                                                  ………

                                                                    10secs

You shot up into a sitting position, gasping for air and clawing at your chest. Your eyes darted around you, zeroing in on the weak light pouring into the cave you woke up in. You sighed in relief and flopped back down, accidentally hitting your head on a pebble. “Ow, What the fuck?”

                                                      “Geo Resistance +1%

                                                   Total Geo Resistance 1%”    

“Are you fucking kidding me?” You rubbed the back of your head and groaned. The humor of it wasn’t lost on you though, and you let out a giggle. “Hey Tutor?” The message box opened.

“How can I help you, Player?”

“If I sit under a waterfall, will that give me hydro resistance?”

“Yes, the flow of hydro energy would suffice to give you resistance. Note: The rate of resistance gain would be slower than if you were hit with pure hydro energy.”

“Thank you.” The message box disappeared. It was time to find out where you were and what to do next. Crawling from the little cave, you struggled to stand. Your legs were stiff and wobbly. Craggy cliffs and clouds filled your view. “Liyue, huh? I wonder who I’ll pick a fight with next?”

It took about two days to reach Liyue Harbor, but before you entered the city, you checked your screen.

                                                    Total Pyro Resistance: 0%

                                                    Total Hydro Resistance: 3%

                                                  Total Electro Resistance: 0%

                                                  Total Cryo Resistance: 0%

                                                  Total Dendro Resistance: 1%

                                                  Total Geo Resistance: 4%

                                                  Total Anemo Resistance: 11%

                                                  Total Physical Resistance: 15%

You had obviously run into some monsters on the way to the harbor, and that had increased your resistances. Not much, but at least if you ever ran into Xiao, it would hurt a bit less when he beat the shit out of you. Come to think of it, that seemed like a very likely possibility while being here.

[zombeebunnie]

Trembling Essence:💙Ending progress + poll results💙

Hi again and welcome new followers, here's another progress update about the game! >;]

But before I write that out I just want to say a very big thank you to everyone that participated in the poll I did so far, The results and responses have been helping me for the final version. :,] If you still want to give your vote/opinion on the start of the game here's the poll from my tumblr! There's less than 24 hours to vote!

I took a small break to gather my thoughts before continuing from where I left off. I was brainstorming a lot about this because I didn't want the beginning of the game to be too long when it comes to figuring out how to get to Noah, but I do want the explorative side to give some lore.

Suddenly, an idea came to mind that'll help me solve this issue I've been having. :,]

Last week I mentioned the two endings you could get that are from the [Extended Demo]. I don't count this as spoilers but these endings will have their own separate choice to go down instead of it being in the same path. This replaces a section from the [Extended Demo] and lowers the amount of time it takes to figure out how to get to Noah, especially for those that are new to the game. Consider this a healthy quality of life change, only one ending has been put on the shelf that I didn't have a connection with so far! :] This also gave me a chance to go through both endings individually and give a deeper exploration into these areas as they do play a part in the game. I added a few choices to show the differences in the terrain and how the player(Y/N) reacts to it. You can get an alternate situation but it will still end the same. I also fixed up some errors I found through the alternate choices that I almost missed too. For right now I'd say this ending will be finished once my play testers look through them! They've given me pointers on the CG's and dialog but not everything else yet. x] Speaking of quality changes I also went back and adjusted some of the new CG's I've drawn. I had a habit of drawing the landscape too low so you couldn't see anything unless you toggled the text box away. :,,,] Luckily this was a quick and easy fix.

Here's the results:

Before:

After:

I'm very happy with how far I've come when I draw backgrounds now! It's been a interesting journey but overall I enjoy knowing everything is coming together no matter how long it might take. There was another one I wanted to share but this the second CG I tried posting gave me an error. Luckily I had everything saved so I don't have to rewrite anything! :,,]

It took some time but I went back and fixed one of the effects that happen when you lose HP. The old version lights up the edges of your screen but sometimes it can be hard to see if there's another effect happening. I went back and gave a small hue effect every time you lose HP instead.

Lastly in other news, I finally started work on Noah's reference sheets! >:]

There will be a total of three(?) which will have specific details for each one! It's took some time to create since I'm still learning how to do angled faces/poses but I've gotten time to practice so I'm ready. >:] I also want to state that Noah's sprites/side sprites in the [Extended Demo] are accurate to how he's suppose to look too. Since I've improved my style certain specifics of his appearance might be slightly different! :]

Almost there to the cabin section, yay! I just have a few more things to fix up. >:]

If you like what I create, please consider supporting what I do on kofi! All donations and tips help tremendously while I work on the game. Also a very huge thank you to those that have optionally bought the [Extended Demo] and the March 2023 demo on itch.io too, it really means a lot. :,]

Q&A / Ask box is open:

If you have any questions about Trembling Essence/Noah feel free to ask here or on itch.io please. This makes it easier for me to see and answer accordingly! I would really like to hear from you guys!

There were some other things I wanted to discuss but this post is getting too long so I'll save it for next week, thank you guys for all of the support, I appreciate it! :,,]

[soylent-crocodile]

Drubb (Monster)

(art by Jim Nelson)

(This was a Magic card- Muck Drubb- with the perfect combination of evocative art and interesting ability, so I of course HAD to make it a monster! This one's flavor text is just real sad and delves into slavery, so you've been warned. Perhaps freeing a population of enslaved drubbs and finding one of the hiding families to take them in would be a fun side quest for your heroes!)

CR3 TN Medium Aberration

Drubbs are unfortunate creatures whose physiology naturally attracts magic. At one point in history they were nearly extinct, but have been brought back from the brink by black market breeders, as unscrupulous criminals and military officers realized that their sacrificial abilities make them excellent defensive allies. These drubbs, though sentient and able to speak, act as little more than sacrifices for their owners, living to be targeted by a deadly spell that was meant for someone else. 

In nature, drubbs live in close matriarchal groups, with the oldest female- generally a mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother to various members of the group- teaching their children philosophy and religion, as well as practical survival skills and safe hideaways. Males typically stay in these groups even while sexually mature, and only leave when they are knowledgeable and confident enough to secure a mate and a place in another herd. These herds are extremely rare these days, however, with only three or four free families believed to still exist.

Drubbs are sentient and their mouths are dexterous enough to wield weapons, but they generally progress by advancing racial HD. Learning magic is a taboo in drubb society, both because of the scars spellcasting slavers have left on their society, and more practically because casting magic around friendly drubbs is rather hazardous.

Drubb hide is magically potent, and the skin from a single drubb can serve as up to 1,000gp worth of leather when crafting magic items of the Abjuration school; in particular, they are a common source of Cloaks of Resistance.

This slimy yellow creature slumps forward, its face defined by a short trunk and mournful eyes.

Misc- CR3 TN Medium Aberration HD4 Init:+2 Senses: Perception:+7, Low-light Vision, Darkvision 60ft Stats- Str:16(+3) Dex:15(+2) Con:22(+6) Int:6(-2) Wis:17(+3) Cha:16(+3) BAB:+3 Space:5ft Reach:5ft Defense- HP:42(4d8+24) AC:13(+2 Dex, +1 Natural) Fort:+7 Ref:+5 Will:+7 CMD:17 (19 vs trip) Special Defenses: DR2/cold iron Offense- 2 Slam +6(1d6+3 plus Entangle) CMB:+5 Speed:30ft Special Attacks: Entangle Feats- Combat Expertise (-1/+2), Lightning Reflexes Skills- Diplomacy +6, Perception +8, Spellcraft +3, Survival +7 Special Qualities- Sink Magic Ecology- Environment- Swamps, Urban (Any) Languages- Common Organization- Solitary Treasure- None Special Abilities- Entangle (Ex)- A creature hit with a drubb’s slam attack must make a DC13 reflex save or become entangled in its mucus, as with a tanglefoot bag. Sink Magic (Su)- A drubb’s body naturally attracts spells to itself. If a caster casts a spell within 60ft of a drubb that could target a drubb, she must make a DC16 caster level check or instead target the drubb with that spell. Spells with a range of touch or an area of effect are not affected by this ability. This caster level check is constitution-based.

[rigaudon]

This was just gonna be another comparison but then I pulled out my binder and ended up with an illustrated essay.

So while the new cards are PRETTIER, at the same time, the quality on the new cards can't compare to the old ones. Ceruledge is super shiny, but the cardstock is VISIBLY thinner than Gengar's (and the fancy pants full art foils are even thinner), and the ink is so much DENSER on the old cards. The difference in ink saturation is most obvious when you compare the cardbacks

The old card is on the right in the first picture. Basic bitch 1999 nonfoil Dragonair feels 20× nicer to hold than 2023 glitterbomb hyperfoil. 💀💀💀

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk, but while I have you here... let me give you a glimpse into the mind of me as a child. You might be wondering why the edges of all my old cards are so fucked up, it's because 1: they've been crammed in here for 24 years (holy shit, I'm old).

Which shouldn't be a big deal except for 2: As a Real Pokemon Trainer, my binder is in pokedex order and every variant I have of the same pokemon lives IN THE SAME SLEEVE TOGETHER (top card dictated by how shiny and/or how much 10-year-old-me liked the art), none of that side by side entire sheet of 9 squirtles bullshit. I stacked the squirtles.

(Yes, you are correct in the assumption that this means I was, 3: constantly taking them out of the sleeves and keeping 10+ cards in the same card holder, especially if I had a lot of cards of the pokemon on both sides of the page. I had to replace the sheets in the whole binder at least 2-3 times because I'd stick so many cards in them that the sides would rip and drop $500 in cardboard all over the pavement). I mostly fixed that when I stopped keeping dupes of the same art in there too.

But Raie, you say. Surely, this doesn't include foils and rare cards, right? Great question! Glad you asked!!

Say hello to single-sleeve Vileplume family!

Will I continue this tradition as an adult that should know better? Yes, absolutely.

What number am i on? 4? A few of them most definitely went through the washing machine at some point. Idk when i got a new one, but I got my original Pidgeot from a friend who'd left it in the pocket of her jeans and 80% of the card was fuzzy.

(Please don't ask why this mangled common Pikachu is the one I decided to display on top. Adult me doesn't know. Maybe mangled, stained, washing machine Pikachu was my first Pikachu and thus had sentimental value over literally any of the 30 other copies I had of that same Pikachu.) Now that I think about it I probably just put the FIRST copy i got in the binder for emotional attachment reasons, idk.

Speaking of sentimental value: I keep my ticket stub from the first pokemon movie between my Mews.

And i was going to end on that note until I saw this INSANE THING LOOK AT THIS. THIS. FISH. THIS FLAT, COMMON, BASIC FISH POKEMON IS OBJECTIVELY BETTER THAN FUCKING CHARIZARD.

Something something 20 year old card game something something power creep

I CAN ONLY INCLUDE TEN PICTURES ON THE APP SO GIVE ME A MINUTE BUT I HAVE TO PREFACE THIS NEXT REVELATION WITH: MEWTWO HAS 60 HP

[hananoami]

[ Directional Orbit ] Fire - Stage 110 Clear VOD

I cleared Rafayel's Directional Orbit: Fire - Stage 110 yesterday, 05/15, in the most unorthodox way possible; more details about that below. For now I want to give an overview of this stage for those who have yet to reach this far. Stage 110 requires two teams. The Protofield Stellactrum for Team 01 is 6-Pearl memories and for Team 02 its 6-Violet memories. By having a perfect match with the colors for the Protofield Stellactrum your < Resonance Skill > can break 2 Protocore Shield Layers in a single strike and increase DMG to weakened by 100%. For every matched Stellactrum you'll receive an attribute bonus that increase DMG Boost by 5.0% and DMG Reduction by 5.0% (up to 30%). I want to reiterate that there is no right or wrong way to play the game. You should use whatever you have available to you. My game play will differ from yours, but I still wanted to share my experiences and offer tips for the trials. With that said, please feel free to contact me if you ever need advice~ I'm super shy, but I'm always happy to help others. ଘ(੭˃ᴗ˂)੭♡

Oh boy... how long was I stuck on this stage? The earliest post referenced was recorded on 04/24 so it's been three weeks. Within that time a LOT of resources were invested into my Violet and Pearl builds. This includes leveling up memories, farming protocores, and leveling up said protocores. I wrote a lot of entries about those upgrades, but you can find them all under my #directional orbit fire tag. I have countless hours of game play footage, showcasing my attempts to figure out what worked for me and how could I improve. Even in my clear video you can see where I had to cut my failed attempts out as I was constantly restarting the second half. It's a satisfying feeling to see how far I was able to progress. Unfortunately I don't have an updated screenshot of the final team set up in the overview page. However, the only difference would be switching the solar pairs. Team 01 will use the Violet solars [Deep Sea Riches] and [Deep Sea Promise] and Team 02 will use the Pearl solars [Temple's Promise] and [Temple's Sunset]. No other changes were made; all of the lunar memories remained the same. Team 01

After switching things up a bit I went into the first half of the fight with Abysswalker Companion using Phantasma Sands. Previously I was able to auto battle this part without any issues. Having a perfect match meant my resonance skill was able to break 2 protocore shields in a single strike, making it easier for me to bring those wanderers to a weakened state faster. However because I opted to go off colors it took me a while longer where I had to manually play. At first I was struggling clear the fight. There were many attempts with me timing out and the wanderers had around 1 and a half or less HP left. I didn't feel like leveling up [Myths] any higher than lv 40 cause I wanted to save leveling resources for Zayne lol... This is when I decided to use more core energy resources to build up my protocores. I used up 20000 core energy exp to level up a pearl delta (CRIT rate) to +12 and another 20000 core energy exp to level up a pearl beta (Expedited Energy Boost) to +12. I don't remember how much gold I spent on the top of my head, but it was still a decent amount invested. Yanno, even with the core upgrade I still died a lot and failed right after LOL. I don't remember which one of the two wanderer types that puts a ticking debuff on you to take damage, but they stack and your HP will DROP without realizing it. Pretty sure it's a reflective damage from the one that has a shield around it. So every time I was attacking it I was also kms... 🫠 Thanks InFold. So yeah, I would try to be a bit mindful about what you're attacking. If they have a shield up that's doing that you can usually dispel it with interrupts/charged attack or bringing them into a weakened state with resonance skill. I love Abysswalker's kit because it groups them up so nicely before Sharky comes and bites them.

Team 02

The suggestion to use God of the Tides companion for he second half and keeping his lunars the same came up in a conversation I had with a friend after a talking about my meme of a run for open orbit - stage 120 (you can read more about that here). After being stuck on this half for over 3 weeks you'll try anything with hopes that it'll actually work. I had zero expectations on how it was gonna turn out but fortunately for me it did well after a handful of failed attempts! Prior to my clear run I tapped a violet delta core (CRIT rate) from +9 to +12 that had HP bonus as one of it's substat. God of the Tides is an HP talent memory so I wanted to make the most of it by having that extra bit of stats to make up for missing 10% attribute bonuses. I was already focused on increasing my CRIT for this build, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to upgrading this specific protocore. Upgrades are expensive y'all. The stats before weren't as ideal imo which is why I was hesitant before taking the gamble to roll HP bonus %. I know my clear vod made it look easy but what really happened is that I somehow managed to crit harder during this run compared to all my failed attempts earlier (╥ᆺ╥；) CRIT rate is king, especially if you plan on ignoring the Protofield Stellactrum by going off colors to try and brute force things.

The following are my final team set up and their stat attributes--

ADDITIONAL SCREENSHOTS

Companion: Rafayel’s Abysswalker Weapon: Phantasma Sands ♡ Affinity Bonus: 92 When you take a fatal blow, Rafayel teleports to you, blocks a hit, and counter attacks. Enemies will be knocked back. [ HP 3600 || DEF 90 || ATK 180 ] Pair Bonus [AB] - Starting Effect: increases team DMG by 8%, and reduces team DMG taken by 8%, and increases Crit DMG of Deepsea Persuit by 30%.

5☆ Deep Sea Riches (violet/solar) Lv 80/awakened rank 2 using +9 SSR protocores

5☆ Deep Sea Promise (violet/solar) Lv 80/awakened using +9 and +12 SSR protocores

5☆Tipsy Invitation (pearl/lunar) Lv 60 using +9 and +12 SSR protocores

5☆ Fireworks Vow (pearl/lunar)

Lv 60 using +9 and +12 SSR protocores

5☆ Before Sunrise (pearl/lunar)

Lv 60 rank 1 using +9 SSR protocores

4☆ Myths (pearl/lunar) Lv 40 rank 3 using +9 SSR protocores

Companion: Rafayel’s God of the Tides Weapon: Tidal Embrace ♡ Affinity Bonus: 92 When you take a fatal blow, Rafayel teleports to you, blocks a hit, and counter attacks. Enemies will be knocked back. [ HP 3600 || DEF 90 || ATK 180 ] Pair Bonus [TP] - Starting Effect: increases team DMG by 8%, reduces team DMG taken by 8%, and increases Crit DMG by 10% when fighting along side Sea Spirits. - Duo Rank 1: boosts Ardent Oath charge by 20%. The starting level of Sea Spirits rises to Lv. 2, and Sea Spirits will last for 5 more seconds. - Duo Rank 2: increases Energy Charge cap by 1. During Heavenly Rain, recovery rate of energy charge is increased by 30%.

5☆ Temple’s Promise (pearl/solar) Lv 80/awakened rank 2 using +9 SSR protocores

5☆ Temple’s Sunset (pearl/solar) Lv 80/awakened rank 2 using +9 and +12 SSR protocores

5☆ Your Fragrance (violet/lunar) Lv 80 rank 1 using +9 and +12 SSR protocores

5☆ Whispers (violet/lunar) Lv 80 rank 1 using +12 SSR protocores

4☆Ivory Nightfall (violet/lunar) Lv70 rank 3 using +12 SSR protocores

4☆ Hidden Shadow (violet/lunar) Lv 70 rank 3 using +9 SSR protocores

[charlotterhea]

Last part of my Summer Fic Reading Challenge journey and ngl, it's extremely satisfying seeing the whole card ticked off. XD

19. Parallel universe

At first, I wasn't even sure what was meant by 'parallel universe', wondering whether not every AU story is technically a parallel universe. XD But then I searched for the tag and stumbled upon "The Unforeseen Possibility of Universes" by MsRosemaryPrince and finally, it clicked. We're talking about 'parallel universes' in the physical sense... 😏 Yes, sometimes I'm a bit slow. Didn't stop me from enjoying the story, though! The thought of Hermione and Severus finding each other in every universe just makes my shipper's heart sing, so I devoured this one and might keep my eyes open to find more stories with this tag. ^^

11. Mythical creature AU

Although creatures are a huge topic in HP, I've only read a few fics centering around creatures so far. I'm not that drawn to that topic personally, I guess. But digging through the archive for this prompt made me stumble upon "just a mannequin with nothing left to hold" by eatgodbemoss and I have to admit, if they are all like that I should probably read more creature fics... 😆 I thoroughly enjoyed Severus being possessed by an incubus and I enjoyed even more how our favourite idiots beat around the bush. Go read it if you're in the mood. ^^

24. Canon compliant

Guys, I hit the jackpot with this one! So, canon compliant is hard to do with Hermione and Severus but I still gave it a shot. You never know, right? And not only did I find a cute story about an encounter with them at the end of year one, but it also is about CHESS! 😍 You cannot imagine how much I love stories about chess! I don't even play chess! I don't know a single chess rule! I can't even envision the moves! And yet I have the time of my life reading them. 😂 Anyway, the story is "Pawn to Eighth Square" by scratchyquill and it's a quick but adorable read. Didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Go read it!

12. Space AU

For this prompt, I chose a longer story to read, "Sagittaria" by multilingualism. It had everything I love, Snamione, bits and pieces from the book woven into the plot to discover, moments to grin about, and a twist at the end I didn't see coming despite the hints that have been there! I'm hooked for part 2 of the series!

Free Space

Honestly, I don't know if I'm supposed to read a story for this one as well but since I had a one-shot I wanted to read anyway I chose to use it for this. So, "Call me Severus" by kidansong. What a cute story is this? It just ticks all my boxes. Virgin!Severus and explicit consent? Hell, yes! I really love the softness of this story and the fact that it still manages to be hot as fuck. I mean, how could it not? Explicit consent is hot as fuck... 😆

This story really was the perfect one to complete this challenge and I'm really happy I made it despite being doubtful a couple of weeks ago. I had so much fun reading all those wonderful stories and am very grateful both for the authors that they've written them and for the mods of the challenge to offer bingo cards. I had a great summer full of reading and chatting with a writer or two in the comments. 💚

[rimeiii]

Analyzing What in "Hell" is Bad's gameplay (+ the four demon king's gameplay archetypes) based on trailers alone

I don't know if anyone has done this yet, but literally the only reason why I'm doing this is because. Well. I'm a sucker for tower defense and I'm probably the few people who's interested in this game mainly because of the gameplay, so I do want to brainrot a little bit aha. There's also this little interaction within my crew server:

(danchou is a running nickname for me bc this server did start out as a granblue fantasy crew server and i was the captain of the crew)

Now I can't recall if Prettybusy has ever explicitly stated that WHB will be a tower defense game (like I THINK they did? but idk?) but at this point I'm deep in the trenches of tower defense games (specifically Arknights) and I need a break from the mind-bending struggle that is Surging Waves 9 in IS3 aka Integrated Strategies aka Mizuki and Caerula Arbor after dying on floor 5 one too many times so! Here we go!

Preemptive warning that I'm probably going to slip into Arknights terms because that's what I'm familiar with, oof.

Continued under the cut because this is going to be LONG.

Let's just jump right into it - to the brief view of gameplay from the second trailer!

Okay, sure. Some of the icons and elements are a bit...vague, I guess is the word. But some things are pretty obvious so let's get them out of the way:

You have the stage number up top.

24/30? Number of enemies left!

Now these last two numbers on the top of the UI are a bit confusing, but one of them (most probably the smaller number) is likely to be HP. If I had to guess it'll work like Arknights, where one enemy entering the base would count as 1 HP lost (apart from bosses). The other might be the number of opportunities we get to move a unit on the battlefield, kinda like Path to Nowhere, though the trailers so far have not shown that this is a gameplay feature, so take this speculation with a grain of salt.

The round circle in front of the building is likely to be the base. On the other hand, the red squares are likely to be enemy spawn points.

Red bars are HP bars, while white bars are skill/ult bars.

I do wonder if the game will incorporate something akin to Arknights' high ground tiles. There are two different tilesets in the second trailer, a plain white/cream one that forms a path to the base from the enemy spawn points (where Leviathan and Mammon are standing), and a textured grayish one separate from that path (where Beelzebub is standing).

For the uninitiated, in Arknights, only ranged units can be deployed on high ground tiles. Take for example the one of the boss stages of IS3. Here, the boss is dead and I was in the process of cleaning up the final few enemies. There are three Operators in high ground tiles (Honeyberry, Ansel, and Fiammetta) and four on normal tiles (Mountain, Mlynar, Saria, and Highmore).

High ground tiles are denoted by being at elevation compared to regular tiles, where melee Operators can be deployed. Whether an Operator is melee or ranged is denoted in their Operator screen, at the bottom left (where their class, attack range, and roles are also denoted).

Why do I say there might be high ground tiles in WHB? Because Beelzebub's attack seems to be an AoE ranged attack, akin to the Artilleryman class in Arknights, like Fiammetta or Shirayuki. In addition to that, he is standing on the gray tiles, unlike Mammon and Leviathan. As an aside, the visuals of his attack reminds me of Shirayuki's shuriken, specifically the ones in her second skill.

Anyways, my only gripe with what I'm seeing in the trailer is the vague description in attack speed. It's kinda like a repetition from Arknights. In Arknights' case, it's actually one of the few things in the Arknights status screen that's really vague, and to see it also replicated here...hoo boy.

Like how much of a time interval difference is there between "slow" (Mostima), "slightly slow" (Mudrock), and "average" (Enforcer)? Plus, Mostima's third module has raised her attack speed for every level, so how different is the Mod3 "slow" different from the regular or Mod1/Mod2 "slow"? Thankfully the wikis all have detailed information for the actual attack interval, and for all intents and purposes this vagueness isn't game-breaking by any means, but it'd be a nice QoL addition if we have access to that information in-game.

But you're not here to listen to me talk about Arknights (it's a wonder if you are, honestly, considering this is meant to be a WHB post), so I'll get to my next point.

It probably wouldn't really matter much in WHB?

Like I said earlier, the game's main focus is the demons, not like Arknights where we have people doing absolutely insane things like max risk Contingency Contract or IS3 Surging Waves 15. So, if Prettybusy doesn't really put as intense of an effort into the tower defense aspect like Arknights, I'll be fine with it. I'd appreciate it if they also really develop the tower defense gameplay though, and not turn the later stages into pure DPS checks. We'll see when WHB officially releases!

Enough with the complaints, though. I want to talk about potential character classes, starting with the four main demon kings! Starting with my man, my baby, my love, Leviathan! (danchou stop)

Leviathan, once again proving that I can't escape from falling in love with characters associated with water and the sea, seems to be the WHB equivalent to a Defender in Arknights, potentially either a Protector focused on DPS, like Hoshiguma, using his coffin as a shield. He seems to have taken the brunt of enemy damage in the second trailer, likely due to tanking the hits - his HP is so low I'd be scrambling to deploy a medic or Guardian Defender if it were Arknights. Though, his ult reminds me of Asbestos's second skill, with the increased range and AoE damage. Otherwise, if he has other forms, I'd imagine him being a Summoner, who summons his Eldritch beings onto the battlefield. Kinda like Deepcolor, I guess?

I talk about alternate forms because it does seem you can use multiple versions of the same character in the same team, and these alternate forms seem to have different classes. However, this screencap was taken from the first trailer, so...

Anyways, I talked about Beelzebub potentially being an Artilleryman in the second trailer, I'd talk about the form in the first trailer, which seems to imply that Bubs here is a melee unit. Yet, the party select screen seems to indicate that Bubs is a ranged unit. Note, however, that there doesn't seem to be a clear path like in the second trailer, so enemy movement seems unclear. For all we know, the enemy Bubs is fighting might be the WHB equivalent of an aerial unit.

With Bubs out of the way (wow gbf brain is real), let's move on to speculations regarding Mammon and Satan. Again, screencap is from the first trailer, so I'm not so sure how accurately this will reflect on the current build used for the second trailer, much less the final product.

Satan seems to be yet another ranged unit or a melee class capable of ranged attacks (so, a Fortress Defender like Horn, or a Lord Guard like Arene), if that weapon is of any indication. Like, is that a ballista? He's said to be the most violent of the seven kinds, so is he doing AoE damage like an Artilleryman Sniper, point-blank shots with large damage like Heavyshooter Snipers (like Pozyomka or Schwarz), just has a high attack stat like Deadeye Snipers (like Andreana or Ambriel), or purely focuses on dealing large damage at a farther distance like Besieger Snipers (like Poca/Rosa or Totter)? So many ways we can go with him, and I for one am interested!

And last but not least, Mammon. Those tentacles (and later on the gold hands from the second trailer) surrounding him actually reminds me of Ambusher Specialists from Arknights, melee Operators capable of dealing AoE damage to their surrounding tiles (like Mizuki and Manticore). Considering one of his abilities is to create gold that turns into weapons, this might be one of the manifestations of his abilities!

Now, I'd continue with the other demons eventually, but in a separate post because this is. Already so long. Plus, we don't have as much info about the other demons (and angels) apart from the character previews, so much more speculation abound. So, uh, thanks for reading I guess? Ahaha-

[neriyon]

I am torn between asking Top 5 Songs and Top 5 Memories so can i ask both?

If it’s not too much? :3c

(If it’s too much I’ll pick one!)

Both is good! We'll start with songs in no particular order:

Equlibrium (Sophia's theme) One of my first favorites! I used to listen to it so much I still remember most of the lyrics by heart haha.

A Long Fall (Twinning theme) I mean, who doesn't love the party dungeon song?

Unbreakable (Fractal Continuum theme) and by extension, Order yet undeciphered (Azys Lla theme). I'm cheating and putting these out together since Unbreakable has Order yet undeciphered's leitmotif in it.

Neath Dark Waters (Amaurot overworld theme) I'm weak for that leitmotif and this one is my favorite one of the different versions.

Last one uhhhhhhh Close in the Distance. Very closely tied with Flow Together, but this was the song I liked so much that I speedran Ultima Thule fates in like two days so I could have the song playing in our house.

Then, top 5 memories. Hmm, this'll require some thinking because my memory is swiss cheese and things just fall out of there if I rattle my head around too much.

First one that comes to mind is our first run of Gubal. Our group (whm, drg and dnc) rolls in with sprouts on and all of us in cutscene. When we got out of cutscene it turned out that the tank was also finnish and declared that she "must protecc" us after asking if we were all first timers. She proceeded to be one of the best tanks I've had a plesure to heal, gave us helpful tips about mechanics and /doted all of us before leaving.

This is gonna sound a little funny but Moonfire Faire. We started playing during the 2019 one, and while we never made it to the event itself (too low level, rip), the memory of seeing the fireworks on Gridania (both on sky and a group of peeps spamming the items next to conjurer's guild haha) while doing our very first quests left a very deep mark on me. I still get really nostalgic every time the fireworks come back~

Figuring out how to do Omega unsynced with only 3 people (so we can farm by ourselves). Mostly blind, we only looked at guides after hitting mechanics we could not figure out. Up until like the last runs we kept forgetting the Omega F knockback (too focused on random chatter), or the exploding debuffs. The 10+ runs we had to do to figure out timing for tank invulns when M & F start dashing around. One of us leveling tank just for that fight (and turns out they like tanking now lol), one having to finish leveling pld bc gnb shooting themselves did not go too well when you have to have hp for the tankbusters after the invuln ends.

Endwalker boss fate farming. Sitting there for hours, getting progressively more tired and unhinged with couple hundred other people as we were so sure that yeah next hour Chi or Daivadipa would spawn. Surely next hour. It's already been 8h over the spawn timer cooldown it MUST spawn soon... right? Right??

Baby's first on launch alliance raid, Puppet's Bunker! I was so nervous haha, first time patch day alliance raid on healer? Scawwyyy. We died soooooo much lol but it was such a blast. People figuring out you could shoot eachother with the lasers, the constant "ohhhhh so that's what that does" in chat, the collective "what the fuck yoko taro?" during second phase of last boss. Now my absolute favorite content in this game is doing alliance raids right after patch so all 24 of us can be equally confused about stuff and just chill dead on the ground together.

[etes-secrecy-post]

Hi, before I explain my post, I want to say something important.

• What you see my blog has become a major overhaul. And despite the changes, I decided that my 2nd account will be now my artwork blog with a secret twist.

⚠️NEW RULE! (W/ BIGGER TEXT!)⚠️

⚠️ SO PLEASE DO NOT SHARE MY 2nd ACCOUNT TO EVERYONE! THIS SECRECY BLOG OF MINE IS FOR CLOSES FRIENDS ONLY!⚠️

• AND FOR MY CLOSES FRIENDS, DON’T REBLOG IT. INSTEAD, JUST COPY MY LINK AND PASTE IT ON YOUR TUMBLR POST! JUST BE SURE THE IMAGE WILL BE REMOVED AND THE ONLY LEFT WAS THE TEXT.

⚠️ SHARING LINKS, LIKE POSTS, REBLOG POSTS, STEALING MY SNAPSHOT PHOTOS/RECORDED VIDEOS/ARTWORKS (a.k.a. ART THIEVES) OR PLAGIARIZING FROM UNKNOWN TUMBLR STRANGERS WILL IMMEDIATELY BE BLOCKED, RIGHT AWAY!⚠️

😡 WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT EVER LIKED & REBLOG MY SECRET POST! THIS IS FOR MY SECRET FRIENDS ONLY, NOT YOU! 😡

Okay? Capiche? Make sense? Good, now back to the post…↓

#Onthisday: Oct 26th, 2016

Title: My Cars in WMMT5DX

I missed playing this racing arcade game though. I took this picture last Monday (10/24/16, at Quantum Arcade, SM North Edsa).

• Since 2013, I was in 3rd year college playing "WMMT4" at the arcade after school as my one last race to play because once I'm done, I want to focus on studying and doing important school task(s).

• By 2014, "WMMT5" arcade machine was launched and it so cool (except the graphics though, it's the same as WMMT4). I'm just came here for the Wangan Terminal for transferring my data with my BanaPassport without straight playing the arcade. Feeling myself that I'm refused to play WMMT anymore and I decided retire...

• So now I'm back as my short debut and the "WMMT5DX" arcade machine is finally here in my country. As you can see I have a list of cars, 2 Subaru cars (Both Impreza types: GDB & GRB) , 2 Mitsubishi Cars (Lancer Evo. VIII & IX) and 2 Nissan Cars (350Z and Silvia Spec R), I couldn't shown my Silvia car because it's on the next page). Still on my car list, since WMMT4.

BTW: I've won 2 times in a versus battle and it was my debut moment, I feel lucky. 😁☝

IMPORTANT NOTE: As of 2023, when the WMMT6RR had just rolled out, I have three new cars in my digital garage: the gray metallic Toyota GR Supra RZ (DB42) [340 HP/B], the blue Mazda MX-5 RF RS (NDERC) [158 HP/B], and the white Nissan Fairlady 280Z-T (HGS130) [600 HP]. The only car I didn't claimed was the Nissan Leopard 3.0 Ultima (F31) w/ fully tuned to 840 HP. 🙁 Damn, I want that so bad, but its fine. I'm okay without it. 😊

Photography by ME! (My old/former Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 [S7582]) Title & Arcade - Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 5DX © 2016 NAMCO BANDAI GAMES INC.

[viktoria-policorn]

Severus Snake AU (Harry Potter x MLP crossover, Creepypasta)

For Cringetober days 24 and 13

If not cringetober, I would have never told this shit I fear myself to anybody. invented this when I was 12. started considering it as cringe at 15 years old.

Notes:

HP x MLP crossover. In this AU wizarding world and Equestria are parallel universes, and their inhabitants can move between worlds through portals (but nearly anybody doesn’t know about another world existence). All characters are ponies!!! (Harry Potter characters are ponified)

Major events happen after the last Harry Potter book “The deathly hallows” and after last season of MLP gen 4, but just right after the “Rainbow road trip” before the main 6 aged up too much.

Warnings: violence, graphic blood, extreme cringe.

Cringefic, trollfic

*I barely remember the scenario of this mess, some plot points have different variations and when I stopped working on this, the story was unfinished and still has plot holes.

Messy brief retelling of the whole story:

After the battle of Hogwarts, when he have already mourned and burried perished friends, Harry Potter sleeps. When he wakes up, he remembers that he have forgotten about a very important person. He informs his friends but wants to go on his own. Harry enters the Shrieking Shack and…Snape’s body is not here. “WTF?!” — Harry thinks. HP thinks kinda “Nevermind” and walks to Hogwarts.

The next day there is news that one Hogsmeade pony-farmer has disappeared without a trace. Ron and Hermione say: “Nevermind!” But Harry is worried, because he remembers Snape’s body disappearance. On the next day, the magazine reports about new missed Hogsmeade ponies. And next days — the same. And some ponies told they saw a sinister beast on the villageside. Harry and friends decide to go there and figure out WTF is going on (they couldn’t miss such fun).

Eventually they went to the Shrieking Shack and… the cellar hatch opens and… “ — Surprise!” The trio sees white pony with short black mane with snake teeth, smiling and staring at them. Stallions mouth and teeth were covered with blood and…he had bloody wound on the left side of his neck. His Eyes had red snake-like pupils. It looked like too positive and snake-like Severus Snape.

— Severus Snape? — Harry mumbled.

— Severus Snake! — the freak answered. — Happy to see you kids, come in!

Everybody went to the cellar. It looked like torture room. There was a lot of knifes, poisons, torture tools and even the wall to fix ponies in there (like in Cupcakes)

Snake joyfully tells them how he came to life after death, how he thinks that his ‘old’ behavior was dumb and how he would treat Harry and other good guys that he knows well, how he is positive and funny now.

Harry carefully asks him about the torture room and briefly hints, that he wants explanation why Snake’s mouth are in blood.

Snake at ease tells them that now he has a snake-like stomach and has to eat meat. Also he explained, that he tortures only evil-bad ponies, in general former death eaters. After the battle of Hogwarts a lot of death eaters went hiding in Hogsmeade and nowadays pretending to be usual local folks. And Snake fixes this issue by torturing them, in this way he implements their karma.

The trio even don’t know what to say, so they quietly say “Bye” to Severus Snake and go out to digest all what just happened. Snake joyfully says, that he is always happy to see them.

Harry, Ron and Hermione decided not to tell anyone about Snake and just wait and see what Snake really is, because they know nothing about his nature and reason why he is so visually alike to mutated Severus Snape. Next few days they regularly visited him and tried to convince him not to kill ponies and not to torture death eaters, but Snake said that it’s his kredo and he won’t change. Besides everything, Snake treated the trio as dear guests and friends and never got mad at them, always smiled and ignored the fact that kids obviously don’t enjoy his company and consider him as evil force. Severus Snake was nearly emotionless — his only emotions were smiling and laughing. It seemed like he considered world as one big joke for him.

*Note: from this moment I can’t really remember the order of scenes and the plot has many variations and in most of the parts I interpret.)

One day trio came to Snake but he wasn’t home and left note on the cellar hatch: “Went to teach Malfoys how to live properly, see you soon!”.

— Oh no! — Harry said. “Malfoys have got enough, we mustn’t let this freak torture them! ” Harry remembered how Narcissa Malfoy saved him and what Draco went through under Voldemort’s leadership.

Trio goes to Malfoy Manor.

As it turned out when they arrived, Harry and friends were late but not too late. Snake has already intimidated the whole Malfoy family. Now Snake was standing with Draco, forcibly holding him with magic, in front of them Lucius and Narcissa standing terrified and begging Snake to stop. Snake said that he is gonna take Draco with him and educate him properly (he wasn’t going to torture him, no, just wanted to teach him how to be a “good guy” which Snake now in his own eyes was).

Harry interrupted and with all the courage told Snake, that if he doesn’t stop, Harry will stop being his friend and be telling all wizards about his crimes. He also plainly told Snake what trio thinks about his behavior and how he is disappointed in Snake. Snake listened to him calmly. In the end of his speech Harry tried to manipulate Snake by telling that Snake’s threats were the best lesson for Malfoys and he better let them go because if he takes Malfoy with him and teaches him, his arrogant parents will perceive it as your service. Moreover, they will be proud of it: such person treats their son as a student.

Harry’s words had affection on Snake. He didn’t take the last part seriously, but he stopped smiling. It was the first time he looked sad and serious. Pony was upset about Harry’s real attitude towards him and such furious threats. Snake exempted Draco. He said to trio:“I thought you are my friends. I thought you understand me.” He turned away from them and apparitioned (teleported back to the Shrieking Shack).

Harry and trio talked to Malfoys a bit, and then went back to Hogwarts. They wanted but were afraid to visit Snake. But after all ventured to do it and…heard Snake talking to someone, someone they didn’t know. They sat calmly for awhile, eavesdropping. Another voice said something about another world, portals. Then everything stirred up, strange noise, wind and light arised. Then everything began to spin around, trio were moving somewhere in mess… Then they have fallen on the ground. They were in some sunny place…

End of the first part

On this point I will explain some lore things regarding Snake, retell the prequel of all events — give you author statements to explain everything unknown.

Lore / Backstory

The voice trio heard belongs to pony named Tiatara. This mare is the real main antagonist and culprit of the whole Severus Snake situation.

Tiatara:

Appearance: black coat, fuchsia colored mane. Sized like princess Luna, unicorn. Magenta colored eyes. Wears necklace same to nightmare Rarity’s.

Backstory: Tiatara is from Equestria, she dreamed to be a princess. She studied in Canterlot school even before Twilight, she was a bit older than her. Tiatara tried to be politician, but career failed. Then some bad things happen (I didn’t come up with it) and she is forced to leave Canterlot. She was angry with ponies. Tiatara accidentally met witch pony who lived in the forest (don’t know her name). Tiatara lived with her and that mare teached her another type of magic, especially dark magic, potions and something else. Witch told her about another world with another laws and politics. Tiatara liked it more than Equestria, forming her opinion based on tales. Also witch sometimes used portal to that world but forbade Tiatara to doing it.

Tiatara was jealous of Twilight when she became princess and for a long time just watched the world change. After Chrysalis, Tirek and Cozy Glow were defeated, Tiatara thought that it’s good chance for her to become important for Equestria. She killed old witch pony, now she can use portal she made to move to the another world. That world was wizarding world.

Tiatara started spending more time in another world. But one day, while walking in the Forbidden Forest, she found beautiful red stone… She took it to her shelter to discover and keep it. That stone had special affection on Tiatara. She became obsessed with it. Pony admired it, slept and ate with it and took the stone everywhere with her.

One night Tiatara had a dream. She was in a dark black and red forest with bloody moon and dried trees. She walked there and soon met spooky creatures. They all had injuries which make usual ponies dead, but the creatures were alive. They scared her on purpose and acted like crazy. Tiatara woke up.

On the next few days she had common dreams. But she soon stopped being afraid of that forest and walked calmly there. One day she met the ruler of that place. His name is Aburzuy.

Aburzuy is something like satan or aid. He is the higher creature, rules hell (that forest in Tiatara’s dreams is actually hell). Hell has two sections. One for dead sinners, second for halfdemons.

Halfdemons are creatures made by Aburzuy based on dead persons. Halfdemons are like zombies but they are consious and have personality. Their personality is combination of dead person’s traits and new traits added by Aburzuy to make them creepy and ‘evil’.

The stone that Tiatara found is called “demonic stone” and it’s used to create halfdemons. Halfdemons use dead body of the person they are based on. Aburzuy modificates the body too to make it creepy.

Severus Snake is alive halfdemon. He is based on Severus Snape, but he is not Snape.

Aburzuy told Tiatara about the use of her stone. One day she found Snape’s body and decided to turn him into halfdemon. She wanted him to be her tool for usurpation of Equestria ponies. She observed him for weeks, and after he returned from Malfoys, Tiatara saw strange changes in him. Snake was sad. So she decided to manipulate him.

Tiatara started talking with him. He said that he is upset about Harry not liking him. So Tiatara began to manipulate him by pretending to be his real friend and saying that she loves and needs him. She also told Snake that she brought him back to life and told his that he is halfdemon. Snake agreed to go to another world and kill, torture and eat lots of stranger ponies there.

P.S. I never tortured myself that much while writing something

@icryink Thanks for making this challenge, it brought me nostalgia and helped to overcome my fear to tell this story to anybody!

[zartophski]

Regrettably I have no silly D&D content for your Monday/Wednesday needs this week because someone (it is me I am the problem) may have done an oops during last week's pain and suffering session, so we will simply go back in time a week

[Future commentaries will be denoted by pain and suffering campaign and complete bullshit campaign for clarity]

Go back in time a week to...

~ The instadeath bard incident ~

(This one is a long one I apologize)

A week after undead head soccer and misty stepping, here is where the party stands:

V - New PC incoming; formerly the barbarian (third dead PC from the previous week), formerly the bard (second dead PC- party killed for killing the first PC)

S - the fighter; formerly the artificer (first dead PC- killed by the bard)

D - the rogue

A - the paladin

N - the wizard

Me - the monk

So, we are introduced to V's new character. And this is where we take a left turn off a cliff, because V IS NOW PLAYING THE RESURRECTED(???) PC OF S. She is a druid now. Instead of an artificer. COOL. DEFINITELY NO MINDFUCKS THERE.

And we're wandering through the woods semi arguing about where to take the Not Hand of Vecna, which is the demonic disease AOE infesting hand of the deceased lich warlord from 600 years ago and is not the Hand of Vecna.

We run across this ghost bard in a swamp playing a sad song about his death at the hand of the evil death ray cow. He wants us to spread his final song so he can move on, and also we can loot all the shit he and his party died with when they unknowingly ran into the territory of the death ray cow.

RED ALERT: MASSIVE DM BAIT (we risked it anyway)

Actually though like we knew full well what we were doing and risking we just really did need a leg up, and we knew that I had an invisible mage hand, the rogue had a +9 to stealth, and the druid had pass without trace available, so we figured we could stealth our way through it.

The DM is rolling distraction from our ghost bard buddy, perception from the death ray cow, recharge on the death ray (3 rounds, recharge on 5 or 6), and we're rolling stealth.

Round 1 goes off in a horror show fashion that should have been our hint to fucking leave, with the rogue rolling a crit fail dirty 20 for stealth, the death ray cow rolling a 24 on perception, and the bard thankfully crit succeeding on the performance to distract the cow. The death ray fires, he's absolutely immune to necrotic damage, now we have recharge rounds.

Round 2 and 3 go off without a hitch as we collect some stuff, the rogue rolls like. base 19s on stealth, the druid and I are vibing on our checks, the cow is fucking up perception, the bard is doing well enough on distraction, We're *jamming.*

Round 4. The bard performance is okay, ish. The DM accidentally, while I'm making my turn, actually rolls a successful death ray recharge. But fairly so, dismisses the recharge because it wasn't on the turn, we're all ahead of the cow in the initiative order. AGAIN, A MASSIVE COSMIC UNIVERSE HINT TO RUN. The rogue rolls another crit fail dirty 20 on stealth. The cow's turn. The death ray recharges. The cow beats the perception roll.

ohfuck.jpg

The save for this death roll is a FUCKING DC 16 Con or take 8d8 necrotic. If you fail by 5, you take 64 necrotic flat out.

The rogue is instadead. (We are level 5 and cannot long rest without specific circumstances and DM approval, so we have constantly failing HP.) PC number 4, everyone!

It is at this point that the roll20 dice are declared homophobic once again, and then we force the DM to jail the LGBTD20 for further homophobic activity (rolling a successive string of crit successes and 19s for six rounds in a row).

LAter everyone points the target at my character as I am the only surviving PC to attend every session, and then we engage in a long discussion about if the Not Hand of Vecna should be considered ableist or not and how it would work with amputees and prosthetics. Normal post session activities, you know?

LMAO THIS IS FANTASTIC

I hope I'm right in imagining the death ray cow to just. be a normal-looking cow that shoots lasers when you look at it wrong.

rest in pieces to the rogue tho, this campaign sounds brutal. lots of death going around, 100% agree the homophobic dice are to blame here.

[soylent-crocodile]

Skirge (Monster)

(Skittering Skirge by Ron Spencer)

(Skirge, like ragers, are another long-held phyrexia classic. Unlike ragers, which have had only two cards of their kind, skirge have a whole host thereof. Notably, their art direction was changed for the second wave of New Phyrexia, despite having been kept consistent between Old Phyrexia and our introduction to New Phyrexia. I think this is stupid and I will be ignoring it. Skirge appear to serve as some kind of minion-type creature for phyrexians, so I made them the go-to familiar of phyrexian characters- something that will come up later!

MtG canon pluralizes them as "skirges", but I personally think a plural "skirge" sounds better, so that's what I will be using.)

R2 CE Small Aberration (Phyrexian)

Skirge are common familiars of phyrexia, often seen attending to witch engines or completed sorcerers and witches. They are obedient, but observant and curious; left to its own devices, a skirge will naturally find a victim to harry, a process that usually ends with whatever creature it found ripped to shreds. Skirge are successful omnivores that breed true, and as such great flocks of them fly in places where phyrexia reigns. These wild skirge are at risk of being torn apart by fellow phyrexians and used for organic scrap.

Skirge are naturally chatty, although the dialect of necril they speak is particularly high-pitched and harsh. Those that understand it typically describe skirge conversation as pure tedium; discussion may entail trinkets or small creatures they’ve seen, imitating the noises of creatures in pain, or previous missions their masters have given them- the last of which may be useful information to enemies of phyrexia.

An evil spellcaster of level 7 or higher with the Improved Familiar feat can take a skirge as a familiar.

An imp-like creature flits about on membranous wings, its face split open in a vertical maw, with a blunt eye stalk on either side. Misc- CR2 CE Small Aberration (Phyrexian) HD4 Init:+3 Senses: Perception:+8 Scent, Darkvision 60ft Aura: Screeching Stats- Str:12(+1) Dex:16(+3) Con:12(+1) Int:8(-1) Wis:14(+2) Cha:15(+2) BAB:+3 Space:2.5ft Reach:0ft Defense- HP:23(4d8+4) AC:16(+1 Size, +3 Dex, +2 Natural Armor) Fort:+2 Ref:+4 Will:+6 CMD:16 Resist: Acid 10, Sonic 10 Immunity: Fear, Disease, Poison Weakness: Special Defenses: Fast Healing 2, Mycosynth Flesh, Negative Energy Affinity Offense- Bite +3(1d4+1), 2 Claw +3(1d3+1) CMB:+3 Speed:20ft, Fly 60ft (Good) Feats- Multiattack, Deft Hands Skills- Disable Device +7, Fly +11, Perception +8, Sleight of Hand +7, Stealth +13 Spell-like Abilities- (CL4, Concentration +6) Deathwatch, Ear-Piercing Scream (DC13) /at-will Mending, Inflict Light Wounds (DC13) 3/day Clairvoyance/Clairaudience 1/day Ecology- Environment- Any Languages- Necril Organization- Solitary, Pair, Plague (6-12) Treasure- Incidental Special Abilities- Mycosynth Flesh (Ex)- A phyrexian’s anatomy is both flesh and metal, typically arranged in the most disturbing way possible. As such, it may be targeted or affected by a spell as either an aberration or as a construct, whichever produces a greater effect Screeching (Ex)- A skirge is almost constantly making noise, a raucous screeching that distracts and interferes with spellcasting. A non-phyrexian creature that starts its round within 60ft of a skirge must make a DC12 fortitude save or be sickened for 1d8 rounds. Once a creature makes this save, it is immune to all skirge’s screeching for 24 hours whether it succeeded or failed. This is a sound-based effect, and the DC is charisma based. Additionally, non-phyrexian spellcasters must make a DC12 concentration check to cast spells within this aura.

[soopsiedaisies]

18, 22, 24 👀

Hiii!!

18-It’s absolutely criminal the fandom has been sleeping on…

Within the HP fandom, most things have already been done—but that doesn’t mean they’ve been done well or often enough in a fandom of this size, which means to me that it’s being slept on.

Personally I’m really interested in the Potter family and I just don’t see enough absurd theories about them. You’ve got this pureblood family that’s like… INCREDIBLY old: according to extended canon, they’re only two generations removed from the Peverell brothers (who were born about two centuries after Hogwarts was first established), considering Ignotus’ granddaughter married the first person in the family who took ‘Potter’ as his last name.

The Blacks have SO many fics with HC’s about their Long and Beautiful (and Horrible) History, but the Potters (the paternal family of the main character) get like… what? A mansion, sometimes? Or all their power comes from their Peverell ancestry, or their Gryffindor ancestry, or whatever Old and Powerful Extinct Family is left. There’s only a couple of fics that explore some quirks other than their hair or bad eyesight, or explore some funny little ancestry, and I genuinely think that’s a shame. Let the Potters weird and/or creepy, please (with the ODDEST collection of stuff in their vaults)

22-Your favourite part of canon that everyone else ignores

This one’s difficult because, again, most things in canon have already been covered and therefore ‘everyone’ is obviously an overstatement… but dammit if I don’t love (and hate) all the memorial shit Godric’s Hollow. From a wider perspective, this is being discussed with some frequency (at least, in the fanfics and meta I read), but that mainly focuses on the hero-ification of Harry and his dead parents in general. But keeping the destroyed house up and putting a sign on it, and having a statue of a young family commissioned and placed in a cemetery feels… weird to me? Because like, who’s it for? Not for Harry, at least—especially considering he wasn’t taken to GH at any point in his life and had to go himself with Hermione whilst they were actively being hunted down.

The intent behind it I can sympathise with: it’s for wizards and witches to remember the end of the first wizarding war. But it just feels so… tourist trap-y. Imagine thinking it’s a brilliant idea to have a statue made of two dead twenty-one year olds and their baby as a memorial for the war they accidentally ended. Accidentally!!! I just KNOW that neither Lily nor James were thinking about the war effort when Vee broke in, only about the survival of their child. And their house still standing… I dunno. Like I said, I get it to some degree, but it also feels foul. Like this violent end and the sacrifice these people made for their son is something to gawk at.

That being said, it is one of my favourite bits in canon because it only underlines how fickle and nosy the wizarding world (and the world at large) is. I’m sure it was seen as respectful in-universe at the time, but it’s really just the cherry on top of the absurdity that is Harry’s fame. I really liked that bit in A Marauder’s Plan when the house was being cleared out and reality set in—the dishes, the towels, the toys, the newspaper… it all still lying there, at which point Bill questioned why the entire world had been celebrating the death of two young parents and elevating an orphan to hero-status. It’s just so… I dunno. It got some emotion out of me, at least.

24-Topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

Which ships are supposed to be the best, and which shouldn’t exist because they’re supposedly morally wrong. I’ve got a lot of tags blocked on Tumblr and I don’t frequent Twitter (sorry, ‘X’) so I thankfully miss the bulk of it, but just also… in general? Why are you threatening to dox people or sending death threats over a fictional SHIP?? Have you perhaps not yet developed the ability to predict potential consequences, or are you just a bully? It makes absolutely 0 sense.

[asirensrage]

Ten Lines Game

Thanks for tagging me @wordspin-shares!

Rules: Pick any ten of your fics, scroll to the midpoint, pick a line (or three or more) then share it. Tag others if you want.

the real question is which ones to pick?

Tammy Thompson Takes on the Upside Down - Stranger Things

“This is my friend Steve. I ran into him walking the dog. His parents are out of town.” Deanna looked at him sharply. “They left you alone?”  “Uh, yeah,” he said. “But they left me money and stuff. It’s fine.”  “You were going to spend Thanksgiving alone?” she asked. Steve nodded and Deanna wiped her hands on a towel. “Tammy, add another place setting.” 

there's a heaven above you (don't you cry) - The Lost Boys

“Did he hurt you?” he asked, eyes glancing down her body. “Who? David? I’m fine. He won’t be though if I ever catch up to him again.” She glared at Paul. He had taken her away just when she was going to start getting her point across.  “Dwayne. Did he hurt you?” He seemed abnormally serious from how she knew him.

This Means War - Daredevil and The Punisher

Billy pulls back for a moment, eyes going over her face as though he’s trying to memorize every feature. She grabs the back of his neck, moving him down to kiss her again. Anything to keep him from looking at her like that.

Serendipity - John Wick

Staying in New York probably isn't a good idea. Not when they’re out for his blood. Still, it’s home. At least the one place he’s lived the longest. He has memories here and he knows the ground well. He doesn’t want to be driven out.  John goes to Aurelio. He doesn’t really have anyone else he can trust anymore. He shouldn’t even be here but he’s known Aurelio for years and the man told him that if he needed help, to ask. So John’s asking.

A Study in Intimacy - Divergent

All in all, after the final test, Eric passes. He is Erudite.  It is a relief but it is only when he sees Jeanine’s face as she welcomes him fully into Erudite that he feels like he can breathe. Her expression is trying hard not to be pinched especially when he says loudly that it is all because of her and that he hopes he can continue to make her proud. Her grip tightens almost painfully at that, but everyone is watching and all she can do is smile. He can't push her too hard. Even if he wants to...right off of a cliff. 

It's Always Darkest Before the (Second) Dawn - Shadow and Bone /HP

She glances at the other men in the room. This is not part of her plan. She wants answers. However, judging from the look on Ivan’s face, the clench of his jaw and the blatant disregard on Kirigan, she knows she’s unlikely to get them now. She takes his arm. “Certainly.”

"Season 2" of Caught in the Crossfire - Supernatural

“He agreed to be friends,” I said. “Just friends.”  “Good,” she said. “That’s...good. Right?”  “Yeah.”  “Well, as someone who was friends with Sam while you two were having your...weird sexual tension last year, he’s a good friend to have.” “You guys were friends?”  She looked at me unimpressed and rolled her eyes. “Yes. What? Did you think Dean and I were going at it like rabbits 24/7?”  I shrugged and hesitantly made a noise of agreement. “Oh my god Michelle!”   “What? You go at it enough here!”  “We do not!” “I’m sorry, but have I not walked in on you multiple times?” “Learn how to knock!” “It was the living room!” 

Untitled - Jujutsu Kaisen

“I thought you said we were avoiding the country?” she asks herself softly.  “There’s no choice,” the voice echos back. “Better we deal with him now and find whoever’s helping him.”  “And then what?” She shoves her hands in her pocket. Her headphones are covering her ears, helping it look like she’s just on a call.  “We deal with them.”  She sighs. “Yeah, I thought you’d say that. So what’s the plan?”  “Stay hidden,” it says. “Until it’s too late.” “For them,” she agrees. “You sure no one will sense you?”  “They never have. They’ve forgotten about me.” “Well, not for long I guess,” she says.  “We will remind them.”

"Fae M-" - Undecided, Maybe Shadow and Bone

It’s not a lie. She meant no harm…mainly to herself. What she stole was retaliation. They tried to steal hers first.  “Are you bound only by a contract?” She asks. “Or are you bound fully?” Her meaning would make sense to those who know. She needs to see exactly what he understands and who his loyalty is sworn to.  “You’ve gotten yourself into something deep,” he says. He avoids the question which tells her that at least he knows the type that has contracted him.  “So have you.”

Reality is Fictional - Multiple Fandoms

“What’s your name?” Helen asks softly.  Her eyes snap up at Helen. She still doesn’t know where she is or what happened. She doesn’t trust this. So she gives them a name that she’ll remember, one that she remembers reading about before she left on that date. A name of a woman who was left for dead. “Ariadne,” she says. It oddly fits. 

tagging: anyone who wants to join in! Make sure to tag me so I can check out your fics!

[moaning-riddle]

I posted 151 times in 2022

6 posts created (4%)

145 posts reblogged (96%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@vivantesopales

@solis-angelus

@havingaverydrarryday

@blacknsiilver

@lilbeanz

I tagged 145 of my posts in 2022

Only 4% of my posts had no tags

#drarry - 58 posts

#tomarry - 40 posts

#draco malfoy - 36 posts

#harry james potter - 31 posts

#drarry fic rec - 30 posts

#tom riddle - 17 posts

#hp fanart - 15 posts

#harry potter - 13 posts

#fic rec - 13 posts

#fanart - 13 posts

Longest Tag: 69 characters

#came across an earlier jegulus post of mine and remade it for my boys

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Chapters: 24/29 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Theodore Nott/Harry Potter, Theodore Nott & Harry Potter, Susan Bones & Harry Potter, Harry Potter & Theodore Nott & Susan Bones, Luna Lovegood & Harry Potter Characters: Harry Potter, Theodore Nott, Susan Bones, Luna Lovegood, Minor Characters Additional Tags: Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Wandless Magic (Harry Potter), Smart Harry Potter, Slytherin Harry Potter, Slytherins Being Slytherins, Dark Harry Potter, Morally Grey Harry Potter, Harry doesn't like most people, He just wants to be left alone, and he is - but only until 4th year, Harry and Theo are not good people, Susan tries to be the voice of reason, Asexual Harry Potter, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, (not that Harry cares), Dry Humor, unhealthy relationship, they will get better, eventually, whether Harry is actually Aromantic is up to interpretation, Character Death, Crossdressing, Harry occasionally disguises himself as a girl Summary:

Harry Potter of number four, Privet Drive, had always known he was different. He could move things without touching them, could make them float in the air and fly across the room. He could make objects invisible or burst out in flames. He could make them change their appearance. He could even light fire in his hands and it never burned him. He could also talk to snakes. They liked talking to him, but they never stayed long. In short – Harry Potter had a Gift.

In which Harry is magically gifted and maybe just a bit darker and possibly a touch too indifferent.

This Harry gains a different friend on the train, is sorted into a different house and ends up as part of a different trio that is certainly not golden but not exactly silver, either.

2 notes - Posted August 10, 2022

#4

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Harry Potter & Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Harry Potter/Tom Riddle | Voldemort Characters: Harry Potter, Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Albus Dumbledore, Draco Malfoy, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Severus Snape, Lucius Malfoy, Abraxas Malfoy, Walburga Black, Lestrange Sr. | Tom Riddle's Schoolmate Additional Tags: Morally Grey Harry Potter, Dark Lord Harry Potter, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Not romance-centric, but it's a slow fucking burn, Slytherin Politics, Slytherin Harry Potter, Non-Linear Narrative, Moral Ambiguity, Smart Harry Potter, Psychopathology & Sociopathy, Animagus Harry Potter, Magically Powerful Harry Potter, Dark Harry Potter, no beta if i make a grammatical error my friend just shows up at my house and eviscerates me Summary:

Eyes are the window to the soul. This is why legilimency requires eye contact and can delve so much deeper than mere surface thoughts. Similarly, occlumency shields the mind, and for those with soulsight, the vision of the soul too.

And Harry Potter, even as he is born to James and Lily Potter, has the eyes of a dead Dark Lord in the bright green shade of the Avada Kedavra curse.

They could only explain it as Lily's eyes, even though hers never pierced through one's very being or simmered like a live ember.

After all, they could not possibly imagine the truth.

 *

Or: Harry is a dark lord reincarnated. Featuring backstory™ and two idiots who think the best way to resolve burgeoning feelings is murder.

14 notes - Posted November 29, 2022

#3

Luna: I'll have a coffee as dark as my soul.

Draco:

Draco: she'll have a cup of milk.

28 notes - Posted January 2, 2022

#2

3 am

harry, half asleep and looking for food: what are you in the mood for?

tom, smirking: world domination.

harry: huh, that's a little ambitious in this ungodly hour

tom: you're my world.

harry: that's nice

tom:

harry:

tom:

harry: oh-

228 notes - Posted November 27, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

*in the Slytherin dormitory*

Pansy: Draco, why are you naked? Snape wants us down in the Great Hall in ten minutes.

Draco: ...i don't have any clothes

Pansy: what rubbish! *opens the closet door* there you go- shirts, trousers, hi Potter, coats, shoes

271 notes - Posted January 2, 2022

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