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urupotter · 3 years

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So while I've said before that I don't like the HP subreddit, I still frequent it because occasionally I read something insightful. This is one such case, where I read a reading of Lupin that I'd never seen before in response to a comment of mine analyzing the shrieking shack confrontation between Snape, Remus, Sirius and the golden trio, where I mentioned that Lupin was a gaslighter so I wanted to share. It was created by reddit user u/UsuallySiSometimesNo and is posted here with his permission. We had a little conversation in the comments. Read it under the cut

UsuallySiSometimesNo: That struck a cord with me, too. I didn't think about that on a conscious level before, but when I read it, it felt instantly true.

Honestly, I think the strongest examples of Lupin gaslighting are actually done to himself. The biggest, character-defining example, I think, is that after finding friendship with James, Sirius, and Peter, he becomes so desperate not to be ostracized from them (due to his issues of self-worth and his personal brand of impostor syndrome) that he deliberately and routinely feeds himself false narratives about their behavior until he can no longer tell fact from fiction, even as he's experiencing it.

Their relentless bullying of Snape? A childhood rivalry.

Their casual bullying of other students? Kids being young and stupid.

Their clear disinterest verging on contempt for Peter, someone less fortunate and vulnerable with whom they're supposed to be good friends? Just mates being mates.

Even actions taken against Lupin, himself, are revised in his memory to be 'no big deal', because he desperately needs that to be true. Let's pretend for a moment that Snape indisputably deserved to be slaughtered by a werewolf the night Sirius told him how to get past the Whomping Willow. Sirius did not send Snape to be killed by any old werewolf. What happened that night was that Sirius - one of Remus' best friends, if not his actual best friend - attempted to use Remus' curse/illness against someone (which is a big enough betrayal on it's own) without ever telling Remus that when he woke up in the morning (covered in blood and in the presence of a shredded corpse) it would be to find that he had committed the act he was most petrified he might one day commit. In setting Snape up to be killed by Lupin, Sirius, at the very least, risked Lupin's sanity, and, at the very most, risked Lupin being sentenced to death.

Now, I understand that Sirius wasn't thinking about all of that when he did what he did, and I, as a someone removed from the situation (and armed with the additional character/situational knowledge granted to a reader) can even understand why Sirius' own trauma led him to grant such a blind death sentence to Snape (which I think is related to a point you made elsewhere, u/Adventure_Time_Snail, about Sirius' "violence towards those who trigger his fundamental fear of wizard fascists" because of his abusive upbringing). But Lupin's perspective is not one of an unbiased observer. And once James found out what was happening and pulled Snape back before it was too late (which, I would think, was more to save Lupin than to save Snape) and once Remus awoke the next to day to discover everything that transpired the night before, I find it hard to believe there wasn't at least some conversation about the true gravity of the situation. And yet, even all these years later, Lupin doesn't bat an eye when Sirius not only doesn't display shame when the event is mentioned in POA, but offers something akin to regret, NOT at the fact that his actions could have gotten Lupin killed, but that that they DIDN'T get Snape killed: "It served him right...", he sneered. etc. etc.

I think the obvious question here, is 'Even disregarding what Sirius did to Snape - how can Lupin be okay with the knowledge that Sirius has no regret, at all, for what he did to him, even now that they're adults?' Well, we're not in Lupin's point of view in the books, which means we can't hear his internal monologue, but I think a satisfactory answer to the question is that he's done a substantial amount of internal gymnastics in order to get to a point where he doesn't see this as a big deal, or even as something that he has a right to be upset about.... just like a gaslighter does to their victim.

Again, because we're not in Lupin's POV, we can't point to the exact instances that such internal gaslighting took place, but, based on what we do observe from Harry's POV (and based on external knowledge of gaslighting as a true-to-life concept) I wouldn't be surprised if Lupin so desperately needs everything to be okay that he derides himself for feeling bad or betrayed, that he calls himself stupid for thinking terrible things that have happened to him are a big deal, that he wars with himself about how people who are his friends and who are so good to him and who are better friends than he thinks he deserves could possibly do something to harm him/others, and that he beats down whatever emotions and senses and gut feelings he has that tells him something his friends have done might be very wrong. What we see in the books is a man who makes excuses for his friends and harbors a warped perception of reality in much the same way victims of gaslighting do, and he seems to exploit his own insecurities in order to instill doubt in his own experiences in much the same way perpetrators of gaslighting do.

I can't help but think that, by the time Lupin tells Harry that Snape harbors a particularly strong hatred for James because James was a better Quidditch player, Lupin has become so adept at gaslighting himself that he actually believes it.

tl;dr: One of Lupin's defining characteristics is that he gaslights himself out of a desperate need to be liked by others, since he has a difficult time liking himself and seems to believe all of his relationships are incredibly fragile.

Urupotter:

This is a fascinating reading on Lupin that I've never seen. I don't read him the same way, in that I think Lupin actually does know that what he's doing is wrong, he just doesn't have the moral courage to act on his conscience. (I view him as the anti Snape, great conscience, but abysmal moral courage, while Snape had unbelievable moral courage but a shitty conscience. Their arcs are about growing their moral courage and their conscience respectively) Realizing that his negligence almost got Harry killed is what triggers his arc, concluding when he goes back to Tonks and Teddy after running away, taking responsibility for his actions for the first time.

But this reading is so interesting that I'll have to reflect on it. Do you mind if I post it on my Harry Potter tumblr blog? I'll credit you of course, I would just like to discuss it with my followers. Of course if you don't want to I won't.

UsuallySiSometimesNo:

Honestly, I think the lack of in-depth conversation about Remus Lupin (at least compared to fan favorites Sirius Black and Severus Snape) is a missed opportunity and a shame. Don't get me wrong, I can discuss Sirius and Snape until blue in the face, but Lupin's arc is just as powerful in an understated (and often underestimated) way. The muddy, oversimplified truth is, without the fatal-flaw decision making of all four Marauders throughout their lives, the series of events proceeding the first chapter of the first book don't happen, and the story we all know and love never comes to be.

And speaking of sparking a discussion about Lupin...

I think Lupin actually does know that what he's doing is wrong, he just doesn't have the moral courage to act on his conscience.

You know what? I agree. And that's what makes him so interesting, I think. He is constantly and dependably full to bursting with internal conflict. When his friends are wrong/do something wrong/say something wrong, he can and does immediately identify the situation as wrong. When he does something wrong, or when he does nothing in the face of something wrong, in that moment I believe he knows the full weight of the situation. Like you said, he has a strong conscience, as well as a deeper, perhaps more nuanced understanding of right and wrong than do, for example, James and Sirius. Now, Lupin needs his friends. They're not just people to hang out with, they're a lifeline for him. He's not going to engage in conflict with them if there is even the slightest chance that he might lose them (for a variety of reasons, he lacks, as you said, the moral courage to do so). But he's also a generally decent human being, and with a strong conscience comes the capacity for sincere guilt and remorse. So, not only will he not confront his friends, he needs it to be okay that he doesn't confront them. And it's at that point that I think the self gaslighting is triggered.

But Lupin is intelligent and nobody's fool, so the gaslighting creates only a thin layer of ice over the problem. Just enough of a cover that he can live with the things he would otherwise deeply regret. I do think he believes the alternative reality he makes for himself to be accurate as long as it isn't really challenged. Crack the ice, though, and we see him express remorse and reveal an underlying awareness of past and present truths. But then the moment is over, and the war between the uncomfortably and full weight of the truth and his need for the companionship of his friends returns, and then the gaslighting begins again, allowing him an easier return to his closest friends (and eventually his closest friend, singular, after the others have been taken from him as was his fear all along) without conflict and with minimal strain on his conscience.

Once Sirius, the last of his original chosen family is gone - truly gone, as opposed to 'located elsewhere' as he was when in prison - following OOtP, suddenly Lupin's arc takes off at a greater speed than at any point prior. He's now literally lost all of the people he'd been terrified of figuratively losing. Although there are still people and things he cares about, he isn't as dependent on any of them as he was on those foundational friendships, and the finality of their absence allows him to finally grow beyond his stifling cycle of reality shifting, confront the truths of his reality and his circumstances, and, as you said, finally take responsibility by returning to Tonks and Teddy - a decision that, ultimately, triggers his death (I don't mean to imply that it was a bad decision or that it's the sole cause of his death, but Rowling has said that being 'out of practice' contributed to his loss at the Battle of Hogwarts, which makes for a fantastic tragedy).

I don't mean to overstate the importance of this theory or imply that it's always present when he's on-stage, and, as with anyone, many other elements, of course, factor into his actions/words/motives. But I think it's a fascinating potential component of his character all the same. If you have more thoughts on this, I love to hear them - and I look forward to reading the discussion on your blog!

So what do you think? Is this a valid reading of Lupin? I'd say it is, but I'm interested in reading my followers thoughts!

#remus lupin #lupin #severus snape #sirius black #moony #padfoot #the marauders #marauders #harry potter #hp #mwpp

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danceworshipper · 3 years

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Giulio Moretti - HPMA Character Profile

template by me // images created using the zepeto app

NOTE: I am a cisgender female. As such, I have been hesitant to make a trans oc and will not be going into much detail about Giulio's experiences specifically related to his gender. If anything in here feels iffy to anyone not cisgender, please let me know and I'll correct it

Personal

Full Name: Giulio Antonio Moretti

Gender: Male (trans)

Sexuality: Demisexual, polyamorous

Birthday: June 1st

Age: 11

Birthstone: Alexandrite

Zodiac Sign: Gemini

Blood Status: Full Veela

- I'm mostly using these headcanons written by @carmilla-the-bird, though over time I might end up changing a couple details

- I'm not certain if full Veelas would even use wands/go to magic school but these ones do because I say so

- What I'm specifically adding is that since HPMA takes place later than the full HP series, there has been a new method developed to allow full veelas to better coexist with wizards. This comes in the form of a clear gemstone that can be inserted into any piece of jewelry, usually necklaces. While the stone is worn, the charm [or allure, as I call it] that all veelas have while glamored is dampened by up to 80%. Another effect is that when angered, the veela won't be able to lash out with their fire magic, unless they've trained their magic well enough that's it's less of an instinct and more of a conscious choice. Minors are legally required to wear it at all times, except in their own home with only their family around. Once an adult the veela can choose whether they want to wear it or not. The stone has a similar trace to underaged magic, so when a Veela who's a minor takes it off, the Ministry is alerted and their location will be tracked

3 Positive Traits:

- Empathetic

- Resourceful

- Playful

3 Negative Traits:

- Irritable

- Addictive

- Pessimistic

Usual First Impression: When meeting Giulio, most people see him as a spoiled and stuck up little boy. This isn't true. He's just very wary of strangers, so he doesn't tend to leave a good first impression. Once he's more comfortable around someone, his positive traits outshine the more negative ones

Location

Birthplace: A Veela-specific clinic in southern Italy. His mother travelled there for all of her children's births, and the midwife there is the woman who delivered her

Current Home: His family home in England, a medium sized house under a strict Fidelius charm, which his aunt is the Secret Keeper for. His bedroom is on the second floor, looking out over the fish pond in the backyard

Future Home(s): Fresh out of Hogwarts he'll share an apartment with Lori with heavily warded Floo access. Later homes TBD once his love interests are planned out

Favorite Place: The little house the family rents for a month every summer in southern Italy. The town is full of good culture, and better yet, good food. It feels peaceful, even when there's a loud festival going on

Disliked Place: The woods a mile down the road from his home. The woods are the last place Giulio saw his grandmother before she went missing, and now they feel like they're haunted. He refuses to go on walks there anymore

Appearance

Face Shape: Round, slightly pointy chin

Eye Color: Deep teal

Hair Color: Whitish blond

Hair Style: Self cut (horrifies his mother), slightly uneven, medium length. Not brushed every day, fluffy

Skin Tone: Pale

Freckles/Spots: A few beauty marks on his face, two near his right eye and one on the left side of his chin

Scars: None yet

Piercings/Tattoos: None

Height: 5'7" [fully grown]

Weight: ~ 135 lbs [fully grown]

Physique: Thin. Luckily for him, Giulio's family has always had rather "boyish" bodies - wide shoulders, not very curvy - but he's still got too much woman in him to be fully happy with his form

Clothing Style: Baggy tops, loose pants, nothing fancy. Giulio tries to attract as little attention as possible, because while he's glamored people stare at him a lot anyway, even with the dampener. He does like colored pants, but his tops are usually grey and black. His dampening necklace is the most eye catching thing he wears (as it was a gift from his missing grandmother) and he wishes he could take it off, but he legally can't

Carried Items:

- The last picture of him, his sisters, and his grandmother ever taken

- A lighter. He likes having the fire near him since he can't access his own fire magic

- His hair scissors, for whenever he feels like it needs to be trimmed

- A container of Silly Putty he got from a Muggle convenience store

- His water bottle

Magic

Wand: 10" Veela hair wand in Fir wood. A very pale colored wand that's a bit rough around the edges. The hair is from his younger sister Martina, who yanked the strand right out and handed it to the wandmaker after no wands appeared to choose a very defeated looking Giulio. The wand was made while Giulio watched, and he checked it many times throughout the process to make sure it felt like it would have him, which it did.

Animagus: As a veela, Giulio can transform into pretty much any bird shape. He has no need to go through the animagus process

Boggart Form: Him, fully matured, very womanly, and in a wedding gown just like the ones his older sister Alessia fawns over

Riddikulus Form: Him in a ridiculously exaggerated Bloody Baron costume

Amortentia (to others): Someone smelling Giulio would smell new pillows, the faint burning metal scent that clings to him, and the dry shampoo he uses

Amortentia (to them): He doesn't smell any sort of romantic interest yet. What he smells now are safe, comforting smells, like the cigars his mother and aunt smoke, the perfume all his sisters use, and the smell of his favorite restaurant in southern Italy

Patronus: Bird of Paradise

Happiest Memory: Receiving his wand once it was completed, and finally feeling the connection and power he'd heard so much about but thought he'd never have

Mirror of Erised: Some might consider it sad, but all he sees is him, happy, the way he wishes he was - including not looking at all like a Veela. Someday this will change

Family Spells: It's not really a spell, but the Morettis have a particular bird call that, when paired with the right charm, will alert every living family member to the caller's location, should one desperately need help. It's only to be used in emergencies. Giulio isn't sure he wants to know why his grandmother never used it

Inherent Magic: Veela stuff - storm sense, fire, bird transformations, allure, slight levitation abilities

Family

Grandmother: Francesca is not an ideal parental figure. She grew up in a time when full Veelas were treated with nearly the same suspicion and prejudice as werewolves, so she's very anti-human. However, she was still one of Giulio's best defenders and most treasured family members. She places a huge importance on family and is the one who came up with the idea of the special danger call. Francesca went missing when Giulio was seven, and there have been no clues as to what happened.

Mother: Valentina is a kind, gentle woman who cares for her family before anyone else. She and her sister were taught all their lives to be nothing more than a pretty face, and while Bianca rejected this, Valentina embraced it. Even now, with her own mother nowhere to be found, she has trouble remembering to be herself. She wears her necklace at all times, terrified to be without it

Father: Giulio never knew him. He's not sure he even has one

Aunt: Bianca is, in many ways, the exact opposite of her sister. Bianca embraces all of her less than proper instincts, and even walks around in public completely unglamored, acting as a good deterrent to anyone who might want to come say hi, innocent intentions or not. Gets angry very easily, and has caused public property damage more often than Valentina would appreciate

Sisters: Two older sisters, one younger. All Slytherins while in school

- Alessia, six years older, prefect. A headstrong young woman who takes advantage of her allure to get what she wants, and is skilled enough to fight off anyone who gets too "friendly". She likes to have a collection of boy toys she never lets get too close, but secretly only has eyes for the Hufflepuff prefect, Lina.

- Emilia, four years older, Quidditch captain. Hates her allure with a passion and refuses to even think about romance until she's out of school. Could kick anyone's ass, and will do so if she feels the need to. Very protective of Giulio, has gotten into at least eight shouting matches with those who misgender him

- Martina, one year younger. The baby of the family. A bit of a spoiled brat, and too young to fully understand exactly why her older siblings are all so wary of strangers, or letting her out of their sight. She dreams of being the Minister of Magic, and of being able to take her "stupid, ugly, and stupid" necklace off for good

Pets: The two family screech owls which trade off being at school/home, and an Abraxan Giulio found on Hogwarts grounds that likes him a lot

Family Values: The Morettis hold nothing higher than each other. The family's main priority is sticking together, and always doing whatever they can to help each other achieve whatever they wish. The family is also, as a whole, rather reclusive

Opinion of Family: Giulio loves his family. For all their faults, they hold true to their values and he couldn't imagine one of them ever betraying another. Even if they won't ever truly understand him, they've all tried and they do what they can, and it means more than he can say

Friendships

Introverted or Extroverted: Introverted

Best Friend: Oleander Loris. Her anger issues, her weird pink eyes, and her tendency to drag him along to social outings are all things that Giulio comes to appreciate over time. He originally became curious about her on the train ride to school, when she stumbled looking at his older sisters but didn't notice him at all, and they spoke for the first time in Flying class. Lori is definitely a force to be reckoned with, and the fact that she's not affected by his allure in the slightest makes him feel really happy

Worst Friend: TBD

Friend He Didn't Expect: Cassandra. They aren't the best of friends, and maybe they can't be considered friends at all, but she doesn't hold the contempt she seems to hold for most others for him

Who He Wishes Was His Friend: Kestra Fernera. She's got fire powers, and she doesn't have to be chained down by the Ministry. He thinks she's super cool, and is very jealous of her and how popular she is, but he's far too nervous to try and talk to her

List of Casual Friends:

- Brian Haywood-Reese @catohphm

- others TBD, but likely the main cast of the game. Mc friends welcome, if any are interested!

Romance

Current Crush: None

Current Partner: None

Past Partners: None

Future Partners: TBD

His Type: Pretty much anyone who's able to look past the allure that Giulio hates so much and also isn't afraid of him in his natural form, though most people haven't even seen it

Hogwarts

House: Slytherin

Prefect Status: No

Quidditch: Not on the team, but plays casually

Clubs: TBD

Organizations: None

Favorite Class: Flying. Duh

Least Favorite Class: Potions. It gives him a headache surrounded by all the fumes

Favorite Professor: TBD

Least Favorite Professor: TBD

Timeline

Young Childhood:

- Giulio realizes young that he hates the idea of being a girl, and insists that his mother change his name. His family thought it was a phase, but once they realized it wasn't, they became more serious and started to see what they could do to help him

- He's a sheltered child, learning early the importance of staying close to a trusted adult. He sees the horrors of what can happen to a Veela caught unaware at a young age when he almost loses his mother to someone who wanted to sell her, and never looks at strangers the same way again

- At five years old Giulio is given his dampener necklace. He refuses to wear it until his grandmother forcibly puts it on him. He decides it's not that bad, though it feels like it's choking him and he doesn't like the muted feeling in his hands that comes from the loss of his instinctual magic

- At seven years old, Giulio is on a walk with his grandmother in the woods when he hears a loud screech. She sends him back toward the house, saying she'll be right behind him. Hours pass, and she never follows. There's no evidence as to what that screech was, or what happened to his grandmother

- At eleven years old, Giulio spends a week traveling to different wandmakers around Europe trying to find a wand so he can go to school in the fall. For some reason, his magic is picky and not a single wand even comes close to working for him. When he's given up all hope, his little sister Martina asks if the wandmaker takes custom orders, and rips out her own hair to be used for Giulio's wand. It's the first time Giulio cries happy tears, hovering his hand over the uncompleted wand and feeling it call to him already

School Years: TBD once I'm able to play the game

Post Graduation: Giulio moves into an apartment with Lori soon after graduating. While she immediately starts work, Giulio takes time to find some higher education, and work on training his Veela magic now that he can take his necklace off whenever he wants

Career(s): TBD

Marriage and Children: TBD

Death: Giulio will be murdered by [redacted] in order to save [redacted]'s life, but he'll be very old (around 200) and will have outlived his lovers, so he doesn't see it as too much of a shame. He'll be buried in the family garden and have some lovely flower bushes planted over him

Notable Facts Not Previously Mentioned

- The Veela magic in Giulio recognizes him as a boy as soon as he does. When his allure kicks in, anyone attracted to men finds themself affected, while those strictly into women do not, even though male Veelas are practically unheard of

- His aunt Bianca paid a personal visit to Hogwarts before he was enrolled, ready to throw flames if he was going to be put into the female dorms. Luckily, she didn't need to worry, as once the situation was explained it was settled with a simple change in his paperwork

- Giulio hates being cooped up indoors for too long. Even in the coldest days of winter, he'll spend as much time as possible outside

- Starting in third year, Lori will figure out how to get the necklace off of him without alerting anyone [putting it on herself within a few seconds], and Giulio will occasionally spend a few hours free and in his natural form in the Forbidden Forest. Unbeknownst to him, wearing the necklace saps at Lori's magical core, and it takes her a day or so to regain her strength if she wears it for more than thirty minutes

- Giulio will likely have three partners in the future. He could never even imagine having one, so if his younger self was told he would have three he would probably have a difficult time believing it

- Cutting his hair so frequently doesn't affect his magic like his mother feared it would, though he does feel nauseous when he does it

- The dark teal eyes are something only he and his sisters have, which is how he knows they all have the same "father" or whatever they had. His mother, aunt, and grandmother all have the traditional black eyes. Not even Alessia ever saw any type of man around when her younger siblings were born, so there are no clues as to how the four of them exist

- As much as he hates the dampener, it does him a lot of good when he's younger. He gets angry easily and often feels very defensive, so without it he could have gotten into a lot of trouble

- Though he doesn't like his allure, Giulio will sometimes take advantage of it like Alessia does if he wants to get out of something. He won't fight it, he'll play nice, and let whoever he needs to back off get a little dazed

- He wanted to hide the fact that he was a Veela when he first came to Hogwarts, but with two older sisters and his allure he couldn't

#harry potter magic awakened #magic awakened #hpma #hpma oc #giulio moretti #veela oc #slytherin oc #I'm probably going to play as him tbh since it would feel wrong to play a character in any other house

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milkcakejamun · 3 years

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ShiVi X HP Crossover, Part I

“For the Japanese, who know so much and intuit more, human relations are predestined by a red string that the gods tie to the pinky fingers of those who find each other in life. Legend has it that the two people connected by this thread will have an important story, regardless of the time, place, or circumstances. The red string might get tangled, contracted, or stretched, as surely often happens, but it can never break."

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His little finger interlocked with her own, “Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to find you?” He brought his other hand up to her face and gently caressed her cheek as she leaned towards him in comfort. “In any shape. In any form. In any world,” he whispered as his thumb brushed across her lower lip. “I will find you,” he leaned closer to her as she angled her body towards him, “because we are fated for each other.” — C. K. Rani

Raavi smiled as she lowered the book. Her eyes trailed over to the boy… no man, sitting right across from her. His hair was neatly combed and parted to the side, uniform was clean and well ironed, quills organized by size and shape of the tip.

He was Ved Pandya, and he was absolutely perfect.

As someone who believed in soulmates, Raavi knew that Ved Pandya was the one for her, perhaps from the moment she first laid eyes on him on Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross Station hugging his family. A warm feeling blossomed in her chest when she saw those happy smiles, and for the first time, she knew where she belonged… and that was with the Pandya family…

For that reason alone, she did her best to pursue a friendship with Ved, even though they were sorted in different houses, him in Hufflepuff and her in Ravenclaw. She would try to sit at his table, she would meet up with him after class asking about doubts, and she would try to be involved in whatever activity he was involved in (with the sole exception of Quidditch).

Slowly, but surely, her efforts paid off… Ved and her began a friendship in their third year of school, and now as seventh years, they were essentially inseparable. She knew every little secret of his, and he knew almost everything about her as well… and fairly soon, he would know the last truth she was hiding.

The truth that she loved him…

“If you spent as much time as you did watching me on your studies, you would’ve cleared all the exams with straight O’s,” she heard his soft murmur. He glanced up from his book with a frown adorning his face, and again, she was absolutely mesmerized by how good-looking Ved was… his soft eyes, the gentle curve of his cheeks.

She smiled lazily at him as she leaned over to close the book he was reading, “Grades don’t matter,” she stated as a matter-of-fact. Not when my goal is to be by your side anyway. “Not when I have a job, at least,” she mentioned with a smirk. The Pandya family already offered her a job after graduation, regardless of what her final exam scores were.

Ved rolled his eyes, “I might not mind, but my cousin—,”

Raavi scowled at the thought of working for anyone else other than Ved. Ved’s father, the sweet and charming Dev Pandya, would not allow her to work for anyone else. Most especially that “dreaded” and “tyrant” of a cousin… She’s never met that good-for-nothing cousin (and never even cared to inquire about him), but she knew he was not good news.

No man was good news when he sent her plastic lizards for her birthday… and that man even knew of her crush on Ved, as every birthday note included a small message of, “Do not even dare!”

Ansh Pandya… the beloved son of Gautam and Dhara Pandya, and the heir apparent of the wonderful Pandya Store… Someone with such a great legacy should have been a model citizen… instead, Ansh chose to be the bane of her life… the villain of her love story.

Even when he wasn’t there, he made her life miserable… suggesting Ved should get a girlfriend, and even offering a list of potential girls he could begin talking to…

“Let’s not ruin this afternoon by speaking about him,” she huffed.

“He’s not that awful,” Ved’s lips curled upwards in amusement. “He was the one to offer you a job, after all.”

And it was a halfhearted and insulting offer should she say so herself. Without even being there, he sent her an offer letter after Gautam Pandya made the initial offer. His letter claimed she would make the perfect addition to the company, as their next project was developing the operating system to their cell phone line. The Chipkali operating system… and as a “chipkali” herself, she would offer the perfect inspiration…

If he wasn’t related to the wonderful Pandya family, she would have throttled him years back when he sent her a toy lizard which came to “life” the second she touched it. The only good thing that happened with that was that Ved hugged her and stayed by her side the rest of the night.

“When you join company, you’ll understand,” Ved stood up and stretched. “His heart is truly filled with gold… and he honestly is the beacon of the family, especially after…,” he trailed off as his eyes were filled with anguish.

She swallowed, knowing to stay silent. A few years back, prior to Ved’s birth, the Pandya family suffered their greatest loss. They had been the most spoken about family, especially with the advent of their new wizarding products… a phone that rivaled the ones used by Muggles… computers that connected every aspect of the community… quills that were able to engineer anything from the imagination…

They had transformed the Wizarding World… and just as they celebrated their greatest success… the inventor of it all passed away…

“I wonder if he’s proud of us,” Ved murmured as he glanced out the window, gazing at the blue sky.

Raavi smiled softly as she squeezed his shoulder. She had never known Shiva Pandya… and she seldom hears of him as well since he always invoked the tears from the family. But she knew, that regardless of who Shiva Pandya was, he would be proud of Ved and Ansh…

Ved placed his hand over hers and turned to her with a soft smile, “Anyhow, it’s time for us to part,” he slowly packed up his quills and belongings into his bag as Raavi turned to him curiously. “Sruthi and I will be practicing today for the big game next week.”

Raavi had nodded her head… until he had uttered that vile name from his lips… Sruthi… the woman that Ansh had come up with. She had thought Ved would break the connection, just as he had done so with the four other women… but, after going out for butter beer once, Ved and Sruthi had hit it off. They had been speaking to each other much more, despite Sruthi being an entire two years younger. And even though they were in different houses, they practiced Quidditch together…

She wasn’t one to become mad with jealousy… but there was something in Sruthi that brought the worst in her… that made her worry about the future she envisioned for herself.

“I want to come, too!” she announced as she quickly packed her belongings herself.

“You?” Ved raised a brow. Raavi nodded her head, ignoring the bewilderment in his expression. Even after nearly four years of friendship, she had hoped Ved would’ve known. How relentless she could be. “You do understand we will be riding our brooms,” Raavi raised her brow as Ved continued, “Playing Quidditch.”

After a moment of silence, Raavi crossed her arms, “So?” She was fully aware that she could not ride a broom… however, that doesn’t mean her eyes were not perfectly functional. She could sit in the bleachers and shout whenever they became too close. “I’ll watch!”

He rolled his eyes as he motioned for her to tag along.

Grinning with pride, she skipped along his side, briefly glancing over at his profile every now and then, admiring everything she could about him. He was absolutely perfect for her in every way. He was just about an inch taller—so he wouldn’t have to bend down and hurt his neck whenever they kissed. He had the most impeccable fashion when they did not have to be in their uniforms.

“Are you excited to join the company?” Ved murmured as their hands brushed.

Raavi felt a gentle tingle go up her arms as a smile split wide on her face. She gently rubbed the area that had touched his hand. Nodding her head, she felt a warm flush come over her face, “Yes,” she breathed out. Working alongside him was a dream come true.

“Ansh is excited as well,” Ved brought his hand up to his mouth as he tried to hide his smile. Raavi raised a brow as she glanced over in his direction. “Wait… do you not know?” he began laughing. “Ansh will be your supervisor once you start working.”

Raavi’s eyes widened as she stilled to a complete stop. Ansh? My supervisor? She could only see a dark cloud over her head… They were never able to meet because he had chosen to attend Durmstrang (thank Somnath, otherwise they would’ve killed each other), but from the small tidbits she knew of him, and from the letters he had sent her, he would be a brutal boss.

“Ansh is not bad, Raavi,” Ved whispered. “He would never hurt anyone. Most especially you.”

Me? She scowled remembering all the gifts he had sent her over the years. The toy chipkalis, the dung bombs, packets of oils and masalas (though she had no understanding of why he would give her such a thing… she was an absolutely wonderful cook!). Not a single gift was sweet… and she didn’t even know what she did to deserve this! They hadn’t even met before!

Which was why she began sending him inappropriate gifts as well. From sending him acid pops, frog spawn soap, bulbadox powder… unfortunately, nothing terrible had happened to him.

“Raavi.”

She glanced at Ved as Ved reached out for her hand.

“You’re Raavi… anyone can fall in love with you,” he smiled at her softly.

Warmth blossomed in her chest as she followed Ved to the Quidditch field. Anyone can fall in love with me… her eyes zeroed in Ved’s back. Does that mean he actually loves me? A smile found it’s way onto her face. Then I don’t need to wait to confess? I can just do it right now?

“Ved,” she called out at the same moment Ved’s face brightened with joy.

“Sruthi!” he called out as the happiness fizzled out of Raavi.

She turned to Sruthi with a glare… She didn’t even exist a few months ago, but now, she became a mainstay, an unwanted third wheel, and despite all the hints she was giving Sruthi… that girl really didn’t understand.

“Ved!” Sruthi smiled as she ran over to him.

Ved pulled her into a hug as Raavi bit her lower lip, feeling excluded. In all her years of being good friends with Ved, he had never taken the liberty to hug her in such a manner. Is it because he thinks I don’t want to hug him? How do I let him know that I do want to hug him? That I want to do much more with him like hold his hands and go to Hogsmeade with him on a date?

Sruthi turned to Raavi with a small smile, “Will you be sitting on the bleachers?”

Raavi nodded her head slowly, wishing she didn’t have to sit on the bleachers. Wishing she could ride a broom just as well as Sruthi, if not better.

“Could you hang onto this for me?” Sruthi handed her a gold necklace with a small hourglass in the middle.

“Time turner?” Ved asked excitedly. “Aren’t they all gone?”

Sruthi nodded her head, “Yes, but,” she glanced at Raavi briefly, and Raavi quite honestly felt very insulted. She and Ved shared everything. How dare this girl treat me as the outsider! “My uncle actually works in the Ministry, and after I told him about how I wanted to take extra classes… he kind of gave this to me,” a warm blush colored her cheeks as Raavi scoffed in annoyance.

Know it alls… She hated those people the most, and this “using a time turner to take as many classes as I possibly could” was yet another reason for her to despise dislike Sruthi. She’s just a fifth year student! She has a few more years…

“And because it’s so precious, I can’t let anything happen to it, so Raavi di,” Raavi did her best to not react to the ‘di’ that was spoken. “Could you hang on to it as Ved and I practice?”

Before she could utter a single word, Sruthi placed the necklace in Raavi’s hands. Ved and Sruthi, then, both grabbed their brooms, heavily engaged in their own conversation. What surprised her greatly was the chemistry they shared with each other. Sruthi was able to touch Ved’s arm, and instead of shrugging her off, like he normally does, he just stood there, smiling at her and whispering something that made her laugh.

V-Ved?

Raavi swallowed as she watched them zip through the sky. Sruthi’s dark brown hair zipped across the wind, and for a second, Raavi’s heart wavered. All these years, she reassured herself that she was the most beautiful girl in all of Hogwarts—and her long list of admirers only made that so much easier. But as the sun shone on Sruthi… Raavi wondered whether she was truly beautiful enough…

Ved’s younger sister had taken a liking towards Sruthi as well… and Ansh… he was the one who suggested Ved speak to Sruthi…

N-no Raavi… you can’t give up. You’re Raavi! The girl who can make anyone smile and laugh. No one can hate you…

Raavi bit her lip as she quickly ran to the storage closet, picking up a broom for herself. It doesn’t matter if I can’t ride a broom… besides how hard can it be? Whispering a small prayer, she gripped onto the broom as she mounted it, and gently, she tilted the broom up, eyes widened as she slowly rose into the sky.

Taking slow, steady breaths, her racing heart slowly turned normal again as she stabilized in the sky, “I-I really did it,” she cracked a small smile, ignoring the drop of sweat that was forming at the side of her forehead. She let out a few airy laughs, “And it wasn’t even that hard,” she began laughing a little more comfortably. “I don’t even know what I was so worried about.”

She patted her shoulder with the hand that held the time turner, “G-good job, Raavi.” Her eyes briefly glanced down, getting a glimpse of the small architecture that was underneath her and she instantly regretted it. “N-no, no, no… don’t think about it. J-just figure out how to g-go forward.”

Swallowing, she raised her head at the same time she heard her name be shouted.

Oh bugger… the blood from her face drained the second she saw the bludger coming towards her. She brought her hands up to her face, feeling a searing pain pierce through her abdomen as she was knocked off her broom. Her nails dug into her palms as she closed her eyes, embracing her free fall.

This was certainty not the end she thought she would meet.

At least you’ll be remembered as the girl who brought a smile to everyone’s face… I wonder what Ved will think… will he remember me afterwards? Or will he forget about me, too…

Warmth enveloped her as her head was cradled. Instead of feeling a searing pain rip through her… she was held by someone strong… someone well-built.

V-Ved… did you catch me?

A waft of masalas and oils drifted towards her as she clenched onto the uniform with trembling hands.

No… it can’t be him… then who…?

Even through the dull pain that was throbbing at her head, she slowly opened her eyes.

Sharp facial features, long hair, dark, smoldering eyes… He was the exact opposite of Ved. Manly… terrifying… not at all her type. Heaviness fell upon her eyelids as her face fell on top of his chest.

Who are you?

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resinatingbeauty · 4 years

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Real Talk Time (#RTT) - My Messages to all “Baby” Witches / Anyone Discovering Their Spirituality

•When it comes to magick, if it feels right you’re doing it right. You won’t know if it feels right if you don’t do it. A lot of us fall victim to the obsession that is part of the process, in my opinion, of realizing your potential as a witch/magician/wiccan/magick user of any sort, that is the compulsive consumption of all things magickal or new age/occult related. You begin building this collection of books, accumulating supplies, candles, symbols, accents for your altar-all this time reading and searching for things to perform spells and rituals that you never end up performing because of all the time and energy put into accumulating ..stuff.

The irony being is there is nothing inherently magickal about stuff. Magick is not a tangible thing, it’s a spiritual thing. The reality is you don’t need much stuff at all to manifest your desires and intentions. You don’t need to have the equivalent of the Library of Congress filled with books and texts about magick spells, invocations, rituals, etc. either. Don’t get me wrong, knowledge is a great thing, knowledge is power, but balance is a very important fundamental concept in all new age/occult/pagan traditions and if all you’ve been doing is absorbing and not performing then you’re missing out on what makes magick worth doing- doing it. Just do it *itnsert angry Shia Labeouf motivational meme here*

The problem with the over consumption of knowledge is the lack of experience to go along with it. If you’re moving constantly through various texts, chances are you haven’t taken the time to act on what had been written. Magick is about finding your connection to the universe, finding that perfect balance of confidence, humility, understanding, and inner peace that allows you to be just so in tune with yourself and everything around you that you truly, without a doubt, feel a part of it- not just a little part, but a BIG part- big enough to move mountains. What one author says to do may be contradicted by another even in the same vein of thought, but that’s them. You have to find what works for you. Once you find it, never let it go. Elaborate on it, because you can do no wrong spiritually, so long as you aren’t, you know, committing mass murder or persuading others to do it a la Jamestown.

•Those elaborate and intriguing rituals sound great until you do them (or not). I am admittedly guilty of this, as I truly enjoyed the textbook style of Donald Michael Kraig’s writing on Ceremonial Magick (highly recommend Modern Magick any edition to anyone interested in that kind of thing) and good old Aleister Crowley who could turn a mundane love spell into something out of an HP Lovecraft novel (I’m sure it’s intentional), but the wonderful imagery these texts would form in my mind couldn’t, nay, wouldn’t be manifested into reality because, quite simply, I don’t have the kind of attention span or space for that kind of thing, and I ultimately found that I don’t need all the props and paraphernalia to manifest my magick. This also goes along with my first message about accumulating stuff. While there is more than enough reason behind all the symbols, tools, and objects we utilize as spiritualists, the chalice is just a pretty cup to those who aren’t inclined to use it as such. Rituals obtain power through the repetition, focus, and energy put into them, not the objects used to facilitate this process, though these objects help maintain that focus or visual, they are not sources of magick unto themselves. The talismans I create are not magickal themselves, they were made into talismans through energy transfer and intent, the ritual is in their creation, my own essence flowing into them through my hands as they work. If you aren’t the type of person who regularly goes through these grandiose measures and thrives in the complex and detailed who also has the time to devout to several hour long invocations for regular cleansing, keep it simple. Unless you’re that kind of person, chances are the more complex it is the less likely you are to do it. While you’re researching and visualizing these rituals in your mind’s eye like a movie, ask yourself if that type of thing is something you have the time, space, and attention span for (I know I don’t.) Any magick is better than none.

Now, some rituals are supposed to be complex, intricate workings that are intended to work off around a high level of energy and commitment (think exorcisms / banishing rituals, summonings or invokations etc). Crowley and Peter Carroll (another of my favorites) openly wrote about long, sensual, demanding rituals where trance states induced by drugs, sleep deprivation / sensory deprivation, hypnosis, and other means were incorporated into rituals, but they aren’t exactly a requirement.

In the same breath, anyone who criticizes how you perform a ritual (unless you’re asking for assistance or experiencing adverse affects) is full of shit. If you have channeled the energy and focus toward your intent, you will manifest results. Period. It doesn’t matter if you focus your altar around summoning Lillith, make the necessary offerings, draw the sigil, etc., if you’re actually thinking about what you’re going to have for dinner on March 3rd, you’re probably not doing it right. I don’t know you, however, you may have great success completely detaching yourself from your purpose- whatever works for you.

•Don’t fixate on labels - fixate on bettering yourself and your connection to the universe. There’s a lot of elitist internet witches and what not around, but hear me brothers and sisters, they are nothing but psychic vampires trying to throw you off your game. “My Book of Shadows is bigger than yours” is only relevant if you give a damn. I sure as hell don’t. I’m not impressed with lengthy resumes of spells and rituals performed over the last twenty years. If you choose to keep a Book of Shadows, its primary purpose should be reflection, allowing you to correspond your craft with reality and for you to look back at and troubleshoot or reiterate. It isn’t a badge of honor. The choice of keeping one is also entirely optional- though recommended, some do better performing their piece and setting it aside until the see the results they desire. Unless your spells affect me (or I ask you about your work) , you do you and I’ll do me. The only important thing is that you do so for yourself, you do so because it feels right and natural for you to do so, and you do it for the betterment of yourself and all of us who have to live in the world you have directly influenced. Whether you’re a “baby” witch, a cape wearing pointy hat toting broomstick bombshell, a woods witch, weed witch, green witch, black witch, voodoo priestess, magician, chaote, occultist, necromancer, reiki practitioner, shaman , level 300 Geodude- we are all working toward the same goals, one way or another. Regardless of what you choose to identify yourself with or what system/rules you choose to follow, we need to build each other up, not put each other down. We have the major indoctrinated religions doing that for us.

That is all.

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evajellion · 3 years

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FF5 Four Job Fiesta: Part FINAL

I finally did it. We beat Exdeath. It took 26 hours in total, longer than my first playthrough by an hour, but I did it.

I knew I was going to have to grind, and it was going to be a slog so I put on some background noise while I began my grind for experience in the forest and tower sections of the N-Zone. (it had the least amount of brutal enemies)

There, I unintentionally picked up several Dragon Fangs from the Aevis Dragons, an item that would inevitably be the most useful drop I could get from the game. I reached Level 37, which wasn’t ideal, but I stuck with it and made my way back to the last area.

Once again, I began to grind, this time for AP so Lenna could obtain Dualcast. At the time, she was my Red Mage. Once I found out that Dualcast with the Red Mage only allows for the weaker spells, I was pissed because I had spent time getting 999 AP for her. Then, I realized I could just give her back the White Mage class and stick Bartz to being a Red Mage.

You’ll understand why I made such an effort for Dualcast later.

I switched Faris to a Chemist temporarily so she could learn Mix and captured a King Behemoth while I was at it.

With that, we were going to fight Exdeath. Not once, but twice. The first being an experiment, since I learned about a glitch.

You see, if you cast berserk on Exdeath’s initial form by using the Chemist job, he’ll pretty much be stuck in an “offense only” script, that will overwrite his defeat sequence into the second phase. This will completely skip the final boss and take you to the ending after an awkward, shaking screen without dialogue.

Similar tactics are used to break Exdeath in speedruns, so I wanted to try it for myself. I used a Kiss of Blessing on Exdeath, and found myself constantly reviving my party with the Chemist since he was dealing 2000 HP worth of damage. (side note: the Chemist’s ultimate ability can revive all party members without MP, very overpowered)

Thankfully I did set up Protect and left my party members to heal on one end, then attack or cast Holy on free turns. Rinse and repeat, Exdeath was dead but he was so angry that he didn’t go into his second phase. A victory, credits and all, but an empty one.

Even I know that truly beating this game requires facing the real final boss.

Meet Neo-Exdeath, and just listen to his theme.

This fight… took about four, maybe five times before I got my strategy down. Dear god.

Firstly, we set up our defenses on Exdeath’s previous form, casting stuff like Protect, Shell, and making sure my Chemist ingested Giant and Speed Drinks.

Next, since I gave the Mix ability to Faris, I let her use the Dragon Fangs I collected to create Dragon Power, something that would boost the level of my party drastically so they could do more damage, especially Lenna.

Once we got to the Neo-Exdeath phase, we had to get that Magic Lamp out. Bahamut and Leviathan are good damage dealers while Odin will kill that segment of Exdeath all the way in the back, saving us trouble. After which, Faris would unleash the King Behemoth that was captured to deal damage on all three remaining halves.

With one out of four of Neo-Exdeath’s halves gone, I immediately had Lenna Dualcast Holy on what remained. Krile would attack with the Chicken Knife or revive, Faris would use the whip or mix items, and Bartz was stuck as the healer mostly but also functioned as back-up Holy.

Once every few turns, usually after he uses the annoying Almagest, a magic damage attack that deals hefty damage to the entire party. Sometimes it will be immediately followed up with Grand Cross. Unlike FF9, we don’t have an Angel’s Snack to deal with whatever Neo-Exdeath decides to cast on us.

Usually one party member gets stuck with Silence, our Red Mage stuck in Berserk, and someone else gets turned to stone. To my luck, Neo-Exdeath didn’t use Zombie or any Doom-related ailments, so I never had to worry about a countdown timer. I ran out of eyedrops, so I couldn’t mix a cure for any of these ailments, but I did have a spare Soft to get rid of being petrified.

Since Lenna had been beefed up from the Dragon Power, she was consistently dealing 9000-18000 damage with each Holy dualcast. Sometimes I would have to sacrifice a second Holy in order to heal, if only to survive whatever physical attacks he could throw my way.

Sometimes Neo-Exdeath will use Dispel, which will undo buffs on a party member. Easy enough for Krile to remedy through another Speed Drink, but Bartz and Lenna were often stuck recasting Protect and Shell.

After killing off two more of Neo-Exdeath’s halves, he pretty much goes into a desperation mode, something that nearly all final bosses in this franchise do. He’ll start casting Meteor much more frequently, but will then burn himself out really badly and use a wimpy Comet attack that barely makes a dent in my party.

I constantly heal and cast Holy at this point, and ignore putting up Shell again since there’s no point this far into the battle. I’m getting as desperate to kill him as he is to rid of my party. One last stab from Krile’s Chicken Knife, and that was it.

The battle was over, for real this time since I finally killed Neo-Exdeath. The world is saved from being sent back to the void.

I watch half of the ending… aaaand my game freezes, for some reason. Don’t worry, I think something is wrong with the emulation or my PSvita, because it did that the last time I reached the ending to this game. I’m still very much satisfied with just defeating Neo-Exdeath, end credits not required here!

As for my overall playthrough rating…

Lenna Charlotte Tycoon - White Mage

Ability: White / Dualcast

White Mage is an MVP you want on any team. Healing and Holy is just the way to go. Being stuck with bonking your enemies with a staff isn’t as bad as it seems, as you can tell from the first part of this playthrough.

Bartz Klauser - Red Mage

Ability: Red / White

Oooooof… jack of all trades, master of none. This class was good early game, but falls apart so badly. Magic and equipment both get really mediocre in the late game, and it has the lowest HP. Really wish I had gotten the Summoner instead. Yeah, probably the least good of the jobs I got. The only saving grace is Dualcast, which I gave to Lenna.

Faris Scherwiz - Beastmaster

Ability: Catch / Mix

Beastmaster is a really fun physical class! It’s best used when paired with a Blue Mage, but we didn’t get that. Still, probably the most capable in terms of physical offense, and I got some good use out of capturing monsters and controlling them. Wish the whip was a bit more accurate though at times.

Krile Mayer Baldesion - Chemist

Ability: Drink / Revive

I was so scared when I rolled this one because I had no clue what to expect. I had no idea this would be the job that saves the fight against Exdeath, with its mixture and revival abilities, no MP required. If I ever play this game again, I am going to definitely utilize this job more, it is now a favorite of mine.

Overall, despite my gripes with the last half of this game, the rest of it and the final battle have been so much fun. I can’t wait to talk more about it at the end of the year. I also really enjoyed coming up with new strategies with the jobs I was given.

Thank you all for reading. If you haven’t played this game yet for some reason or done a Four Job Fiesta, I highly recommend it.

#Final Fantasy #final fantasy v #four job fiesta

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phoenotopia · 4 years

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2020 July Update

Things have gone slowly... again.

The good news is that the game is now submitted to the console "authority" and it's entirely off my hands. Once it gets through the console "checking" process, it can get a release date and we can sprint towards release. Until then, it'd be at least a month's wait or more until I hear anything. Understandably, their checking process is impacted by Corona, so wait times are increased.

On my end, I was also slow to submit the game. I submitted it late late June, since I ended up spending 7 weeks fixing bugs (and not 2-3 weeks like I estimated in the last blog post). There were just SO many bugs - now squished, thankfully. Since this is a blog post, I'll talk about what kind of bugs I've been fixing.

The other thing that slowed down the submission process was simply due to unfamiliarity with how these submissions proceed. There were pages and pages of stuff to read, guidelines to follow, and legalese to wade through. It really made me wish I had a publisher to guide me through the process. But I was able to clear it with a couple days work. I had an impression that the submission process went like A->B->C->D, with no room for concurrency. Turns out I could have done steps B & C at the same time and sped things up by 2 weeks... So that's that. I'm taking that as a lesson for next time.

The Console Revealed

What is this console that I talk about so stealthily? So that this blog update isn't completely unexciting, I'll reveal which console I've been working on until now. Drumroll please!

It's Switch!

We actually got the Switch dev kit in late 2017. From my understanding, around this time in the USA, the Switch kit was quite hard to get for indies as it was just starting out and high in demand. So I was surprised that my application got approved. I didn't know it then, but the game would still need a few more years of development...

Tweaking performance and fixing bugs

Here you can see my "expert" playtest setup. Since the Switch is more powerful while docked, I needed to playtest it in handheld mode, so I could catch and profile any problem areas where the framerate was unsteady. The most common thing that caused framerate drops were areas that went overboard with lighting. For these areas, I'd tweak or swap out the lights with alternatives that looked similar while also being less computationally intensive. Maintaining 60 FPS is a must!

An old camera (Nikon D3100) trained at the screen recorded my playthrough and would let me rewind to any moment a bug occurred. It could only record in 10 minute chunks, so I'd have to repeatedly repress the record button. On the plus side, because it's so old the movie file sizes were small and convenient.

The number one bug that I tracked and fixed in the past two months was what I dub the "Gear Ring De-equip" bug. The Gear Ring functions as customizable shortcut keys for the player to map items and tools (see an old video demonstration HERE). Through regular use of the inventory, somehow the equipped items on the Gear Ring would be de-equipped. It was an elusive bug since the de-equip event would happen very quietly and you would only suspect something had gone wrong much later. By then, the trail had gone cold and you weren't sure if a de-equip had actually occurred or if the player had simply de-equipped the item themselves. Two other playtesters noted that something left the Gear Ring in their playthrough, but I dismissed them. "Are you sure you didn't just de-equip it yourself?" It was a bug that bred mistrust and discord. I didn't truly believe it until it happened to me...

Luckily, with the camera setup, I was finally able to track it. In the literal 67th video, I caught a live instance of the bug occurring. After which, it was all too easy to recreate the exact same inventory and gear ring setup and replicate it.

(With this exact item layout, combine the 2nd item with the 14th item... and viola! Gear Ring de-equip!)

After fixing this bug, I then proceeded to fix it 5 more times. Every time I fixed it, it would later reappear through a different mechanism.

Why do bugs like this happen? Underneath, there are two lists of items. Tools on the right and items on the left. Items can occur multiple times because they're consumable. Both lists start counting their indexes with the value 0. However, both items and tools co-exist on the gear ring. So to uniquely identify an entry you need both the item ID and the data index. Failure to check both data types resulted in bugs like the Gear Ring de-equip. Now throw in a bunch of item operations that can confuse the system. You can split items, combine items, swap items, or discard items. The more freedom you allow, the more ways there are for the system to trip up.

If you didn't get all that, that's alright. It was needlessly complicated. Imagine doing more and better and with less code and less bugs! Such a thing is possible if you start with the right design. I'm definitely taking notes here on how to design inventory systems for next time. In the meanwhile, I'm very confident I've squished all inventory related bugs.

Other bugs squashed and features implemented in the past 2 months include the end game arts not unlocking properly, collection percentages climbing beyond 100, stray doors floating in the sky, low HP sfx blaring when loading different files, balance tweaks on bosses, a max HP display when the menu is open - too many to count really! It was only after I fixed them all that I was confident enough to move forward with submitting the game. I apologize for the delay this will cause!

PC version back in progress

You may recall in the March 2020 update I talk about how in pursuing the Switch version, I unwittingly ruined the PC version. Well, since the game is "done" now and I'm waiting for it to go through the checking process, I've started working to reclaim the PC version.

And there is some good news to report. The PC version can compile again! Of course, it will need to have some work done, since it was late 2017 when I last had a functioning PC build.

The opening menu is broken, the underlying save file system needs to be updated, and the controls... oh Lord, the controls. Controls were probably the #1 factor in pushing me to pursue a console version first. There are just so many controller options. Even just the usual suspects are numerous: Xbox, Nintendo, Sony, Logitech, Hori, 8Bitdo, Steam...

One of the number one complaints received regarding the flash game (which was keyboard primarily) was that I didn't allow controller rebinding to start. It was then that I learned of the vast array of different keyboard types.

(Ever heard of an Azerty keyboard?)

I shan't make the same mistake twice! One of the things I'll definitely tackle is the Right/Left face button feud when it comes to which should one should be 'confirm' and which one is 'cancel'. I want to allow the player to choose which is their "YES" and "NO" preference and allow that to overlap other actions like Attack or Jump.

Even after control bindings are taken care of, some things just won't translate well. The right control stick is currently used to access the gear ring and for fishing. Keyboards have no right stick. Aiming the crossbow with a full 360 degrees of range is done with the left control stick - if keyboard only, would the crossbow simply be locked to the 8 cardinal directions? What about those tutorial prompts with button graphics (e.g. "Press 'B' to Jump"). If using the playstation controller, it'd need to be the CROSS symbol. How many button graphics are we gonna load into the text module? What if the player, mid-playthrough, decides to swap out controllers? Indeed, there are many issues to tackle where controls are concerned...

Perhaps I'm overthinking it because even some AAA games get this wrong (Dark Souls has 'B' as 'Yes' on Switch, and it's not remappable, which I find quite annoying). I've seen games on consoles where the controls wouldn't mention the console's controller at all but instead mention a mouse and keyboard. Or, if you remapped the controls, the tutorial prompts still showed the old control bindings, making for a confusing experience. I definitely want to do the controls justice, so this will take some time.

Phoenotopia DISCORD Channels

Ryan and Firana have been running a Phoenotopia discord since late 2017, which I promoted on this blog once. It's been a couple years and it turns out that the old discord link I promoted expired. It's long overdue, but their channel could use another shoutout. Here's their channel : https://discord.gg/cnjrYST

Also, Khalid recently reached out to me about creating a Phoenotopia discord as well. I see no reason why we can't have 2 or more discords, so he has created that one with my blessing as well. You can find his discord here : https://discord.gg/cfnsCwy

I personally don't use Discords, since I'm very busy and there's too much new tech to keep up with. I hear there's a Tik Tok now? Should I create a Tik Tok for Phoenotopia? Hmmm...

Anyway, if you'd like to chat with other people who are similarly enthused for Phoenotopia, do check them out!

Fan Arts

We have five new fanart submissions this time around from regulars and new alike.

Cody G. returns with this pair of sketches of Gail. One seeks to answer the question, "how is Gail so strong?" Cody's answer is that under her sleeves she's actually really buff! This might be the most ripped rendition of Gail yet. Also, in the right drawing, the letter 'E' kinda melds with her bat, making it look like a keyblade!

What if Gale was a Shrek character? A new artist, Samu Kajin, from tumblr answers that question with a rendition of Gail sporting ogre style antennae. Samu Kajin says she can be called "Gaek" or "Shrale". I like the poncho!

Shafiyahh returns with a pretty portrait of Gail. Unlike their previous digital pieces, this one was made with color pencils! I like how her hair blends pink and purple colors together, and this pattern is also present in the eyes. Reminds me of a certain character. And the eyes are so sparkly despite using color pencils! Major props!

Negativus Core also returns with this relevant image of Gail, masked and running, presumably from Corona. It gave me quite a chuckle! I like the angle and tilt of this run pose because you can see the sole of her foot - that's how you know she's at full sprint! A skillful blur localized to her left foot show's just the right amount of motion. Gotta love the robot's expression too!

A rare 3D art has emerged. Dany Q crafted this adorable figure of Gail that is as cute as a button! I like how well it translates the pixel character over to 3D, capturing the 3 stitches on her shirt and even catching her stray strand of hair. It kinda reminds me of a Wallace and Gromit character, so I can picture it moving and animating in that unique claymation style.

Next Time

I'm ~80% confident we can clear the Switch console checking process and drop the trailer with a release date before the next blog post. But once again, if things go slowly, you'll hear from us in 2 months...

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grailfinders · 4 years

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Fate and Phantasms #40: Hassan of the Cursed Arm

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re building one of the old men of the mountain and king of “he’s a really nice guy despite every aspect of his appearance”, Hassan of the Cursed Arm. Surprisingly, Hassan is not a rogue, but a monk/warlock mix thanks to the titular arm.

Originally, this build gave you a weapon with reach to act as your cursed arm, but that puts a lot of strain on a character that already needs multiple stats to work properly. I still think slapping someone from across the room is funny though, so I’m including both the original and variant build in the spreadsheet. I’ll also bring up the differences in the level-by-level breakdown below the cut when they come up.

(EDIT: This one required a bit of fixing up, but I’m too lazy to completely rewrite everything. This has less to do with Tasha’s and more to do with me suddenly remembering whips exist and don’t have the Special tag. Just focus on dexterity, and you’re good.)

Race and Background

Despite his looks, Hassan is a Human, giving him +1 to all abilities. He’s also an Acolyte, a much nicer and less accurate title than his real one “Cult Leader”. This gives him proficiency with Insight and Religion. He also gets the Shelter of the Faithful feature, meaning he can perform religious rites and receive free healing and care at temples related to his god. This makes sense, considering you’re the second highest rank in the cult, and the first highest only shows up to kill you.

Stats

Your Dexterity is your best stat, you’re nimble and really good with throwing daggers. Everyone you’ve met generally agrees you’re a pretty nice guy, probably because of your high Charisma. You’re a major religious figure, so your Wisdom is pretty high. You also lead a bunch of assassins, and if you couldn’t tell when they show up to meet with you that would be pretty embarrassing. We’re not dumping Constitution, because we’re not masochists, which means our last stat is Intelligence. You learned enough to summon and forcibly amputate a demon, and that’s all the schooling you needed. Finally, dump Strength. You’re pretty wiry, but we just don’t need it for this build.

Class Levels

1. Monk 1: As a monk, you get proficiency in Acrobatics, Stealth, and Strength and Dexterity Saves. For a religious figure, you lead a pretty active lifestyle.

First level monks get Unarmored Defense, meaning your AC is equal to 10 plus your dex mod plus your wis mod. You also learn Martial Arts, letting you use your martial arts die in place of your normal damage for unarmed attacks and attacks with monk weapons, as well as use dexterity for those attacks. You can also use your bonus action to make an unarmed attack if you use your action to attack with a monk weapon.

Also important to note, your monk weapons can scale their damage with your Martial Arts, which will improve your throwing knives and cursed arm a bit.

2. Monk 2: At second level, you get a number of Ki points equal to your monk level. You regain spent ki points on short rests, and can use them to add options to your bonus action. Flurry of Blows lets you attack twice, Patient Defense lets you dodge, and Step of the Wind doubles your jump distance and lets you disengage or dash. You also get Unarmored Movement, adding 10′ to your movement when you aren’t wearing armor.

You can also make a Dedicated Weapon at the end of a short rest, turning any one weapon you choose into a monk weapon pretty much indefinitely. Spend a little quality time with your arm, get to know it.

3. Monk 3: At this level you can Deflect Missiles, reacting to reduce ranged attack damage. If the damage is reduce to 0, you can also spend 1 ki point to throw it back at an enemy.

At this level, you also become a Way of the Shadow monk. At this level you can spend 2 ki points to cast Darkness, Darkvision, Pass without Trace, or Silence without material components. You also gain Minor Illusion as a cantrip. Smashing out the lights with some throwing daggers also works, but a lot of creatures have darkvision naturally, so you’ll need something to fall back on.

4. Warlock 1: We’ve got the Hassan, but no Cursed Arm. It’s time we fixed that. We’re not sure why the demon you tore an arm from rewarded you with supernatural powers, but we’re not complaining. At first level, fiend warlocks get the Dark One’s Blessing, meaning you gain temporary hit points equal to your charisma modifier plus your warlock level when a hostile creature is reduced to 0 HP. You also learn some Pact Magic, limited spell slots you regain on short rests. You use charisma to cast spells. At this level that includes Mage Hand because you couldn’t reach far enough as is, Eldritch Blast as a magical stand-in for all those throwing knives, Hex to curse your enemies, and Expeditious Retreat to bolster your already impressive movement skills.

5: Warlock 2: Second level warlocks learn Eldritch Invocations, little ways your patron shows you they care. You get Devil’s Sight and Agonizing Blast, which grants you darkvision even in magical darkness and extra damage for your “throwing knives”. You can also cast Sense Emotion; assassination requires manipulation as much as murder.

6. Warlock 3: At third level you get your pact boon, specifically your Pact Weapon, any melee weapon that you want, though since this is supposed to be your arm you should keep it consistent. Whips are good, use that. You can unwrap your arm as an action, and counts as magical for resistance and immunity’s sake. You can also turn other magical weapons into your pact weapon if you really want, but again, this is supposed to be your arm. I know you’re already playing fast and loose with limb ownership, but there needs to be limits.

You also learn how to make a Shadow Blade, a finesse weapon that gives you advantage in the shade.

7. Warlock 4: Use your first ASI to become a Martial Adept, giving you one d6 to use two maneuvers from the battle master list. You regain the die on short rests. Your maneuvers are Evasive Footwork, which adds 1d6 to your AC while you’re moving, and Lunging Attack, which adds 1d6 and 5′ of reach to a single attack. Congrats, you can now slap someone from fifteen feet away.

At this level you learn the spell Cloud of Daggers, letting you set up very painful traps. You also learn how to cast the cantrip Poison Spray. Poison isn’t your gimmick, but it’s important to be flexible. Being flexible also isn’t your gimmick, but... you know what I mean.

8. Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks don’t get any more features, but they do get another invocation: Improved Pact Weapon. When attacking with your pact weapon, add 1 to the attack and damage rolls. You can also use the weapon as a spellcasting focus. Honestly this invocation is so useful you may want to swap out an invocation for it at third level.

You can also cast the spell Gaseous Form, turning a willing creature into a cloud of smoke for up to an hour. The spell’s great for infiltration and is the closest thing you’ll have to a spirit form. You aren’t truly incorporeal, though: you only resist nonmagical damage.

9. Warlock 6: You have the Dark One’s Own Luck, and can add 1d10 to an ability check or save you make once per short rest. You can also cast Spider Climb at this level so you can sneak into a building without having to become a cloud.

10. Warlock 7: You get another invocation, Ghostly Gaze. This allows you to concentrate like you would a spell and see through objects up to 30′ away. This is especially powerful given a number of spells require line of sight to be used.

Shadow of Moil is not one of those spells, though. With this spell, you don a cloak of shadows, heavily obscuring yourself and dimming the light around you. You also retaliate to being attacked with tendrils of darkness.

11. Warlock 8: Use your next ASI to round out your Wisdom and Charisma for better spell saves and AC. If you’re using the variant build, round out your Constitution and Charisma instead.

Regardless, you also learn how to Summon Greater Demon. They’re still a bit miffed about the whole “ripping off their arm” thing, so you’ll have to convince it to work for you, otherwise it will turn on your party. You’ll need someone’s blood to do it, but that’s still much better than ripping off your own arm.

12. Monk 4: There’s still a couple things we want from the monk class, so lets take a break from demon summoning for a bit. At this level, you can Slow Fall, reducing falling damage by five times your monk level. Given the amount of climbing and flying you’ve been doing, you’ll definitely want this.

You also get another ASI. Bump up your Dexterity to improve the damage you can do with your pact weapon.

13. Monk 5: Fifth level monks get an Extra Attack, letting you make two attacks in a single attack action. You also have the ability to perform a Stunning Strike, spending 1 ki point to ruin your DM’s attempts at balancing encounters. Your martial arts die also become a d6, slightly increasing your power when you’re caught without a weapon. Which is never, so it’s not that useful.

14. Monk 6: Sixth level monks get Ki-empowered Strikes, making your unarmed strikes magical, just like your arm already is. You can also move an extra 5′ per round, and learn how to Shadow Step, spending an action to teleport from one area of dim or darker light to another, so long as it’s within 60′ and you can see it. (This is one of those things that’s a lot better with Ghostly Gaze.) After teleporting, you have advantage on your next melee attack, meaning you can pop into your target’s inner sanctum, snap their neck, and then pop out with any guards none the wiser.

15. Warlock 9: Your next invocation, Otherworldly Leap, lets you cast Jump at will for free. This is another good mobility option, as well as being a vital component to Posing Dramatically In The Moonlight, a mandatory part of being an assassin.

You can also cast Infernal Calling, which is kind of like Summon Greater Demon, but you don’t have to worry about the demon betraying you if you have its talisman. I’m pretty sure its arm counts for this purpose, but that’s up to your DM.

16. Warlock 10: Tenth level fiendlocks get Fiendish Resilience, giving you resistance to damage of one type from weapons that aren’t silvered or magical. You can swap your resistance types at the end of short rests. I’d recommend bludgeoning for a proper Protection from Wind.

17. Warlock 11: At eleventh level, warlocks get their first Mystic Arcanum. Your spell slots stay at fifth level, but you get a sixth level spell you can cast once per long rest.

This level, pick up Psychic Crush from Unearthed Arcana. There isn’t a spell that lets us grab a person’s heart, so we’ll have to settle for grabbing their brain.

18. Warlock 12: At this level you get your last ASI and last invocation. Bump up your Strength (or Charisma if you’re doing the variant build) and pick up the Eldritch Spear invocation to have a lot more range on your throwing knives.

19. Warlock 13: For your seventh level Mystic Arcanum, grab Finger of Death. You should have five of these already, but this lets you deal a lot of guaranteed damage to a creature. Just try not to get the final blow with this-explaining the zombie it makes would be a headache.

20. Warlock 14: Your final level gives you the ability to Hurl (creatures) Through Hell. After hitting a creature with an attack, you can send them on a guided tour through the lower planes until the end of your next turn. When they come back, they take 10d10 psychic damage if they’re not a native of those planes. You can only use this feature once per long rest. This and Psychic Crush are about as close to your Delusional Heartbeat as we can get. Neither can cause instant death, but let’s be honest it’s not like your NP does it that often either.

Pros: You’re very good at infiltration missions. You’re very fast, and have a bevy of mobility options available to you, from flight to climbing walls to straight up teleportation. You’re also tough to hit, with multiple ways of obscuring yourself from ranged fighters. You’re also able to perform hit and run tactics without using your bonus action thanks to your arm’s range, saving your disengaging actions for something else.

Cons: You have a low constitution, meaning that the rest of your build being melee focused isn’t the best idea. This also means you have bad concentration saves, which is bad if you’ve got a buff spell on you to escape, and worse if your concentration is keeping a demon in check. Like all warlocks, you also have the issue of limited spell slots, so most of the time you’ll be relying on just your throwing knives and invocations, without much of a safety net if things go wrong.

Your best abilities don’t have saves though, so if you stick to the shadows and avoid that guy whose arm you stole you should be fine.

Next up: MGS 3: Snake Eater

#fgo #fate grand order #hassan of the cursed arm #dnd 5e #Fate and Phantasms

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spacegirlinorbit · 4 years

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Fooling You? Series

Fooling You? Chapter 5: Leave it up to boys to ruin plans

Warnings: swearing

Taglist: @treestarrrrrrrr

Fooling You Masterlist

(All rights to HP universe belong to JK Rowling)

Song:

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Chapter 5: Leave it up to boys to ruin plans

I woke up early this morning after having such a vivid dream I can barely remember now. I looked at my clock on my nightstand saying it was only 7 am. Lily said we are going to leave at 9 so I still had about an hour or so until I needed to get ready. So I quietly tried not to disturb the others as I went to the bathroom and got ready and change into some leggings I had grabbed from the chest and then grabbed a hoodie as well. I slipped them on along with some shoes and left the room. I made sure to grab my wand on the way out and had it sit in my hoodie pocket.

I made my way down the stairs and there was only a couple people in the commons and the head boy and girl of the school posting something on the board wall.

“Goodmorning! y/n isn't?” The head girl, Michelle, I believe is what her name is asks.

“Yes, Goodmorning.”

“Ah, how are you adjusting?”

“Fine. Say is breakfast ready yet?”

“Oh yes. You know how to get to the Great hall?” She asks and I nod with a smile and bid her goodbye.

I make my way out of the common rooms and towards the ever changing staircases. Once I missed my stop a couple times I finally hop off and make my way to the Great Hall feeling more hungry than before. I see that there is food spread about the tables like crackers and cheese, fruits, and various breads.

The plates and cups are all aligned for every student who may come in. Since school doesn't start for another few days, it's pretty scarce in here. I do however notice that a student wearing a red unlined robe sits at the far right table so I make my way over there and take a seat randomly and away from anyone else. I help myself to some grapes, banana, and a buttered croissant. I reach for a cup and it automatically fills orange juice.

God, I’m going to miss coffee. Maybe I could buy some in Hogsmeade.

I enjoy my breakfast thinking quietly to myself until someone sits across from me. She is an older woman, a professor I assume. She smiles sweetly at me and I try to return the smile back without looking confused.

“Good Morning. I wanted to personally introduce myself, I am Professor Mcgonagall of Transfiguration and head professor of the gryffindor house. Also the deputy headmistress of Hogwarts.” She explains herself.

“Wow, quite the title you have. They should just call you queen.” I joke to lighten the mood. Is this normal? Since when did teachers make time for students?

“Oh you flatter me dear. I just wanted to let you know that if you need anything especially personal if you feel uncomfortable going to Dumbledore about it, I am here for you. I unfortunately couldn’t meet with you yesterday, but I at least wanted to make my acquaintance known.”

“Of course. Thank you Professor Mcgonagall.”

“Right, well I’ll excuse myself now. Welcome to Hogwarts.” She smiles and I can truly smile back as she leaves.

I see more students enter the Great Hall and I finish my OJ and banana and leave the Great Hall to avoid further interaction from anyone who might want to question who the new girl is. I slip out of the Great hall and take my time walking back to the tower taking the long way instead of those confusing staircases. After leaving the Great Hall I reach the viaduct and take a moment looking at the view and breathing in the morning air. I see a couple of owls pass by in the sky most likely delivering letters. I exit the viaduct and back into the school building but now I am faced with two ways to go.

Left or Right? Shit I should've taken the map and there’s someone coming so I can’t use apparition that will look suspicious. I could summon the map.

“Are you lost?” I hear someone say pulling me from my thoughts. I look up and I see him. Sharp jawline, star like eyes, and cherry lips against his pale skin. Damn he looks fresh out of a portrait.

I stumble on my words until I finally breathe out, “Yes.”

He looks me over curiously and then takes a cautious step forward. I remain still, entranced by how handsome he is. “Where do you need to go?”

“Gryffindor tower.” I could've sworn in that moment I heard him mumble ‘shame’. Shame indeed. Shit what am I thinking?! I don’t even know his name.

“You are going to take a left through there and cross the stone bridge and then head straight and the tower is at the end.” He explains as he extends his arm and the flex of his bicep tighten the loose black button up he has on. I try to breathe as he looks back at me.

“Thank you um…”

“Regulus. Regulus Black.” He says with an air about him that makes him stand tall.

“Thank you Regulus.”

“Of course, but it’s only fair if in return I get to learn your name.” He says with a smirk.

“Y/n. Y/n Y/l/n.”

“It’s nice to meet you, y/n.”

“You as well.” and we part ways. I pinch my cheeks to defuse the blush, but I think I only made it worse. I finally get back to the gryffindor tower and head to the room. I walk in the room and it is a mess and the girls are yelling amongst themselves.

“What’s going on?” I question shutting the door.

“Oh thank merlin, where were you?”

“I went out for some breakfast and then I got lost.” I explain by leaving out some details.

“Oh, see, I knew we should have gone out and looked for her.” Marlene says.

“And we were just about to if you didn’t just show up just now.” Lily explains.

“It’s okay really. I need to get familiar anyways since I'll be here for a while, right.” I state back to them.

“Right then, well it’s almost 9 so let's get dressed and head to Hogsmeade.” Lily says. I make my way over to the closet and pull out a black turtleneck shirt and some sneakers along with a jean skirt and cropped jean jacket. I get dressed and put my hair in a ponytail and added some chapstick to my lips knowing they were going to get chapped in this weather boarderlining winter. I pulled my mother's necklace from my nightstand drawer and clipped it on. Then grabbed my cross body bag. The others dressed similarly for the weather. A mix of fall and winter.

Enter Hogsmeade

Once we entered the village, the shops filled with some people passing through making their way from shop to shop. Hogsmeade was a homely village, with pointed top cottages and shops of variety. I can smell something sweet and spicy in the air, it must be the drink everyone has in hand coming out of a place called Madam Puddifoots’ Tea Shop. I hear laughter coming from another end of the street where we walk at another shop called Zonko's Joke Shop.

“Say Lily won’t you take her to the quill and cauldron shop, maybe Dervish and Banges. Me and Dorcas will head to Gladrags and then meet you guys at Honeydukes.” Marlene says as she shares her idea.

“Why Honeydukes?” Lily questions.

“Because she must try butterbeer and I’m starving.” Marlene groans.

“Here since you’re getting the outfits.” I say pulling out some galleons in a small coin sack. They all look at me incredulously.

“Well, you didn’t tell us you were loaded.” Marlene exclaims at the bag of gold.

“I’m not, really.” I say shaking my head. I used mainly american dollars in the U.S. and sometimes wizarding money, but it was easier to transfer american money so that my relation to Grindelwald wasn’t known.

“Darling, it’s okay. I’m paying for everyone’s clothes today. My treat for bursting in yesterday.”

“You mean all summer.” Lily mumbles.

“You can say that again.” Dorcas remarks.

“Har Har, Lily fire and I’m hurt D. Spicy this morning aren’t we?” Marlene says sarcastically.

“Just go!” Lily says and pushes Marlene away. Meanwhile Lily takes me to the quill shop where I can get more ink and paper. I also grab some envelopes hoping Lily doesn’t see it as I purchase them quickly. Then we stop at Ceridwen's Cauldron, where I buy a small silver cauldron and then we make our way to the herbology shop where I gather fluxweed, dittany (that I could easily use as an aphrodisiac), ginger, and valerian. However I couldn’t find moly, a special flower that can allow my body to counteract any enchantments used on me.

I go up to the counter and purchase my items and ask the lady who is packaging my items,”Do you by chance sell Moly?”

She looked up at me slowly and then looked me over curiously. “What do you want with Moly?”

I challenge her stare, “I’ll need it to reverse the effects of the valerian if something goes wrong.”

“Hmm, that you will. Best not put yourself in a deep sleep, deary. However the moly will cost extra.” She states.

“I think I’ll have enough.” I say putting the coin sack of galleons on the counter. She smiles at this and goes to the back to get the package of Moly.

“3 galleons.” She says with an obvious devious smile. I place the coins on the counter and take my bag of herbs and leave the shop as Lily follows behind saying goodbye to the lady.

“Everything okay back there?” Lily asks.

“Yeah. I got everything I need. Should we head to Honeydukes was it?”

“Yes, let’s go.” Lily connects our arms together as we walk the streets to get to a place called Honeydukes. Lily and I are laughing and talking about the shops and the people in the village and what we think they are up to. She stops abruptly and lets go of my arm. I look towards her confusingly.

“Lily?” I ask trying to see what she’s looking at.

She turns around abruptly and smiles at me, “I saw a friend in there that I haven’t seen for a while. Do you mind if I go say hi?”

“No not all. I saw the post office two shops back, I think it’s high time I write a letter to my friends in America.”

“Great. I’ll come find you then, I shouldn’t be long.” She says and rushes into what seems like a pub called, Three Broomsticks Inn.

Marauders 3rd POV

Lily rushes into the pub and quickly and furiously makes her way over to the four boys who all have their heads down knowing what’s coming towards them.

“WHAT THE HELL are you guys doing here?” She seathed.

“Lily darling, what a lovely surprise!” James grimaced trying to ease the fire in her.

“Shut it James!” Lily snaps. “Black what the hell, we told you we could handle ourselves.”

“Aww Lily don’t be like that. We are just here in case.” He whined.

“Look and listen carefully to the words coming out of my mouth. We are fine. They won’t dare come here. Diagon Alley, for sure, but here never. It’s too crowded with students and teachers from Hogwarts that we would be able to sniff them out. Go! NOW. We are fine and everything is well.”

“Sirius I think we should go.” Remus pipes in and Peter nods in agreement.

“Right, where is this new bestie of yours?” Sirius pried.

“She’s at the post office. Said something about writing a letter to her friends in America.”

“Oh you can’t be this dull.” Sirius says. Lily gasps in shock and her anger intensifies.

“Padfoot.” James states.

“Here we go.” Remus says and takes a sip of his tea.

“What did you just say about me?” Lily presses her hands down on the table leaning towards Sirius.

“What if she is writing a letter to well you know or maybe someone in connection.” He explains quickly slightly fearing her wrath.

“You think I didn’t think about that? Dumbledore has someone in there to infiltrate her letters.”

“He does?” James questions.

“Yes, maybe if you boys paid attention in the meetings you would know that we have put in place a way to intercept any communication she has. Even the letters.”

“Well damn.” Sirius mutters.

“Go back to the school boys. The party isn’t going to plan itself.”

“Will do, mlady.” James says with a big smile on his face and adoration in his eyes.

“Fuck off, Potter.” She says and walks away from the boys, hiding the small smile on her lips.

Y/n POV

I go into the post office and head to the counter. A man sits there stamping off envelopes and a woman on the other end is helping someone else out. I also see some elves attending to the mail and owls in their cages. I walk over to the small island made for people to write off their letters. I pull out a paper and ink with my wand but disguise it with a spell to make it look like a quill.

I write out my letter to look like it was ordinary and directed to my friends back in America. Then I look around to make sure no one sees and blow across the paper with blue fire and I quickly whisper what I want to really say as the paper fills with my words and disappears. I sign it and envelope it to an address that is in America, but will be rerouted to Austria once it goes to transport and the real address will reveal itself. Grindelwald taught me this secret way of communication when I left for america. Taught how to use the blue fire to conceal the truth of things you want hidden. It's undetectable but takes skill and focus. I have been doing it so long it comes easy to me now, yet if anyone knew I would be suspected for dark magic. I put the letter in the post box outside so I won’t have to explain the faraway address.

“Did you get to write your letter?” Lily says as she approaches me.

“Yes. I only hope it gets to them safely.” I smile and we take off to honeydukes.

By the time we get to Honeydukes, it's noon and Marlene gushes to us all the clothes and accessories she bought and how great we are going to look tonight at the party. We all ordered lunch and I got to try butterbeer for the first time. It's like butterscotch candy mostly, its sweet deliciousness coats my tongue and I order another once I'm done. I wonder what kind of treats the party will hold tonight. Maybe I’ll finally meet “the boys” and see the one I ran into this morning.

#young sirius black x reader #fooling you? sirius black fanfic #marauders au #marauders x reader #dumbledore x grindelwald #sirius black #sirius x reader fanfic

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chemicalmagecraft · 4 years

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The Gamer Hero, Deku Chapter 30

A/N: I initially forgot that the HP-related stat in The Gamer was VIT and not CON when I first started writing this chapter because I had DnD on the brain. How embarrassing would it have been if I hadn't caught that?

xoxoxo

I looked at my newest text boxes as Aizawa-sensei talked.

Through repeated meditation, your VIT has increased by one!

By raising VIT above 100, two random skills have been created!

The skill 'Healing Grace' has been created through VIT rising above 100 and having a healing skill with a level of 95 or higher!

The skill 'Immovable Object' has been created through VIT rising above 100!

The skill 'Purity of Body' has been created through VIT rising above 100!

Through repeated meditation, your STR has increased by one!

I'd actually got them on the way to school so I could go to my work study, which was pretty lucky. My VIT had been pretty close to the hundred-point benchmark after that ridiculous +15 to all stats, so naturally I'd had my Mantra set to level it up for the past few days. And now that I had the skills, I'd probably be trying to get my STR up. It wasn't as high as VIT was, but it still wasn't that far off so I'd set Mantra to level it unless I was Meditating, when I would switch Mantra to something else and use Meditation for STR. Mantra's benefits had improved slightly as it leveled up, so it might even happen within the month!

I closed the text boxes after I was done reading what the skills did. Purity of Body was the standard improved version of the previous benchmark's skill, nothing much to comment on there other than the fact that it probably synergized well with Damage Reduction because it improved my HP. Immovable Object was... I suppose it was good and I could definitely find uses for it, but it looked a little unwieldy, too... It was a powerful barrier spell, but the barrier got a lot of its strength from being rooted, completely immobile. Even after turning the skill off the barrier would take a few moments to dissolve, leaving me immobile unless I could brute force my way through it... which I could probably do if I wanted, but not without using up more MP. At the very least I was already halfway through puzzling out how to use Item Enchantment to combine it with Imaginary Architect, which would give it a lot more versatility (though I doubted I'd get much EXP if at all for it if I only used an enchantment derived from it...). The barrier would be immobile even in midair, though it thankfully made me immobile relative to Earth and not truly immobile so I wouldn't fly off every time I used it.

I noticed, though, that it reminded me of Illusion Barrier in a way. I couldn't tell too well without actually using the skill, but it felt like it drew on the same underlying dimensional... thing... that Illusion Barrier tapped into, though in a different manner. Instead of creating another layer of reality using its fabric, it seemed like the barrier would gain extra stability by being rooted to it. Though maybe 'rooted' might not have been the right word for it...

The best skill, though, was Healing Grace. In addition to increasing the rate at which my HP naturally regenerated, it also enhanced the effects of any skill I had that was even remotely related to healing. That was amazing, especially with how my current objective (even if I hadn't gotten a quest for it) was to heal Iida's brother. And that wasn't all Healing Grace enhanced. Regeneration, Meditation, and Mantra also healed for more now, though it seemed that Super Regeneration, being a Quirk and not a skill, didn't have the same benefits. It didn't seem to do anything for the MP regeneration effects on Meditate and Mantra, and while I couldn't check it as easily I assumed the same could be said for the rate at which it trained my stats. Not that I cared that much, it was already good. And that wasn't even mentioning its active effect, which let me sacrifice HP to further increase how effective my healing skills were at healing others. HP that it caused me to regenerate at an increased rate. I would have to be careful with it, but just skimming a bit off the top of my very large HP bar to improve my healing and level up Healing Grace faster seemed like a good idea.

Okay maybe I was overhyping Healing Grace just a little, but it looked pretty good. Plus the fact that it modified Mantra meant that it was passively gaining EXP with Mantra, even if it was only a little.

"Remember, you're not allowed to wear your hero costumes in public without express permission from a hero you're studying under," Aizawa reminded us. We were waiting for our transportation at a train station, and Aizawa-sensei was using it as an opportunity to give us some reminders. "And make sure you keep track of them, don't just leave them lying around." He glared at me. "Speaking of... Midoriya, you're the only person here without a costume case. Where is it?"

"I have it in my inventory, sir," I told him. "I figured that since I would only be allowed to take it out when I'm allowed to use my Quirk anyway, I might as well make it easier on myself."

"I suppose that's fine, then. And everyone, remember to mind your manners. Now go, your transportation should be here soon."

"Yes, sir!" everyone said before we went our separate ways. I noticed Iida walking away alone, so I walked towards him.

"Iida!" I said. He stopped. Kacchan and Uraraka walked up behind me. "Just remember," I said. "If you ever feel overwhelmed, you can talk to me."

"Me too!" Uraraka added.

"Again, I'm probably not the best person to talk to, but I'll totally listen if you want," Kacchan said.

I smiled. "We're friends, okay?"

He slowly turned around. "Of course." With that, he resumed walking to his train. I followed him. "What are you doing, Midoriya?" he asked.

"Sorry, I think my train is this way too."

He glared at me. "Did you plan this?"

I raised my hands in defense. "I swear I didn't! My train is just this way."

"I suppose so."

"Good luck on your work study, though," I said. "And be safe."

He nodded. "You too, Midoriya."

xoxoxo

I stared at the little map that Yagi-sensei had given me, comparing it with my minimap as I walked down the street. "So this Gran Torino guy even made Yagi-sensei nervous... I wonder what he's like."

"I can't say what he's like now, but when I knew him he was nice, though very... severe," Shimura told me.

"So like Yagi-sensei's version of Aizawa-sensei?" I asked.

She made a noise a bit like a verbal shrug. "Kind of, but not exactly."

"Well I can't wait to see him."

"Speaking of, why did you choose to go here?" Honenuki asked me. "You have us, so it's not like you really need his instruction on how to properly use One For All. No offense to him, of course."

I shrugged. "Yagi-sensei said that he was heavily DEX-based, and I've been meaning to work on my mobility anyway. Plus I didn't want to just brush him off, if he knows about One For All and All For One." I paused. "Hang on, were they just the two halves of that saying? Why did I not notice that before?"

"That was the last time my brother and I agreed, actually," Ichigo explained. "A few years after he forced Power Stockpile on me, we had a confrontation. He had continued to use his Quirk, called Power Theft then, for his own selfish gain, while I had just found out I could give my Quirk to someone else." He chuckled wryly. "We actually used One For All and All For One as a bit of a shared catchphrase when we were kids, so we agreed to split it in half, as it were."

"That's... kinda poetic, actually. Thank you for telling me." I stopped, seeing that I was in the right place. I looked up from the note. "Huh. This... is the right place, right?"

The place was... this might sound bad, but it looked a little run-down. Yagi-sensei mentioned that this Torino guy had come out of retirement to teach me, so it was probably just that the building was old. The doors looked fine, though, so I hoped that it was just that the outside that was worse for wear. I knocked on the door, waiting to be let in.

A few minutes passed, so I knocked again. And again I was met with silence. "Excuse me," I said loudly. "I'm here for an internship?" There was definitely someone there on my minimap. I asked my elementals, and they told me the person was just... laying there, covered in ketchup and sausage links. "I'm coming in, excuse me!" I decided, then opened the unlocked door. If I didn't know the old man was alive and the things under him were ketchup and sausages, I probably would've thought he was dead. It didn't help that the lights were off and there was a shattered plate on the floor.

Get Off My Lawn

LV 92

Torino Sorahiko

Though I was pretty sure the dead didn't have titles. "Hey, are you okay?" I asked.

His head shot up. "I'm alive!" he shouted.

"Yeah, do you need help cleaning up? You appear to be covered in ketchup." I didn't want to assume it was a test or prank, in case he actually did slip while carrying a plate of ketchup-covered sausages. "If you'll allow it, I have water magic and can summon paper towels with my Quirk."

"Oh, thank you, young man!" He got up shakily, leaning heavily on his cane. He was definitely wearing a hero outfit, regardless of his current state. I didn't think anyone would wear a yellow cape and a domino mask casually, at least. "Who are you?"

I pulled some paper towels out of my inventory. "I'm Midoriya Izuku, from Yuuei. I'm here for a work study?"

He took the paper towels and started wiping himself off. "Oh. Who are you?"

"Midoriya Izuku."

He smiled at me. "Toshinori?"

That was Yagi-sensei's name, so I guess he knew I had One For All, at least... "Um, any help, guys?" I asked the past bearers.

"Maybe try reading his mind?" Hikiishi suggested. "You can do that, right?"

"Sora, why?" Shimura sighed.

"Where's your costume?" the old man asked once he finished wiping himself off. His bearing had shifted, and he looked a lot more serious. He wasn't shaking anymore. "Put that on and fire One For All off at me."

I opened my inventory and dragged the costume case over to my equipment screen. Just like I'd hoped, it autoequipped my costume for me, and it even put on a little button that looked like it would let me autodequip my costume and pack it back up for me (hopefully returning my original clothes with it). I'd have to check if it actually did that, but it was cool nonetheless. My hero costume appeared on my body with a rush of air. I stretched, checking the changes to the outfit. It looked mostly the same, but I could already feel that it was easier to move around in than my old costume.

"How'd you do that?" Torino asked.

"Did you get any information about my Quirk?" I asked him.

"It's called The Gamer and it gives you powers like a video game character, specifically an RPG."

I nodded. "I have an inventory power, which is what I used to get those paper towels for you. It also has an equipment menu, and I just equipped my hero costume."

"That makes sense, I suppose." He got into a fighting stance. "Now hit me with your best shot. One For All only."

"Um... Can I do something first? If I throw a blast of One For All, it'll probably cause property damage."

"What is it?"

"I have a spell that... It's a little hard to explain but basically I can use it to let us do as destructive training we want without worrying about property damage, by basically putting us in a temporary pocket dimension."

He nodded. "Do that, then."

I placed my hand on his shoulder and dragged us both into an Illusion Barrier. Then I turned around and punched at the door. "LIMIT BREAK!" I shouted as the blastwave wrecked most of that wall, as well as the street and the building on the other side. "I am very glad I used Illusion Barrier," I said as I shook off my hand. It didn't hurt too bad, but after using One For All at 100% it was a little tingly.

"Well there's your problem, kid," Torino said. "Well, I can see another thing that you should be mindful of, too, but you've got one main problem. I know a bit about video games, you know. Watched a few YouTube videos on some RPGs when I decided to take you on, too. Plus I watched your performance in the sports festival as well. You're thinking about One For All like a limited resource or a super meter to draw on when you need a big attack, but that ain't just what it is. Think about how Toshinori uses One For All, I'm sure you've seen him use it before."

I nodded and put some ideas about what he meant in the text chat for the past bearers to give their thoughts on. "I think I get what you're suggesting."

"Good." To my surprise he jumped around the rest of the room, zooming between the floor, three remaining walls, and even ceiling. He landed on a nearby table, breaking it, and grinned at me. "You wanna put it into practice?" He pulled out a stopwatch. "You have three minutes to land a single hit on me, using only One For All. Starting now." He clicked it and started jumping around again. He was using his Quirk, Jet, which let him shoot powerful jets of air from the bottoms of his feet. He darted in for a punch, and I dodged backwards, tapping into One For All. Really, it was so obvious that I would've hit myself if I had time. It was basically what I did for Elemental Aura already, just using One For All instead of elemental magic. I felt a feeling like lightning running all over my body as I jumped. I sailed clear out the hole that was the broken fourth wall, still keeping my eyes on him.

He bounced a few more times before shooting straight at me. I stood my ground, concentrating more One For All in my arm. When he was close enough that I was hoping he couldn't dodge the attack, I punched in his direction. It was a textbook Texas Smash, sending a powerful shockwave in Gran Torino's direction, but he managed to dodge to the side with his Quirk. He shot at me again, but I dodged out of the way first. "I see what you did," he noted. "You saw me bouncing around the room with blinding speed and decided to get me out in the open, where maybe I'd be a bit slower." He grinned. "Changing the environment to your advantage or your opponent's disadvantage. Good. Just remember that it might not always work. After all, you're the one on a time-"

I didn't let him finish that, trying to blindside him by charging at him while he was still monologuing. He still managed to shoot upwards before I hit him, but I had anticipated that and used Weird Flex (that might have been cheating slightly, but it was less of a magical or Quirk-related skill and more of a literal skill that just happened to get enhanced by The Gamer, like Sword Mastery) to pivot so that I could push off the ground with my hands. The ground cracked with the force that I used pushing off of it, and I shot into Gran Torino foot-first. He grunted, stunned, and I punched off the air a few times to get on the opposite side of him so I could catch him before we hit the ground.

Your level has increased by one!

I was already pretty close to a level up before that fight, so even though it wasn't much of a fight the EXP was still enough to level me up.

"Sorry if that was a little too hard," I said when we landed, then pulled out my Quirk healer license. "I can heal you, if you're hurt."

He grunted, got up, and rubbed his stomach. "Thanks, kid." He chuckled. "You really showed a lot of promise there, kid," he said as I healed him. "It only took me a little prodding to correct how you use your Quirk."

I smiled. "Yeah, and we didn't even touch on my other Quirks."

He raised his eyebrow. "'Other Quirks?' Plural?"

"Sorry, did Yagi-sensei not mention that?" I asked. I raised my hand, switching Skeletal in. Oof, my costume wasn't looking too good after that giant blast... I was already going to use Mending after my demonstration, but still... I tensed my arm, activating Skeletal. White armor calcified along my hand and forearm, forming something like a gauntlet that destroyed the remains of that sleeve and glove. "The Gamer evolved the ability to copy Quirks during the sports festival. I got the Quirks of the past bearers, as well as a few others, as quest rewards from a quest related to the sports festival." I deactivated Skeletal, causing the bone armor to retract back into my skin, and fixed my costume with Mending.

"Well, practice with those new Quirks of yours for now." His demeanor lightened. "I'm gonna go get us some food!" He walked away.

"Um... Let's go inside first so I can drop the Illusion Barrier first?" I suggested. "I don't think I'm allowed to just drop us out of a pocket dimension in the middle of the street."

He looked at the carnage we'd made, then around at the lack of people on the street, and chuckled. "That sounds about right. No use scaring the civilians." We walked back inside. "Who are you, again?"

I broke the barrier. "Midoriya. Should I just practice with my Quirks and magic until you're back?"

"Sure. But who are you, though?"

I sighed. "Just go, please."

"Goodbye, Toshinori!" He said with a smile as he walked out the door.

"Goodbye," I said. The second the door closed I activated another Illusion Barrier, leaving my elementals on the other side so I would know when he came back. I'd recently gotten a new setting for Illusion Barrier, but I decided against using it quite yet and just made another skeleton barrier. "Practice with my Quirks. Got it." I activated One For All again, getting that electrical feeling again. It reminded me of using Lightning Aura, actually. Which made sense, given how close what I was doing was to Elemental Aura.

That gave me an idea, but first...

I jumped, putting all of my strength into it. I immediately regretted that, as using One For All's full power to jump seemed like it was slightly overkill seeing how high I flew. Luckily I had I Burn on, so I'd absorbed all the energy from how hard I hit the ceiling, an impact hard enough that I lost some HP from it even with my Physical Endurance and Damage Reduction. And then I absorbed the negligible amount of energy I got from punching through a cloud a moment later. Speaking of which, I looked at the building...s I just destroyed from the giant hole in the cloud I was above. It was so far away that even with Hawkeye I could just barely see the largest chunks. I didn't actually expect it to work, so I was pleasantly surprised when I felt them when I reached out with Singularity. "The range it has is ridiculous, if it can do that," I muttered. I yanked, pulling those chunks upwards. "It doesn't even feel like I'm straining it..." I did notice my regeneration dropping a few points as I pulled the chunks up to me, but it was amazing how much power I got out of Singularity.

I turned off Singularity as I dropped below the cloud headfirst, switching to grabbing the chunks that had just flown past me and into the clouds with Blackwhip. I made a barrier enchanted with Immovable Object above my feet and braced on it to stop the building chunks. I strained at their momentum for a second, then jumped with half the power I had used before once the pull from the chunks abated. As I hurtled downwards I looked around the town I was above. I saw a few important landmarks: a tower, a square with a fountain, an important-looking building that could've been town hall, and the train station I'd arrived at. I double-checked that I was still in the Illusion Barrier, because this would be really bad otherwise...

I raised the amount of One For All I was using and swung my hands, trying to hit the four targets with the building pieces I was carrying with Blackwhip. My aim was a little off, but considering the fact that I was throwing around giant chunks of rubble I was fine with the result. Plus, they had all ended up crushing some skeletons that had spawned. I'd read in an article of tips for heroes Yagi-sensei had shared in one of his classes that in general a hero should try to not throw stuff at people if they can avoid it because they can typically hit harder than whatever they can pick up and it lowers property damage in general, so while that was fun I wasn't planning on making a habit of throwing buildings at people.

I let myself fall after that. I'd lost some of my momentum when I'd thrown the buildings, but I was still coming in fast. I could probably just use Float to stop falling, but I decided to try to tank the landing instead. It'd be great for I Burn, for one. I switched in Skeletal, giving myself some extra armor over the areas that I'd be landing on, and used Earth Aura to provide some shock absorption. I landed in a textbook three-point landing in the middle of a throng of skeletons, triggering an OFA-overpowered Earth Burst as I did that basically caused a miniature earthquake.

"Ow," I said despite the fact that it only took off a small bit of health that I gained back almost immediately. "Deadpool was right, those are hard on the knees..." I got up, turning Skeletal off and Mending my shredded costume again. I was standing in the middle of a crater with giant cracks radiating from it. I noticed dust pouring into one of the cracks. "Hello," I said as the skeletal samurai spawned. "It's nice to see you again." I could've probably just flicked it to death with One For All, but I decided against that.

The skeleton charged and swung at me, but I blocked it with Skeletal armor. I trapped the sword as I glanced off my armor by forming spikes of bone around it, then switched in Magnetize without switching Skeletal, Copy, or I Burn out. I could feel that the efficiency dropped when I used Magnetize on the sword, but not as much as the last time I tried it. After Magnetizing the sword, I slapped the skeleton's armor, giving it a dose of Magnetize too, and pressed the sword to it. I snickered when the skeleton tried futilely to pry the sword off of its armor, even though Magnetize wasn't as strong as it could've been.

It glared at me, despite not having any eyebrows. I somehow got the message that it wanted me to take our fight seriously.

"Okay, sorry." I put the palm of my hand up to its chest. "I'll take this seriously now." I switched out Magnetize and Copy for Explosion. I had an idea I wanted to test, so I created a hole in the bone armor on my palm for Explosion to work. I gave my hand a bit more One For All than the rest of my body and triggered a blast. I was forced to take a step back from the recoil as an explosion like a shaped charge blasted a hole through the skeleton's armor. It was armor-piercing, sure, but just like when I tried chopping bits off of the other skeletal samurai it only shaved off some HP.

"I guess sometimes finesse just doesn't compare to brute force," I muttered. True, I could've taken it down with hits like that, but it would take way longer than just encasing it in ice with Half-Cold Half-Hot and throwing it into a building with Blackwhip, which I did. This time the skeleton didn't drop anything, which hopefully wasn't because I encased it in ice before killing it.

I got a message from my elementals that Gran Torino came back, so I went back to his house in about a second using Sonic Embodiment. I placed myself about where I thought the floor was before I turned it into a crater, then dropped my Illusion Barrier. Thankfully, dropping out of Illusion Barrier in a position where something was there in the real world didn't do damage to anything and just caused the two objects to move if possible until they weren't inside each other, so even though my aim was off and my feet were clipping through the floor I just shot up until I was standing.

"Ah!" Gran Torino, who was carrying some grocery bags, shouted when I appeared out of nowhere. "...Who are you, again?"

"Sorry for startling you, Torino-sensei," I said. "I decided to train in my Illusion Barrier, which was a good call because the first thing I did wrecked this building."

"That's nice, whoever you are." He yawned. "I'm tired. I think I'm gonna go to bed after I put these away."

"Oh, I thought you'd want to spar some more..." I said.

He handed me a bag full of packages of frozen taiyaki. "That's nice, kid. Wanna help me put away the groceries?"

"...Did you only buy taiyaki?" I asked. Observe told me the other grocery bags only had taiyaki in them, too... It was a good thing The Gamer meant I didn't need to eat, I guess...

"Don't be silly, Toshinori!" he said with a goofy grin, then produced a lollipop. "I got this for you, young man!"

I took the lollipop. "Thanks, I guess..." I put it in my mouth. It was green apple, not my favorite flavor but at the same time it wasn't my least favorite flavor. He probably picked it because of my hair... I checked the fridge when I put the taiyaki in the freezer. He had a wide variety of food, a lot of it healthy but also a lot of sweets, too. I guess he just really felt like getting taiyaki. I felt his gaze on me while I checked the fridge. Maybe he was testing me by showing fake signs that he was senile?

"Good night," I told him when we were done putting the taiyaki in the freezer. "I think I'll train a bit more before I turn in for the night. I'll try not to stay up too late, though." That was kind of a lie, but one could argue that because The Gamer made it so I didn't have to sleep I technically couldn't stay up to late...

"Good night, Toshinori," he said with a grin.

xoxoxo

A/N: So yeah Midoriya already has experience enhancing his entire body at once with magical energies, so I figured we could skip the whole "I'm a taiyaki" bit and get straight to the Full Cowl with only some light scolding to jumpstart him.

Elemental list: Midoriya: Halitus, Dune, Rayne, Blaise, Juniper, Mifuyu, Raimon, Iggy, Sonia, and Claude Bakugou: Pyra and Leaf Tokoyami: Corvo Uraraka: Nebula and Ion Hagakure: Lucy Tsu: Bubbles Aizawa: Charlie and Cassiopeia All Might: Seth O'Scope

#fanfiction #bnha #bnha fanfiction #The Gamer Hero Deku #GHD CH30

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sad-lad-posts · 5 years

Text

Dark Oneshots: Chernobyl “Stolen Life”

This occurs after the first chapter of @dank-hp--memes “Pulling at Heartstrings” This contains dark content related to forced abortion and depression, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

-------

Ulana came too a few hours after Charkov had left, her legs were in stirrups. A blonde man, obviously a KGB agent, was standing and supervising as an older, male, doctor prepared to numb Ulana’s cervix. Ulana began to squirm as what was happening became obvious.

“What is going on” she mumbled, still quite out of it.

A young and scared looking nurse approached Ulana.

“We are going to perform a D&C,” The nurse said sheepishly.

“No… No, I want to keep my baby” Ulana mumbled, beginning to struggle more.

“If she does not stop moving, I will not be able to numb her” The doctor said, getting frustrated with Ulana, who was already restrained.

The young nurse swallowed nervously, frozen to the spot. An older nurse, with a particularly cold expression, pushed past her and held Ulana down.

“Trust me, little kitten, you will want to be numbed for this” She grumbled in a very husky voice.

Tears began to roll down Ulana’s cheeks. The only thing she could say was, “I want to keep my baby.” The numbing did little to prevent the immense pain Ulana felt as the doctor began to scrape out the lining of her uterus. Ulana began to squirm again, the harsh restraints cutting into her arms and legs.

“No, please!” She screamed, overcome with an almost crippling pain.

Tears streamed down her pale cheeks as she continued to scream and squirm. She could feel as they tore the life from her womb. Ulana sobbed as hot and sticky blood began seeping from her as the doctor scooted back, removing his mask and gloves. At that moment, Ulana wanted to die with her baby, for she could not fathom continuing with her life. In a small tray lay the contents of her uterus that had just been scraped out. Ulana was still shouting and sobbing; even though, she could hardly hear herself. Her ears had begun ringing and the whitewashed room had begun spinning. Fear and anger had taken their hold on her, and she could not calm herself. The older nurse had quickly whisked away the tray, to keep from aggravating Ulana further. The blonde man quietly slipped from the room, as though he had never been there in the first place. The young nurse upped Ulana’s morphine a little, in the hope of calming her down. In the end, they sedated Ulana, for she would not stop screaming about her baby. As easily as the life had been planted within Ulana, it had been ripped out and extinguished.

Ulana awoke in the midst of the night, her stomach was cramping and the space between her legs was warm, sticky, and soaked with her blood. When she tried to sit up, the pain in her abdomen intensified. Her head was throbbing, and it felt as though she had a bad hangover. She laid there quietly as tears welled in her eyes. Her hand rested on her stomach, over her now desolate uterus. Her world seemed to have descended into chaos. It seemed, as though, all of the happiness had been extracted from her life with the loss of her child. It felt as though this was the end of the line. Was this truly what her life had come to?

Days passed and Ulana refused to move from the bed. She would not eat or drink, and anyone who came to visit was promptly turned away. She had become thin and sickly looking. Her skin was pale from blood loss, and her eyes looked dark and sunken in from lack of sleep. Originally, Ulana was seeking her own death. The doctor had tried prescribing her anti-depressants, but they did very little to help Ulana. It was not only depression that had overcome Ulana, for a deep rage now burned within her. Her anger was indescribable. She yearned to seek revenge. To make Charkov pay for what he had done, and to make him feel the pain that she felt. But her body defied her commands, and she just laid there, drowning in her anguish.

A few days turned into a week, Ulana’s condition had not improved much. She was now eating and drinking, but the portions were abysmal. She turned down almost every visitor. The only person she had allowed to see her was Dimitri. He was one of the few people Ulana knew could lift her mood.

After first laying his eyes on Ulana, Dimitri dedicated himself to helping her recover, for it was obvious that she had been through something unfathomable. He would come for hours on end every day to keep Ulana company. The first time he visited her, he held her for hours in his arms as she cried. He had been overwhelmed with worry when she had begun sobbing. He had never seen her cry before; at least, not like this.

As she recovered, Dimitri was the one who took Ulana home. Every day, Dimitri would either come to check in on her or call her, to ensure she did not need anything. It had been just over a month since Ulana had gotten home, she was extremely thin and sickly looking. She was eating, but not very much. She had resorted to consuming copious amounts of alcohol to dull her pain. Ulana believed that it would help, but her moments as a sober woman continuously became worse. Dark thoughts constantly swirled around her head, and Ulana felt as though she could not continue living.

It was afternoon, Ulana was curled up on the sofa and covered in a fluffy knit blanket. A bad hangover plagued her. She stared blankly at the hideous curtain’s that kept most of the light from filtering into her apartment. There was a gentle knock at the door. Ulana looked over at the door for a moment before forcing herself to get up and answer it. The gentle nature of the knock signified that it was likely not someone from the KGB. A list of names ran through her head as she wondered who was on the other side of the door. Upon opening the door, it seemed as if her heart had stopped. Standing just outside was Valery, and he was the last person she had expected to see. He had a cigarette resting between his lips. They stared at one another for a few minutes as Valery’s cigarette smoldered into nothing. Slowly, Valery wrapped his arms around Ulana and pulled her into a gentle hug. The sight of her in such a horrid state made his heart shatter. He could not begin to imagine what would have made her recede into such a state. Ulana was wearing a powder pink slip dress that would have hugged her once curvy body, but now it hung loosely around her frail frame. Valery held her bony body against him, stroking her hair gently. He could feel many of her protruding bones. This filled him with fear and worry. Ulana had begun to sob softly, her tears soaking into Valery’s jacket.

“What is wrong” Valery whispered as he continued to hold Ulana in his arms.

This question caused Ulana to sob violently, her grip on him tightening as the memory of the forced abortion flashed through her head. After a few moments, Valery managed to move them to the sofa where he sat, holding Ulana, who was still crying. Once she had managed to calm down, Ulana somehow managed to tell Valery about the baby, Charkov, and the abortion. Valery sat in silence, listening to her. He was hardly able to comprehend what he heard.

Once she had finished, Valery silently stood up and walked into the next room, a dark rage quickly building within him. He grabbed the almost empty bottle of Vodka and downed the rest of it before turning and throwing the bottle at the wall, causing it to shatter. In his fit of rage, Valery sent his fist flying through the drywall with a crunch. In those few moments, he wanted to make Charkov suffer, just like he had made Ulana suffer. Valery pulled his fist out of the wall and shook it off, his hand aching horribly. Valery ignored the pain in his hand and returned to Ulana’s side. Despite wanting to seek out Charkov and make him suffer, Valery knew that Ulana needed him now more than ever. Ulana looked numb and emotionless, and tears rolled down her pale cheeks. Valery sat down beside her and looked at her for a moment before laying her back on the sofa and enveloping her in a tight embrace. He planted soft kisses over Ulana’s chest, making his way up to her lips. Their lips locked in an absolutely suffocating kiss. Valery smothered her with his love, wanting to take all of her grief and pain upon himself.

“I love you” Valery whispered as they parted.

Ulana was sobbing as she managed to say: “I love you too”

Somehow, they managed to lay on Ulana’s sofa and cuddle. Valery never wanted to let go of her. He held her tightly against him, caressing her thin stomach with his thumb. He wanted to protect her and ensure her safety.

“We could still have a family… If you wanted” Valery whispered, as he rested his nose against the top of Ulana’s head.

A radiant yet somber smile that crossed Ulana’s face, for his words had filled her with hope. The idea of growing old with Valery after having a few children seemed better than the best of dreams. Valery could not help but smile. It was like he had breathed life back into Ulana, and the very sight of her smile caused Valery’s heart to ache.

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acaciarosewrites · 5 years

Text

Untitled (and Unfinished) HP Black Family AU

So I was looking through my files and I found this that I had written forever ago. Posting it here because I have no plans to continue it at this time.. maybe someday I’ll come back to it, who knows?

Electra Black sighed as she glanced around the darkly decorated sitting room. She was utterly and completely bored. There was nothing to do – aside from lessons with her grandmother, Walburga Black, that had thankfully been cancelled.

The dark-haired ten-year-old girl supposed she was bored because she knew something big was happening. After all, her grandmother did not cancel these family heir lessons for any little thing that could not wait or be solved on its own. No, whatever the reason it was cancelled, it was down to something big happening.

It had to be, what with the number of Black family members that had shown up at Grimmauld Place in the past hour. Electra had been the one to escort them from the Floo room just off the entrance hall on the first floor all the way to the “War Room” that was across from the kitchen on the basement level.

By every Black, she meant every Black.

Her great-grandfather Arcturus had shown up first along with her other great-grandfather Pollux and great aunt Cassiopeia. Minutes after the eldest Blacks had spoken to Walburga the four had sequestered themselves in the barely used War Room with orders to escort any member of the family that arrived straight to that room. And she had done so. Each time trying to glean any information and generally trying to understand the situation that was happening in the few seconds the door was open - and subsequently slammed closed.

Only members of the family that had been born into the family were allowed at the meeting. Her great-grandfather Arcturus had made sure to emphasize that distinction. Cousin Narcissa’s husband had learned that the hard way after being turned away by Arcturus himself. she had told Malfoy only those that were born a Black were being let into the room. The self-entitled prick had pouted worse than she ever had in her life (primarily being raised by her grandmother had taught Electra that if she wanted to pout, Walburga would give her something to pout about).

Lucius left not long after that. Thank Salazar. She was bored, but she was not that bored that she would have accepted his company.

Electra mused that the most intriguing thing, if no the most perplexing, thing to happen today was not even the meeting itself. It was that Andromeda Tonks nee Black had shown up and was welcomed into the War Room with not even a peep out of her grandmother. The world was truly coming to an end. There was no love lost between Walburga and her father’s favorite cousin. Then again, Cedrella Weasley was also down there and World War III hadn’t started - yet.

Electra had barely gotten the idea to wait near the door of the War Room to glean any information she could when the meeting adjourned and the family left before she was crossing the hall when noise from the Floo room caught her attention.

Surely there were no other members of her family left to come to the meeting! The only living members, aside from herself, were her father and cousin Bellatrix and they were both imprisoned within Azkaban.

Walking over to the room in question, Electra poked her head through the half open door. Standing in the center of the room was a familiar and haggard man that stood roughly six feet with sandy brown hair and amber flecked green eyes - eyes that had always seemed warm despite their contrasting colors.

“Papa?” Electra exclaimed, rushing forward into the open arms of her father’s husband.

“Hello El.” Remus smiled as he wrapped his arms around the ten-year-old he had seen only a handful of times over the years.

“Papa, what are you doing here?” Electra questioned as she pulled back slightly from the hug to peer up at him. “Not that I’m not happy to see you! Electra was quick to reassure him.

Remus chuckled and shook his head, “I know. Not often we are able to see each other.” They both shared commiserating looks.

Electra had only been just over a year old when Sirius was arrested and imprisoned in Azkaban for his alleged crimes. Remus was her father’s husband and her stepfather, but he didn’t have any claim over her because there was no blood relation despite Sirius’ wishes and directives. She would have gone to her godparents, but James and Lily Potter were murdered by the Dark Lord. As it was there was a custody... dispute... that immediately sprang up after her father’s imprisonment. Her grandmother, backed by the Black elders, had petitioned for her custody as had Electra’s biological mother, Priscilla Rowle.

In the end, Electra had been removed from Remus’ care and given to the Blacks to raise. The girl wasn’t an idiot. She knew the only reason that they wanted her was because she was the rightful heir to the Black Family. While Walburga Black may have burned Sirius’ name off the family tapestry and disowned him, Arcturus Black was still the head of the family and he had not disowned his grandson. Seeing as how his only son Orion had predeceased him and Regulus had died before having children, Sirius was the only male Black that qualified as an heir. Though his incarceration had complicated matters, Arcturus figured Electra would be a better heir to the family than Draco Malfoy would.

Of course, though her mother had not gained custody of her, she was given visitation. When Electra was seven years old she had overheard an argument between her mother and grandmother. It was a horrible fight that had scared her, but she learned some interesting and important things that night.

Nobody talked about her father. She knew his name, knew he was in Azkaban. But that was all she had known up to that point. Electra had found out that he had a husband, that she had a stepfather - one who had taken care of her and loved her as if she were his own.

One who had loved her enough to try and appeal to Priscilla Rowle to allow him to send letters and gifts to his daughter.

Electra had debated about what to do with this information for days. On the one hand, there was no way that she would get to see her stepfather. After the long and hard-fought custody battles that had taken place after her father was arrested and the fact that she was isolated from the outside world - excluding members of her family - and there was the fact that no one even talked about her father and the few things she had managed to overhear... well she knew that no one would allow her to see her father’s husband.

On the other hand, no one knew she knew about her stepfather. No one had to know if she was writing to him. And no one had to know if she was meeting him when the opportunity presented itself.

So, in the end Electra had contacted Remus Lupin-Black. Sending him a letter (one that had taken twenty different forms before she decided to just explain how she had come to know about him and how much she would like to meet him and know more about him and her father. She had gotten a reply and soon the two were owling each other, always careful to ensure that their letters to and from Electra were sent in the dead of night. Electra made sure that the letters her Papa (as she had dubbed him) were locked away in a box that only she could open that was given to her by great-aunt Cassiopeia.

The very first time she met Remus after beginning to owl him was when she was eight years old. Her grandmother was called away by Black Family business and the raven-haired girl had assured she would be alright on her own. After all, they had a house elf that could watch over her. With portkey (probably illegally made) that would take her back home in a second in hand, she had Kreacher apparate her into Malfoy Manor. It didn’t take much for her to convince Kreacher to allow her to visit her cousin Draco and spend time over there. Once he was gone she took the Floo over to the Leaky Cauldron before exiting out in the hustle and bustle of Muggle London. Her Papa had met her a few buildings over. It was all Remus could do but to simply lead her to the city park a few blocks away where they would end up talking for hours.

They got to know one another well after that. She learned more about her father and stepfather about her deceased godparents and the little bit he knew about her god-brother – the famous Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived – that was sent to live with muggle relatives for his safety.

She had also learned that her dad was innocent of the crimes he was imprisoned for.

Remus had told her on that first face-to-face meeting that Sirius had not been the secret keeper for the Potters as everyone believed. They had hatched a plan to have people believe that he was the secret keeper as a misdirect to keep Peter Pettigrew out of the line of fire. And who would believe that Peter was their secret keeper when Sirius Black was James’ best friend and the best man at his and Lily’s wedding? Nobody. They had thought they were so clever. When everything had happened that Halloween night, Sirius had gotten a bad feeling and left Electra with Remus and told his husband that he was going to check on Peter. From there Remus could only guess how everything went down.

Peter had betrayed them. He had betrayed James and Lily to Voldemort and Sirius had gone after him.

Things got confusing after that. Sirius had been arrested after killing Peter and a street full of muggles.

Remus had finally been granted a visit to see his husband in Azkaban. He had only been granted his request because he had gone to Dumbledore and told him he needed to do so to move on, to heal from the betrayal.

It was there in Azkaban, that Sirius had told him what had happened. How Peter had betrayed them all by joining Voldemort, how he had tricked him and caused the explosion that killed the muggles and had cut his own finger off before transforming into his secret Animagus form (a rat, how telling).

Sirius had informed Remus that Peter was still out there. He had also implored his husband not to go to anyone with this. They would not waste any time in throwing a werewolf into Azkaban for causing a stir.

It was a lot for the young girl to take in, but she trusted Remus. She didn’t know how but she knew the older man was telling her the truth – she had always had the knack for knowing when someone was telling her the truth or straight up lying to her face.

Remus had then told her he’d been spending his years trying to hunt down any leads on Pettigrew and where he had gone to ground after the fall of Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Electra had shaken her head as she focused on Remus. While she had taken every opportunity to see her Papa over the years, he had never been to Grimmauld Place. It was too risky. And now that every member of the family who was born into the family and was of age were currently in the War Room it was not a good idea for him to be casually entering the ancestral home.

“Papa? What? You shouldn’t be here! If they found out... you know that they are all here? Something’s happened but I don’t know what and—”

Remus silenced her by holding up a letter. “It’s fine El. I was formally invited.” Electra immediately recognized Grandfather Arcturus’ scrawling script, beautiful and masculine, with her Papa’s name on the front.

“What’s going on?” Electra practically demanded.

“Your dad escaped Azkaban.”

“What!” the raven headed girl practically shrieked.

“Your dad escaped Azkaban.”

“How? Why? Have you seen him? Do they know?”

Remus chuckled lightly, “Marauder secret. He found out where the rat was. Yes. And if you mean your last question to be about your family, yes. If you mean the last question about the Aurors, that’s a yes as well.”

Electra took in the information and nodded.

“Did he get the rat?”

“We were at an advantage. The dementors didn’t realize your dad was gone for two days. He made excellent time. The rat didn’t know we were coming. We have him caged. The only question is what happens now.” Remus pulled a folded newspaper from his traveling robe. It was the morning edition of the Daily Prophet. “SIRIUS BLACK ON THE RUN! YOU-KNOW-WHO’S NUMBER ONE ESCAPES THE INESCAPABLE!” could clearly be read across the top of the paper with a moving picture of her father chained around the arms and legs while holding up a placard with his Azkaban ID number, clearly screaming at the person who had taken the photo.

Electra looked away from the paper, a questioning look on her face.

“I’m here to see how your family is going to handle this.”

“You intend to tell them of his innocence?’ Electra was surprised. Most of the people in that room wouldn’t lift a finger to help her father and those who were kinder, who still spoke to her father after everything had turned their backs and washed their hands of him when Remus had tried to explain his husband’s innocence.

“I plan to remind them that Sirius never had a trial, was never officially convicted, that he’s still the heir to the Black Family, and that he’s basically been kidnapped and held hostage by our government for the past nine years. How they respond is up to them.” Electra couldn’t help but to nod in agreement. That was probably all for the best. “Where is this War Room?”

“Down the stairs, first door on the left.” She said as she led him out of the Floo Room and over to the staircase that led to the basement level of the house.

“I’m going to have to wait out here, aren’t I?”

“You could,” Remus smirked at her, “Or you could go across the street and hang out in the small court yard for a bit.” He threw back over his shoulder as he descended the steps to the basement.

Electra was frozen as she watched her Papa knock on the War Room door before being permitted to enter. She didn’t even stick around to watch the door close behind him. The ten-year-old was racing down the hall and out the front door. She barely paused to look both ways before crossing the street.

Electra’s silver-grey eyes scanned the courtyard carefully before she caught sight of the reflective canine eyes peering through the bushes. Eyes that were focused directly at her.

She held her breath as a large Grim-like dog emerged slowly, as if he was trying not to frighten her.

#HP #The Black Family #OC #Sirius Black's daughter #Sirius Black #Remus Lupin #Walburga Black #The Black elders #mentions of various members of the black family #and the Malfoys #wolfstar #sirius black x remus lupin #sirius black x oc #AU #acacia-rose-masen #Acacia Rose Writes

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megacrustle · 6 years

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My last Paper Mario odyssey partners.... had a lot of fun making these! even if they dont get very many notes lol

Part 1 [x] / Part 2 [x]

Oh Mario Baby, I know you're a big, ~strong~ man and all but let me handle these low-class goons~ Siren the Loch Lady. Siren is a former classical opera singer with a silky voice that can put others under her spell. Under the guise of a high-class and posh lady, Siren is actually a bit callous and has a pension for anything morbid. She has no patience for anyone who wastes her time and has no qualms in dealing with others in however manner she decides necessary. Leader of an intimidating "Informant" spy group, Siren and her associates offers help and information to anyone who needs it (granted they have the coins). However, for unknown reasons Siren offers Mario help completely pro bono. Despite her convincing and sadistic nature, Mario and Team have no choice but to accept her incredibly useful help. Siren's ability "Intimidation" is to make enemies on more likely to avoid Mario, meaning he has an easier chance of backtracking or traversing while on low HP? In battle she can give enemies the "cold shoulder" which deals ice damage, as well as charming enemies with her singing so they temporarily switch sides in battle. Attacks Cold Shoulder- Siren snubs a ground enemy and gives them a cold shoulder, dealing ice damage that might freeze enemies. *Siren's Song- Siren sings and has a chance of charming an enemy so they temporarily switch to Mario's side of battle. **Kiss and Tell- Siren plants a gentle kiss on an enemy, dealing damage that penetrates Defense and healing herself the same amount. ***Endear-Gives Mario another chance to act. It's not until later that it's revealed her Sister has disappeared due to mysterious circumstances and she believes Mario's journey is the key to uncovering what happened to her. After time and bonding with Mario and Party, she has grown a bit attached and decided to help him on his journey herself. On this adventure, maybe she will open up emotionally more to the group and in return become less cruel and spiteful.

Times like these makes me just wanna pull out my guitar and strum some mellow jams. Got some good vibes comin' your way, brothuh, I believe we can make it through anything. Morris the Moe-Eye. A world famous retired musician, Morris has traveled to every kingdom playing sold out concerts and spreading the cheer covering a wide range of genres including blues, country, and folk rock (as well as the universal charm of his smooth, golden voice). His music focuses on themes of adventure, self discovery, and other introspective concepts that make those listening stop and *really* thinks bout whats going on in their lives and the lives of others. Morris has a very open minded view of others, he believes everyone and every location has its own story to tell, and in his youth he has traveled the globe and experienced many things in order to gain inspiration for his music. Like other Moe-Eye, Morris has the ability to view invisible and unseen objects, but Morris is capable of seeing also invisible attributes of people and objects, such as emotions, which helps him bond and relate to others exceptionally easily. Morris's ability is to use his shades to reveal hidden objects in the overworld. In battle he can strum rancorous cords that deal damage to enemies or strum a silky lullaby that might lead some to fall asleep, Attacks: Rowdy Twang- Morris plays an unpleasant cord that damages any enemy. *Spectacled- Morris equips his sunglasses which allows him to see enemy weaknesses, which may boosts his attack or defense. **Lullaby Blues- Morris strums his guitar gently and softly, which may cause enemies on the field to fall asleep. ***Rockapalooza- Morris performs a concert which boosts the spirits of the party, temporarily increasing his own and Mario's Attack and Defense as well as replenishing some star points and filling more seats in the audience. Morris joins Mario because he's grown bored of the retired life and decides to relive his old days as an adventurer and helping others, and maybe get inspiration for a come-back album he's planning along the way. How does he even play a guitar without fingers? Does he use his toes?

Come Captain Mustache, with our help we will destroy suffering and evil once and for all! In the name of truth and justice, all villains will experience the mighty power of ROBOT RABBIT RANGER: CYBROOD! Cybrood the Robot Rabbit Ranger. Originally built by a mysterious and unknown scientist, Cybrood was originally 3 individuals of a team of 100 other Rangers who were created to solve problems throughout the world. But when one of these Rangers started strafing towards the side of villainy, re-branding itself as Rex λ, it decided to end the group once and for all by destroy every last Rabbit Ranger. All but 3 Rabbit Rangers were slain, their bodies destroyed and their minds incorporated into the evil singularity of Rex λ. The 3 remaining Rangers; Ranger X, Y, and Z; attempted with all their might to stop Rex λ from wreaking havoc across the cosmos, so they lured it back to their place of origin and used their collective powers to trap it in an indefinite prison. Rangers Y and Z, however, were mortally wounded during the fight. The only way to save them was for Ranger X to assimilate their minds into its own mainframe just as Rex λ had done to the other Rangers. With the assimilation complete, all 3 rangers were no longer individuals, but a new single entity now known as Cybrood who has taken it upon themself to guard Rex λ from escaping its prison. Cybrood has been in guard for many, many lonely years which has given them time to think about themselves. They love being heroes and helping other but more importantly they look back at all the times they were able to give others joy and see smiles on their faces. Perhaps when they're finally back out into the world, Cybrood can find new ways to make others truly happy. Cybrood's ability is an Elemental Blast: Using a concentrated laser that cycles through shock; freeze; or burn, Cybrood can solve numerous puzzles and advance through a multitude of obstacles. In battle he can defeat enemies with simple chopping attack, high kicks, and other similar martial art attacks. Attacks: Bunny Hop-Cybrood quickly hops over to an enemy and kick them with their powerful robotic legs. *Elemental Blast-Cybrood blasts an enemy with his powerful laser, which may leave it shocked, frozen, or burned. **Over the Moon-Cybrood grabs an opponent and flies them high into the sky. A turn later they come crashing down onto the field like a meteorite damaging other enemies on the field. ***XYZ Star Rush-Cybrood produces a myriad of holographic stars to shower over the enemies, causing massive damage throughout the stage. Cybrood follows Mario because, after Mario helps them defeat their demons both literal and metaphoric, they are not only just able to finally return to their original objective of helping those in need and saving the day but also now has a chance to possibly explore new career paths and find new ways to bring joy to others.

HUMAN MARIO, IT IS WISE OF YOU TO HAVE FOUND COMPANIONSHIP WITH A SPIRIT SUCH AS I. WERE WE ENEMIES ON THE BATTLEFIELD, I WOULD BE UNABLE TO DETERMINE THE VICTOR. Ja-Shi the Jaxi. A benevolent and ancient spirit, she has protected the denizens of a small village for thousands of years but has become ambivalent of outsiders. But when a danger comes to her village not even she can handle, she realizes she needs to team up with Mario who she did not initially trust in order to keep the townsfolk safe. Ja-Shi's ability is to carry Mario over deadly and hazardous obstacles such as spikes, poisonous water, or lava(similar to Lakitu or Carrie). In battle shy can trample enemies, burn them with spectral flames, or pull them into the spirit world for massive damage. Attacks Knock Back- Ja-shi slams onto the closest ground enemy, launching them to the back of the stage. *Trample- Ja-Shi rams through all ground enemies, possibly launching some out of battle completely **Spectral Bark- Ja-Shi roars and inflicts an enemy with fire damage, possibly leaving them burned. ***Spirit Warp- Ja-Shi attacks and drags an enemy into the spirit world, dealing massive damage as well as leaving a guarantee burn. Ja-Shi joins Mario because she wants to put an end to a greater threat that could cause possible harm to her village or its inhabitants. Maybe on this journey she can learn to have more trust of outsiders, and be more accepting of receiving help and friendship from those outside her town.

Zap Bang Crash and Pow!! Have no fear, Powup is here!! Powup the Bonneter. A quirky little ghost from Bonneton, but unlike the other guys who possessed hats she had the ability to possess and take the powers of power ups! She is a super secret bonus partner, so Mario has to do some work to get her amazing benefits. Outside of battle, Powup can help Mario locate hidden and secret objects. In battlem Powup acts as a 3rd partner: Mario just has to activate an item and Powup will take its powers. She only has 1 attack and it varies between item, but a 3rd partner can help with Mario's strategy as she can damage enemies, defend herself or her teammates, and appeal to the crowd to increase SP. Mario can change what powerup she is currently possessing anytime as long as he has the item in his inventory, and if she falls in battle he can bring her back. She's a bit of a trickster and hid herself behind multiple difficult objectives to see if anyone could find her. After Mario succeeds and reveals her from her hiding place, she devotes her loyalty to him for being such a clever player.

#paper mario #paper mario partner #super mario odyssey #mario oc #lochlady #moe-eye #broodal #jaxi #bonneter #cappy

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nonbinarysasquatch · 6 years

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for the critical opinion on ships ask meme: dramione, rethaniel, joshbecca, grebecca?

Ah, yes, let’s see how many people I can piss off in one go. I’ll tackle these in reverse:

Grebecca: Maybe in some alternate universe these two could work out but not in the one we have. They were very toxic for each other and Greg, frankly, deserves better. I think It Was a Shit Show said everything about their relationship that needed to be said. It was terrible and Greg did the right thing by leaving.

While I do think Rebecca loved him, as long her obsession with Josh and her on issues went unaddressed she would’ve continued to string him along and eventually they would’ve hated each other. I think they were a really good example of how love can’t save a toxic relationship and you shouldn’t destroy yourself trying to make a toxic relationship work.

I do think seeing all the shippers who harass Rachel and Aline have soured me further on this ship but I still love Greg as a character. He’s (in my opinion) the most realistically human character the show has had.

Joshbecca: Josh is a sweet guy but he’s not remotely emotionally intelligent enough to be with Rebecca. And frankly, they just don’t have much in common. The main way they connect at all is via his childishness but for Rebecca that’s not healthy (and I’d argue it’s not really healthy for Josh either.)

There’s probably a universe where they could date for a few months and have fun but that’s it. They are just too different and in terms of the actual canon universe Rebecca has beyond treated him awfully and it’s only by the grace of the fact that Josh is the most forgiving and kind character on the show that he doesn’t hate her.

Rethaniel: Oh boy. Are you ever like, “Well, I’m about to say things that literally no one is going to be happy with”?

It’s been an interesting journey tracking my feelings about this ship. On my first watch through I was surprised by how much I was able to like Nathaniel, despite his flaws. But then I rewatched and was better able to analyse his actions (while watching season 3 live it became easy to forget things he had said and done and I didn’t pay attention to fan discussions at all.)

There are definitely Nathaniel moments I like. Actually, I still love his plot in Josh is Irrelevant because I really relate to him getting triggered in that episode for some personal reasons. It’s the only time I’ve found him relatable, though.

The funniest thing is that deciding to check out the CXGF fandom on Tumblr was the thing that really started to bring out my negativity about the ship. Simply because I was stunned to find out so many people... shipped them so wholeheartedly. It made me uncomfortable even though at that point I still hadn’t put an enormous amount of thought into it because frankly: I don’t care about Rebecca’s romantic life at all. It’s not why I watch the show. So my attitude has tended to be “she can have romantic stumbles and bad relationships as long as the end of the show isn’t about her romantic life.”

And I mean, that’s STILL my attitude. I know some people disagree but I’m fine with Rebecca having bad relationships and I know some people REALLY disagree but I think there is value to Nathaniel as a character (DON’T HATE ME LEAH) and deconstructing the privilege and abuses of wealthy straight white men in America.

Now, thankfully, my experience with Rethaniel shippers has all been great and most seem to be lovely people and many of them ARE critical of Nathaniel’s actions. So I don’t hold anything against them, and I’ve been forged in the fires of HP fandom where some truly gross ships are also some of the most popular so...

Anyhow, here’s why I’ve gone from kinda neutral on Rethaniel to them being actually something I’m against:

Look, before we get into any of Nathaniel’s behaviour and meta on his place on the show, I’ll just say: it’s really fucking hard to ignore that every female Jewish fan of the show I’ve interacted with hates Nathaniel. It’s not my place to comment on why that is but when an entire group is like “this dude makes us uncomfortable” I tend to listen.

Meta wise, we now know that Rebecca is Nathaniel’s Josh, aka object of obsession that he’s idealising. Which means that aside from any of his actual behaviour, once Nathaniel can get over that obsession it won’t be healthy for him to continue to interact with Rebecca.

Nathaniel sexually harassed Rebecca while they were trapped in an elevator.

He plotted to deport Josh’s father and to murder Josh’s grandfather so that he could get laid (though it’s debatable whether Nathaniel really thought he would have to go through with these things, I do think if Rebecca had been cool with them he would’ve let them happen and buried any guilt as per usual.)

He repeatedly bodyshames her.

He treats her mental health problems as cute and attractive.

When she breaks up with him he fires her out of spite (something he basically confesses to.)

Rachel Bloom has said that Rebecca is attracted to Nathaniel in part BECAUSE he negs her and that definitely tracks with Rebecca’s low self-esteem. She’s also said that her interactions with Paula’s dad factor why she goes and sleeps with Nathaniel after getting back to West Covina, so erm, unpack THAT.

For me the final clincher is “Nothing is Ever Anyone’s Fault” a song which I should note, I like (as a piece of satire and meta-commentary, which is a case for a lot of the show’s morally not great pieces.) After everything, Nathaniel doesn’t see anything he’s done as wrong. I do think he will eventually but the end of season 3 and the title being “Nathaniel is Irrelevant” to me send a clear message.

I’m baffled that some people think “Nothing is Ever Anyone’s Fault” is a sweet, romantic song when everything about it is the opposite of the message the show is trying to convey. Rebecca and Nathaniel are saying in that moment that part of what has drawn them together is not taking responsibility for their actions and blaming everything on trauma. It’s destructive and toxic, not romantic. And this evidenced by the following scene in the courtroom where Rebecca rejects Nathaniels amorality and chooses her conscience (aka Paula.)

And like, soon I will finish my season 3 reviews and get into why the season 3 finale is genuinely one of my favourite things the show has done (as it was the next missing piece that I wanted the show to cover... they had dealt with what Rebecca’s underlying problems were but not fully dealt with her need to take responsibility for her actions.)

I think there’s hope for Nathaniel as a character. He can grow and be redeemed and learn to use his privilege to help people, rather than using it as a weapon and a shield. But he needs to stay away from Rebecca. I do think they love each other but their love is destructive.

My final thought I want to attach is that... I think there’s something to be said for the relevancy characters like Nathaniel have for Americans. In this country, our real life villains look like Nathaniel and his family. They represent white privilege and and cold, driven capitalism.

It’s not entirely surprising that so many of us find it easy to love Nathaniel and latch onto him as a character. I think it’s something we’ve been conditioned to as a way of coping with life in a capitalist hellscape.

Observe the way people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are treated by many liberals. Jeff is, to be fair, a liberal but he’s also the wealthiest man in the world and his company has some serious ethical problems with how their workers are treated at all levels (it’s not just the people working in the warehouses, I’ve known Amazon programmers in the past and the work conditions are nightmarish and not sustainable unless you are in perfect health and have no personal life.)

And Elon Musk is a libertarian who has donated to Republicans who want to take people’s rights away but he still gets weirdly treated like some sort of liberal icon.

And I don’t want to poison the well too much, but I would like to at least make a cursory gesture at our president, who is a privileged straight white man who openly sexually harassed women, is guilty endless racism, antisemitism, ableism, misogyny and has of course been accused numerous times of sexual assault. A complete list of why our president is awful would require an entire novel to itself...

But someone like our president was able to get elected. Half the country voted him in.

And obviously... Nathaniel isn’t wealthy on the level of guys like that (or he wouldn’t be pissing about with a lawfirm like Whitefeather) and he’s mercifully not a monster like our president. But I do think our need to cope with our environment contributes to liking characters like him. If people like him can be good inside and can be redeemed then maybe there’s hope for this country.

But in reality... people like Nathaniel don’t grow and change. But I believe they can. And, for me anyhow, this is the value I see in Nathaniel. They can send a message to straight, white men about privilege and learning to fight back against the patriarchy that lifts you up. He can be a good person. But his road to that might be a little harder because men like Nathaniel don’t change because privilege protects them. Why change when society itself never allows you to fail?

But I think Nathaniel will grow and change. But I think it’s important he does that on his own. Rebecca can’t be his manic pixie dream girl (even though that’s literally how he sees her.) Rebecca’s journey is her own and it’s not about the men.

#crazy ex girlfriend #at least this is so long that no one is actually going to read it lol #please no one hate me!#Anonymous

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noblecrumpet-dorkvision · 7 years

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Sorcerer Week: Sorcerers in the Game

image credit: Denman Rooke

As a Player

Your Sorcerous Origin: Sorcerers may seem at first glance to be something between warlock and wizard. Mechanically, that is somewhat true. But from a roleplaying standpoint, they are their own distinct animal. Warlocks get their magic from a higher power. Wizards get their magic through research and study. Sorcerers are born with or otherwise innately linked to a source of magical power.

This leads to many great roleplaying implications. For instance, how does your character feel about their powers if they were born with them? Do you accept your powers? Maybe they reject their birth and choose their own path. Did you seek out some other way to get your powers? This can't be a patron because that would be a warlock, but perhaps you became linked to a source of power thanks to a ritual or an accident or by exposing yourself to the powers of a particularly magical site. Think about what your sorcerous origin is.

How do you feel about other spellcasters? Are they lucky to have been able to choose their path rather than you, who were born with it? Or are other spellcasters weak compared to you, who have a free, direct connection to a font of magic power? Are you ostracized by other spellcasters for your powers or embraced by them? Think about this when interacting with other magic-users.

Sorcerous origins tend to also affect their wielder's visual appearance and personality. A dragon sorcerer has weak draconic features like colored scales and horns. A phoenix sorcerer (from UA) is often reckless and chaotic thanks to their fiery nature and their ability to explosively return to life once a day. Think about your origin and how it's affected your body and personality.

Gameplay: Sorcerers tend to be very focused on spells. Crazy, right? Their other main mechanic is metamagic. The important thing about playing a sorcerer is knowing when to use metamagic and which metamagic options to choose (Since you only start with 2 and end up with a total of 4 once you finish the progression). One of the best options for level 3 is Quickened Spell because they get you more bang for your magical buck. Quickened Spell turns an action into a bonus action, which means you can often cast an additional spell (only a cantrip) or do something like dash or disengage. It’s useful in a tight spot when you absolutely need to cast something quickly.

As for your second metamagic at level 3, the best options are Empowered Spell and Heightened Spell. Heightened Spell lets you ensure those powerful single-target spells go through like Dominate Person. Empowered Spell is good for upping the damage of your area spells. Remember, you can use it after you make the damage roll so save it for when you have a lot of 1s and 2s to reroll.

Twinned Spell tends to be more expensive in terms of sorcery points so you should take that at level 10. Twinned Spell should be used on your spells that require concentration or are long-lasting buffs because you will get far more mileage out of it than twinning your evocation spells. A sorcerer is pretty much the only class that gets around the “one spell at a time” concentration rule.

The other metamagic spells are for more specific builds but can be interesting:

Careful Spell: if you’re playing a megadungeon campaign you may need this to protect your allies.

Distant Spell: if you’re playing a “sniper” spellcaster this would be the ideal choice.

Extended Spell: if you’re going to play a sorcerer that casts a lots of buffs and debuffs instead of being a blasty sort of character, this is actually a much better option than Empowered Spell (but not Heightened Spell)

Subtle Spell: strictly for campaigns with political intrigue or that take place in a city with (ugh) rules limiting your spellcasting.

As for gameplay, you should try to utilize your spells wisely. Judge creatures’ HP to figure out if that kobold needs a cantrip or a Disintegrate spell. You don’t have as much utility as a wizard, but you make up for it in raw power and versatility of your spells known. Knowing when to use which spells and what slot to cast it at and whether to spend your sorcery points is all key to the class. Ask your DM frequently when a creature looks bloodied or looks like it’s about to die so you don’t waste a precious spell slot or sorcery point. Use your Twinned Haste spell when you know that you will absolutely need to. Sorcerers are the blastiest class in the book, yet their ability to discern and and avoid overkill is what makes them successful.

Another thing not to sniff at is the sorcerer’s ability to replace their spells known while leveling up. If you have found a spell less than useful, you can always replace it later. The best spells to replace are often 2nd, 4th, or 5th level spells because they simply aren’t as powerful and you will, more often than not, be using those slots for empowered 1st or 3rd level spells anyway!

And the last bit of advice: take the Ritual Caster feat to add a ton of spells to your list, a lot of which are high utility spells that belong to the wizard. You don’t have to, but it definitely makes up for a lot of your lacking utility at the expense of a 10 minute casting time.

Choice Spells: Sorcerers don't have the highest variety of spells. Therefore it is important to get the most out of the ones you choose! Don't waste too much space on utility spells. The only exceptions might be versatile ones like Fly (if you lack a wizard), Invisibility (if you lack a rogue), or Enhance Ability (if you lack a divine caster). You aren't meant as a utility character; you don't have a spellbook to write down your once-per-campaign Water Breathing spell. You actually need to commit, so it better be a spell you want to cast every day.

For offense, you need a variety of damage types that call for a variety of saving throws. This way you can always have a way to hurt people. Just pick whatever spell works best for each situation.

When choosing buffs, don't be afraid to choose some spell that require concentration because of your Twinning spell that lets you technically concentrate on two things at once. You are the only class that bends the rules in such a way, so remember to use it!

Let's take a look at some of the better spell choices for a sorcerer:

Defense:

Shield: +5 AC as a reaction is good

Sleep: Good early game, drop once you hit level 5

Mirror Image: Ongoing effect, no concentration

Blink: Movement plus defense

Offense:

Shocking Grasp: Prevents reactions, allowing you to disengage easily

Fire Bolt/Ray of Frost: Generic ranged evocation cantrip

Thunderwave: Fair amount of damage and a push if you get surrounded.

Scorching Ray: Great damage to one or more targets

Fireball: Best area damage

Blight: Unique damage type and good twinned spell candidate

Disintegrate: Best single-target damage. Good twinned spell if you have the sorcery points.

Investiture of Flame/Ice: Good for respective draconic ancestry

Plane Shift: Send enemy to the negative energy plane and have the life sucked out of them or similar. Also utility.

Control:

Blind/Deaf: Good debuff and doesn't require concentration. Use on enemies with ranged attacks to virtually disable them.

Hold Person: Good single-target removal

Web: Good area restrain like Entangle, plus you can burn the webs for more damage.

Hypnotic Pattern: Hits multiple targets with no follow-up saves.

Banishment: Great at removing a single threat, rare save type (CHA)

Compulsion: Force enemies into unpleasant/unfavorable areas, but often more useful in a creative player's hands.

Confusion: Good as an area spell

Polymorph: Useful as a buff or a debuff and even utility in some cases.

Dominate Person: You can use quicken spell to "precisely control" the target but also cast a spell.

Reverse Gravity: Hits multiple targets and is difficult to respond to.

Utility:

Minor Illusion: Very versatile. Only limited by the imagination.

Mage Hand: A handy spell.

Enhance Ability: Redundant if your party has a cleric or druid. Otherwise a versatile bonus.

Invisibility: Useful if you don't have a rogue already.

Misty Step: Prevents getting caught out

Haste: Mandatory for groups with at least two dedicated melee classes. Good spell to get twinned.

Counterspell: If you have a wizard or warlock it might be redundant, but otherwise useful

Greater Invisibility: A good twinned spell target, makes your rogue happy.

Creation: Highly versatile but requires creativity

Wish: The best spell in the game

As a DM

Roleplaying: Sorcerers vary widely in personality but many tend to be chaotic, never tied to rules like a warlock's contract or a wizard's book of magical rules. They will support causes relating to freedom and opposing oppression. Look to that if you want them to join a party or accept a mission.

Take their sorcerous origin into account. A dragon sorcerer is probably going to want to roleplay with at least one dragon during their adventures. Give them something that reminds them where their power came from and lets them interact with it. This may develop a player's character, as well. Perhaps someone that was proud of their draconic origin has finally met a dragon and it didn't end well, and now they wonder if they should really be proud of their origin. They will need to find a new cause or reason to fight, to become an individual. It sounds cheesy, but with someone that has a monstrous bloodline or a direct connection to magic you would assume they feel some powerful emotions.

Create NPCs or organizations that practice magic. Be aware that a sorcerer might be either accepted or unwelcome by that NPC or guild. Even if they are accepted, the sorcerer might feel different from wizards and warlocks. Technically speaking, a sorcerer is a lot less common since they are usually born and not made. Any Joe Schmoe can spend some time learning magic from books or make a deal with a patron. Sorcerers are truly UNIQUE. As a DM, you should make them feel unique. Only put a few sorcerer NPCs in your setting, if any, and make wizards and warlocks more common. This will make the PC into a unique hero or at worst, an outcast (which yields even better roleplaying fruit).

Making them Shine: Sorcerers are the blastiest class. They deal the most damage to a spread of creatures and cause swathes of destruction. Give them hordes of weaker enemies to kill; ones with low HP but are really nasty when they hit. Examples might include Shadows and their strength draining attacks, or maybe some orcs that have a strong poison soaking their blades. The other PCs will be glad they had that dude with the Fireball handy to get rid of them.

Give the sorcerer arcane puzzles, magic traps, and Arcana checks to make for the party's benefit. If the sorcerer is your party's only spellcaster, this will make them feel more useful than their regular blasty self, and they honestly are casting the same spells over and over again throughout their career unlike wizards so they could use a bit of variety.

To combat their repetitiveness further, ensure that you provide detailed or satisfying descriptions of the sorcerer's spells whenever they cast their spells. They didn't choose sorcerer to cast fireball and roll dice, they play a sorcerer to cast fireball and melt faces!

Challenging the Sorcerer: Sorcerers are great at clearing out weeds with only a few hit points, but tend to struggle against single targets. Give them single targets that they aren't able to simply charm, paralyze, or frighten, like constructs, undead, or plants.

Unlike other spellcasters, it's actually not a good idea to try and wear down a sorcerer. They have the ability to convert their sorcery points into spell slots (and vice versa), meaning they can always dig out more spells. Sorcerers true weakness is in their versatility. Throw a variety of creatures and challenges at them to force them to use their spells in more creative ways. Not only does this make the game more interesting for everyone involved, but it encourages critical thinking!

Otherwise, sorcerers fall victim to other weaknesses of "squishy" casters: they are physically weak. Give them challenges that involve Athletics or Acrobatics checks or give them a melee creature that is intelligent enough to go for the weak guy throwing lightning bolts rather than the tanky barbarian dude. This forces them to address a dangerous situation immediately by either casting a defensive spell or by focusing on the aggressor.

#Sorcerer Week #sorcerer #D&D 5e #Dungeons and Dragons #D&D #DnD #DnD 5e #spellcaster #magic-user #metamagic #roleplaying #rpg

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