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autisticdiluc · 3 months

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yandere simulator ramble (mostly ab ayano)

see my thing is with yandere sim obviously there are a bunch of problems from alex himself being the developer, the panty shots in the game (because eventho it's used as blackmail with info-chan and sold to those who want it or wtv there could be a way easier way to blackmail the girls for points), the depiction that the bullies are gyaru giving the impression most gyaru's are mean/bullies, the fact that oh everyone is 18 even though they clearly arent?? amongst other things

yet even then there's something still addicting about the game especially with ayano being a yandere, or to consider: someone with obsessive love disorder (the highest 'level' or intensity of this). even then, although obviously everyone in the aishi family just has to be a yandere, it was gonna be obvious that ayano was gonna be one too rightt?

First Part: Emotions

ryoba fed into the mindset that ayano needed that special someone to be complete so she could finally feel something and she's 'reassuring' ayano that ryoba was the same way when she was younger as well until she found jokichi. ayano, as a child, knew something was wrong with her. there is no doubt that something continues to be wrong with her especially after her own mother teaches her to get rid of blood to use it later to "get rid of future obstacles." Obstacles which refer to the rivals; rivals who are just girls that have a crush on taro (minus muja kina and mida rana because theyre just creeps i fear). even so ryoba's words lingered in ayano's mind. that was ayano's reason to live - something to look for. which btw is kinda fucked up cause she's a child thinking this but also fair anyway,,

Jokichi has attempted to make ayano's life better. he has tried to be a good father; he has tried to be the best that he can be in order to make his daughter feel normal. but with how ayano is - how she is broken from the start - it was impossible. it didn't help that ryoba encouraged the behaviour almost, saying she was exactly the same as ayano AND how she wasn't worried at all. jokichi didn't like that (normal reaction cause hello??) but ayano is nothing but an empty girl. however what i find interesting is that she felt pity for her father. despite everything she felt pity, and that!! is an emotion!! why i find this interesting is how she can feel something for someone else but not for herself. as a result of her pity, she began to act like other children pretending to be normal and happy for jokichi, despite how she knew that he didnt really believe her happiness himself.

and then!! ayano began to pretend all the time. to stop the bullying, to fit in with everyone because it was simply more convenient even if ayano didn't really care if it happened or not. she had friends (though she didnt care about them) and she had a routine established by pretending all the time. she grew resentful of being 'broken'. as funny as that is because she was supposed to broken, yet, she felt emotions to a mild degree. resentment (some might also say bitterness) is like more complex emotion rather than your typical joy sadness etc but it's still an emotion. and ayano WANTS to feel and have emotions anyway. she craves it, ayano longs to feel, its almost painful itself because she can't experience it to a high degree. HOWEVER!!!!!!!!!! as small as it is she's felt emotion, she's felt pity and bitterness and she wants and wants and thats so interesting. what's even more interesting is her length to have emotions. in her lore video, she is seen killing a cat to see if she felt something like guilty or remorse but nothing happened. this is where it (chronologcally) is seen that ayano is willing to do extreme things to see if she could feel something, so it's not a surprise when she's willing to kill her 'rivals' to keep taro.

now ayano is described as someone who has no personality, no hobbies, no true friends, nothing, just an empty husk of a person. however, when she meets taro that changes drastically. she has clearer and obvious emotions; she finally has the feelings she always wanted. although, i believe that she wouldn't react to having feelings the best even with finding osana talking to taro etc etc. if you lived your entire life having no emotions (not any major or obvious ones anyway) until you find your someone (someone who you've been dreaming of, waiting for, needing) and all the emotions finally comes crashing down all at once,, don't you think you'd be more than a bit overwhelmed? she's been missing out on all the sensations people had since birth. she's always felt incomplete and then all of a sudden she meets taro and it fits like a missing puzzle piece finally being placed down. it was clear that taro made her feel happy, wanting love and all positive emotions. although, now that she has emotions: she's going to have to experience the 'bad' ones too. she'll experience anger, annoyance, fear, anxiety, jealousy, desperation, envy, hatred etc etc.

as soon as she sees osana talk to taro yeah you can tell she feels all the negative emotions all at once. she finally has emotions, she finally can experience what everyone else takes for granted, but osana comes in and threatens her. osana talks to taro, has a crush on him, and that sends a spike of fear and anger through ayano because ayano should not be striped away of her newly found emotions. she needs the emotions. and as a result she needs taro because he is the one allowing her to feel this way. she's in love with the emotions. it's not love that she has for taro, not really, but she is obsessed. she has the overwhelming obsessive desire to protect and possess taro (which is literally the description of obsessive love disorder). she needs taro like how she needs air now that she's met him.

as i said like 3 paragraphs above she's going to be overwhelmed, like it or not, and whenever people are overwhelmed they tend to take an unnecessarily drastic and extreme path because when you're overwhelmed you aren't in the best mindset. ayano is still a human even if she was "broken" before. she makes mistakes and she's going to be overwhelmed by her emotions for a while especially because she feels like she's is almost dead when she's not near taro. taro is a trigger for her essentially. when he's near, the overwhelming feelings all come back. she felt dead before, now she doesn't and these feelings repeat over and over every time she's away from taro and when she goes near him again.

on another note l, although ayano "has" taro currently, she still feels broken and incomplete when not near him as mentioned. yet, this incomplete feeling hurts MORE because she knows who her someone is. im going to bring up the fact that ryoba and jokichi went to the states for a 'vacation' (to kill the journalist) without warning. i find it interesting because ayano is most likely to experience negative emotions more intensely than before. taro has brought the emotions to light so i believe she still feels them when she's not near him but it's so mild that it's barely there. however with negative emotions those are easier to feel. ayano was shown to be angry that osana has a crush on taro (and she wasn't near taro at the time) after finding out from info chan in the opening cutscene,, in fact she was at home meaning she was not close to taro at all. as i mentioned though taro is almost like a trigger so its most likely just that. anyway the intensity of negative emotions may be easier to give into. so.... going with an idea that they are easier to give into, it's easier to feel even when not around taro. i believe the feeling of loneliness is something that is practically overtaking ayano's very mind.

ayano has always been lonely, before she met taro and after. she's been lonely in the sense that she never had been able to connect with her peers on a genuine note. lonely in the sense that jokichi only worried about her wanting her to be normal and ryoba was the opposite, not worrying at all. lonely in the sense she always felt incomplete, lonely cause she knew she wasnt normal, lonely because she needed to be fixed, lonely because nobody other than her mother and all those who suffered from the "aishi conditon" would understand her. and even though those with the "aishi condition" would understand they already found their someone, they werent "broken" anymore. and speaking of the those finding their someone it is highly likely that ryoba devoted more of her time to jokichi than she did to ayano. the reason i believe this is because although ryoba has jokichi, she needs him to love her as well. gonna leave it there but!!! ryoba and jokichi are away in the states currently. so if ayano did feel lonely before she's going to feel lonely in that empty house. a house too big with your own thoughts, own freedom and doing whatever the hell you want. ryoba actively encouraged ayano to do whatever she needed to do to get rid of the 'obstacles' in her life if she found her special someone. its no surprise with the eliminations you can do one of them is torturing your rivals (or even just mind breaking a random student). (On a side note Japanese houses don't have built in basements so ryoba had to literally custom add that)

anyway I bring forth another thing: neglect. however I'm going to go into detail with this with the second part: OLD

Second Part: Obsessive Love Disorder

Obsessive Love Disorder is something that Ayano has. Obsessive Love Disorder as said earlier is a disorder where a person feels obsessive over another person and feels the need to protect them. this isn't really looked at as an 'actual' disorder to psychologist but i couldn't give two bare fucks about that. let's break it down with SOME of the symptoms of OLD:

overwhelming attention to someone

obsessive thoughts

feeling the need to protect the person you're in love with

possessive thoughts and actions

extreme jealousy over interpersonal relationships

low self-esteem

may not take rejection lightly/easily

ignoring personal boundaries

overly controlling

being overwhelmed with emotions about a person that is disrupts your daily function

threatening the other if they leave

monitoring the others actions

blurring or crossing boundaries

anxiety

inability to tolerate time away

most if not all of these things can be easily associated to ayano's behavior. ayano stalks taro, occasionally fantasizes that he kidnaps her, dislikes all the girls who try and talk to taro, wants him all to herself, feels dead when he's not near, follows him home so she can spend more time 'protecting' him, cannot see a life without him (evidenced by 'snap' ending as when she kills him, she kills herself not long after), her first interaction with him shows her finally feeling emotions and as i said she's going to feel overwhelmed with them, anger and anxiety that a 'rival' may be able to take taro away from her, based on ryoba where she tortured jokichi i doubt that ayano would take lightly is taro tried to leave her, finally rejection results in quite literally being heartbroken AND snap so it's obviously not taken easily nor lightly etc etc

anyway!! those are some examples that relate to the symptoms now here are two of the many causes.

some of y'all (if anyone reads this actually but the group council in my head will suffice) may not like this one but number 1 is neglect.

neglect is one of those things that can be in several forms. the more common forms would be emotional neglect (AND!! physical neglect), e.g. not telling your child you're leaving to go away to take care of some 'business' until you're already gone. (even worse when the business is to kill a man but yk). with this neglect you're emotionally unavailable (and in this case also physically). to understand better emotional neglect it is when a child does not receive the stimulation and nurturing they need. ayano has not received stimulation or the necessary nurturing from ryoba because ryoba fully heartedly believes that all ayano needs is that special someone. in a sense, she is right but she was actively neglecting ayano by not helping her instead just repeating that someone will come to complete and fix her. as said in the example it can also be physical neglect as ryoba left a teen (because no way you're a junior and 18, fuck you Alex the highest you can get is 17.) all by herself in a house whilst indirectly promoting the use of the basement through vague post cards and childhood lessons.

(And yes! Encouraging negative behavior is neglect because you do not care what happens to those around you!)

another form of neglect that ayano experienced was medical neglect. this form of neglect isn't as obvious but can be picked up in ayano's lore video. at the very beginning, it is stated that her first memories are that of hospitals, doctors and everything medical wise. this was most definitely jokichi's work as the best ryoba has stated on the matter was how they were similar and how ayano will find her someone to complete her. now later (but before ayano pretends) the hospital etc weren't mentioned again. it can be thought and implied that ryoba decided it was a waste to focus medically on ayano because she'll simply find her someone to cure her later. this can be thought out to be medical neglect because there could've been a small chance if ayano kept doing, if she visited more happy places there's a possibility something could've changed. even then this neglect isn't so obvious so it's easy to ignore. to add on though teaching your child how to clean up blood for not so good reasons is encouraging negative behavior and could be a contribution to her messed up mindset.

another reason would be delusional jealousy. this is inhibited by an instance or things that are false. this delusional jealousy can also make one believe someone is in love with them even if there are obvious signs that is not the case.

okay for this reason I believe the delusion itself is fostered by the fact that ayano needs taro so she believes he must need her. it's a common mindset even without OLD that if someone needs something, others must need it too making possessiveness and jealousy to form. because the game isn't complete and is likely not going to be complete in the next decade, it's hard to tell if taro would actually like ayano as a genuine person. (and I would say that it's kind of obvious that he doesn't but in game taro is a pussy? if you even stand near him for more than 5 seconds he's like "oh she's strange" "stay back get away from me!!" even when ayano isn't doing anything?? like in game I wouldn't be close enough where the pink love thing pops up and taro would still be like "get away from me!!!") but if ayano hypothetically talked to him like all of her rivals, then taro would maybe like her.

once again these two are not the only ones that can be associated with ayano but these are the only ones I wanted to discuss.

anyway ending this section to go to the next important one!! drumroll... Pacifist vs Murderer

Third Part: The Endings

this is the third part of my rant that consists of pacifist ayano vs murderer ayano which could be "Good Ending" Ayano and "Bad Ending" Ayano.

starting off with something a good bunch of yan sim fans don't actually agree on is that pacifist ayano is a completely different person than murderer ayano.

and you might be thinking "wrap it up luca,, pacifist is different than a murderer no shit"

but really it's more than that. pacifist ayano is different because she actually truly expresses her emotions when she's a pacifist. even if you gossip about the rivals or expell them where they don't show up to school anymore, ayano can be seen as a person who expresses her emotions because she's so much more than a murderer. this is even more vividly seen if you befriend the rivals. once again this is based off the two rivals that are out, osana and amai. if you decide to befriend osana and she comes to your house in the morning, there is the infamous talk where osana talks about her stalker and how she can't believe that someone could fall in love without knowing them. this, to ayano and the player itself, can be associated with ayano herself especially considering how she 'loves' taro without knowing him and has stalked him. now when ayano decides not to betray osana, giving her normal tea, it can be seen how desperate ayano is to keep taro without actually harming osana. osana may like taro, but ayano needs him. the desperation expressed through the befriend route shows the most human ayano ever. this desperation and longing for taro is carried through the same befriending route with amai (although her conversation involves jabs at having a "rival" and "eliminating" them).

the most human and realest part of ayano is when she befriends the rivals and begs them not to confess to taro. (if it isn't obvious I love the pacifist ending because I like the raw desperation and human form of ayano compared to the murderer route)

in contrast to pacifist ayano, when ayano murders the rivals, her sanity obviously decreases. unlike in game where you can giggle or go near taro to increase your sanity, it's not that easy irl.

keep in mind if ayano doesn't increase her sanity and it goes below 20% then ayano starts hallucinating and murdering those around her. even if ayano could realistically easily increase her sanity after killing a rival that is to show that ayano will only be a murderer (something the headmaster and megami saikou thinks her to be). if ayano were kill and regain her sanity quickly she is as broken as people think her to be. she is truly nothing but an empty husk who follows her mother. she may have emotions but she isn't someone you can love. she isn't someone who can be seen as a human. like ryoba, ayano would most likely follow the path that ryoba led where ayano simply kidnaps taro at the end torturing him and making him her husband. as said earlier, negative emotions are easier to form so it would be easy to give in to the pestering intrusive thoughts to kill her rivals. it's the quickest way out and it's the true emotionless thing most want her to be. being violent seems to be the easiest way out and most often people take that route, however, in the very end ayano simply follows her mother's path of decay and destruction. murderer ayano is easier to conform, though, is that the real ayano? is she someone who can't be proven not to be broken? another thing is that if ayano does go this route and she doesn't get caught, all she ends up doing is create a cycle. she continues down the path that ryoba had laid out for her since the beginning. (which honestly is the lousiest route and ending to take because people just loveee the trope of repeating the cycle)

personally I don't care much for the murderer ending but I will admit it is interesting to see how ayano spirals and ultimately decides to kill off every single one of her rivals.

the next two endings are going to be briefly the genocide ending and "snap" ending.

genocide ending is simply the ending where ayano is a murderer but instead of just applying that to just her rivals she does it to the entire school minus taro. it's the 'darkest' ending depending on how you look at it because it proves that ayano couldn't stand anyone else coming between her and taro. she needed taro all to herself and she did just that by killing every single person in the school all in the first day of the week (minus the headmaster, taro, infochan and the guidance counsellor). in this ending you can tell that ayano's sanity is completely gone by the way she says "so..i killed them all" in the cutscene that plays. ayano says it in such a manic and inhuman way its obvious that she doesn't regret it now that she can have taro all for herself. at the very end of the cutscene it pans to taro being in the basement tied up. this is where its clear that ayano follows ryoba completely (if not surpassing her in terms of violent nature and sense due to how she killed every one instead of just her rivals) to keep taro as her senpai.

and finally, snap ending. Snap ending is by far the most interesting one in terms of endings. Before ayano kills taro with the knife, when she walks to every student she kills them with her bare hands. in this ending I believe that she's more "broken" than her other endings. she's given up on this world and she's willing to take out others who get in her way (literally). the others are so terrified to the point where they can't even move, they just watch until it's their turn. ayano feels nothing but heartbreak and there's no other option but to kill taro then herself. even before she kills herself with the same knife she used to stab him, the insistence of voices saying "do it" continue to loop giving her no other option but to join taro. this ending is so interesting because it shows how ayano physically cannot live without taro and how she's willing to make sure that nobody else has him. another thing interesting about it is the trope of "if you die, I die". this trope is placed into things like Romeo and Juliet where Juliet pretends to die and Romeo kills himself to "join" her. when Juliet wakes up and finds Romeo dead she soon follows killing herself actually to join him.

anyway I think I'll stop for now cause I've been at this for hours LOL

The End (for now..)

idk I like yan sim a lot and I love ayano's character (I doubt yandere dev was smart enough to do it on purpose but whatever.) Ayano is literally my girl and I love her so much ❤️❤️ ayano is just a girl

#yandere simulator #i hate yandere dev i hope he dies #i do not support yandere dev #yansim #ayano aishi #ayano #ayano is literally my oc wym #pacifist ayano #taro yamada #rant post #rambles

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ramonag-if · 2 years

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I love my MCs progression after meeting Salyra:

happy mom is back > sad mom has another family > angry mother is trying to force things > furious Salyra looked through their things > ??????? about the new information

Also, the whole Salyra drama is kinda healing to me? I say this as someone that is in a similar situation as Rana 🤡. Salyra may not be the greatest mom but she doesn't tolerate MC being mean towards Rana, which already makes her better than my version of "Salyra".

I'm loving the progression too! I love seeing everyone's reactions to Salyra and her actions because it's what I hoped for with those scenes 😊

Salyra is very protective of Rana and if the MC allows her back into their lives, she'd be quite protective of them too.

#crown of exile #answered asks #salyra #chapter 6 #rana

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balzabul · 9 months

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internet co. loid headcanons bc i never rly post/think abt them

gumi - the star of course; she never let it get to her head tho, she's just as happy staying in w/ friends and family as she is performing. she always gets ppl rly kickass gifts for holidays/birthdays despite ppl often thinking she's a little absent. she's just like that! it's not her fault!

gakupo - only performs in small private venues (his own decision) after several years of dealing w/ the stress of having to live up to his human voice provider's legacy. can tell you anything at all about any famous japanese sword from the last 400 years and is thrilled to do so

gachapoid/ryuto - V3 is a child actor/singer and has a contract with a popular kids show as the host; loves his internet co. family and is always thinking of fun day trips they could do together. V2 quit performing the second V3 was released and makes several thousand dollars a month cheating at fortnite and streaming tiktok controversy reaction videos (fsr these are the only two i rly separate by voicebank version?? i dont rly have diff headcanons for gumi/lily/etc v2 versus v3 etc)

lily - an unexpected friend and protégé of miriam! miriam's like a mother to her after she went to the retired loid's cafe and bar to chat and ended up in a whole therapy session abt being a lower quality vocaloid that isnt getting any updates. she still performs acoustic covers in miriam's cafe.

CUL - the cool weed aunt of the group; she gives gachaV2 fortnite v-bucks every time she vists. while lily struggled with irrelevance CUL thrived in it; she only produces songs for a small private label she founded, and otherwise fills her time with crossfit and volunteer work

kokone - gumi's ex; it was completely amicable and they're still good friends. Gacha V2 calls her "gumi's ex" out loud occasionally bc he knows it pisses her off. she's somewhat sensitive about never taking off like some other vocaloids, but it's not like she thinks about it much

Rana - has an unofficial rivalry with gacha v3 (not v2!) but she doesn't even realize it. she's having a blast guest starring on gachaV3's morning show and having duets with powerhouses like gumi, but gachaV3 feels threatened by another childish character voice. v2 absolutely fuels this by suggesting bigger and better opportunities to rana

Galaco (prize version) - kind of like the mysterious celebrity relative? she never got huge but her name is important enough that she still arrives to holidays in a glitter-coated limousine. she has the money to upgrade every vocaloid in the house on her own dime but instead she uses it to gift tchotchkes and ugly apparel (not out of malice she's just out of touch)

chika - originally a constituent of gumi's, she never really wanted to be a singer until gumi started performing for the big leagues; inspired by her friend she joined the same record label and the two have been inseparable since, though she doesn't get as many big shows. she and lily gossip about the entertainment business

otomachi una - a lot of the internet co. household actually didn't like una when she first got signed to their label; even gumi felt somewhat threatened by a newer, higher quality voicebank. luckily everyone realized pretty quickly that she's just a funny silly gal and doesn't want to overshadow anyone. Spicy and Sugar are separate android bodies and play "the parent trap" type tricks on the rest of the household constantly

#vocaloid

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bastillemxfans · 1 year

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“I love Dan’s reaction when I tell him that I saw Nirvana live. Full interview soon”

📹 Rana Fonk

#bastille #dan smith #daniel smith #bastille dan #stories #mtv unplugged #nirvana

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lunaavaa · 1 month

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Comprehensive Guide to the "Ishq Murshid Cast": Exploring the Talented Ensemble

Table of Contents:

Introduction to "Ishq Murshid"

Overview of the Show

Popularity in the USA

Main Cast Members of "Ishq Murshid"

Bilal Abbas Khan as Shahmeer Sikandar aka Fazal Bakhsh

Dur-e-Fishan Saleem as Shibra Salman

Omair Rana as Dawood

Supporting Cast of "Ishq Murshid"

Veteran Actors

Emerging Talents

The Real Lives of the "Ishq Murshid" Cast

Bilal Abbas Khan's Journey to Stardom

Dur-e-Fishan Saleem: A Rising Star

Omair Rana’s Impact on Pakistani Drama

Behind the Scenes of "Ishq Murshid"

Chemistry Among Cast Members

Memorable Moments on Set

The Impact of "Ishq Murshid" on Pakistani Television

Cultural Significance

Reception by the Pakistani and International Audience

Why "Ishq Murshid" Resonates with American Viewers

Universal Themes

Connection to South Asian Diaspora

In-Depth Character Analysis

Shahmeer Sikandar: The Complex Protagonist

Shibra Salman: The Strong Female Lead

Dawood: The Mysterious Antagonist

Critical Reception and Awards

Reviews by Critics

Awards and Nominations

Social Media Buzz Around the "Ishq Murshid" Cast

Fan Reactions

Viral Moments

Future Projects of the "Ishq Murshid" Cast

Upcoming Dramas and Movies

Potential International Ventures

FAQs About the "Ishq Murshid Cast"

Common Questions Answered

1. Introduction to "Ishq Murshid"

Overview of the Show

"Ishq Murshid" is a popular Pakistani television drama that has captivated audiences with its compelling storyline, rich characters, and exceptional performances. The show, known for its intense emotional depth, has become a favorite not just in Pakistan but also among the South Asian diaspora in the USA. The drama explores themes of love, betrayal, spirituality, and the complexities of human relationships, all while maintaining a strong cultural and traditional backdrop.

Popularity in the USA

"Ishq Murshid" has found a significant audience in the USA, particularly among those who enjoy South Asian television dramas. The show's ability to blend traditional values with contemporary issues has resonated with viewers, making it a staple in many households. The accessibility of the show through online streaming platforms has further boosted its popularity, allowing American viewers to stay connected with Pakistani culture and storytelling.

2. Main Cast Members of "Ishq Murshid"

Bilal Abbas Khan as Shahmeer Sikandar aka Fazal Bakhsh

Bilal Abbas Khan, one of Pakistan's most talented and versatile actors, takes on the role of Shahmeer Sikandar in "Ishq Murshid." His portrayal of Shahmeer, a character torn between love and duty, has earned him widespread acclaim. Known for his intense performances and ability to bring depth to his characters, Bilal's role in "Ishq Murshid" is a testament to his acting prowess.

Real Life Background: Bilal Abbas Khan, born in Karachi, Pakistan, has quickly risen to fame in the entertainment industry. With a background in theater, Bilal has honed his craft over the years, delivering powerful performances in a variety of roles. His dedication to his work and his ability to connect with audiences have made him a household name not just in Pakistan but internationally as well.

Dur-e-Fishan Saleem as Shibra Salman

Dur-e-Fishan Saleem shines in the role of Shibra Salman, the strong and independent female lead of "Ishq Murshid." Her character is a source of inspiration for many, representing resilience, love, and determination. Dur-e-Fishan’s performance has been lauded for its authenticity and emotional depth, making her one of the standout stars of the show.

Real Life Background: Dur-e-Fishan Saleem, a relatively new face in the Pakistani drama industry, has quickly made a name for herself with her impressive acting skills and charming screen presence. A law graduate turned actress, Dur-e-Fishan has proved her mettle with each role she takes on, and "Ishq Murshid" is no exception. Her portrayal of Shibra has not only won her fans in Pakistan but also among the South Asian community in the USA.

Omair Rana as Dawood

Omair Rana plays the complex character of Dawood in "Ishq Murshid." As an antagonist with a mysterious past, Dawood’s character adds a layer of intrigue to the show. Omair’s ability to portray a character with such depth and nuance has earned him critical acclaim.

Real Life Background: Omair Rana is a seasoned actor with a wealth of experience in both theater and television. Known for his versatility, Omair has portrayed a wide range of characters throughout his career. His performance in "Ishq Murshid" is just another example of his ability to bring complex characters to life, making him a respected figure in the industry.

3. Supporting Cast of "Ishq Murshid"

Veteran Actors

"Ishq Murshid" features a strong supporting cast that includes some of Pakistan's most respected veteran actors. These seasoned performers bring a wealth of experience to the show, adding depth and gravitas to the story. Their performances are instrumental in shaping the narrative and giving the show its emotional resonance.

Emerging Talents

In addition to veteran actors, "Ishq Murshid" also introduces viewers to emerging talents in the Pakistani drama industry. These young actors bring fresh energy to the show, offering new perspectives and dynamics to the characters they portray. Their inclusion in the cast showcases the diversity and richness of talent in the Pakistani entertainment industry.

4. The Real Lives of the "Ishq Murshid" Cast

Bilal Abbas Khan's Journey to Stardom

Bilal Abbas Khan’s rise to fame is a story of talent, hard work, and perseverance. From his early days in theater to becoming one of the most sought-after actors in Pakistan, Bilal’s journey is inspiring. His dedication to his craft and his ability to connect with audiences have been key to his success. In "Ishq Murshid," Bilal’s performance as Shahmeer showcases his range as an actor and solidifies his place as a leading figure in the industry.

Dur-e-Fishan Saleem: A Rising Star

Dur-e-Fishan Saleem’s entry into the world of acting was marked by her powerful performances and her ability to portray complex characters with ease. Her role as Shibra Salman in "Ishq Murshid" is a testament to her talent and potential. Despite being relatively new to the industry, Dur-e-Fishan has quickly established herself as a force to be reckoned with, earning accolades and a growing fan base both in Pakistan and abroad.

Omair Rana’s Impact on Pakistani Drama

Omair Rana has been a significant figure in the Pakistani entertainment industry for many years. His contributions to theater and television have been widely recognized, and his role in "Ishq Murshid" is no exception. Omair’s portrayal of Dawood is both compelling and memorable, adding a layer of complexity to the show that resonates with viewers. His ability to bring such a multifaceted character to life is a reflection of his skill and experience as an actor.

5. Behind the Scenes of "Ishq Murshid"

Chemistry Among Cast Members

One of the reasons for the success of "Ishq Murshid" is the undeniable chemistry among the cast members. The actors share a camaraderie that translates beautifully on screen, making their interactions more believable and engaging. Behind the scenes, the cast members have spoken about the positive and collaborative environment on set, which has contributed to the overall success of the show.

Memorable Moments on Set

The set of "Ishq Murshid" has been home to many memorable moments, both on and off camera. From intense scenes that required emotional depth to lighter moments that brought laughter and joy, the cast and crew have created a series of unforgettable experiences. These moments not only strengthened the bond among the cast members but also enhanced the quality of the show.

6. The Impact of "Ishq Murshid" on Pakistani Television

Cultural Significance

"Ishq Murshid" has made a significant impact on Pakistani television by addressing themes that resonate deeply with audiences. The show’s exploration of love, spirituality, and personal growth reflects the cultural and social values of Pakistan, making it a relatable and meaningful experience for viewers. The drama’s ability to connect with its audience on such a profound level is one of the reasons for its widespread popularity.

Reception by the Pakistani and International Audience

The reception of "Ishq Murshid" has been overwhelmingly positive, both in Pakistan and internationally. The show has garnered a loyal fan base, particularly among the South Asian diaspora in the USA, who appreciate the drama’s portrayal of cultural values and its compelling storytelling. The success of "Ishq Murshid" is a testament to the global appeal of Pakistani television dramas.

7. Why "Ishq Murshid" Resonates with American Viewers

Universal Themes

One of the reasons "Ishq Murshid" resonates with American viewers is its exploration of universal themes such as love, betrayal, and the search for identity. These themes are relatable to audiences across cultures, making the show accessible and engaging to a diverse audience. The drama’s ability to transcend cultural boundaries has contributed to its success in the USA.

Connection to South Asian Diaspora

For many South Asian Americans, "Ishq Murshid" provides a connection to their cultural roots. The show’s portrayal of Pakistani culture, traditions, and values offers a sense of familiarity and nostalgia, allowing viewers to stay connected to their heritage. The drama’s success in the USA is a reflection of the growing influence of South Asian media in the global entertainment landscape.

8. In-Depth Character Analysis

Shahmeer Sikandar: The Complex Protagonist

Shahmeer Sikandar, portrayed by Bilal Abbas Khan, is the complex protagonist of "Ishq Murshid." His character is defined by his internal struggles, his sense of duty, and his deep love for Shibra Salman. Shahmeer’s journey throughout the show is one of self-discovery, as he navigates the challenges of life, love, and faith. His character is a reflection of the complexities of human nature, making him one of the most compelling figures in the drama.

Shibra Salman: The Strong Female Lead

Shibra Salman, played by Dur-e-Fishan Saleem, is the strong and resilient female lead of "Ishq Murshid." Her character embodies the qualities of determination, love, and sacrifice, making her an inspiring figure for many viewers. Shibra’s journey in the show is one of growth and empowerment, as she faces the challenges that life throws her way with grace and courage.

Dawood: The Mysterious Antagonist

Dawood, portrayed by Omair Rana, is the enigmatic antagonist of "Ishq Murshid." His character is shrouded in mystery, with a past that is slowly revealed as the show progresses. Dawood’s motivations and actions are complex, making him a character that viewers love to hate. His presence in the show adds an element of suspense and intrigue, keeping audiences hooked.

9. Critical Reception and Awards

Reviews by Critics

"Ishq Murshid" has received praise from critics for its strong performances, compelling storyline, and cultural relevance. The show has been lauded for its ability to portray complex emotions and relationships in a way that resonates with audiences. Critics have also praised the cast for their exceptional performances, particularly Bilal Abbas Khan, Dur-e-Fishan Saleem, and Omair Rana.

Awards and Nominations

The success of "Ishq Murshid" has been recognized through various awards and nominations. The show has been nominated for several prestigious awards in the Pakistani television industry, with wins in categories such as Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Drama. These accolades are a testament to the show’s impact and the talent of its cast and crew.

10. Social Media Buzz Around the "Ishq Murshid" Cast

Fan Reactions

The "Ishq Murshid" cast has garnered a significant following on social media, with fans expressing their admiration for the show and its characters. From fan art to discussion forums, the online community surrounding "Ishq Murshid" is vibrant and engaged. Fans often share their favorite moments from the show, discuss character developments, and express their excitement for upcoming episodes.

Viral Moments

Certain scenes and dialogues from "Ishq Murshid" have gone viral on social media, further increasing the show’s popularity. These moments, often shared as memes or video clips, have contributed to the show’s cultural impact and have helped it reach a wider audience. The cast’s interactions with fans on social media have also played a role in maintaining the show’s buzz.

11. Future Projects of the "Ishq Murshid" Cast

Upcoming Dramas and Movies

The success of "Ishq Murshid" has opened doors for the cast members, with many of them taking on exciting new projects. Bilal Abbas Khan, Dur-e-Fishan Saleem, and Omair Rana have several upcoming dramas and movies in the pipeline, which are eagerly anticipated by fans. These projects promise to showcase their talents in new and diverse roles, further solidifying their status in the industry.

Potential International Ventures

Given the growing popularity of Pakistani dramas internationally, there is potential for the Ishq Murshid cast to venture into global projects. With the increasing demand for diverse content in the entertainment industry, the cast’s talent and versatility could lead to opportunities in international cinema and television. This would not only expand their reach but also introduce Pakistani talent to a broader audience.

12. FAQs About the "Ishq Murshid Cast"

Who are the main cast members of "Ishq Murshid"?

The main cast members of "Ishq Murshid" include Bilal Abbas Khan as Shahmeer Sikandar, Dur-e-Fishan Saleem as Shibra Salman, and Omair Rana as Dawood.

What is the significance of the characters in "Ishq Murshid"?

The characters in "Ishq Murshid" are central to the show’s narrative, each representing different aspects of love, duty, and spirituality. Their journeys and interactions drive the story forward, making the show an engaging and emotional experience.

How has the show "Ishq Murshid" been received by audiences?

"Ishq Murshid" has been well-received by audiences, both in Pakistan and internationally. The show’s strong performances, compelling storyline, and cultural relevance have resonated with viewers, making it a popular choice among fans of Pakistani dramas.

What awards has "Ishq Murshid" won?

"Ishq Murshid" has won several awards in the Pakistani television industry, including Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Drama. These accolades reflect the show’s success and the talent of its cast and crew.

What are the future plans of the "Ishq Murshid" cast?

The cast of "Ishq Murshid" has several upcoming projects, including new dramas and movies. There is also potential for international ventures, as the popularity of Pakistani dramas continues to grow globally.

#drama #ishq murshid #people

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thatmcgwords · 3 months

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GOOD CLOTHING TAKES TIME: WHY A MADE-TO-ORDER MODEL MAKES SENSE FOR BUSINESS AND THE PLANET

CFC Member Spotlight: Aiste Zitnikaite of Devinto

Once I started working in bigger companies, I started seeing the trends in their questionable practices. That’s what made me realize that I couldn’t stay working in those spaces and eventually wanted to start my own business — and I knew I wanted to do things differently from what I had witnessed.

I saw so much waste and overproduction. The Rana Plaza collapse also really affected me, because it proved to me that people are risking their lives to make clothes that we end up throwing away and dumping in landfills.

So when I started Devinto, it was important that I was intentional and not just producing clothing for the sake of it. That’s why I decided on the made-to-order business model.

This made-to-order business model is also what has kept me going financially for so long. Usually you have to invest a lot of money to be able to produce a collection, because you have to have all the different sizes and colors. You have to have a lot of cash flow, which I didn’t have in the beginning.

First of all, I keep all of my scraps. I use the scraps to make underwear or scrunchies. There’s a lady down the street who runs a business that makes carpets out of scraps, so I donate a lot to her.

It’s impossible to have no waste at all, but it’s a lot easier to be mindful of how you cut material when you’re not producing on a mass scale. Because my brand is made-to-order and I make garments one by one, I can be mindful of where I place the pattern on the fabric and what I do with the leftover scraps.

Another benefit of the made-to-order model is that there is a greater connection between the consumer and the person making their clothing. Before mass production became commonplace, people would go to their local tailor and have their clothing fitted and measured. They understood the craft that went into creating well-fitted clothing.

Now with mass production, people don’t understand the time and effort that goes into making a garment. That’s why we’ve lost a lot of the value of clothing. This is always a conversation I have when people visit my studio because they can shop while also watching me make the garments.

Their fascination and reactions are always so exciting to me. People often say, “Oh wow, you make all the garments here?!” They’ll tell me stories about how they remember their grandmothers making clothing, or how the sound of the sewing machine is nostalgic.

With my brand, I try to bring back the connection to the person who’s making your clothing. A lot of people assume our clothing is made by machines and I always have to remind them that there are people behind those machines.

The other plus is that I can keep all of my designs on my website. With traditional brands, once you’ve produced the collection, you run out of those garments and can’t offer them anymore. Whereas on my website, you can still browse designs I created when I started the brand. If I have the fabric, and the design is there, I can always make it if someone wants to order it.

Plus it allows me to see which designers are most popular, without having to produce a whole collection. Sometimes I love a particular design, but it’s not the same one most of my customers gravitate towards.I waste less time and money, plus reduce the likelihood of garments going to landfills.

I often speak about the fact that this garment was made just for you. I always encourage people to send me their exact measurements. If it’s a pair of trousers, people can tell me what their inseam is. Or if you’re ordering a sleeveless dress and you prefer to have sleeves, let me know. Or if you want your shirt to be a bit shorter on the arms, I can do that too.

When a garment is made specifically for you, you’re less likely to have to have it altered. I use this to explain the value of waiting a bit longer. Plus if a garment fits right, you’re likely to hold onto it for much longer.

When we started mass-producing clothing, we had to figure out how to fit each person’s unique body type into a limited set of categories so that clothing could be produced in large volumes. But each of our bodies is different and we don’t all fit into the traditional size curve. When people tell me, “Nothing ever fits me. What’s wrong with me?”, I tell them, “There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s something wrong with the way clothes are made.”

We used to have relationships with tailors. Now this is not common practice, because we spend so little money on fast fashion that it’s not worth going to a tailor. After all, you’re spending more on the tailor than on the garment itself.

I explain to people that there is nothing wrong with them and while they may have to wait a bit longer, I can create a garment that fits their unique body type — and that’s worth the wait.

My biggest piece of advice would be: Don’t be shy to share your struggles with people, because you'd be surprised by how many people are out there who are willing to help. You should take the help without feeling guilty because we can’t all be good at everything all the time.

Prioritize doing the tasks that you love to do, are good at, and feel passionate about. For the rest, don’t be afraid to ask for help. I’ve learned to ask friends, family, and professionals for help.

You can't overwork yourself, because when you're too tired, your business is going to suffer.

The biggest piece of advice that I give my mentees is to find their own voice. The fashion industry is very saturated and a lot of people are trying to break into the industry. So be true to yourself and find something unique to you that you’re passionate about. Fashion is a tough industry, and it takes a lot of work. If you don’t have a passion for it, you’ll give up pretty fast. You have to make sure you love what you do.

#cfc

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readingsquotes · 5 months

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"AR: The story that emerges among American liberals is that there was a “good,” early ’60s, which produced the reforms and achievements of the civil rights movement, and a “bad,” late ’60s, marked by student radicalism and Black Power politics. I think this division is way too neat. Many of the figures that were centrally involved in the great achievements of the civil rights period, including Martin Luther King, Jr., were radicals; King called for a “radical restructuring of the architecture of American society” and railed against the “evils of racism, poverty, and militarism.” I would argue that left energy was in fact key to creating the space for even moderate achievements.

Also, this disaggregation between a “good” and “bad” ’60s tries to separate movements and figures that embraced American nationalist narratives from those that openly critiqued them. Again, this is hard to do, since individuals like King, or Du Bois before him, employed both approaches at different moments. Furthermore, this impulse promotes a false explanation of how the civil rights movement succeeded, suggesting that white supremacists were effectively convinced by the persuasiveness of a redemptive national story rather than politically defeated. But in fact, white supremacists resisted civil rights demands even when they were framed in the most respectful, moderate, and pro-nationalist terms. Just think of how Brown vs. Board of Education and tentative steps toward desegregation in the ’50s and early ’60s precipitated intense white reaction and violence. No matter the narrative language, white supremacists knew that their existing power and status was being contested.

...

AR: A striking feature of the current protests is their explicit internationalism—their refusal to treat foreign matters as disconnected from domestic injustices. Such internationalism recognizes the shaping role of American global primacy both at home and abroad, and the reality that meaningful internal change cannot occur without comparable external shifts.....

What’s striking about this moment is that even without American soldiers in Gaza, many young people and activists understand the US as a direct participant. They see the Israeli government’s extreme violence both as tied to American overseas power—given the US’s seemingly unlimited military support—and as continuous with domestic American histories of segregation and dispossession. In this way, today’s revival of the colonial frame—a product of many things, including the Movement for Black Lives, years of work by Palestine advocates, the knowledge production of a changing American academy, and, of course, the US’s approach to Gaza—is notably resonant with the ’60s activist experience of both Vietnam and civil rights protests.

....

Some centrists and liberals again simply juxtapose “bad” decolonization against “good” civil rights inclusion—formal equality under the law and winning for minorities the opportunity to enjoy professional status and opportunity. The latter is presented as the only way to think of mutual respect and engagement, while the former suggests bloodshed and removal. Just using the term “decolonial” is assumed to reject mutual respect and permanent inclusion.

But to go back to where we started, this ignores that rich decolonial vision that Black and Indigenous freedom activists developed across the 20th century.

#american empire #empire #colonization #american imperialism #us politics #solidarity #collective liberation

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bfpnola · 2 years

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Hi, my lovelies! I'm still in the process of adding these to our Social Justice Resources but I just could not wait to share them!

Currently, the 2022 Socialism Conference is being hosted in Chicago, Illinois, as well as virtually, with lectures from a variety of diverse activists and authors, including but not limited to Robin D.G. Kelley, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and Liat Ben-Moshe. I genuinely believe that these recordings could become such an amazing resource for my auditory learners, especially since a lot of our resources offered, including our own, are mainly text-based. (There is even a Q&A section provided at the end of each and just the representation in the room as well as the nuance in each and every person's words is truly astounding.)

The following lectures are offered, so please share them, listen while doing chores or driving, etc:

Crises, Wars, & Revolts on the Edge of a New Global Slump with David McNally & Shireen Akram-Boshar

Disability, Madness, Liberation: Deinstitutionalization & Prison Abolition with Liat Ben-Moshe

Transgender Marxism with Jules Joanne Gleeson, c, & Sophie Lewis

How Do We Get a New Constitution? with Aziz Rana & Amna Akbar

Pandemic Politics & the Viral Underclass with Steven Thrasher

Black Feminism & Black Liberation in 2022 with Barbara Ransby

Change Everything: Racial Capitalism & the Case for Abolition with Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Abolitionist Internationalism: Borders, Migration, & Racial Capitalism with Harsha Walia & Robin D.G. Kelley

Gaza is Palestine: Voices from Under the Blockade with Jehad Abusalim & Shafeka Hashash

Playing Through Fire: Sports In A Time Of Reaction with Dave Zirin

Rebuilding a New Reproductive Justice Movement: Taking on the Right with Anne Rumberger, Cheryl Rivera, Sarah Leonard, & Natalia Tylim

Health Communism: Toward a New Political Economy of Health with Beatrice Adler-Bolton & Artie Vierkant

The Dig LIVE: What Now? Perspectives on the Conjuncture, Daniel Denvir hosting Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Robin D.G. Kelley, & Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò

Class Struggle Unionism with Joe Burns

Freedom Dreams and the Socialist Project with Robin D.G. Kelley

Don't want to miss future activist-related events, protests, and workshops like this in the future? We offer free text message updates!

Signal boost because Tumblr kills posts with links. Love y'all!

-- @reaux07 (she/they)

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kintatsujo · 3 years

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CoRA-Ghirahim Backstory

#LoZ AU: The Courage of Running Away

So I am gonna handle this by first explaining a touch of where my reasoning comes from for it.

-between the two sword spirits that we know, Fi is almost robotic while Ghirahim is.... Very, very much full of personality. He also seems to have a number of abilities that Fi shows no hints toward, and although certainly many of them can be attributed to them simply being forged for different purposes there are also a number that are just.... Curious. Ghirahim breathes, even in sword spirit form, while Fi does not appear to, and that alone is notable.

This makes a lot of people wonder if he was something other than a sword once, which I think is a reasonable question.

-Ghirahim is supposed to come across as being around Link's age. Jury's out on how effective that is (his makeup was a poor choice for that, it makes him look older), but he's apparently been running around the surface for centuries while looking vaguely like an adolescent.

ACTING like one too, in my opinion. XD at one point in the HW villain route he says “um, let me correct my error” or something like that and I’m sorry I literally died he’s a fuckin baby

eternal adolescence made me think of something else that's a big part of LoZ: the Kokiri and their apparent eternal childhood.

-it is very easy to interpret Ghirahim and Demise's relationship as abusive; Ghirahim succeeds and barely gets acknowledged for it, while his own reaction to his own failures have a flavor of someone throwing a tantrum over a punishment that didn't actually happen, solely bc the person who would be doling it out isn't there. This is before you get to the fact that Demise has total dominion over Ghirahim's will which is bad enough on its own.

This also makes it easy to explore the idea that Ghirahim may not have always been Like That, especially from my perspective, given that I have some experience with ugly trauma responses.

So! Now I'm gonna break some hearts a little and woobiefy the Demon Lord. You're welcome! Have some babies that @iced-blood absolutely egged me on with the creation process for (but also I’m a monster for hurting any one of them at all, just so you know)

[image description: a design sketch of three young children with pointed ears, labeled “KOYAJI: Fire sprites of Death Mountain” and “Akai, Fajra and Rana” respectively, dressed in tunics, boots, leggings and ponchos cut into curled flame shapes. Akai has short red hair that sticks upwards, golden eyes, and three neatly gathered diamonds on his right cheek. His poncho and ankle height boots are orange, his tunic is yellow, and his leggings and arm warmers are white. Fajra and Rana are a girl and boy with similar features and colorways; their hair is white and their eyes red. Fajra has long wild hair and two red diamonds on the right side of her face (one small under the eye and the other large against her jaw) and one under her left eye, while Rana’s hair is fluffy and to his shoulders and falls into his face on the left side, not quite covering his single red diamond under his left eye. Their ponchos are deep red, their leggings are orange and their knee high boots, arm warmers and tunics are all white with gold bands, belts and bracelets as highlights. Akai has a friendly warm demeanor and is grinning in one sketch to show his sharp fangs, Fajra has the mischievous look of a kitten in the cream, and Rana has the demeanor of a grumpy hedgehog. Notes add, “Akai tends to have his ears slightly askew,” “Fajra usually looks like she’s up to something,” and “Rana typically looks like a grumpy kitten.” End ID.]

Warnings: Violence toward a child, Bad Vibes, it’s Demise

Basically a straight up fic under the cut

Somewhen before the age of myth. Death Mountain: young, robust, live, smoke spewing up against the sky. This is a time before the dragon Volvagia rose up against the land to wreak havoc, and the Gorons lived in peace with both him and the mogmas-- for the most part.

We see what appears to be two young human children walking along the ridges of rock leading away from the mountain. They are not dressed as though they have any concern about the heat of the air.

The girl's attitude is that of a cocky cat while the boy's is that of a grumpy nervous hedgehog.

"Slow down, Fajra," the boy says. He's scrambling along behind her, trying to stay close to where she walks the ridges without actually BEING on the ridges. "And come down from there, at least in the valleys we only have to worry about fire chuchus and sleeping taluses."

Fajra is balancing on the rock ridges like one balances on a beam. "Don't be such a SCAREDY CAT, Rana," she says.

Rana grips a knife at his belt and scrambles a little higher up beside her, furiously. "I'm not SCARED," he says. "Death Mountain is DANGEROUS out here."

Fajra turns to him and puts her hands on her hips in exasperation. "WHAT, something's gonna just SWOOP DOWN and GRAB me?"

As if in reply, a massive red bird dives on her, snatching the girl up in its gold and silver talons.

"FAJRA!" Rana would leap into action but there's nowhere to go: he watches helplessly as the bird, a helmaroc, catches an air current and starts to glide away from the summit, towards the jagged peaks that surround the Death Mountain area. Rana squints and thinks he can see a roc nest on one of them.

He has no choice: he has to follow or he's going to lose her. Rana snaps his fingers and in a shower of sparks and diamonds appears further along the helmaroc's trail, then again, then again, then again. He can't travel very far on a snap of his fingers, but it's much faster than running.

Fajra, meanwhile, is too high to snap safely away, but she works her own knife loose and stabs at the talons holding her, enough to annoy, enough to bring the helmaroc down to deal with her instead of just dropping her.

This is what Rana catches up to: the helmaroc flapping against the ground attempting to subdue Fajra while she keeps up stabbing at the bird's feet furiously.

Rana has no mercy for something that was probably trying to eat his sister: he fights it, snapping on to the feathery back to stab at its neck, darting and stabbing once it throws him off, and finally, with a scream, stabbing it in one of its black eyes, which at last proves this is not worth the bird's effort, and it flees, leaving the children behind.

Fajra pouts, wiping at her face. She is absolutely NOT crying, thank you very much.

"Well, go ahead and say I told you so," she sniffles.

Rana instead wraps her in a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're safe," is all he says.

Fajra bursts into tears.

In the distance, unseen, just past the helmaroc nest, a large, dark figure watches.

Rana and Fajra are, of course, not human children. They're a kind of fire sprite, Koyaji, similar to the Kokiri, born in Death Mountain's caldera and forever children under the eye of their watchful loving father--

Volvagia, the dragon spirit of the volcano.

When Rana and Fajra return home to the caldera it's to find that the others have gathered around their father, all except for their brother Akai, who was waiting for them.

Akai is kind of like the eldest sibling of the Koyaji where Rana and Fajra are the youngest; he comes across like an adolescent kitten surrounded by rambunctious six week olds. He's just slightly rangier, just slightly more even tempered. One of his ears sits at an angle slightly lower than the other, which Fajra insists is because he thinks himself into circles too much.

He grins at them briefly, flashing sharp fangs, then realizes that they look shaken and drops immediately into a worried frown. "What's wrong?"

"We had a run in with a helmaroc," says Rana, sparing Fajra a recounting of the details. That's up to her if she wants, but he understands if she doesn't want.

"Oh," Akai says, realizing that there's a story and not pushing. He hugs them both. "I'm glad you're okay," he continues, "Papa has a guest he wants us all to meet, is it okay?"

Fajra immediately perks up; obviously the Koyaji and their dragon father don't normally have guests in the fiery caldera. "Of course it is," she says, grabbing Rana's hand. "Rana come on!"

And she drags Rana into the circle of Volvagia's curled figure. The dragon whuffles on seeing them, ruffling their hair with a tap of his massive snout to each tiny head. "THERE YOU ARE, MY DARLINGS," he rumbles, and the mountain rumbles calmly with him. "COME, MEET OUR GUEST."

And he moves his head to reveal a hulking figure, shaped like a human being but with gently waving flames for hair, black streaks like flames running along his ashen skin, his eyes white with the power pulsing from within his godly frame. He is dressed simply with a skirt wrapped around his waist, but he doesn't need fancy clothing to make it clear that this is a god.

This will one day be Demise, king of demons, god of darkness, but today he is introduced by the dragon as "DIN'S SON, BELOVED PRINCE OF HER FLAMING HEART."

Fajra is struck with a sudden shyness and grips Rana's hand ever tighter, refusing to hide behind him but sorely wanting to. Rana just stares at the god, guiless, and Din's son smiles at them with a row of sharp teeth.

"I was too far to reach the both of you in time," he says, his voice deep and dark and sliding into the mind like smoke under a door, "but I saw what happened this morning. You were both very brave."

Fajra shrinks back further, embarrassed. Rana grips her fingers and nods seriously, unwilling to let her take any shame from the incident when they're both-- both of them are being praised by the son of one of the Golden Goddesses.

"Thank you, my Lord," Rana says.

Behind them, Akai frowns, brow furrowed as though his mental math isn't adding up, but he doesn't dare say anything to challenge their esteemed guest.

"WHAT BRINGS YOU HERE TO SEE US, MY LORD?" Volvagia asks, gently pulling attention away from his twins. He isn't necessarily surprised at a visit from Din's son but it's true that he doesn't get visitors much at all, discounting the occasional nervous Goron after advice or foolish mogmas after treasure.

"Ah," says the godprince, as if pulled from a daydream. "Well. Now that my Golden Mother and her sisters have departed from this world, leaving Her Grace, Glorious Hylia, to care for it, I find myself wishing to see more of Their Creation. It will be a lonely journey, and thus I have been walking Aurule in search of a companion before I embark."

His white eyes sweep over the gathered Koyaji, forever-children with wondering eyes. "I suppose I hoped to find such a person here."

Volvagia hums, another rumble that shakes the mountain gently, rocks tumbling from the caldera walls and onto the lava below.

"YOU MAY ASK THEM," he says. "THEY CANNOT LEAVE MY MOUNTAIN ON THEIR OWN, FOR MUCH OF THE WORLD IS TOO COLD TO SUSTAIN THEIR FIERY HEARTS, BUT I WILL TRUST THAT A GOD HAS WAYS AROUND SUCH DIFFICULTIES."

"Indeed," Din's son agrees. "And actually..."

And he returns his attention to the twins, Rana and Fajra, he approaches them, and he kneels to look them both in the eye.

"Would one of you consider it?" he asks. "I have seen that you are strong, and any companion of mine would need to be."

Rana feels panic in the way Fajra's fingers suddenly dig into his hand, in the way she jerks backwards, and without thinking, he opens his mouth.

"I would do it, my Lord," he says. To see the world beyond his father's mountain? No. To keep those white eyes off his sister, who seems so oddly afraid of them, when she's not afraid of anything?

For Fajra, Rana would do anything.

Din's son, of course, is pleased, his eyes widening with his smile as he stands. "I will give you til tonight to say your farewells," he says in that smoky deep voice. "Thank you dearly, little one."

Fajra is less pleased. "Rana, are you sure about this?" she asks. "Who knows when we'll see each other again?" Who knows IF they'll see each other again, she doesn't add. She's Rana's matched half, the rhyme to his reason, and so easily he's taken up a path that she can't follow him down?

"It'll be okay, Fajra," Rana says. "I'll come back to see you when I can." He pauses, and then adds, "Maybe listen to Aka and Papa a little more."

The other Koyaji are so proud of him, even if they haven't followed why he was chosen, even if they're a little confused as to why Din's son needs a companion at all. "Take care of yourself," some of them tell him, and "have fun and collect lots of stories for us," others add. One even cheekily tells him to look after the godprince.

Akai hangs back, still frowning. He doesn't wish Rana well, he's too distracted and distant, but he still stiffly accepts Rana's embrace before he follows Din's son out into the night. Volvagia glides away, to watch them leave from somewhere by the mountain's peak. He disappears into the volcano's smoke.

The god leads the spirit-child partway down the mountain and then stops, taking Rana's tiny hand gently in his massive grip and leading him toward a Goron forge that overlooks a little Goron city. It is empty and silent in the night, its masters in the city below, and Rana, who's never been too close to the Gorons except for when Fajra's causing mischief, looks around curiously.

"Why are we here, my Lord?" he asks, and Din's son puts his hand on the furnace, willing it to life.

"As your father warned, you can't survive off the mountain as you are," the god tells him. He gestures to the massive anvil in the center of the forge, over seven feet long and wide enough to be a man's bed, and when Rana comes to look he helps him up, takes the poncho from his shoulders, and encourages him to lie flat. "I can fix that."

"Oh," Rana says, and for the first time he finds himself... nervous.

The godprince is shuffling around with the tools in the forge, looking for some things, setting tools out, occasionally going to stoke the flames.

"My Lord?" Rana asks after a time, struggling to keep his voice steady.

"Yes, Rana?" the godprince asks. He's got a red gem he's pulled from the pockets of his skirt, enormous and cut into a four sided diamond shape, and it's been mounted on a dull spike. He's examining it like a piece of equipment.

Rana stares at the dark ceiling. He can't actually see it past the shadows of the room, cast by the flickering, ever hotter furnace. At some point it started burning blue, and Rana's not sure it's supposed to burn so hot.

"Is this gonna... Hurt?" he asks.

In answer, Din's son comes to his side, putting a massive hand over Rana's chest-- over Rana's whole torso, really. The gem on its spike rests between his fingers, over Rana's heart, but Rana doesn't think anything of it, not yet.

The god leans in close. "You're a strong boy, aren't you, Rana?" he asks. His expression is almost gentle, but it's a bit stern, too. "I wouldn't have chosen you if I thought you couldn't handle it. But if you're SCARED, maybe your SISTER--"

"I'm not SCARED," Rana interrupts, firmly, a little furious. He's NOT... but Fajra was. He's not putting her through this.

And Din's son smiles, his teeth all sharp.

"Good boy," Demise says, and raises the massive hammer he's been holding this entire exchange. "Now stay PERFECTLY STILL."

When the screaming starts, the other Koyaji can hear it. The volcano rumbles in fury, but Volvagia is nowhere to be seen.

"Where is Papa?! He would stop this!"

It's Akai who finds him at the summit, bolted down with bands and chains too thick for any child to contend with, writhing for everything he's worth like he's losing his mind. The creatures that did it are like nothing Akai's ever seen before, some still fleeing down the summit while bleating and snorting in panic, but most of them have already burnt up in Volvagia's fury.

The Gorons of the city below the forge are evacuating downhill, and none of them notice the furious flames licking from the forge itself, because they're running from the dragon of the mountain, who's never going to be the same again. They never understand why he rampages in the coming months, they never find out anything beyond knowing that they have to save themselves before he moves on to destroy all of Hyrule, maybe all of the continent after that.

It's not their fault when they have to kill him.

It's Fajra who listens to the screaming until it quiets, unable to approach, desperately wishing she could stop it, all the centuries of her existence narrowing down to the handful of hours that span this forging.

This is Demise first declaring war on his golden mother's creation, the forging of this sword, the sword he'll take to Hylia's throat and to her Hero's heart, seeking the last remnants of his mother's Power and his aunts' Wisdom and Courage.

At last, at last, Demise plunges his hand into the cooling trough, steam filling the room and the screaming dying to a whimper. He holds his new blade aloft.

A dark form lays across the anvil, muscular, tall.

"Magnificent," Demise says, admiring the curves of the new sword, its cruel jagged edges, the gleaming red diamond at its hilt.

As if stirred by his voice, the figure on the anvil tries to sit up. He pitches onto the floor instead, his limbs too long and baby-weak, still weary and sore from hours of an agonizing reworking. He is naked, his skin obsidian black, his hair still white, white patterns etched along his figure. His eyes are blank white, like Demise's eyes and not, not so much glowing with power as glimmering metallic. The red diamond gleams at his chest.

Demise steps over to him as he tries again to rise, this time from the floor. "You did WELL," he murmurs darkly, and kneels to put a hand along the figure's shoulder blades, almost comfortingly. "Ghirahim."

The figure shudders and Demise smiles. "That's who you are, now," he explains, as Ghirahim struggles to regain his composure. He lifts the other demon's face to look him in the eyes, revealing a still youthful face, though leaner and sharper, forever-adolescent rather than forever-child.

There are no tears on Ghirahim's cheeks. This form cannot shed them. Instead, his eyes are wide with reverence, his lips trembling, his breath heaving and rattling through metal lungs.

"Tell me," says Demise. "Who am I?"

"Master," Ghirahim whispers, and Rana is no more.

#loz au: the courage of running away #loz #my art #skword #that's just my tag for that game now

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thecreaturecodex · 3 years

Text

Asura Rana, Zargon

Image by Wayne England, © Wizards of the Coast

[Commissioned by @tar-baphon. I already made statistics for Zargon at his previous canon levels of power a few months back, and was also commissioned to create a stronger, ascended version of the Invincible Tyrant. In so doing, I went back over the previous statistics and toned them down a bit. A +6 resistance bonus for a CR 18 creature is a little too much, even for a pseudo-god like Zargon.]

Asura Rana, Zargon CR 28 LE Outsider (extraplanar) This massive horror has a reptilian head with a single eye and a single horn. Its body is a column from which grow twenty four tentacles, twelve in the midsection that serve it like arms, and twelve at the base on which is drags itself. Slime oozes from its every surface, and it is covered in scars, tumors and other irregularities of the flesh that bubble and warp as it moves.

Zargon, Abomination of Creation, Devourer of the Depths, the Invincible Tyrant, the Returner Concerns acid, oozes, regeneration Domains Earth, Evil, Healing, Law Subdomains Caves, Growth*, Resurrection, Tyranny Worshipers alchemists, blights, despots Minions asuras, shoggoths, whelps of Zargon Unholy Symbol a spiral horn above a single eye Favored Weapon rapier Devotion Expose a living creature to acid and watch the reaction of its flesh for 1 hour. You may use yourself as this subject. Gain a +4 profane bonus to saves against acid effects. Boons 1: eruptive pustules 1/day; 2: fluid form 1/day; 3: true resurrection 1/day *clerics of Zargon can use the Growth subdomain to modify the Healing domain

Zargon the Returner is ancient even by the standards of the great asuras. He was the first and greatest spawn of one of the primal gods of creation. Names such as Abhoth and Sheol-Nugganoth are whispered as his parentage, and their true mistake was not destroying him when they had a chance. For Zargon can never truly die, and even if his horn is destroyed by volcanic heat, he will be reborn on another planet in another version of reality.

So say his worshipers, anyway. These statistics represent Zargon’s power at its height, when he ruled in Hell as an asura rana. Zargon’s weakness was uncovered by Geryon, and Asmodeus snapped the horn from his head and cast it into the Material Plane. Zargon’s ultimate goal is to return to Hell, reclaim his dominion and devour Geryon. This goal has been put off for eons, as Zargon enjoys the power he currently has too much to sacrifice it. Better to reign in the Material Plane, reshaping civilizations to his own cruel desires, than return to Hell and being forced to serve the Lords of Hell, or risk failure and total destruction. But if his power base is destroyed without slaying Zargon, he may be prompted to act, and the planes will tremble at the wrath of Zargon Ascendant.

Asura Rana, Zargon CR 28 XP 4,915,200 LE Huge outsider (asura, asura rana, evil, extraplanar, lawful) Init +8; Senses blindsense 120 ft., darkvision 60 ft., Perception +50, see in darkness, true seeing Aura true elusive (250 ft., DC 39) Defense AC 44, touch 26, flat-footed 39 (-2 size, +4 Dex, +1 dodge, +13 profane, +18 natural) hp 666 (36d10+468); regeneration 40 (deific or mythic) Fort +31, Ref +30, Will +38 DR 20/good and epic; Immune acid, charm and compulsion effects, disease, energy drain, petrifaction, poison, polymorph; Resist cold 20, electricity 30, fire 20; SR 39 Defensive Abilities blasphemous armor, freedom of movement, horn, improved rejuvenation Offense Speed 40 ft., swim 60 ft. Melee bite +47 (2d6+13/19-20 plus 6d6 acid plus disease), gore +47 (3d6+13), 12 tentacles +45 (1d6+6 plus grab) Space 15 ft.; Reach 15 ft. (20 ft. with tentacle) Special Attacks breath weapon (60 ft. cone, 18d12 acid plus disease, Ref DC 41, 1d4 rounds), constrict (tentacle, 1d6+19) Spell-like Abilities CL 28th, concentration +41 Constant—freedom of movement, true seeing At will—acid fog, cloudkill (DC 28), control ooze (DC 30), rusting grasp, transmute rock to mud (DC 28) 3/day—air walk, quickened chain lightning (DC 29), feeblemind (DC 28), empowered horrid wilting (DC 31), quickened heal (DC 29), mind fog (DC 29), summon asuras or oozes 1/day—control weather, dominate monster (DC 32), mass hold monster (DC 31), transmute blood to acid (DC 32), true resurrection, unholy aura (DC 31) Statistics Str 36, Dex 19, Con 36, Int 25, Wis 32, Cha 37 Base Atk +36; CMB +51 (+55 grapple); CMD 58 (78 vs. trip) Feats Blind-fight, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Critical Focus, Dodge, Empower SLA (horrid wilting), Great Cleave, Improved Critical (bite), Improved Initiative, Multiattack, Nimble Moves, Power Attack, Quicken SLA (chain lightning, heal), Staggering Critical, Stand Still, Step Up, Stunning Critical Skills Bluff +52, Climb +52, Intimidate +52, Knowledge (arcana, religion) +43, Knowledge (dungeoneering, planes) +46, Linguistics +43, Perception +50, Sense Motive +50, Spellcraft +43, Stealth +35, Swim +60 Languages Aklo, Infernal, Undercommon, 36 others, telepathy 300 ft. Ecology Environment any (Hell) Organization unique Treasure double standard Special Abilities Asura Rana Traits (Ex, Su and Sp) Zargon has the following traits:

Zargon can grant spells to its worshipers as if he were a deity.

Zargon’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as lawful, epic, and evil for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.

Infernal Resurrection (Ex) Zargon rules an infernal domain. If he is slain, his body rapidly melts into corruption (leaving behind any gear he held or carried), his soul returns to a hidden location within his realm, and it is immediately restored to life (as true resurrection) at that location. Once this occurs, Zargon can’t use this ability again until a full year has passed, although he can use his improved rejuvenation. An asura rana that is slain again during this year or is killed by unusual methods (such as by a true deity or an artifact created for this purpose) is slain forever.

Immunity to ability damage, ability drain, charm effects, compulsion effects, death effects, energy drain, and petrification.

Regeneration (Ex) Only epic damage, or damage from a creature of equal or greater power (such as an archdevil, deity, demon lord, or protean lord) interrupts Zargon’s regeneration.

Resistance to electricity 30

Summon Asuras and Oozes (Sp) Three times per day as a swift action, Zargon can summon any asura or combination of asuras and oozes whose total combined CR is 20 or lower. This otherwise works like the summon universal monster rule with a 100% chance of success, and counts as a 9th-level spell effect.

Telepathy 300 feet.

Blasphemous Armor (Su) Zargon gains a profane bonus to his Armor Class equal to his Charisma modifier. Control Ooze (Sp) This functions as a control undead spell, except that it is treated as being a transmutation effect and effects only creatures of the ooze type. This is the equivalent of a 7th level spell. Disease (Su) Zargon’s Slime; Bite or breath weapon—contact; save Fort DC 41; onset immediate; frequency 1/day; damage 1d6 Con drain and 1d6 Wisdom drain; cure none. A creature reduced to 0 Constitution while under the effects of this disease dies and is reduced to a puddle (and cannot be returned to life by any effect that requires an intact body). A creature reduced to 0 Wisdom while under the effects of this disease immediately transforms into a whelp of Zargon under Zargon’s control. The save DC is Constitution based. Horn (Ex) Zargon’s horn is the source of his protection, granting him a +6 resistance bonus on all saving throws and increasing his regeneration by 20 points/round. The horn can be cut free with a successful sunder attempt (hardness 15, DR 20/epic, hp 66), whereupon Zargon loses these abilities until he can reattach the horn as a full-round action. Improved Rejuvenation (Ex) If slain and his infernal resurrection has been used for the year, Zargon regrows from his horn in 1d4 days. If the horn is cast into a plane outside of Hell, he reforms in his lesser form. If the horn is cast into an active volcano, he is slain forever at this point. True Elusive Aura (Su) No divination spells or effects function within 250 feet of Zargon unless they are cast by a mythic or divine creature. Even then, the caster must succeed a DC 39 caster level check or the spell is lost.

#zargon #asura #D&D #pathfinder 1e #commissions

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jpop-drama · 7 years

Photo

GEM's airheaded leader, Kanazawa Yuuki.

#and lol at Ranachin's reaction #gem #girls entertainment mixture #jpop #idol #regular live #kanazawa yuuki #murakami rana #ranachin #my gifs #edit #ew text gifs #i hate them

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tabletopjourneys · 4 years

Text

Session 33 Notes

The Silver Scale Pack continues clearing out Perfection of the graboid invasion. @gher-bear @aradow @telurin @epimetala

On this day, the Silver Scale Pack continues clearing Perfection of its graboid invasion, abusing pots and making Ixayl’anu dance for attention. Through the power of teamwork and a bomb we kill quite a bit. I think the Anesh government owes us at least $40,000 for the big ones, and we oughta charge for all those little ones too! Also, we got ourselves a live one (shrieker). We should get at least $50 g’s for that, even if it isn’t a full-sized worm! (Tremors 2 nod where the Mexican gov offers characters $10k per worm, $50k if they catch a live one) They sure did a number on all the buildings in town though, lemme tell ya, 3 rotting graboid corpses and over a dozen shrieker bodies...Perfection stinks y’all!

(Read More)

(An Uneasy Short Rest) Rana’s perception check shows the camels aren’t entirely happily in their stall, but they’re safe.

Rana tries to jump across to Phi’s building, rolls 8, Phi tries to grab her, rolls a 9 they both fall and take one point of damage each.

Tarma-Diem drops the rope again for them to climb up on their building.

Phi manages to get up the rope, Rana gets halfway up, but slides back down, we help her finish climbing up the 2nd time.

Tarma-Diem rolls up the rope again and sticks it back in their pack.

We try to rest up as much as we can, hoping the worms leave the camels alone.

We hear a rumble in the distance. Everybody but Ixayl’anu sees the big building on the other side of town (southwest) shaking and lifting off its foundation.

Phi checks in to see how hurt we all are.

Rana: aside from you falling on me I’m fine.

Tarma-Diem: Not even a scratch left, out of big spells though.

We spend a few minutes watching the big Southwest building roiling, visible cracks starting in the structure. Then it stops and we think maybe we can relax now, except it starts rumbling under a closer building and it moves from one building to the next, getting closer. Rana is back on her feet as we discuss whether we want to try and rest or keep going.

As soon as Rana moves the rumbling stops then our building starts to lift up near where Rana is.

Tarma-Diem: Should’ve been quieter.

Ixayl’anu tries divine sense. Nothing pings.

We spend the next half hour or so sitting still and we get a very uneasy short rest out of it.

They harass our camels some too, stress them out, but they don’t get eaten (stone block cracks too).

Rana looks around for something loose on the roof and finds clay pots and an umbrella. She Zeldas a clay pot off the roof once she gets the all clear from the rest of us.

It gets about 10 feet away and gets sucked down, pot 2 same thing happens, this time she sees the barest shape of one of the noses of a big creature. She hands the last pot to Ixayl’anu who throws it in pretty much the same spot. Pumpkin sized pots.

Tarma-Diem: What was part 2 of this plan exactly?

Rana: I don’t know do you have any ideas?

Poison in a Genofeva pot?

Rana is gonna try to hit one with lightning bolt as soon as we see movement after tossing the umbrella, but nothing happens.

Tarma-Diem: Lee did say they learn...maybe it learned nothing’s there?

Phi: I wanna jump to the other roof, see if there’s more pots. Phi makes it with a 21, Rana sees the ground moving toward that building, but no emergence. Tarma-Diem is already paying attention to Phi instead and would have missed the opportunity to attack anyway.

Phi’s new roof has a half dead plant, a rug, weird odds and ends, no clay pots, a stool, a little table. Phi throws the potted plant (7). The plant stays, but Phi has to make a dex saving throw, she easily manages to keep her feet as the building pushes up 2 or 3 feet at that corner.

Rana sees the nose and casts lightning bolt. It takes the full 32 damage.

Tarma-Diem was too busy being impressed by Phi’s building surf acrobatics to remember to hit the worm too. The building drops as the creature burrows deep under ground after screaming. It very quickly zooms off Northeast. We talk plans, Phi offers to run around playing bait because she can shoot at the same time, Tarma-Diem says at that, they can do it instead and misty escape back to a roof or cast hellish rebuke the moment they get hurt.

In the end, we send our tank down, who can also misty step to safety. Ixayl’anu casts shield of faith on herself, Rana casts guidance on her, Ixayl’anu gets off the roof while we all hold actions for the first one to appear. (Combat Commences)

Rana feels a tremor under her feet, a snake thing pops up at Ixayl’anu’s feet and hooks her.

Ixayl’anu misses, rana misses, phi misses. We weren’t expecting the tiny tongue. Tarma-Diem hits with the last crackle of eldritch blast for 7dmg.

The graboid tongue tenses around Ixayl’anu tighter after the eldritch blast.

Rana thorn whips it for 6 damage.

Ixayl’anu is still grappled, she tries to hit it rather than breaking free, she misses. 2nd attack does 6 dmg though. It lets go and snakes back into the ground.

Ixayl’anu stays there watching the ground.

Phi: Where ya goin fucker?! *holds her action for if it pops back up*

Worm pops up with an open maw directly under Ixayl’anu to swallow her whole. Hits with a 22 for 22 dmg all around her.

She fails her saving throw.

Tarma-Diem: Shit!

Phi shoots for 38 total damage.

It screams in pain as Phi gets it right in the soft tissues of the mouth.

Tarma-Diem shoots an eldritch blast for 15dmg.

Rana casts healing word level 2 on Ixayl’anu for 9 pts with her bonus action, thorn whips it but it skitters across the heavy armor of the head.

Ixayl’anu lashes out with her weapons and 14 dmg, and another 8dmg - 22 total. She stabs down cackling and making lightning sound effects as she kills it.

Ixayl’anu feels it go limp under and around her.

Phi does a 360 perception check of 18. She doesn’t see anything but she does notice that all the little guys we killed earlier are gone. She doesn’t say anything out loud.

Ixayl’anu climbs out of the mouth and moves away, we all hold actions for a very tense moment but nothing happens.

Ixayl’anu walks around trying to tempt one out, but she is covered in yucky smelling saliva slime that is getting all the sand stuck to her.

Eventually a snake thing pops up but misses her.

By then Tarma-Diem has forgotten they’re supposed to be holding an eldritch blast, Rana misses with her rock, Phi hits it with a 13 and it pops back down into the ground.

Tarma-Diem: Damn it, I forgot to…

Rana: Keep dancing!

Ixayl’anu: Keep dancing? Dancing?! That’s what you think I’m doing down here?

Ixayl’anu jumps up and down some more.

Phi’s building begins shaking and moving again but she surfs the building with a nat 20, the whole inner portion of her roof is caving in.

Phi tries to jump onto our building and Rana catches her.

As the building collapses, 5 of the little guys boil out of that building and scream, but they’re just looking around at the rubble.

Rana casts Erupting Earth under them. Does 11dmg on success, 5 on fail - red fails, blue succeeds, green succeeds, purple crit succeeds: Rana: So there are more of these things!

Ixayl’anu: They came from the building?

Rana: Yes, keep dancing!

Tarma-Diem does 12dmg to purple with an eldritch blast.

Phi shoots and misses.

Tarma-Diem gets off 2 more eldritch blasts, one crits, 21 total damage.

One lifts its flaps and sees us - Tarma-Diem quickly puts their hands over their ears, they remember this shit, we all save, Tarma-Diem rolled a nat 20, didn’t even need advantage.

Shriekers run after us to do a little pyramid. Purple launches himself up the top and takes a bite out of Phi for 8dmg.

She uses her reaction to uncanny dodge, only takes 4dmg.

Blue is a little short still and can’t quite get up there.

Ixayl’anu runs over and stabs at green, seeing if she can destabilize the pyramid. Does max dmg (15). Blue manages to hop onto red and down. Ixayl’anu misses her 2nd attack.

She still has 4 minutes on shield of faith.

Phi ignores purple assuming we’ll handle it and shoots blue for 4 damage.

Rana shoolilas purple for 4dmg.

Tarma-Diem dbl crits purple for 29 total dmg, it dies.

Green screams at Ixayl’anu, who goes deaf for a whole minute.

Red pushes past green and misses Ixayl’anu, blue pushes green to the back and almost hits Ixyal’anu but misses.

Ixayl’anu flails at and misses blue with both attacks. She screams back at them.

Phi shoots at blue for 19dmg, gets it right in the front, it stumbles back and shakes a little bit.

Rana shoves purple off the roof onto green and deals 1 dmg and it gets pushed back into shifting dirt area. She steps up to the edge and gets a wonderful view of a worm spy-hopping up and eating green before going back down with it. - perception of 19 doesn’t see anything extra.

Tarma-Diem hits red with an eldritch blast for 8dmg.

Both attack Ixayl’anu and both fail. They get in each other’s way.

Ixayl’anu deals 13dmg to blue.

Phi shoots at red and deals 20dmg. They’re looking equally rough.

Rana holds a thorn whip for any giant worm action.

Ixayl’anu makes her dex saving throw as giant worm misses her coming up out of the ground. It nonetheless hits her for 22 and deals 6dmg (-6 temp hp). It goes back down, but Rana’s thorn whip still goes off, but misses.

Ixayl’anu misses her attack of opportunity as well.

The structure of our building is starting to collapse.

Tarma-Diem splits an eldritch blast dealing 12dmg to blue, 4dmg to red.

Blue shrieks at red and they try to disengage.

Ixayl’anu misses her attack of opportunity against blue.

They get out into the central road.

Ixayl’anu ignores Rana’s no-no-no arm waving and runs out into disturbed earth. She swings at blue twice and misses.

Phi tries to jump to the roof to still see these guys, 22 acrobatics and shoots at blue. Bonus action hides but in a way to look in both directions.

Rana holds another thorn whip for the next time the big worm appears. Perception check 11, focused on where Ixayl’anu’s area, but she nonetheless notices when the snakes pop up near purple’s body. Unfortunately her thorn whip misses. Rana: “Worm still in the area!”

Inspired by Phi’s acrobatics, Tarma-Diem tries to jump roofs as well to keep the shriekers in sight. They try to jump to the next building, roll a 3 (They are the cat gif of judging their jump so carefully only to fail spectacularly). They cast fly before they hit the ground though and float over to the next building, They did it! They hover over the roof. 10 minutes of fly.

Ixayl’anu chases the runners into the building under Phi and Tarma-Diem. There’s a whole pack in there though. 6 of them total. She tries to lightning breath them all, can only get 3 though. Blue dies, the others look pretty good. Ixayl’anu: “Found some more!”

Phi just waits, holding an action for any of them that leave the building.

Rana tries to jump to the next building with us with a 7 and goes cougar to climb back up to the roof, prowls up beside Tarma-Diem.

Tarma-Diem flies down but can’t see over Ixayl’anu, so they move forward to open the window, fly back as shriekers inside look their way. Pink and yellow try to climb out of the window at the same time but get in each others’ way.

Yellow wiggles out. Pink is primed to go next.

Others missed Ixayl’anu.

Ixayl’anu attacks orange and does 7dmg.

Phi shoots at yellow and does 7dmg.

Rana pounces yellow and knocks it prone. Bonus action bites, but misses.

As Rana scuffles with yellow, a graboid tongue grapples her.

Tarma-Diem flies in, puts their arms around Rana-kitty “Just me,” then thundersteps them both to the building on the other side of the road. Worm, yellow and pink all fail their saves and take 31 damage each. There’s a shriek and the worms go limp, worm dies. Orange and green try to get out of the door making str attacks against Ixayl’anu. She manages to keep orange back, but green gets out and manages to shove her prone. Green keeps going west into the building we will eventually designate as “the clown car building.”

Red attacks Ixayl’anu with advantage. 8dmg. Pink gets out of the window, looks around and then ducks into the first building we stood on. Yellow took an action to stand and ran with green.

Ixayl’anu stabs at red for 6dmg misses 2nd attack.

Phi shoots at red and misses, then moves back up to raised platform on the roof.

Rana pounces red from above, deals 3dmg claw, misses bite. She then runs off to see if she can lure pink back out.

Tarm-Diem flies over with Rana and sees 2 more in there with pink, shoots pink with eldritch boss: “Got 3 in here”, then flies up a little higher, farther off the ground.

Red misses, orange misses attacks on Ixayl’anu.

Pink gives a rallying cry and all 3 try to attack Rana. Pink misses, orange-red hits (12dmg), blue crits (17dmg to Rana after she loses cat). Total 29.

Ixayl’anu hits red for 6dmg, then misses next attack.

Phi shoots pink for 14dmg.

Rana casts spike growth with a 20ft radius/40ft diameter, placed to hit the 3 in front of her without hitting Ixayl’anu. Bonus action healing word L1 on herself and use item for extra healing. 22 healing and stands the line.

Tarma-Diem sees Rana cast this and flies as far into the circle area as they can get while still being visible to blue and pink, then eldritch blasts them both, they hit blue for 6dmg, miss pink.

Successfully distracted, they both charge me and take 20 dmg each on the way there, snap at my heels at disadvantage and both miss.

Tarma-Diem laughs and flips them off.

Red-orange does something I missed.

Ixayl’anu kills red by chopping his head off, spilling more gunk everywhere. She swipes at orange nat 20, deals 21dmg, divine smites it for 8 dmg (29 total). She stays there trying to block the doorway still.

Phi shoots blue and deals 18dmg.

Rana shelolas orange-red but misses. This particular shrieker has apparently changed its name henceforth in my notes. I’m pretty sure it’s the same one who used to known as Red-orange. Same colours, but different order, please don’t dead name it.

Tarma-Diem flies back toward Rana to bait more travel through the spike growth. Blue gets hit for 5dmg on eldritch blast, 2nd blast hits orange-red for 11dmg.

Pink kills itself on spike damage. Blue runs for me, 8dmg, but misses.

Orange-red is pretty focused on Rana though, it misses her (be its valentine?).

Ixayl’anu takes 14dmg from orange.She heals herself by 16.

Phi shoots at blue, does 20dmg, it dies.

Rana shilalos orange-red but misses.

Tarma-Diem eldritch blasts orange-red for 10dmg.

Ixayl’anu can hear again!

Orange-red takes 14dmg getting to Tarma-Diem but also crits at disadvantage. Oh no! Tarma-Diem takes 11dmg and gets pulled down a foot or two before it lets go. Tarma-Diem: “Ah, shit!”

Ixayl’anu hits orange for 12dmg.

Phi hits orange-red for 24dmg, leaving it on death’s door.

Rana thorn whips orange-red back to her 6dmg it dies dragged across spikes. (Oops, Tarma-Diem face pulls a shitload more)

Tarma-Diem flies over to where they saw green and yellow go earlier (clown car building is about to get named thusly), but there are now 10 of them in there. “Holy shit guys, there’s ten of them in here!” The shriekers had their flaps up and see Tarma-Diem, who makes sure they see them move away from the group before flying 20 feet down the road away from everyone, and then up 10 feet.

They pyramid purple up to Tarma-Diem who hits for 7dmg.

Tarma-Diem misty escapes 30 feet north and 5 more feet up, invisible, but still heat signatured.

The last two from the clown car building spotted Rana first and headed for her. One of them gets Rana for 11dmg.

Ixayl’anu runs after these new two, leaving orange who misses its attack of opportunity, but then misty steps onto the building near my pyramid and throws alchemist fire into the pile.

It does max dmg (4), pink hit, yellow hit, red hit, redpurple hit, blue hit, redblue hit, redpink miss, purple missed.

Phi bonus action hides, shoots at purple and does 21dmg.

Rana sheleileis greenred for 8dmg and tries to get her back against a wall.

Tarma-Diem flies over between North buildings (in spike growth area) and down to hover 6 ft off the groud again until they see the ones on Rana between the two street-side buildings. They cast eldritch blast “Over here again fuckers!” They hit green with 10dmg, but miss greenred, who ignores the bait.

Green takes 32dmg getting to me, misses it’s jump attack.

Greenred does 5dmg to Rana.

Orange runs up to Rana as well, but misses.

Everybody in the fire pile takes 11dmg each biting and flailing at each other.

Ixayl’anu jumps off the roof and runs to Rana (19 athletics), and casts warding bond on Rana. Rana gets +1AC and saving throws and resistance to all damage, Ixayl’anu takes the same amount of dmg as Rana now.

Phi shoots at redgreen but misses.

Rana shelalas orange but misses.

Tarma-Diem flies about 20 feet closer to Ixayl’anu and 1 ft up, kills green with 6pt eldritch blast, hits greenred for 8pts, still hovered over the spike growth.

Purple and pinkred run and bite at Ixayl’anu. Orange misses Rana, redgreen misses Ixayl’anu, redpink hits Ixayl’anu though for 5dmg, purple also hits her for another 11dmg (16 total).

Fire dmg on remaining group deals another max dmg of 4, and then they deal another 10dmg to each other.

Ixayl’anu to Rana: Wanna get out of here?

Rana reaches out: Yes please.

Ixayl’anu misty steps them both to the nearest rooftop, then pile drives back down onto redgreen (20 athletics, cool flip and everything), 14dmg, then 11dmg. For a fantastic looking 25 total.

Phi shoots redgreen for 27, killing it right out from under Ixie.

Rana magic stones orange for 8dmg, it’s on death’s door.

Tarma-Diem lands on a building at the very corner in view for last turn of fly (except it wasn’t because I can’t math), eldritch blasts purple for 5dmg, pinkred for 6dmg.

Purple takes the bait, but only goes 5ft in, takes 5dmg, backs back out.

Redpink attacks Ixayl’anu but I missed what happened with the attack.

Big group takes another max fire dmg (4pts), yellow dies.

Ixayl’anu slaps a 20pt heal on her chest.

Phi shoots at pinkred but misses.

Rana casts healing word 2nd level on Ixayl’anu for 9pts. Then magic stones orange, does 3dmg, kills orange.

Purple takes 3 eldritch blast dmg, redpink takes 12 dmg, but still focuses on Ixiayl’anu anyway, misses, purple backs up anyway, does not like getting hit in the face.

Fire group only takes 1dmg this time around. In the commotion the on fire group moves a little closer to center of the road. The ground around them shudders and a giant worm comes up out of the ground, chomps down on bluered, and sucks it back down. Worm is gone, leaving a big hole.

Ixayl’anu: Oh shit *stabs at purple still anyway* 9dmg, then another 7dmg (16 total)

Ixayl’anu: Diem! Can you throw a rope?

Phi misses redpink.

Rana thorn whips redpink for 6dmg, 4 pts of smash-fall dmg. (10 total)

Tarma-Diem pulls out the rope and commands it to tie off for Ixayl’anu. “K, it’s up!”

On-fire group takes 3 more fire dmg (there are only 4 of them left). They scatter in different directions still on fire.

Redpink notices the glorious heat-source of redpurple and attacks it, leaving it close to death.

Purple misses Ixayl’anu.

Big guy is not visible this turn.

Ixayl’anu swipes at purple and deals a total of 16 dmg, kills purple, gets 8 temporary hp, and runs over to the rope

Redpink gets an attack of opportunity on her and does 17dmg.

Ixayl’anu grabs the rope just after Rana panic-drops the spike growth to avoid hurting her.

Phi shoots at one of them and misses.

Rana magic stones redpink and does 6dmg.

Tarma-Diem eldritch blasts the farthest runner for 21 total dmg and finishes it off. The other two however use their whole action to go 120ft and get out of everyone’s range for future turns.

All runners take 1 fire dmg before calculations on them stop.

Remaining 2 shriekers miss their attacks.

Ixayl’anu climbs up to the roof.

Phi shoots at one and misses.

Rana thorn whips redpink for 5dmg + 5 slam-fall dmg (10 total).

Tarma-Diem deals 14 eldritch blast dmg to redpink

2 fire dmg kills redpurple.

Redpink jumps at Ixayl’anu futilely.

Ixayl’anu throws her javelin at redpink and misses, 2nd one hits for 4dmg and kills him. (Aftermath Investigations and RP)

Tarma-Diem: Still got 2 who ran off into the desert, a giant worm, and whatever else may be in these buildings.

Ixayl’anu: did you see the worm?

Tarma-Diem: Yeah, we got that to deal with and those two ran off capable of reproducing a shitload more.

Rana does a perception check (12).

Tarma-Diem slumps down with their back against the lip of the roof.

Ixayl’anu crit-perceives the guys running, still on fire, and also saw a bush raise and lower on the ground in the distance.

Tarma-Diem gets a nat 20 perceiving those guys to fly after them but they are specs in the distance. They also see the bush go up and down, but it doesn’t seem to be chasing the little guys.

Tarma-Diem’s perception skills are tapped out now though and they do a whopping ZERO for aerial search of the entire area

Tarma-Diem looks in each building after, ready to fly off and lead them out of town, but doesn’t see anything. We take a short rest. After we discuss plans, we take a look around. Phi sees a small fire in the distance, but we don’t really see anything else. After the short rest, we take a closer, group look at each building.

Tarma-Diem gets a nat 20 investigation on the first building they’d checked alone while flying. These people were very well prepared, and even though things fell off walls they could still tell these people were pretty well off. Tarma-Diem finds a box marked explosives.

Phi checks box of explosives for traps (18). There is a very complicated lock on it but no other forms of trap. Phi attempts the lock (22), takes her a minute or two but it pops open. Inside is a bunch of c4 sticks - 5 of them. Plastic explosives can be placed as an action, and detonated with a press of a remote detonator (an object interaction). Plastic explosives also explode on their own if they are caught within the radius of an explosion that does at least 10 points of bludgeoning damage. Each creature within 20 feet of a detonated plastic explosive must make a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw, taking 10d6 bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Each additional block of explosives increases the damage by 5d6 (to a maximum of 40d6), and the radius by 10 feet (to a maximum of 80 feet).

We each get 1 brick, Phi gets 2. Rana makes sure the building stays as closed up as we can get it, all windows and doors closed, so that it will hopefully remain empty as we proceed, leaving nowhere for anything to hide when we try to sleep later. This is her plan at each, subsequent building and we all follow suit.

We back up and start with the very first building in town, on the left when we’d first arrived.

Rana gets a perception of 17 on building A while Tarma-Diem investigates with an 8. It’s a transient guardhouse of some sort with basic swords and arrows.

We cross the street to B, Rana perceives it with a 21 - big hole in the center, blood on the walls, broken and open food stuff.

With an investigation of 8, Tarma-Diem gets a snack of their choice! (twinkies lol)

Outside the next building, the ground around the dead worm just below the surface has turned soggy, like standing on a mattress.

Since we already took care of building C (hopping back and forth across the road alphabetically, left then right lol), we move on to building D (on the same side as B/the market we first roof-climbed.

Rana perceives at a 16, Tarma-Diem investigates with a 13 - sticks of furniture, scrap of clothing that might’ve been a shirt, and blood.

Tarma-Diem reminds everyone about the building behind this one and how it was difficult to see inside around the crates when they did their aerial search.

For recording purposes, I am calling it building E. This time around Tarma-Diem gets an 18 investigation and sees a moving 2-by-2 crate near the back. Tarma-Diem: (whispered) Shit! They make motions to back everyone out. Tarma-Diem: There’s one in a crate back there, a little one (they make approximating gesture of box size)

Ixaylanu goes back in first and tips the box up to see a little baby white one who screams at her but he can’t get out and the scream does nothing.

Ixaylanu squats a little and does the bird head tilt thing. It screams fiercely and tries to jump out but can’t make it.

Ixyal’anu: "It's all white..."

One of us (Tarma-Diem maybe since I didn’t label speaker?): Maybe we could nail the crate shut or something? Would let people study it?

Ixayl’anu throws a small ration at it.

It feels around with its tongue and eventually eats it.

When next it lifts its flaps, it doesn’t scream, when she puts her hand close though it does scream and tries to bite her. Dex save 22/nat 20, she’s fine, it snaps at empty air.

Tarma-Diem: Can you try and talk to it?

Ixayl’anu: I doubt it’s going to work but…*she casts it anyway*

It doesn’t work.

Ixayl’anu figures out the heat sensing thing by fluffing her feathers and noting that it doesn’t react to anything but her actual body heat.

Someone: It's been in here with food for awhile and there's no others...

Someone else: Yeah but it's had an hour to make more if it's going to

Rana leaves while we talk about it to look around outside before we move on. Perception 21 on our surroundings - the fire is still up pretty far from town, town is otherwise quiet.

Ixayl’anu and Tarma-Diem put the lid back on the crate, keeping the small guy in a box with some food. Ixayl’anu hefts it up on her shoulder and goes outside. It screams and kicks around for the first few minutes every time it’s jostled before it finally settles down like “Guess this is my life now.”

Rana 19 perceives the next building is about to collapse and stops Diem from going inside.

Rana perceives the next building with an 8, Diem goes in and investigates with 15. Nothing’s really damaged, so probably nothing even got in here, just evidence that people packed and left in a hurry.

Rana perceives (16) next building. 16 investigation for Tarma-Diem as well - they see a lot of nice towels in this bath house, they take one. It’s fluffy and soft (one should always bring a towel, rules of adventure and all that).

Rana skips the clown car building for the biggest building. There’s a giant worm in the middle of the building part that we could smell long before we see it.

Tarma-Diem, meanwhile, still investigates clown car building with a 16 - scorch marks inside, wrecked, food stuffs, some dead little ones inside, they close it up like Rana did with the other ones, then join everyone else at the big building.

Rana goes in, the rest of us follow. Phi finds half of a medicine kit. Phi 19s investigation

Rana perceives 17 on last plaza building - nothing in there. 2 investigation from Tarma-Diem.

Rana looks out toward a small building on the fringe of the village.

Tarma-Diem: That one was closed up tight and empty when I checked earlier.

Rana goes to have a look anyway - 14 perception (told ya ~).

Ixayl’anu gets her platinum ring back from Rana.

Rana begins making a shrieker corpse pile in the middle of the road, including the few from the clown car building. The rest of us begin helping.

Tarma-Diem hits everyone with prestidigitation again after we complete the corpse pile

We argue a bit about rooftops vs. the comfort of the tiny hut which cannot fit on them, but certainly has a bottom. Tarma-Diem and Ixayl’anu opt for comfort, while Rana and Phi opt for better vantage points and safety. We split shifts accordingly (1 rooftopper, 1 tinyhutter/1 dark vision, 1 not).

Tarma-Diem casts tiny hut in a 10 ft radius around them, within sight of the corpse pile but not so close the smell permeates the dome. They also take first watch in order to finish scribing alarm. Self-imposed concentration check only a 6, so it takes them two hours instead of just one to finish scribing the alarm spell.

They let everyone know they can cast perimeter alarms now, then ritual cast it on the inside of the hut, choosing the bell ping so everyone can hear it if the hut gets disturbed by giant worms.

Next session Thursday Feb 11 at 5pm est.

#Anesh #Perfection #Graboids #Tremors D&D #Tarma

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marshmallow-phd · 5 years

Text

Midnight Hours

Part of The Untamed - EXO Wolf Universe

Genre: Wolf!AU

Pairing: Sehun x Reader

Summary: For you, being a good witch was easier said than done. Something dark was lurking inside of you and the others knew it. When you’re forced to tag along with Soomi and help a local wolfpack face a coming evil, you’re sent on a path that breaks into a crossroads. While you struggle with your inner demons, could the wolf Sehun be the key to your ultimate fate?

Part: 1 I 2 I 3 I 4 I 5 I 6 I 7 I 8 I 9 I 10 I 11 I 12 I 13 I 14 I 15 I 16 I 17 I Final

“W-wha… what!” You stared at Sehun like he’d just taken his head off his shoulders and started playing basketball with it right there in the kitchen.

“Ha-ha, Sehun, very funny,” Tao scoffed with absolutely no amusement in his voice.

“It’s not a joke.” His face was flat, only the tiniest bit of scrunch between his eyebrows showing his frustration.

“Sine when was the witch your mate?” Baekhyun questioned.

Jongdae shook his head. “If she was your mate, we would have noticed by now.”

“I don’t know, I think it explains a lot,” Harper said with a shrug.

Luhan frowned at her. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, come on. I’m not the only observant one here, am I?” When everyone just continued to stare at her, Harper rolled her eyes. “Sehun was disappearing more and more after she showed up, he always made sure to eat on the opposite side of the kitchen during meals, and he was aware of the fire before anyone else on the second floor even smelled the smoke.”

Glances were exchanged between the pack members, epiphanies widening their eyes. You, however, were still trying to process the confession. Though you weren’t too familiar with the process of mating in the wolf world (it wasn’t exactly a heavy topic that was squeezed in between herbal antidotes and natural energy), you were starting to connect the dots. Could that really be the explanation for how Sehun’s presence and touch made you feel?

“Sehun, you aren’t just saying this so we don’t make them leave, right?” Junmyeon asked. The younger wolf stared him down, his other arm crossing over to hold onto your shoulder as if you might be snatched away from him at any moment. Taking that as the answer, the alpha side and turned to the other leader. “This changes things.”

The struggle was written all over Kris’ face. He still didn’t trust you and with his daughter to protect… well, you couldn’t entirely blame him. You’d scared yourself with the fire. Lsoing control in that aspect was not normal. The vision was making even you doubt yourself and where you were headed. But for some reason, leaving this place terrified you more.

“Kris.” Reluctantly, he turned to his mate who’d called out so gently to him. Evie gave him a half smile, her eyes soft and warm enough to make all the tension in Kris’ shoulders melt away. She adjusted her child on her hip to a more comfort position as she said, “It’ll be okay, sweetheart. She belongs here.”

Your breath hitched in your throat as those last three words. Belonged? How did she know that you belonged here with them? Sehun could say you were his mate over and over, but that didn’t automatically give you a place amongst them. Her words were breaking you.

Reaching up, you gently removed Sehun’s hand from your shoulder. He didn’t fight you, but a muted whine in his throat told you that the action was indeed hurting him. Not physically, of course – you weren’t strong enough to really hurt a werewolf – but it was hurting him inside. “I need some air.”

“But, (y/n)-”

“Give her some space, Sehun,” Junmyeon said.

Grateful for the insertion, you took the opportunity to slip out of the kitchen and through the house until you were outside again.

It was still raining, the droplets coming down hard enough to create a curtain between you and the forest, blurring the trees and field as if you were looking at it through warped glass. Considering you just showered and weren’t really in the mood to be soaked all over again, you stayed on the porch, wandering over to the swing that hung off to the side. You pulled your feet up and focused on the slight back and forth motion of the swing. The sound of the rain against the overhang was enough of a distraction that you weren’t completely overwhelmed by what had just transpired.

Mate? Really? You? Were you even worthy of such a title? You thought over each and every girl tied to the wolves and concluded that there had to be some sort of mistake. You didn’t fit in with them. They all melded together cohesively – even Harper with how well she got along with Hae In and Lottie. There couldn’t be a place for you. Perhaps Sehun really was only trying to help stop Kris from kicking you out and the truth would come out eventually.

The squeak of the swing made you look up. Soomi sat down in the empty space, placing a hand on your knee. An expression of sympathy decorated her face, but you could see the smallest hint of sadness behind it.

“How are you doing?”

Lowering your eyes, you picked at a piece of wicker that was sticking up from the seat. “I… don’t really know.”

“It’s not something to be scared of,” Soomi insisted. You wanted to scoff, but you held it back. Yes it is. In her motherly way, Soomi caressed your temple with her delicate fingertips. “Tell me what’s on your mind.”

“Why can’t I choose anything?” you blurted out to your own surprise.

Soom’s hand stopped. “What do you mean?”

Frustration starting to boil over, you looked up at her with a hard expression. “Everything that I’m supposed to get to choose in my life, I can’t. I never got to choose what branch of magic I wanted to study, the mothers did. I didn’t choose to come here, you did. And now? Now the person I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life has been chosen for me by Mother Nature herself? What did I ever do to have all of that taken away from me?”

“But Sehun isn’t a bad guy,” Soomi argued. “Out of the people to be mated to, he’s-”

“Don’t! Don’t try to sell me some crap about how I should be thankful that at least he’s a good guy. I’ve seen that. It doesn’t make this feel any less unfair.”

Soomi nodded. “So, are you going to tell me that you didn’t have any sort of feelings for him before you knew you were his mate?”

You opened your mouth, but no argument was to be found. Because, sure, you were developing feels for him. But did that matter? You didn’t even get to choose to have those feelings….

Sehun pushed off the doorframe, deciding that he didn’t want to hear anymore. He wasn’t exactly sure what your reaction would be in that split second that he decided to spill out his secret there in front of the whole pack, but… well, this was the opposite of what he was hoping for.

Of course you needed space to process. His plan had been to tell you at the construction site, but then he took the sudden rain fall as a sign to wait. The kitchen was the first time that the wolf had completely taken over and the words were out before he could think it through. He should have told Junmyeon as soon as he’d realized the connection between the two of you. He should have told you by the river or earlier today or in the garage. So many times. So many could haves, should haves, and would haves. But he couldn’t change anything now. He’d simply have to lie in the bed that he made.

“Sehun.”

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Junmyeon was standing in the living room waiting for Sehun to reemerge from the front parlor. He had that look on his face: the stern, get-ready-for-a-lecture type face.

“If you’re going to tell me that I should have told you sooner,” Sehun grumbled, “you can save it. I’ve already given myself that speech.”

Exasperated, Junmyeon rana hand down his face. “That’s kind of important information, Sehun. Why didn’t you say anything earlier? If not to me than at least to (y/n)?”

Sehun snorted. “You’re one to talk.”

“I would have hoped you learned from my mistake.”

Okay. Well played. Sehun sucked in his lips, mulling over his terrible excuse before finally releasing it. “I was kind of hoping to… ignore it.”

“Ignore it?” Junmyeon didn’t look like he was about to start yelling, but looks could be deceiving. “What made you think you could ever ignore something like this? Especially after Jongdae?” He shook his head with visible disappointment. “You know, as the last one to find their mate, I’d hoped that you’d learned from the rest of us on how to avoid it being a mess. How to not screw up and hurt your mate.”

“That’s all I ever do,” Sehun said in a quiet voice. “I make dumb decisions. I try so hard, but I’ll never be like the rest of you guys. I’m not as fast as Kyungsoo and Minseok or even Luhan. I’m not as strong as Chanyeol and Kris. I’m just average in everything. Even in this.”

“Now, Sehun, don’t-”

He didn’t want to hear it. “I’m tired. I’m going to go lie down.” He managed to dodge Junmyeon as he passed and escape down to the basement. He ignored the stares of the others that were gathered down there after the end of the “meeting”. It was painfully obvious that they’d been whispering about him, but he didn’t care. With a hard tug, he threw back the blanket that covered the pullout couch, dropped onto the lumpy, thin mattress and closed his eyes. He wasn’t actually trying to go to sleep, but this seemed like the best way to sulk without too much risk of interruption.

Several hours later, Sehun was cursing at himself as he ascended the stairs. He’d fallen asleep after everyone else had left the basement and leaving behind silence in the small space. It hadn’t taken too long for his mind to drift off, giving him the tiniest taste of peace.

Unfortunately, he’d slept through dinner and no one had bothered to come get him. It was probably safe to assume that they were trying to be nice and give him time to recover from the meeting, but that didn’t mean he had to like missing out on fresh food. Now it was well past midnight, the house pitch black. It didn’t take long for his wolf eyes to adjust to the darkness, but his mind was still sleepy and too preoccupied with the notion of finding food to pay too much attention to where his feet were going.

Eyes still half closed from the blinding light of the fridge, he fumbled through the shelves to find any remnants of food that didn’t require to be cooked or heated up. In the middle of his search, his ears caught the sound of slight shuffling and soft, sleepy moans. Curious, he closed the fridge door with as little sound as possible and snuck into the living room.

Lying there on the couch, sprawled out still in yesterday’s clothes, you were sleeping away, although not so peacefully it seemed. A frown formed harsh lines on your forehead and you continuously tossed and turned. What were you doing down here? Sehun knew from personal experience that sleeping on the stiff couch cushions would make you sore in the morning. Releasing a heavy, but noiseless sigh, he bent down to scoop you up – then he hesitated.

The notebook that you’d been carrying with you since you’d arrived was haphazardly laying on the floor, pages bent and scrunched under its own weight. You must have fallen asleep with it still in your hands. Fully knowing that it was an invasion of privacy but still unable to help himself, Sehun picked the notebook up and flipped through it. Even by skimming, he could tell that the rambling scribbles were of your visions. It was hard to decipher in the dark at first, given your half sentences and random descriptions. But one particular vision was not like the rest. The details were more cohesive, as if a story were being told. You spoke of a white wolf and a clearing near the river. You even describe your emotion: happiness. No fear was in your words as you spoke about the wolf approaching you and the softness of the fur against your fingers. Sehun couldn’t help the smile on his lips. If your visions were true, perhaps there was a chance after all.

Finally content, Sehun carefully closed the notebook so all the pages were flat once again. It was difficult to do so without waking you, but he managed to scoop you up from the couch before heading for the stairs. Your features smoothed as you clung to his shirt. The wolf in his chest purred at the proximity. He tried to push the euphoric feeling down, but when you buried your face into the space near his collarbone and sighed contently, it was useless. His arms tightened around you, not wanting to enter his bedroom and let you go. You could spend the rest of the night in his arms with him standing out there in that hallway and he’d be happy, completely gratified. However, come the morning, you might not be.

So, he gave in, managing to open the door with one hand while keeping a steady grip on you, and shuffled over to his bed to put you down. Shoving his hands in his pockets to avoid the temptation of caressing your face, he stared down at you for another minute or two. Creepy? Yeah, most likely, but he couldn’t help himself. Seeing you so… relaxed and void of tension was comforting to him. He wanted to make you this way all the time, even when you were awake.

“Sehun?”

He jumped, at first thinking it was you who had called out his name. But you were still fast asleep, which only meant…

Turning around, he cringed at being discovered by Soomi. He thought he had been quiet enough, but the witch must have been a light sleeper. “Sorry,” he whispered. “I just thought she’d be more comfortable up here.”

“I’m sure she will be,” Soomi agreed with a nod.

With an awkwardness now hanging in the air, Sehun pressed his lips tightly together and started for the door with a mumbled, “G’night.”

“Wait.”

He held back a frustrated groan before glancing over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

“She’ll come around eventually,” Soomi said.

Sehun nodded, but gave no other verbal response. That was always the answer, wasn’t it? Give the mate time. They didn’t have the same understanding of the pull, of the desire that the wolves did. But hearing that didn’t make things any easier.

Confusion was a normal mental state whenever you’d had a long, hard sleep. However, this morning it had been more than just a deep slumber that caused the confusion. You were sure the last thing you remembered was being on the couch in the living room, reading over that vision with the wolf for the millionth time. And yet, when you opened your eyes, you were in the second floor bedroom, your notebook placed nicely on the nightstand next to you. Someone had to have carried you….

Cheeks heating up with the possibility of who had moved you to more comfortable sleeping spot, you threw the covers off and got out of bed as slowly and quietly as you were capable of. Soomi was still fast asleep on the other side of the room and you wanted to keep it that way. Boots in hand, you snuck out of the room, going down the stairs before making it out the door to the safety of the porch.

The rain had stopped by now, but the grass was still visibly wet and the soil was a thick, sticky mud. It didn’t stop you, though. With the rest of the house still soundly asleep, you were taking the opportunity to get some air and really think through your current predicament. The trees created a nice cover in which to lose yourself to the inner workings of your mind.

The truth was… you liked Sehun. A lot. And the fact that the want from yesterday had turned into a truth was giving your stomach a strange, bubbling feeling. Maybe it was just the magic behind the mate pull, but the more you thought about it, the more you were okay with the idea. At least you’d have someone on your side at all times. And he’d never looked at you once like you were a freak or abnormity the whole time you’d known him. He’d fully accepted you, just as you were.

You’d been walking for while along the river, watching the sun rise higher as you came to terms with the new card life had dealt out to you. It wasn’t a bad draw, just another event that you could deal with.

This was what Soomi had meant by time in your conversation by the swing. You only needed time to work out the situation and you’d be fine. It wasn’t the end of the world. And, despite what you’d said yesterday, you were appreciative that Sehun did seem to be a good guy. He hadn’t shown you any reason to hate him. Not yet, at least.

A howl ripped through the air, startling you and causing you lose your footing.

Splash!

You landed right on your backside in the cold water. Immediately, your teeth began to chatter. You tried to push yourself back up to your feet, but only managed to lose your balance again and landed forward on your palms. Now your legs and arms were soaked. Fantastic.

To add insult to injury, a wolf emerged from behind the trees, howling once again as he trotted down the hill and sat in front of you in the trench that contained the river. He watched with amused eyes as you climbed out of the river and rung out as much water from your clothes as you could.

Huffing, you put your hands on your hips. “Thanks for the help.” The wolf simply stared at you, even cocking his head to the side. It was embarrassing to be caught like this and frustrating to no end. “What, Sehun? What are you staring at?”

“Actually, that’s Luhan.”

Minseok – obviously holding back a laugh of his own – came carefully down the slope and stopped next to Luhan. “It’s easy to get them confused. They look the same in human and wolf form. Kris can’t tell them apart if he’s just woken up.”

After clearing your throat, you said, “Oh, Sorry. I just-”

“(y/n)!”

You cringed. Oh, great. More of an audience.

Sehun now became visible as he came over the hill. He wasn’t as graceful coming down as his pack mates, but he still made it over to you, cupping your jaw in his hands as his eyes search for any sign of major injury. “Why are you all wet?”

“I tripped,” you said. You couldn’t see your own face, but you were sure that you were blushing with how warm your face felt. Or maybe it was just Sehun’s palms against your cheeks. Either way, you were no longer shivering from the cold water and that was nice at least.

He shook his head. “What were you even doing out here so early?” He frowned, biting on his bottom lip. “You weren’t… running away, were you?”

You scoffed as you rolled your eyes. “No. I just wanted to go for a walk. By myself. Thinking tends to be easier that way.”

By the way his mouth twitched, it was evident that Sehun wanted to argue against you coming into the woods by yourself, but the smart boy kept it to himself. He dropped his hands from your face and took a step back.

“Look, can we talk?” You asked. After a quick glance over his shoulder, you added, “Alone?”

He nodded eagerly. The other two didn’t need to be told.

“Come on, Luhan,” Minseok patted the wolf’s back. They hiked back up the hill and were out of sight. Sehun waited, head cocked as he listened to their retreating footsteps.

“Okay,” he sighed, “we’re alone now.”

In a swift motion, you turned on the balls of your feet and head back in the direction that you’d came.

“I thought you wanted to talk?” Sehun said.

“I do. But I’m also wet and need to change.” You held up your arm for emphasis. “I just thought we could walk and talk.”

“Oh.”

However, there wasn’t much talking between the two of you as you moved in the direction of the farmhouse. The words were right there, whirling around in your head, trying to make their way to your mouth so they could escape, but nothing made it out. You’d come to a decision, so why was it so hard to tell him so?

“So, I’m your mate,” was what finally came out. The worst choice, really, in stating the obvious.

“Yes.”

“And you’ve known since you first saw me.”

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Your mind drifted back to the garage and the other time by the river. “So, have you just been playing with me to see how far you could take it before you finally told me?”

“What? No!” Sehun looked hurt that you would even suggest such a thing. “It’s just… hard to control sometimes, being around your mate. Our instinct is to be near you. To be as close as possible.”

“Ah,” you nodded. “I think an ex-boyfriend used that excuse once, too.” It was meant as a joke, but the look on Sehun’s face told you that he didn’t take it that way.

“Have you dated a lot? In the past?”

You stopped mid-step. While you were never the popular girl in the coven, there were still a few who’d asked you out. Nothing ever lasted, but you still had a history. “Yeah. You’ve got a problem with that?”

“No. Not at all.” He didn’t look at you, keeping his hands firmly in his pocket. It was kind of cute to see him pout.

“What about you?” you asked. You didn’t care all that much, but you thought you should return the favor.

His reply was a shrug.

You huffed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He glanced at you in the corner of his eye. “It means I’ve never had anything serious.”

“But you have dated?”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

“Jealous?”

“Not in the slightest.”

“Too bad.”

You rolled your eyes, not giving that the dignity of a response. The farmhouse came into view much sooner than you’d expected and you broke through to the clearing.

“I know you said you weren’t running away earlier,” Sehun said as you came to the porch, “but are you still running from me?”

Fighting the smile on your lips, you turned to him, stopping just short of the steps. “That’s why I wanted to talk to you. I think… I think I’ve accepted that I’m your mate. I was starting to like you anyway and this – well, it sort of uncomplicates things.”

Sehun frowned. “Uncomplicates?”

“Well, yeah. I saw what Soomi went through with Junmyeon and I didn’t want to get attached just to get my own heart broken.”

“I’d never do that to you.” There was nothing but sincerity in his voice and eyes. “I will never hurt you.”

You swallowed back the tears that were building behind your eyes. “Promise?”

“Promise.” Reaching out to you, he gently took your jaw in his hands, the pads of his thumbs gently caressing your cheeks. He pulled you in close and met your lips with his. There was no hesitation on your part. You gladly returned the kiss, wrapping your fingers around his hands in an effort to bring you closer to him. If you thought his touch brought you warmth and comfort… it was nothing compared to the feeling of want and belonging his lips conveyed to you.

Only a few seconds went by before Sehun stopped. You opened your eyes to see why and followed his gaze. That’s when you spotted them.

Several bodies were scrambling away from the door, but it was too late. They’d already been caught. Your first kiss with Sehun had had an audience.

“So that’s what that feels like,” he mumbled under his breath.

So privacy was not going to be an option here. Smiling a bit mischievously, you looked back at Sehun. “Wait here.”

An actual whine left his throat as you ascended the stairs. He had a grip on your sleeve when he asked, “Where are you going?”

You held up your other arm again to remind him. “I’m going to go change. My clothes are still wet and it’s freezing. After that I thought we could go back… to the other house?”

Something flashed in Sehun’s eyes and you didn’t need to be a genius to figure out the cause. He let go of your sleeve. “Okay. But hurry.”

You snorted. “Down boy.”

Sehun rolled his eyes. “Just hurry up.”

You ran into the house and headed for the stairs, barely paying attention to the group of people pretending to be busy and “natural” in the living room. Thankfully, your room was empty and you made quick work into changing to fresh, dry clothes before bouncing back down to your wolf waiting for you below.

#exo #exo wolf au #exo wolf!au #sehun x reader #oh sehun #exo werewolf!au #exo werewolf au #exo fanfiction #exo fanfic #exo supernatural au #exo series #Midnight Hours #untamed wolf universe

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dissecting-bollywood · 4 years

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10 Queer Characters/Couples in Indian Media

A topic that has been taboo in Indian society forever now, homosexuality is now prevalent and more talked about than ever. There have been many forms of normalization the Indian audience has been exposed to, such as literature, social media awareness, and of course, Indian Media. In celebration of Pride Month, I’d like to stray away from the more dehumanizing and embarrassing portrayals of LGBTQ+ characters and instead focus on the more positive and realistic portrayals of them. So here are 10 queer characters and couples in Indian Media (keep in mind, I probably missed some queer Indian characters, so please don’t @ me. These are some of my personal favorites and most of these movies are available on online platforms)

*minor spoiler for Kapoor and Sons*

*THIS WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THE BLM PROTESTS. DONATE TO THE MOVEMENT OR SIGN PETITIONS*

1. AMAN-KARTHIK IN SHUBH MANGAL ZYADA SAAVDHAN

Probably the most recent one on the list, SMZS took the internet by surprise with the great representation. Starring Ayushmann Khurrana as Karthik and Jitendra Kumar as Aman, the movie showed a healthy relationship between the two and made their personalities deeper than the typical gay man stereotype. Although the movie did have a story structure similar to the modern situational comedy movies (i.e. Dream Girl and Badhaai Ho), this movie is a fun ride and an important step towards LGBTQ+ acceptance in Indian cinema. SMZS is available of Amazon Prime.

2. SWEETY-KUHU IN EK LADKI KO DEKHA TOH AISA LAGA

Proclaimed as the first mainstream Bollywood movie to showcase a lesbian love story as the main focus, this movie was bold for many. Starring Sonam Kapoor as Sweety and Regina Cassandra as Kuhu, their chemistry on-screen was lovable and so was the innocence of their intentions. Sweety’s journey of acceptance of her identity is one that many could empathize with and the movie overall was visually pleasing to look at. In technical terms, I found the movie slightly bland but that doesn’t make me disregard the impact it has had in queer love stories in Bollywood. Watch it on Netflix.

3. SHABNAM MAUSI IN SHABNAM MAUSI

Rolling backwards in time to 2005′s, Shabnam Mausi is about the real-life Shabnam Bano, the first transgender woman to become a political activist. Played by Ashutosh Rana, this movie was incredibly risky for obvious reasons. At that time, transgender women were ostracized by society and for a fairly famous Rana to take up this role was daring. Even though the movie had exaggerated many events that took place in Bano’s life, Ashutosh Rana’s great performance can’t be ignored.

4. RAHUL KAPOOR IN KAPOOR AND SONS

2016′s Kapoor and Son’s was an emotional movie centered around a family and their troubles. The oldest son Rahul, played by Fawad Khan, for most of the runtime is portrayed to be the perfect child but towards the end, it is discovered that he is a closeted gay in a relationship. Fawad Khan is charming and effortless as always and he bought a sense of rawness and authenticity to his performance. His subplot is just one of the many brushstrokes that make this movie the way it is. Available on Netflix.

5. RADHA-SITA IN FIRE

Both Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das were proven brave for taking up the role of Radha and Sita, especially considering the negativity surrounding LGBTQ folks at 1996 India. The movie was unjustly marred with controversy and hate by conservatives, but almost all critics hailed this film as gutsy and path-breaking, which it was in many ways. Along with portraying a lesbian love story in the forefront, the movie also portrays unhappy marriages and age gap relationships well. Catch this one of YouTube.

6. LAILA-KHANUM IN MARGARITA WITH A STRAW

Laila is a teenager with celebral palsy and Khanum is a blind Pakistani-Bangladeshi. The two extremely daring roles were carried out to near perfection by Kalki and Sayani in this gem of a movie. The chemistry between them was impeccable and the moments they have together will definitely make you tear up. This movie was path-breaking for portraying characters with disabilities in a good way and (of course) tackling the subject of sexuality with nuance. Catch this heartfelt movie on Hulu.

7. PROFESSOR SIRAS IN ALIGARH

Aligarh is a biopic of Professor Ramchandra Siras, a former professor at Aligarh Muslim University who was caught getting intimate with a rickshaw puller, causing him to get suspended. Siras is a character easy to empathize with and everything that Bajpayee emoted was very praiseworthy. You could really feel Siras’ pain and struggle through the screen. Despite the movie being moderately successful, Bajpayee’s performance didn’t go unnoticed and he went on to win a Filmfare in Best Actor (Critics) category.

8. SHILPA IN SUPER DELUXE

The only regional character in this list, Shilpa played by Vijay Sethupathi is a transgender woman who comes back to her childhood town to meet her family and child she left years ago. Although she is a small part of this 3 hour long movie, she is easily the most iconic character and her conversations with Rasukutty seems very genuine and wholesome. Her storyline was engaging and when the sad and unfortunate incident happens to her, I couldn’t help but shed a tear. Definitely one of my most favorite characters in South Indian cinema. Watch this masterpiece of a movie on Netflix.

9. NIKHIL-NIGEL IN MY BROTHER... NIKHIL

Nikhil Kapoor, played by Sanjay Suri, is a competitive swimmer who has a hard time with accepting himself when he has HIV and Nigel D’Costa is his supportive boyfriend. Much like Shabnam Mausi and Aligarh, the movie is based on the real life Dominic D’Souza, who was a well-known AIDS activist. Certainly another brave attempt to normalize gay portrayal in the silver screen during challenging times, the movie was received well worldwide and deservedly so. The movie featured great performances from everyone and the ending carried so many mixed emotions that it was just beautiful. Available on YouTube.

10. KARAN MEHRA IN MADE IN HEAVEN

One of my personal favorites in the list, Karan, played brilliantly by Arjun Mathur, is a wedding planner along with Tara Khanna. He is a well-fleshed out character with a great personality and I think 50% of my most favorite moments are with him in it. The web series manages to show the nitty gritty situations gay people faced before the court’s decision on Section 377, from the parents’ reactions, to facing society’s stigma. I found myself sobbing and smiling along with him throughout the series and I am interested as to what is planned ahead for him. Please watch this series on Amazon Prime its very good.

NOTE: IN THE LIGHT OF THE RECENT PROTESTS AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY, I’D LIKE TO TAKE A MOMENT TO SAY THAT MY HEART GOES OUT TO THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN COMMUNITY. I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THE PAIN AND STRUGGLE YOU GO THROUGH, BUT KNOW THAT I WILL FOREVER SUPPORT THE BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT AND I URGE ANYONE READING TO CLICK ON THE LINKS ABOVE TO MAKE DONATIONS OR SIGN PETITIONS. #BLACKLIVESMATTER AND #ACAB

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