#also I’m just assuming Lancer is important

[dukhlontales]

Consistency: accidentally removing the drawback of Skill Tests in ttrpgs

Having come to a place where I’m temporarily happy with the combat system for my ttrpg, Dukhlon Tales, I’ve turned my focus to the skills system. More specifically, character progression regarding skills. To this end, I’ve been designing Expertises (basically skill feats) that improve how characters interact with their environment through skills.

An accidental example of these is the Background system (which is essentially backgrounds in Lancer). As a player, you make up a background for your character, and you get a bonus to any Skill Test relevant to that background. For example, as a wrestler, you have a bonus to pushing people around because wrestlers should be good at that.

Expertises work the same way where you make up a category (let’s continue with the wrestler idea) to have a special benefit to. Whatever you come up with has to span multiple skills (maybe our wrestler is also good at intimidating people), but has to be specific enough to not apply to all uses of a skill (our wrestler is not especially good at throwing large rocks for example, despite this using the same skill as pushing people).

This brings us to “Consistency,” an Expertise inspired by the D&D5e Rogue Reliable Talent feature. My original plan was for this Expertise to allow a character to automatically succeed at a relevant Skill Test if their Skill DC (a number the derives from the skill proficiency itself, and is used just like skill DCs in Pathfinder: Second Edition), is higher than the DC of the Skill Test. Cool. Assuming this wrestler continues to focus on their “wrestler” category as they progress, now they can wrestle consistently. This sounds narratively satisfying to me. The wrestler is good at wrestling. Why have a chance of failure when wrestling people of less skill?

Well, having imagined the play patterns, that chance of failure is a lot more important than I initially realized. Without the possibility of failure, why doesn’t our wrestler address every problem possible by wrestling? The best reason I can imagine is the same reason this inevitability terrifies me: it’s boring. By allowing the wrestler to not only be better at wrestling than anything else, but also not worry about unlucky mishaps interfering with their wrestling, I’ve given them nothing but incentive to approach every problem as if it’s a nail waiting to be struck by the hammer of wrestling. I love mechanics. I love games. I want my mechanics to inspire interesting decisions that thus drive an interesting narrative.

This brings me to another realization that really shouldn’t have taken me nearly 10 years of playing ttrpgs, but here we are. Players use the skills that they do because they are good at those skills. Wild, I know. When my D&D5e paladin with mediocre skills aside from Athletics and Persuasion ends up avoiding skill checks that aren’t Athletics and Persuasion, I shouldn’t really be surprised. And this isn’t necessarily dissatisfying. That is what this character is good at. They aren’t good at other skills. So it would probably feel less satisfying if they constantly attempted risky skill checks that they were unlikely to succeed at.

I think the crux here is that while this paladin is a character in a fictional story, I’m a person playing a game. I wouldn’t find it weird for Iron Man to solve all his problems through intelligence and technology. That’s very consistent with what I know of Iron Man. But Iron Man doesn’t have a human sitting at a table trying to find creative and fun ways to engage with a story. I want to have a little more incentive to take risks at something I’m not necessarily as likely to succeed at.

This aside is rapidly growing out of control (that will undoubtedly be a common occurrence here), but a couple ways I have seen and brainstormed to incentivize trying things you aren’t so good at include getting XP when you fail a skill check, and forcing players to widen the skills they invest in.

I’ll show some discipline and bring us back to that wrestler who is now pushing people around constantly because it is the most reliable tool in their toolbelt, while also probably being the most likely to critically succeed since I also gave them incentive to increase their appropriate Skill DC by increasing its proficiency rank. This design removed the one drawback that Skill Tests have in my system: they might fail. To be entirely fair to the original design, the wrestler can encounter people who are fortitudinous enough to not automatically be shoved, but those won’t be the vast majority of NPCs.

The problem with Consistency is that it removes the only mechanical reason the wrestler might not wrestle. There is no finite amount of wrestling attempts per day. No stamina resource shared by other physically demanding Skill Tests. No automatic physical strain. The only thing standing between our wrestler and infinite wrestling (aside from the time it takes to wrestle, which would certainly be relevant when facing down many people), is the fact that they might not wrestle successfully. And I thought it was a good idea to take that away. Thankfully not long enough for it to make it into the game I run with my friends.

Well, I still want to have the narrative satisfaction of all but guaranteed success given a sufficiently skilled character. But how can I mitigate the lack of a drawback? I’ve currently landed on forcing the player to choose between reliability and possibility. “Consistency” now allows a player to choose to perform a Skill Test as if their Skill DC was the result of the roll, plus or minus any bonuses and penalties. This does a couple of things. Maybe even three!

Firstly, it requires the player to size up the situation. Consistency will not automatically apply. You have to actively choose if something seems simple enough that you can go with your guaranteed roll. Secondly, it limits the potential of your Skill Test. You’ll never roll higher than what you’re given. This minimizes the possibility of Critical Success. Thirdly, and probably my favourite, it makes Partial Success much more likely. If your roll is capped at the EV, you’re a lot more likely to not have a Regular Success. This means we are more likely to see the wrestler not get exactly what they want, or have to deal with some Consequences (giving a great opportunity to bring in some of that physical strain I mentioned earlier).

Suddenly the player has a serious choice to make. Do they think Consistency will do the trick? Is it worth the risk of it not being enough? Is it more risky to risk rolling low? And that is how I think a narrative should be driven. By letting (or rather, forcing) players to make interesting decisions. That’s the kind of game that I want to run.

Anyone reading this who has played a decent amount of Pathfinder: Second Edition probably realizes I accidentally made the Assurance skill feat. As someone who never appreciated Assurance, I find that hilarious. I definitely see it in a new light. Although, a version of Assurance that is more likely to succeed but costs a Focus Point would be a really cool way to change the limitation of the ability to be based on a resource. If Dukhlon Tales had a short term resource like that, I’d almost certainly jump at the opportunity to let characters go Plus Ultra. As is, I’ll have to settle for making them deal with physical strain.

[madillhethen]

HA has a time mechanic

I’m dead. I hate those because I don’t like missing scenes but if I remember right HA loops, right?! So I’ll be able to go back……..

Someone said don’t push the “!” Cause it’ll advance the plot but the “New” is just character scenes? Unless it was the other way around.

I love Shirou and all, it probably hasn’t hit me because I’m playing back to back and I really liked the endings in FSN so I kind of just want to read Bazett and Angry Mango.

The fact that I already ran into Lancer 3x screams Bazett’s story. He’s important because he’s her servant (yeah, I already know this. It was spoiled long ago.) also I didn’t want to say it because I thought it would come off offensive but yes, Lancer, is my idea of careless. Not in a negative sense, more so contented, but Shirou calls him careless and I’ll say that to. For me, I’m more like Shirou/Archer, I overthink and I regret and I get hungover my mistakes (I’m sure a lot of people relate to this) so seeing someone as Lancer, even if he isn’t actually careless, he still comes off that way to people who worry a lot.

It’s why I said Rin feels more relatable to me. She makes a decision, she doesn’t worry about regretting it but struggles to accept a decision. Lancer is…acceptance easily, no regrets, it’s the here and now, and that’s that. What will happen and what has happened is not the concern. It’s admirable, but unrelatable for me.

Also…why does Lancer smoke….? Smoking is usually high stress relief so when I saw that Kiritsugu does it, it makes sense, same thing with Robin Hood, Waver, Dante and Kairi (Mordred’s master). Like I feel the choice to make all those men smoke is because they are stressed either of the past or of the future but Lancer doesn’t have that. He just likes it…? I mean I guess people smoke for a variety of reasons. I guess it just threw me off because I didn’t expect to find a Celtic man smoking. The beer I can understand; mead was a popular thing in old Europe.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Saber has downed her fair share of mead

[dekalko-mania]

Danny Fenton is a prime example of an unreliable narrator/protagonist. Like for real, it’s crazy how much he sells himself short. He’ll say phrases such as “if I wasn’t a C student, I would’ve figured this out sooner,” “So much for the Fentons being a family of geniuses,” and make jabs at himself for not doing enough as a hero. Which is wild to hear when his every action contradicts those statements. 

Like I’m serious, actually paying attention to his fights and methods of overcoming adversity, it becomes pretty clear that he’s actually incredibly intelligent. He’s a quick thinker, resourceful, and honestly? Although he’s the good guy in the show, he really is quite good at manipulation and finding other’s weaknesses.

Examples:

He’s won plenty of fights where he didn’t even have access to his powers for extended periods (Maternal Instincts, Life Lessons, Pirate Radio, Micro Management, etc.)

Clever af plans (Maternal Instincts, One of a Kind, What You Want, Lucky in Love, Pirate Radio, etc)

He’s tricked foes into a friendly fire (Memory Blank, Million Dollar Ghost, Life Lessons, etc)

He’s been shown to still have fighting ability and weapons training as Fenton, also just catches on quick (Pirate Radio, Flirting With Distaster, My Brother’s Keeper, etc.)

There’s times where he seems to know his parents’ inventions even better than they do 

Whole reason I’m pointing this out is ‘cause a pretty good portion of fights aren’t won just because he’s powerful. Plenty of ghosts overpower him, especially in S01 and with mega ghosts like Pariah Dark. He wins consistently because of clever strategy, and quick thinking.

Danny is super smart and I feel like it’s very important to his character to state that. Says a lot about him and his upbringing if he perceives himself as anything less than that. 

Might be a stretch, but I have a theory that perhaps he thinks this way because he’s been taught to equate performance in school with intelligence. Jack and Maddie both come from heavily educational backgrounds, and they do sometimes place a lot of pressure on their children to live up to the expectations of being a Fenton. I.E. the whole speech his parents gave him about Fentons only getting A’s (B-’s if you’re Jack).

So when Danny’s grades plummet, even when there’s a perfectly valid reason for that happening, he immediately assumes he’s not intelligent anymore. I wonder if prior to becoming Phantom, he may even have been an A or B student considering even a C leaves him completely mortified. Lancer also reported that he hasn’t had any records of bad behavior before that.

It’s just a very problematic way to view intelligence, to simply equate it to one’s grades, because that’s certainly not the case. (Literally when he passes Lancer’s test, the first thing he says is, “I’m not an idiot!”) And I think his parents may have done him a huge disservice in that regard. There’s plenty of factors that would make someone struggle in school. Home life, accessibility to resources, stress, financial burdens, mental illness. Like, there’s A LOT. 

I even wonder if perhaps, along with struggling with his double life, Danny may have an undiagnosed mental disorder. There’s plenty about him that feels relatable in that regard, but that would be a post all on its own and some really great ones already exist here and here. We've already seen how horribly his parents react to signs of MI, it wouldn't surprise me if they overlooked that. I just think he’s really going through it, and could honestly use more responsible adult figures in his life. Someone who can help correct the way he thinks of himself, and who can give him the proper means of getting help and feeling comfortable to ask for it. We have Jazz, but she’s a kid way in over her head too who I feel may also benefit from talking to someone.

[five-rivers]

Hobbies

Phic phight! @idiot-cheesehead-archenemy

A series of vignettes about Danny having various hobbies.

(Master the Orb)

Danny exhaled slowly as the ice built up between his hands.  Each new layer glittered in the ghostlight cast by the overhead ambient ectoplasm, embedding complex patterns in the overall piece as new layers built up over it.

“Very good, Great One,” rumbled Frostbite behind his shoulder.  “Your control has improved immensely.”

Danny inhaled equally slowly, examining his work so far but not adding to it quite yet.  “I don’t know.  It looks a little lopsided.”

“Mmm, it looks fine to me.  Especially for such an early attempt.”

Danny sighed, exhaling the ice he had built up with his breath.  “So, it is lopsided.”

“Consider it practice,” said Frostbite, encouragingly. “It takes time to master art of any kind.”

“Humans do ice sculpture, too,” mumbled Danny. “They get really good, too.  I’ve seen pictures.  And videos.  They don’t even have ice powers.”  He rubbed his thumb over the surface, smoothing over a slightly rougher patch.

“That may be true,” said Frostbite, “but, again, you just started, Great One.  You have only had your powers for a little while.  Give yourself some support.”

Danny shrugged.  “I guess it isn’t something my life depends on, so I can relax about it.” He built up another layer of ice. “This is oddly therapeutic, and I don’t say therapeutic lightly.  You know Jazz.”

“I do indeed,” said Frostbite, somewhat ruefully, head half-bowed.  

Jazz could be a force of nature, even more so than ice powers.

He held the ice orb up to the light.  It caught on the patterns he had placed there. Fractals were the easiest.  He was hoping that if he got better, he’d be able to make real sculptures with patterns in them, instead of just orbs.  

But, first, he had to master the orb.  Just like how when drawing you had to do circles first.  Circle. Orb.

Ooorb.  Yep.  

The controlled application of ice.  The evenness of the internal patterns.  The solidity, density, and durability.  

His orb was… not very orblike, despite what Frostbite said.  Frostbite probably thought he was making so flat on purpose.  

Yeah.  He was terrible at this.  

He was having fun, though.  

.

.

 (Furnace)

“You’re taking up glass blowing?” asked Tucker, surprised.

“Yeah?  Is there a problem?” asked Danny, reaching over to stop his friend from accidentally drawing a line of orange sharpie across his poster on the themes in Macbeth.

“No!” said Tucker, quickly.  “But, like, why?  It just seems… unlike you.”

“Exactly,” said Danny, nodding sharply.  “It has absolutely nothing to do with my powers and nothing to do with my family.  Plus, I had a coupon.”

“For glass blowing?”

“It was a groupon,” said Danny.  “For making Christmas tree ornaments.  I’m going to do it with Jazz.”

“But, Danny,” said Sam, looking over from where she was working on her own poster about Twelfth Night, “glass blowing, uh, involves a lot of heat.”

“Sure?”

“Danny, you have an ice core.”

“Ah,” said Danny.  “Well.   I’ve got to use that groupon.  If it doesn’t work out, it’s only the once, right?”

.

“Oh my gosh,” said Danny, wringing sweat out of his t-shirt.  “That was awesome!”  He giggled to himself and peaked into the annealer again.  “So awesome!”

“Uh huh,” said Jazz.  Her attempts had been… rather less successful than Danny’s, partially because she was trying so hard to make them perfect.  But she had managed a few little baubles, nonetheless.  “I think these’ll all be good for the tree. Assuming we get one.”

“And it isn’t set on fire.”

“Oh, yeah, that was a bad year.”

He squeaked open the annealer again, only closing it when the instructor lightly scolded him.  “They’re so terrible and lopsided,” said Danny.  

“Hey,” said Jazz.  “Mine are fine.”

“I know!  I was talking about mine.”

“Ah, okay then.  I agree.”

“You aren’t supposed to agree.”

“What, you want me to lie?  And after you said it first?”

“No,” said Danny.  “But you could be nicer about it.”

“I’m your sister, what do you expect?”

.

.

 (Lung Capacity)

Danny let the last note trail off to complete silence. He stared apprehensively at the assembled student body.  Curse Mr. Lancer’s extra credit talent show assignment.  Any minute now, they’d start laughing at him.  

What was he thinking?  He’d just watched a few YouTube tutorials on breath control, and he thought he could come up here and sing in front of people?  He was a moron, and—

Sam and Tucker started cheering wildly, followed rapidly by everyone else in the gym.  

Okay.  What?

Sam and Tucker, following impulses known only to overexcited teenagers, swarmed up the stage and attacking Danny.  

“Why didn’t you tell us you could sing like that?” demanded Sam.  

“When did you learn?” asked Tucker, doing his level best to noogie Danny.  “Why did you learn?”

“I wanted to improve my, you know, wail,” muttered Danny, “and all the breath control YouTube videos either had to do with diving or singing, so…”  He did a little head wiggle to illustrate his point and also dislodge Tucker.  

“I just can’t believe you kept this a secret from us,” said Sam.  

Danny snorted and took a sort of half bow before attempting to leave the stage.  “My dudes, I am basically made of secrets.”

“Encore!” screamed someone who clearly hated him.  

“Oh, no,” said Danny, bracing himself against Sam and Tucker who were pushing him back into the middle of the stage.  “No encore.  I don’t do encores.”

But now people were chanting.  Chanting.  

“Come on, Danny,” said Tucker.  “Just once!”

“Yeah, these are your fifteen minutes of fame!”

“I had those already!  Multiple times!”

“That was Poindexter.”

“And now it can be you.”

Danny reluctantly took the microphone back off the stand.

.

.

 (Letterhead)

The ink was thick, almost creamy, and paint-like. It was the ectoplasm mix, which also gave it a rich, rosy glow.  

Danny was practicing ghost calligraphy.  Well, one particular subset of ghost calligraphy, one which put special emphasis on the color of the letters as well as how they fit together.  

It was a totally useless hobby.  But it was… not exactly calming.  No.  He’d gotten way too angry about poorly formed arcs and crooked lines a couple of times.  So. Yeah.  Not calming.  But… meditative.  Meditative. And there was something satisfying about seeing the finished product.  

Plus, if he framed his better finished work, they made for good presents for weirdo ghosts.

“You misspelled this,” drawled Ghost Writer.  

“No, I didn’t.”

“Keuwii only has one kei.”

“This is only one kei.”

“What’s this, then?”

“It’s a flourish.”

“A flourish.”

Danny rolled his eyes.  “Everyone’s a critic.  If you don’t want it—”

“I didn’t say that.”

Danny raised an eyebrow.  

Ghost Writer made a show of rolling his eyes. “Very well.  Do you have one for my half-brother Randy.  Perhaps one that says something along the lines of ‘idiot?’”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

.

.

 (Babies on Fire)

“Danny,” said Jazz.  “What are you doing up at three in the morning with a lighter? And… yarn?  Is that yarn?”

“Dad wanted me to learn how to sew,” said Danny, “but I don’t like needles, not the sharp ones, anyway.”

“You get stitches every other week,” pointed out Jazz.

“Exactly,” said Danny, gesturing with the lighter.  “So, I decided to look into, you know, knitting. And I was on knitting websites, and having, you know, a pretty good time with that, but then I found out about the babies.”

“The babies.”

“The babies,” said Danny, seriously.  “And the blankets that are on fire.  It depends on the yarn, you see.  If the yarn is the wrong kind of yarn, if it catches on fire, the blanket can melt onto the baby.  It’s terrible.  Just terrible.”

“I kind of think that if the blanket is on fire you have bigger problems,” said Jazz.  She took a step closer to her obviously insane younger brother.  “Are you… testing the yarn?”

“I have to, Jazz.  It’s for the babies.”

“Alright,” said Jazz.  “You are going to limit it to just the yarn in our house, right?”

“But we don’t have any babies.”

“Okay, that didn’t answer my question, but, like…” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “Since we don’t have any babies here, why are you testing the yarn?”

“Because we might have babies here in the future,” said Danny.  “Or I might knit something and give it to someone as a gift and then they give it to their baby.  Oh my gosh, I’d feel so guilty.”

“I’d be more worried about the toxic waste in our basement,” said Jazz, which was exactly the wrong thing to say to a sleep-deprived half-ghost on the edge of an Obsession-fueled breakdown.  Danny vanished in a blur, trailing yarn behind him. Jazz, who had only gotten up for a glass of water, cursed under her breath.

.

.

 (Before the Ball)

“I’m so, so sorry, Dora,” said Danny, holding back something adjacent to laughter.  

Dora laughed, more openly.  “It is fine, Sir Phantom.  Even now, you are better than my brother.”

“Am I really?  Your brother?  Who was raised to do this?”

“Well,” said Dora, letting go and stepping back out of the range of Danny’s feet.  Which were, evidently, both left feet.  “No, I’m afraid, but it is amusing to say, isn’t it?”  She pressed her fingers to her lips, suppressing more laughter.  

“Yeah, it is,” admitted Danny.  

“In any case, you are far more graceful concerning your mistakes than he ever was.  More gallant. A better representative of chivalry altogether.”  She patted the shoulders of his shirt.  

“Thanks,” said Danny.  “Do you think that I’ll be, uh, ready in time for the party?”

“It’s more than a party,” said Dora.  “You’re being officially knighted.  You’ll be a peer of the realm.”

“Aha,” said Danny.  “Yeah.  I don’t… what?  Really? That’s a thing?”

“You thought I was joking?”

“No,” said Danny, drawing out the word.  He had, in fact, thought she was joking and only accepted her offer to teach him how to dance because he thought it sounded like fun and like it might take his mind off his problems.  “Of course not.  So. Dancing.  Important.  For first impressions?”

“Everyone already knows you, Phantom,” said the knight assigned as Dora’s bodyguard.  “But dancing is surprisingly useful for swordplay.  Which you need all the help you can get at.”

“You said I was getting better.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re good.”

“Ouch.”

.

.

 (Time)

“I don’t have time for a hobby,” complained Danny through the Fenton Phones.  “Maybe if the ghosts let up a bit—” He zapped one of said ghosts.  

“Danny, are you fighting ghosts right now?”

“Yeah.  That’s my point.”

“Oh my god, get off the phone.”

“No way!  This is the only time I can call you, what with all of your classes.”

“Danny…” said Jazz, clearly exasperated.  He took advantage of the lull in the conversation to blast a few more ghosts.  

“I’m fine Jazz.”

“You are not fine.  You are, like, ten thousand miles away from fine.  When was the last time you even slept through the night?”

“Eh,” said Danny.  “Recently?”

“You need to take more time for yourself.”

Danny sighed and captured the last ghost.  “Maybe catching ghosts is my hobby.”

“Catching ghosts is your self-imposed penance for doing something that isn’t even your fault.  Not a hobby.”

“Okay, okay.  I’ll talk to you on Wednesday, same time.”

“Danny, don’t—”

He hung up.  

“Ugh,” said Danny.  “I guess I need to find a hobby.  Have to find time to find a hobby.”

“Perhaps I could be of help.”

“Ah!”  Danny jolted forward, dropping his phone.  

Clockwork gestured with one hand, and the phone dropped back into Danny’s hands from above.  

“Ohhh my ghost, why are you here?”

“You were just talking about finding time.  And now I’m here.”

“Good timing, I guess?”

“Only the best,” said Clockwork, evenly.  “But we were speaking of hobbies.  Might I suggest ice sculpture?  Your friends in the Far Frozen would be more than happy to teach you...”

[3wisellamas]

(Spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk if you haven't finished chapter 2 yet!)

Kris is the Knight, Gaster is the Knight, Ralsei is sus...

How about I throw an oddball one at you? What if Dess is the Knight?

In chapter 2, Queen implied that only a Lightner can actually create more dark fountains, and literally any Lightner can if they have enough determination and a blade of some kind. And she was VERY interested in Noelle specifically for the task, touting her strength and potential, without even considering the other three Lightners right in front of her.

Noelle was Dess' younger sister. And from context in this chapter, it looks a lot like whatever happened to her, happened when Noelle was very young -- before her first spelling bee, at least, since that's where she froze up (pun not intended) on the word 'December.' But, the most important part, we don't know WHAT exactly happened to Dess. One could assume she died, either in an accident or of whatever illness Rudy has, but as others have pointed out, there's no grave for her in the graveyard. And, like, yeah, she could've been buried elsewhere, but the simplest conclusion to draw from that is that she's still alive, but either went missing or ran away from home.

She was also stated a couple times to be close to Asriel, even going to the bunker with him, Kris, and Noelle at one point. (Remember, the latter two would still have been very young children at this point, and Dess and Asriel might have been teens, around the age Kris, Noelle, and Susie are now.) And from that one scene with MK and Snowy, we know that something very bad happened there once involving Kris...perhaps this was a reference to that same event?

If so...what if the four of them opened the bunker, and Dess went inside? Or maybe Kris even went in too, and Dess went after them to bring them back? It's pretty much a given that there's gonna end up being a Dark World inside, there's just too much building up to it at this point, so if either of them went in, they'd have a hell of a time getting back out! Kris came back, perhaps even traumatized into the weird kid they are today from the experience, but Dess ended up lost in the dark...a lost girl.

(Hm, wasn't that Noelle's song? I don't think it was really Noelle's at all. Sure, she got kidnapped a couple times, but at no point was she ever "lost"...)

So, here's where I'm going right off the deep end into conjecture. Dess disappeared, and since Asriel was so close to her, he begged his father, police chief Asgore, to find her, which he never did, and might have even tried a few things that ended up getting him fired. Like, maybe even going into the bunker himself, experiencing the Dark World within, and coming back and making all these crazy claims that no one else believed except for maybe his children? That'd definitely be reason to remove him as chief of police, and also affect his and Toriel's marriage.

So, after this, Asriel, a Lightner stricken with grief and Determined to find his friend...went to the dark supply closet at his school, armed with a knife (and maybe his little sibling's old red horn headband, if you want to incorporate the theory that that's where Ralsei came from), and stabbed the ground.

Bam, dark fountain, and Ralsei's kingdom. Unlile Dess, though, Asriel came back, not having found her either, and eventually moved on and grew up, but the fountain he made persisted -- after all, while any Lightner may be able to create a fountain, Ralsei implies very early in chapter 1 that only a human like Kris can actually SEAL them!

But, this is a theory about Dess, not Asriel. Just making one fountain might make you a knight, but not The Knight -- lookin' at Kris here. At some point, Dess, still lost somewhere in the Dark World, either gets desperate to find a way out and return home, enough to try and cover EVERYTHING in darkness despite the danger it poses, or...grows to like it there, a little too much, sorta like what Susie brought up at the end of chapter 2, making more fountains so the whole world can be as fun as it is in there. Whatever the reason, Dess realizes she can create more fountains, and, Determined, goes ahead and does so. And she spends a little time in each of the worlds she creates, manipulating events to serve her desires to reach the Light World again or cover it in darkness, and even telling a few specific people, who are lonely outcasts just like her, about her home outside of that world, and the things she's learned in her time away from it all. Things she may or may not have learned herself from a certain odd man hiding behind trees in secret rooms, and giving away eggs...

Or, another possibility, she's doing it all to try and lure the people she used to know to her by creating Dark Worlds where she thinks they'd be, like, say, her sister, and her sister's friend Kris, and possibly even Asriel -- remember, the first happened to be straight-up connected to the Dark World in the school supply closet. Man, it's 2021. We ALL know just how crazy being isolated from everyone you know for so long can make you, and Dess has been lost for YEARS. But, however lost we feel as we explore all the different Dark Worlds, don't forget, she's with us in the dark...

Also, one last kicker that I couldn't really stop thinking about. The Fun Gang/F$?! Squad/Whatever are supposed to banish the "Angel's Heaven", right? Well, didn't Dess and Noelle make an angel for their dad once, which is in his hospital room? And if everyone speculates she's dead after being missing for all these years, that makes her an Angel...and the Dark Worlds she creates are her Heaven.

Okay, one last LAST kicker, since I was replaying the start of chapter 1 as I was writing this and noticed it. The Knight jailed the other three kings of the classroom Dark World and put King Spade and his "strange son" into power, right? And might have even stayed around the castle for a little while to help steer the King's actions towards the Light World, and mess with Jevil?

Guys, Lancer knows the Knight. Personally. He would have said something by now if the Knight was in our party, or if we encountered them in either of the Dark Worlds we visited. So, the Knight is definitely NOT someone we've seen yet. Furthermore...remember when we first met the kid, and his catchphrase was "Ho ho ho!" And how Susie told him he sounded like a baby Santa Claus? Wouldn't it be a nice little coincidence if he picked that up from someone literally named December, whose entire family is Christmas-themed...

[theuniversedreamteam]

You know what...? Everyone is out here making big deltarune lore theories, how about we just do some small headcanons for once...?

Collection of Small Deltarune Headcanons of mine (Chapter 1 & 2 spoilers)

————————————

By the end of the game, Catty and Bratty will be best friends and will have gotten over their rivalry. Look they already had that moment at the beach. I’m willing to bet that within two chapters their views will have changed of each other

Kris could be a top student easily but doesn’t feel like putting in effort so they’re not. Look Berdly already calls them the classroom number three. That means that out of the whole class, other then him and Noelle, Berdly sees Kris as the smartest. Kid can be very good at school but cannot being themselves to put in the effort.

Kris is dramatic as fuck. I mean, you see that pose they do while sitting down...? Tell me they ain’t dramatic (Also with some of the pranks they played on Noelle...? They be super dramatic. Like, how many kids will put fake blood on themselves to scare their friend if they weren’t dramatic as fuck??)

Toriel will at some point invite Sans over to the house. Why? Well that’s for us to find out

Kris will only find even worse places to put us (the Player) when they yeet us out. Please Kris find better places to put us then the fucking couch. We can so easily escape from there. The cage is good enough.

Basing this on the popup fight alone, Kris is into monsters. Like in a dating way. Makes sense though given the fact that they’ve lived around monsters their whole lives.

Also based on the popup fight, Ralsei is into Lightners, same way Kris is into monsters

Asriel will come home in chapter seven.

Lancer will gain more dads through each and every chapter. Steven from Steven universe had many moms, Lancer gets many dads. He deserves it.

Berdly will not get over his crush on Susie. Unfortunately for all parties involved.

The reason why Kris eats so much weird stuff is because they are a human living off of monster food. Since monster food is not physical, it causes Kris to crave for more solid stuff: like moss.

Susie is a boss monster but doesn’t realize it. I am basing this off of the fact that she said that “everybody bleeds” when, assuming Deltarune follows Undertale logic, no the hell they do not. Monsters do not normally bleed unless you’re a boss monster... or if you’re Sans but we don’t know his deal. So Susie is a boss monster but does not know she is and just assumes it is normal for monsters to bleed.

This may also be why she’s so into physical food too. Because she’s part human in a way.

Now this may be me being hopeful but: Ralsei unlearns his harmful rhetoric saying that Darkners’ purpose is to serve Lightners. Because as soon as I heard it I thought that that sounded very sus and I’m worried for ma boi.

Speaking of Ralsei, the reason why he acted so weird when Susie asked him aboht his room is because he does not have one. He didn’t need one before Susie and Kris came because he had the whole castle, but now he put so much effort on making this place good for everyone else, he didn’t make time to make his own.

Even if he did make one though, Ralsei wouldn’t know what to put in it. He doesn’t have much sense of self.

Oh yeah and Ralsei also has problems with repression because I said so

Lets give this boi some angst-

Oh and Ralsei has tiny claws that can hurt.

Kris lets their nails grow out so that they too can kinda have claws like the rest of the family.

Ralsei does not have parents

Onionson is probably going to become important soon.

Asgore is probably going to have a character arc of moving on from his divorce

Noelle is going to face her mommy issues with her real mother instead of just Queen

Every single kid in class is going to go to the dark world at some point

Yo how cool would it be if Monster Kid gained like magic arms in the dark world...? I would be so happy for the kid

Like in Undertale, Monster Kid grew up with a tripping problem but he grew out of it.

We are going to have to deal with Snowy’s mommy issues at some point when they eventually go to a Dark World with us

We are going to find out that Jockington isn’t actually that cool

Burger pants- uh, Pizzapants’s girlfriend is going to be fake (I’m sure we all knew that though)

Sans is just going to be a normal dude for the whole game

Susie and Kris fail their project (what is the project even on??)

After seeing the soul turn yellow in the Spamton fight, I get the feeling that the soul will at some point turn every color throughout the game like in Undertale.

At some point, the game will close on us as game feature and open up to some fucked up shit. Or to a troll. Either-or works when you’re dealing with Toby.

Mettaton will find their self-confidence again at some point by the end of the game.

We are going to make Ralsei eat moss and he is going to fucking like it

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #183

Whew, all those racers are finally done! Now we can kick back a bit, all we have to make this time is a literal god.

Anyway, enough self pity! Today we’re making Parvati, one of the many wives of Shiva, but also his only wife, because all the other wives are a part of her, I guess. Hindu gods make our sense of self look vanilla by comparison. She is an Oath of the Ancients Paladin for some godly protection, and a War Cleric for when it’s time to Durga it up a bit.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: Like fire, Hellfire, this fire in my skin!

Race and Background

Like many pseudoservants, Parvati is one half god, one half human, so a Fallen Aasimar will keep that in mind and also let her scare the crap out of people when she lets Kali loose. This gives her +1 Wisdom and +2 Charisma, as well as Darkvision, Celestial Resistance to radiant and necrotic damage, the Light cantrip, and some Healing Hands to help people as an action without having to slit your throat.

“Wife of a god” isn’t a common background, but I assume it’s pretty similar to being a Noble. Lots of politics, deciding the fate of peasants/mortals for them, that kind of thing. that gives you proficiency in History (makes sense-you’re immortal) and Persuasion (you were somehow able to convince Guda to eat an entire cow-sized chocolate in a single sitting).

Ability Scores

Make sure your Wisdom is as high as possible to help take care of everyone’s problems (except for Kama’s). After that is Charisma- she’s the wife of the gods, it only makes sense for this to be really high. Her Strength isn’t that high, but a god who is bad at fighting is still a god. After that is Dexterity. It should be higher to deal with the whole “fighting in a sari” thing, but we needed the other three for multiclassing. Her Intelligence isn’t amazing, but we need everything else more for the build. That means we’re dumping Constitution. Honestly she should be tougher, but one of her big myths involves hurting herself for the sake of others, so that’s going to knock her down a couple points.

Class Levels

Paladin 1: Starting off as a paladin will get you more HP than a cleric, but you also get proficiency in Wisdom and Charisma saves, and the skills Religion and Intimidation. You’re a god, and I’m not sure how you convinced Guda to eat a chocolate cow, so now all your bases are covered. You also get a Divine Sense to suss out extraplanar goodies and baddies as an action 1+your Charisma Modifier times per day. You also also get even more healing thanks to Lay on Hands, which gives you a total pool of healing equal to five times your paladin level per long rest.

Paladin 2: Second level paladins get a Fighting Style, but since you’re not actually that good at fighting we’ll grab Interception instead. While wielding a weapon or shield you can react to block attacks going towards creatures near you, reducing the damage by 1d10 plus your proficiency bonus. You also get Spells that you can cast and prepare using your Charisma. Since you can switch them up every long rest the exact spells you take aren’t that important, but I suggest Detect Evil and Good for more godly senses and Command to put mortals in their place. Alternatively, you can use Divine Smites to add extra radiant damage to your attacks using your spell slots. It’s not lightning yet, but... wait, are we making two lightning-based lancers connected to the Indian pantheon in three builds of each other?

Paladin 3: At third level you get to become the Maid-sorry, Kouhai of Light (mixed up my vaguely sci-fi works of fiction with sprawling and nonsensical worldbuilding there) as a Oath of Ancients paladin. When you take the subclass you get Oath Spells, which are automatically prepared for you. You get Ensnaring Strike and Speak with Animals. The former isn’t that in-character, but there’s enough talking animals in Hindu mythology for the latter to just be an automatic include. Third level paladins also can Channel Divinity once per short rest in two flavors. Nature’s Wrath ensnares an enemy if they fail a strength or dexterity save (DC 8 + proficiency + charisma modifier), repeating the save each turn until they succeed. Weirdly enough, there’s no time limit, so if your magic’s strong enough and they’re weak enough it’ll just last forever. Alternatively, you can Turn the Faithless, forcing a wisdom save on all fey and fiends nearby, forcing them to flee for up to a minute and making it unable to disguise itself. One last thing; your Necrotic Shroud makes you really scary as an action once per long rest, forcing a charisma save on nearby creatures that’ll frighten them if they fail. Then, for a minute afterwards you can deal necrotic damage once per turn equal to your level.

Paladin 4: Use this Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Constitution. Even if there’s a thematic reason for it, it’s just too painful to leave you with a negative health modifier.

Paladin 5: Fifth level paladins get an Extra Attack as well as 2nd level spells! Your freebies include Moonbeam, which does damage and also forces creatures out of disguises, and Misty Step, which lets your teleport around. More in character, you can use Find Steed to qualify for the rider class with a cool cow, or Magic Weapon to make your spear a bit cooler than the rest.

Paladin 6: Your new Aura of Protection adds your charisma modifier to all allied saving throws within 10′ of you for a little grace of the goddess.

Paladin 7: Not to be outdone, your subclass also chips in with its own aura, the Aura of Warding, which gives you and everyone around you resistance to spell damage. Unlike most paladin auras, this one does not require you to be conscious.

Paladin 8: Use this ASI to round out your Strength and get cool new features at the same time thanks to the Piercer feat. Now you can re-roll a die of piercing damage you deal each turn, and critical hits with piercing weapons deal an extra die of damage!

Paladin 9: Your last level of paladin gives you third level spells, like Plant Growth and Protection from Energy. All well and good, but you also get spells that aren’t free, like Create Food and Water so you don’t have to slit your throat next time someone is thirsty and Elemental Weapon so you can finally have an electric spear.

Cleric 1: Being all sweet and motherly is nice, but we also need to be able to channel Durga when we need to. Durga’s a War god, so that feels like a good place to start. War clerics become a War Priest first thing, letting you make another weapon attack as a bonus action if you attack as your action Wisdom modifier times per long rest. Yes, this does mean you’re technically better at fighting than a paladin. Congrats. You also get another set of Spells you cast and prepare using your Wisdom. Grab the cantrips Guidance to be a bit better than everyone else, Spare the Dying to take care of them, and Thaumaturgy to actually appear godly when you need to. You also get more freebies, like Divine Favor for a worse but cheaper Elemental Weapon and Shield of Faith for a boost in AC. Technically you’re fighting in just a dress, so you’ll really need this if you’re playing to character. Also, grab Guiding Bolt so you can actually lightning some fools while helping out the party. Deal radiant damage and give the next attacker advantage.

Cleric 2: Second level clerics get Channel Divinity, and also giving us a chance to talk about what happens when you multiclass like this. You don’t get extra uses of CD, but you can use it in all the ways you get options for. So you can use your one use per short rest to instill Nature’s Wrath, Turn the Faithless, Turn Undead, or for a Guided Strike. The former forces a wisdom save on all the nearby undead, turning them if they fail. The latter adds 10 to an attack roll you make. You’re a nice person, but sometimes you just gotta get Kali on their asses, you know?

Cleric 3: Third level clerics get second level spells, like Magic Weapon which we already went over and Spiritual Weapon, which lets you forgo your not good strength score to attack with a big glowy weapon as a bonus action. If all this bloodshed is getting you down, you can also use Calm Emotions to try to end things peacefully.

Cleric 4: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for stronger paladin spells and auras. You also learn the Mending cantrip for some mending.

Cleric 5: At fifth level, clerics can start to Destroy Undead instead of turning them if they’re CR 1/2 or lower, destroying them instantly if they fail their save. You also get third level spells like Crusader’s Mantle for a widespread worse elemental weapon and Spirit Guardians to create those other two Parvatis for your NP. Alternatively, you can cast Life Transference to give some of your HP to your allies. It’s not quite as bad since you resist the damage, but I doubt there’s many people on your team who need health more than you do.

Cleric 6: At sixth level, clerics get a second Channel Divinity each rest, and you can use that to give out a War God’s Blessing, giving +10 to nearby ally’s attack roll.

Cleric 7: For your freebie fourth level spells you get Freedom of Movement and Stoneskin to help with your less than amazing physical stats. You can also use Aura of Life and Aura of Purity to make life around you just a bit nicer.

Cleric 8: Use your last ASI to bump up your Wisdom for better cleric spells and more cleric beatdowns with War Priest. Also, Destroy Undead kills CR 1 creatures, and you get a Divine Strike, adding 1d8 damage to a weapon’s damage once per turn.

Cleric 9: Ninth level clerics get fifth level spells, like Flame Strike and Hold Monster. It might not be a lightning bolt, but any wrath of god is a good wrath of god in my book. You can also use spells like Summon Celestial to phone a family member for some help, or Hallow to make life a bit better in a single place for 24 hours. There’s a lot of effects to pick from, so make sure you check them out on your own time.

Cleric 10: Tenth level clerics get another cantrip, so grab Resistance to buff your saves just a little bit more. You also get Divine Intervention once per day, giving you a ten percent chance of a god saving your ass when you use it. If you succeed you can’t use it again for a week.

Cleric 11: Your capstone level bumps your destroy undead up to CR 2 creatures, and you can cast sixth level spells like Heroes’ Feast. Heal people up and make it even harder for charms to effect them thanks to an empowered wisdom save, what’s not to love?

Pros:

Frontline fighters tend to be pretty bad against magic, but thanks to Parvati’s auras they’ll have a much easier time when they’re fighting near her.

Despite her stats, she’s also not that bad at fighting thanks to all her magical support. Thanks to being a war cleric she can just slap +10 onto an attack to make sure it hits, and thanks to being a paladin she can make that one hit really count. She also gets more hits per turn thanks to War Priest than either a paladin or a war cleric would get alone.

Even with that fighting and regular gish spells, she still has a varied and flexible set of spells thanks to both her classes being prep based and clerics just being good in general.

Cons:

She still only has a strength score of 14, so she can’t use heavy armor well even if she wanted to, and it also eats into her damage a bit when you’re not using smites.

When she’s not using magic she’s really easy to beat up, with barely over 100 hp and an AC of 11. She should probably be in at least chainmail if you seriously want to play as her.

Most of her martial prowess is built into features with limited uses, with Guided Strike only usable twice a short rest and War Priest four times a long rest. Also, stuff like Stoneskin and and Shield of Faith are concentration based, which isn’t one of her strong suits.

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 8 Finale Review/Remix: The Final Word

The finale is here, and oh sweet fucking hell we were not ready for all that it brought us. These are the notes the series is leaving us on for the next 6 months, and the majority of them are not good feelings to dwell on for half a year. Let’s try and dissect them a little bit and hope the pain is a little less painful, okay?

Before even addressing the episode content I want to talk about the disclaimer and the episode description. Mental health is incredibly important, and if you are having issues or highly stressful or dangerous thoughts, there is no shame in seeking professional help or confiding in your loved ones so they know what you’re dealing with. The content presented within this chapter can be highly upsetting to some people, and it addresses themes of suicide and death worse than we have seen thus far. If you or a loved one are having suicidal thoughts, Rooster Teeth provides a number you can call for helpful resources and people. The episode description also features a line lifted straight from this Volume’s intro song “sometimes it’s worth it all to risk the fall”. Wouldn’t you know it, that’s the part of the theme that plays when Team RWBY falls through the ice and into the ominous underwater clutches of Grimm arms. With Yang being the one who falls first and farthest. How symbolic. 

We start off strong and stressful, fading in on the still dissolving Monstra to see Salem is still reforming herself. She’s not done yet, but it looks like it’s getting close... Going to a different powerhouse with white hair, Winter is fighting hard against Ironwood but not really gaining any ground. He keeps blocking her attacks with his cannon, and worse still he keeps trying to explain why he’s right. He shouldn’t be blamed for any of this because he’s been sacrificing so much for the mission. Except, as she points out, he hasn’t. He’s sacrificed a lot of other people or made them sacrifice everything for him and on his orders. He hasn’t actually sacrificed anything himself, because his ego won’t allow it. He thinks he’s too important to actually give up his own life even if it means saving anyone else. Cuz that’s not what this is about. He says he’s doing what’s best for Remnant but it’s really what’s best for him and his image and his confidence, such as shutting down major commerce routes and destroying half of the Kingdom just because it was lower income neighborhoods full of commoners. But might makes right in this fight, and Ironwood is currently smacking Winter around with his might so it’s an uphill battle for justice.

Speaking of uphill battles, we go back through the portals to see the continuation of Maiden Bowl 2021 as Cinder keeps blasting Penny around before Weiss comes in on a Lancer summon to save her friend and fellow Atlesian. In a very brief shift from the action Jaune reminds Nora their top priority is evacuating the civilians, so that’s our clue that they probably won’t be jumping into the fight any time soon. Back on the Lancer, Penny tells Weiss that since Cinder wants the Maiden power she can act as bait and lure the Fall Maiden away so the others can safely get away. Weiss doesn’t like that idea, but before they can think of an alternative the summon is shot down and they land hard on the main crossroads of the paths before the gate into Vacuo. Neither of their Aura’s are broken, but they do need a moment to get back on their feet as Cinder lands between them and their escape. Penny is the first back up, and stands between her foe and her friend pleading for the madwoman’s undivided attention so the Staff doesn’t get snatched and Weiss isn’t killed in this moment of recovery. But Cinder’s eyes are bigger than her stomach and she wants every bit of power and importance before her. Before she can swoop in to destroy all she sees and claim all she wants... Cinder gets double boot kicked in the face by Blake. The interruption gives Cinder momentary pause and in that time the Faunus pleadingly kicks her silver haired teammate back into high gear. That’s a whole lot of flowery language when I could just say “After she swoops in and kicks Cinder in the face, Blake tells Weiss to get up”, but this is my last review for months and I wanna give you your money’s worth. Weiss runs off to go help elsewhere, while Blake and Penny engage with Cinder.

But we don’t have time to see how that fight goes right now, because we have to turn our attention to the sky. Even though he was the one to crash through the windshield and attack her, Qrow wants to talk Harriet down and not fight. He tries to explain and apologize for his culpability in Clover’s death, but she really doesn’t want to hear that name right now. She actually gets so mad that he’s trying to talk her down that she cuts the ropes holding down the bomb and slams her fists on the floor of the ship so it’ll tilt back and the bomb will fall out onto the city below. Qrow leaps into the path of the sliding bomb and tries to stop it, which just infuriates Harriet more cuz he just keeps interfering. But the interference doesn’t stop there, because Vine grabs the back of the airship and we see he’s being held sturdily to the roof of Robyn’s airship by Elm. We can assume Marrow is inside recovering from tanking an explosion, but Hare’s fellow Ace Ops have fully changed their tune and don’t want her to finish this mission. She screams at them for making this all the more difficult for her, but they’re doing this out of kindness. As possibly the smartest yet most obvious thing she’s said all Volume, Elm admits that YES, the Ace Ops are friends and care about each other outside of the professional sense. And as a friend, Elm doesn’t want her to risk her life for a dumb act of cruelty from a bitter man. Before Hare can fully process this news and express her regrets, the bomb slips further towards the open door and Qrow gets pushed aside with a dismayed cry. In a last act of desperation that I had a hard time understanding at first, he pulls out Clover’s lucky pin and seems to pray to it. I thought he was about to throw it in the path of the bomb so it would get wedged and damage the pin beyond repair for the sake of stopping its momentum. But no, he was just hoping for a little of Clover’s good luck to have rubbed off on the pin. And as if from beyond the grave, some luck does come to them. The bomb stops moving just as it’s teetering towards the edge, and they all breath a sigh of relief... before Watts remotely activates the countdown anyway because he’s a bastard.

Back in the in-between dimension, Ruby is still trying to subdue Neo and is being flawlessly countered at every turn. Neo practically looks bored by all this, just waiting for Ruby to get tired out so she can kill her. Ruby gets knocked down but before Neo can cut through the last of her Aura for the kill Weiss skates in on her glyphs and delivers a proverbial one-two punch of attacking with Myrtenaster and the Staff of Creation. Neo blocks the first but the second knocks her backwards into a portal. Seeing this from a distance frustrates Cinder as she continues to rather easily hold off Penny and Blake, so easily in fact that she knocks Blake off the ledge with a single blast and Penny has to fly off and save her. Weiss helps Ruby back to her feet and encourages her to keep fighting for the sake of avenging Yang/ surviving so her loss wasn’t in vain. The two of them being in close proximity is just what Cinder was hoping for though, and she creates a hot spot beneath them set to explode and send them flying. I’m really not sure what else to call it, but she does it fairly frequently so you know what I’m referring to. Looks like a glyph but it’s just fire. Weiss notices the danger first, and shoves Ruby out of the way while handing her the Staff in the same motion. By the time Ruby realizes she’s being saved, Weiss has already been knocked into the air... and falls back down on the same platform. Thank goodness for small miracles, though it does take out all of Weiss’ Aura so she won’t be able to save herself with glyphs if anything else happens. Ruby doesn’t have time to help her partner because Neo comes charging back in and reengages her attack, and now it’s harder to defend because she can only handle Crescent Rose with one hand now that she’s carrying the Staff with the other. Ruby is sent flying onto a pathway while losing the Staff to Neo, and Crescent Rose fully falls over the edge and leaves her disarmed.

From one speedster panicking in the face of danger to another, we go back to the airships and you better get a tissue ready. Qrow has discovered the autopilot is forcibly engaged and they can’t undo that, so he says their safest bet is abandoning ship and trying to get out of the blast radius. Harriet has gone full depressive breakdown and says the countdown is too far along for them to flee in time, so they’re all doomed and it’s her own damn fault. I would certainly agree, but it’s hard to try and hold that against her right now. Elm and Vine share a look before Vine leaps aboard and carefully lifts Harriet off the ship and into Elm’s arms. He looks at the bomb, then he looks at his own hands, and we realizes what he’s planning at the same time Elm does. Well, maybe she realized it when they shared that look, but it certainly sinks in now. He insists that he can and will because it’ll mean his dear friends will be safe. Harriet breaks down in tearful screams and has to be dragged inside, while Qrow shares a look with Vine and jumps out to fly away. Maybe he was trying to say “We appreciate this sacrifice, thank you for choosing the right side, Clover would be proud of you for looking out for the team like this”, who’s to say? I’d certainly like to think so because that would be a very meaningful goodbye. Vine spreads his arms and brings his palms back together in front of him in a very zen pose, presumably as he gathers and focuses his Aura. Then he sends out eight energy tendrils that spread out and become an Aura bubble around the airship, and we see it keep flying for a few more seconds while we pan back to get the view from the rest of the Ace Ops and the birds. BOOM, the bubble is stretched in several places by the force of the explosion, then it dissolves and releases heavy smoke. The bomb has gone off, the ship is gone, and Vine has died. But no one down in Mantle was affected, and the other 3 Ace Ops are okay if not heavily depressed by this new loss. He was a hero.

Speaking of heroes doing bold things, Neo came down onto the path Ruby is on and the young huntresses has been pushed back to the edge trying to get some distance from her. She tells the little psycho “I hope it was worth it”, and raises her arms as if surrendering to her fate. When Neo takes the bait and lunges at her, Ruby falls backwards over the edge and swoops back around with her semblance to shove her foe over the edge, though Neo does manage to hold onto the edge and avoid plummeting to her presumed death. Before Ruby can catch the Staff Neo threw in the air, Cinder blasts her in the back with fire and wipes out her Aura. The force of the attack also knocks her over the edge as well, where she is able to grab onto Neo’s legs. Cinder kicks the Staff into the air and catches it, then looks over the edge at the two hanging on for dear life. You’d be forgiven for assuming she’ll reach down and save Neo since she just apologized to her last episode, but instead she stretches her arm further down and takes the Lamp from her. Cinder is unmatched in her ability to hold a grudge, and Neo threatened to leave her to face Salem’s wrath over the loss of the Lamp over text two episodes back. She makes the backstabbing official by kicking Hush (Neo’s parasol in case you forgot the name they’ve never actually said in canon) over the edge and telling her now ex-partner “You never should have threatened me”. Ruby seems to be charging her silver eyes, but before she can do anything Cinder tells her she should have never been born and bashes Neo’s gripping fingers with the blunt end of the Staff. Both young women fall helplessly, but Cinder’s attention is drawn by Penny flying in carrying Blake since the two of them yell their friend’s name in dismay. Cinder sends a fireball at them but Blake gets thrown ahead while Penny takes the hit. Blake grabs Ruby out of the air and throws Gambol Shroud up to anchor into a path and let them swing to safety, but Neo is not saved and disappears into the void offscreen. The save works and it seems like they’ll be safe... but Cinder shoots a fireball that cuts the ribbon. Both Blake and Ruby fall into the the void and disappear, leaving a very upset Penny. If anyone is more anguished than her it’s Weiss, who grabs Gambol Shroud and shoots Cinder, her hands trembling and eyes welling with tears. The bullets do very little damage but it gets Cinder’s attention. 

Jaune and Nora meet up in front of the gate into Vacuo, and he instructs her to go through and get them backup for this fight. They part with determined smiles, but our hearts sink with the knowledge that the Vacuo portal is one way so Nora won’t be able to accomplish this last mission for him. Her self doubts are gonna take a real serious plummet from this. Stupid well played dramatic irony... Cinder is knocking Weiss around and mocks her for being the last one standing by implying she let the others die to save herself because she’s a selfish Schnee only looking out for herself. We know damn well that’s the farthest thing from the truth and Cinder has never cared enough to understand the bonds of Weiss’ friendships. As many have pointed out, this is a tragic departure from the promise Ruby made at the start of Volume 6 that Team RWBY wouldn’t leave Weiss side for even a second while they were in Atlas. But she’s still not alone because Penny blocks a beam of fire heading for Weiss and Jaune glides in to slam Cinder with his shield and use the gravity Dust to knock her back even more. As Penny points out, Cinder knows nothing of friends and we can clearly see Weiss still has some to stand with her. And stand they do, Weiss now dual wielding her own sword as well as Blake’s. Before Cinder can try to triumph in the face of these seemingly stacked odds, her Grimm arm starts convulsing and she screams with pain. The heroes share a confused look, but Cinder soon settles down and smirks with the realization of what this means. Salem has fully reformed, which gives Cinder new confidence that she puts to good use with a shockwave of fire to knock the good guys back a few paces. She tosses fiery glass swords at Jaune and Wiess but Penny deflects both of them and flies right at Cinder, who counters with a fiery kick to the ground. Whether Penny diverts the row of fire in front of her to spread to her sides instead or Cinder intentionally made the V shape to make dividers between the three heroes is unknown, but before anyone can react to this new obstacle Penny is stabbed in the chest by Cinder’s Grimm claws. The poor girl really has been made flesh and blood, because her wounds are bleeding while Cinder starts draining the Maiden power from her. Between the Amity fight and this encounter, I have to wonder what percentage of the powers have gone to Cinder by this point vs how much Penny still has... As her vision starts to blur and she falls onto her back, Penny sees Weiss charge in to attack Cinder and stop her from continuing to absorb Penny’s power and then Jaune come kneel over her and start healing her. He saved Weiss from a similar wound and this time he’s starting the process far more promptly, there are very good odds he could save Penny. But the problem here is time, Cinder isn’t going to let him complete the job and Weiss is sorely outmatched. She does see an alternative, but it’s heart shattering to hear from her. Jaune can kill her here and now and let her decide who will be in her final thoughts. They can’t risk Cinder stealing the Winter Maiden powers as well as having both relics, so ending Penny’s life quickly is unfortunately necessary. Penny begs him to trust her on this and let her choose how she dies since she didn’t get the opportunity to choose many things about how she lived. She obeyed her father’s wishes, followed Ironwood’s orders, went along with her friends’ plans, etc. Some of those times were good and she was glad she did what she did. But choice is the attribute of one of the relics for a reason, it’s a key part of humanity, and with her last moments she wants to express hers.

We cut back for brief moments a couple times during this very tense moment to see Winter’s fight with Ironwood juxtaposed with her sister’s losing struggle with Cinder, and the audience is meant to wonder which of the Schnee sisters Penny might be about to bestow the upper hand to in the form of Maiden power. Or she could think of Ruby and the power would go to her as proof she and the others didn’t die, or it could go to Nora because of the moments they shared discussing finding your whole self? We literally won’t know until she’s dead, and I’m not rushing to get to that point. Jaune looks at his own hesitant reflection in his sword, and for the first time it really seems to sink in that this is a sharpened steel weapon with lethal capabilities. It always seemed like the least impressive weapon in a world of giant scythes and wrist mounted shotguns, but we fear its blade more than anything in this moment. Weiss seems about to be killed, having had Gambol Shroud knocked from her hand into the abyss, when Cinder is distracted by Jaune screaming and weeping as we see both tear drops and blood drops fall to the floor by Penny’s lifeless body. The argument has been made that this was a bad move from a narrative standpoint, that he was only the one to get the kill or Penny only died so Jaune could get more angst and importance in the story, and various other points that add up to a lot of dislike for the character. I can’t even accurately articulate the argument because I give so little credit to its accuracy or plausibility. I even want to say, though there’s no way to back it up and its just me giving a little benefit of the doubt to theatrics, that he only made such a ruckus after the kill because he knew it would spare Weiss for a few moments longer. Cinder is going to see Penny dead and know the powers are not hers so she’ll go ballistic on Jaune for taking that away from her, and the heat will be off Weiss. Speaking of bad beatings, Winter gets pistol whipped and is about to lose too. But with the dripping of the blood soaked sword, the screen goes white and we see Penny hopping on the balls on her feet waiting for someone to arrive in this empty white void. They do, and she greets them with one last “SALUTATIONS!~” that made me cry even remembering. The one she has chosen to inherit her power is Winter, and when she finds out she’s here because she was the one in Penny’s last thoughts it seems to break her heart. But Penny would have it no other way, it was supposed to go to Winter anyway, she was the one who intervened and made things complicated. Winter disagrees with that though, Penny has proven far more worthy of these powers than an blindly obedient soldier like her. Penny was always more human where it counted and Winter was the machine, but Penny takes her hands and assures her she was plenty human enough by being a good friend. The powers start to go from one woman to the other and Winter tries to say that she’ll always remember Penny after she’s gone, or at least I assume that’s the heartfelt sentiment she’s going for, but our sweet redhead reminds her of her own words when Fria died. She won’t be gone, she’ll be a part of Winter now. That makes Winter feel a little better, and Penny gives her a smile as she fades away. Penny Polendina was a very cheerful girl, and she died happy in the knowledge she helped so many who will call her friend.

Winter reawakens on the floor of the Vault with Ironwood saying she’s finally reached the destiny he chose for her, as if this will suddenly make him a good person or convince her to change her allegiances back to him. She staggers to her feet and rises in a whirlwind of blue snow, Jimmy realizing all too late he might actually have miscalculated and be in danger now. I really love her defiant response to him, but I feel like it could have been a little more powerful with a small addition. Observe. “You chose nothing. This was a gift... from my best friend.” Either way, he realizes he now has an even stronger Winter Maiden as his enemy and tries to take her down with his greek fire cannon, but she creates a shield of ice that reflects the blast back at him. From the horrified expression he makes and the power we saw this weapon have against mortal man, I fully expected this to be Ironwood’s death. Hoisted by his own petard, no one to blame but himself for this fate. He could have not attacked her and he’d be fine, he could have decided to stop anywhere along this path and been spared. Defeated by someone literally made stronger with the power of friendship and trust, while he has been paranoid and severing bonds all this time. But no... he lives cuz it was a weakened blast after the redirect, or he still had his Aura to protect him, or whatever logic you want to use. Regardless, he’s down for the count right now and Winter flies away to deal with more important problems. He’s been removed from power and is only a major threat in his own mind, she doesn’t care anymore. As could have been expected, Cinder is outraged over what Jaune has done and attacks him rather than finishing off Weiss. He knocks her flying tackle back with his shield but she rebounds with a sword swipe he meets in kind. Blood stained steel meets tempered glass, and the steel loses. Jaune’s sword, a family heirloom from the Great War that he reforged after losing Pyrrha, is broken in half by Cinder’s attack and he is left at her mercy. The mad Fall Maiden demands to know who and where the power of Winter has gone to, and receives her answer in the worst way she could have hoped for: an icy blue blast to the head. Whether that was ice or specially colored fire or lightning is unknown, but it gets Cinder’s anger and attention. She was probably really hoping the strongest and smartest of Ironwood’s elite wouldn’t get the power to match her on a magical level, but she’s too determined and cocksure to stop her assault now and the two do battle in the air. Winter uses both magic and summons to deal with Cinder, but while the latter ends up dropping the Staff in the scuffle it still seems like an even match for the moment. Cinder sees Weiss and Jaune staggering towards the exit and decides to choose some easier targets for extra emotional damage. By the time Winter can realize the danger her sister is in, it’s too late and the two sword wielders are blasted by another of Cinder’s eruption blasts. Jaune skids across the path and loses his Aura, but Weiss is tossed over the side entirely and Winter isn’t fast enough. Weiss falls into the void, the last of Team RWBY dead and gone for all we know. 

I want to deeply praise Elizabeth Maxwell for her performance as Winter, both in the series as a whole and for this episode especially. She shows so many emotions so strongly and believably, and you can tell she’s putting heart and soul into it. Nowhere do I feel that more clearly than in this moment where Winter cries out for Weiss with so much despair and regret. She flies back up and collapses onto the path in tears, her reaction speaking volumes to Jaune. Cinder retrieves the Staff and Winter is ready to raise hell in revenge, but before anyone can attack Salem’s scream can be heard echoing through every portal in the place. Cinder realizes she needs to return to her mistress’s side so she can’t try and finish the job, while Jaune has to tell Winter repeatedly that they need to get to safety now so she just swears recompense later down the line. Winter flies to Vacuo while Fall goes back into the falling Atlas, and once she’s through all the portals and pathways start disappearing. Jaune tries his best to make it to the Vacuo gate in time, but he’s been cursed by the animators with a slow run cycle. Or he’s just really exhausted and weighed down by armor and weapons, who’s to say? Winter realizes she’s taken the lead too late and disappears into Vacuo just as she tries to turn around and reach out for Jaune. He dives the last couple feet to get through as the ground dissolves below his feet, but the last way out evaporates between his fingertips. Jaune Arc is the last one in the central location, and the last to fall into the void. On the other side Nora is futilely pounding on the portal trying to go back through and save her leader, while Em Ren and Oscar are putting up a valiant but outclassed fight against the Ravagers (the bat Grimm) and the small scorpion-like Sulfur Fish. Fun fact, those ones were the winning design submission from a contest last year. Before the teens and the crowd they’re protecting can get overwhelmed, a gale force wind blows the Grimm back. All eyes turn to see Winter float above the crowd as the magic door disappears behind her, including the eyes of her surviving family members. Thank goodness there was a portal available for Willow Whitley and Klein, though the look they all share makes it clear they realize Weiss did not make it. Rather than break down, Winter turns her sadness to rage and charges at the returning Grimm swarm.

We cut back to Atlas where much to my annoyance Ironwood has regained consciousness to see Cinder descending the Vault stairs with the relics in tow. But she won’t be winning the award for dramatic entrances, because Salem flies down the elevator shaft as a cloud of black smoke like a scene out of Harry Potter. She swirls around Cinder once or twice before reforming before her. And Cinder starts doing what she does best, lies out her ass to save her own skin. She claims Team RWBY used the last question for Jinn and then Neo killed Ruby while thousands were able to survive the fall of Atlas and make it to Vacuo, and that she had to make the conscious choice to let the Winter Maiden escape at the cost of all their allies so she could secure the relics for her mistress. Let me remind you what really happened. CINDER used the last question, CINDER killed Ruby and Neo out of petty revenge, CINDER killed the last Winter Maiden but couldn’t get the powers out of her or stop the stronger new one, and CINDER let thousands escape into Vacuo because she was too busy going for Penny and the relics. Oh, and Team RWBY and Neo aren’t actually dead, spoilers. So if any of those lies are revealed CINDER is going to pay a hefty price for her selfish deception. But for the moment Salem seems to believe her or at least lets it slide because she does have two relics now, and Cinder had the humility to say she was sorry. I like that Ironwood also hears the tale of Team RWBY heroically sacrificing themselves to stop the villains and actually having the nerve to give their own lives rather than the lives of others, unlike him. And, they saved so so so many more people than he did, and he was trying to arrest and foil them all this time. Perhaps now he’s a little humbled and realizes he’s not the hero of Atlas anymore. There will be no more Atlas and RWBY are the saviors of its survivors. As the two wicked women depart the Vault, Salem asks her acolyte what she made to replace what Team RWBY had created. Through another half truth Cinder reveals to us she locked Watts in the Atlas central command room and created a large fire. He roasted her savagely on an emotional level, so she literally roasted him alive with the biggest flames magic could afford. Cinder, Tyrian, and Mercury are now the only members of Salem’s inner circle. Wonder if she’ll recruit more in Vacuo to compensate? Ironwood grabs his pistol and is about to shoot at Cinder, but she turns and tells him this is checkmate and he’s too scared to pull the trigger. He knows he’d lose and even now he doesn’t want that disgrace. So instead he’ll lie here as Atlas crashes into Mantle and becomes flooded by a sudden influx of sea water. Cinder and Salem observe from the air as Atlas becomes Atlantis, while Qrow tries to get in contact with either of his nieces over comms aboard the ship with Robyn and the surviving Ace Ops... and comes up empty. Cinder’s declaration that this is Checkmate for the villains is actually the last audible dialogue, anything Qrow tried to say being silent with only music playing. It’s a depressing and somber note, and that’s where our Volume ends.

But there is more to say, of course. First of all, let me wipe away these tears and try to articulate how good the song for the end credits is.... It’s called Friend, and for the first time it is a song sung from Penny’s perspective. It sounds absolutely sweet and magical, like you’re peacefully flying through a cloudless starry sky, and she sings about how glad she was to have true friends like Team RWBY, especially one like Ruby. Even if her life was difficult sometimes, she’s very happy because it was as wonderful as a wish upon a star come true. I cannot lie, I start crying every five seconds as I try to write this. It’s probably going to be my favorite track on the soundtrack this summer. With the conclusion of the Volume I want to say how much I appreciate every bit of work every member of the RWBY cast and crew put into this season and this show. I cannot wait to see what wonderful things they do next.

Hark! There is one final scene! A mysterious tropical island with a massive tree in the center and strange hexagonal shapes in the sand, and just beyond the reach of the tide lies wedged in that sand... Crescent Rose. Team RWBY and the others are alive, but we’ll have to wait 5 months to find out where they have found themselves. My money is on a magical godly realm where we might learn more about the creation of Remnant. Until then, enjoy the last of my memes and any other shitposts!

[akampana]

My friend and i came to a interesting conclusion.

We both think that a chance of "redeption" for the way Saberlot is treated by the game could present itself with the possible release of Guinevere as a servant, where we could have her have an event with lancelot that would help clarify things. This comes out of my idea that Lancelot remorse is also greatly influenced by the way he treated her, and the possibility that the forgiveness or punishment he seeks might not come from Arturia, like he thinks.

This however is a double edged sword because 1 50% risk of making her another sexualized stereotype 2 reduce her as another secondary character if not written well enough.

I am also afraid that this could come out incredibly wrong, because i don't think she should simply forgive him, as the way he treated her was incredibly cruel in my opinion. But at the same time, i believe that in order to finally develop his character and break him out of the infamous image, we would also need the third individual integral to the story, and the one i believe suffered directly from its result.

I think Saberlot gets the brunt of the NTR jokes because he's the only one whose fatherhood is so blatant, considering Mash.

I'd hope for a Guinevere servant, but at this point, I'm not sure we'll get one. There's a lot of Arthurian Servants around as is, not even counting the ones coming in the latest LB. But we can still hope. :3

I'd kill for an event but damn. Maybe even just an interlude??? Please??? A lot of the interludes (off the top of my head, I think of Enkidu's) have insanely good writing that really adds to the characters. For Saberlot specifically, I think an interlude set in London would be pretty good, one in which we meet the Knights (including Agravain, because if they aren't gonna give him as a servant, might as well reuse his fcking art), a version of Arturia, and Guinevere.

This is just my personal take:

Based on what we have on Lancelot so far, it seems he's basically just...taking the insults (jokingly perhaps) cause he thinks he probably deserves to be treated that way anyway, on account of his sins. We can also assume Arturia has just preserved the status quo, meaning she hasn't really changed her stance on the cuckolding either.

In his interlude, I think it's important he gets to talk to Tristan, who was the first deserter, Agravain, who discovered the affair, Gareth, who he killed to liberate Guinevere, then Gawain, who prevented him from joining Camlann In that order, where all the knights finally get the opportunity to air out their grievances. Gareth, for example, gets to ask him "why did you kill me when I admired you so much" instead of just being okay with it and continuing to be a Lancelot fangirl. Agravain literally just tears him up without holding back. Gawain finally gets to hash out their issues that did not start and end with the murder of his siblings.

And at the end of it all, Lancelot realizes that they'd all just been keeping the peace, and everyone was just as torn up as he is. Literally no one was as okay as he thought. Which gives him the courage to finally speak up to the person he meets next.

Arturia.

He finally admits that all he wants is punishment. He asks why she wouldn't just give it to him.

And (based on diarmuid's interlude Arturia knows who he is and therefore Fate zero happened you can't change my mind) she flashes back to her battle with him as a Berserker. It makes even more sense now why Berserker was so aggressive toward her.

And then Arturia tells him that she used to lament how it all ended, but that a certain redhead helped her accept the ending she achieved and finally lay to rest. So even as Servants, she doesn't wish to punish Saberlot, and she hopes he'll forgive her wanting to make amends instead. She then advises him to accept his past as well. She has.

So by this time Lancelot's gotten his resolutions from the people that matter most to him. He now understands the Knights' grievances with his sins (and the rather... questionable ways they compensated or covered it up) then eventually realized he would never get punishment from Arturia, but that she has accepted her fate. From what he can tell as well, Arturia has finally lightened up a bit.

So why does he still feel guilty even after all those talks? He still has one more loose end to tie up

This is where we finally get Guinevere (honestly she can have one of those stock faces or something I'd be happy for any Guin content at this point). They discuss what happened with his relationship. He says he's sorry he wasn't around when she died at the convent, she says she's sorry they let their guilt eat at them their whole lives, and that now that he has a second chance, he shouldn't squander it.(bonus if you ship Lancetoria, a subtle reference to that line in Einzbern consultation room where he admits he loved his king more, with which Guinevere laughs and says that she knew that already).

After more discussion on how their relationship ended, Guinevere is able to walk away with a smile as Saberlot returns to Chaldea, this time free of all that burdened him and ready to start again without anything weighing him down.

I just want good things for Lancelot. Really.

(edit: I wasn't able to fit in mo-san and bedi but they could totally talk too)

(edit edit: the other possibility I saw was him talking to servants that went through something similar, i.e. lancer Diarmuid (their legends are literally the quite the same) and maybe Fionn(but don't quote me on that idk enough about his fgo version yet)

[electricfied-wolf]

Everyone’s tribe! Plus some description!

Starting off with the Diamonds and then just doing whatever the fuck- Also i’m still working on their dragon names, so they get their regular names for now. This is assuming practically all of them are dragons, and doesn’t include all of them atm.

White is an Icewing! A very, very big one in fact, she has very light blue pattern on her head that makes the shape of her gem. It can glow, which is true for the other Diamond’s patterns. Still has the diamond eyes. Nobody questions her, she’s the highest ruler above the rest.

Blue is a Seawing! Her pattern is on her chest, obviously. A light blue color. She is also very large dragon, diamond eyes, and she has some very fancy treasure, her crown is very shiny and...big. Super kind and loving, but she also seems to pick favorites amongst her subjects.

Yellow is a Sandwing! Dear god she is frightening, what’s worse than a sandwing? A giant, musclely sandwing! Her pattern is actually more..saturated? than the rest of her chest. She and Blue are in love, they live in work in their separate kingdoms, but meet up during kingdom meetings, and visit each other often. She’s not a patient Queen, her tail barb has been used on many dragons, and she’d use it on more.

Who’s the Skywing queen? Tatiana baby!! I don’t know if she’ll still have her grey coloring since that’s not really there in Skywings, but I think we could bend the rules a little teeny bit. She’s not as big as the Diamonds, but really no one is. Her fire blast is the hottest one they know of.

Mayday was raised by her aunt, she’s a Skywing as well! Very feisty princess, Yellow keeps begging her fellow queen to knock some sense into this kid before she becomes Queen. 

Miles is also a Skywing, a Nightwing-Skywing hybrid actually. He was originally adopted by White after she found out that the Icewing who adopted him was a killer and a liar. Miles grew up with Franziska, who White permanently adopted, but when he was still a dragonet, Tatiana took him in so that he could grow up with another Skywing. They still don’t know he’s really a hybrid because he looks mostly like a Skywing.

Who’s the Mudwing Queen? There is no queen, but rather a king! And it’s Greg believe it or not! He’s highly uncomfortable at kingdom meeting, because he’s worried they’ll find out the secret..

What’s the secret? It’s Steven! No, they know about him, but they don’t know an important factor. His mother, a Silkwing named Rose (she keeps her name cause it works) had the same marking as White does, and Rose passed that marking onto her Mudwing-Silkwing hybrid son. Greg just hopes Steven’s marking doesn’t glow around them, as it’s fairly well hidden as long as it’s not lighting up. 

Blue has a favorited Seawing, whom she raised from an egg despite not being her real son, Phoenix! He’s a very very blue Seawing, and he’s probably the most charming young dragon at the meetings. He and Miles are falling hard for each other, but aren’t sure what their adoptive parents would think.

The Nightwing king is Spade, he’s big, not as big as the Diamonds, but still very big. He has a son and a husband, but nobody knows who laid Lancer’s egg, they never met the Nightwing that Spade used to love.

You know how Rainwings in WOF canon cycle through queens each month? Multiple Alicorns, multiple queens! The ponies are all Rainwings. It just fits. Also like in the books, however, they are hidden away. 

Idk, but I want Boris to be a Seawing, or some kind of hybrid that’s part Seawing. Putunia is a Skywing dragonet that was stolen (by Boris) as an egg.

[cynthiaandsamus]

Custom Toonami Block Week 71 Rundown!

Code Geass: Lelouch establishes the Black Knights floating iceburg country complete with representatives and shit and somehow no one on the team monitoring Lelouch notices he disappears right when Zero is exiled, like yeah half of them are in Lelouch’s pocket anyway but you’d think him just yeeting himself out of the country would be difficult to hide from the oversight committee. Anyway Brittania being Brittania is going to have a political wedding with the Chinese Disturbingly Loli Empress and their literal oldest Prince, like they couldn’t even pick a slightly younger prince to make this less creepy, it’s literally the First Prince who’s like 40, I’m sure Charles has fucked more recently and they have a younger prince but no we have to really hammer home how creepy this is. So yeah now that Lelouch’s new band is under the Chinese banner, having them make peace with Brittania and sell them out would be bad so Lelouch decides to crash the celebration and… challenge Schnizel to Chess, because reasons. And both of them just proceed to completely ignore the rules of Chess for shit that’s thematically appropriate before Nina tries to stab Zero and Schnizel says he has all he needs about who Zero really is. Also Milly’s here and I feel bad for her because all of her friends are several degrees down the sanity cliff now and she’s just there trying to hold their cliché student council group together while wondering if she really will have to marry Lloyd or not because it’s been a year and they threw together this Chinese marriage in like two days so who knows anymore. Anyway Xingke crashes the wedding because of his adorable backstory with the Empress and Lelouch crashes Xingke’s crashing of the wedding by literally appearing out of nowhere which is pretty good for a guy as shitty at athletics as Lelouch and also Jeremiah is on a chair in a desert and this is important or something.

Inuyasha: So we start the Panther Deva filler arc and it’s pretty good honestly, we have an array of Captain Planet Panthers to fight with elemental powers of varying strength to give Koga, Miroku, Sango and Sesshomaru something to do so it’s not just the Inuyasha Wind Scar Power Hour and we have some good foreshadowing/fluff of Inuyasha eating steak in the modern era and fucking around with Kagome’s cat and pissing it off which is a good thematic throughline about how petty cats are and the whole thing has this sunset coloring and it’s really pretty. Anyway Kagome gets captured, you know how it goes, Koga’s pissed because Inuyasha is always letting Kagome get captured and he has a fucking point, bitch is captured more than Princess Peach at this point. But turns out the Panther Demons run behind a barrier and too bad for them Inuyasha just got a new anti-barrier sword to try out.

Yu Yu Hakusho: So Suzaku’s kind of broken, he can dispel his clones to heal himself which apparently gives him all of his energy back because he went from exhausted to just being able to re-do the clones again and start blasting Yusuke so he heals and rests indefinitely as long as one of the clones is alive that’s fucking insane. Anyway apparently despite just healing, Suzaku got his guidance system damaged by Yusuke’s first attack and his aim has been getting progressively worse so he just has to sit there with stormtrooper aim winging Yusuke now and then to torture the poor guy despite going Super Saiyan last time Yusuke only had one shot in him but now he does the whole Life Chakra deal and gives his life for one more even Super Saiyan-yer burst and Shotguns Suzaku’s clones into dust and somehow transmits energy to Keiko through the tv to protect her. It’s pretty convenient that Yusuke learned an AOE attack right before fighting someone that needs all of their clones to be killed at the same time to stay down but yeah, arc over, pretty fun, Yusuke pulled so much power out of his ass he literally dies but some spirit mouth to mouth with Kuwabara saves him with surprisingly little consequences for either of them while Hiei says he’d never drag himself down to save anyone and I’m sure that won’t come back to haunt him. Also Yusuke FINALLY tells Keiko he’s a Spirit Detective given this is like the third time she’s been held hostage by a demon she probably should’ve figured this out sooner.

Fate Zero: Caster’s sitting there talking about how Saber is his waifu and like dude Saber is EVERYONE’s waifu but apparently it’s not actually Saber he’s after but a Saberface so he’s not wrong but he’s also not right. So yeah, he orders more child murders which knowing this guy there isn’t a situation that calls for less child murders. Also Lancer’s teacher asshole dude is cheating by using two E-Tanks for his servant after being all ‘haha old magician families are just better lol’ he has to use two dudes to make his servant fight and still got rolled by Iskandar. Also Kiritgusu bombs the fuck out of his building which given this takes place in 1994 is probably in very poor taste. Also Kirei meets Kiritsugu’s battle maid and shit goes down but everyone’s like “Okay Caster’s more insane than usual so we should probably take care of that” and Gilgamesh claims he’s gonna teach Kirei about pleasure while shirtlessly drinking wine so there’s that.

Konosuba: So Dio-voice Dullahan is back and he’s pissed because Megumin keeps getting off to destroying his home. Though through a combination of luck, Darkness being a meatshield, Aqua’s absurd water/holy power and Kazuma’s dumb luck along with Megumin blowing up the henchmen, everyone plays a role in defeating him in the most ridiculous manner possible. Despite not actually getting any money from it, it’s nice to see the group come together and actually accomplish something in their own way. Makes me think maybe this series won’t just be dicking around about nothing forever, which is fun don’t get me wrong but I don’t think I could stand 52 episodes of one note character jokes with absolutely no progression.

Sailor Moon Crystal: Tuxedo Mask blows the load on the whole Silver Crystal deal to the whole town so now everybody knows about it and can keep an eye out for it. So despite Tuxedo Mask being nothing but helpful Luna assumes he still may be bad and has the power to brainwash a whole town despite his only notable skills thusfar have been standing on telephone poles like Itachi Uchiha and cheerleading. Anyway Luna takes everyone to Zordon’s Morphing Control Center under the aracade which you think would’ve come up by now and reveals she’s a moon cat which you think also would’ve come up by now. Luna’s really just been “We gotta do the thing cause I say so” this entire time. Anyway they wreck the tv broadcast and kick the King’s ass but we have a Disc One Final Boss as Queen Beryl shows up and uses her Conqueror’s Haki to knock out the other Guardians without touching them while Usagi has an existential crisis about her crush maybe being problematic. They give motivational speeches to each other, basically Usagi telling him that they both have to try harder despite feeling powerless and them immediately wilting and saying she’s hopless so he can have a turn giving her a speech and then she gets surprised when he knows she’s Sailor Moon despite literally just telling him she’s the leader and has to help everyone and shit. Anyway, you know how this goes by now, Ancient Moon Laser Beams, bad guys fall, Queen retreats and Usagi wakes up in Mamoru’s apartment ready to reenact Fifty Shades of Moon. Hey an actual fucking cliffhanger for once, that’s kinda neat.

Durarara!!:  Mikado’s plan finally comes together and he meets with Ms. Yagiri while Celty confronts the girl with her head who says her name is also Celty. We get Mikado’s backstory about basically creating Reddit to make The Dollars a Stand Alone Complex, a gang that doesn’t actually exist outside of the rumors of its existence, man this kid’s been watching too much GitS. Still despite it going predictably awful with guys doing shitty things in their name by some miracle some of Mikado’s wide-eyed optimism gets through and his belief in the good of humanity makes the Dollars a gang that’s good at its core. And now they use that good to outnumber the Yagiri goons and let Mikado get away while Celty jumps off a roof on her bike and has a mental breakdown which people seem to hear for some reason. Also Seiji broke out and is using his yandere energy to hunt down Mikado.

[ghostgothgeek]

Blush. Chapter 5

Chapter written by @ecto-american!

Disclaimer: actual sex ed talk

FFN || AO3

---

God it felt like forever until he was finally leaving the bathroom again, even though the clock on the wall said it had only been about five minutes. He waited for Sam to leave and for his personal issues to figure themselves out before he swung the bathroom door open. Thankfully, nobody was there, and he sighed heavily. He was  not  looking forward to returning to the class. Maybe he should just skip.

Ugh, and risk having to do a one on one private sex education lesson with Mr. Lancer? No thanks. He’d rather get the talk from the Box Ghost. 

He dragged his feet towards the classroom. Elliot was obviously back in the class by now, probably already telling everybody what had just happened. Which was nothing, but once he spread the news to Paulina, that was all she wrote. Paulina could spread gossip so fast that it was honestly impressive. Almost a superpower. 

Danny stood in the doorframe of the class before immediately turning to leave. Fuck this.

“Hey!” Mike’s voice called out accusingly. “Come on. Can’t skip out.” God, why couldn’t the accident have fully killed him? Ghosts didn’t have to go to school. Or suffer through having to listen to the sex talk. 

Taking a deep breath, he turned to see the bane of his existence. Elliot, grinning like the cat that ate the canary, was sitting in the previously unoccupied seat that was to Danny’s left. That absolute fucker changed seats  again , and Danny avoided eye contact as he returned to his chair. Elliot watched him like a hawk. 

No sooner than he planted himself, Elliot scooted his chair closer to him. Danny refused to look at him. The other leaned into him.

“Couldn’t wait, aye?” he whispered, not even bothering to hold back a snicker. 

Danny’s eyes flickered to the front. Mike’s attention was on a student who had asked a question. He took the chance to punch Elliot in the shoulder. Hard. The exchange student’s seat jerked back a bit, and he winced as he rubbed his shoulder. Danny hoped it would bruise. Tucker nudged Danny, giving him a weird look. Danny shook his head, and he rubbed his face with his hands tiredly. He knew his face was bright red. 

“You know, girls with more experience tend to give you a better time,” Elliot’s voice refused to shut the fuck up. “So uh, ya know. You’re welcome.”

“For what?” Danny scowled. 

“Dude, Sam and I have done stuff. We’d go to her house and such, I’ve been to third base like, at least four times.”

Danny felt his hands shake with rage. God damn it, god  fucking damn it.  He knew that wasn’t true. He was there on every date, from beginning to end because he specifically didn’t trust him. And even when he stopped, Tucker was there. Nothing happened. He knew it. But how do you call a guy out like that? How do you prove that you know he’s full of shit?

“You’re full of shit,” was all Danny could find himself able to say. “And just shut the hell up about Sam already. You guys broke up. It’s over. Done. Let it go.”

Elliot gave a small hum.

“Eh, I dunno. I thought about asking her out again,” Elliot said slyly. 

Danny took a deep breath. He refused to fall into this guy’s petty crap. No, no, he wasn’t, he was just trying to test his patience.  He’s just trying to get a reaction out of you, Fenton. Don’t give him one. 

He made a point of ignoring Elliot, instead opening the Planned Parenthood booklet to the section related to Mike’s lecture. He zoned out though. None of this mattered, he wasn’t an idiot. Condoms and consent, basic stuff. Not like he planned on going out and getting wild. 

Well of course, there were some girls he wouldn’t mind getting wild with. Paulina instantly came to mind. She had an excellent body. One he had seen in a swimsuit before. And of course, it’s not like he didn’t think about it with Valerie when they were together. He liked her a lot. Plus Sam. Sam had such a nice gentle touch. And soft lips and hands. Why did he never realize that?

Danny spaced out, staring ahead at the front of the class. He wished Sam was here, next to him instead of fucking Elliot. By now, she’d likely have leaned into him, bored to tears herself. Sometimes she cuddled up into him if it was cold. It wasn’t now, but it wouldn’t be the first time he purposefully made the classroom a bit chilly for that very reason. Her hugs were always just comforting and calming. 

“Dude, taste this,” Tucker’s voice broke him from his thoughts. Danny glanced to see his friend. He had opened another condom packet, and he was holding it up to Danny. 

“...What?” 

“Dude, it tastes really good,” Tucker insisted. “It tastes just like mint.”

“I’m not licking any condoms that you’ve already been licking,” Danny scowled. 

“Just open yours and taste it,” Tucker encouraged. Danny sighed, giving a light shrug. Well, anything to pass the time. 

He opened the condom packet. It was greasy and felt gross, and he hesitantly pressed his tongue against it. Surprisingly, Tucker was right. Not too bad.

“Huh, that does taste like mint,” he hummed in surprise. 

He put the entire, still rolled condom in his mouth. He sucked on it for a bit before spitting it back out into his hand. Danny studied Mike until Mike turned his back and Lancer was still distracted before slapping it on Elliot’s cheek. The wet condom stuck there for a second before falling to the floor. Elliot immediately turned to glare at him. He glanced to make sure the teachers were still distracted before returning the punch from earlier, hitting Danny in the upper arm. 

Danny flinched. It definitely didn’t hurt nearly as much as a ghost, but it still ached for a moment. He refused to rub his shoulder to comfort himself. This was apparently a bad move. Elliot glared at him until the next available opportunity, and he hit him again. Danny let out an irritated groan from clenched teeth. That one hurt a bit more.

“Cut it out before I kick you so hard you can be assured that you’ll never have a kid,” Danny threatened. 

“Bold of you to even assume I want children, Fenton,” Elliot replied in a hushed tone. “The best birth control is having a one year old nephew that screams all the time and constantly shits himself out of excitement whenever he hears the ice cream truck. No fucking thanks. From the looks of things, you’re the one that needs to be neutered. I can gladly help.”

Elliot shifted a bit away from him, only to raise his foot to attempt to kick him. Obviously, he only hit Danny’s side. The halfa grabbed Elliot’s foot, yanking him hard. He fell out of the seat with a surprised yelp. 

“You guys okay?” Mike’s voice called out. Upon hearing the noises, Mr. Lancer had snapped to his feet.

“You two better not be messing around,” Mr. Lancer’s voice instantly caused a wave of complete silence to fall upon the classroom. “This is an important lesson you will carry for the rest of your lives. I expect you to pay attention, or else I will assign homework or give a pop quiz on this.”

Elliot put his elbow up on the table, pulling himself up and back onto his seat. 

“I’m fine, just tilted my chair back too much,” he lied. He flashed Lancer a fake smile. The teacher didn’t look amused.

“Watch yourself, Mr. Gregor,” he warned before sitting back down. 

Mike gave a friendly smile at the class before continuing his conversation. Danny sat up a bit straighter. Of all the days to get detention, this was not the day he wanted to have to deal with that. Sure, he wasn’t on the radar now, but it wouldn’t be long. 

He felt Elliot nudge him, and he pointedly ignored it. He focused on Mike, who was answering Kwan’s inquiry about a male birth control pill. Elliot poked him. Danny did nothing.

“Hey, you mad just because I know that Sam wears pink panties?” Elliot whispered. That was enough to instantly boil his blood.

“You don’t know shit,” Danny hissed at him. 

“Oh I know all about how Sam secretly has bright pink panties,” Elliot taunted. Danny rolled his eyes. He had done Sam’s laundry before. He’s done her emergency overnight packing. They’ve gotten a bit heavy during makeouts twice. She’s stayed over for sleepovers since they were like twelve. And even if none of that happened, he doubted Sam would secretly wear pink. She didn’t care what others thought, if she wanted to wear pink, she’d just openly wear pink.

“You’re so full of crap,” Danny scowled. “They’re almost all black or purple. At least one’s dark gray with black bats all over them. You really think Sam would wear pink like, ever? Dumbass.”

Elliot stared at him, mouth slightly open. Tucker was staring at him too, with wide eyes. Danny didn’t really notice them, focusing his attention once more on Mike. He had, at some point, began writing a list of pros and cons up on the board of various birth control methods. Danny studied it for a moment. Mike glanced at the clock. He patted the box set before him on the table.

“Okay, so we’re approaching lunch, so I’m going to take a pause right now to just say that this box has some condoms, sample-size lube bottles, and some short books about gender identity that you can take as you wish,” Mike explained, holding up the items as he spoke. “There’s just some fun stickers too, and we also have a card that has the number of a therapist office we partner with. We’ll be leaving the door unlocked, so you can come in and grab it discreetly during lunch if you don’t want to in the rush to leave. I won’t be in here, I’ll actually be with Mallory in Room 105, which I understand is the uh.” Mike paused. “Room just down the hall?” The class nodded at him. “Cool. So we’ll be there if you want to ask more personal questions.”

The bell finally rang, and Danny sighed in relief. Elliot was already out of his seat, mumbling something about needing to update Paulina asap on something, out the door before Mike could even continue.

“Alrighty folks, if you wanna take some bananas with you as part of lunch too, feel free!” Mike shot a teasing smile at Danny, and the teen sunk in his seat before quickly getting to his feet and making a fast-walk for the door. “We won’t be needing them later on, so take as many as you like. And of course, feel free to take whatever you want from the box.”

As he passed by, Danny glanced into the box, a blurred colorful assortment of condoms, stickers and the sample lube bottles. He refused to stop and take one, unlike a few brave souls behind him, including Tucker for some reason, who stopped to grab anywhere from one, to a handful. Or in Tucker’s case,  two  handfuls? What? Tucker wasn’t even dating anybody right now.

He quickly turned the corner out of the classroom, and a quick glance around, he noticed he was alone. He turned invisible, and he walked back in, intangibly going through his classmates to peak into the box. Danny paused before looking around as the contents were shifted as classmates hunted for what they wanted, and finally, he grabbed two purple colored condoms, Sam’s secret favorite color. She liked to act like it was black, but he knew deep down that it was purple. He walked out, seeing the hallway become crowded, though everybody seemed wrapped up in their own business. The normal.

The halfa slipped into a janitor’s closet, turning visible. He quickly left and shut the door behind him, walking until he spied his friend. Tucker was crouched on the floor next to the lockers near the classroom they had just exited, trying to carefully put his new condom collection into his open backpack without spilling them all over the floor.

“Do you really need that many?” Danny wondered. Tucker grinned. 

“Better safe than sorry!” he told him.

“What about when you get all your tech back, it’s not gonna all fit,” Danny pointed out. Tucker gave Danny an intense, serious look. 

“I’ll find a way,” he assured him before returning to his task. He was picking up fallen condoms to stuff into his bag. 

Danny chuckled. He glanced up and into the classroom, unintentionally locking eyes with Elliot. The other was talking with Mike. About what, Danny couldn’t tell, but Elliot had immediately shot him a light smirk. Danny scowled back, crossing his arms.

“Come on, Tuck, I’m starving, and I’m not really interested in having a condom for lunch,” Danny spoke up.  And I miss Sam.  He turned to begin walking, hearing Tucker scrambling to zip his backpack newly full of condoms and rush after him.

“So uh...do you wanna talk about how come you know what kind of underwear Sam wears?” Tucker questioned. Danny stared blankly at him before he flushed, scowling. 

“Tucker, you’ve seen her underwear. You did her laundry and helped me pack her stuff before.” 

Tucker blinked, thinking on this answer for a moment. Danny stood on his tiptoes, looking for a sign of Sam coming from the other classroom. None. She was probably at her locker, and he began to walk towards it, Tucker following.

“...Yeah but I’ve never like...kept track of the colors,” Tucker said slowly. Danny could feel his cheeks turning a bit redder, but he refused to reply. “Sooo...wanna expand a little on those three makeout times that I apparently didn’t know about?”

“No,” Danny said shortly before finally spotting Sam. He sighed happily, taking a few eager steps towards her.

[againthemartyr]

While I am still writing a more in-depth explanation of Xartsa’aga/Aeron, I wanted to go and write some easy-to-chew tidbits about him! I will edit this post to also include the link to the document when it’s done. I’m using this post so I can keep adding details about him in a more informal manner and explaining more about the characters involved without needing to write a whole Novel about it. 

He is actually part of a WoL group! The “main” Warrior of Light is actually Vohti’a Janra, and Aeron and another two people can be considered... sub-WoLs?? Let’s just go with that! They each have their character arc in different expansions, and they are the personification of the found family trope.

Originally from the Steppe and part of the Tumet clan, Aeron experienced a vision of the Dusk Mother and that made him decide to abandon his home and somehow manage to board a ship to Eorzea. 

A plus point of this is that he (back then) did not speak or understand Eorzean Common at all! You can probably imagine how his journey went. He met Vohti’a at Ul’dah, and that is how they became acquainted. Over a very weird campfire, a hooded man who barely understood anything that was spoken to him and warm food. 

It was then that he decided to adopt an “easier” name for himself, as he noticed Vohti and other people had trouble with it. It was then that he borrowed the historical name “Aeron Cadeyrn” to himself, and this is what he goes by to this day. 

Following these events, it was agreed that the two of them would travel together: there he learned the basic knowledge to be able to communicate with others, but Aeron prefers to keep quiet and let others do the talking.

His name means “falcon”, and it was given to him due to his love of Really High places. You can find him always standing outside on the highest point of any place they are camping. He just enjoys it. 

Speaking of enjoyment, he is the ‘assigned chef’ of the group. Just do not ask the components of his meal, as he honors every piece of it. It is delicious, but the knowledge will definitely be something you do not desire to know. 

Originally a lancer! This leads him to an early-entry at Ishgard than the Actual Quests allow, due to his duties as the Azure Dragoon. This might or might have not been endorsed by the Fortemps. 

It is then that he got a bit of more ‘formal’ education. The current status is that he can communicate what he wants to - along with reading and writing to a small extent. But much like talking, if he has to read letters he probably hands them to the nearest party member.

This does not mean he is absent from the events of the game! Just that he had his own stuff to deal with.

The black markings on his face are actually makeup/warpaint! Aeron diligently applies it every day. His face does look kinda funny without it.

This is something that he does not reveal to many, but this man is actually very. Religious is not the right word, but he has a massive amount of faith in the Dusk Mother. He feels very close to Her, and his faith is an important part of his character.  

Related to the point above: Aeron has a hard time dealing with grief. The first time was actually during the whole Vault conundrum. Death is something he thought of as natural: it happens to all beings, but the void that is left by the death of someone that you loved is not something he has ever had to deal with. Needless to say, it ends poorly. It is probably the first time Aeron questions his beliefs.

He disappears for a bit after that, and in that period he apparently gave up the lance and the title to find something else that would help him make sense of this. This is what prompts his change to Dark Knight, believing it is best to protect people than to be protected.

The lasting effects of trauma really resided in his soul: his sense of self shattered in two. His "normal" self -- Aeron -- continued to navigate the world as usual, serving as one of the Warriors of Light. His other half -- Xartsa'aga -- took on the burden of all of their anger, grief, and pain. With Xartsa'aga dealing with their negative emotions, Aeron could continue to act as the man he has always seemed to be. The two of them have learned to coexist over the years and have grown closer, learning to accept themselves and work together to care for and protect their loved ones.     

Values personal freedom a lot. And also the ability that people have to choose their own fate.

Finds various monsters to be “cute”, which draws many skeptical looks from others. Has a tendency to try and bring them home with him. A notable example was him trying to convince one of the Fuath to simply return to the Source with him. 

From his perspective, Hien views the Xaela as a tool to use for combat, and he does not care for the man. Or any that sees his people as simply ‘savage beasts’. 

Aeron is. Very. Moon themed. For obvious reasons! The neutrality of the moon, the many faces of it. This relates deeply to his decisions back in Amaurot. Ultimately unable to pick a side, but then following the decision that was not correct, but the one that made sense at the time. 

(Me staring at the camera blankly while I unfurl an even bigger list of terrible stuff I wrote) You can probably assume from the previous post that he did not ultimately side with Hydaelyn. Not because he did not agree with the principles of it - but of the immediate necessity of the world he loved to be saved.

Going on with the moon/night theme that he embodies, obviously I picked “Nyx” for his ascian name. The odd attachment to strange creatures probably originated there, along with his calm demeanor.  

This also means that his “love” for the World carried on as well. As much as he can relate to their supposed “Enemy” (as he is now aware that they are not so different after all), this is their world now. This is what he swore to protect. This is the place that he loves, now and forevermore.   

[atopearth]

Fate/hollow ataraxia Part 3 - Chibi is Justice (Phase 3)

Lmao, I love how Avenger thought the way Bazett died against Assassin was so hilarious. It seems she's pretty numb towards the repetitive resurrections now though. Avenger is right though, Bazett is so violent lmao, she solves everything so practically and violently, it's pretty hilarious, especially when she got impatient at Avenger taking too long to unlock the gate to a Master's (looks like Rin's) house so she just broke in loll. It's pretty cute how Avenger protected her from the milk trap lmao. I wonder if the world Bazett is in, and the world Shirou and them are in aren't connected yet? It seems kinda connected since Shirou and Saber supposedly saw stuff like the house where those randoms died, and they saw the place where Bazett resurrects, but considering the fact that even though they both patrol around at night, yet haven't seen each other, do we need to get through a bit more things for it all to escalate?

I'm not sure if Avenger is the same Avenger that was supposed to be born in Heaven's Feel and whether his story is the same since he just kinda tells Bazett that Angra Mainyu isn't his real name because a friend sacrificed his life to save him, so he kinda just took the friend's name and repaid the world with it, so his hero name is basically honouring his friend whilst he's lost his identity. Anyway, lmao at Bazett telling him her background as if she's sharing her practical work experience lol. Her story in a sense is similar to the Matou since she's from an elite family that retained their unique power but lost influence as an important family, so she kinda tries to prove herself within the Magic Association even though they don't care or like her because their traditions and families are so ingrained, there's no place for anything else to shake the balance. It's funny how Avenger justifies it that he's right that she's technically 30+ (she's 23 lol) because she never really had a childhood so she's been an adult most her life lol.

Ohh so the reason why Shirou could never really "progress" was because of his lack of training. He hasn't done any sort of magic and training in so long! Aww the little kid Saber was watching playing soccer looks like a mini Shirou haha! Lmao when she threw the ball into the goal and everyone was stunned hahaha. HAHAHA, Saber kicked the ball and it broke🤣 so cute how Shirou fixed the ball for them. Wow, they've really upped their game for this fandisk! The battle sequence between Shirou + Saber against Archer was so fluent and cool! I really loved how Shirou was able to think of a pretty good plan of getting Saber to Archer super fast using his last Command Spell, so that she can cut him down right after he shoots his arrow and won't have time to react against her attack. It all looked really good too! I'm also really glad that Shirou was able to use his skills again. It's really been a while! However, when Saber asked if this was really all right, I wasn't really sure. Like, obviously they had no choice since Archer was out to kill them, but at the same time, if Archer was so ready to kill them, there must be something big going on that they're not aware of.

Okay, I legit died laughing when the mini game to defeat Illya and her castle came up lmaooo. It was so hilarious!! The chibi characters are so cute and lmaoo at Saber saying food names when she fights. Legit died when I used Excalibur and she said chashu men/noodles hahahahah, I couldn't concentrate on fighting hahahah. I love how Caster uses Assassin to fight, and it was so funny when Rider rode her Griffon because it looked like some chibi horse hahahaha. I loved the mini game, it was absolutely great. I want to play it again now lmao. Illya losing and then pressing a red button to destroy everything was such a funny finale hahaha. I love seeing the Taiga Dojo Taiga lmao. The quizzes are pretty funny lolll! I love the night quiz where Taiga wants to be the main heroine of Fate so bad lmaooo. Oh, and Sella giving Shirou a storeroom to sleep in was hilarious, poor Shirou🤣 HAHAHA at Sakura getting petrified when Saber told her that Servants don't get fat from eating etc, especially since Sakura tries hard to maintain her weight and everything hahaha. I loved how Rider had to drag the Sakura who turned into a rock away lolll. It was so funny when Sakura called Rider a traitor since she never told her that her body won't change no matter how much they eat🤣🤣 Sakura is so cute, her and Shirou fighting over who should bath first was cute, but when he pushed her in and she started going crazy with her delusions thinking that they were going to bathe together in their swimsuits was just hilarious🤣 Saber being scared of sinking in the water was pretty cute, lmao when she was dashing through the water though hahaha. Never thought she would be able to walk on water because she had the blessing of lake fairies lol. Aww it was so cute how Saber sunk into the water when Shirou said her body shape was nice and everything hahaha. Also lmao at Archer and Lancer invading their little picnic at the poolside and stealing their food lolll. I never really thought about it, but hearing Archer complain/give tips on how Shirou can improve his cooking is kinda cute and funny at the same time since he would know best what he needs to improve on🤣 Anyway, I love it when Saber is such a sore loser that she forces Shirou into competing with her (in this case, swimming) until she wins and is satisfied with her wins hahaha. She's so proud of winning after it all too lmao.

Whoa, I didn't expect the H-scenes in Eclipse, I was so shocked lmao, I had to look behind my shoulder to make sure no one saw me because it was so sudden hahaha! Anyway, I've never been a fan of the Fate H-scenes so yeah, this wasn't any better imo. Lmao, I love how Himuro is so interested in Mitsuzuri's love life and wants to know who her boyfriend is, she's so weirdly obstinate, it's kinda funny🤣 I'll admit that I'm definitely warming up to the trio of Himuro, Makidera and Yukika now haha. It's so stupid yet hilarious how they're so insistent on finding out who Mitsuzuri's dating lol. They've got some crazy dedication haha, legit died when Taiga started thinking Shirou was becoming more and more of a player with all these girls lol. Honestly I know Minori (Mitsuzuri's younger brother) doesn't mean harm, but he really gets out of hand when it comes to his dislike for Shirou. Anyway, I'm glad Himuro dragged him away lol, and with that, I think I kinda like the idea of Minori and Himuro together hahahah. Lmao at the Mitsuzuri dating thing was actually because she was desperately looking for someone to be her boyfriend to win the bet with Rin, so she told her brother to disguise and pretend to be her boyfriend, that is pretty embarrassing hahaha.

LMAO at Archer and Lancer having a fishing battle or something, it's hilarious how petty Archer seems towards Lancer hahaha. Omggg Saegusa can see Kojirou and they're so cute and friendly together!? It's such a random match but I love them. They have such a peaceful atmosphere. LMAOOO when Shirou bluntly asked Illya if he could use her castle dining room for a dinner date and Illya thought it was her and there were like pigeons flying in the background, and then Shirou says for Sakura and she sulks in her chibi sketch form hahahahaha. I nearly died from laughter with that transition.

 Awwww! Sakura in the pink evening dress with ribbons on her hair (kinda like Rin) is so cutee! The dress in itself is kinda ugly tbh but Sakura is adorable. Awww Shirou in a tuxedo is pretty cute too! Anyway, I honestly think it's so sweet of Shirou to have granted Sakura's wish for a fancy dinner like this. Like sure, he really didn't do much besides have the guts to ask Illya for help, but the fact that he remembered her wish and did what he could to grant it was sweet enough. The way Shirou accepts everything about Sakura including all her flaws, and saying all that in his own clumsy way makes my heart so warm. Hearing Illya talk about some memories of Kiritsugu fondly makes me happy that there were at least a few memories they were able to cherish together. Seeing Illya so happy and excited to play and talk with Shirou always makes my heart so warm tbh. The CG of Shirou and Illya sharing a bed together is so heartwarming, I love it. She never got to see Kiritsugu ever again, but at least Illya now has Shirou who will always dote on her and do his best to protect her. Tbh, in the beginning, I really didn't like Illya and always thought there's no way I'll like this murderous little girl, but omg she's invaded my heart so much, I love her, and her relationship with Shirou. Sella and Liz interactions are so funny, I love how Liz is just outing her to Shirou about how Sella is afraid of ghosts lmao. HAHAHA, I loved how Shirou got so scared of whatever he saw in the wine cellar, he ran out and pulled Sella along with him, and described it to her when she told him not to hahaha. The funniest thing was that it was actually Liz with a halberd lmao, that is definitely scary😂 It's interesting to know that Liz is actually the Dress of Heaven to kinda complete Illya, I'm not sure if I forgot that or if it was never mentioned, but now it's kinda understandable why Liz is a guess a bit more different compared to Sella who is basically full maid. Lmao, the more Sella and Liz appear, the more I love them. It was so funny when Liz gave him that possibly 200 years old card that is most likely cursed and then laughed as she left hahahaha. Omgg, it's so funny but I never really thought that Sella, Liz and even Illya drive to and from the castle!! Lmao when Shirou asked Illya if she drove a Bersercar HAHAHA😂😂😂😂 To be fair, that's what I would have assumed😂

Archer saving the kitten stuck on top of a tree and then going on a long ass rant about heroes of justice was hilarious. But, I have to say, the things he said were pretty interesting and right to an extent, especially the idea of heroes stunting the growth of people like this kitten who will start to always think that someone like a hero will save them so they don't need to think about saving themselves. Anyway, now that Gilgamesh isn't in a "serious" game as he says, his silliness and ridiculousness is so much more funny. I love how careless he is to get caught up in crap but be too prideful to ask for help hahahah. And it was so funny when Rider dragged Saber away calling them losers for their masters' affections since Shirou and Sakura are going to the pool together and she doesn't want to interfere even though she probably wants to join lol. Aww Sakura in her swimsuit is cute. Okay, I change my mind, her side angle is hot hahahha. I can understand why Shirou was so stunned hahahah. HAHAHA, I nearly died of laughter when Sakura told Shirou she's not good at backstroke, and he said that would be awesome hahahahaha, he's a pervert🤣🤣 Omg that underwater kiss though! Shirou was being silly as usual, trying too hard to make Sakura happy and staying underwater past his limits, so she gave him "air" through the kiss haha, Shirou is lucky~ LMAO when Rider and Saber popped up at the pool hahahaha. Omg Rider's swimsuit is hot though, I love it. Sakura and Shirou holding hands back home is so adorableeee, I wish their date lasted longer~~ Aww Saber being fascinated by the penguin shaved ice machine is so cute! To be fair, I've always been interested in those too, they're so adorable! I would eat shaved ice just to play with it loll. Well, Bazett's "Noble Phantasm"-like thing is pretty much a cheat if you can negate Saber's Excalibur. But I wonder why everything keeps repeating itself? Oh, and I died when Shirou and Shinji had a "duel" at the harbour LOL, it was so random but hilarious hahahah.

Anyway, yayyy, I'm finally up to the next phase lol! Sure took me a while to finish this one up, I got distracted by so many things hahaha. But yeah, even though I take a long time to get through this game, I honestly really love it whenever I take the time out to read it. The slice of life shenanigans are the best way to brighten up my life lmao, they're all so funny!! I love how this phase really developed Liz and Sella, they're so much more likeable than I initially thought haha. All the swimming pool shenanigans were so funny and nice too. I'm definitely loving Sakura much more than before haha, and Saber has such a special place in my heart now, she's so silly lolll. I really hope to see Rin soon though!

[five-rivers]

Adoption (part 2)

A gift for @a-flower-lover!  This wound up being more along the lines of vignettes...  Little snapshots into Danny’s life after being adopted by Clockwork.  I hope that’s ok!  (PART 1)

.

Mr. Lancer had met Charles Worth before, albeit briefly. The man had fostered a number of Casper High students and with that responsibility came parent-teacher conferences. He had struck Mr. Lancer as being steady and reliable, if, perhaps, impersonal, despite his predilection for clocks and ominous announcements. A decent foster parent, if not... ideal.

Mr. Worth just didn't seem to connect with his fosters, although he certainly didn't neglect them. Then, too, were the persistent rumors that his home was haunted.

Alright. So, Mr. Lancer didn't think Charles Worth was really a children person. Oh, he was a good person! It took one to do well as a foster parent, but... yeah.

Which was why the scene in front of him surprised him so much. Not the who of it, but the what.

The who was Daniel Fenton and Charles Worth waiting outside the office. The what was smiling and having a conversation. True, Mr. Fenton's smile looked like it was pasted on over several layers of anxiety, but it was genuine.

"Mr. Worth, Mr. Fenton?" he said, tamping down his surprise. "Come on in."

"Hi," said Mr. Fenton, his voice hoarse.

Mr. Worth smiled and nodded, pushing him up with his cane.

But Mr. Fenton must have noticed the curious look Mr. Lancer was giving him. "I knew Cl- Uh. Mr. Worth before this." He winced and smiled widely to cover it up. "So, uh, make up work? Since I missed the past week?"

"Yes, well, circumstances being what they are," aka his parents trying to murder him in public, in broad daylight (and didn't that give Mr. Lancer a chill?), "your teachers have put together a few packets for you to look over this weekend. They should get you more or less up to speed with where your classes are. I'm also willing to stay after school, to help you with anything you've missed in my classes."

.

Jazz knocked on the door of the Worth house. She had been made aware, via various supernatural (she did not particularly appreciate writing suddenly appearing on her fogged-up bathroom mirror) and mundane (Danny did have her phone number) means, that the man known as Charles Worth was actually the ghost known as Clockwork.

How this had occurred was not entirely clear to her. She assumed ghost powers, specifically time travel, were involved somehow.

But, to be honest, that didn't really matter to her. It was secondary, less than.

What was important here was that she hadn't been legally allowed to see her little brother in over a month. To keep her parents from contacting him. To keep her from letting her parents near him. Because they were legally barred from seeing him.

Because they had tried to kill him.

Jazz planned on never seeing her parents again, as soon as she got all of her and Danny's things from their house.

But now that prohibition had been lifted, because Clockwork had forced through what had to be the speediest adoption in the history of adoptions, and Danny was now legally his son. In the eyes of both humans and ghosts. Which was... Well. Danny seemed to be excited about it, anyway. He'd looked up to Clockwork for a while, from what he told Jazz.

Internally, Jazz had more than a bit of trepidation. She didn't know what adoption meant to ghosts, didn't have any context for it. And ghosts, even the good ones, even Danny, tended to be... obsessive. Extreme. She wasn't sure how that would translate when it came to interpersonal relationships.

The door creaked open, ever so slowly, the squeak it made grating on her eardrums. At first, it appeared to have opened on its own, then a hand gripped the edge of the door, and Clockwork, in human guise, leaned out from behind it.

Jazz raised an eyebrow.

Clockwork raised one right back. "This house is haunted, you know," he said.

Okay, never mind. The only thing she had to worry about was the fact that her brother and his mentor both had terrible senses of humor.

"Hi, Jazz!"

Being used to having a half-ghost brother, Jazz only yelped a little bit at his unexpected appearance behind her. Then she sighed and ruffled his hair. He hugged her and then bounced over the lintel into the house.

"Come on! I want to show you my room! It's so cool!" His voice became fainter as he went farther into the house, until his last exclamation was an eerie whisper.

Jazz looked at Clockwork as she stepped inside. "Is he doing that on purpose?"

Clockwork smiled blandly. "I am very fond of the acoustics in this house."

She looked at her surroundings with a skeptical eye. "It seems... dark in here."

"We are ghosts," said Clockwork. "Daniel is very excited to show you his room, by the way."

"He's human, too, don't forget," said Jazz.

"I won't."

.

The house was creepy.

Really creepy.

This was coming from someone who had spent most of her life living under the same roof as two ghost-obsessed mad scientists.

But Danny seemed to enjoy it, and he was the one living here. It wasn't like there was anything wrong with the house. Or anything in the house. It was just... off.

Danny was half-ghost, however, so maybe this was something he needed. Perhaps not all of his peppiness could be attributed to being the heck away from his murderous former parents.

Even so. Jazz had a duty, both as a big sister and an aspiring psychologist.

"I already read it," said Clockwork, setting a cup of tea down in front of her.

"What?"

"The book you were about to give me. I've already read it. And a number of others. I am not the kind of person who goes into things unprepared."

Danny rolled into the kitchen on the ceiling. This was easy to ignore. After her life, an Exorcist reference made by her over-excited younger brother, was, well. Underwhelming.

(Okay, she was a little distracted, but only by his glee.)

"Well," she said. "That's good."

.

"I know this house is out of the way," said Clockwork, craning his neck to look up at his coworker, "but you are rather conspicuous."

"Hm. Am I?" asked Pandora, craning her neck down to look at her comparatively tiny colleague.

"Yes. At that size, humans with average eyesight will be able to see you from town."

Pandora looked out over the trees. "Interesting," she said, mildly. "Do you think the ghost hunters will come?"

"You've spoken to Daniel."

"Yes. He stopped by earlier today, on his way to visit Mattingly. Although, I suppose you knew that already."

"Indeed I did. May I ask, is it your intention to lure the ghost hunters here, fight them, defeat them, and then leave them just close enough to here to constitute a breach of their terms of bail and the restraining order against them?"

"I am not terribly well-versed in human law," said Pandora, "but, why, yes. That is exactly what I'm doing. Best to get it done while Daniel is visiting friends, isn't it?"

"Yes. If you had done this while he was here, I would be significantly more annoyed." Clockwork smiled the sanguine smile of a parental figure who would commit murder if their child was upset.

Pandora returned a matching grin, one that promised retribution against persons who had harmed said child in the past. "Please, Clockwork. You know me better than that. I wouldn't subject him to being in the presence of those fools."

"Good," said Clockwork, eyes glinting.

.

"Hey, Clockwork? Do you know why there were police cars driving down the- Oh. Hello?" He stopped at the sight of an unfamiliar woman sitting at the dinning room table, next to Clockwork. He blinked and tilted his head to the side. "Wait. Pandora?"

"Perceptive," said the superficially human olive-skinned woman. "You seemed so happy when you stopped by, earlier. I thought I would come check in on you."

"You didn't have to," said Danny, beaming.

"Pandora has been trying to convince me to set her up as one of my relatives," said Clockwork, rolling his eyes. "Would you care for a cup of tea, Daniel?"

"Umm," said Danny, dubiously. "I'll try one, I guess. Does that mean you'll be my aunt?"

Pandora smiled. "Why, yes, it does."

Clockwork groaned theatrically.

.

"Ah," said Mr. Lancer, at the next parent-teacher conference. "Are you Mr. Worth's wife?"

"No," said Pandora, grinning. "I'm his sister."

Mr. Lancer looked back and forth between the two very different-looking entities. "I... see."

"We're adopted," said Clockwork.

"Oh! Alright then. Now, about Daniel..."

.

It was a bit strange to see Danny with so much energy, Sam reflected. Strange, but good.

It just went to show how drained he had become over time, how much the constant ghost attacks and worry, all the lies and stress and impossible expectations had worn away at him over time. She hadn't seen her friend this happy since freshman year. If that.

On the other hand...

"Dude," said Tucker. "Your house is spooky. And this is coming from someone who's been inside a literal mad science lab."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Mad science labs are campy, not spooky. Besides, you knew coming in that this house was haunted." He draped himself over the back of the couch, rolling until he was 'sitting' upside-down. "Anyway, what kind of movie do you want to watch? We've got a bunch, because Clockwork apparently collects media from doomed timelines."

"He's got a hobby?" asked Sam.

"Yeah, three," said Danny. "Gardening- you should talk to him about that, by the way, I think he'd like it- baking, and alternate timeline movies. And some books, too, I think. He's got a huge library back in Long Now. I've read like. Two books from it."

Clockwork's voice floated in from the other room. "You've read significantly more than that, Daniel."

"I guess," said Danny, doubtfully. He flopped off the couch, picked himself up, and started prodding at a shelf of movies. "This is from a timeline where the Earth got beaned by a massive asteroid. It's, like, a romcom, but it was made when everyone knew the asteroid was coming. This one is, uh, this is actually a dramatization of real events, apparently, but their timeline split from ours in like the fifties, so the events are pretty wild." He waved the DVD at them. "It's surreal?"

"How'd they die?" asked Tucker.

"Wacky superscience. No, really. Irradiated the entire planet."

"How do you know?" asked Sam.

"Oh, Clockwork puts notes on the boxes. He thinks it's interesting. And there does seem to be some correlation between how cursed the movies are and how bad the timeline was. Which maybe shouldn't surprise me? I mean, if they were bad timelines..." He shrugged. "Oh, this is a CGI Lion King. I can tell you: very cursed. Absolutely soulless. And this is from a timeline where copyright laws weren't changed, so Mickey Mouse and a bunch of other stuff was in the public domain."

"Isn't that a good timeline?" joked Sam.

"You'd think so," agreed Danny. "But apartheid in South Africa apparently never stopped, and they got a nuclear bomb, and, well... World War Three."

"Is that like, a domino effect, or...?"

"I'm not sure... Anyway. Uh. Genre?" He clapped his hands together.

Tucker leaned forward. "I want the wildest version of the Matrix you have."

"Ooh, good choice. There are, like, six with Will Smith. I haven't watched them all yet, but I think the one where they've got another sequel and Zion is also a- Wait, I shouldn't spoil it."

"After that, can you see if there's a non-crappy version of Dracula?" asked Sam.

"Sure. I haven't seen one yet, but I will look."

"I have popcorn," said Clockwork, entering the room, "and various baked goods. No dairy."

"You're the best."

.

Clockwork selected a thick blanket from the chest, then teleported himself to the living room to drape it over the three teenagers passed out on the couch. Overall, he found pretending to be human oddly enjoyable, but it could be trying at times. Tedious. All the finicky little motions humans had to go through to do the simplest of things added up over the day.

So, Clockwork tended to ease off of them when no one was watching. It made life easier.

Heh. Life.

(He would say that Daniel's puns were rubbing off on him, but in truth Clockwork's sense of humor had been like that for, well. Eons.)

He put the kitchen in order with an absent wave of his hand, and double-checked the stove out of habit. It wasn't nearly as good as his actual oven, back in Long Now, but it was serviceable.

One of Daniel's friends mumbled in their sleep, and Clockwork looked in on them. Still peaceful. It was good for Daniel to have them here. Beneficial for both his human and ghost halves.

He hummed to himself and patted Daniel's head as he thought about their plans for the weekend. He had arranged for some truly aggravating evangelical missionaries to darken their doorstep. It would do Daniel good to inspire a touch of terror. In an entirely controlled and risk-free way, of course. No matter how unpleasant the people coming were, Clockwork had no intention of harming them, or suggesting anything of the sort.

But, well. They were ghosts. Being feared was soothing.

(Clockwork knew this wasn't what Jasmine meant when she suggested Clockwork engage in family bonding activities with Daniel. But what she didn't know...)

.

"I think my teeth are getting sharper," said Danny, pulling a face at the mirror. "Is that normal?" The last was shouted, to get Clockwork's attention. Intellectually, Danny knew he didn't need to do that, but a lifetime of habit was hard to shake.

"It is difficult to say what is normal for someone like you, but many ghosts do have fangs," said Clockwork. "Including myself."

"Hm," said Danny. "This isn't, like, a ghost puberty thing, is it? Because I already used up most of my evil puberty jokes."

"Oh, only most?" Clockwork slid behind him and started rubbing the tension out of his shoulders.

Danny shrugged. "Eh, give or take. But, seriously."

"No, it isn't a ghost puberty thing."

"Oh, good. Because dealing with one puberty is more than enough."

Clockwork was silent. Danny looked up and met troubled eyes in the mirror.

"Clockwork?"

"Daniel," started Clockwork, before giving Danny an uneasy smile. "Speaking of puberty..."

Danny blanched. "No."

"What?"

"No. Nope. Not doing the talk today, no sir. I got that at school."

"Daniel, as strange as Casper High may be at times, I highly doubt they taught you anything about immortality."

"What."

.

"It's why ghosts put so much forethought into relationships like this," explained Clockwork, careful not to look directly at Daniel's hiding place. "They might last forever. I certainly hope this one does."

"But I don't want to be a teenager forever!" wailed Danny. He had mastered the art of making his voice sound like it was coming from a completely different direction than it actually was.

Clockwork was older than human civilization and had been worshiped as a god by several civilizations. He did not wince at the heartbreak in his child's voice.

"Your shapeshifting abilities should come in after a few years," said Clockwork. "You'll be able to pass as older."

Daniel answered with a moan.

"I must confess, I'm not sure why you are so upset about this. I can see that you are, but could you explain why for me?"

"I don't knoooooowww..."

.

"I don't want everyone to die and leave me alone," admitted Danny, hunched over a carton of ice cream. "I don't want to see my- my people die." He sniffled.

"We don't have to stay in Amity Park if you don't want to," said Clockwork.

Danny shook his head. "No! That's worse," he said, hating how his voice tilted into a whine. "That's- I can't abandon them! I can't- can't miss their time. I just..." He let out a huff of air. "It's hard."

Clockwork wrapped an arm around Daniel's shoulders. "It may not help much," he said, "but people in Amity Park have a much higher chance of becoming ghosts. It's the ectoplasm in the air."

"Promise?" asked Danny.

"Promise. Although, who, exactly, becomes a ghost is outside of my control. All I can tell you is that the people here have a better chance."

Danny leaned against Clockwork. "Thanks," he mumbled. "Clockwork?"

"Yes?"

"You don't think I'm a freak, do you?"

"Of course not."

.

Mr. Lancer squinted down at Daniel Fenton's latest assignment with a mix of appreciation, disbelief, and shame. This was easily the best work he had ever received from Daniel. In fact, it rivaled papers he had received from Jasmine.

It made him wonder- How long had Daniel been suffering? What had Daniel been suffering? He was no expert when it came to abuse, but all teachers had some training, and he knew that abusers tended to escalate, starting with something relatively innocuous and ending with a travesty. For things to progress to attempted murder... What had it started as? When had it begun?

(Could Mr. Lancer have stopped it?)

(That question would haunt him more than any ghost.)

Well, there was a silver lining to this, Mr. Lancer supposed. He had rarely seen two people who got along as well as Daniel and Charles Worth. It was good, he thought, for the man to have someone in his life on a more permanent basis, rather than the revolving door of temporary foster children.

How rapidly the adoption went through was a little odd, but... Mr. Lancer shrugged. Undoubtedly, Mr. Worth had taken the time over his years as a foster parent to familiarize himself with the system, and with Daniel's former parents unfit to be anywhere near children...

He shrugged again and stamped Daniel's paper with an A+.

[goldenart0]

Reasons why Oscar Pine and Callum are actually the same person:

Human with magic, either the only or one of the only.

Said magic is more nature based, Sky (wind) for Callum and given what we know about the Maidens and the twins shapeshiftinf plus the green theme I’m assuming Oscar’s is related with nature.

Fourteen turning Fifteen soon (probably) (has Callum turned fifteen yet?)

Didn’t originally ask for their adventure, but decided nonetheless

Parents dead, but living aunt

Ended up unlocking a part of their power while falling from a great height, probably would have died with out it

Has/had to use an artifact to use magic (honestly we don’t know all of RWBY’s magic rules yet but it looks like the cane is important for using magic)

Older, blond friend that helped train and is almost like an older brother to them with a friend (well one was more then just a friend) named Pyrrha

Another friend with (probably moon based) magic, or magicy powers that’s their shipped with either new side canon or seemly much evidence. Also leader/lancer relationship.

Evil person is somehow immortal or at least close, also with magic that sets them apart from other people

Multiple kingdoms, not currently really at war but kinda close and have fought before. And if you count Menagerie as a kingdom then it’s five each

Somehow related, even if not directly, to royalty (adopted by the king/king of vale)