#another party member is a dragon in disguise

[leftski-art]

He doesn't have a name yet but as soon as the DM said gargoyles were a valid character choice for the new campaign setting I knew I had to take that opportunity and run with it

Thinking I'll make him a Paladin/Monk

[pompomqt]

Journey to the West Chapter 27

Ooooh I've heard a lot about this particular story line, and it sounds exciting! This chapter of Journey to the West with @journeythroughjourneytothewest we get to see how Sun Wukong deals with the Lady Bone Demon, so lets get into it shall we?

So we start off this chapter with the gang taking their leave of The Immortal who they managed to become good friends with. However before long they come across yet another scary mountain, that is steep and rugged and Tripitaka has concerns that the horse may not be able to make it up it. Shame that the horse couldn't... oh I don't know... turn into a dragon or something and just fly past it. But alas. Sun Wukong however isn't concerned and easily scares off all the frightening wildlife.

However while they are in the middle of nowhere wilderness, Tripitaka starts getting hungry and asks Monkey to get him some food. Monkey tries to tell him that there really isn't anyone nearby to get any food from. Tripitaka however must be feeling pretty hangry because he snaps at Monkey, reminding him that he is the one who freed him from his mountain prison, so why does he have to be so lazy? Monkey thinks it's rather unfair to be called lazy, but decides to cut his losses and go get some food before Tripitaka starts reciting the tight fillet spell.

So Sun Wukong takes a look around, and spots some peaches in the far off distance, so he takes off to go get some for Tripitaka, disturbing the local mountain demon on his way. This demon immediately clocks Tripitaka as a Tang Monk who they can become immortal if they eat. She's just about to go for it, when she spots Pigsy and Sandy, and while they aren't as scary as Monkey they are still ex heavenly officials, so she resolves to be sneakier about this.

So the Demon disguises herself as a beautiful young girl and makes a beeline straight for the monk. Tripitaka is rather surprised to see the girl since Monkey had told him earlier that this place was uninhabited, so he has Pigsy go and investigate. However sending Pigsy to go and investigate a pretty girl was never going to end well, and indeed he takes one look at her and fawns all over her, not recognizing her for the demon she is. So the girl tells him she has some lovely rice and would love to full fill her vow of feeding monks. Pigsy is of course ecstatic by both the pretty girl and food, his two favorite things, and runs back to Tripitaka to tell him about it.

Tripitaka can't recognize her as a demon either but at least he is still more cautious then Pigsy and asks her about her background and why she's here. So the demon spins him a tale about how her elderly parents have a tendency to feed any monks that pass by, and how they wanted to marry her off to a good family but because of their age they instead took in a son in law so they can be cared for in their old age.

Tripitaka still finds this suspicious however since if the girl has a husband, why is she the one wandering a dangerous mountain looking for monks to feed without even so much as an attendant? Shouldn't he be the one doing that? The girl tries to placate him by saying her husband is out working fields somewhere, and so she was taking his lunch to him when she spotted them. This however makes Tripitaka even more determined not to eat it, even as the girl tries to convince him it's totally fine and her husband would love for them to have it instead. Meanwhile Pigsy is getting very irritated by Tripitaka's refusal to eat, and decides he'll just start digging into the rice himself.

However just in the nick of time, Sun Wukong returns with the peaches. And unlike the other members of his party, he is able to recognize the girl as the monster she is. And he immediately tries to deal with her the way he deals with all monsters- by hitting her with his stick. Tripitaka however is horrified that Monkey is just seemingly about to murder some innocent girl, and stops him.

Monkey tells him that the girl is a monster in disguise, and Tripitaka despite KNOWING ABOUT WUKONG'S ABILITY TO SEE THROUGH MONSTER DISGUISES doesn't believe him, insisting that she's a good person who came to give them rice. Monkey meanwhile tells himself that disguising themselves as something desirable is like people eating demon 101. He even admits that he did similar things back in the day whenever he had the munchies for human. Wonderful. And you know- I thought for sure I could add a crime to his list for that one- but it turns out eating human flesh isn't actually illegal, at least in the United States. And I already got him down for murder so... surprisingly he gets a pass for this without adding anything new to his rap sheet. Huh.

Anyways when Monkey realizes his little tale about eating humans failed to persuade Tripitaka, he switches tactics and decides to try and embarrass him. So Monkey says, if Tripitaka thinks she's so hot, they'll build them a cabin to consummate their affair right here, and give up this task of delivering scriptures. While Tripitaka is busy blushing about this, Monkey takes the opportunity to whack the demon. Unluckily for Monkey however the Demon has a few tricks up her sleeves, and drops the body right when Monkey was about to kill her. Tripitaka is horrified that Monkey just killed some innocent girl, but Monkey points out the rice she had brought had all turned to maggots.

So Tripitaka is about ready to believe Monkey, when of course Pigsy, disgruntled by the loss of good food and ability to score throws a hissy fit. So Pigsy accuses Monkey of just wanting to kill people, but not wanting to face the consequences of Tripitaka using the tight fillet spell- so he used his magic to try and trick Tripitaka. So it's Monkey's word against Pigsy's, and like a complete idiot, Tripitaka believes Pigsy and begins to recite the Tight Fillet Spell.

Monkey starts begging him to stop and just say what he wants to say instead of resorting to that spell. Tripitaka however asks what he has to say. After all Monks are supposed to cherish life, but Monkey knows nothing but killing and just beat an innocent girl to death, so he might as well leave since the scriptures wouldn't do someone like him any good anyways. With all that said Tripitaka tells him he no longer wants him as a disciple. Monkey however begs him to reconsider and says he'll never make it on the journey without him. However Tripitaka says his life is in heavens hands, and if he's fated to be some monsters dinner, then so be it. So Monkey decides on another approach and tells Tripitaka he has yet to repay him for freeing him from this mountain. And as we have seen previously, repaying his debts has always been something rather important to Sun Wukong.

Seeing this, Tripitaka decides to give Monkey one last chance but warns him not to pull another stunt like this again, otherwise he'll recite the tight fillet spell twenty times. Monkey tells him he can go ahead and recite it thirty times! He won't hit anyone again. So the two make up and have some of the peaches Monkey brought back and continue on their way.

Unfortunately for Monkey's bold promise of not killing humans anymore, the demon isn't dead, and decides to give it another go on her kidnapping Tripitaka plan. This time she disguises herself as an elderly old woman walking the road and weeping. Unfortunately Pigsy spots her first and starts spinning his own narrative about how this elderly woman is clearly the mother of the girl that Monkey killed earlier! Monkey tells him to stop talking nonsense, this woman is about eighty while the girl was about eighteen, how could this woman had born a child at the age of sixty? Clearly she's a fake. So Monkey goes to investigate, and seeing her as the monster she is, once again tries to kill her, only for the demon to once again drop the body.

This horrifies Tripitaka so much he falls off the horse and immediately begins reciting the tight fillet spell- twenty times just like he promised. And hey, at least he didn't take Monkey's suggestion of doing it thirty times since the twenty times deforms monkey's head into an hourglass shape. Yikes. So Monkey once again begs for him to stop and just say what he wants to say. But what is there to say! Despite Tripitaka doing his best to teach him, he just killed yet another innocent commoner! Monkey tells him she was a monster, but Tripitaka doesn't believe him and once again tries to kick him out of the group.

This time Monkey agrees to go but says he has one last request. Pigsy jumps in accusing Monkey that he wants them to split their luggage with him! Monkey is really upset by this accusation crying that he embraced the teachings of poverty and no greed or envy and doesn't want their stuff! Instead what he wants is to just be free from the golden fillet, otherwise how will he be able to face the others back home? However it turns out that even Tripitaka doesn't know how to get rid of the fillet, he was just told by Guanyin the tight fillet spell, not anything else. Since Tripitaka is unable to grant this last request of Monkey's he agrees to forgive him one last time, and the group continues on their way.

Unfortunately the monster still isn't dead, and decides to give deceiving them another try, this time by disguising herself as an old man. And once again Pigsy takes the opportunity to pre-blame Monkey, by saying clearly this is the patriarch of the family that Monkey killed! And Monkey is going to use his magic to escape the consequences and allow Tripitaka to be executed, Pigsy to be drafted into the army and Sandy to be sentenced to hard labor! I guess the horse will also get off scott free in this scenario. Lucky horse.

So Monkey once again goes off to investigate, and lets the demon tell their tale about how they are looking for their wife and daughter and sure hope that nothing terrible has happened to them. Monkey is just about ready to strike, but worries that if he does Tripitaka will recite the spell again, but if he doesn't kill the demon, then the demon will just kidnap Tripitaka and he will have to go through all that effort to save him. In the end he decides to go for it, and that he will just convince Tripitaka that it really is a demon. In order to make sure the demon doesn't escape again however he summons the local spirits and have them stand guard in the air to cut off her escape route. With that taken care of, Monkey kills the demon easily, and this time he finishes the job.

Tripitaka is horrified by this, but Monkey rushes to him before he can start reciting the spell and shows him how the body turned into a skeleton as soon as he killed them. There is even writing on the body's spine that says 'Lady White Bone'. This almost manages to convince Tripitaka, but once again, Pigsy cuts in. He accuses Monkey of just making the corpse look like a monster so that he could get away with murder without having Tripitaka recite the spell. Sadly Tripitaka chooses Pigsy to believe and begins to recite the spell once again while Monkey begs him to stop and use his words- words that aren't the tight fillet spell.

So Tripitaka and Monkey once again get into a heated argument and it gets pretty ugly. Tripitaka accuses him of killing and practicing evil just because there is no one who can stop him. But what would happen if he started killing people in a crowded city? If that happened he would be the one who would take the fall for Monkey, so it's better if Monkey just leaves now. Monkey however says it is Tripitaka who is wronging him, he was just protecting him from a monster that wanted to harm him but Tripitaka is to blind to see it. Instead he chooses to believe the words of Pigsy of all people and he's had enough of it. He'll gladly leave! It's Tripitaka who needs him not the other way around, since Monkey will be just fine if he leaves, but Tripitaka will have no one to protect him. Tripitaka however points out that he still has Wuneng and Wujing for protection. This remark cuts Wukong deep, and he reminds Tripitaka that he was his first companion! In fact Wuneng and Wujing are only here at all because Wukong was the one to subdue them first!

Having aired their grievances, Tripitaka says there is just one more matter to settle, the fillet. So Tripitaka says he won't recite it again. Monkey however just says that the next time Tripitaka gets into trouble and Wuneng and Wujing can't save him, he'll recite the spell to force Monkey to come and rescue him, so he might as well just keep him as a disciple and save them both the time. Incensed by this, Tripitaka gets off the horse and has Wujing get him a paper and brush. Using this he writes Wukong an official letter of banishment. And tells him to take it as proof that he will never want Sun Wukong as a disciple again, and if he ever consents to see him again, let him fall into Hell!

Sun Wukong hastily tells him there is no need to swear, and that he will take his leave. So Wukong takes the letter but has one last request of Tripitaka. At Guanyin's instruction he has followed him all this way but now has to leave midway through and will not attain the fruit of enlightenment. So he requests that Tripitaka accept his bows so he may leave in peace.

Tripitaka however refuses saying that he is a good priest and won't take the salutation of an evil man like him! Seeing his refusal, Wukong resorts to his magic of duplication. He creates three copies and they surround Tripitaka on all sides, so that he will be forced to face one of them and receive his bow.

That done, Monkey retrieves the hairs and gives some parting words to Sandy. He tells him that he is a good man, and not to listen to Pigsy's nonsense. He also tells him to be careful on the journey and if a monster catches hold of Tripitaka, tell them that Sun Wukong is his senior disciple, and surely they will leave him alone when they learn of Wukong's abilities. Which I think is very sweet of Wukong, he has no skin in this game anymore, but he still wants Tripitaka safe, and gives them permission to use his name as a shield to continue protecting Tripitaka. Tripitaka however refuses to use the name of an evil man like Wukong and tells him to leave.

With that said, Sun Wukong takes his leave for flower fruit mountain. On his way however he hears the sound of water and see's that it is the Great Eastern Ocean. This sight makes him think of the Tang Monk, and so as tears begin to roll down his face, he stays there for a long while before finally proceeding on his way...

Current Sun Wukong Stats: Names/Titles: Monkey, The Stone Monkey, The Handsome Monkey King, Sun Wukong (Monkey awakened to the void), Bimawen (Banhorseplague), The Great Sage Equal To Heaven and Pilgrim Sun. Immortality: 5 + 94,000 years. Weapon: The Compliant Golden Hooped Rod Abilities: 72 Transformations, Cloud-Somersault, Ability to transform his individual hairs, super strength, Ability to Summon Wind, Water restriction charm, and the ability to change into a huge war form, ability to duplicate his staff, ability to immobilize others, the ability to put others to sleep, and the Fiery eyes and Diamond Pupils, intimidating horses, churning large bodies of water, sleeplessness, seizing the wind, enhanced smell, discerning good and evil within a thousand miles, Spirit Summoning, lock picking, and object transformation. Demon Kill Count: 5+ Unknown Number of Minions Human Kill Count: 6 God's Defeated: 19 + Unknown number Defeats: 3 Crime List: Robbery, Murder, Mass Murder, Arson, Theft, Coercion, Threatening a Government Official, Resisting Arrest, Assault, Forgery, Employee Theft, False Imprisonment, Impersonating a Government Official, Treason, attempted murder, failure to control or report a dangerous fire, desecrating a corpse, breaking and entering, trespassing and violating Tree Law. Cry Count: 4 Mountains Trapped Under: 1

Current Tang Sanzang stats: Names/Titles: River Float, Xuanzang, Tang Sanzang, Tripitaka Abilities: Curing Blindness, making branches point a certain direction (allegedly), reciting sutras, pretty privilege, memorization and Heart Sutra. Cry Count: 15 Tight Fillet Spell Uses: 27 Paralyzed by fear: 4 Bandit Problems: 2 Kidnapped by demons: 2 Falling Off Horses: 6

Current Bai Long Ma Stats: Names/Titles: Bai Long Ma (White Dragon Horse), Prince of the Western Ocean, and third prince jade dragon of the dragon king Aorun Abilities: Transforming into a human, a water snake, and a horse, eating a horse in one bite, and flight. Crime List: Arson, and Grave Disobedience. Contributions to the plot: 1

Current Zhu Wuneng Stats: Names/Titles: The Marshal of the Heavenly Reeds, Zhu Wuneng (Pig who is aware of ability), Zhu Ganglie, Pigsy, Idiot and Eight Rules. Weapon: Rake Abilities: 36 Transformations, parting water, fighting underwater and cloud soaring. Demon Kill Count/Kill steals: 1 Failed Flirtation/romances Attempts: 3 Cry Count: 1 Crime List: Sexual Harassment, Murder, Kidnapping and arson.

Current Sha Wujing Stats: Names/Titles: The Curtain-Raising General, Sha Wujing (Sand Aware of Purity), Sandy and Sha Monk Weapon: Monster Taming Staff Abilities: Fighting underwater Crime List: Breaking a Crystal Cup, murder, and desecration of a human corpse.

[y-rhywbeth2]

I think it would've been funny if instead of being a dragonborn by default, the Dark Urge was literally an actual white dragon.

For shenanigans.

[Disclaimer that this idea is ridiculous and I don't care.]

The bhaalspawn plot twist is largely obvious to players of BG1+2 and those who've already completed the game. Who'd see the twist that you've forgotten that you're dragon in disguise coming? If you play another origin they'd make a good excuse to add a brainstealer dragon boss battle. Alternatively, if you take the ceremorphosis ending, you play as one.

Plus white dragons instinctually lean towards being brutal, vengeful little bastards in a manner Bhaal would probably approve of and due to their slow development would be very easy to corrupt from a young age… but my motivation is still mostly for shenanigans.

Living most of their life in a city, I imagine they're used to being in humanoid form. They had a sibling rivalry with Abazigail, as the only other dragon they know ("White dragons are weaker and inferior to Blues." - "I'm sorry, I'm too stupid to remember something, can you remind me? Of the two of us, who's a dead failure who disappointed Father?").

They got shanked by Orin in humanoid form and just woke up with brain trauma and assumed they were whatever humanoid they appear to be. Sure they have some ancestral draconic memory and speak draconic, but that's just a sign of having a dragon ancestor. It's not that weird! It might also seem strange when they start growling at the Githyanki dragon steeds, but going by some dialogue Durge growls at people anyway so it won't even stand out that much. At least the "human flesh smells tasty" thing makes sense now?

Lacking any memories of past enemies to plot against, dragon Durge simply adds their new friends' enemies to their list of grudges.

Those of us who play by looting everything in sight and refusing to share it with the party members have a valid reason; dragon hoard. Yes I do need to break my back carrying all of the money, enchanted weapons and six thousand books I'll never read; no, we're not selling any of it, fuck off.

We get to act 3 and the party gets the Bhaalspawn reveal possibly followed up by "also I'm a dragon." ("what the Actual Fuck.") Gale has already formed a hypothesis about Durge's true species, but we should also get to play Sharks Are Smooth over it. You get the standard -30 disapproval from Gale, but if Astarion is there he'll also want to play and you get 30 approval from him and Gale's disapproval doubles to -60.

Lae'zel as our resident horse dragon girl would rather travel with a red, but perhaps a mere white dragon will do for a steed in the meantime. It's training for her future, you understand.

I want to pick up Mizora with teeth and shake her like a dog with a chewtoy when she invades my camp to torment Wyll and refuses to leave. Maybe throw her around like an orca with a seal…

Romanced Wyll, Shadowheart or Gale introducing them to their parent/s (+Tara, in Gale's case) would be fun to watch.

Duke Ravenguard has hopefully learnt his lesson about not jumping to conclusions and hearing Wyll out and showing some tolerance for what appears to be an evil alliance, but a chromatic dragon sired by the god of murder who's also a reformed serial killer might be putting some tension on that... Maybe leave some details out.

The Hallowleaves are remembering the tolerance their Selûnite faith espouses and that they too are a loving couple involving one person who is technically a monster but I feel like Arnell is still on some level internally going; whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck.

I think Ms Dekarios will be mostly unphased. She's a wizard herself and Gale's been bringing weird shit into her life since he was born. Her son came home with a dragon for a fiancé/e. Sure. Must be Tuesday.

[sin-sidejob]

INSIDE JOB S1 PART 2 TRAILER, SPOILERS, AND ANALYSIS

Here’s the link to the trailer: watch

- heads up, this post will change frequently with new analysis and information.

SPOILERS AND DETAILS BELOW I SPOTTED

0:12 - we see the gang sans Reagan in Rand’s office. The moment the coup backfires and Rand convinced them not to overturn him and the company?

0:29 - we see the robes with two people before them kneeling, possible sacrifices (it’s hard to tell from a grainy overhead view) or who could be a younger JR Scheimpough and Rand Ridley

0:37 - WE SEE JR he’s in the corner while Glenn attempts to make a suicide pact, sitting in I believe the drivers seat of a car American style AND HES GOT A TATTOO — look at his right bicep and we see what resembles a tribal marking of a face and sitting shotgun is Myc! I couldn’t make out if he was wearing a tin foil hat in this shot but I assume yes. The gang looks like, according to the map, that they’re heading for Area 51.

After that we see Brett, Gigi, and Andre at the manhunt we have seen in previous clips where Ron and Reagan try to sabotage and end up getting tased.

Next we see the robes all 5 circling and enacting a blood sacrifice or ceremony in which they slice their palms. Kinda funny that they all look white

0:44 - we see Ron and Reagan on what appears like a date, Ron in a suit and Reagan in a gown as a crack appears in the street. There’s gears and mechanics within the crack, showing it’s calculated for that location and purposeful.

0:54 - we see a lineup of the Illuminati, a shrouded figure in a headdress alongside Oprah, Lin Manuel Miranda, and who I believe is Jay Z and Beyoncé

1:10 - we see a hellish dragon breathe fire and fly towards the screen, the surroundings are similar to the environment in the episode where the gang goes to the reptoid gala

1:11 - in the netflix trailer version, not the twitter or YouTube one, we see a figure of rand and tamiko sitting in what looks like the hologram room of Cognito and a shift in which a hologram either appears or dissolves, revealing Robotus sitting before Tamiko. There’s theories and concepts of the fight between Rand and Ro being over Tamiko and that Ro falls in love with her, etc, but my personal favorite would be Rand trying to disguise himself as Ro to sneak around the gang or Tamiko and Robotus finds out and beats the fuck out of him. Wishful thinking 🤷🏻‍♀️

1:13 - we see Ron and Reagan, in the same outfits as 0:54, fighting off a new Pope armed with a staff and looking off with purplish glowing eyes and Ron facing off with said pope using a crucifix we see throughout emitting a darker purple glow which returns in clips in the entirety of the trailer

1:17 - we see the gang get ready to go down to hollow earth, guided in a lift by one of the mole people. All are armed with tin foil hats

1:18 - we see Brett dressed in Ed Hardy and this is an honorable mention for @mrsbretthand

1:20 - we see puppet Brett and Brett with two characters in the background that could possibly be family members or siblings?? Due to the hair and eyes that resemble Brett’s own. Is that his family?

1:20 we see Myc alongside MUSHROOMS at a party, and Myc’s wearing a tuxedo collar possibly at Area 51?

1:20-> 1:22 we see a series of clips rapidly in which Keanu Reeves starts what appears to be a villain arc, AB Robotus has a gun and fires at something off screen, and Brett is playing around with a golden retriever that has to be Air Bud - there’s also a fleeting moment in which a hologram falters around Keanu Reeves and I’m not sure what to do with that, you’ll see why

1:23 - we see gigi on the Illuminati throne looking down upon Lin Manuel Miranda & see an image of Glenn in battle armor like a gladiator — I think Glenn dressed as a gladiator for Halloween then got high and is having a VERY bad trip but could also be another location, but the decorative lights in the background remind me of the Halloween party from previously released screencaps

1:24 - we see Rand Ridley and AB Robotus fighting with a figure in the background that looks like Tamiko

Also at 1:24 - we see a fleeting moment of a robe about to flip off their hood, and we see Reagan in the clip heading down an elevator and encountering the robes. Is she being initiated in? is she about to die? Who knows?

1:31 - Keanu Reeves versus Reagan, and she’s heavily armed and then decorated with a band of garlic, making me wonder if Keanu is a vampire?

1:35 - we see Gigi in an Illuminati headdress performing what looks like an old Welcome to Disney Channel advertisement with the blue glittering corner logo and wand

1:36 - we see Brett, Reagan, and Robotus standing far away from a glowing structure in the distance of a triangle, ominous and looking like a focal point to what’s causing the end of the world. Brett and Reagan wear tin foil hats while Robotus wears a triangular metal rod from his skull and is tube-less, just in treads to move.

1:37 - we see a moment of Ron aiming a laser gun or memory eraser at the screen, and him being reluctant to fire. It’s green, unlike the coloring on the memory eraser shown in earlier clips that Ron is armed with and uses in his job at the Illuminati.

1:39 - we see a clip of the staff used by the pope in the earlier scene being broken in half over someone’s knee, I assume Ron due to how the outfit of the person matches his the most. It exposes wires from the inside.

1:39 - we see Reagan I the center of a circle, surrounded by robes who are closing in. The elevator sequence Reagan goes through in the later half of the trailer resembles her going down into the earth where the Shadow Board/Council is located.

1:41 - we see a UFO hovering about a pyramid and a Shazam poster that appears around Brett throughout the trailer. We also see a mechanical device, a large one, being buried. Is it a Time Machine or something that bends reality?

1:42 - 1:43 we see a series of rapid fire images, including a poster of Rand Ridley captioned “Death to the Disloyal” in which he wields a bloody scythe, the device that gets buried at 1:41 located at the base of a structure that gets broken up by a UFO, Reagan wielding a red book, filled with notes and bookmarks with a red cover in surroundings resembling the reddish lighting of the elevator when it heads down to the Shadow Board. We see the Shadow Board circled around a pedestal and platform in surroundings that look tropical, Rand staring in distress at a tunnel made in the wall of his office, and a flashing moment between a worried Reagan and a high or drugged Andre.

1:45-1:50 - we see Brett, Reagan, and Glenn in a room in the midst of what looks like planning and strategy. Glenn plays with a hologram of a branching map of timelines and reality, making me wonder if a plan for the gang is to split the timeline or alter reality.

[theenpcbracket]

Seeding Round: Poll 7

Image IDs included! Click the images to see the full character please!

More about each NPC below the cut!

Character Descriptions are in the order of their appearance in the poll!

Character 1

Name: Eris Party: Rigsby Raiders Relationship to party: BBEG, general nightmare

What makes them the best NPC: Eris was one of the BBEGs for an ancient mythos-centered game. Her inspiration comes from both the real Grecian goddess of chaos and strife and the Eris in the movie Sinbad because it chemically altered our DM as a child.

She's chaos embodied. She once disguised herself and gave a PC drugs so powerful he met Bacchus on a different plane. She and her angel goon assassinated another PC with a weapon that left literally no trace of him behind (DM had player consent). Once, the party was so stressed they declared they were taking a day off and Eris was so impressed by their chutzpa that she just. Let them. She kidnapped two PCs to kill them and decided that it could double as a chance for Sleepover Talk, which included her playing relationship counsellor and increasingly weird games of FMK.

Her ultimate goal was to end the world and reunite with her other half: Heh, the Egyptian god of infinity. They'd built the universe together, chaos and infinity. An... argument resulted in Heh hiding from her for thousands of years, but she still was obsessed with him. Returning the universe to nothingness meant they'd be all that was left and he couldn't avoid her. Heh was ultimately the one to take her down as he, joining her in a genuinely loving embrace, threw them both into the pits of Tartarus while the party foiled the rest of her plan.

Quote:

“What do you do when the only person who’s real to you leaves? You try to get them back.” -Promethus, explaining why Eris is doing what she's doing

“Elysia, can I borrow your finger? I want to make a birthday cake for Imhotep and I need a candle.” -Eris, during her impromptu sleepover

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Character 2

Name: Sprout Bloodfeast III, Esquire Party: The Fruity Four Relationship to party: The cooshee the party rescued from orcs and then adopted

What makes them the best NPC: The best most goodest boy. Literally such a good dog who warns us of danger and rips monsters throats out. Also one of our party members is convinced Sprout is homophobic because Sprout keeps staring at him, despite the whole party being queer. In summary, they're good dogs Brent.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Character 3

Name: Chronos Goodman, Time Attorney At Law Party: Pandeia Boys Nite Relationship to party: The party's legal aid after our psychic was caught breaking the time-space continuum

What makes them the best NPC: He is an unfathomably powerful time walker with unknown power who opted to help 3 gay men beat the temporal anomaly allegations. He also wears a white dragon scale suit and generally fucks severely. Yes he is corrupt but he is corrupt for us <3

[rhozahscraftedcatalog]

More loot for the weekend is rolling in with another set of Curious Collectibles tables!

What kind of talisman could this little skull be?

How is this rare rock connected to another plane?

Where and when does this parchment hail from?

A useful trinket for the party to have? Or a curse in disguise?

And most importantly, what option would you choose?

This table is available, free for you to use, in your home DnD / Pathfinder / Tales of the Valiant / Daggerheart / TTRPG games, to help generate some more descriptive loot and treasure options perfect for a new quest-hook or a truly epic reward.

If you love ttrpg stuff like these and want access to more options for your Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder game as well as a hoard of printable paper minis, terrain and monsters to help fill your table, check out my Patreon page! I create affordable paper minis, VTT Tokens and more, with a release every week! You can follow for free so you never miss a drop or join as a member to get access to all the extra Patreon exclusive goodies.

[evilwriter37]

The other idea was that the riders are all captured and held prisoner on Viggo's flag ship, their dragons all kept on another ship to keep them from escaping. Viggo wants Hiccup to join him and so intends on playing the long game. At first he keeps Hiccup and the riders seperate, never telling one how either of the others is doing. Hiccup is kept in the captain's quarters with Viggo, while the other riders are kept down in one of the dragon cells below the crew quarters. Viggo is civil with Hiccup, almost friendly even, treating him as if he were a member of his crew. Feeding him well, talking to him as an equal, playing Maces and Talons with him, and even letting the younger man peruse his personal library as he wished. He had even had a second bed brought in just as a cherry on top. While just below them, the riders were fed on scraps the crew wouldn't even feed the dragons they hunted and only had a single pile of hay and a thin blanket to share amongst all 5 of them. Viggo wasn't pushing himself on Hiccup in any capacity, wasn't making demands. Once there was even an inkling of trust, be it faux or not, the real games began. Viggo let Hiccup wander the ship - always above deck and always with eyes on him, wether the smaller viking knew it or not. If he behaved and didn't cause trouble or try to escape he was left alone to his own devices. If he did though, the riders were punished in his stead severely, and Hiccup was made to watch. Ryker took that to the extreme, usung any little thing he could as an excuse. Hiccup hated watching his friends suffer, apologizing to them profusely. They kept strong though, assumimg that Hiccup was still woking on a way to get them all out. Eventually though, Hiccup stops trying. When he's good Viggo rewards him; He would give the riders more creature comforts: pillows, blankets, better food, cleaner water, new clothes.

After a few months, when Viggo thinks Hiccup has come far enough along and the fight has all but left him. He even gifts the boy his dragon back. Of course he takes the prosthetic tail fin so they can't fly, but it's a gift Hiccup practically worships him for giving. He asks after the other dragons and it's revealed they were being taken care of. Maybe not as well as the riders would personally, but they weren't being mistreated. From here out, Hiccup is granted permission to go see his friends. Not that he does that often, the guilt of giving up weighs heavy when he looks in their eyes. He can't stomach telling them he isn't trying anymore. Viggo is relatively sure that Hiccup is under his thumb by this point and it's just a matter of time. Slowly he starts to integrate Hiccup into his crew, disguised as small busy work to keep him from getting bored. He learned early on that a bored Hiccup, was a dangerous Hiccup. To both himself, and anyone around him. It's around here that likely a sort of Stockholm syndrome starts to slowly set in. He starts to see Viggo in a more positive light, even coming to the alarming realization that he might actually like Viggo. He can't remember the last time he had felt anything remotely close to romantic for Astrid, even though before they had been stuck on this ship for Thor knew how long at ghis point they had been engaged. That scared him. When had his affections shifted from Astrid to Viggo? He couldn't let either party know. He would take it to his grave. Except that he's a terrible lier. And by now, Viggo can read him like a book.

Viggo's plan comes to a head that night, while Hiccup is struggling with his revelation he says something along the lines of "I've noticed you've been in a messure of some distress today, I'd like to show a bit of fait and offer you an outlet. As long as you promise to come back, and you take someone with you, you can have Toothless' tail fin back and go for a flight." Viggo knows no one on his ship will agree, that it will inevitably end up being the two of them, because the chance to fly with his dragon again will be too much to refuse, even on pride. It's while they're flying and Hiccup is physically relaxing in Viggo's arms at the feeling of the cold wind in his hair and the sound of Toothless' wings in his ears, (the smell of Viggo's cologne in his nose) that Hiccup lets it slip that he might in fact be attracted to him. And that with that bit in the open all of the insecurities of his friends finding out and hating him, thinking he was a traitor just tumble out of his mouth like word vomit. It's what Viggo has been waiting for. He treds lightly, not wanting to spook him, but tells him that his interest is not one sided. That he would not reject him should he want to pursue a relationship.

"If you promise to stay with me, to join my crew, I will let your friends go free. Their dragons as well." Viggo says with full sincerity. "If you betray me,and leave, I can not promise that Ryker will not kill each and every one of them. If you stay, they will have my protection."

At this point the main idea is done and the sub idea was Stoick starting tonbe worried that he hadn't heard from any of the riders in quite some time and when the others return to the edge - because of course Hiccup accepts - they tell him thayvhe sacrificed himself for them. They all try to organize a rescue for him from Viggo. If he tells them of his new found attraction or not could be up to you.

Because my brain likes to add angst it thought to pepper in some sort of repressed gay panic for Hiccup (that maybe only Snotlout keys in on if he tells them. Astrid would also be mad at being very suddenly essentially dumped for Viggo of all people) due to the expected stress Stoick put on Hiccup to "find a nice woman and settle down, and have an heir of your own." That Viggo now has to gently navigate, is more than happy to do, if it means he gets what he wants. Hiccup would be surprised at how gently Viggo regards him, how understanding he is of the situation, and it would probably make his delusion of "attraction" deepen.

I love this!!!! Ooooh, the manipulation is thick in this one. Gotta love it when Viggo manipulates people and plays mind games like that.

This does sound like it would be a multichapter story though. I already have 2 longer multichapter fics going with a short one on the side as well. I’m sorry, but I just do not have the time to write this.

However, I will keep the idea stowed away, should the time and inspiration ever strike me. Thank you for tickling my inspiration and for giving me more Vigcup to think about!

[scriptores]

𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐄 : agent twilight, spy x family

overview: in the middle of a cold war between the neighboring nations of westalis & ostania, twilight is a top agent working under W.I.S.E (westalian intelligence service - eastern division) striving to safeguard the fragile state of peace that grows more precarious everyday. a master of disguise, he is frequently sent undercover in the thick of ostanian territory, where many of his missions deal with thwarting extremist groups, infiltrating the inner circles of national unity party members (the political party that was deposed at the end of the first war), and extracting any information or plans that may bring on another war. for this reason, he's known as the man with a thousand faces, the ostanian government's most wanted agent, infamous for his achievements, while his true face, history, and identity remain an enigma.

VERSES.

canon: operation stryx is the current mission. his target is donovan desmond, the former prime minister and elusive leader of the national unity party who is in talks of planning something big and potentially detrimental to peace relations. twilight is posing as loid forger, a psychiatrist in the capital of ostania, berlint city, and has been tasked with building the perfect fake family in order to blend in with ostania's elite class and have his child enrolled in the same prestigious school as desmond's youngest son. due to a shortage of spies on the ground, he's also tasked with too many side quests, and can be found just about anywhere wearing any face. plots can take place within the series timeline, or prior with one of twilight's previous covers and operations.

mi6 / 007 / man from u.n.c.l.e. au: will usually be set in the 60s, but can also be used for modern day interactions and espionage universes. twilight is an agent for mi6 frequently tasked with undercover missions, primarily in europe, but throughout the continents as well. his job is to stop extremist activities before they become public, and gather or destroy intel as necessary to prevent another world war. much like his canon verse, no one outside his affiliated organizations and close assets know what he really looks like. ( he collaborates with u.n.c.l.e. but is still mi6; for james bond plots he's agent 004, still only known as twilight )

regency spy au: originally german, but orphaned in england, he works for england's war office as an undercover agent & asset during the napoleon wars. he's using several covers to keep an eye on the ton for traitorous plans, as well as the area of kent ( near aubrey hall ) where much of the supply and information smuggling happens. ( loosely based on julia quinn's spy duology )

dragon age: twilight was orphaned during the rebellion war between ferelden & orlais, and was trained to be a ferelden spy by william cousland. his first mission was to ensure empress celene's succession. he attended the university of orlais under the guise of a free marcher's heir and discreetly thwarted assassination attempts on the empress. with the peace treaty finally struck, twilight had been tasked with keeping an eye out for any breaches on either side, but primarily in orlais. he was stuck there the start of the blight, but despite the closed borders was able to find his way back in. he can be picked up as a companion in origins. by the events of da:i, leliana approaches him to join her and the inquisition as one of her top informants. his focus is then on tevinter, the ventori, and eventually the agents of fen'harel.

DOSSIER

name. [redacted] codename. twilight alias(es). loid forger (psychiatrist), robert (gov. attaché), lawrence (black market), lionel (national defense), roy (westalian soldier) pronouns. he/him age. late 20s / early 30s origin/nationality. luwen, westalis (default). west germany (60s/modern) etymology. human / spy. sexuality. bisexual alignment. neutral good , w.i.s.e. (canon), mi6 (60s/modern)

relations. * from loid forger's I.D. file: anya forger, daughter (alive), yor forger née briar, wife (alive) * from twilight's destroyed I.D. file: [redacted], mother (deceased), [redacted], father (presumed dead), [redacted], grand-uncle (deceased)

height. 6'2" build. slender / athletic hair. blonde eyes. blue scars. * from a shot in his left thigh, the bullet is still there, this is the ugliest one; * from a shot below his collar bone, with an exit wound on his right shoulder blade. * back of his head that's covered up by his hair. you'd only notice if you feel for it. scents. clean leather, gunpowder, cognac, tonka bean, and oak wood known languages: * canon verse: westalian, ostanian, hugarian, nortic * modern verse: german, dutch, english, japanese, french, russian, hungarian, & romansh. also basic portuguese.

abilities / skillset. master of disguise; expert marksmanship; genius intellect with a photographic memory; master tactician (sort of like nanami's ratio strategy, twilight can quickly scan a room/opponent/obstacle, play out various probable approaches in real-time until he finds the most precise and efficient one to win)

restrictions. while still strong, he'll rely on strategy to overpower someone, can be overwhelmed by large numbers when his stamina fails him; his kindness. while he is very methodical and unemotional during an operation, his kindness will on rare occasion win over his logic and may lead to decisions that would otherwise compromise his mission; a sleep deprived babe, may be vulnerable during naps.

theme. you only live twice, nancy sinatra / eleanor rigby, cody fry / rhinestone eyes, the gorillaz

[collectively-kyrit]

Dauntless Dawn, the Draxi

With the resolution of our Curse of Strahd campaign, all of our characters were brought back to their normal plane and set off to pick up their lives. For my Tabaxi Monk, Friend of Foe, this meant following through on a promise to another party member that he would confess his feelings for the live of his life.

And thus Dauntless Dawn, half Tabaxi, half brass dragon (lovingly deemed a Draxi by me), was inevitably born! I do not know if I'll ever get to play as her in a campaign (would require some homebrew for sure), but she would likely take to being a bard with possibly some multiclassing. Having grown up on stories of her dad's adventures and those of his Dawnseeker companions, Dawn would absolutely take to a life of adventures herself.

The little fellow on the lefthand side of her reference sheet is Jeb, a mimic that her father and friends adopted during their time in the valley of Barovia. Dawn has grown up with him at her side, expanding on the commands that her father taught him so that he can join her in her travels and make himself useful. Most commonly, Jeb can be found disguised somewhere on Dawn's person; coin pouch, ring, arm wrapping, and the like. When asked to though he'll take a more specific form, such as that of a lute so that Dawn doesn't have to waste funds. Still the scardy cat that he was when the Dawnseekers found him though, Jeb will not take the form of any weapons or armor!

I could ramble for ages, but I'll save that for future artwork featuring Dawn. I'm absolutely elated to have been able to commission this design though. I gave Earth very little to work with since at the time I knew very little about what I wanted for the character aside from name, probable class, and that they would adopt Jeb. Earth took that little bit of info along with the parents designs and came up with this absolutely gorgeous design! And even managed to get clothes on her despite those big ol wings! I've said it probably at least a dozen times, but please please check out Earth's work. She's such a gem. <3

[saphirered]

Hopefully, this is not too vague... I was wondering if you could do fluff with Molly; his nickname for the reader is 'princess'. (I have had a rough couple weeks, found out some bad news regarding my dad's health, and am just wanting a little pick-me-up. You are literally my favorite writer of the lavender tiefling trio.)

A load of fluff with some hinted spice coming right up. Sorry about your dad, sweetie and hope things take a more positive turn. Either way, I hope this is the pick-me-up you're looking for. 😘

-

You’re no stranger to waking up alone but never does it stop you from reaching out to the spot next to you. When you’re not met with a soft groan or arms wrapping around you, pulling you close begging for another five minutes of peace you know your lavender tiefling has begun his day before you. Rolling over onto your back you stretch taking in a deep breath. Time to get ready for the day, maybe find some breakfast? Breakfast sounds nice.

Mollymauk walks down the beaten path, a skip in his step and a small bouquet of wild roses clasped in his hand. He’s been up and about for a good hour now and like the good carney he is he’s working on quite the show in his mind; a show that requires the aid of a pretty face, charming smile and honeyed words he alone cannot provide. No he needs assistance and if he plans on getting this assistance he better work for it. Okay, maybe it’s not his plan. Maybe this is all just the result of a major fuck up on his end but still, it will make for some good fun… if all goes well… and you agree… The fact he gets to pamper you is a huge bonus. It’s been a while since he’s gotten the chance to show you just how much you mean to him.

Could Molly just ask for your help? Of course he could. And would you agree to join him on this endeavour? How could you refuse that devilishly handsome man? But where’s the fun in that. Let’s keep things interesting. Raise the stakes a little bit and see where his charm will get him. Or perhaps more, see how long it takes you to catch on tp the mess he made and pray to the Moonweaver you’ll be merciful. A test of his charm perhaps? Whatever excuse best justifies his actions and desires to spoil you rotten.

Stretching your arms with one final yawn you leave your tent. It’s too early to be up but you best keep an eye on your tiefling before he gets himself thrown into jail and you have to break him out… again. Wandering the camp the other members of the Fletching and Moondrop Carnival of Curiosities are waking up and going about their morning business at their own paces. You search for Molly but when you don’t find him you take to the road, following it towards the town. If he’s caused any trouble there you’d find out soon enough.

A lovely melody reaches Molly’s ears. He knows exactly who it belongs to and hears you before he sees you. All he needs to do is follow your song. Curving over the elevation of the path he spots you, lost in thought. Smile on his face he approaches you, flowers behind his back, and joins in whistling along to the melody. The way your eyes light up at the realisation of his presence are enough to make his heart melt knowing that one creature could look upon him with such unconditional love.

“Good morning, your royal highness.” Mollymauk takes a bow befitting of greeting royalty if not a little exaggerated and offers you the flowers. While he tries to keep his gaze on the ground you catch him peaking for your response as you take the flowers from his grasp breathing in their scent.

“Good morning to you too. And thank you, I should say? What’s the occasion?” You ask, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth but you can’t help feel a little suspicious at Molly’s very deliberate theatrics.

“Can a most loyal servant not present his beloved princess with flowers?” Molly rises and you get the slightest flash of fang from the smile he offers you.

“You know I am never one to deny your gifts and gestures of affection. What I’m referring to are your apparent needs for theatrics.” You speak with eloquence feeling yourself slipping into the same act he’s putting on. Dammit Mollymauk, for playing into your actor side and letting you slip up into the role he’s setting you up for. You know damn well he’s aware of what he’s doing.

“I am merely your humble servant. A humble servant with impeccable manners.” You snort as Molly offers you his arm. You lace yours through his and he begins leading you back the way you came.

“Impeccable manners you say? Because I recall not but two nights ago copious amounts of drinks, illegal gambling and theft were involved. And let’s not even mention the… desecration of the fountain within the gaze of the Platinum Dragon’s statue.”

“You say that as if those of noble birth do not partake in such activities, princess.” Molly counters. Touché. As you’re about to take a step to the right fork of the road Molly gently pulls you into the left direction instead. Confused you give him another suspicious look but he hushes you leading you down the path.

You find yourself retreating within your thoughts trying to pinpoint whatever shenanigans Molly is up to, planning or has been up to and why the need to be secretive instead of just telling you. Molly couldn’t hope for a better moment for you to stop your interrogation for he fears any more prodding around for answers and he will spill the beans and come clean. He can’t hide a single thing from you when you’re determined and he knows it.

The path slowly turns from trodden earth to more fine sand until it fades into the beach. The sound of waves and a seagull or two make for a pleasant setting. You see just far enough away from the shoreline as to not become victim to the tides, is a basket set on top of a blanket. Molly leads you over, guides you to sit upon the blanket gracefully before plopping down himself with much less show. Within the basket you spot several packed goods. Molly takes a few out and sets them down upon the blanket, unwrapping them as he goes. Some bread, a selection of fine jams, some cheese and delicious sugary sweet pastries.

“Okay, time to drop the act. While I appreciate all this, what did you do and how bad is it?” Molly takes out a bottle of what looks like expensive champagne along with two glasses and pours them, handing one to you.

“What makes you say that?” Molly takes a sip playing it cool and innocent.

“The top shelf bottle of champagne that is very much above our collective pay grades. Where did you even get this?” You take a sip. It’s not bad but not the greatest you’ve ever had either. A weird taste that can only be suitable for some upscale party or the nobility passes out to their guests to impress them simply because of the associated name and or price tag. What can you say? Rich people.

Molly hesitates but drops the innocent act. Best he comes clean now. You’ve caught on fully. Game over. But that definitely doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy this delicious breakfast with him, can you? Mollymauk takes a slice of the fresh bread, adding a nice layer of strawberry jam and takes a bite. At least the expensive jam was worth the money. Then again, it wasn’t his money that paid for it. Doesn’t mean it wasn’t money well spent.

“Now, I need you to promise me one thing first, love. Promise me you’ll let me tell you the whole thing before you judge my poor decision making.”

“I can do that.” You lean back and relax taking one of the pastries and taking a bite. Bearclaws with cinnamon? Delicious. Let’s hope for Molly’s sake it will keep your judgement somewhat at bay.

“When we were doing our usual rounds and you were off on your own I may or may not have let it slip to someone who happens to be part of the local nobility, several someones to be more precise, that you may or may not be a princess in hiding. And I may or may not have played a little bit too deeply into the story…”

“Okay, that’s not actually that bad?” Just wait for the second part. It gets worse. On second thought. He may be regretting telling you and not just convincing you to hide away for the next few days in town until you’re back on the road.

“And these poor suckers may have fact checked it finding some evidence of a princess from another continent who supposedly is traveling in disguise. They came to see the show and I want you to remember they left a most generous donation along with an invitation for you to attend a ball held in your honour.” Molly awaits your response as you stop mid bite.

“So they left an invitation for a princess? What about it? Just don’t show up and done.”

“That would work if the local lord did not gently hinted at exposing said princess and sending the guards to return them to their family as they ran away and the good favour of either side of that royal family should greatly benefit this town. I’m sorry, princess but your presence has been demanded.”

Okay… This is bad. You do not feel like being hunted by the guards and it’s not like you can make an inconspicuous escape now people might look at you as royalty. You set down the pastry clasp your hands together closing your eyes. You inhale and exhale deeply as Molly briefly fears for his life.

“You… really need to learn to hold that tongue of yours, Molly. It’s getting you in all sorts of trouble.” He bites back a comment about using that tongue of his for plenty of other good things. He’s having trouble reading where you stand on this all and doesn’t know wether you’re upset with him or disappointed or if he has to be the one running for his life soon.

“Let’s talk to Orna and get some appropriate dress for the occasion ready and wearable even if that means she’ll have to sew us into our garments.” You sigh.

“Us?” He questions and he does not like the mischievous look on your face. Whatever you’re plotting, he hopes you have mercy on his soul.

“Oh, I will not be attending on my own. No, a princess does not go anywhere without their loyal servant. A princess needs their escort to attend to their every whim.” You hold your chin high as you move to sitting on your knees pushing your palm flush against his chest exercising a little pressure to push him to lean back onto his elbows.

“Every whim you say?” Molly asks with a devilish grin as you swing one leg over him gently keeping him in place with your body and wrapping your arms around his neck playing with the short hairs at the back of his neck. Maybe the turnout isn’t so bad.

“‘Every whim you say, princess’.” You correct mimicking his grin and leaning in closer. Molly goes to close the distance but you raise your index finger to his chin. “Ah-ah.”

“May I not kiss you now, ‘princess’?” He mocks and you give him a stern look.

“It’s unbecoming of a mere servant to make such a bold move.” You pull on his hair when Molly tries to land a kiss on your cheek rather enjoying the turn of events this morning.

“Yet you appear to be the one in full control.”

“He knows his place. Good boy.” You praise with a pat to his cheek and you guide his face to yours, your lips meeting in a deep kiss, the food forgotten. Molly’s hands dance over from your hips to your lower back pulling you closer to him. You earn an unsatisfied grumble when you pull away a moment too soon.

“Must you torture me so with your touch, princess?” Molly laughs fully aware what direction this is going, raising a hand to caress your cheek fondly.

“Will you finally learn how to behave?” You trace the peacock feathers curving up the side of his neck and jaw. You don’t get a verbal reply but instead Molly’s lips find their way to your neck leaving a trail of kisses and little bites as he goes enough to make you giggle and squeal in surprise whenever he finds just the right spot, taking your mind far away from the details of the fuck up that lead you here in the first place. Not that you mind anymore. If this is the treatment you get for being dragged into one of Mollymauk’s lies gone south you’ll gladly take it a thousand times over.

[the-writing-mill]

Fantasy au arranged marriage, pairing of choice involving Obi-Wan?

Is this... is this about the arranged marriage fantasy AU I abandoned for homework on the discord yesterday? Is that what’s going on here, anon? Are you on the discord server or does everyone just have this sort of thing on the brain recently?

In either case though I shan’t rehash that but do something else lol

Obi-Wan is born as the third royal prince in a mountainous, vaguely European country. The world is about at renaissance level technology, with a few bonuses due to the presence of magic (and magical creatures)

His majesty, King Qui-Gon Jinn, is a moral, stubborn ruler who is thought of fondly by the commoners but who is also quite unthinking at times, a bit neglectful and letting the nannies and governesses raise his children

His royal highness, crown prince Freemor is studious and quiet, and frequently works in the gardens. People are tentatively approving of him as crown prince, since he should be able to handle managing the kingdom’s graneries and other food resources well, but are worried about what will happen during foreign affairs, especially if they go to war.

His royal highness, second prince Xanatos, is... certainly aggressive and ambitious like is needed for foreign affairs, but there are too many rumors of underhandedness and selfishness for him to drum up support, especially by the public

Obi-Wan Kenobi, the third prince, grows up feeling the need to rise to his title. His brothers are already well-versed in their studies and have their own strengths physically. Further, Obi-Wan was told by a nanny when he was young that a true prince has a duty to help their citizens as much as they can and he’s never let that go

Obi-Wan, like all members of the royal family, also has the ability to use magic. And so he is sent off for a few years of his childhood to the academy run the druids/[insert magic pseudo-priest group here]. There he makes good friends with Quinlan Vos, a count’s son whose family is well known as sword mages

When Obi-Wan learns the basics of magic enough from the academy, he’s sent back to the royal family, where he proceeds to take a bre- proceeds to start studying even harder. (Obi-Wan has no chill)

Obi-Wan doesn’t take a break from studying combat, magic, politics, diplomacy, etc. (and becoming a pretty good dragon rider) until basically a few years later when Quinlan graduates from the academy’s full program and shows up to get Obi-Wan drunk. Obi-Wan’s servants quickly pull every favor they have in the palace to get Quinlan hired as Obi-Wan’s aide

Obi-Wan convinces Quinlan that he needs more experience in the real world, and that he needs to prove himself capable by his own abilities, not just the royal name. Quinlan agrees to help Obi get the experience so long as Quinlan comes along

Thus they begin their careers as errant knights

They gain a reputation for bad luck/chaos, and so eventually are only hired/requested when everyone’s sure some mission will go to hell anyways, in which case they’re very good at getting out of things in the best case scenario

During this time they also meet a certain disguised person from a certain royal family in a tavern and Obi-Wan of course flirts and tries to drink the man under the table

After a few years of this, with a few scattered months of being recalled home to the palace or sent to help protect a border from his father, Obi-Wan is called back to the palace again

It’s now that Obi-Wan finds out he has been promised to a neighboring kingdom’s crown prince to diffuse tensions, as there were two neighboring kingdoms seeming to be preparing to make a move. Obi-Wan getting married off to one prevents that kingdom from being able to attack and gets their support to help make the third kingdom back off

Obi-Wan is back for less than a week before he’s being sent off to his new life, which isn’t actually enough time to come to terms with his life getting completely uprooted and him apparently no longer being allowed to serve his kingdom how he planned to/was tying most of his identity to

Obi-Wan arrives at his new home the day before the wedding, and does not see his husband until part way through the wedding ceremony where they both take off their ceremonial veil/headpieces that covered their faces, revealing the man from the tavern

Crown prince Cody does not insist on having sex, although the are required to share a bed, and thus begins Obi-Wan’s somewhat awkward attempts to adjust to his new life

Obi-Wan attempts to be a perfect husband/married in royal, polite, keeping quiet, not causing trouble

He thinks that things are going well, and that he’ll be able to have a perfectly proper, tolerable life until he overhears his husband and a few of his brothers complaining about how distant and cold Obi-Wan apparently is, and how it seems like Obi-Wan’s birth kingdom didn’t really want the marriage

Obi-Wan runs away to the stable where his dragon is being kept, and stays with her for a while, cuddling up against he warm belly

He stays like that until he hears someone enter the stables and reflexively hides. Cody comes over to Obi-Wan’s dragon and takes care of her for a bit, checking her over and petting her and giving her a snack. Obi-Wan’s dragon clearly likes Cody (yes the dragon is Obi-Wan’s lightsaber, why do you ask?) and given the kind way Cody treats her, Obi-Wan can’t really blame her

Obi-Wan, after a night or two to settle himself down, decides to make a concerted effort to actually being a good husband by his new family’s standards

He invites Cody to tea, which is awkward until Obi-Wan switches the subject from personal matters to the latest political/governance problem. He shows up at the training arena more, until he runs into a few of the other princes and gets to spar with them a few times. He shows off a few magic tricks to the curious youngest prince Boba, when the boy finds him in the library

The princes seem to respond in kind, inviting Obi-Wan to things and being very friendly and affectionate, especially physically, which Obi-Wan’s not used to

The day Obi-Wan sasses something at Fives that leaves the man sputtering is Cody’s “oh no” moment, not that Obi-Wan realizes that the funny look Cody’s giving him is his husband trying to refrain from kissing him

Cody starts actually trying to court Obi-Wan after that, not that Obi-Wan does more but obliviously accept the attention, not even suspecting that Cody’s feeling more than a slight increase in respect and friendship for a few months

And then Obi-Wan gets word that King Qui-Gon Jinn has died

Obi-Wan is able to convince his new family to let him go back for the funeral with a well-guarded but small (and therefore fast) retinue, which includes Rex and Wolffe (? Probably? Another brother who is very competent and is not Cody, because crown prince)

The funeral is somber and formal and very much unlike Qui-Gon Jinn, and Freemor’s coronation is smooth and as simple as a royal coronation can be. Obi-Wan gives Freemor a thoughtful coronation gift and leaves. Rex and Wolffe have also come to understand what made Obi-Wan who he is much better and are very much planning on telling Cody and their brothers

A few months go by in which Obi-Wan finds himself falling for Cody more and more, and feeling guilty because he’s decided that Cody is only looking at him as a good friend now. Cody meanwhile is a bit frustrated by his new and improved seduction strategy both clearly working and not being enough to get Obi-Wan to make a move

Before Cody can act on a decision to just kiss Obi-Wan himself, Obi-Wan gets word that Freemor has died in an “accident”

This time, the kingdom is getting ready for harvest, so they can’t afford to let Obi-Wan go back. Obi-Wan sends a letter of condolences and sends an equally appropriate but far less thoughtful gift to Xanatos for his coronation

A year and a half later, after getting the kingdom through two winters very successfully, Obi-Wan finally confesses to Cody that he’s fallen in love with Cody, even though they had agreed to be political partners at the beginning. Cody (who had backed off on the seduction after Freemor’s death) responds enthusiastically

As they’re settling into their new relationship and dealing with much teasing, Quinlan Vos breaks into the palace (much to the chagrin of prince Fox, captain of the royal guard) and informs Obi-Wan that Xanatos has quickly proved to be a tyrant who can’t handle/care about running the country well enough to keep people from starving, putting most of the budget towards himself and the army

Obi-Wan… can’t exactly depose Xanatos. Even though he was third in line, he gave up those rights when he married the crown prince of another country. And the more distant relatives, while not as cruel as Xanatos, are in no way good candidates for the throne

The obvious solution, the Fetts decide, is to invade the country and take it over. Obi-Wan can’t really find a good argument since all the planning involves trying to keep civilians out of the line of fire

Usually, taking over a mountain region is very difficult, especially if you’re from a coastal trading kingdom. But they have Obi-Wan there to give them all the information they need

They spend the winter planning and begin to prepare, get everything ready after winter, and march in mid-spring

By the end of the summer, most of Xanatos’s army is defeated, or defected once they realized their royal prince/Ben the errant knight is trying to save the country with his new people

There’s some cool epic battle where Obi-Wan breaks the siege at the capital where Xanatos is holed up by flying him and Cody and a few others on dragons straight into the throne room/castle

Obi-Wan fights Xanatos as two sword mages, but Cody gets in the killing blow, despite being injured/knocked out earlier in the fight

Xanatos is given the proper funeral for a disgraced noble, and the people in the capital throw a party (technically it’s a belated coronation celebration for their new King Jango Fett)

Cody and Obi slip away from the festivities to watch from afar, and start talking about plans on how to actually rule the new territory and help it out after all the damage Xanatos did to it

The conversation ends with Obi-Wan expressing that he’s looking forward to going home (which is the first time Obi-Wan’s called the Fetts’ kingdom home) and Cody takes a moment to get over his shock before kissing Obi-Wan as the fireworks start going off overhead

Have I ever told y’all that I write really long outlines, btw?

(Also, side note: King Jango has a somewhat strained relationship with most of his sons. He raised them with very high expectations and little praise, and would not give them any responsibilities he didn’t think they were ready for. This led to, among other things, an almost co-dependent kind of closeness between the brothers. Jango, however, is more of a jerk than a bastard in this AU, so when his younger brother Alpha came back from abroad he was able to beat some sense into Jango, literally and figuratively. Boba is significantly younger than the rest of them and is being raised much more properly, but Jango is still in the process of mending his relationships with his other sons)

[howaboutalittlehelpneos]

What are everyone’s teams in your Pokemon au? Do you have a plot set out or is it a more causal au?

Oooooh this is a fun one

You'd better fucking BELIEVE we have a plot set up, I have poured so much effort into the Pokemon au

Okay, so: when it comes to teams, I decided that everyone should have at least one legendary Pokemon in their party as a way to be faithful to the ace monster concept, but it wasn’t until much later into the au that I realized I’d failed to do that with Sora’s team, which led to a very fun plot point involving his secret 7th Pokemon he keeps in his box

Teams under the cut because it’s gonna be a long one, boys

Yuya has: Groudon, Sandshrew, Popplio, Hippopotas, Aipom, and Ekans

In his box, he’s got Phanphy, Charmander, Politoad, Ducklett, Liepard, Skorupi, and Lycanroc (Midnight form)

I wanted him to have as many Pokemon as he could that reminded me of the monsters in his deck, and since Yuya is a coordinator in this au instead of a regular trainer, it just felt right that he’d have a lot of different partners he could swap out for various contests

Also I’m mad that there isn’t a legendary dragon that looks like Odd Eyes, so I had to give Yuya Groudon instead, making him the only Yu boy in this au to not have a legendary dragon type Pokemon

Yuto has: Eternatus, Bisharp, Aegislash, Aggron, Lucario, and Shadow Rider Calyrex

Okay listen, I know I was supposed to only give everyone One legendary Pokemon, but with Calyrex I feel justified because it looks So Much like it could be one of Yuto’s Phantom Knights, I mean

Just look at it

Yuto gets to have two legendaries to make up for Arc-V killing him off so early into the show

Aside from this guy, the rest of Yuto’s team just felt like it should be comprised of steel types ow the edge so that’s what I gave him. His Pokemon are as edgy as he tries to appear to be and that is enough to amuse me.

There also weren’t exactly many good Pokemon equivalents of his archetype, so I made do with what I had.

Yugo has: Latios, Scizor, Claydol, Porygon 2, Ponyta (Shiny), and Sudowoodo

Yugo was honestly so hard to come up with a team for because all his Speedroid cards are just like... toys and stuff for the most part, so I agonized over what I should pick for him for a Long time. In the end, I feel like I got close enough to his general aesthetic with the Pokemon I picked.

(His Ponyta is there because of Speedroid Horse Stilts, and while it is a shiny, the dumbass has no idea about it, and thinks he just happened to get a special blue horse that was born a little differently- he never claimed to be smart.)

He also deadass thought Sudowoodo was a grass type for the longest time. Rin had to be the one to tell him it wasn’t. 

“Yugo. Sudowoodo? It sounds like pseudo? As in fake wood?”

“Ohhhhh is that what its name means? Wow Rin you’re so smart.”

No Yugo you’re just exceptionally stupid.

Yuri has: Naganadel, Seviper, Victreebel, Toxicroak, Vileplume, and Roserade

For the most toxic of battlers, I felt it only necessary to give Yuri an all poison type team. I included an even mix of plants in there to tie into his Predaplant deck, Seviper for the snake eye vibes, and Toxicroak... just feels right, you know. I couldn’t find any other poison plant themed Pokemon that seemed like they’d fit his vibe, so he gets a poison frog instead.

Yuzu has: Meloetta, Sylveon, Meowstic (Female), Gardevoir, Florges, and Jigglypuff

I tried to stick with Pokemon that had very feminine vibes for Yuzu, since her deck is comprised of pretty singing ladies, so Meloetta and Jigglypuff in particular feel very fitting in that regard.

Serena has: Cresselia, Delcatty, Glameow, Lopunny, Persian, and Pyroar (Female)

The moon vibes with Cresselia felt perfect for Serena, and as for the rest of her team, all cats and a bunny to pay homage to her Lunalight deck ^^

Rin has: Celesteela, Mismagius, Hatterene, Glaceon, Froslass, and Chimecho

Her team vibes with the witch part of her Wind Witch deck, at least for Mismagius and Hatterene. Glaceon, Froslass, and Chimecho are there due to the etymology of her name, where possible meanings of it include “cold” and “bell”, which I thought was pretty cool, no pun intended.

Ruri has: Galarian Articuno, Pidgeot, Noctowl, Chatot, Altaria, and Unfezant (Male)

Some softer birds for the soft bird girl, for the most part. I liked the thought of her team being all birds like her Lyriluscs, and just... yeah. They’re all very friendly birds that Ruri’s bonded pretty closely with. Also I made sure she had Galarian Articuno for no reason other than it is purple like her, and I think that’s all the reason I need.

Gong has: Kartana, Machoke, Samurott, Golisopod, Hariyama, and Conkeldurr

Gong was really easy to assign a team to- just had to find as many samurai themed Pokemon as possible, and fill in the rest with really strong fighting types, like Machoke, Hariyama, and Conkeldurr.

Shingo has: Type: Null, Dusclops, Misdreavus, Spiritomb, Decidueye, and Cramorant

With Shingo, I tried to go for Pokemon that had the same vibes as some of his Abyss Actors, and I think Dusclops is the best example of this. Tbh I am very proud of giving him a Type: Null because Type: Null is an amalgamation of other Pokemon, something that was created in a lab to be a fighting machine. There’s nothing natural about Type: Null, and it’s kind of terrifying to Yuya specifically, who’s always viewed Pokemon as creatures to befriend. This experiment created purely to kill... unnerves him, and serves as a very good foil to his beliefs when it comes to Pokemon.

And they were narrative foils

Oh my god they were narrative foils

On a sillier note, I chose Cramorant purely because of this quote from its bulbapedia page: “Cramorant are also rather unintelligent as they can't remember which Pokémon they fight in mid battle, but never forget Trainers that they trust. However, they try to attack their Trainers if they steal food from them.”

I just thought the idea of Shingo having this dumb bird that occasionally pecks at him over food would be funny tbh, gotta dunk on the rival at least a little bit.

Sora has: Banette, Vanillish, Swirlix, Stufful, Litleo, and Buneary

In his box, he has a Guzzlord

I feel like Sora’s team is very straightforward, as it’s a mix of sweets themed Pokemon, and Pokemon that represent monsters in his deck- Stufful for Flufflal Bear, Litleo for Fluffal Leo, and Buneary for Fluffal Rabbit. Guzzlord... is relevant later on in the plot after shit goes down, that’s all I’ll say for now.

Masumi has: Diancie, Sableye, Corsola, Aurorus, Tyranitar, and Lycanroc (Dusk form)

Gem Knight girl deserved to have a bunch of good rock type Pokemon, and Diancie is like. The best possible legendary I could have given someone like her lol, the crystal aesthetic is just perfect for her. Not much to say here honestly, I just really vibed with these specific rock types and thought they’d make a good team for her.

Yaiba has: Zeraora, Kecleon, Pangoro, Scyther, Purugly, and Stantler

So I actually threw this list together just now because I realized Masumi was the only member of her trio to have a full team, and that just wasn’t right. I tried to base this team off the XX-Sabers as well I could, but it was a little hard with how many humanoid cards Yaiba has. With his legendary, I actually chose it based off this monster right here! 

I think they’ve got similar enough vibes aesthetically for Zeraora to fit him. Scyther is based on Emmersblade, Kecleon on Ragigura, Stantler on Garsem, Purugly on Gardestrike, and Pangoro... Honestly, it just makes me think of Yaiba himself when I look at him. I think they’d get along well.

Hokuto has: Deoxys, Espeon, Grumpig, Starmie, Lunatone, and Malamar

Psychic type Pokemon just sort of felt right for him to have, considering that his deck is based on constellations and has an overall space theme to it. Not sure why that translates over to psychic in my brain, but you know what, it looks right, I love this team for him, and I’m not gonna question it.

I especially think Deoxys makes a good legendary for him considering it is literally a space alien, and Hokuto’s whole thing is space, so yeah, he gets to have the space alien.

Shun has: Galarian Moltres, Skarmory, Fearow, Dodrio, Staraptor, and Talonflame

Pretty straightforward team I feel- it’s all birds of prey for the Raid Raptor boy, and I just thought the Galarian version of Moltres was neat. Makes me think of his Blaze Falcon since they’re both black and red.

Dennis has: Hoopa, Mr. Mime, Delphox, Zoroark, Alakazam, and Hawlucha

Hoopa seemed like a very good legendary for Dennis to have, given his deck archetype and all, he just kind of looks like a little circus dude. Its unbound form makes me think about the swap Dennis has when it gets revealed that he’s actually been a double agent the whole time, and the play gloves finally come off.

The rest of his team... I feel like they speak for themselves. I tried to give him Pokemon that matched up with his deck archetype, so there’s Delphox to rep the fire themed monsters, Mr. Mime because it just fits Dennis’ general personality- and I love the thought of those two being friends and just copying each other’s theatric poses. Chaotic dynamic duo.

(Also: Zoroark's ability letting it disguise itself as another Pokemon is just another parallel to Dennis pretending to be one of the good guys at first, and I love it)

Shinji has: Buzzwole, Beedrill, Vespiquen, Ribombee, Kricketune, and Leavanny

I tried to give the bee man all the bees I could, but there are only so many bee Pokemon out there 😔 I knew the rest of his team had to be insect types to make up for it, so I picked Kricketune because he is just... a friend... a musical buddy who definitely gets along well with the kids. Leavanny is just a bug mom who also helps patch up the kids’ clothing when they get tears in them, which I just love the idea of. Sweet bug mom whose dex entry talks about how they sew for other Pokemon looks after her trainer’s kids when she’s not battling.

Buzzwole: witness the fitness

Throwback to the Smash Bros mains lmao 

Crow has: Murkrow, Braviary, Starly, Swellow, Pikipek, and Corviknight

Bunch of birds for my Blackwing user... This team was partially picked out by June, and it was mostly meant for the Other Pokemon au, but I don’t really see a reason to change his team here. Crow is the one person without a legendary on his team, which makes me sad, but there really isn’t a legendary bird out there that fits his vibes, so as much as I wanna give him a legendary, he will have to make do without one. Sorry Crow.

Hoo... that’s finally all the teams down. Now I can talk about the plot! So, as I briefly mentioned in a previous post (I think), this particular au is inspired by Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum! It’s the era where contests really became a big thing, which is perfect for a lot of these characters because it’s easy to translate dueltaining over to coordinating in this world. Much like in canon, Yuya aspires to be as great a coordinator as his dad was, and strives to entertain people the way Yusho could. He’s not much for battling, and far prefers getting to show off his Pokemon’s talents in contests than anything. 

Academia is going to play the role of Team Galactic in this au, which is incredibly fitting with their mission in canon: to remake the universe in their leader’s image. In this case, with Leo Akaba taking on the role of Cyrus, his intent is, presumably, to either destroy the universe that took his daughter from him, or create a new one where she can live once again, no matter the cost.

Sora being a key member in Team Galactic is a very big part of the plot in this au: his mission was to capture one of the lake legendaries, Uxie, since Leo needed all three of them for his plan to remake the universe, but things don’t exactly go well for him, and he ends up losing his battle against Uxie, resulting in all of his memories being locked away, and essentially making him a blank slate.

Side note: the Galactic grunt haircut reminds me a lot of Sora, I mean just look at it

Practically same bangs as him, just add an upturned ponytail and you’ve got my son.

This post is getting very long... but I will add one last plot related thing to it before I go: Uxie can erase memories, Mesprit can erase emotions, and Azelf can erase willpower. All three of these lake legendaries play a very important role in the plot, due to being the keys to Leo Akaba’s plans to remake the universe. Sora was touched by Uxie, effectively doing away with all memory he has of being in Team Galactic. Yuya ends up touched by Mesprit in an attempt to save them, and subsequently loses his emotions as a result. Riley?

Riley had been affected by all three of them before the plot began, which is why she is the way she’d been in Arc-V: Emotionless, unable to remember anything about her past except for those brief, fleeting flashes of memory when put into certain situations she’d experienced before, and without any will of her own. She’s so dependent on her older brother because she quite literally has no clue what to do with herself without being told to, and needs orders to function.

Hoo, if you’ve made it all the way to the end of the post, congratulations! I think this is the longest one I’ve made... ever lmao. I hope you guys found it enjoyable! If anyone wants to know more about certain aspects of this au, feel free to ask! I look forward to talking about it more c:

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #122: Tristan

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we’re building another member of the Round Table, Sir Tristan, the “child of sadness”. This knight’s bowstrings are equal part deadly weapons and musical instruments, but his most dangerous weapon is just look at that final ascension art all the KotRT were so close I’m not crying you’re crying.

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

Next up: Sun’s out, guns out.

Race and Background

Don’t worry, we’re not doing anything weird this time. Tristan is, in fact, a human! As a Variant Human, you get +1 to Dexterity and Wisdom, Performance proficiency, and the Sharpshooter feat. Any cover less than full won’t affect your aim, and you can fire at long range normally. Additionally, you can take a -5 penalty to hit for a +10 bonus to damage.

Much like Lancelot, you’re a Knight of the Order, giving you Religion and Persuasion proficiency.

Ability Scores

Make sure your Wisdom is high- you can hit headshots without opening your eyes, that’s some real good perception. Second is your Charisma, your bow is also a harp, and you’re really good with it. Following that up is Dexterity. Your harp is also a bow, and you’re really good with it. Writing deadly lyrics on the fly isn’t easy, so your Intelligence isn’t bad. After that is Strength- bows actually take a lot of strength to use, but you don’t really need it here so...

That being said, we’re still dumping Constitution. You’re famously unlucky, and you died to poison, that’ll affect your HP almost as badly as Okita.

Class Levels

1. Ranger 1: Being a paladin would be nice, but smiting doesn’t work with ranged weapons. You know what does? Being a ranger. First level rangers get proficiency with Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as three ranger skills. Grab Animal Handling, Athletics, and Perception for better horsemanship and archery skills.

Speaking of better skills, first level rangers can also be Canny, doubling your proficiency bonus in Performance. You can also mark a creature when you hit them thanks to Favored Foe. Once per turn for the next minute, you can add 1d4 to your damage against that target. It’s a bit weaker than Hunter’s Mark, how sad. You can also use it a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus.

2. Ranger 2: For your fighting style, Blind Fighting is almost completely useless, but it does explain how you’re able to fight without opening your eyes. (Seriously though if you want a semi-serious build go with Archery, it’s so much more useful than 10′ of darkvision.)

You can also cast Spells this level using your Wisdom. Grab Cure Wounds for some feel-good music, and Snare for your first rope trap. I said you were really good with that bow, and I meant it. This spell creates a rope trap in a 5 foot cube that requires an investigation check (DC eight plus proficiency plus wisdom modifier) to notice. A creature that triggers the trap has to make a dexterity save (same DC) or it’s restrained above the ground. Each turn, the trapped creature can make another dexterity save at disadvantage or another creature can make an Arcana check to free the creature.

3. Ranger 3: Third level rangers join a conclave, and you’re so depressing you’re a Gloom Stalker. You get Disguise Self as part of your subclass, though it’s not particularly in character for you. How sad. You’re also a Dread Ambusher, adding your wisdom to intiative. You can also move faster on your first turn, and you can make an extra attack with your action that turn as well. The extra attack also deals an extra 1d8 damage. You also gain Umbral Sight, a.k.a. 60 feet of darkvision, rendering that blind fighting almost entirely useless. Also, while in darkness, you’re invisible to other creatures with darkvision. 

You also get Primeval Awareness, letting you spend an action and spell slot to sense aberrations, celestial, dragons, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead within a mile of you. Finally, you get another spell. Entangle creates a larger area snare that requires a strength save to break free from if you’re caught in the area when it’s cast. Regardless, the area is difficult terrain until your concentration is broken.

4. Ranger 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to bump up your Dexterity for a higher AC and better archery skills.

5. Ranger 5: Fifth level rangers get an Extra Attack with their attack action, and they can cast second level spells. Your free spell here is another very fancy way to use your bowstrings, Rope Trick. This spell sends a rope 60′ straight up and creates an extradimensional space for you and up to seven friends. You’re relatively safe inside for the duration, just make sure you’re out before the hour’s up. Falling sixty feet doesn’t seem like fun.

You can also create a Cordon of Arrows to protect an area, throwing four arrows at creatures who come too close. Almost as deadly as your bow, and significantly less work for you.

6. Bard 1: I told you we were making that bow a harp. First level bards can cast Spells using their Charisma, and they can mete out Bardic Inspiration as a bonus action, giving an ally a d6 they can add to one skill check, saving roll, or attack roll. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your charisma modifier.

For spells, Prestidigitation will help you turn your bowstrings into smaller objects; Vicious Mockery, Dissonant Whispers, and Bane give you minor curses you can place with your dirges; and Healing Word and Heroism gives you some more positive energy to hand out to party members. Don’t get those mixed up, that would be sad.

You also get another skill proficiency; you’re good at getting out of the way of attacks, so I’d say that’s Acrobatics. 

7. Bard 2: Second level bards are Jack of All Trades, giving you half proficiency on all your checks that don’t already have your proficiency bonus. You also make Camelot a bit more lively with your Song of Rest, enhancing healing done during short rests by 1d6. Finally, you get Magical Inspiration, meaning your inspiration dice can now be used to give spells more damage or healing. 

For spells, you can now turn your bowstrings into a safety net, thanks to Feather Fall. 

8. Bard 3: Your college of choice is the College of Whispers, giving you the ability to curse people in casual conversation thanks to your Words of Terror. Speaking to a humanoid alone for at least a minute forces a wisdom save or they become frightened of a creature of your choice for an hour or until they or their allies are seen being attacked. You can use this once per short rest. Go on, make your king afraid of herself, I’m sure it won’t backfire.

You also get Psychic Blades, allowing you to burn inspiration to add psychic damage to your attack once per round.

Finally, you get Expertise in two skills, doubling your proficiency bonus. Grab Perception to help you see with closed eyes and Performance because I’m a sucker for quadrupling things.

You can also cast Lesser Restoration for a stronger form of healing music, removing some of your party’s debuffs.

9. Ranger 6: At sixth level your Favored Foe grows to 1d6, making it almost as good as Hunter’s Mark. You also become Roving, giving you 5 extra feet of movement, plus a swimming and climbing speed. You might not get a fancy magic horse like the other knights of the round but... actually no, you should probably still get a horse.

10. Ranger 7: Seventh level Gloom Stalkers get an Iron Mind, giving you proficiency in Wisdom saves. You can also cast Healing Spirit this level for some hands-free healing, so you can heal while you heal! Or curse while you heal, either’s good.

11. Bard 4: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for more inspiration and better bard spells. You can also cast True Strike if you need to remember what a tragedy looks like, or Calm Emotions to make your enemies too depressed to fight.

12. Bard 5: Your Bardic Inspiration and Psychic Blades both grow in power, and you become a Font of Inspiration, recharging your inspiration on short rests instead of long ones.

Your final bardic spell is Bestow Curse, allowing you to technically do anything you want with the DM’s approval. Given curses include: Disadvantage on one ability score’s checks and saves. Disadvantage on attack rolls against you. Wasting a turn every time they fail a wisdom save. Dealing extra damage to them. Have some fun with it, they certainly won’t.

13. Ranger 8: Bump up your Wisdom with this ASI for a better initiative and stronger spells. You’re also Fleet of Foot, meaning you can move through difficult terrain quickly, and you don’t take damage from nonmagical plants. You also get advantage on magical plant spells. Not... super useful, but it’ll give you a better shot against Poison Ivy.

14. Ranger 9: Ninth level Gloom Stalkers can cast Fear, in case you weren’t giving your foes enough debuffs as is, and you also get Conjure Barrage to make your Failnaught truly unavoidable. Except by monks. And rogues. Still pretty good though.

15. Ranger 10: You’re now Tireless, meaning you can spend an action (a number of times per long rest equal to your proficiency bonus) to gain temporary hp. Your exhaustion also decreases on short rests too. You can also use Nature’s Veil to become invisible for a round as a bonus action, the same number of times per long rest as Tireless. We’re going a bit heavy on the evade spam here to make up for the fact that we dumped constitution what is wrong with us. 

16. Ranger 11: Thanks to your new Stalker’s Flurry, you can’t miss even if you do miss- you can make an extra attack as part of your attack action if one of your normal attacks missed.

You can also cast Protection from Energy this level, because honestly we weren’t sure what to do here. You’ll get more Tristany spells when we get fourth level slots, promise. 

17. Ranger 12: For your final ASI, bump up your Charisma again for stronger bard spells and a better performance overall.

18. Ranger 13: For your fourth level spells, Freedom of Movement and Greater Invisibility give you even more ways to avoid capture and damage. Ah, they keep missing. How sad.

19. Ranger 14: Your Favored Foe grows to a d8 now, and you can Vanish as a bonus action,  meaning you can hide and nobody can track you without magic. 

20. Ranger 15: Fifteenth level Gloom Stalkers can make a Shadowy Dodge as a reaction, giving disadvantage on an attack roll against you if the attack wasn’t made with advantage.

You can also turn your bowstrings into a Grasping Vine, forcing your opponents to dance like puppets. On a- on a string. You get it?

Pros

Thanks to all those evades you can pump out and your ability to maneuver in darkness, you’re very hard to hit. Turn invisible, dodge weirdly, stay invisible, or make your target fear you, it’s all good.

Thanks to your curses and fear building skills, you’re a good debuffer, which can help whittle powerful enemies down while your party starts getting hits in.

Thanks to spells like Cordon of Arrows, Snare, and Grasping Vine, you can also set up plenty of battlefield hazards to control and slow enemy movement. Nobody wants to rush in just to get flung into the air like a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

Cons

Remember how we dumped constitution at the beginning? That’s going to bite us in the ass. Even at level 20, you still have less than 100 hp, meaning if a wizard with Power Word Kill spots you your story’s ending early. This is why going invisible is so useful for you.

Blind Fighting would be more of a gimmick usually, but you’re an archer! Seriously, just take archery.

Being a bard and a ranger means you split your magic abilities between charisma and wisdom, eating up a lot of ASIs that could have gone towards your dexterity or constitution instead for more survivability and bow damage.

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Anjou’s Motivation

Chisei Gen thought: "Anjou is a gentleman, an educator, but he likes to play, sometimes at the expense of doing his job." “

"It's just a mask he uses to disguise himself. He's very good at covering his heart with flashy appearances, very few people know about his past, and I've been getting some clues for almost a decade." Tachibana Masamune clapped, "Yasha, go to the archives and get me the files of Hilbert Jean Anjou." ”

The plain-colored file bag was soon placed in front of Tachibana, from which he poured out a file and placed it in front of the Chisei. Chisei looked at the home page, the heart slightly surprised.

“Name: Hilbert Ron Anjou

Birthday: 10/28/1878

City of Birth: Harrogate, Yorkshire, UK

Education: Ph.D., Trinity College, Cambridge”

It's a personal file by Hilbert Jean Ange, the president of Cassel College, hundreds of pages thick, with dense text documenting details from birth to this day. As a mixed-race and also of rare longevity, Anjou has lived for almost 130 years. Many of the things he may not remember, were quietly recorded in this file. Chisei never knew that the family's archives still contained such top secrets, even within Cassel College, no one knew about Anjou's past. His old man was dead, and his past was buried in a grave.

"It's a patchwork of several archives, and the result of our own adjustment, so it may not be accurate. However, it may restore Professor Anjou's life. The content is too complicated, I'll pick the important parts to tell you. 

"Unlike what many people think, Hilbert Jean Ange is actually an orphan whose last name, 'Anjou', comes from French, but he was actually born in Yorkshire, England, a small city called Harrogate. He is not only a nobleman, butas a child lived very poor, so he can be said to have suffered. His adoptive parents adopted a lot of children and trained them to beg, and Anjou was one of the most special of the children. He was a hybrid, and at the age of twelve he showed amazing talent. He learned Latin and Greek without a teacher, and was appreciated by the local bishop, who offered him an annuity to study in London so that he could get a chance to go to Cambridge University. There he met the man who really changed his life, Menek Cassel, the elder son of the Cassel family, the founder of the Secret Party LionHeart, and one of the greatest dragon-slaughterers of all time. “

"Menek was twenty-one years old at the time, and Anjou was sixteen years old, and after a lonely childhood and teenage years, Anjou met another man with dragon blood for the first time. Menek recommended him to join the Secret Party and become the first member of the Lions Heart Club. But even Menek didn't think he'd unearthed such excellent blood, and the teenager who came out of the small town of Harrogate would end up as the leader of the Secret Party and the terminator of the dragon. To Anjou, Menek was like his brother, and everyone in the Lion's Heart was his family, because with these people, he was finally able to struggle out of his loneliness. It was the happiest time of his life, he studied at Cambridge, secretly participated in the activities of the secret party, his charm was the greatest bloom. The girls wanted to be with him, the boys were proud to be friends with him. He is a good academic and wore the latest fashions. The playboy image he showed today is the foundation that accumulated at that time.”

"Today's Lion's Heart is just a student association at Cassel College, but at the time it was the Youth League of the Secret Party, the world's best dragon butcher's team. Lion Heart will give Anjou not only friendship, but also glory and dreams. Everyone thinks Lion heart will be the light of hope for the secret party, and Menek Kassel has no doubt that he will be the next secret party leader. But suddenly the great change came, in the event known as 'the Lament of Summer’, the secret party's home Kassel Estate was attacked by the Dragons at night, a Dragon King-level enemy infiltrated into the estate, and the Dragon Servitors surrounded them from the outside. Lionheart fell as war dead.”

"It sounds weird, " Chisei interrupted Tachibana’s account, "In this case, the dragons show similar patterns of behavior to humans, they use strategies, launched a similar military night raid attack, which is not in line with the dragon's behavior patterns." Dragons are proud, noble clans that wake up to growl at the world, destroy all enemies with unparalleled violence, and disdain convert operations.

Tachibana nodded: "Yes, it's very strange, but we can't get to know the truth." 'Lament of Summer' is the top secret of the Secret Party, and hundreds of years on, the Secret Party has not released its findings on anyone other than the school board. But all the evidence suggests that the dragons did launch such a night raid, that they broken in from the inside and should have completely destroyed the secret party. But there is a man who pulls the wind, the world's genius Menek Cassel actually broke out to match the power of the Dragon King. The Cassel family, the greatest dragon-butcher family in history, declined, and no one could ever inherit its glory. The LionHeart was  gone, and Hilbert Jean Ange is the only survivor. ”

"Ange wasn't in Cassel's estate at the time?" Chisei asked.

"No, he was in close contact with the Dragon King, and after his injury he fell into the cellar and passed out as though dead. He recovered the next morning and witnessed the saddest images of his life, with corpses piling up, human beings and Death Servitors hugging each other at the last moments of their lives, not out of affection, but trying to tear each other apart. The only person standing was Menek Cassel, but it was a corpse with a broken knife. Before that, Anjou probably never thought that the war between man and dragons would be so decisive, so cruel, flowing with blood like a river. Only one side survives this war, and even if all you can do is move your jaw, you have to climb over and bite your opponent's throat. ”

"Anjou dug his friend's graves with his own hands and burned them to ashes. He buried the ashes, and he buried his past. When the Secret Party found him, he walked alone in the wilderness, like The Walking Dead, and after he was rescued he said only one word, 'The world turned out to be so cruel'. The doctor said he could not imagine such a seriously injured near-death patient could have such energy, with so many bodies piled up to be burned on the pyre. The doctor said that there must be some amazing mental strength to support the body of the young man. Then Anjou fell asleep and earned a year before he woke up again, and the doctor almost thought he wouldn't wake up again. ”

But he did not become depressed when he woke up, but showed amazing activity. In the 'Lament of Summer’, the secret party elite suffered heavy losses. The young Hilbert Jean Anjou suddenly rose to power at the top of the secretive party. To some extent, he was the beneficiary of 'Lament of Summer. But that didn't bring him any joy. The elegant, active, conceited Anjou disappeared, leaving only the lone, iron-fisted powerman. The old playboy is only the mask he used to disguise himself, he had only a lonely avenger in his heart, always carrying a sharp iron blade. He continued to consolidate his rights, cultivate cronies and take control of the entire Cassel Academy in order to mobilize the most elite teams when it came to dragon slaughtering. This led to the school board's dissatisfaction with him, but Ange is irreplaceable. He had been to hell and back, so he is no longer afraid of death.”

"He was lonely and poor, but his encounter with Menek Cassel changed his life. Overnight, he won honor, dreams, friends, even family, but overnight lost all this, once again closed in the abyss of loneliness. The Dragons took everything from him, and he was determined to take revenge. What the doctor called 'some amazing spiritual force' was hatred, and the dragon taught him the cruelty of the world, from which moment he transformed him into the world's most terrifying dragon-butcher.” Tachibana whispered, "The dragons should regret keeping the man alive." ”

Silence for a long time, Chisei sighed softly: "No wonder everyone said 'don't be an enemy with Anjou', that kind of man's heart hidden coal mine, anger is ignited will not be extinguished until the enemy is burned, or burn themselves to ashes." ”

"Hate has created a paranoid personality, he is a ruthless man, no relatives and no friends. He was good to the students, because he needed them to fight for him, everyone was a tool in his eyes, a tool he used to avenge the Dragons.”

---- Dragon Raja III

[squids-off-the-hive]

Introductions to the flayers! In Detail!

This post will introduce the four current mind flayers that I have played at least once in Dungeons and Dragons. Their names and legacy within their story will be detailed, although not much can be said for a majority of them, apart from one who I have played extensively.

Let's get started!

TL;DR and Pronouns:

S'anuk: Druid of No Circle, played him until level 2 in my first ever campaign, He/Him. (Agender)

Sa'keret: Barbarian, no path, played him for one session, he poses as an aasimar, He/They/She. (Genderfluid)

Eketh: Death Domain Cleric, played him in an evil campaign, where we are meant to be villains. DM couldn't run the game anymore at level 7. He/him. (Trans, mtnb)

Lotusen: Knowlege Domain Cleric, still playing them to this day. They are traumatized and are working through that. The party taught them morals. They/Them (Trans, Nonbinary)

S'anuk (suh-nook or sah-nook)

S'anuk is a Druid of no circle, though was likely to be Circle of the Moon. They were the first ever character I had played in Dungeons and Dragons, and due to that, we had no knowlege of homebrew stats for illithids as a playable race. This illithid is very calm in temper, and recreationally uses smoked moss as a relaxer to reduce anxiety. They tracwled up to the surface because of a strange vision that plagued their dreams and caused suspicion within the hive.

As they traveled up to the caves with two other Illithids and a few minions, the group had encountered some guards. The scouting parties were slaughtered with S'anuk as the remaining survivor, not before having been burnt in the face. Hiding their disfigure prooved to be a challange, but nothing a cloak couldn't fix. The vision repeated again, this time of an image of a gladiatorial event, with a date set on it. They met the party while signing up for the event, hoping to find some clarity, and more moss.

Campaign Status: Dead. Played until arrival to level 2.

Sa'keret (Sa-care-eht)

Not much is known about this Barbarian, but before they had a choice in a path, Sa'keret convinced their party members (and strangers, for that matter) that they were an aasimar, a celestial being bringing devine intervention that binds their face to be one with their true nature. It was a ploy set to disguise, but there unfortunately was not any time to investigate further into his story.

He had met his party due to hearing screaming in a household in the near-middle of nowhere. He gripped his axe and covered his face, to find it coming from a woman who was about to be jumped by goblins. Eith the party's help, he slayed the goblins, and before he could get interrogated by the party of who- or what- he was, the session had been cut there.

Campaign Status: Dead. Played for one session.

Eketh (eh-keh-th)

Eketh is a villain, a lawful evil cleric of the death domain. This was set within a campaign where we were meant to take over the world by any means possible. In that setting, Eketh was the last of the mind flayers, as the others had been purged, along with the brood, in this utopian world of All Good and No Evil. Bringing their hatred of those that killed their kind, Eketh vowed to become the mind flayer that brings their kind back, without needing to become as vulnerable as those that carry the generations.

His party were made up of a necromancer that was sickly, and a volitile, rebellious orc that had been enslaved. Due to some misshaps and betrayal, the orc was left behind as they turned a mob at the other two party members, who managed to escape. Eketh and the necromancer traveled together for some time, even to the future as a recent addition to the party upset some...elder gods that ended the world. So where the campaign led off was them trapped in the future, trying to figure out hoe to un-end the world so they can conquer it once more.

Campaign Status: Dead. A falling out with players and the DM.

Lotusen (low-tus-en or lotus-n)

Lotusen is another lawful evil cleric, but instead of world domination, their goal is quite different. They used to be a drow child, that got captured and turned into an Illithid by a colony that had been near their family for some time. They were fully indoctrinated, and apart from flashes of those fainter memories, they fell into the endless pit that was the hivemind. Except one day, while scouting, they came across...some temple of some kind, and upon discovery....they grew curious. What was this temple for? What kind of things went on in there? And before they knew it, they became marked by one of the Knowlege Domain Gods. Frightened by this, Lotusen had to retreat as their colony labled them as a traitor, and pushed them out to fend for themselves in the lonely underdark, cut off from the hive as well as their strength in bodies.

They eventually make it up to the surface, but not before facing a terrifying dillema of being known. When they finally fed on the surface, grasping an innocent wanderer in a ice wasteland, they were chased down by a mob, and had to retreat rapidly. At this point, the trauma and anxiety had gotten to them, and they now wear cloaks to hide their appearence, scarring, but also to now follow and study what had been forbidden: happiness, religion, community, and found family.

Campaign Status: Ongoing. Alignment change is in-bound from Lawful Evil to Lawful Neutral.

[kandadiff]

Runnin' with the Devil 1

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You watched your husband from your place on the couch and pulled your legs into your body in an attempt to warm them, your mind wandering to just a year ago. Where you were in the warm arms of Jay Park, spoiled with champagne and as much sweet things as you could fill yourself with. But now . 'Nothing like how it used to be,' You thought. You missed Jay, he made you laugh, not that you did much of that these days. How could you? When you were in the same house with your biggest enemy?

Your eyes wandered over to the massive ring that stood out on your finger, making your hand look even smaller then it already was. The huge diamond complimented by the other diamonds that rounded the rock, gold encasing their holding and a small red dragon engraved within the main diamond. It was no mistake what this ring truly symbolized. You belonged to him now, The Red Dragons and the Kwon Family.

Your mind floated to when the Red Dragon rescued you from the Brotherhood. You were with Jay on his arm at one of his lavish parties that he threw every year to keep the peace between the families that ran the state. Except instead of the night being filled with the sound of laughter from to much drinks and music from the DJ, it was swollen with blood and gun shots. At first it was Jay that grabbed you when he heard the first gun shot ring out into the air made by some hired man. He pushed you to his second in command, Jackson, and you were with Jackson for a long time until a bullet went through his chest and your face became streaked red. Another Brotherhood member, Chan Bang, grabbed you and seemed to bring you toward the masked intruders who in shock all you could do was watch as they shot down people like it was a sport. Most of them laughing as they did so. You fought against Chan, but maybe it was the excessive alcohol your drank that made you unable to get out of his iron grip or the fear of being next. One of Chan's close friends, Hyungjin brought Min and Suzy, a short bubbly girl and a baby faced angel of a girl who were dating another brotherhood member, and you watched as the masked man shoot both of them point blank as they begged for there life before he pointed the gun at you.

yA pop rang out in the air and instead of you going into the pile of bodies with Min and Suzy, it was the masked man. POP! Another one shot down Chan, you came loose from his grip as he fell into the piles. However before you could run the shooter grabbed you. "Let's go!" his voice was rough but his touch was gentle yet urgent. He led you through the ballroom avoiding the gunshots with skill, as though he was trained for this his entire life. You knew who he was, everyone did. Jiyong Kwon, son of YoungHwan Kwon leader of the Red Dragon's and next to take over. Once you were outside he rushed you into a car and drove as fast as he can while cops sped past him heading to the bloody scene which would later be called THE BALLROOM MASSACRE.

He brought you back to his lavish penthouse and brought a doctor (thats how you reconnected with me) to check on you and him. Physically, you were unhurt minus a few scratches but mentally- you were not. He suggested you stay with him for a few days until everything cooled down. And during that time, the news of the event, soiled your mind more and more everyday as more and more bodies were counted as dead. People you knew, people who you laughed with, cried with, loved. Gone. No news of what happened to Jay - you presumed he was dead. Only seeing Jackson on the TV, beat up and on crutches. Through all that Jiyong was there for you, one drunken night bringing you close, spilling secrets to each other with the only witness the fire that burned in the fireplace as you drank. Those few days turned into months and soon you found yourself in love with the man especially when he drafted another peace treaty with the other mafia families and excited those who killed at the Ballroom Massacre.

Which is how you ended up with two children babbling upstairs. You aren't sure how you became pregnant - not at first at least. You were careful or at least you thought you were. You used condoms, even had an IUD. But one day you were feeling nauseous and bloated and tender and he suggested going to the doctor. He made me come to the house and take blood, a few minutes later you found you were pregnant. And though Jiyong tried to hide it, we argued or were cold with each other every time we saw each other. 7 months later you gave birth to Anastasia Min-Lee Kwon and Apollo Taehyun Kwon and you were married at a huge ceremony in the city that was more protected then the royal family. But like all good things, that too must come to an end and thats when your life, which seemed to be going to well fell apart in your hands.

"About" stomach turned as you thought about that day only a week and a half ago. You sat in my house, a smaller less extravagant house then yours however the garden that surrounded it was a perfect place to sit. A gazebo gifted to us by Jiyong after I helped you after the massacre, is where we sat. Eating at the small table watching while, Marceline and Salem played with the babies, your nannies enjoying that they are getting a quick break in this picturesque area.

You smiled hearing the sound of your babies laughing, happy to hear it without your father in law interrupting the noise, you were about to comment on it when I interrupted your thoughts. "I wish I could have protected them better." Your eyebrow raised at the serious of my tone but before you could ask I spoke again "with Marcie mostly," I clarified "Salem - he doesn't know all that Marceline knows." I hadn't really gotten into what happened in the past before I showed up back in this town. But I left with a man named Negan and came back with a little girl and a friendship with Mr. YoungHwan Kwon and a body guard only known to you as Suga.

You weren't sure what to say so you said "We do all we can, you know. You're a good mother." You looked at me concerned seeing something clearly on my mind. "Whats wrong?"

"I'm sorry, adi." Confused you just looked at me waiting for me to explain. "I wished I could have protected you too."

Your mind flicked to the bloody mess of that night and you shook your head, in an attempt to stop thinking about it. "You couldn't have known, you weren't even there."

"I wished that I could have protected you from Jiyong," I said and your mind swirled in even more confusion. "I should have warned you when he took you from Jay. But I didn't want to believe he would do that- I was so stupid. Yoongi told me but I didn't believe him. Then when you got pregnant- Yoongi and me were trying to have Sunday. He was so happy when he first held him, I don't think ive ever seen him happier. The smile didn't leave his face for weeks and even now every time he speaks about the kids his face still lights up the same way it did all those years ago. He even tattooed there names on his chest, that was the first thing he did out of the hospital. I saw the same thing in Taeyang when he had his son, and in Bom and her husband; just pure unfiltered joy." You raised an eyebrow about to ask what that had to do with anything when I looked at you. "When I Jiyong told me you were pregnant, that look - wasn't there. It was something else; something darker, like he had just accomplished his master plan. Then I remembered you told me you had an IUD and you wore condoms. So after I took your blood, I went into your bedroom and searched until I found the condoms and went to the sink. I filled all of them with water and each one had holes in it. I told Yoongi about it and he questioned the other doctor on Jiyong's payroll - after about an hour with Yoongi he admitted to drugging your wine and taking it out."

Your heart sunk, no, your husband wouldn't do that to you. I was mistaken - it had to be some kind of joke. You shook your head but I nodded.

"Its true." I said "and he found out I knew, thats when you caught us arguing. He knew after getting you knocked up, you'd marry him. He pretended he was the perfect husband so why wouldn't you?" You looked down at your ring instantly feeling nauseous.

"Why didn't you say something?!" you shouted bitterly catching the attention of the nannies. I waved at them to continue and told you to stay quiet. "Why should I?!"

"Because he's listening." I said motioning to the ladies. One of them carried a small device pinned to her chest, it was supposed to be just a pin but I knew what they were. A little transmitter like Negan used to use.

You're heart beat fast in your chest and you forced yourself to be quieter. "why didn't you tell me?" I motioned once again to the kids. "Oh please, Jiyong wouldn't kill kids." I sighed and unfolded a small series of pictures. There you saw pictures - candid shots of mine and Yoongi's small family, shopping, eating, taking them to school along with a phone number written in Jiyong's district handwriting along with the words 'Keep my secret and ill keep yours'. "What does this mean? who's phone number is this?"

"Negan's." I said simply and before you can ask why can't he know I stopped you. "I didn't just leave Negan. I escaped from him, he wouldn't let me leave and he killed everyone who tried to help me or talk to me. His entire fucking compound is decorated with the body parts of people I used to be friends with. He wanted me to rely on him and only him. He wouldn't even let me out with Marcie without him. When I left he told me he'd kill Marceline in front of me if I didn't come back to him. For the next week he killed a woman every single day, just cause they sort of looked like me. The day I got out of that town he killed a woman and her son because he thought it was me and Marcie in disguise, the little boy was only 4 years old and he shot him in front of his mother and strung her up on a tree in the park. Imagine what he would do to them" I looked at the laughing children, "or Yoongi, I know if I ever see Negan again I'm dead but I'm not going to let him find out about anyone else."

For a while you were silent, sitting in the news that shattered your view of your once perfect family. "Why now?" You asked after a while.

"We're leaving - it's the only safe option and I want you to come with us. Take your children and come with us. You aren't safe there." I said and you let out a shaky sigh "Yoongi is the best at disappearing; we'll be untraceable." You heard the nannies in the distance telling the kids its time to go inside and I stood up. You eyes wandered to the children running towards you while the nannies, wheeled the baby carriages over towards us.

"Mommy!" Marceline shouted holding up a handful of flowers "Look!" The nannies approached at a quick speed, to quick for your liking; if you were going to meet me, how were your going to know where?

"Look like its time to go Mrs. Kwon" one of them said to you "Mr. Kwon is calling."

"Good;" I smiled acting as though I didn't drop that bomb on you. "Have a good trip home," I lifted your twins out of there carriage and kissed each on the cheek. "say goodbye to your aunt." My children wrapped there small arms around your legs shoving flowers into your hands and pockets, causing you to laugh and hug each of them. I hugged you tight and picked up a flower that fell from your pocket and put it in your hand where you felt the soft piece of paper wrapped smoothly around the stem. "I hope to see you soon."

Now a week and a half later you still had the piece of paper buried in the small flap under the felt of your jewelry box watching as Jiyong laughed with TOP at a show they were both watching wondering how your life got so fucked up.

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