#basically because I had so much fun with all the magic involved

[bayleaf-2]

*takes off glasses and pinches bridge of my nose* god hpw much vivi lore have i posted here again

[morgana-ren]

I wanted the full analysis!!! 🙏 Also I can't become a goddess </3 sadness

You wouldn't want to, babe. Sounds like fun, but Godhood is-- well, it's not great in DnD. It attracts exactly who you think it would: The naive, or the power-hungry and unworthy.

Well, let's look at Gale and his ultimate motivations:

When you meet him, he's straight-forward although fully polite, charismatic, and very much a 'wizard' archetype, as in noticeably and actively intelligent but in a strangely awkward way. Charming, talkative, but earnest. As you get to know him, you learn more about his plight and his struggles, his prodigal upbringing, his dalliances with Mystra, his fall from grace, and his inevitable charge with 'ending' this little uprising by the upstart Dead Three-- and ending his own life in the process.

Most people, you would think, would have an ounce of self-preservation upon being told "Hey, you need to kill yourself to end this." Even the rest of the group, up against ridiculous odds, are holding on to the glimmer of hope that they can survive.

Not Gale. Gale just basically goes "Okay. So be it." While he does mourn in a way, he mourns more over his initial mistake than he does the loss of his own life. He thinks of all he did wrong, all the 'pain' he caused. the loss he caused himself, and his rejection at Mystra's hands for which he entirely blames himself.

Gale is a victim of grooming. It is framed in a strange way, since the one doing the grooming is a Goddess, but he is absolutely a victim. He tells you that Mystra has been with him since he was a boy, which yes, you can frame as he is a wizard and she is essentially magic incarnate, but it doesn't stop there. She doesn't encourage him as a pupil-- she takes him as a lover. As a conduit of her own power. Carnally.

She takes him into her bed, and as a lover.

Had Mystra been just an elderly powerful witch, this would have been way more fucking obvious to people. But because she is a God and her whims are unknowable, it's essentially shrugged off-- which I feel like is part of his arc.

Gale did what he did because he was on completely fucking uneven tier with his own lover. The power dynamic was abusive. He could not be on her level and she expected him to be fine with that. She demanded excellence but when he delivered, she spurned him. He was expected to be brilliant and perfect-- but not too much. And when he was perfect? He still could never be enough. She is a goddess and he is expected to bow and scrape. She groomed him to admire and revere and worship her, and then told him to sit down and be happy with what little he was given.

He needed to prove himself her equal. He needed her approval. He needed it because it was a relationship to him, and one he physically could not win at.

Gale is a human. He needs love and connection and fairness. Mystra, by her own nature, cannot give this-- and she doesn't want to.

Gale knows well the callousness of the Gods. Not just with Mystra, but from his tower, he can see injustice and pain and misery. He is extremely empathetic and cares so deeply. His eldest companion, the Tressym Tara, was an accidental summon that stayed with him for life and became intrinsically involved with his family. He knows love. He knows pain. He is a good man.

Gale seeks knowledge, though he does not seek it for power. He seeks it out of genuine and earnest desire to help. To make people's lives better. Yes, he seeks to be seen as intelligent and brilliant because he is, but he is not a selfish being.

For 'good' players, he is one of the easiest approvals to get, because he very much approves of just being a good person. Helping. Being kind and lending a hand. Saving lives. Using your strength and power for good.

But again, Gale is human. And the folly of the clever man is to believe everyone around him is a fool. He, in all his brilliance, found a way he thought he could help. A path that has been tread time and time again with naught but the misery and bewailings of those who came before to show for it as a warning. But he thought he was different. He thought he could pull it off.

He could become a God.

Secretly, he found a way to put himself on even tier with Mystra-- and do what she did not have the compassion, kindness, or even desire to do. To use Godhood for good. To use all that magnificent power to achieve goodness rather than greatness. To be an active God in the lives of mortal men. To make the world better.

He thought that he could maintain his connection with humanity through his apotheosis and ultimately exist with one foot in each world; To straddle mortality and immortality and put reins on them both.

You are warned repeatedly throughout the game that this is bad. That many have tried and all have failed. Humans are not meant to be gods, and you cannot exist as a hybrid. If you are a God, you are a god. If you are a man, you are mortal. The mortal mind cannot tether Godhood. It is not possible. Best case scenario, you lose yourself. Worst case? You are punished eternally for your hubris.

To be a God is to be unknowable. To see the threads of time and the futility of it all. You are ripped from your conscious mind as a man and you can no longer relate. Lives and suffering, they are all fleeting, miniscule things from your mountain on high. All men must die; why is tonight different from any other night? Why is your suffering so great that a god should take interest? What are you to me, little mortal? Your kingdoms shall fall and burn and crumble and be rebuilt and crumble again but my temple shall remain, and when you are but dust in the fickle wind, you too shall know my eternal glory.

The way Mystra looked at Gale.

An instrument. A tool. A temporary amusement and benefactor. He is a mere man and she is a Goddess and when his bones bleach in Selune's unforgiving sun, she shall choose a new apprentice to take unto her bed. And so the wheel of time spins endlessly on.

A large theme of the game is the malevolence of some Gods and the utter indifference of others.

Selune's perceived abandonment of Ketheric that led to his downfall and madness. He lost his wife and daughter after an entire life of servitude, and he did not even receive comfort in return. She is considered a good natured Goddess, and even she is cruel in her neglect and indifference when it does not suit her.

Shar and her utter disregard and even active disdain for her most devout-- and everything else. Viconia, who committed her life to Shar, cast aside for a Selunite orphan on a whim. Her hatred of living creatures and her manipulations. Her outright malevolence and reverence for their suffering. You see her cruelty both from an outside and inside perspective, and her circular doctrine that makes no sense, her faith that demands all and gives nothing in return.

The Gods that are active are only so malevolently. Bane devouring Gortash after his defeat despite how far he'd gotten in his name. Myrkul abandoning Ketheric as well in the end. Bhaal discarding his own children when the do not suit his whims.

"We are but bronze pieces in their pocket to be traded on a whim. You may have beaten me, but the truth is, the Gods beat me first."

It is literally a thematic constant.

Sure, they can do good. They have devout worshipers and can be seen doing some level of good-- Isabelle and her protection of the Last Light, for example. But it's never quite them, is it? It is the humans that utilize their power. The humans who care. Selune did not protect them of her own volition. Her magic was invoked.

Gale's goal was to become both. To have the power and will of a God but the consciousness and mind of a man.

Mark my words, you would go mad.

Gods see eons. The endless tide of eternity drifting endlessly on. Imagine the incessant screams. The pleading. The misery. The death. The horror at the hands of man and your fellow Gods. Even all of your power, all of your prestige could not save them all.

And even if you could-- even if you could-- Ao demands a level of indifference. It is one of the fundamental rules.

Gale must accept this, or he will become that which he sought to rectify. He must learn that to love and care so deeply is to be mortal. That to retain all that made him beautiful and wonderful, he must be humbled and rather do as he can rather than all he feels capable of. He must seek Mystra's forgiveness (disgusting) on a symbolic level and accept that he is a mortal and his hubris would be his downfall. Gods and mortals should not mix.

But if he does not? If he utilizes the Crown of Karsis?

He becomes a god. He gets his wish. And in true Faustian fashion, the price he pays makes the prize worthless.

He becomes an arrogant, disconnected, detached, miserable pile of sectorless divinity.

He becomes callous. Cruel. When asked about all those people he longed to save, he shrugs. He no longer speaks of the mortal realm, he speaks of the beauty and frivolity of Elysium. Of the wonders of Godhood and all he understands-- or has forgotten. He has completely detatched from mortality and only deigns to come down from his fucking halcyon world to bless you-- his former friends-- with his magnanimous presence. To let you know how lucky you are. How blessed.

All that power he has? Useless. Used to prop himself on a pedestal same as every other filthy fucking God.

His deepest, most treasured friend will tell him this, and how does he respond? By basically telling her 'You don't know shit.' He ignores her. Threatens you if you try. A man who was willing to give his life selflessly to save the world will now threaten divine wrath if you even so much as irritate him. He will swing that hammer of power down just to prove a fucking point.

If you loved him and refuse him? Utterly disconnected. No genuine feeling. Just looking down on you like the silly little human you are. When you refuse him, he is disconnected from who he was and what he ever felt for you. Gale, a man who was groomed and just wanted love on an equal playing field; a man desperately lonely in his brilliance; a man so distraught by what he felt that he sought to break the barrier and become a god, not for power, but for benevolence-- he becomes Mystra.

He is no longer Gale. He is the God of Ambition. Another useless god in a pantheon of useless ideas. What good is ambition if it does not serve a purpose? To make him the god of ambition is to spit in his face, because what was his ambition? Where is it now, Gale? What are you?

What is your ambition and where the fuck is it now?

Gale is a kind, caring, compassionate man who went through a horrible, traumatic event that changed who he was fundamentally. Dumped and abandoned by his Goddess, it burned him. It hurt him in such a way that he made it his goal to change this dynamic and to become what she could not.

He was still in love with her. Of course he was. How it must be to love something that you know can never love you back. That you are one of many, and your time is over. You have served your purpose. And if you die, you die. If the realm dies, so be it.

Gale's is a story of hubris born of love. A man gifted with intelligence and power that he only wanted to utilize for the best; to do what he thought was right. He wasn't clawing after the crown for raw power's sake. He wanted to help. That's all he ever wanted.

The bookworm that will talk your ear off about his cat and his studies and his love of books. A man so brilliant that it's painful at times. A man who loved his mother and his cat. A man who loved a goddess and, in a story that could have no happy ending, decided to give everything to make it so. If it meant dying, then so be it. He wasn't clawing for the crown to save his own life. He was doing it to save everyone else's.

He fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the Gods. He touched divinity and it looked at him with a human countenance and so he believed he could grasp it.

The Gods are powerful, and yes, they are unknowable and, in a way, infinite-- but they are callous and cruel and indifferent. They are power with no outlet. Useless. They gaze upon humanity like rats in a cage, uncaring and unfeeling. Separated entirely. Sometimes they deign to make their presence known. But mostly? They sit on their heavenly thrones and revel in their own brand of bullshit.

This is what Gale will become. It is an insult to an incredible man to take away all that made him incredible and make him another b-lister jumpstart God up his own ass. Caring and love are work. They are pain. It is suffering and agony. But that is what separates us from them. We do not, and in some cases, cannot separate. It is our world, and we live in it. We must breathe in the poisons. Smell the blood that soils the earth. It is our world and we cannot separate. We love and we help and we learn--

Gale wanted to help. So he became a God.

But what do Gods do?

They watch. Through the gray window of indifference, they watch. They watch us tear each other open. They watch other Gods tear us open. They watch the wounds. They watch the graves. They watch the fires rage.

They watch and they listen to the screams. And when they are bored of them? They shut them out.

Gale became a god.

And so too shall he watch, removed from it all.

Not an ounce of humanity left in a man that ached so for humanity itself that it damn near drove him mad.

[alexanderlightweight]

Congrats on the move being over!! I just did that in the fall and it is so miserable. Hopefully y'all are safe and sound and can get to the fun stuff like decorating. For prompts, what about Magnus noticing that Alec clearly has a competence kink and is always trying to jump him after he does anything that Alec deems impressive, a lot of which are things Magnus rarely gets complimented for. Everything from little things like making some basic (for Magnus) potions, or pulling off a complicated ritual, or putting someone in their place.

Thank you!! ooof yeah it really is. it's been a bit f a mess too cause i'm unpacking for multiple people (they physically cant) and so it's slow going lol and my focus is just being done tbh. but we are all safe and honestly it was good timing with how bad the heat got around here. we wuld have been really screwed at the last place.

i hope you enjoy this!

<3 lumine

-

It’s impossible for Magnus not to notice Alexander interest. He gives himself away so easily, never truly trying to hide his curiosity or the delight that watching Magnus inspires in him.

Alexander acts as if even the simplest of tasks are impressive.

He’s full of delighted pleasure when Magnus explains making his own shampoo and the next morning when they slip into bed, he murmurs his awe against Magnus’ jaw. Such a simple thing, and yet it impresses Magnus’ darling so very much.

Alexander’s pleasure sends thrills down Magnus’ spine and it coils in his gut and his magic.

Sometimes when Magnus is studying and dissecting a ritual — cannibalizing it for ease of use or just because he can — Alexander will press fervent kisses to his jaw when checking in on him. They are never distracting, but they do linger with heat and Alexander always murmurs such delightful things before he leaves Magnus to his work. It’s enough that Magnus is nearly always tempted to follow — and sometimes through no fault of his own, Alexander sways him — before he gets a hold of himself.

Alexander will watch Magnus create a star and then kiss the dust and ash of it off of Magnus’ fingers with eyes more luminous than an aurora. He never seems to grow bored of Magnus’ more flippant experiments, instead equally curious no matter if it gets set aside or not.

The first few times Alexander happily accompanied him to Pandemonium, Magnus hadn’t understand what his boy got out of it.

Beyond the pleasure of Magnus’ company of course, which Magnus knew was the main draw.

However, while he didn’t hate it, Alexander wasn’t known for his love of Pandemonium of any of the other clubs he sometimes joined Magnus at.

It typically depended on how his night had gone and if he — if he worked — had the energy or even left the Institute early enough to join Magnus. Or if he didn’t work, if he’d gotten enough rest where going out and dealing with Pandemonium wouldn’t defeat the point of taking a night off.

Sometimes however, Alexander will manage to stop by for no reason at all.

He’ll cut himself a few hours of time in patrols where instead of returning to the Institute he instead meets Magnus at Pandemonium. He stays for a bit and then meets the next patrol he is due to lead or train.

It had never quite made sense to Magnus, until he realized how often Alexander came while Magnus held court.

Too often holding an open court will turn to complaints or even fights. While Magnus is hardly ever directly involved, he typically does shut down and end the conflicts before they can get out of hand. It took a few weeks — where Magnus was admittedly busy with other things — before he realized that Alexander liked seeing Magnus put others in there place.

It lit something in Magnus’ boy, a spark that would turn into an ember that Alexander carefully hoards until they can meet again. It explains the passion that Alexander so often meets Magnus with the mornings when they reunite after such evenings.

It's been a very long time since Magnus has been so wholly appreciated.

Such simple things and yet by Alexander’s delight and awe alone, it brings them both pleasure.

[raayllum]

also cause I'm not there yet in my 5x08 liveblog but because even just a whiff of "Callum gave Finnegrin the spell" made the fandom troll come running into my inbox to say otherwise, just wanna clear up a few things for peace of mind before we get there

The first is that I know it was the fandom troll because of the timing & presentation, not necessarily because the now deleted/blocked ask had the "Callum purposefully gave Finnegrin the wrong spell" take. While that was an indication to me that this was probably the fandom troll since they seem to take issue with my characterization of Callum in particular, perfectly smart reasonable people have also proposed that possibility of the spell ingredients being not entirely accurate as purposeful; it's not exclusive to crappy people by any measure.

With all that in mind, I want to discuss how I view the scene (and indeed how I think it's meant to be interpreted per a casual viewer reading) as well as why I think Callum giving Finnegrin a not word-for-word accurate actually kind of makes his choice more morally questionable, not less

So let's begin

1) I don't think the scene's intended takeaway is that Callum gave Finnegrin the wrong spell

I think Callum panicked, and he folded, and he would've told Finnegrin anything the pirate had asked for in that moment to try and spare Rayla's life. While TDP is an immensely detailed show in many ways (hell I have a tag dedicated to just those details), every scene still has to ultimately work for a casual viewer. I don't think this scene is any exception. One of the first things in the series that we learn is that humans took down the King of the Dragons with dark magic and it's a repeated fact throughout most of the first season, and into the third when we see the events that transpired exactly.

So when Finnegrin mentions it, we're probably going to remember that was a thing that happened and it involved Harrow and Viren, but we're probably not going to remember the specific ingredients. Therefore, like Finnegrin, most audience members are going to take Callum at his word, especially since throughout most of his conversation with Finnegrin, Callum is arguably far more honest than he needs to be (fessing up that he did dark magic at all, mentioning that he studies all the primals, that he did the spell to save a friend at all - which is exactly why Finnegrin sets him the hand cutting test to try and break him, etc). The scene - again, for the audience's benefit - even as Callum clarify for those that wouldn't remember why he was spouting things about dying breaths and unicorn horns, because again, I do think this is the Intended Takeaway:

Part of the reason I think Callum panicked (other than Jack de Sena's wonderful voice acting and uneven breaths) is because, if Callum was thinking clearly enough to withhold information purposefully, he could've considered 1) that Finnegrin is bluffing about threatening Rayla (Callum cannot see her or any of the others, so that could be the case) and 2) Finnegrin would have limited means to know that Callum was lying if Callum said exclusively the wrong ingredients and sent him on a wild goose chase. To give as much as he did accurately was dangerous (but we'll talk more about that in a second).

We also know from instances in the previous seasons and just the prior episode that Callum doesn't have all sky spells (ones that he can do whenever he wants basically) memorized either, and that it's not out of the realm of possibility that Viren would've fudged a little to Harrow about some components of the spell (such as emphasizing love and hatred) because he was actively trying to convince - somewhat guilt-trip and manipulate - Harrow into doing something didn't really want to do, but ultimately couldn't say no to.

However, one of the things that's the most fun meta is reading into things deeply, looking at various character interpretations, and seeing what we can find below the surface level / casual viewership read. Just because something may not be the 'intended takeaway' (which can already be hard to define) doesn't mean it's not a real possibility, especially if enough dots connect, and doesn't mean it's not worthwhile and or without merit.

So let's look at the scene from the assumption that Callum is giving Finnegrin a not totally accurate spell On Purpose - what does he omit, what does that tell us, and where does that leave us from a character standpoint?

2) Haha, jk, unless...?

First things first, let's look at what Callum says vs what Viren says

No, no, wait! A dying breath. Blood filled with hatred. And a unicorn horn. That's the dark magic you want.

In her final moments, I captured something that I hoped we could use later. It contains her dying breath. [...] Claudia captured a unicorn and brought me its horn. The dying breath. The unicorn's pure horn. There's one last component I need. The undying hatred of one who loved the victim. Your blood.

Now, even Viren's stance and the circumstances of the spell isn't entirely clear. We don't know if any dying breath would do, or if it had to be Sarai's (and had to go her killer, as opposed to someone else). We don't know if the spell requires the unicorn's horn to be 'pure' (I'm assuming not already corrupted somehow with dark magic) or if it would work regardless. And we don't know whether the hatred or love is more important, or just one, or if they're equally important. It's quite a list, after all.

Which is why I think in some ways Callum's lack of specificity actually makes what Callum told Finnegrin more dangerous, whether you read the minor omissions as intentional or not.

Cause think of it this way, you're a pirate lord and you want to kill your enemy. You heard from this mage kid that any dying breath would do. What's your next move going to be? You're probably going to murder a random member of your crew and collect the breath because you were never told it had to be your loved one's final breath (which would make the spell impossible).

So that's one murder down, bare minimum. Then you're going to either send people out or word that you're looking for a unicorn horn at a port where people already canonically smuggle dark magic supplies (Chasing Shadows, TDP reflection). This will either lead to you hiring people to eliminate one of the - it appears to be - few remaining unicorns that still exist to bring you the horn, or if you've put out a reward, multiple dark mages / mercenaries may try their hand at killing one and bringing the horn to you. That's probably 1-5 unicorn murders as a result, if the mages are working not in communication with each other and all vying for the reward. This is also assuming that none of the mercenaries or mages come back empty handed and get harmed or killed because of Finnegrin's anger at their failures.

You also might torment and torture someone else to get them to hate you before you drain them of blood / take their blood for the spell, again not realizing that 'love' has to be a facet of it. At best, that would maybe be what you do to the crew member before you kill them for their final breath.

Then, once he has all the ingredients (and he'd need some sort of incantation, because dark magic is a lot of steps and processes) there's two main avenues.

Either these all work and he successfully has his weapon of vengeance needed to kill Domina Profundis, because what was given was enough. This would mean Callum's actions led to about 2-3 successful murders of mostly innocent people and possibly more political upheaval at the death of another archdragon (the ocean would certainly be out of whack, but it's not clear how much, if any, political power Domina still holds).

It doesn't work and Finnegrin, stubborn as he is about control and loathe to admit he can't commandeer something (magic and wills included), figures that something went wrong and tries again, having to collect the ingredients all over again. Depending on how many times he'd try (I feel like maybe 2-3 max), this could put those murders up to maybe nine innocent individuals, assuming Finnegrin's worsening temper over his failures doesn't increase the tally.

Rattling off the accurate spell ingredients could've actually minimized the damage, because any of the specifics might've stopped Finnegrin in his tracks. If Finnegrin just needed hatred of one who loved the victim, he could've fulfilled that on his own with some of his own blood ("I loved that crab" and her definitely hates Domina Profundis). The one that could've entirely halted his plan is if the dying breath had to come from the victim, in which case the chance to avenge his beloved crab is long gone. Finnegrin could've heard the list of very specific ingredients, deduced that he would not be capable of carrying out the spell, and been on his merry way to use Rayla as revenge fish bait.

But by giving Finnegrin an 'imperfect' list, Callum made the pirate captain more likely to engage in the violence required to get there, without an actual textual guarantee to the audience that what was given wouldn't have worked, either (aka we have two ingredients list and without a third to tip the scales, it'll always be a technical 50-50, maybe 60-40 read in favour of Viren).

So where does that leave us?

With these two readings in mind, you have two options:

Callum is willing to sacrifice Domina Profundis', and a few unnamed innocent lives/creatures, to save Rayla and thereby gave Finnegrin a dangerous in its own way, if not more dangerous because of potential increased collateral damage, list of spell ingredients, because he acted entirely out of emotionally fuelled panic where he wasn't totally thinking clearly

OR

Callum is willing to sacrifice unnamed innocent lives and creatures, but not Domina Profundis', in order save Rayla, because he decided on purpose to give Finnegrin a more achievable sounding list of ingredients that would increase collateral damage, but not let him kill the dragon, because he made a calculated decision on purpose that those lives were worth less than Rayla's and Domina's to him (for some reason, as she's a stranger to him)

To be clear, I would love the second option as an interpretation because I do think Callum can be calculating and I do think that's the far more Viren-like option - choosing what to sacrifice for other people in the mindset of harm mitigation ("A thousand men and women are prepared to fall protecting you tonight, but you won't let one sacrifice their lives for you?" / "If you must choose, choose the egg").

But again, given the framing of the scene I think the first reading is 1) more sympathetic and speaks to Callum's more compassionate emotional nature and 2) is the intended takeaway, but if people want to read it as Callum strategically deciding that certain lives - other than Rayla's - were worth sacrificing that so she and Domina Profundis wouldn't be killed, that is absolutely a valid prerogative.

It's just not mine

[theresattrpgforthat]

Are there any RPGs where the player(s) control a plant? The more realistic the better!

THEME: Play A Plant

Hello friend! Oh do I have the recommendations for you!!

Moss Creeps, Stone Crumbles by Adam Roy.

A bird perches on a tree branch, singing. A snail crawls across a bed of springy moss. Sunbeams shine through the canopy, their dappled light sparkling on the forest floor.

Moss Creeps, Stone Crumbles is a game about the slow, gentle march of nature. Using drawings and words, you’ll tell the story of a forest grove and how it changes over the course of 100 years. You can play with any number of participants from 2 through 20.

This game feels like a drawing version of Telephone - it requires each player to add something to a continuously growing map. It feels more like a creation exercise than a drawn out game, and the meditation that the author includes in the play document solidifies this feeling. If you want something simple, focused, and good for a large number of people, check out Moss Creeps, Stone Crumbles.

Undercover Houseplant, by ToriBee.

Welcome, Agent, to the most challenging operation of your career. You've been chosen for this mission due to your exceptional ability to adapt and overcome. In an unconventional twist of fate, you find yourself deployed in the field not as the usual two-legged agent, but rather a zero-legged operative: a houseplant.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to infiltrate the enemy's premises, blend in with the local flora, and gather valuable intel from the unsuspecting individuals who dare to conduct secretive conversations in your vicinity.

This is a solo journaling game in which you are a secret agent, transformed into a houseplant in order to spy in on top-secret conversations. As you attempt to gather intelligence, you risk raising suspicion using a Suspicion Score. This will raise every time you fail a Growth action, which is meant to improve your ability to gather information, or a Communicate action, which involves subtle changes in your patterns in order to communicate what you’ve already learned. If you want a solo game with a humorous premise, I recommend Undercover Houseplant!

Rooted Together, by Monroeroe.

Play with a group of friends in this journaling game (that utilizes a d6) where you are mushroom folk trying to build a community. Rules light and open to expand to whatever sort of play style you find best.

I don’t have a copy of this game, so I can’t give much of an overview for this one, but based on the price and the description, I have a feeling it’s a rules-light game and likely uses prompts, considering it’s a journaling kind of game. If you want a bit more sentience and mobility in your plant (or plant-adjacent) game, consider Rooted Together!

Mushrooms & Magic, by FeatherBoy.

Years after a mysterious series of magical Churnings, kingdoms of Mushrooms awoke in a world left behind by the Ancients, surrounded by strange beasts and remnants of ancient technology from when "humans" walked the soils. In the years following, Mushroomkind fought and explored, discovered and innovated. But Mushrooms are small, and the world is large; much remains to be learned, and countless adventures are still to be had. Will you answer the call?

Mushrooms & Magic runs using a modified Powered by the Apocalypse / Monster of the Week-like system, with new mechanics for tool crafting, abilities, and several magic types. The game only requires one die - a d20 - and makes use of just four basic stats. While not necessarily rules-light, plenty of room is left within the game's structure for players to modify core abilities and attributes (and add their own!) as wanted within campaigns, and GM's are encouraged to have fun with the setting above all else.

This is probably the farthest from your request mostly because you are more like uplifted mushrooms - with very human-like attributes such as tool use, clothing, and the desire for adventure. However, it’s probably also the biggest game in this list, with a very interesting stat wheel, which is an interesting deviation from typical PbtA games. It’s a bit more granular while using the same rule-system, and I’m interested to see what that means in play.

Where Sunflowers Grow, by Darkheart Games.

You and your friends are sunflowers growing in a field once torn by human war. The battles are long over, but the soil your roots drink from holds the memory of blood. When the memories wash through you, you share your experiences with your friends.

Where Sunflowers Grow is a game for three to six players and can be played remotely or in person. The game requires ten unshelled sunflower seeds (or ten small slips of paper) in addition to the PDF in order to play.

I think this game is the most grounded in a real setting, with the unique perspective of plants growing on a field where violence took place. Your characters weren’t present for the conflict itself, but the violence has still managed to affect your life. I really like the thematic element of using sunflower seeds to randomize the memories which your sunflowers will move through. However, this is not a game for everyone - make sure to prepare your table for conversations about violence, trauma, and attrition if you want to suggest this game.

The Flora, by Affinity Games Collective.

The Flora is a meditative structured freeform game for 1-6 players. 

In it you will play a long-lived plant, rooted in place, their history and responses to the elements, fauna, their human caretakers and the human-shaped world. The game starts with fledgling Flora growing in our present day, you will feel the marks of human activity, the shifting seasons, and the changing climate as you adapt and grow, and eventually decay and die. 

You’ll be answering questions, choosing options from tables, telling or writing stories about the Flora and the different caretakers in the Flora’s life, drawing and updating a map of the Lot on which they live, and drawing the Flora throughout their lifespan. 

It looks like this game can be played either solo or in a group. The “what you will need” list on the game page recommends a timer, so it looks like you have the ability to play the game in short bursts. The primary focus of the game is observing the growth of a plant through a series of caretakers, until it reaches the end of its life. I think there are also different options for the kind of flora you play!

Gardenborn: Knights of the Green, by Verdant Green Games.

You play as sentient plant knights called "Gardenborn" as you quest to find a long-lost Grail that holds the key to ending a devastating fungal plague ravaging the wilds.

Gardenborn is a cooperative TTRPG designed for one GM and 2-5 players. As sentient plants, you will venture into the Deep Wilds, where a plague called the Bloodrot festers. There are monsters such as Toadgres and infected stags, called Deergons. I like the stats for your characters: willow, hardy, tolerant and creeping. The game is still in its initial stages, so expect less setting and perhaps a few pieces that are rough around the edges, but the setting is lovingly present even in just the first draft!

Mossy Mechanics, by Diwata Ng Manila.

You've seen the power of the Succulent Sorcerers, you've experienced how a Petal Paladin enacts their order, and you have been beholden to the strength of the Bonsai Brawlers - now, be enchanted by the prowess of the Mossy Mechanics!

I’ve recommended the other instalments of Sin’s previous plant games, and it is only fitting that I include the last one here. You used to just be a clump of moss, but the “Other Mother” has awoken you in her first step of a plan towards world domination. Will you fight for her? Or against her?

This is such a sweet little system with the same basic stats across all games. All characters have Resist pips and Raw Magic pips, which determine your threshold for success. In Mossy Mechanics, you choose a Mechanic Form, which gives you your basic stats, as well as a Mod, which gives you special abilities. There’s also a quick little page containing everything your Garden master needs to know. If you want something cute and small and easy to run, I recommend Mossy Mechanics.

(I also have share-able character sheets for this one!)

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

What do you think happens to Slytherins after Hogwarts? The ones who, unlike Malfoy, can't throw their parents names around and escape all trouble. The Wizarding World is tiny, so I imagine the stigma follows them into adulthood real easy, especially with the whole thing with Voldemort likely intensifying it tenfold, do you bet they'd be way more subject to suspicion and totally legal searches by the aurors where they conveniently find something to toss them in Azkaban over?

Well, remember that many of the Slytherins were not Death Eaters.

Draco was the youngest Death Eater to be inducted in. Crabbe and Goyle got high on a prefect power trip but weren't actually Death Eaters who had taken the mark at that point. The other students seem to have less and less involvement than even that (it was pretty much Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle throughout the series that were the super Slytherin Slytherins).

So, reasonably, Draco's the only one going to trial if at all. Considering all the other people who have to go to trial who did a lot worse things, including his own father who is a much juicer target, it's not surprising he got off the hook (that, and Harry thinks he owes him because of Narcissa).

Crabbe probably would have gotten a trial for dark magic voodoo arson, but his dark magic voodoo arson killed him so he gets to rot in hell.

That leaves the rest of the kiddos.

Goyle was high on a power trip, but it was also under order of the Carrows, and while Wizarding Britain could go nuts trying to try underage collaborationists that'd get... very messy... and likely shortly lead to a third wizarding war.

Pansy Parkinson tried to capture Harry for the glory points, but that makes her even less of a collaborationist than Harry so I don't expect anything to have happened to her.

And that's it, that's all we got who even aided the Death Eaters. So Daphne Greengrass, Blaise Zabini, all of them didn't do anything themselves and presumably weren't even involved.

Now, we do have some dirt on their parents. Nott's dad, known Death Eater. Greengrass's father, not a Death Eater but involved in incriminating activities per the fandom wiki, Lucius Malfoy, always a gem, and of course Crabbe and Goyle Sr. proud Death Eaters.

The reason I'm getting into this is that the kids of the parents involved in this, if they're not dead already (see Crabbe), then they're probably losing a good chunk of their money over this and get a stigma with the family name.

And that's where your ask comes in.

It was already bad in Slytherin, you have Hagrid noting casually "25% of the population is irredeemably evil" to Harry like it's a known fact, and that's before Voldemort was resurrected, but for the kids with the black mark on the last name it'll be even worse.

Probably in the aftermath there'll be attempts to um, rehabilitate Slytherin, so the new kids will have to stay on their toes but won't get it quite as bad.

This generation getting out though, well, I love Cursed Child so I will discuss it and note that Scorpius Malfoy's life is ruined over the rumor that his mother went back in time to have sex with Voldemort and he is their love child.

Is this in any way believable? No.

Do I believe something like this could ruin their lives? Yes.

Basically, Malfoy especially, will all be living on Harry (head of the Auror department's) good will and whether or not he doesn't feel like searching their house today (this is not absent in canon either, when Arthur Weasley promotes a low, that does pass, that um... lets them search certain people's houses without warrant).

So, yes, they're going to have a fun time.

[thesorrowoflizards]

i have this thought of leverage/leverage redemption existing in the same universe as warehouse 13/alphas/eureka because like. one of my favorite fun facts about warehouse 13 is that like. it really obviously crosses over with eureka (they had a whole Event) but it also has a crossover with a show that is nowhere near as well-known, alphas, and like. there's a character in warehouse 13 that just inexplicably can tell when people are lying. it's established that this is a real trick that works, and is basically magic; they give no explanation for it, and you don't really need one. however there is an explanation for it if you know where to look, which is that in alphas, some people (called, who'd've guessed it, "alphas") inexplicably have weird little abilities, and steve is likely an alpha and just does not know it. (unfortunate naming conventions for a post on tumblr aside.) and in alphas, a character from warehouse 13, with the same name and actress, shows up (presumably due to the Weird Events) and this implies they're in the same universe (meaning it's also in the same universe as eureka.) now in warehouse 13, we didn't really need an explanation for steve knowing when people are lying. like, it's a little weird since no one else seems to have any obvious or overt ~magical~ abilities without a clear origin, but also, warehouse 13 is in the fantastical genre, they already have weird magic shit happening, so you're just kind of like, yeah, sure, that can happen. the alphas thing is really more a fun bonus if you happened to watch this cancelled-after-one-season show. however. and now we get to my point. that guy in "the mastermind job" who can put people to sleep by talking. i just think it would be really funny if the explanation for this was that he was an "alpha" and some people just have weird magical abilities. (actually i haven't seen alphas in ages but i'm pretty sure there was a technomancer type dude which. hm. thinking. rotating.) anyway this obviously doesn't scan the same way steve did since leverage redemption is supposed to be in a more grounded setting (it stretches reality, certainly, but magic isn't really supposed to be a thing as far as we're aware) but i just think it would be funny if that was the explanation.

this also opens up a new world of generally leverage crossing over with warehouse 13 and eureka. so much potential there. warehouse 13 is literally about valuable historical items with MAGIC NONSENSE happening, so one or many of them have GOT to have encountered them before (god nate and sophie would be a terrifying warehouse duo. all of them would be great at that actually. actually now i'm straight up thinking about a full-on warehouse 13 au and my brain is fucking. spinning.) and EUREKA????? a town of WILD GENIUSES who do WILD SCIENCE????? at least hardison and/or eliot (and sophie potentially?) have gotten involved in that shit before right? like. hardison is in geek heaven, eliot knows all sorts of weird government secrets, etc. can you imagine. i have so many fucking thoughts

[radioshackraider]

So, changes to Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The School plot is condensed. Percy is kicked out almost immediately after the school trip incident, instead of a downward spiral of poor behaviour, partially caused by his gaslighting by Chiron and Grover. Grover also now plays a more active role in his leaving Yancy by being honest that Percy admitted to wanting to take action against Nancy's bullying of the pair. Grover isn't played as disabled here, likely because if he was, Rick would have wanted to have cast a disabled actor for the character and that may have caused some significant difficulties, given the physical nature of Grover's role. A minor detail to be sure, but Mythomagic, a fiction card/miniatures game is introduced as part of the world in the very first episode. It's not too important, but it does help flesh the world out a bit more and is appreciated. Smelly Gabe (Percy's stepfather) is frankly less of an asshole, so far. He's a full on parasite still, but he doesn't come off as a complete piece of shit instantly. His dynamic with Sally Jackson seems to be less abusive so far. Speaking of, Sally takes less of Gabe's shit here. In part be cause he gives less of it, and in part because what little he gives, she gives back. All in all, she's much more proactive here, even attempting to tell Percy about his father and his nature as a demigod. Percy keeps Riptide after the fight with Mrs. Dodds. Instead of immediately returning it to Chiron, he ends up keeping it and using it against the Minotaur, even though he still ends up kill it with it's own horn. Mr. D is more playful and less surly. Comes across as more of a prankster than a alcoholic in withdrawal. Still an ass, but a more likable one. Which is important for a recurring character who isn't a full on antagonist. The introduction of Glory as an almost magical quality. It feels like it's filling a similar role to the aura demigods have that attract monsters to them, both growing as the demigod does in power. It gives Percy some amount of reason to participate in things when he should be grieving his mother. Annabeth spends less time with Percy before his quest. They basically don't interact with one another until the Bathroom scene. Instead Percy spends more time with Luke, which given the sped up nature of the show, is important to establish the friendship between the two. Percy isn't attacked by a Hellhound at camp. This was an important factor in the decision to send Percy on his quest originally, as it was thought he may be safer outside the camp than in. It also gave Chiron and others reason to suspect Hades as the Lightning Thief. And the biggest change, as I've mentioned a little so far, is that the time frame has sped up drastically, to be more in-line with Rick's more recent books. Percy gets kicked out of school faster, He spends less time at camp unclaimed, he spends much less time training, and he gets a single week for his quest. A quest that he originally had at least a month to complete. Which is a major change given that a significant amount of his time on the quest was spent in the Lotus Hotel and Casino. Which we know is still a part of this show's plot.

And now for some fun speculation on other changes I think may occur. The incident with Procrustes won't be featured. It's pretty horrifying and brutal segment that isn't overly important to the story. Feels like an easy skip to me. Hermes will give the escape pearls to Percy at the Lotus Hotel instead of the Nereid after the Echidna Encounter. Pure speculation here, but I can't see why he'd be involved in the plot of this at all unless he was acting in his role as the messenger of the gods and delivering something to the questers. The subplot of Percy's rampage of terror across the US will likely be dropped. The main fallout being the complete breakdown of the relationship between Gabe, Percy and Sally can still happen without the prolonged media meltdown simply by Gabe going full Abuser over his car getting totalled. This is a pretty dark plot line for a kids show. I could see it getting cut in favour of a more amicable separation of Gabe and Sally. But Rick also doesn't like to shy away from these more complex topics, and it might be good for a kid's show to touch on them.

[fishfingersandscarves]

PLEASE tell us the Diann lore 🙏🙏

OKAY NONNIE i have been bursting at the seams about them

first things first, Diann (Dee-ann) is a nonbinary human bard (32 years old) from Baldur's Gate. If they were a little companion I think their quest would be something like The Silent Bard.

They're pretty taciturn and dry, willing to sing when pressed but refuses to play music on any kind of instrument and won't answer why. A complete bleeding heart who tries to stay out of shit but ends up in the thick of it anyway - usually they'll say "handle it yourself! i'm not getting involved" and then five seconds later. they are involved.

Diann's backstory is that they got married very young. Their husband, Owyn, was much older than them and charmed them with his "maturity" and seeming magic know how. He was training to be a wizard in Baldur's Gate and convinced them to run away with him and get married, moving deeper into the city. They used to play their violin all the time when they were younger, before they were married and during their courtship, but as time went on, Owyn focused more and more on his studies and started to take out his frustrations on them. Diann wanted to perform and get a formal musical education but owyn insisted on them staying home and keeping house while he studied magics.

As time went on, their marriage degraded and Owyn kept insisting that Diann stay home, pressuring them about settling down and building a family. Eventually things began to escalate, the further Owyn seemed to get in his magical studies the more frustrated he would become when he couldn't perfect something right away, and he would take it out on Diann. This happened for several years before it reached a breaking point when Owyn attacked Diann and scarred their body with Burning Hands.

After that, Diann made plans to leave and ran away from home. They ended up living on the streets for some time, busking for money to save so they could try and start anew.

Unfortunately, after being free from the house for only a couple of months, Owyn tracked Diann down and cornered them in an alleyway.

However! At that moment, the mindflayers came and Diann got slorped up by the mindflayer ship and wormed.

All this to say, if they had a quest it would be Kill My Husband.

other fun diann facts:

if there ever was a big "who did this to you moment with their big ole body scar" diann would just deadpan: I already told you guys (they didn't they don't talk about themself ) so usually they'll tell Different fun lies like "Tripped and fell on a matchbox" "went skiing in avernus" "splashed lava on my face thinking it was water" etc until uh oh! They get caught and have to fess up for real

hey can't really feel the parts of their body with the burn scars anymore except for the very edges that are really sensitive

i imagine the first time they play their violin would be the tiefling party, away from the crowd, just a solemn, quiet song that they could enjoy

and finally because I have Diann romancing astarion:

this is basically what the first hookup was like:

two bitches faking having a good time.

diann: if I don't pretend like this is a perfect time he'll leave and I'll be alone again

Both of them going You Only Value Me For My Body when jokes on them they're falling in love with personality and soul

[icedragonlizard]

Wave 3 Dream Friend dynamics

A lot of the Kirby fandom interprets these three being friends. No surprise that I do the same.

I'll be going over their individual dynamics: Magolor & Taranza, Magolor & Susie and Taranza & Susie.

But before that, I have one general headcanon for all of them: They all met each other before Star Allies. Hahaha. There you go.

Anyways, let's get started on their individual dynamics. Please note that as always, this is purely my headcanons.

I'll put a 'Keep reading' tag because this is gonna be quite a long one!

Magolor and Taranza

-They're conversation partners. Magolor is always energetic and talkative in terms of conversations, and Taranza really likes that from him, so he considers Magolor as a really good convo partner.

-Magolor sometimes gives Taranza gifts to make him feel better, because he feels bad for his loss.

-Hugs happen between the two as well, since Taranza could always use hugs. It always makes him feel better.

-Magolor sometimes pranks Taranza but he never tries to go too far. There are occasions where Taranza attempts to prank him back as a 'gotcha moment'.

-Magolor has gotten Taranza out of his comfort zone to do more and more fun things.

-Being friends with Magolor long enough has convinced Taranza to start slowly growing back the super smug and arrogant persona that he once had before Sectonia's death.

-They sometimes have dumb and stupid fun together. Taranza is one of Magolor's many partners-in-crime.

-Considering that they're both magicians, they talk about magic. Magolor is a magic fanatic and always gets stoked to see Taranza performing his magic.

-Magolor promotes Floralia in Merry Magoland, to Taranza's joy.

-There were moments where Magolor ended up upsetting Taranza with things that involved Sectonia, including the "Old Friend" mask when he was making masks for Merry Magoland. However, he always sincerely apologizes every time this happens.

-They sometimes visit each other's homes.

-Magolor sometimes likes to hype Taranza up to other people. Taranza thinks it's both really nice and also honestly a little bit embarrassing at the same time.

Magolor and Susie

-Conversation partners. They both have wider vocabulary than just about anyone else, so their conversations will seem super nerdy.

-They've disclosed their Another Dimension experiences with each other. They both totally agree that Another Dimension sucks. Magolor was incredibly stunned at how long Susie was stuck there.

-Friendly rivals, basically. They love to constantly 'own' each other through bickering and insults. They get entertainment out of pissing each other off. It's enriching for them.

-Magolor pulls pranks on Susie sometimes. Eventually, this has resulted in Susie learning to pull pranks on her own. She does it to Magolor, much to his surprise. He both loves and hates it when she pranks him back.

-These two are basically partners-in-crime. Aside from trolling each other, they also like coordinating in trolling others.

-They've bailed each other out of trouble a few times.

-Magolor has gotten Susie out of her comfort zone to do more fun things, similarly to what he did for Taranza.

-They talk about technology a lot. They collaborate on tech stuff. Susie once offered to help repair the Lor Starcutter when it broke down one time because Magolor crashed it during a trip.

-They've formed a business partnership. Magolor promotes Susie's tech in Merry Magoland and even gives her free ice cream when she shows up. Susie on the other hand flies by other planets to advertise Magolor's theme park. Susie also occasionally sings in Merry Magoland whenever her schedule makes it possible.

-Neither of them are seriously huggers on their own, so they don't hug each other, but they fist-bump a lot. They mostly fist-bump when they both feel smug. They also do super 'cool' handshakes.

-Magolor has told Susie a few times that he would've liked to meet her father. She isn't really sure what to make of this. It made her feel extremely awkward at first when he went as far as to make a mask of her father for Merry Magoland, but eventually got over it.

-Susie's weekend outfit mask for Merry Magoland happened because Magolor asked her to show him another outfit she wears to make a mask out of. He was generous enough to make 2 masks of her likeliness because she's one of his closer friends.

Taranza and Susie

-They found genuine solace in each other because of their losses. They feel really bad for each other. The friendship between these two is special because they understand each other's struggles in a way that nobody else does.

-Best friends.

-They both act as emotional support for each other, even if Susie normally isn't great at doing that, but she really feels for Taranza because she's noticed the similarities that his struggles have to hers... both stayed loyal to their corrupted loved ones until they died.

-Both have been working on trying to recover from their losses, but Taranza has had a harder time doing so. This has resulted in Susie often taking care of him whenever they're near each other. Vice versa has happened as well, but not as often.

-Hugs happen between these two. Taranza is one of the very few people that Susie gladly accepts hugs from. The other being Kirby.

-Taranza gets really defensive whenever someone would accuse Susie of being a bad person. He would always immediately stand up for her and make it clear that she's trying to be better compared to what she was before.

-Susie protects Taranza. She literally acts like a 'protective big sister' for him although she's like barely a year older. She'll kick your ass if you try to bully Taranza in any way. I'm looking at you, Marx.

-"HE ASKED FOR NO PICKLES" is basically what these two are like.

-They help each other learn more about each other's interests. Taranza learns more about tech and Susie learns more about flora.

-Because Magolor has gotten these two out of their comfort zones, it resulted in these two doing silly fun things together.

-Taranza wasn't really an ice cream eater before being friends with Susie. Eventually, she helps get him to eat ice cream more.

-Taranza likes that Susie's voice sounds similar to Sectonia's voice. This is a hc of mine, because… I mean, they have the same canon voice actress.

General headcanons for the trio as a whole

-They all have phones that they talk to each other on. Susie made the phones. This is especially helpful because Susie lives on a different planet that isn't Popstar, so she can just talk to the other two whenever without having to go back and forth.

-Magolor and Taranza sometimes visit Susie at her home planet, whether it's at the same time or it's just one of them. She visits them at their homes as well.

-Whenever Susie takes a vacation on Popstar, she sleeps at either Magolor's place or at Taranza's place.

-Magolor sometimes takes the other two in Lor Starcutter rides.

-The first time that any of these three visited the Forgotten Land is when Magolor used the Lor Starcutter to get all three of them there at the same time, and thus they all made their first visit there together. They did this because Elfilin doesn't like them and thus refused to make a portal for them.

-All three of them act like 'older sibling friends' to Kirby. They've been staying in touch with him after Star Allies. Kirby acts as emotional support for all three of them.

-All three of them really like Gooey. Whenever Gooey encounters one of them, he's going to receive head pats.

-The Mage Sisters are close friends to all three of them. There are hangouts and parties that involve the six of them.

-Sorry, but Marx doesn't form a quartet with them. This is because Taranza and Susie both hate Marx, as he loves to upset them both. Magolor is the only one out of the trio that is friends with Marx, as he has to keep Taranza and Susie away from him.

-One could maybe say that in my headcanon universe, Daroach could have a better chance of forming a quartet with them than Marx does. But even then, he doesn't quite make the cut either. Daroach likes to steal from Taranza and Susie, so they're not fans of him as a result, although they can tolerate him a lot better than they can with Marx. Magolor on the other hand does consider Daroach as a friend, as the two have this thing where they love stealing from each other.

-All three of them hate Dark Meta Knight. This is because of DMK's involvement in corrupting Sectonia, which of course has caused Taranza to hate him with every fiber of his being. Magolor and Susie sometimes mock and harass DMK in the name of Taranza.

-Magolor considers Taranza and Susie to be his next best friends, after Marx and Kirby.

That's everything I got for these three! If you're a fan of one of these three characters and you really liked reading all this, you're welcome!

[noatpad]

I've been rather busy with grad school projects lately (and it'll probably last a bit longer), but recently a friend surprised me with some gift art of my dnd lad and his own. Since the campaign has been put on hold (and also wanting to scribble another idea related to it), I had an itch to scratch.

This is a "what if" redesign of my boy, alongside some of my personal scribbles I've done of him over the past few months that I'm still fond of

So a bit of exposition!

I say "what if", 'cause Tint here is a special case where his design was intentionally left untouched, or well, intended to keep his outfit and general look the same as my art style matured. Reason why is that I wanted to keep it consistent with his ongoing campaign, and I found it fun to draw things as it developed. So any different takes of him I did (which there is at least one of, that being his Metronome look) was like an AU or was what actually part of the campaign, which you'll see with all the scribbles below.

Though the thing was that back then, I made Tint as more so a one-time, hypothetical character. At the time, I actually didn't think I'd ever get the chance to play dnd 'cause of constraints I had (how wrong I was). But hearing a couple of friends talk about how fun it was for them, I basically made him just to imagine that "what if" (just noticed that that first sketch was actually posted here, and yeah I even said it was a hypothetical on the canvas, hah).

Because of that though, I went for a rather basic design: purple tunic, round glasses, long scarf. Fun fact: foxfolk was picked mostly just because I was comfortable drawing it after scribbling Note and Clef so much (and magic seemed rather fitting for a fox given the ethereal side of folklore involving them). I still like him since I grew attached to playing him, don't get me wrong! But now that I know a good bit better on anatomy & character design, and Tint's story took shape, I figured it'd be fun to explore what he'd look like if I were to redesign him.

As a tangent, gosh it's so surprising to me how my ability to do anatomy and structure on a character has grown in just the past couple of years. Not to say I dislike it, but I conditioned myself to only be capable of drawing that style consistently. I think I only could've had this growth because of the friends and inspirations I slowly learned from.

And yeah! There's a lot more intent on his palette being themed around light or radiance (and I've been informed it looks reminiscent to the colors on Isaac from Golden Sun, which is a funny coincidence), and hopefully he looks more adventurous yet studious type of mage!

[sunshine-zenith]

Playing around with inking/shading/simple coloring a bit more. Not sure how much I love inking — on one hand it’s super satisfying erasing the undersketch and being left with crisp lines, on the other I realized entirely too late I should’ve used the star as a light source and couldn’t go back to fix my shading

Onto this guy— I’ll admit, Wish is kinda growing on me these days. I don’t think it’ll be great, but it’ll probably be good. The character designs are beautiful and the way the animators are rendering the CGI is pretty neat. I do love that we’re getting a Classic Disney Villain again, though, and I’m super interested in this guy because he seems to break so many CDV rules — while there’s some Evil Green Magic in his villain song, he himself doesn’t have a CDV color pallet (greens, black, reds, purples), instead having light grays, whites, and light blues. He looks genuinely friendly and approachable, but he isn’t a Plot Twist Villain. They’re outright advertising him with his Villain Song. He’s also married. I don’t think we’ve seen him and his wife interact at all in marketing yet, and given the fact that the queen is included in toy sets with Asha, the hero, I don’t think she’s gonna be a Plot Twist Villain, so they might not still be married by the end of the movie, but still, it’s unique (I can’t think of a single CDV who’s married off the top of my head. The rest play Unwanted Suiters, widows, romantic obstacles, reconned into having a past relationship for the sake of Sequel Babies, or have no involvement in romance at all)

I’m crossing my fingers that he has more than one song. Thanks I Get has grown on me the more I’ve listened to it, and I do like the actual animation that accompanies it, but like. It’s basically Evil You’re Welcome y’all. Like Gaston got a fun Villain Song too, yeah but he also had the Mob Song — please give Magnifico the same courtesy and give him a second boisterous and wicked song — it doesn’t have to be another Hellfire, but please gimme more Friends on the Other Side and Mother Knows Best, I beg you. This is the first actual CDV in a musical in what? A decade? Go all out with him!

(Also, juries out on if it’ll gain an explosive fandom after the movie comes out or not. I can see fans going either way — Encanto took off like wildfire when it went to streaming and Frozen had those snow storms in NY to help boost it, while other Disney movies barely have their time in the sun. Tbh there have been many media properties that I’ve been meh about over all that I’ve come to adore because they have an engaging fandom and good character designs/concepts)

[hchollym]

Percy Weasley & Sansa Stark Parallels

This post is going to be more for me than anything else, because I doubt many people are interested in this very specific topic, but I couldn't resist.

Percy & Sansa are two of my favorite characters in literature, and the more I started to think about it, the more I realized how much they have in common. I know that sounds strange, and don't get me wrong, there are some key differences (Sansa was definitely more of an innocent victim - the poor girl was only 11 years old), but they do actually have a lot of similarities as well!

I'm going to link some posts/metas about Percy, just in case someone wants to see extra support for my claims, because I feel like Sansa is a little bit more obvious/self-explanatory in canon.

Basics

They are both tall redheads (which doesn't mean anything, but it is a fun coincidence). 🙂

They are both unfairly hated by fandom because of the POV trap (Harry & Arya).

Personality

They are both feminine (see this post about Percy).

They both love reading, and neither of them are very athletic.

They were both naïve and trusted the wrong people because they didn't know any better. Unfortunately, they were both raised by their fathers to trust in something that wasn't trustworthy (the Ministry of Magic - see this post about Percy - & the idea that most men/knights are honorable).

They are both romantic in nature (Percy writing love letters & Sansa reading love stories). Interestingly enough, both of them are the first siblings in their families to be given a storyline that involves a romantic relationship/betrothal & yet both of their oldest brothers end up getting married first (which is not a bad thing; it's just an observation).

Family/Background

They were both the "perfect" child who had high expectations placed on them from a young age ("Sansa was a lady at three, always so courteous and eager to please."), yet they were also ignored the most because they were "easy" compared to their siblings (see this post on Percy's relationship with his mother).

This is why their acts of "rebellion" (Percy disowning his family & Sansa going to Cersei) were so unexpected. They were always so well-behaved until they finally felt pushed over the edge:

“What do we want to be prefects for?” said George, looking revolted at the very idea. “It’d take all the fun out of life.”  Ginny giggled.  “You want to set a better example for your sister!” snapped Mrs. Weasley.  “Ginny’s got other brothers to set her an example, Mother,” said Percy loftily. 

suddenly changing to:

“He went completely berserk. He said — well, he said loads of terrible stuff... And he packed his bags the same night and left. He’s living here in London now.”

&

"It was for love," Sansa said in a rush. "Father wouldn't even give me leave to say farewell." She was the good girl, the obedient girl, but she had felt as wicked as Arya that morning, sneaking away from Septa Mordane, defying her lord father..."

They were both usually the odd one out with their siblings, who all had a closer bond with each other than with Percy/Sansa. Their siblings also looked down on their interests because they couldn't relate to them:

“We’re trying to standardize cauldron thickness. Some of these foreign imports are just a shade too thin — leakages have been increasing at a rate of almost three percent a year —” “That’ll change the world, that report will,” said Ron. “Front page of the Daily Prophet, I expect, cauldron leaks.” Percy went slightly pink.

&

Sansa would have sighed and shed a tear for true love, but Arya just thought it was stupid. 

They were also the target of their siblings' pranks/mischief:

“I shudder to think what the state of my in-tray would be if I was away from work for five days.” “Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh, Perce?” said Fred. “That was a sample of fertilizer from Norway!” said Percy, going very red in the face. “It was nothing personal!” “It was,” Fred whispered to Harry as they got up from the table. “We sent it.”

&

"Arya started it," Sansa said quickly, anxious to have the first word. "She called me a liar and threw an orange at me and spoiled my dress, the ivory silk, the one Queen Cersei gave me when I was betrothed to Prince Joffrey."

They were both resented by their younger sibling(s), who each happen to be about 2 years younger than them (Fred and George & Arya):

"...we never had trouble like this from Bill or Charlie or Percy —” “Perfect Percy,” muttered Fred.

&

Sansa had the grace to blush. She blushed prettily. She did everything prettily, Arya thought with dull resentment.

Ironically enough, their parents usually let those siblings get away with a lot more than Percy or Sansa would have been allowed to get away with (see this post on Molly & Arthur's lack of discipline with the twins):

None of which stopped Arya, of course. One day she came back grinning her horsey grin, her hair all tangled and her clothes covered in mud, clutching a raggedy bunch of purple and green flowers for Father. Sansa kept hoping he would tell Arya to behave herself and act like the highborn lady she was supposed to be, but he never did, he only hugged her and thanked her for the flowers. That just made her worse.

Circumstances/Storylines

Their fathers failed them (though not on purpose) when they needed them most (Arthur yelled at Percy and accused him of spying instead of calmly helping Percy see that he was being used & Ned refused to explain why Sansa's betrothal was being called off). This directly led to their acts of rebellion.

As a result, they were both taken advantage of by people in power (Fudge & Cersei) and separated from their family. Initially, this is what they both thought they wanted (Percy chose to leave & Sansa wanted to remain in King's Landing with Joffrey instead of returning home), but they both ended up regretting it (after losing their innocence and naivety) and wanting their family back.

They were both young, and yet they were judged for not knowing something that even the adults didn't know (Percy didn't notice that his boss, Barty Sr., who he barely knew, was under the Imperious Curse, while Dumbledore failed to notice that his old friend was actually a Death Eater using a Polyjuice potion & Sansa thought that she could trust Cersei while Ned believed that he could trust Cersei enough to warn her to leave town without her retaliating against him).

While they were separated/alone, their mothers were really the only ones doing anything to try and get them back (Molly visited Percy & Catelyn freed Jaime).

They both had to play their part in politics under a corrupt government. They both originally wanted to be a part of that system (eventually becoming the Minister of Magic & eventually becoming the queen). They ended up realizing that the people in charge were not as noble and well-intentioned as they thought.

They learned to be more careful about who they trusted, and they adapted to survive (Percy in a Ministry controlled by Voldemort & Sansa with the threat of Cersei, Jeffrey, and Littlefinger).

They both lost a brother. 😭

He and Ron had both grabbed Hermione and pulled her to the floor, but Percy lay across Fred’s body, shielding it from further harm.

&

Robb had died at a wedding feast as well. It was Robb she wept for. 

They both reconnected/made amends with the sibling(s) that initially resented them (Sansa and Arya will meet again and work things out in the books - fight me):

“I was a fool!” Percy roared, so loudly that Lupin nearly dropped his photograph. “I was an idiot, I was a pompous prat, I was a— a— ” “Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron.” said Fred. Percy swallowed. “Yes, I was!” “Well, you can’t say fairer that that,” said Fred, holding out his hand to Percy.

In Conclusion

I just found it interesting that two of my favorite characters - who seem very different - have so much in common. I'm sure that says something about me! 🤣😊

[the-hydroxian-artblog]

In Hanging Out what were some of the character's childhood like, and what did they do for fun, specifically Sonic's orphan childhood.

Oh man, that's a tricky question, because my logic is taking what canon establishes and moving mostly just forward in a different direction. Commenting on their childhoods feels weirdly wrong? If only because there's so many different angles I could take.

Sonic in particular feels "wrong" to get details for, but I like to think he actually was kind of bratty? And had a habit of being a bit of a vandal for fun, and playing "extreme soccer" with random objects, kicking them far and "catching" them like a mile away. But he hashis heart in the right place and got enough experience of breaking things and causing problems early on that he eventually shaped up into the hero we know now.

All the others after the cut!

Amy was likely a very... stand-alone child who was stuck with taking care of herself. She likely researched "spells" and forms of magic for fun, though she never likely found the best uses for it beyond summoning magic. I considered a plot point of her mom being an enigmatic figure who researched Little Planet, and that lead to Amy wanting to get into tarot, but I never got very far. I think she had minimal supervision and got a small amount of wealth from an inheritance and just made-do with that. Despite that, she still stuck with being kind and doing her best to support others.

Tails likely didn't do much in particular for fun besides tinkering. He got bullied for his tails, etc etc, all kinda predictable there.

Shadow... fanon kinda came clutch and already outlined enough details there. Raised by Maria and Gerald, probably did cute slice of life stuff on the ARK at first before everything went to shit. For fun, he probably liked board games in particular. Maybe pong.

Tikal beat the shit out of people for fun, but in a friendly sparring way. In her eyes as a child, fighting should be purely recreational, and conflict should be settled with words. Naturally some aspects of that perspective got warped with time.

Mike is an interesting one. He basically got a crude simulation copy-paste of Sonic's childhood, but instead of being an orphan, he "grew up" with Eggman, who instilled a lot of obedience training. Which evidently backfired pretty hard for Hangin Out to be as it is. He likely played games like chess with Eggman for "'fun"", but he actually just prefers flying, since it's the one thing the original Sonic could never do.

Buddy was a government experiment who was actually similar to Shadow and Metal in terms of how he was "raised", so he never really got to "have fun" with any activity. Eventually as an adult though, he pursued his main hobbies, sound engineering and headphone/music reviewing. He runs a channel like a bizarro version of dankpods, where all of his humor is extremely dry and he goes into great technical detail about whatever he comes across.

Zero had the most fucked up upbringing, and likely fucking. Played knife games with drug lords for fun. That's the kind of messiness we're dealing with. He did not have a good life.

Sandy didn't get to really have a "Childhood" but her early years of operation involved snooping around different locations for archaeology and intel. From there she developed a love for music, often DJing for fun in secret.

Jeff is kind of. In his formative years, already? And we already know his deal. He plays minecraft and Civ and SimCity for fun.

Rouge stole shit for fun.

OH and CHASEY how could i forget?? Chasey is a mess lol. Chasey, um. ate food as a chao? and then enjoyed. Playing dress up with Cream. Also enjoyed dancing as a young blob.

[tumblingxelian]

Wednesday Fanfic Concept - Duo Detectives!

Summary:

Enid does not trust Tyler, not in the least. SO when Wednesday skips away to get a ride for him she doubles back to make sure the girl won't be ambushed in the parking lot or something.

Instead she finds herself pursuing Tyler into the woods and witnesses his trust nature and the death of Rowan

Wednesday, now armed with a secondary witness and ally is determined to fin out the truth behind Rowan's death, the prophecy and most of all...

Why Principle Weems and Sheriff Galpin are coordinating to cover up Tyler's murders?

Concept.

So yeah, basically expanding on the fact Enid seemed to have an intense distrust and dislike for Tyler and that leading to her being in the know of the monster and murders.

The reason this isn't taken straight to Weems is because thanks to Enid's assistance they are able to determine she is a shapeshifter and so start thinking Weems is in on it.

As opposed to desperately scrambling to keep the school open. Her penchant for trying to encourage outreach day and whitewashing history does not engender trust.

Because of these elements, I imagine Enid only explains all this side of stuff to Wednesday after joining her looking for Rowan's remains. Likely by sneaking her out earlier by using Wednesday joining the Black Cats and collecting paint from Xavier as a pretense.

The Hyde also freaks Enid out on an instinctively level because rather than true Outcasts they are more like a generational curse applied to several families. An external, magical parasite that was made from a Lycans spirit being mutilated and attached to a human to make living weapons in ages past. E

Enid remembers her mom telling her stories about the "Hyde Hunters" who killed little Wolves who could not transform because they were easy targets and used their skin to make bastardizations of true werewolves.

Notes:

The duo also can't determine if Bianca is a pawn, heir apparent or totally unaware. She isn't helping by being more involved, more effective and potentially trying to seduce Enid after Weds revealed the Nightshades to her & Yoko got guilt bombed, so Enid was offered membership and revealed she used to have a crush on Bianca.

Bianca (Strokes Enid's chin and walks away) I'll be waiting~ Enid: (Drops to the ground) Oh you're really in it now Sinclair.

Not sure of much passed that point but yeah, them thinking Weems is the mastermind is a huge part of why the case drags on.

Oh also the Nightshades actually do stuff, mostly smuggling and the like.

Eugene is also aware of all this as his hive hut is the main base of operation but he generally just observes and offers suggestions till he gets injured.

The basic premise is "Wednesday, but what if Enid was Wednesday's partner in the crime solving?"

I had the amusing idea of switching out the "Apologize to Thing or I won't help you" with Enid just going with her but Thing very deliberately only riding on Enid's shoulder and basically giving Weds the silent treatment for that segment of investigation.

Its fun to tinker with these things and see how "Investigate Rowan's death" can still happen but in very different ways

[delusional-mishaps]

hi jester! again! im going to be known as the poly anon at this point. anyway could you do wedding (orrr just marriage stuff in general?!$?3!3?!$) hcs for bad sanses x reader poly,,,, i wanna see your take on it!!! :D

- ⭑ anon

very loose part 2 to this

half these boys (cough cough basically everyone but grimm cough cough) did not care about a wedding. like at all.

of course, if it meant something to you, they'd gladly hold a ceremony, but marriage is something else to monsters. sure, sometimes they will do some big ole ceremony, but it's usually a very private thing between partners.

they figured having one big ceremony would probably just be better than like, what, five different ones for each of your partners? of course, everyone's ideas clashed on how they should decorate, where they should have it, blah blah, so basically every decision was left up to you. since they can't decide, you get to! fun fun :)

it'll be a huge wedding. like everyone in the multiverse is invited and everyone is getting along for the day huge. everyone's behaving just because they don't want to face grimm's wrath at his wedding being interrupted.

god help anyone that causes a scene. everything needs to be perfect, and if anyone steps out of the perfect image any of the boys have in their head...? booted out immediately. never to return. don't ever show your face around any of them ever again.

i think the wedding would probably take place in outertale, or one of the other aus very similar. i mean, how many people can say they were married on the moon? without having to wear space suits? very few. plus it's a beautiful place, and everyone you're involved with has some interest or another with space.

i think it would be really god damn funny if ink were the officiator. not for any particular reason, i just think it'd be really funny

everyone is blown away when you come down the aisle. you look stunning in your outfit (not that you don't look stunning ALL THE TIME), flowers possibly held in your hands as everyone stands, watching you walk down. your boys are wordless with varying colours of blushes

it is very crowded up at the front where you all are. between ink, you, your five boys, each of their groomsmen (they each only have like. one. none of them have friends.) and however many of your brides maids/groomsmen/gender neutral term thereof, there isn't much room. you're all squished together

pisces definitely cried while saying his vows, and even vendetta got a little choked up. aero was wiping tears off his cheeks, but it was hard to tell if it was actual tears or just the muck that constantly drips from his sockets. grimm was quite calm, but he'd shower you in affection any time you were caught alone together after the fact. delusion also didn't cry, but you're 80% sure he was on the verge of rebooting the entire time the attention was on him

it's very. hectic. despite your best efforts, it isn't easy to have half the multiverse get along for hours at a time. once the proper ceremony was over, it all went downhill

you think vendetta actually??? got into a fist fight with someone at one point?? you didn't see who, nor did you know why, but his tie was ripped and his suit was kinda ruffled when he cane over and kissed you. you weren't gonna ask what happened

probably catered by some variant of grillby, the food was deliciously greasy and there was a wide array of magic-infused drinks at the open bar. the cake and any other desserts were done by some muffet you'd contacted.

ofc this leads to nearly everyone getting drunk. surprisingly, even delusion had gotten drunk off his ass, which has never happened in the entire time you've known him. he told you it was because of the nerves when you asked. he wasn't lying.

at the end of the night, you're exhausted but very happily married to all five of your boys. when you got home, they all set up a fort to sleep in for the night, so you could all stay together <33 delusion had his own little area, due to his touch aversion, but you could still see him whenever you looked :]

they never told you anything about the honeymoon other than they would take care of it, so you're pleasantly surprised to find some grand trip planned the following day. have fun with your new husbands ;)