#but with the theory that the eye holds a part of Mana + is connected to the current earl

[uozlulu]

Black Clover chapter 342 reaction and spoilers

The story of the five headed dragon and maiden explains why Ryuuya’s name has two dragons in it (each Ryuu).

Ichika tells Asta, “"It was said that the yoruyoku of the dragon seeped out turning the ocean black and stagnant, twisting space and time, and connecting it to hell,” which is interesting because 1) that’s basically what Yami’s dark magic can do and 2) it might explain how Yami ended up on the other side of the ocean in Clover Kingdom years later if perhaps some kind of warp or portal exists in the sea that turned black in the legend.

It’s interesting that it’s Sukehiro and Young Master Ryuudou because that only reinforces the parallel here between Asta and Yuno even though Yuno grew up not knowing he was of a higher class. It also fits in that Ryuuya has gone on to become shougun whereas we all know Asta will likely become Wizard King unless the ending to the series is a complete restructuring of Clover Kingdom’s class system and Wizard King evolves into a council or dissolves as a title entirely.

Ryuuya says, “I want this country to be a place where we can all live and laugh together no matter what our rank or yoryoku looks like,” and it makes me curious what went through Yami’s mind the first time Asta yammered about his dream in this context since Yami chose Asta at the xam because Asta was going to work hard and not give up despite being at a disadvantage mana-wise.

Some observations:

Everyone is present at a torii at night, which seems suspicious especially since it’s past midnight since that looks like a waning third quarter phase moon.

Ryuuya is alive but injured and holding Ichika in a way that makes it look like he picked her up, which fits with the fact she looks like she’s waking up or coming to. I’m inclined to believe this means that Ryuuya might have arrived part way through whatever happened, likely the noise drawing his attention.

Ichika goes on to tell Asta that Yami abandoned her and Ryuuya, which seems to suggest he did not attack them (at least after this particular visual in the chapter), though we don’t have proof of this yet.

I have a few theories on what happened.

I think the most likely one is that the clan or their dad was going to kill Ichika and Yami protected her. The reason she doesn’t remember how this began is she was drugged or knocked out for whatever reason. Ryuuya arrived part way through, tried to protect Ichika from those that wanted to harm her, and Yami finished everyone off.

Taking Yami’s expression when he looks at Ryuuya and Ichika into account, it’s also possible that he was possessed by something be it the dragon or the maiden and gutted the clan in some sort of culmination of the legend itself. Perhaps has the maiden (Yami) destroying the dragon (clan) especially since Yami and Vangeance tend to be depicted as a kind of yin and yang situation and yin tends to be associated with things like the new moon, the feminine, darkness, night, etc…

It’s also possible something took possession of Ichika who then threatened the clan, so when they went to take her out, Yami killed them all. This might not have happened at the beach but earlier or I’d think she’d be covered in blood too possibly

If we’re going the Itachi route here, which I don’t think we will, then I would think that there might be some kind of divine or devil influence happening here since the theme of this saga post-Eye of the Midnight Sun saga, appears to be devils and angels. If this is the case, this might also be how Yami ended up in Clover, although I’m inclined to believe he ended up in Clover due to a warp or portal established by the legend at the start of this chapter.

There are some other options but I’m inclined to side with Asta here. There’s something that started the incident and we don’t know what it is. I suspect whatever it was, it’ll make sense given what we already know of Yami. This is also why I’m inclined to think the motivation is going to be different than Itachi’s motivation because Yami doesn’t seem to have that kind of baggage you might expect if someone like say Ryuuya’s dad blackmailed him into the massacre. Although Yami also left immediately but at the same time in any of these scenarios he just might to escape a murder charge

I could of course be wrong especially since we’re missing Ryuuya’s and Yami’s sides of this story so we have very little information to go on here.

[sashibunbun]

So something I’ve noticed.

I can tell a lot of people haven’t gotten some things about Deltarune, don’t know whether it’s too subtle for them, or if they’re unknowingly just falling back to some now entrenched ideas. The Snowgrave/Wierd/Pepis/Genocide/Mindbreak the Nice Reindeer Girl Route, as well as Jevil-Spamtom-Whoever the bonuses on the later chapters will be also do it, as well as an even bigger problem, that seems to come from not getting that it’s not Undertale 2. More below the cut

it’s not Kris doing these things, in fact Kris seems to obviously not like it. You get back after the Berdley battle and winner winner frozen chicken dinner, and Susie and Ralsei notic that Chris is, excuse the language, fucking horrified at what YOU did, and when he wants to act on his own, he rips out your connection to him, his SOUL. Hell so far the bonus bosses have even pointed this out hard, with Spamtom NEO being so incredibly on the nose that even somebody blind could see it, he’s not the only one in the fight with strings holding him up. 

And hoo boy the whole route to getting Spamtom Neo as the final boss, where you, not Kris, but you the player, decide to break the mind of Noelle. It’s subtle, but if you actually pay attention, it becomes a better, “dude, what the fuck” moment than the full Genocide rout of Undertale, because there’s literally no getting around that it’s you the player doing it, it’s you the player using Kris for a bit, just to get into Noelle’s head, she thinks it’s Kris, but who merely whispers their new plaything’s name to snowgrave the Snowgrave Route’s Spamtom Neo after Kris calls for his two friends, and they don’t come? You, You whisper Noelle’s name and like the good, now broken, girl she is, she comes running and kills an enemy. And see above, Kris is likely fucking horrified both because of what Noelle’s become and what YOU have done.

And speaking of Undertale, dear lord, how has it been nearly three years and people are still acting like this is Undertale 2? Toby might be known for reusing some things (Megalovania, certain other melodies, characters), but he’s from the RPG era I’m from, where even if you reuse models and names, the characters, sounds or even themes can be the same and have it be totally different. Like this is the ear when the Lunar, Mother, and Breath of Fire series were the odd ones out. Where the Mana series/style led to literally YEARS of Secret of Evermore being considered someplace in there even though it’s a totally separate game with no ties. It’s not Undertale 2 so, and I’m going out on limb here, you’re not going to have a lot of the same things that were explained or put in in Undertale (monsters turn to dust, W.D. Gaster being a meta joke about dummied out characters, a simple genocide run, Humans being the special species with DETERMINATION). Hell the Hometown of Chapter 1 kinda points this out with how incredibky weird things are compared to Undertale. Undyne has both eyes, and doesn’t know who Alphys is, Bratty and Catty aren’t friends, hell they’re not your basic queen bee types, Mettaton never got his body, Asgore and Toriel aren’t together, but not because Asgore (intentionally, see the theory on December Holiday) killed kids, but because of something else.

In short on this portion, You are an edlritch entity controlling a troubled kid, who has the power to make his life better or fuck with everybody else in horrifying ways in a world that might have familiar faces, but is vastly different.

Now the second part. The December Holiday incident.

So Chapter 2 (and parts of Chapter 1′s Hometown section) brought to light something that might have really screwed up Kris, Toriel and Asgore’s marriage, The Holidays, and hell might even be the whole reason Kris is absolutely 100% able to be used by you (remember, you are an eldritch being who’s making these puppets, especially Kris, dance on your strings). It’s what I call the December Holiday Incident.

So we know that Noel has an older sister named Dess, and given some context, it’s probably short for December because of the Calendar in Noelle’s, “Algorythmically Generated” Room and the fact that she froze up on an easy word like December at the spelling bee, and her family’s theme naming (Rudolph, Noel-le). We also know that Kris, Noelle, Dess, and Azzy used to play together, and something happened.

My theory is that the Dreemur and Holiday kids were playing around that bunker or whatever it is down south, during the winter (becomes important with Noelle), and Dess went missing, like out of the blue missing. Asgore and everybody starts searching, because the cops really have nothing better to do, Winter turns to Spring (all the while Noelle is searching up to see if she’s turned up somewhere, because she searched December Holiday enough that Queen caught it), and it comes around, and Asgore gives up, either because he found Dess and there was evidence of Kris being involved, or He figured out where she went and likely had Noelle’s mom on his back to hide whatever it was, either way, he looks incompetent, and like he or somebody he knows may have just killed her, leading to his stepping down, Toriel can’t forgive this and divorces him and because it’s because of what happened for him to step down, she gets both Azzy and Kris. Any way it goes, there’s something about December Holiday, winter, her missing, that bunker thing and all of Asgore’s problem, as evidenced by Noelle and certain breadcrumbs about what happened. So no, Asgore probably didn’t kill a kid, but he may have, through intentional or unintentional negligence killed a kid and that’s why he’s where he is, why he’s treatin Rudy (his best friend) like a romantic partner, why Kris (before you et your little fingers in him) is probably a troubled kid, and why Noelle is so big on ice and has her moments of trauma.

[echoes-of-the-clockwork]

Book Two: Sapphire (Ignis x Reader) Chapter VIII

Deeper into the Nebulawood, the royal retinue was greeted by more fallen trees. They littered the sides of the somewhat narrow path while some proved to be obstacles blocking their way. They crawled over a few trees to proceed forward and eventually enter a clearing. A pack of voretooths who were nearby ran past them as they fled from the other direction.

"Whoa! Look at 'em go!" Prompto chanted as he watched the creatures flee without noticing them. He was amazed at seeing such dangerous beasts flee without fighting. "So, exactly how big are behemoths?"

"Roughly around 70 feet in size and typically weigh around 174 ton," (Y/n) answered.

"Oh, uh...that's a lot bigger than I thought. Maybe we should rethink this..."

"What, you chickening out?" Gladio inquired. "Don't understand why. You've fought big daemons before."

"Yeah, but none of them are able to shove me in their mouth!" Prompto wandered over towards the spirit amongst them. "Maybe you could scare it away, (Y/n)?"

"My spiritual form is small and fragile. How do you expect me to scare away a beast that's twenty times bigger than me?" She retorted.

"Aren't there some beasts out there that are frightened by smaller ones?"

"And you think a behemoth is one of them?"

"We could always test that theory."

She combed her (h/c) locks over her shoulders. "I'll think about it."

Continuing to make their way through the Nebulawood, the area becomes blanketed with mist. They soon make their way to an abandoned stone structure with an opening and passage through which they can crouch. Noctis begins to lead the way the moment they hear growling again.

"Noct!" Gladio grabs the prince and gently pulls him back before stepping forward. He turned back and held out his hand to indicate that he would take point himself instead of Noctis. The brute crouched down and entered the passage. He slowly and quietly makes his way forward a few feet, then turns back to motion for the others to follow. Noctis was the next to enter the passage followed by Ignis, (Y/n), and Prompto. As they crept forward, they could hear the occasional growl from the beast they were hunting.

They didn't make it halfway through the passage before Gladio stopped and turned to face them. "Hold up!" He ceased moving, eyes drifting upward towards one of the many holes in the metal structure that roofed the passageway.

With a growl, Deadeye comes into view through holes in the structure. Its right horn was missing and right eye was foggy. The skin around the eye was mauled and only a horrendous scar was left behind. Although it was blind on its right side, its nose wriggled as it sniffed the air. (Y/n) winced when realizing the beast smelt them, but couldn't see them due to its blindness in its right eye. Her heart was beginning to race due to her anxiety rising. She feared the behemoth would find them in the small crawlspace and crush them with its large form. She didn't realize she was holding her breath until she exhaled the moment the beast seemed to overlook their hiding spot and walk away.

With Deadeye gone for the moment, Gladio looks at his friends, holds up a finger, closes his right eye, and taps it with his finger. ""Deadeye"-the name says it all."

At the sudden sensation of feeling a hand over hers, (Y/n) looked down and saw she had unconsciously latched onto the sleeve of Ignis' suit jacket. He had placed his hand on hers when her grip tightened. Mumbling a small apology, she released his jacket. She then peered past the advisor to meet Gladio's gaze. "The beast knows something's amiss. We best make haste before it finds us here."

The shield nodded in agreement and motioned for them to follow. "Let's move."

A few seconds later, Deadeye wandered back into view. It was still sniffing the air and searching the area for them. (Y/n) kept the beast in her sights as they crawled forward. She tried to even her breathing and calm her racing heart, but it was difficult since the threat was only a few feet away.

It was only mere seconds later when Deadeye suddenly detected their presence. (Y/n) saw the beast heading straight for their hiding spot and lowered her body closer to the ground. The boys did the same just as the behemoth shoved its snout into the narrow passageway through one of the larger holes in the metal structure. It releases a thunderous roar, earning a shriek from Prompto.

(Y/n) prayed to the Astrals the behemoth would give up, but she gasped when it started to claw at the passageway. Noctis held out his hand to summon his sword so he could pierce the beast's snout, but he lowered his hand when hearing a familiar squeak from behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he saw (Y/n) had transformed and was crawling past Ignis. He wasn't sure what she was planning until she hopped on his back and flew out of one of the holes in the structure.

Deadeye took notice of her small form and ceased clawing at the passageway. It chased after her and they both disappeared into the fog. None of the boys could believe what she just did. They quickly exited the passageway and searched for any signs of the behemoth or the skvader.

"I-I can't believe (Y/n) just saved our skins," Prompto muttered in shock. "I hope she's okay."

"Her minute form will prove to be an advantage against a behemoth. So too will her flying ability. The beast can only jump to a certain height," Ignis stated. Although appearing calm on the surface, he was worried about her. She was a strong fighter, but even she had her limits just like the rest of them.

"We can't let her have all the fun," Noctis said. "Let's find this thing and kill it."

"It's weak on the right-no eye, no horn," Gladio responded.

"We'll stay in range until we can exploit its blind spot," the tactician added. "Let's do hope (Y/n) wears our target down before we have to engage."

Meanwhile in another part of the Nebulawood, the skvader was flying through the fog in an attempt to escape Deadeye. She was able to dodge its claws left and right before darting off deeper into the dense mist. The guardian was becoming exhausted from the persistent behemoth and took shelter in one of the trees it had yet to destroy. She curled her small form atop a branch to hide her presence. Her sapphire eyes radiated through the fog, but they weren't visible to the beast as it prowled the foggy area below.

From her perch, (Y/n) had a perfect view of Deadeye. She watched it search the fog for her, scraping its claws against some of the rock formations in the misty clearing. Its nose wriggled like earlier and she knew it was trying to sniff her out. However, it wasn't able to locate her. During their previous chase, she had spread her scent around the area to make herself harder to detect.

The behemoth roared in frustration before giving up the search. (Y/n) lifted her head and stood up, watching the beast closely as it seemed to head in a certain direction. Soaring from tree to tree, she followed Deadeye from a safe distance. When it hopped over a large rock formation and left the area, she continued her pursuit.

Exiting the foggy area, the skvader was more than joyous to see the sun again. The warm rays heated her white and black fur as she soared through the sky.

Coming across the skeletal ruins of what looked to be once a building, she watched Deadeye hop onto a cliff and lay down. It closed its eyes and seemed to fall asleep. Perching on top of the ruins, she stared at the behemoth as it slept. She figured this was its den and looked around the area. Oil drums lied around the ruins and a tattered windmill loomed across the way. Crawling through the ruins, she peered across the way and saw the boys on a cliffside. She didn't hesitate to fly over to them. Landing in front of them near the cliff, she reverted back to being human. "Deadeye's asleep. I suggest we attack."

"Nice to see you, too," Noctis sarcastically replied.

"At least you didn't become a snack and leave us to be the main course," Gladio added.

"Guess we can mark off behemoth from our list, huh?" Prompto smiled innocently at the girl.

She crossed her arms with a wry smile. "Your question from earlier is why I did what I did. Even though behemoths aren't scared of smaller creatures, they sure enjoy chasing them."

"We do appreciate what you did, (Y/n)," Ignis said. "Your quick wit prevented us from being mangled."

"I wouldn't have let any of us become chew toys."

Gladio rolled his shoulder, popping it in the process. "All right, time to take this thing down. Any ideas?"

"I do have one." (Y/n) turned her back to the boys and gestures to the oil drums scattered about below. "We could lure Deadeye to the oil drums and ignite them. That should do some heavy damage and there's more than one we can utilize."

"Lemme guess: you want me to trigger them," Noctis said.

"You've the elements at your disposal. Use those magic flasks you filled up a couple days ago."

"So do you."

"My specialty is ice. That won't help ignite oil."

Noctis looked away, slightly embarrassed that he forgot she didn't know any fire spells. Although guardians had direct connections to the mana of the world and could wield all the elements, they usually only mastered one type. "Right..." He scratched the back of his head.

"The rest of us will do our best to draw Deadeye to the oil drums. You just focus on igniting them."

"And what if we run out of oil drums before we've killed it?"

"Then we do it the old-fashion way: attack the beast head-on."

"Can't argue with that plan," Gladio commented.

"And it's the only one we have," Prompto added.

"I do believe it will suffice," Ignis spoke up.

"Then let's get this over with," Noctis sighed tiredly.

Entering Deadeye's lair, the royal retinue set the guardian's plan into motion. Noctis readied the magic flasks while the other boys summoned their weapons. (Y/n) held up her hand and conjured a large, sharp icicle. She flung it at the behemoth's head and rudely awoke it from its nap. Smirking, she watched as the beast roared and hopped down from its perch. Taking a few steps back, she put some distance between her and Deadeye in order for Noctis to ignite the first oil drum right underneath its belly. He aimed the flask at the oil drum and threw it the moment the beast charged forward.

The oil drum exploded and set Deadeye ablaze. The beast roared, jumping around wildly. It rammed into the second oil drum and the flames from its body ignited it, resulting in its body to be engulfed in fire.

"Aw, yeah! Two-for-one special!" Prompto cheered.

The group repeated the process over and over again until there were no more oil drums. Deadeye's skin was severely burned and large blisters were scattered across its body. Its other eyes was bloodied and the beast could no longer see anything. Its movements were slow and labored as it clung to the small life it had left in it. It tried to fight, but it was useless. It could only weakly swing its claws and tail a few more times before its body tipped over. It slammed into the ruins, knocking a few stone loose.

Seeing no point in dragging out Deadeye's suffering any longer, (Y/n) raised her hand and conjured a bow and a single arrow made from nothing but ice. She aimed the sharp, icy tip of the arrow at the space between the behemoth's eyes. Steadying her aim, she fired the arrow. It hit its mark and killed the beast. Its body slid down the side of the ruins before slamming against the ground, completely lifeless.

"Whoa!" Prompto ran over to the girl. His eyes examined the bow. "I knew you could make a sword from ice, but a bow too? That's pretty cool! Can you make anything else?"

(Y/n) glances at the boy's pistol before morphing the bow into an exact copy. "I can do guns, too."

Prompto, with her permission, took the ice pistol. He compared it to his and noticed the details were all there. He raised it into the air and pulled the trigger. He blinked in surprise when a bullet exited the barrel. "It even shoots bullets?!"

"That is what a gun does."

"But it's made of ice!"

"And so are the bullets."

Prompto dispelled his real pistol and pretended to aim with the ice handgun. He cackled as he continued to be in awe at her creation. Gladio, who still had his greatsword in hand, looked toward her. "You a magician?"

"It's a simple ice spell I like to call mimicry. With just enough concentration, I can fabricate an exact copy of a weapon using only ice," she explained. "Some functions are limited, but I mainly only use swords and bows. I can make guns, daggers, javelins, halberds... Pretty much any weapon as long as I have memorized a schematic."

Noctis watched the exuberant Prompto wave the ice pistol around. "I don't think you're getting that back."

"No need. It'll melt soon enough."

"Now then, shall we return to Wiz and inform him of Deadeye's vanquishing?" Ignis asked.

"Yes, please!" Prompto shouted. "Then we can ride the chocobos!"

Leaving the Nebulawood, the group returned to Wiz Chocobo Post. They spoke to the man himself and told him of Deadeye's defeat. Now, they could rent chocobos whenever they wanted. The moment Wiz told them the birds were at their disposal, Prompto grabbed Noctis and dragged him over to the pens. At the blonde's bubbly command, he rented five chocobos.

At Prompto's begging, they headed to the racetrack. Gladio, Ignis, and (Y/n) remained on the sidelines and watched Prompto and Noctis race. The two boys standing on either side of the spirit were making bets on who would win. The shield betted on the marksman while the advisor placed his gil on the prince.

When Noctis was the victor, Gladio forked over a small amount of gil to Ignis. (Y/n) glances between the two in confusion. "What's the point of betting when all our funds are combined?"

"Don't ruin the fun for us, munchkin," Gladio remarked. She shook her head with an eye roll.

"Hey, (Y/n)!" Noctis shouted, grabbing her attention. "You're next!"

She blinked owlishly. "Excuse me?"

"I wanna race you next!"

She really didn't want to race, but decided to indulge the prince. "All right." Her chocobo, which had (f/c) feathers, trotted over to the starting line as she joined Noctis. Prompto left with a defeated pout plastered on his face and stood with Gladio and Ignis.

As the girl was mounting her chocobo, the brute elbowed Ignis. "A thousand gil says Prince Charmless wins again."

"Truly a thoughtless bet," Ignis replied. "(Y/n) will be the victor."

"You just sayin' that because you're head-over-heels for her?"

"I place 3,000 gil on her due to her handling of a chocobo to be more precise than that of Noct."

The shield arched a brow. "And how do you know that?"

"By simply examining them," the advisor coolly replied. "(Y/n) has a sturdier grip and straight posture, allowing her to control her chocobo more effectively. On the other hand, Noct is slouched over and handles the rein of his bird loosely, which will result in less control."

"You're on, Iggy. We'll see who the victor will be and tell if your observation really is true. Who's got your bet, blondie?"

Prompto hummed in curiosity as he thought about Ignis' words. "I wanna bet on Noct, but maybe I should put some money down on (Y/n) instead. Iggy sounds really confident she'll win. I think I'll put 1,500 gil on (Y/n)."

Ignis slightly smirked. "Then the wager is set."

The three boys watched as the race between Noctis and (Y/n) began. The prince immediately took the lead and was ahead during the entire first lap, but he lost his lead in the middle of the second one. He tried to overtake the girl, but he couldn't. In the end, she was victorious.

Gladio was shocked at the outcome while Prompto cheered. Ignis' smirk festered as he adjusted his glasses. "I do believe Prompto and I are the victors of this wager, Gladio."

"Damn..." The brute mumbled, handing over a thousand gil. "Girl's got skill, I'll give her that."

After a couple more races and bets, they left the racetrack. Seeing as it was becoming nighttime, they decided to use some of the funds they earned from the hunt to rent the caravan. Noctis and Prompto were inside the trailer playing King's Knight on their phones. Gladio was sitting at one of the many tables located around the outpost reading his book. Ignis and (Y/n) were sitting at the table located outside the caravan, chatting away.

When they both fell silent after talking for nearly an hour straight, she asked him a question. "Iggy, are you familiar with a place called Costlemark?"

"If memory serves me, there is an ancient structure in the Duscae region known as the Costlemark Tower. It is rumored to be remnants of the ancient civilization known as Solheim," he answered. "What spurred such a question, (Y/n)?"

"On our way to Deadeye's den, I heard the voice again. Only a few words were clear and one of them was Costlemark."

"Is this something you wish to pursue?"

She nodded her head. "Yes. I know it's careless, but something tells me I need to listen."

"If you believe it so, then I shan't question it. I will discuss matters with the others on the morrow."

She smiled gently at him. "Thank you, Iggy."

Previous Chapter || Next Chapter || Masterlist

[jungle321jungle]

Ten of Swords- Level Four: Resurrection and Friendly Fire

The world of Swords of Power and Conquest was one Virgil dove head first into, giving his soul and life to the game. He would play whenever he could, and had even decided he wanted to go into game design. At times he had even dreamt of how wonderful it would be to be inside that world for even a moment- until that world became his reality.

The familiar world he had come to love was now a foreign prison, one with no way out.

A Log Horizon AU. If you don’t know what that is, this is a Show Better Than SAO AU. If you still don’t know, the sides get trapped in a video game.

Taglist: @angels-and-dreams @ollyollyoxinfree @gattonero17 @chumo-cookie @dreaming-always @anxiety-ismy-name @mrbubbajones @janustheliar @why-do-you-care

Ao3 - Masterlist

Level Four: Resurrection and Friendly Fire

Virgil came to with a large and almost painful gasp.

He sat up quickly, hands grasping at his own body in a mix of dying fear and disbelief. He forced himself to take a few deep breaths and closed his eyes. Anything to calm his quick beating heart. When he had he opened his eyes and looked around the familiar scene of the in-game hospital. At the foot of his bed stood an NPC woman in a nurse’s uniform who gave him a smile, “I hope you are feeling better sir, the doctors worked very hard to fix you up and their pay has already been deducted from your account. Before you leave, would you like to purchase some health potions?”

Virgil blinked a few times before shaking his head. “No- no I’m fine.” With that said he stood to his feet and took another deep breath.

The others.

Shit. Shit. Shit . They were all still fighting. He couldn’t afford to stay here. He hurried for the hospital’s exit as he focused in on Dee in hopes of sending a message. It seemed to take too long but then he got the sound of connection.

“Dee?”

“Oh thank God!” Dee’s voice shouted from the other side. “I- Logan I don't care about your hypotheses or what you did or didn’t confirm! I hadn't seen anyone di- can you just- damnit Logan! Can you please just focus on the fucking monster!?”

Virgil couldn’t help but laugh as he pulled out a teleport crystal, “Don’t kill it till I get there. I think I figured something out before I died.”

They weren’t doing well when Virgil returned.

HP was low across the board. Roman was in the red with Logan, Patton and Dee in the yellow- no and now Dee had joined Roman. And to make things worse, given Patton was fighting instead of healing he must be out of mana. “Drink some potions idiots!” Virgil shouted as he approached.

“See we would do that if we weren’t being attacked every five seconds!” Roman screeched back dodging a hit.

“It took you long enough!” Dee shouted, keeping his crossbow trained on the monster waiting for his shot. But he kicked over the reverted sword as his feet. “You’re a scrap picker dumbass, you should know not to die with the good stuff in your hands!”

Virgil gave a slight laugh as he picked up the sword and watched it return to a dadao. “Won’t happen again.”

“What did you figure out?” Logan asked, coming over, downing a potion as he did.

“Combinations and lags,” Virgil answered. “Well it’s more a theory. I need to try again first. Roman, let's do that again!”

“Don’t die this time!” Patton called.

“I’ll take his place,” Logan decided, moving forward.

Virgil gave a nod and rushed toward the fight. Patton was doing well enough with his short sword, he seemed to be pretty nimble and able to dodge well. Good traits for a healer. Roman’s HP meanwhile was getting lower.

“Where’s Remus?” Virgil called as they approached.

“He died a minute ago!” Roman called back as he fell back and Logan rushed in to take his spot. “So we're doing this again?”

“We need to position ourselves at its back while they keep the front occupied. I won’t die in one hit that way.”

“Just do it quickly please!” Patton called.

Virgil took a deep breath and then he and Roman were running. Roman planted himself facing the opposite direction of the yino and Virgil ran past him. Then when he was far enough away he readied himself.

The yino still had 35% left.

But if this worked that wouldn’t matter. They could kill hit. He could kill it. All he had to do was-

He was running. Sprinting. And then it was a combo sprint. He couldn’t stop the smile on his face as the world became a blur, and then he was jumping before he jumped. It didn’t make sense in theory- but the timing worked. And he was using Roman’s shield as a springboard launching towards the monster. Virgil forced his body to twist as he brought his sword round. And then he swung a moment early and brought his sword down through the monster’s neck.

With no way to slow his momentum Virgil crashed to the ground and rolled on the other side. It hurt- but compared to earlier and the joy he was feeling in that moment it didn’t matter. He hurriedly pulled himself to his feet and turned just in time to watch the yino topple. The beast collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud. And then moments later it burst into ash and was gone. Leaving only the loot behind.

Virgil was still standing staring in shock and disbelief when a body crashed into his, sending him back down to the ground. But Patton laughed as they fell, and Virgil couldn’t help but laugh too.

“Holy shit that worked!” Roman cheered from elsewhere.

“How did you do that?” Logan’s voice demanded.

Virgil pulled himself to his feet before he gave Patton a hand up which he took. “Any combination needs to be inputted before it’s acted on. There’s a lag. I don’t know how to explain moving before you move but it- it works.”

Logan looked more annoyed than pleased at the information, but instead his focus shifted to what they had earned. “Well you killed it Anthony, I suppose you get the first pick of the items and then the rest is distributed evenly?”

When no one argued Virgil stepped forward to look at the items. A few monster parts, two swords- one with pretty decent stats- gold, and other miscellaneous items. After a pause Virgil took the sword he had been holding and placed it in his inventory before selecting one from the ground. Dee was right, he was being stupid to use his highest level item right then, especially if he didn’t trust the group he was with. He had been lucky Dee was the one who picked it up and not someone else.

“This is what I want,” he announced. “How should we split the rest?”

~~~~

“Why did you wait till I died to be all cool?” Remus complained. “I was having fun Tony! Not to mention your death was way cooler than mine!”

Virgil gave an awkward laugh into his glass of water, “Next time uh, you can have the more painful death.”

“That’s all I ask!”

“I think you’ve had enough to drink Re,” Patton decided, patting Remus on the back.

“I’m- I'm fine!”

“Who knew both of those partying twins were lightweights,” Logan commented, nudging the sleeping Roman with his foot. Virgil chose not to comment on how he was pretty sure that if Logan stood from his spot that the Classy Tactician would immediately trip over his long cloak and fall down the hill they were sitting on top of.

“I think we’ve all had enough,” Patton amended taking Remus’ mug.

“You and Virgil didn’t drink any!” Remus challenged, but he laid down anyway.

“Because we’re gonna be on watch. Also I’m too young to drink.”

“It’s a game, who cares?”

“How old are all of you?” Logan asked curiously. “If you’re too young to drink you’re a lot younger than I thought.”

“I’m nineteen,” Patton answered easily. “You?”

Logan’s eyebrows knit in confusion as he replied slowly, “I’m... twenty seven.”

“Oh cool! What about the rest of you?”

“I’m twenty one and Tony is twenty,” Dee answered before Virgil could.

“I’m twenty four... Also I’m twelve minutes older than Roman,” Remus answered but he looked back to Patton and squished Patton’s cheeks between his hands. “More importantly, you’re a fetus!”

Patton gave a slight laugh, “You definitely need to stop drinking. Actually why don’t we all stop and get some sleep like Roman, hm?”

“I am perfectly fine,” Logan disagreed. He moved like he was gonna stand from his spot but he quickly returned to a seated position. “But I am also responsible and will not have another drink.”

“Yeah I’m sure that’s the reason,” Dee laughed.

“It is. The real question however, is why you carry this much alcohol around with you?”

“Tavern’s supply is limited. By taking a large amount of my stock, MannaM is forced to go get more for me.”

“You’re forcing your employee to do more work since you don’t want to do it?”

“Isn’t that what I just said?”

Logan gave a sigh and he laid back, “You're insufferable.”

“Thank you.”

Virgil rolled his eyes before redirecting his attention to Patton who was smiling satisfied as Remus made himself comfortable to sleep. “I’ll take the first.”

Patton didn’t argue as he too made himself comfortable on the ground, “Okay.”

“You sleep too Sam.”

Dee gave him a dismissive wave, “I don’t sleep when I drink. I’ve learned that the hard way.”

“Maybe it’s different in the game?”

“Doubt it.”

They lapsed into silence leaving Virgil to listen to the sound of the warm night. He could hear bugs, feel breezes, and more than that, he felt relaxed. For the first time since entering this game he actually wasn’t terrified or stressed. Because if there was one thing he knew, it was how to play.

~~~~

The days which followed were more than helpful. Prior to this training to play had been difficult, frustrating, and fruitless, and yet now Virgil knew what to do. With each day that passed he has gained more experience and was getting better- hell at this rate of improvement he could up a level soon. And one by one his party members had done the same.

“Yes!” Dee shouted, pumping a fist in the air. “It worked!”

Virgil couldn’t help but give a slight smile at his business partner’s enthusiasm. “Congrats, you’ve officially learned how to fight.”

Beside Dee, Logan gave a dejected sigh, “I still don’t understand how you all are doing it.”

“Think about it like your keyboard and mouse,” Virgil suggested. “You have to hit every key in the right sequence at the right time for your character to move and for a skill to work. But you need to have the motions in your mind before you do the action. Your mind works faster than your body. So in this version of the game, you need to be doing both at once. You need to be moving and anticipating before it actually works. Does that make sense?”

“No,” Logan deadpanned. “That’s simply how anything works, the concept is not specific to this game.”

“How about thinking about a recipe?” Patton suggested. “In the midst of baking, you gotta make sure you’re still focused on the instructions at the same time as you’re mixing the batter.”

“Once again an unhelpful nonspecific example.”

Patton gave a slight frown in response but before he could reply Logan turned on his heel, his cape flowing behind him as he moved toward the group of weak monsters.

“It’s like dancing!” Roman called after him. “The more you think about the steps, the worse you do!”

“I’ll figure it out on my own,” Logan replied. He drew his sword and moved into a ready stance and Virgil could only sigh in response. It had been a week since the yino fight, and Logan was the only one who couldn’t link skills together. His normal fighting ability could get him through weak monsters like this, but if they really wanted to go after the swords and fight other players and boss monsters... Logan would become no more than dead weight.

Virgil watched him for a while as the others moved off to train on their own, but Virgil couldn’t take his eyes off the scowl on Logan’s face. But after watching him try and fail repeatedly, Virgil forced himself to move closer. “You okay?” Virgil asked as he cautiously approached Logan. The man was hunched over a pile of monster drops and was poking through it with disinterest, but he stood at the question.

“I’m fine,” he replied shortly.

“I-”

“You should be training yourself Tony. Boss battles are far different from scrappicking.”

Virgil clenched his jaw, “I know that. I plan to save my mana for when we move and get near higher level monsters. I need more experience fighting in a party.”

“I’m going further in the woods,” Logan declared. “I’ll be back in time for dinner.”

~~~~

“You can’t force people not to be stubborn, love,” Dee advised. “And we’ve known for years now that Tact is stubborn as hell.”

Virgil gave a sigh of agreement, that much he knew. Logan was undoubtedly one of the most stubborn players he had ever met, but it had done him well as the Tactician. His stern and stubborn attitude kept his emotions out of his work, and his loyalty then went to the highest bidder as opposed to his friends. Virgil gave a shudder as he silently remembered the way he and Logan had first crossed swords on a battlefield. It had been almost two years ago now, Dee had asked him to infiltrate a major guild. Virgil had and when war time came he found their opponents had hired Logan. Initially he had been excited to see the familiar face, he thought maybe they could exchange information. But then Logan instead told his companions every weakness Virgil had and how to quickly defeat him.

“Friends don’t pay, work does,” Logan had told him afterwards.

Dee had given a hearty laugh, “And this is why we’re friends!”

Virgil meanwhile, had only sulked.

“There’s gotta be something I can help Logan with,” Virgil told Dee quietly. “I feel restless not doing anything and-”

“And running the numbers I am more likely to hold you back more than anything,” Logan finished loudly. Virgil’s mouth dropped open to quickly defend himself but Logan didn’t even look surprised or offended. “I understand the line of thinking. I had the same thought.”

“I’m sure you’ll get it kiddo!” Patton tried.

“I am older than you, Patton.”

“You all are! But you’re all still my kiddos.”

“He’s just the natural mom friend,” Remus shrugged. “Hey dad, when will dinner be done?”

Patton gave a beaming smile, “Whenever Virgil cooks it. But... Logan I think you’re being too hard on yourself.”

“It’s not my night to cook,” Virgil said in confusion.

“Well it’s Dee’s so yes it is.”

Virgil gave a curse as he stood (gaining a stern look from Patton) but watched as Patton turned his attention back to Logan. “You can ask for help okay? I know I haven’t been playing for near as long as you, but if there’s something I can do let me know okay?”

Logan didn’t bother with a response.

“Don’t baby him,” Dee said, rolling his eyes. “Let’s-” his next words were cut off as he paused and closed his eyes as if listening. “You sure?” He asked finally. “Alright I’ll be back soon enough.”

“Everything good?” Roman asked.

Dee gave a sharp nod, “Got some new intel that we need to cash in sooner than later. I won’t give details until we get there because I’d like to make sure there aren’t any leaks, no offense. But with that said, I was going to say, Patton you can’t sugar coat this.” He turned to Logan. “Tact you got two days to figure it out and then we are heading to the tavern to move on the mission with or without you. Your choice.”

“Dee!” Patton said quickly. “You can’t just-”

“There’s nothing we can say or do that will make him stop over thinking things, Patts. And now that we know how to play and we’ve got information to move on we need to get moving. It’s not exactly like this game will be easy to beat.”

“Feel free to leave now,” Logan stated. “I don’t exactly need you all to stare and watch me fail. I am very well aware that I am a disappointment.”

“Two days,” Virgil said before anyone else could speak. “That’s an ultimatum for all of us. So let’s get some rest and work more in the morning.”

Two days. Virgil could only hope that was enough.

~~~~

Logan had insisted on spending the day alone. And this time Virgil let him be. Well actually he had intended to go talk to him later, but it seemed Logan’s contained anger had only increased with time so he hadn’t gone and spoken to the older player.

“We leave tomorrow before dinner,” Dee was saying as they all relaxed around the fire. “When we get back we can talk business over food."

No one argued, all agreed. But all eyes were still on Logan, but it seemed staying away from him all day had brought Virgil to a conclusion on what he would have to do.

“Fight me.”

Logan’s annoyed expression didn’t change. “I thought we discussed not fifteen minutes ago at breakfast that I wished to train alone?”

“We did,” Virgil nodded slowly moving to stand further from Logan. “But I need to improve my fighting against other people rather than dealing finishing blows. And you have analyzed me more times than I can count. So, I think we can both benefit. Rather than telling you to stop overthinking I’m telling you to do what you do best.” Virgil drew his sword from his back and got into a ready stance. “Long as you swear not to get too mad if I wipe the floor with you.”

Logan gave scoff, “Fine. I suppose I can let out some frustration on you. Once you’re unable to continue I’ll proceed with my day.”

“I don’t think this a good idea!” Interrupted Patton's voice.  “Can't you just-”

Virgil didn’t turn to look, but he did hear as Remus gave a loud cheer which drowned the last of Patton’s words. And he couldn’t exactly stop the smile which was on his face as Logan readied himself. This would be fun.

~~~~

Level Three - Level Four - Level Five

[sozotohakai]

Chris Love Letter

In theory it is like follow forever posts, but Love Letter felt more fitting~

It’s also been forever since I’ve done something like this, it’s high time I bury with love people!

Do know I’m honestly awkward with this kind of thing, my mind likes to blank out when I try to actually word compliments. Taking my time helped, but yeah, the Chris is awkward with words, would you believe that.

Read more because, as you might guess, it got long.

Organizing was hard because the “lines” are very thin, and everyone in this list has made a different impact on me. You’re all people I’m happy to have met, and enjoy whichever level of interaction we have~

Heart Family

Those who carved their way deep into my heart~

@skyfullofashes : We’ve called each other pack for a while now (and gosh I dont even recall how it was before knowing you), I’m so happy to know you and anytime I hear about anyone who hurt you, past or present, I feel my inner dragon twitch. You’re so lovely, you’ve been there for me so often, and I wish more people took the time to get to know you, you’ve been hurt so often and I deeply wish for you to receive love, I’m certainly going to make sure you never forget you’re part of my family. You’re loyal, you don’t take nonsense, and we’re both exactly the kind of people who can be hurt by others, find ourselves in situation where, for some reasons, others will hurt us. But that’s why we understood each other very early, and why I’ll do my best to always be there for you <3 Don’t get me started on how creative you are, especially with Heaven&Hell. I feel like I’ll never know enough, and I’ll always want to hear more about it, and all your ideas. I still feel awed at how much our Kanda&Allen developped, how much I love our Yullen, and melt at all the family feels with Michael and everyone.

@ask-cross-marian : I feel like we know each other so much, yet it is fun to realize that most that we know of each other, slipped through as we spazzed and chat and yelled about our muses. It feels so nice and so natural, how we just, slotted into place, as rp partners and as friends. I legit can’t remember a time I didn’t know you. You’ve certainly been there for me quite a few times, and I do hope I’ve given to you back, and that you know you are part of those I hold dearest and I’ll always be there for you. We’re both hilariously able to poof away for a while, and yet we always come back, and this is such a nice feeling. I love when you talk about your muses&OCs, and all our interactions make me a puddle of melted fluff. We also often ended up joking around, and I adore this so much!

@piamio : Sometimes I still recall when I was following you, thinking about I’d love to befriend you, and I marvel that it did happen, that we started talking and connected so well together. You always do your best, to feel you improve, to feel you’re doing better, and I see it happen and hope you can see it too. You’ve always been good, but I’ve seen you notice things, realize things, and I’m happy for you, and wish you the best. You’re a lovely person, a great artist, you’re creative, you have ideas for stories as much as you have talent for arts, and talent that seem within us is great, but you’ve also worked hard for your talents and you should never forget that. I feel offended for you when anyone so much as suggests you aren’t doing enough, or not doing well. I want to take them, shake them, and have them see you as I see you.

@alteriius: Among my heart family, I do believe we’ve known each other longest (no, no, I didn’t totally checked my archive to make sure; as it is its indeed in the first two/three weeks I had made Allen’s blog that we started threading!). It’s always been easy talking with you, and you’ve always made me feel safe. We’ve joked together, vented together, helped each other, and sometimes I still spazz with the hope&wish you’ve felt as happy knowing me as I am knowing you. I’ve lost contact with a lot of people once they stopped rping, and so I felt glad when it didn’t happen with us; but then again, I already knew long ago that to rp or not rp woudln’t change anything. I find it very funny, in a good way, that at some point we shifted to the group chat and stayed there, when I want to share with you I share with you both. Sometimes we’ve used our 1x1 chat I think? But yeah, its so fun how we just, went there and stayed there. That might be because we’ll tend to spazz a lot, and we happily spazz us three.

@skytroops : Gosh, I have to wonder, how many years has it been since we first met? I know I made Satoshi years ago for the first time, and I guess the best way to guess is whether or not you’ve known me when I was still in college, or recently out of college. My bet, however, is that we met somewhere in 2013. I certainly recall, however, how much fun we’ve always had speaking about our muses, about our verse, how much we built together, so much that even now, TR!Satoshi still exist as a muse (if now small). And even with hiatus, we never stopped coming back at each other. I hope you know you’re friend for life, someone I very much took under my wing and into my pack <3

Dear Friends

Those who I deeply appreciate and care about, not far from being heart family too~

@chibi-usapyon : We’ve gotten along so well, and it’s so fun how much we can chat about anything and everything. You’re so, lively and friendly, it feels like you have every positive/fun way of approaching, the way you chat always make me feel like you are a bubble of happy energy. It feels like we’ve been bonding well and it’s gotten stable, like you know, the initial thrill has shifted to a calmer thrill. I do have a hard time opening up, and because people have often be friendly, I don’t quite realize I’m considered a friend until I’m told. I’ve always enjoyed our chatting, I knew I wanted to chat with you more, but when you first clearly told me you saw me as a friend, I paused and felt a bubble of happiness. You’re my friend too, and I’m glad we met!

@lascivus : Can we take a moment to tease a certain person about how I’m pretty sure we’ve known each other more through our common friend than by chatting? We’re admitedly both shy, and I can recall at the start, I was shy to chat with you, and in the group chat. But soon enough, and totally through nerding, it just felt natural. That’s probably why I always end up in the group chat, I want to share with you as much as I share with Allen and so, group chat! But I do know you, through chatting and twitter and dash, and I’m awkwardly bad at realizing if someone consider me so, but I hope you don’t mind that I call you a dear friend~

Lovely people

Those I know in various degrees, that I’m glad to have met, who I love when I chat with them, and simply to see them~

@avellaturortem : You’re one of the few people that I’ve rped with for a while who is still around, and I’m super glad we still regularly talk, and I enjoy so much our threads, all the ideas we’ve thrown at each other. If you ever need, I’ll always be happy to listen to you about anything~

@manadcampbellrpblog : You’re such a sweetie, and I’ve seen how you sometimes feel shy to speak to me, but I hope you know you can always talk to me, and come back to me. I’ll always be happy to see your replies, but more importantly I’m glad to chat with you. You’ve always been very sweet, and I can practically feel how nervous not being an english speaker make you. I still recall when english wasn’t as easy as it is now, but never be afraid to speak and try and learn!

@shensheng-aoman : Listen, I don’t think we quite expected for Talon&Allen to slay us with adorableness, but they do and I love when we chat about them, but also just to chat with you. You’re lovely and it’s always a pleasure to see you around. Sometimes I spazz so much while wondering if it’s okay, but then I see you tell me you enjoy it, and I welcome you to spazz with me too~

@shuoshuzhe : The moment you told me you also knew DGM, I swear I grinned so hard. You’ve been adding so many muses too, and I know I’ll eye them sooner or later more. We’ve gotten some great threads started, and I’m eager to do these and more in the future. And then before we knew it, we’ve gotten deep into chatting MDZS, and I love this so much, and I feel like we’ll have fun chatting about anything and everything!

@moon--wake : I hope you are doing good! I initially only knew your JL but then I saw more of your muses, and the plot we’ve started have been great! It’s always been fun talking to you, and planning with you, I’m sending you all my best wishes <3

@forlorninquiry : I love so much our storyline, I think you’ve seen how I can suddenly spazz out of nowhere about it, but that’s because I do enjoy talking with you. I love seeing you on dash, and I love seeing how you write and talk of LWJ!

@dishengs : I remember you’ve been on the first rper in MDZS I met, and you’ve got such a lovely way of expressing WWX. It’s been fun letting Allen meeting him, and I’ll always be open to plot. You feel so friendly and so nice, and it’s always a pleasure to see you on dash!

@crowleiii : Krory and Allen are so sweet, one day we shall have them say brother in threads; and I enjoy how we chat about DGM, throwing theory around, slaying our feels more than half the time. I’m always glad to chat with you, and see you around!

@taoqidetuzi : You’ve been super friendly, very easy to talk to, and it feels fun to chat with you, and plot with you!

@ghostfluted : We haven’t talk as much yet as I have with other people, but you’ve felt from the start friendly, and I certainly enjoyed plotting with you!

@crystallizecrimsonbutterfly : Some day I’ll think of sending messages first to you, you always leave little messages for me sooner or later, and I always have a smile when I see you’ve done so. I’ve always enjoyed writing with you, and your Lenalee, I’ll happily continue threads or just plot the next event with you whenever you want; and I hope you’ve been doing good!

@dannyikigay : I couldn’t not give you some love (except tumblr being mean but that’s why I linked you), we’ve often talked with a share loved of a certain pairing as well as simple chatting, and we more often now see each other in the discord server (although I’m, ghostly a lot XD), but know you’re always welcomed to talk with me~

@ginnomme : One of the few people I know ship my rarer ships, and we’ve chatted a lot, it’s always fun and lovely when we do. I’ve seen you need time for yourself, but know I do think about you and I hope good things for you!

[theonyxpath]

Hi all! Meghan here, with our first preview from the upcoming Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed for Mage: The Awakening. Please enjoy House Vedmak, one of the Houses of the Tremere Order of Reaper liches, from the inestimable Malcolm Sheppard.

House Vedmak

The Keepers of Vedet were a Slavic Legacy devoted to helping the virtuous dead rest, and protecting Sleepers from angry ghosts, spirits, and similar malefic beings. Wandering Vedma (women) and Vedmak (men and non-binary practitioners) made themselves quietly known to the communities throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia. This earned them cautious respect, as common people supposed these “witchkeepers” drew power from the devil, but somehow managed to twist it to the service of good. Founded in the 8th century, the Keepers survived the Mongols and went on to train hundreds of members, reaching such popularity that by the 16th century, Legacy Masters considered asserting themselves as an independent Order.

These plans went awry when rumors arose that witchkeepers had fallen to Satan, killing and unleashing evil spirits upon Sleepers across the Keepers’ territory. Its reputation tarnished, the Legacy hunted for the source of the trouble, locating it in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains. Divination suggested a place of great, ancient evil, located in a tower fallen from the Time Before — one ruled by the Tremere. The Order had lured the witchkeepers to Chur, fortress of the Seventh Dragon, where it possessed an unmatched advantage. They would have wished to destroy the Legacy in any case, but the witchkeepers’ rising power and proximity inspired the Tremere to not only unify against them, but risk Chur in the attempt. The Tremere prevailed, though it was a hard-fought battle. Today, the Keepers of Vedet are gone, replaced with House Vedmak.

Due to its history, Vedmak is the largest Tremere House. Tremere use Vedmak lore to perform feats of reverse possession, chaining ghosts or spirits to the souls they command. Vedmak also use souls as arms and armor to fight Twilight-bound threats. Some Vedmak even act as witchkeepers of old, protecting communities, but only when local citizens promise the Vedmak their souls as payment.

Origins and Doctrine

Background: Vedmak are defined more by community than personal inclination. Many Vedmak grew up in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, close to rural communities. Neopagans, folklorists, and anthropologists among the Tremere are also drawn to the House.

Appearance: Members of House Vedmak usually dress to travel, in rugged and practical clothing, with a satchel or backpack always at hand. This is part of the House’s nomadic tradition. On the other hand, some modern members prefer casual suits, tablets, satellite phones, and first-class flights. Vedmak often worm Slavic pagan symbols into their clothing and jewelry.

Prerequisites: Space 2, Wits 3, Occult or Survival 2

Initiation: A successful initiate banishes a ghost or spirit from a place. He can use brute force or cleverness, but the task must be challenging, and he must destroy the being, enslave it, or decisively drive it away.

Organization: House Vedmak is led by the Svetovid, a quartet of princeps who identify themselves with the deities Svarog, Perun, Lada, and Mokosh. The Svetovid rarely grant personal audiences, preferring to communicate through bound ghosts and spirits. The branches of Perun and Lada use Spirit as a secondary Arcanum, while those under Svarog and Mokosh utilize Death. A Vedmak must choose whether to learn the Spirit- or Death-based optional effects for his Attainments; this remains the same for each Attainment.

Theory: Magic filters through the desires of capricious gods and the unquiet dead, but one may use trickery, bargaining, and force to steal their powers and make them serve one’s own desires. To understand this cosmos of hidden motives, one must cultivate exceptional sensitivity, to see the conspiracies of gods in the placement of a single stone or the fetters that keep a ghost bound to the world.

Magic

Yantras: Eating a meal ritualistically (+1); drawing the traditional symbols of Slavic witchcraft (+1, +2 if in blood); invoking deities in the four cardinal directions (+1); indulging in one’s fixation (see House weakness) for longer than necessary or seeking out an opportunity to do so (+1, +2 if this involves significant effort or leads to injury)

Oblations: Traveling to a wild place on foot; holding a ritual banquet for multiple people; carving a four-headed representation of the Svetovid: four gods in one

Weakness: The House’s emphasis on sensitivity to the natural and supernatural worlds sometimes manifests as a fixation that emulates the folkloric weaknesses of certain supernatural beings. Each witchkeeper chooses one such fixation. Suggestions include counting plant grains (rice, barley, etc.), being transfixed by the appearance of running water, shedding the blood of animals, staring at one’s reflection in a mirror, and concealing or destroying symbols of religions and magical practices other than one’s own.

The fixation confers the Addicted Condition (Mage, p. 314). If resolved, the character acquires a new fixation, which confers a new Addicted Condition. If he goes a scene without indulging the fixation when the opportunity arises, he suffers the Deprived Condition also.

Attainments

All House Vedmak Attainments require the use of a soul. This soul can either be attached to the character, or held in a soul jar or hollowstone.

Apprentice Attainment: Eyes of the Invisible

Prerequisites: Initiation The Vedmak sends a soul to quietly inhabit a subject, and experiences what the subject does. This emulates a sympathetic Space spell for which Potency is the primary factor, which requires a sympathetic connection and Yantra as usual. It lasts up to one scene, adds 1 to Potency, costs a point of Mana, and requires a scene of ritual preparation. It affects supernatural beings, including those in Twilight, if the character can perceive them. He experiences all the target’s physical senses, but not their thoughts. As a side effect, he suffers any wound penalties and sensation-dependent Conditions or Tilts the subject experiences.

Optional: Death 2 or Spirit 2 If the subject is a ghost (Death) or a spirit (Spirit), the witchkeeper can also perform an elementary act of possession while experiencing its senses, willing it to perform tasks. This emulates the Spirit 2 spell “Command Spirit” (Mage, p. 181), but the character shares the spirit’s senses for the duration, and may suffer sensation-based ill effects. If the creature has supernatural senses, the Storyteller decides which ones translate into sensations the Tremere can comprehend and which are unavailable, although mages are intimately familiar with unusual senses and the Vedmak already possesses the appropriate Arcanum by necessity, so the Storyteller is encouraged to be generous.

Disciple Attainment: Distant Presence

Prerequisites: Space 3 The Vedmak possesses a soul and sends it forth as an extension of himself. This emulates a Space 3 spell with Duration as its primary factor; this phantom body appears anywhere within the mage’s sensory range. It requires a scene of ritual preparation, using its fixed Reach for advanced Duration. The manifestation is solid, and has a combination of the witchkeeper’s physical features and those of the soul’s original owner. The character is fully present in both the manifestation and his real body, and must choose which one to act with at any given time (or on each turn, in action scenes). Injuries and other afflictions, such as Conditions, affecting one body affect the other also; he maintains one collective total for Health, Willpower, Mana, and other traits, at their usual ratings. The Vedmak may eliminate the Distant Presence as an instant action, leaving the harnessed soul floating free wherever he sent it.

Optional: Death 3 or Spirit 3 The Death 3 variant lets the witchkeeper manifest the phantom body in Twilight and gain access to places only ghosts may visit. With the Spirit variant, the manifestation may enter the Shadow as if crossing through an Iris.

Adept Attainment: Bind Within

Prerequisites: Space 5 The Vedmak can physically imprison subjects within a soul under his command. This emulates the Space 5 spell “Pocket Dimension” (Mage, p. 178) with +2 Potency and advanced Duration, requiring a scene of ritual preparation to acclimate the soul to its new purpose. The willworker must use other Space magic to transport a subject into the Pocket Dimension, which has Connected sympathy to the soul to which it is linked. Vedmak do not place themselves within their own attached souls, since this produces a paradox: a Tremere inside a soul, inside a Tremere, inside a soul…. The Storyteller is free to invent a strange consequence for characters who do it anyway.

Optional: Death 2 or Spirit 2 With one of the optional Arcana, the Attainment gains the appropriate type of Twilight, as the spell’s usual effect with these conjunctional Arcana.

[ladybuvelle]

Ora: Good or Evil?

Ora is arguably the Odyssey universe’s greatest resource. In a way it’s a lot like mana/magic in the regular League of Legends mainverse; it’s present in most all living things (but in different quantities and qualities) and can have various effects on Runeterra’s environment depending on how plentiful, corrupt, or absent it is. Some people have even found ways to manufacture ways to use mana (or magic) through hexcores/crystals, and these can be used to power things or enhance people’s abilities. Ora is very similar in that way.

What differs in Odyssey though is what seems to be the distribution and collecting of ora. Ora is a presented in a physical form as a liquid blob of glowing gold. It’s not some nebulous abstract invisible concept, but something that can be seen and touched and - of course - absorbed into one’s body or collected in a tank like oil. It can crystallize (which is what miners look for), though what causes that is unknown. Pressure, perhaps?

The other thing that’s unique to ora is it’s implied spiritual quality. Ora, being something you can physically touch, gather, and make part of yourself, may also have its own collective consciousness - but this is also unclear. I suspect it may act similarly to the Lifestream from Final Fantasy 7; which oddly enough shares many themes with ora (ex. ‘mako eyes’, as people who absorb large quantities of ora have golden eyes, being used as a power source but may also be negatively effecting the environment, can be used to modify people’s bodies, etc). Ora, mainly coming from living things, could possibly be - to put it crudely - “soul juice”. It could very well be the soup from which all life springs up, and all life eventually returns to it. Liquid stardust.

That said, it could be possible that some memories remain in the soup from many billions, trillions of lives that have birthed from it and returned to it. Or failing that it has a collective consciousness and god-like omniscience but no autonomy of its own.

I mention this mainly because I think it’s fair to assume ora has no moral alignment of its own, but could possibly be effected by whomever absorbs it.

Sona is said to have terrible visions shown to her through her special empathy with ora. She saw the coming of Rhaast and tried to intercept the alien weapon, but Rhaast’s influence reached too far too quickly and only stopped once Kayn claimed him. Sona’s interactions with ora are, overall, seemingly benevolent in that it warned her about the sudden invasion of something alien to their universe.

But on the other hand, Kayn is also gathering ora and sharing its power with Rhaast. It certainly doesn’t reject him or the alien entity in any way and he has free control of it. But that’s not too surprising. What does come off as a little surprising is Zed. Zed absorbed a massive amount of ora after killing the megafauna he was supposed to protect (so that the Demaxians couldn’t get it), and afterward “ascended” into a demi-god like being that refers to himself as “we”.

This contributes to my theory that ora may be a collective consciousness, but I also suspect its energy may be heavily influenced by the true nature of its wielder. Zed, even though he grew and trained as a Templar and was extremely dedicated to passing the most difficult of their trials, in the end made a selfish decision to take power for himself rather than let anyone else have it. 

Or it’s not as complicated as all that at all and ora is just ora. The person using it is left to decide what to do with its power, and what they make of it is what they make of it. Some may take deeper meaning, or some may not. It’s hard to say. Zed’s personal god complex may just be his own crazed euphoria after having absorbed more ora than a person should be able to hold, and after feeling such a rush maybe he feels the Templar way was a lie all along (or trying to deny him this “rightful power”).

Sona’s own affinity for ora is said to be unique. She can communicate with it in a fashion and it shows her visions. She’s also apparently able to manipulate the ora in other creatures - which is somehow connected to their moods/attitudes (she’s able to calm down rampaging space squids). That makes sense as a parallel to what she can do in mainverse with her music, so it’s still neither a good nor evil thing on its own.

[icharchivist]

I actually love the Allen!bookman theory because it just fits so well with the story (Allen's connected to ALL sides and that's why he brings chaos everywhere) and Allen's character (seriously. the masks. importance of names. Walking on. Wanting to know the hidden truth even if it kills him. Thems Bookman traits). I've wondered if Allen was being called Adam too. Allen is referred to as the White Face clown by the Earl, while the Earl resembles the Auguste clown. Its said the Auguste clown-

2 will assume leadership when the White Face clown is gone. But the WFC is the true leader and one of their tasks is keeping the Auguste and other clowns in line. Maybe Allen is destined to be the new Adam. The Adam that fixes things. Its possible Mana or Innocence deep down knows or wants this. Not saying Allen will become the Earl. But he will do Adam's original purpose (subdue the world?) and succeed w/o repeating the same sad cycle. Adam can be a title just like "Allen" or "Lavi".

Oooh yeah mood when it comes to Bookman!Allen! just, everything seems to fit in the story, like you said both on a character’s thematic level, and on a story thematic level with him being connected to all sides, and tbh even just in term of logic of, we know Bookman lost an apprentice to the 14th. While we have a character who gave himself away for Nea. This feels too uncanny to match, the chances for them to have been 2 different people getting lost to Nea seem rather thin especially with how much focus on how alone Nea was. I feel like, just, everything could fit.

And that’s actually a pretty cool analysis for Allen there and..... oh boy wait. 

When the Mana appearance in Allen’s dreams start to call him with that other name, it does awaken Nea. Who is part of the Earl. Who is an extension of the Earl, who wants to remplace the Earl. 

The Current Earl is uncomplete, away from the Original Earl because it is missing the part that is in Nea. And Nea can take over, can eventually absorb the Earl and be the one to carry on the Earl’s legacy. Perhaps Nea is like the Auguste to the Earl, and the current Earl is like the Auguste to what the full Earl could be? 

Allen by extension would, like Nea be an inheritor of that, especially with the Mana part that is also locked in his body. The fact Nea is the one to wake up after the dream does make me think it’s can be alluding to Nea taking over instead of the Earl, but the imagery remains that meanwhile Allen is being swept away by Mana.

And due to their parental connections, Allen is already the inheritor of Mana’s will. Just the eye per se for exemple. Allen is the one to “take over” after Mana’s death in a way.

I don’t know how to articulate it but i think there is a very good point to make in comparing either of them to the Auguste and the White Face Clown considering the specific dynamic they are all having.

As for “Adam being a title” I think you’re right again considering Adam gives this name away the moment we get presented to all the Noah: and all of them are refered to by their Noah’s names, except Wisely and Road who’s Noah’s name are the same as their current names. So the Earl gets refered as Adam int he same breath as Tyki gets refered to as Joyd. 

So it feels much more likely that it’s their titles. If Joyd is the Noah of Pleasure, Adam is the Noah of creation, the foundator, the patriarch of the group. “Adam” is a Noah title.  Just like not all the Joyd in the past had been Tyki but Tyki holds the name of Joyd.

It would therefore works again as a title like “Allen” and “Lavi”, a name specifially indicating of his duty, as it also erased the name “Mana” for good which was part of the Earl’s individuality. 

As for whever Allen would be “the Adam that fixes things” I don’t know officially, but thematically that could work. Like there is too much about Adam goal that would make it a little weird to have Allen take that role over to break the cycle (and i could see Allen like, in an epic way, saying that he doesn’t do that in any other way than “Allen”. Which also have the irony of breaking the cycle by using the name he used to support Mana all this years.), but in an idea of “he has the potential of Adam inside of him”, i can see it likely yeah.

It is a very interesting thought on how their names/identity refers to the way they see their duties toward life. From Lavi who is ready to give up his name anytime to Allen who would cling to his at all cost to the Earl rejecting anything else than his title. 

Orz so yeah those identity crisis are a m e s s but this was beautifully put into words in that ask, and I truly dig the whole Auguste thing. 

Just... so complicated still orz

[pathosvignettes]

Real Life The Game - A Review

By Kearu - Beast Mastery Hunter, EU Doomhammer

Note: I originally wrote this back in 2010 which should explain some of the dated references. I recently found it in an old backup; posting it here so I don’t lose it again!

So anyway, I've reached level 40 in this "Real Life" (RL) game and think that I've got enough of a feel for it to give a sensible review. Even though it’s a free-to-play game, should you bother taking time out from Azeroth to play it? Let’s find out.

Leveling up

The first thing you need to know is that the leveling curve is very steep. Getting to level 40 took a looooonnggg time. It doesn't seem to matter how much time you spend logged in, or what you do while you are logged in; you only ever seem to ding about once a year.

Having said that, because you don't ding often it's a much bigger event when you do, and fellow players commonly buy you in-game gifts that are presented to you at in-game gatherings called "parties". As you'd expect, these gifts are worthless fluff for the main part so that they don't break the game balance. 

Making the levelling take so long, is an interesting design decision. In WoW equivalent terms, it would mean that the highest level character would be coming up on level 6 by now. I guess the publishers believe that this game will be around a lot longer than WoW - only time will tell I guess. However, when they claim to have over 6.5 billion players on a single-shard server you do tend to have a hard time believing the marketing hype!

Core game-play

The game play itself has three main elements to it:

Gold grinding;

Resource recovery; and

The actual game itself.

In order to play the actual part of the game you have to spend about a third of your play time grinding gold - this sucks, and is way too high a proportion of the game in my opinion. You can choose a profession and learn skills to make it more efficient, and this can lead to "promotion" which increases your rank and allows you to earn more gold per hour. However, the fact that there are so many gold sinks in the game (some of them are even compulsory and are called "taxes") means that you can never get enough gold from the grinding to really enjoy the game properly.

Three little snippets about the grinding/professions part of the game:

Some people, instead of using the higher gold per hour to reduce the amount of time they grind, just keep grinding to amass huge amounts of gold for no real purpose - go figure;

Apparently, the banker profession became so over-powered recently that it destabilised the entire in-game economy - incoming nerf-bats are widely expected;

There are some RL players who participate in LARP (basically, pretending to be people that you would find in WoW) - how weird is that? I mean, why would you login to the RL game and then spend your time doing everyday normal things that you would do in WoW anyway? *shrugs*

The second part of the game is a kind of reverse version of rested XP. The more you play the game the more sluggish and error-prone your character becomes. To reset your character you are forced to rest for around 6-8 hours of game time. Again, this sucks. The only saving grace is that the designers seem to have acknowledged this and have used cut scenes quite effectively so that it doesn't feel that long. However, the fact remains, having to spend about a third of your play time in a comatose state because of poor game design needs fixing - quickly please.

Once you get past the gold-grind and the resource recovery aspects and into the game itself, it's very different from the normal WoW world we're used to. It's very much a sand-box type of game: there are no quests; no NPCs that I could find (although some players seemed to act as stupidly as NPCs do); and progression is defined pretty much according to the goals you set for your avatar. Sims players would probably like this game. The one thing that I found really bizarre was that, some players, having spent all that time in the grind and recovery phases then log out of the game to spend more time in WoW!

User interface

The user interface has it's good points and it's bad points. It's greatest strength is the very impressive use of VR. You play the game in an all over VR body suit - in-game chat refers to this as a "monkey suit" for some strange reason. The simulation of sensory reception from this technology is quite frankly jaw-dropping. I spent a lot more game-time than I had intended just exploring this new interface: feeling the different textures of in-game objects. Actually having foods that taste different was a revelation. And, being able to smell the world around you really added to the feeling of immersion (although some of the smells were less than pleasant - game designer humour I suppose).

Another plus point of the game is that, despite the bandwidth that must be necessary for this type of experience, I've had no lag even running the game on the highest graphic settings. Graphics by the way are fantastic - you could almost believe some of the rendering to be real objects. I've had the occasional disconnect which has been hard to diagnose but it seems to be correlated with excessive alcohol consumption. Not such a big issue - although the time taken to re-connect with the world seems to be quite random.

The VR design approach does have it's drawbacks though, especially considering that the designers have also decided to include collision detection with just about everything in the game. In particular, this really impacts the combat element of the game; collision detection and an ultra-sensitive user interface means that injuries really hurt. On top of this, the designers have chosen to include perma-death. I mean seriously? You really think that a game that only allows you to roll a single character, where it takes you a year to ding every level and includes perma-death is going to sell?

Creating your first (and only) character

Which brings me onto character creation itself. Firstly, there is no character creation screen - zip, nada, niet. There are two sexes and multiple races but you get no choice about any of this and no chance to change any of your physical appearance attributes. You just login and "bam" you've got a totally randomised avatar. This seems to be a "brave” design decision since you only ever get one character and there are no cash shop options to expand your slots.

There is no HUD in the game (the default view is first person and you can't change it without the illegal use of chemical add-ons), no user manual and no tutorials means that the game can be very confusing initially. Fortunately, more experienced players can volunteer to mentor noobs (in fact you can't currently create a character without at least one mentor). They are referred to in-game as "pa-rents". There are stories about players becoming mentors accidentally, which must be a serious bummer given the impact it has on your play time.

In game support

On related note to in-game help it can be very difficult to get support with the game. Nobody seems to know who the game publisher is, although there are numerous in-game theories. The best approach appears to be crouching on the floor, closing your avatar's eyes and sub-vocalising the help request. In my experience, this has been less than satisfactory. However, since I never received a response from a GM, I can't say whether they received my request and have acted on it or simply ignored it. Some players claim to have encountered GMs (referred to variously as "angels" or "prophets") although there is wide-spread cynicism among the player population, given that these encounters seem to be so rare.

Factions

There are hundreds of factions in RL, nominally based around capital cities of geographic regions - pretty much like normal WoW. However, language generally tends to be faction-specific rather than race specific. You are automatically allocated to a faction based on the random geographical area in which your avatar was created. You can pay to change faction (but not race) although, unless you also train to learn the language related to your new faction, participating in the game will be much harder.

One interesting aspect of the game is that faction leaders are actually players themselves. Periodically, there will be an "election" where all the players belonging to a faction will be asked to choose who they want to be faction leader. Once all the player choices have been registered and counted, the candidate with the most gold becomes faction leader.

Resource management

There is no magic in the game, but there is something called "technology" which is pretty much the same thing and mana is replaced with "electricity". This mana is not an attribute of your character and is available at various nodes in the game world and can also be carried in portable containers. Mana doesn't regenerate when idle unfortunately, which means that when your portable mana supply is low you have to find a node to replenish it which can be a bit of a pain.

A quick aside. According to the game lore, this "electricity" is supposed to be a controlled form of a shaman's lightning bolt. Really? Since when has a shaman ever had "control" of their lightning bolt?  LB *crit* LB *crit* CL *crit* *crit* *crit* <shammy dies> <muffled voice from the floor> "Noob tank, can't you hold aggro?". But hey, this is a fantasy game so I'll roll with the lore on this one - not everything has to be believable, right?

Eating and drinking

On a related note, in the game you can eat and drink while standing up! Yay! Strangely, though, players still tend to follow the WoW custom and sit down to eat and drink - go figure.

Eating and drinking doesn't seem to regenerate resources as it does in normal WoW - although this is hard to tell without a HUD - but if you go without eating and drinking for too long your avatar starts to complain and becomes weaker. Conversely, a certain amount of time after eating or drinking, your avatar again complains about having to void the food and drink it consumed and you have to stop to allow this process to happen (the process by the way is quite gross and I won't discuss it here). This is really annoying, especially if you are in the middle of one of the games thousands of achievements.

The strange thing is consuming food and drink takes time, doesn't seem to affect your resource levels and then has to be voided again - what's the point of this game mechanic?

Character afflictions

Diseases and poisons are much longer lasting in RL than they are in WoW but fortunately there are players who have specialised in treating these ailments. The only problem is that there appears to be a game-wide, major, mortal-strike debuff, because recovering from them seems to take forever. In another "brave" game decision, the designers seem to have decided that diseases will affect male characters far more harshly than female characters - one particularly virulent disease is called “man-flu”. I can't believe that this blatant sexism can be tolerated in today's society.

Diseases also seem to affect higher-level characters more harshly, although I can't comment from personal experience. According to in-game chat, there is no end game as such and no level cap. Assuming you survive accidental perma-death to reach the higher levels, you will gradually become more and more susceptible to disease until you perma-death anyway!

If true, this just seems preposterous. It's not as if the game designers will allow you to roll another character after death so I don't understand the commercial reasoning of the publisher. Why would you want to make endgame characters progressively weaker until you force them to cancel their subscription?

Social

A final note about the social side of the game. Clans or guilds are supported albeit informally - for example there are no guild channels. In fact there doesn't appear to be an option to leave any public channels which means that you are constantly bombarded with spam and it can be difficult to make out the meaningful content in the channel. Private channels can be created using "technology" although this does require you to know a personal code for the avatars you want to invite into the channel. Frustratingly these are not assigned at avatar creation and can be changed at any time in-game - so it does rely on the player actively maintaining their social contacts network.

In summary

In summary, there are some good points to this game, and some genuinely ground-breaking and innovative design choices. In the main, though, these design choices have introduced negative game play aspects that really should have been uncovered in open beta. I can only assume that the publisher decided that they were too expensive to change and released the game anyway. It wasn't ready for release and shouldn't have been released and there is no sign of any major patches on the horizon. 3/10 save your money for now.

My only problem now is that I can't work out how to log off and the risk of perma-death is getting higher all the time... HELP ME!

[play-read-write]

Bring forth the Flame

Fandom: RWBY Characters: Ruby Rose, Yang Xiao long, Weiss Schnee, Winter Schnee Words: 3404 Description: With a bit of experience under her belt, Weiss finally attempts her second summon, with Ruby’s help. (Summoner AU, chap 2. Chapter 1 here, chapter 3 here)

“So, what do you wanna do today?” Ruby asks, sitting on Weiss’ bed kicking her legs back and forth.

“I’m not sure. This part of my day is dedicated to summoner training. Now that I can actually do so, studying the theory is irrelevant.”  Weiss says from her desk.

“Yeah but you’ve been summoning me for a while now. I mean, when I could only stay for a few minutes it was one thing, but now I get bored.” Ruby says and flops back on Weiss’ bed. “I know I’m not like, a tough summon, but I doubt you’ll get much more out of just keeping me around.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Weiss says, “If I want to proceed I’ll need to push myself. I’m just not sure how at the moment.”

“What about another summon?” Ruby asks, propping herself up on her bed.

“I suppose that’s an option, but I’m not so sure. I still remember what happened last time I tried summoning someone new without aid.”

“Well now you’ve got me.” Ruby jumps up. “I can help. I’ve been studying up on summon theory too, you know, from both sides.”

“Both sides?” Weiss asks.

“Yep. When you summon me and keep me around all day I get bored, and you’re always studying anyway, so I started looking into it. You guys have some weird stuff. One person in those books thought we weren’t even people!”

“Yes, I am aware. Some views on summoning are outdated, and some are just… controversial.”

“Yeah well, we totally are people. But anyway, sidetracked. My point is, I can help. You keep me around easy, so if it gets too tough you can dismiss the new person and I can help you. Plus, I can even help you find them to make it easier.”

“You can?” Weiss asked, now turning her seat entirely. “How so?”

“I’m not sure on the specifics, but the theory seems simple. You summoned me, and your power lets me stay here, so we’re like all connected, right? So I go back, but without you breaking the connection. I find someone, and I know just the person, and you can trace our connection to me, and in turn to them, so you don’t have to summon all random-like or spend lots of energy searching.”

“You want me to maintain the bond while you look for someone in the Otherworld? Wouldn’t that be difficult?”

“Doesn’t seem like it would be, why?” Ruby asks, tilting her head.

“The farther away a summon gets, the harder the bond is to maintain. My connection to you has gotten strong enough you could probably wander half of my home with me right here and have little difficulty, but going into the Otherworld, I don’t know.”

“Oh, is that all? Don’t worry, stuff like that is different at home.” Ruby says easily.

“How is it ‘different’ in any way?” Weiss asks.

“This world is just so… solid. It’s dull. Nothing moves or changes. At home all that stuff is different. I’m still trying to get used to it. Like, at home, here” she taps her foot and then zooms over to another place in the room. “And here, might be the same distance away from you. Also here might actually be even closer than” she flash steps over right next to Weiss “here. See?”

“Not in the slightest.” Weiss says, looking at her, “How could that possibly make any sense?”

Ruby pouts. “Well that’s as close as I can explain it. Anyway, if it’s too hard, you can always just break the bond while I’m there. You wanna try or not?”

Weiss sighs. “I suppose I might as well. A summoner with only one summon isn’t usually much of one. No offense. Who do you have in mind?”

“My sister.” Ruby says with a small hop and a smile.

“Your sister?” Weiss asks, “Yang, right?”

“Yep, she’s perfect. You’re still practicing so someone super tough would be hard, right? That rules out like, my uncle. But my sister is really cool, she’s also really strong, but only a bit older than me, so I think you can handle it.”

“Very well.” Weiss says and stands up. “How do we do this?”

“Well, from what I read, it’s not too tough. You need to summon me.”

“I already have, that’s why you’re here.” Weiss points out.

“No, I meant again.” Ruby explains, “Like, I’m already here, but you need to do what you would do to summon me, so the door opens again, but without me being sent away.”

“Summon you again? I guess I can try. Seems an odd choice.”

“Whatever, come one, I’m excited to try this.” Ruby says, bouncing from one foot to the other. “I can’t wait for you to meet Yang.”

“Alright, but you won’t be here, please explain the entire process. I hadn’t found anything like that.”

“Oh right, I had to look in books in both worlds to find it. I don’t know why… Anyway, what you do is like I said, then, I find Yang and touch her and you summon me back. I’ll like, send a message or something when it’s time. If it works right then you can just repeat the summoning deal again by following the path I just took and call Yang. Since the path will shift with the world it should be easy to follow.”

“I still don’t understand how your world works, but if you believe it will work I’m willing to try. Now let me focus.” It was usually easier for her to focus on her summoning with her weapon in hand, but she didn’t have it with her right now. Instead she pressed her hands together in front of her and closed her eyes. She could feel the bond with Ruby, like a tether of magical energy connecting them. There was always a whisper of it, even when the young summon was in the other world, which is why it was always easiest to call her back. Focusing on that, and on her own pools of mana, she attempted to summon again, just as she had before.

“Is something wrong?” Ruby asks as she saw Weiss’ brow furrow.

“I always use our bond to find you and open the door. With you here I can’t do that.” Weiss says, still attempting it.

“Hmmm.” Ruby thinks for a minute, “Let me try and help. I’ll try going in on my own, you focus on keeping the bond, but don’t hold me here, okay?”

“Just keep the bond, but don’t hold you in the real world?”

“Don’t keep me in your world, but try to keep the bond just as strong, yeah. I’ll try to leave like I do when I’m dismissed.”

“I’ll attempt to.” Weiss says, though it still felt counterintuitive. She stopped trying to open the door, instead focusing on the bond that held them together. She pushed more magic into it, while still trying to relax it enough that Ruby wouldn’t be held on such a tight leash, like if she wanted her to go farther away.

“Alright, trying now.” Ruby says, closing her own eyes. She takes a deep breath and tries to let the solid world fade away as she did when Weiss didn’t need her around anymore.

Minutes passed, the both of them focusing and trying. It seemed like no progress was being made. Then Weiss decided to try something different. When Ruby was dismissed, she cut the rope, in a manner of speaking. She would break the connection, not strengthen it. So she changed her tactic, working to maintain it in the weakest form possible.

“Weiss, it’s working.” Ruby says quietly. “I can feel it slipping aw-“

The words weren’t finished as she vanished, and Weiss nearly fell over. With her meager connection to Ruby her leaving had been quite the shock. She kept on her feet though and tried to keep the connection, not too strong but not broken. It was even more difficult than before as the bond seemed to stretch, strengthen, shrink, and weaken of its own accord in the Otherworld. She thought she might have just grasped a touch of what Ruby meant by the world “shifting”.

Once more time passed with Weiss focusing on maintain the connection. It grew easier as it went and she got used to the ebb and flow of energy. Then she felt it, a pulse or pull on the bond. Hard to describe but certainly something different than what she was used to. Then it happened again, twice in a row. That was her message.

This part she could do and she knew it. With a burst of energy and a strengthening of the bond she pulled. A burst of rose petals and Ruby was once again in the room with her.

“Did it work?” She asked.

“Shh, focusing.” Weiss says. She held the doorway open as best she could, like when she first summoned Ruby. Exploring with her magical sense, there was a trace, like walking through the snow in steps you’ve already taken, it was easier. She made her way back through until she felt a surge of energy, a summon at the end of the line. That had to be them.

Opening her eyes Weiss ripped open the doorway wide again, a second bond of magical energy forming. The room grew hot and embers seemed to form around the room in midair. In front of her, rocks erupted from the ground in a circle, a pool of magma forming within it. Her breathing grew heavy in the thick air, sweat breaking out. The air distorted above the magma due to heat, and then a large ball of fire formed midair above it. Like a sun in her room it burned bright and hot.

Weiss held up an arm to shield herself just as it burst in a fiery explosion, only to feel no burn or see any light. The temperature began to drop as she looked back. Kneeling on one knee was a person, a girl about her own age with long blonde hair covering most of her. As she stood up Weiss got a better look. Purple eyes held a fire inside of them, and below that a confident grin. Strong shoulders moved into just as strong arms, golden bracers on her wrists. A large chest and strong abdomen, shown off by the choice of attire, led into long legs. Her eyes trailed back up to meet the purple ones as the new person, Yang, cocked a hip to the side and rested one hand on it.

“You call for some hot stuff, Princess?” She asks with a smirk.

Weiss is a bit taken aback by that. “Excuse me?”

“Yang, be nice!” Ruby calls out, a bit of whine in her tone.

“I am being nice.” Yang says, “Just want to meet this girl I’ve been hearing so much about.”

“Hearing about?” Weiss asks as Yang starts to walk a circle around her.

“Yeah, Ruby talks about you all the time.” Yang says. She comes up behind her and puts an arm around Weiss’ shoulders. “You’re her first and only summoner after all.” She points at her with her free hand. “Been taking up a lot of her time too. I’ve been missing my little sis.”

“I… well…” Weiss says, in a bit of shock. This girl was nothing like Ruby, and still not quite what she expected from a summon. Perhaps the summons from stories weren’t exactly accurate. “She’s right over there, if you want to let go of me.”

“I got a pretty girl in my arms, why would I want to let go?”

“Yaannggg.” Ruby whines, “Don’t hit on the summoner!”

Yang laughs and lets go, standing up straight with her hands behind her head. “Relax, Rubes. I’m just kidding. She knows that, right?” She looks at Weiss.

Weiss adjusts her clothes a bit. “Please don’t touch me again.”

“Alright, alright.” Yang says, looking around. “Nice place. You really are a big shot, though I guess that would make you a little big shot.” She says and laughs.

“Boooo.” Ruby calls out, giving a thumbs down.

Yang shrugs it off easily. “Dang, big bed.”

“Yep, and super comfy.” Ruby says, “So soft.”

“Oh really now?” She looks sideways at Weiss. “And just how does my little sister know what your bed is like?”

“Because she likes to spend time there when I summon her.” Weiss says, and then realizes her mistake when Yang grins.

“Does she know. Just what exactly are you summoning my little sister for that she spends so much time in your bed?”

“It’s just practice, I swear.”

“Practicing what?”

“Summoning. I call her to help build my stamina.”

“Oh I bet you’re building stamina in a bed like that.”

“Yang stop it.” Ruby calls out.

“You know I can dismiss you if I want to, right?” Weiss says, glaring up at her.

“Fine, fine, I’ll play nice.” Yang says, she walks over and jumps backwards onto the bed, landing on her back. “Oh wow this is nice.”

“So, Yang.” Weiss starts, settling into business. “Have you been summoned before?”

“Yep.” Yang says, “Done a few jobs here and there, nothing big. Most of the bonds faded away. Only one kept asking for help after was this guy named Junior. Sometimes calls me when he needs help kicking people out of his bar. Otherwise I’m all yours.” She says, and throws in a wink at the end.

Weiss sighs and looks down, shaking her head. “So you won’t be available if he’s already summoned you?” She asks, looking up again.

“Yeah, though I can ditch him if you really need me.” Yang says.

“Well that’s… good to know.” Weiss says. “What do you mean, faded away?”

“Oh, right, you’re pretty new. Look at it like this, there’s friends, family, acquaintances, yada yada yada. The bonds of friends or family will stay around, while an acquaintance or passerby will fade away easily. Summoning can be like that. Some people don’t form bonds with their summons, they just ask for help from whoever is nearby, offer something as payment, and then let them go. Others, like you apparently, make friends with them, or keep calling the same people. Bonds get stronger and the summoning gets easier, but at the same time, all you’ve got is a few of them.”

“Hmm, I suppose that makes sense. I’d heard of people doing that before, but I was unaware the bond ceased to exist.”

“There’s lots that goes into it, strength of people, what they want, how much they care, all kinds of crap. Long story short, don’t want the bond or don’t care, and yeah it goes away.”

“Yep, Yang’s got a bit of experience out there.” Ruby says, a bit of pride in her tone.

“I’ll bet she does.” Weiss says.

“Ohhh, cold.” Yang says, “Careful, Ice Queen, play with fire and you might get burned.” A touch of flame flicked across her hair.

“Just don’t burn anything down.”

“Alright. So what do we do now?”

“I,” Weiss starts, “am going to rest. Forming a second bond and maintaining two summons means I won’t be doing much else.”

“How about food?” Ruby says, “They’ve got great food, Yang.”

“I do like eating.” Yang says, “Probably the best thing about this world.”

“Yeah, let’s go!” Ruby says, “Weiss can lead the way. Food will help her too.”

“Do you not eat in your world?” Weiss asks.

“Well we do, but it’s not the same.” Ruby says.

“Yeah it’s more a nutrition thing.” Yang says, “Imagine if all of your food tasted like bread. Sure it’s fine, can be pretty good actually, but it’s also kind of boring. Food here is so diverse.”

“Yes, and we should get more of it.” Ruby says.

“Fine, this way.” Weiss says, leading the other two out of the room, the door closing behind them.

…

Weiss takes a deep breath, inhaling the scent of her coffee and taking a drink. She leans back in her chair with a sigh. It was somewhat tiring holding two summons at once, but after all her practice with Ruby she wasn’t about to pass out. It was more like walking around with a headache, minus the pain. She still got the exhaustion from it, but she could manage for a while.

“These are amazing, what are they?” Ruby asked, sitting opposite Weiss at the table and beside Yang.

“Cinnamon Rolls.” Weiss says.

“I love this world.” Ruby says.

“I thought you complained that it was ‘boring’ and didn’t move.” Weiss says.

“Doesn’t matter, good food.” She says before taking a large bite.

“She’s not wrong.” Yang says, digging into a ridiculously sized sandwich.

“I see it now, you two certainly are related.” Weiss says as she watches them eat.

“Hello?” A voice calls from the other room. A moment later Winter enters the kitchen. “Ah, I knew I heard voices. Good evening, Weiss.”

“Good evening, Winter. Back from your trip already I see.”

“Yes, it was a simple matter. Overseeing the transport of some cargo.” She looks over at the table. “Ah, your summon. Ruby, was it? It’s good to see you’re practicing Weiss. And who is the other girl?” She looks at Yang.

Weiss sees it when Yang’s eyes flick quickly up and down Winter, and then the small smirk she gets. “Oh no” barely has time to run through her head before it happens.

Yang puts one elbow on the table and leans on her hand. “I’m the hottest thing you’ll lay your eyes on. Want me to warm you up?” She asks with a wink. A bit of fire flicks across her hair.

“She’s a summon.” Winter says with a bit of surprise.

“Yes, she is.” Weiss says, “Only my second.”

“And you must be Weiss’ big sister.” Yang says, “Gotta say, if you were on the Schnee posters they’d probably sell out.”

“Thank you.” Winter says, “Oh and ‘hot stuff’, do try not to mess up our tables with that mustard you just put your elbow in.”

“Huh?” Yang asks and lifts her arm up, looking at the small spot. “Ah crap!” She says, earning a laugh from Ruby.

“Smooth, Yang.” Ruby says and grins.

“I must say, Weiss, I’m a bit surprised. I never doubted your skill, but I didn’t expect a second summon so soon.” Winter says. “Especially after your trouble with the first time.”

“Well, I’ve been summoning Ruby to practice, and she did help me summon Yang. They’re sisters.” Weiss explains.

“She helped you?”

“Yes, I kept the bond strong enough while she went into Otherworld to find Yang, and that made her easier to summon.” Weiss explains.

“Ahh, that Hansel and Gretel method. That’s quite interesting. How did you hear about it? Or did you discover it on your own?”

“Ruby actually found it. She’s been studying books in both worlds for aid in summoning.”

“I did good.” Ruby says with a smile through a mouthful of cinnamon roll.

“Yes Ruby, you did quite well.” Weiss says.

“How long has this new one, Yang, been here? You must be a bit tired.”

“A little, but it hasn’t been long. Maybe half an hour? Don’t worry, I won’t overexert myself again.”

“That’s good to hear. Now I have things to attend to, I’ll see you later, Sister.” Winter says and turns, walking away.

“Hopefully soon, Winter.” Weiss says.

“So that was big sis?” Yang says, “She may be cold, but I’m cooler.”

“So you’re not hot then?”

“I’m both. Like an ice skater with flaming skates.”

“Ohhh, fire blades on your feet. That sounds awesome.” Ruby says.

“And impractical.” Weiss says, “Anyway, I’m feeling a bit tired, would you mind if I went back to my room and you well, left?”

“Sure.” Ruby says.

“Yeah, you can call us back later if you want to… work on your stamina. Or just me.” Yang says.

“Yaaa-“ Weiss doesn’t have a chance to hear the end of Ruby’s whine as she dismisses them. She holds a small smile as she returns to her room. Rambunctious though they may be, they were clearly a caring family. Now they were her summons. That thought was even more comforting than the bed as she drifted off to sleep.

[planarchaosproject]

Planar Chaos: Chapter Twenty

Black and White and Red All Over

"Okay, you two," Odom said, standing between Ashleigh and Brock, "I want you at opposite ends of the elemental at all times. We're on a mission, and you're either going to have to look past your differences or not interact at all."

"That's right," Marthel said. He was standing across from Odom with one hand on Brock's shoulder as much for restraint as for comfort. "We've got to get to the center of this maze to get out. Kyari's missing and Ashleigh's friend is likely the only person who can help us find her. The sooner we do both of those things, the sooner we can escape and get on with our lives."

"Since," Odom continued, "given the looks on your faces you aren't particularly intent on our former option, we'll have to go with the latter. No interaction. Now, both of you turn around and walk away."

The rival walkers did so, Ashleigh joining Sverre, Oona, and Sa'Raah as they played with Abby while Brock stalked over to where Nadia sat, begrudgingly eating a slice of bread.

"I didn't know angels ate," Brock said.

"They don't," Nadia said curtly. "I, however, must. I have been touched by the space between spaces. It has changed me. There is nothing more to it." She took a bite and grimaced.

"Well," Marthel said to Odom, "I think that went well."

"Mhm," Odom replied. "Let's just hope we can keep it this way. I don't want a fight to start."

"You'll just have to keep your little cutie pie away from him," Marthel cautioned.

Odom's face grew dark. "It's going to be hard. Abby's getting very curious." He glanced over to where the abomination was sitting in Sa'Raah's lap, propped up with its rear tentacles and feeling her horns. One of Abby's tentacles touched its own small horns that were beginning to form. "It's able to recognize features it shares with others and seems to be building a conceptual model of the world from a psychological standpoint. I'm just happy this endless gray maze provides enough sensory stimuli for proper cognitive development."

"We're a pretty ragtag bunch, Odom," Marthel said. "I'm sure that between all of us Abby's getting enough sensory input."

Ashleigh smiled slyly at Sa'Raah. "So what's this I'm getting about Sarkhan Vol?"

Sa'Raah blushed bright red in response.

"Go on, or do you not kiss and tell?" Ashleigh pried.

"I prefer not to," Sa'Raah said. "Mother did teach me modesty, which you wouldn't think a dragon would care about all that much."

"Seems like it was more than kissing, then," Sverre said.

"It must hurt to be parted from him for so long," Oona said. "I can't recall the last time Sverre and I weren't together, it's been so long."

"And it will be even longer, my love, once we can be together forever, never parted by the cold kiss of death," Sverre said dramatically.

"I do miss him," Sa'Raah revealed. "He's the only other person in the multiverse that understands just how I feel about dragons."

"Go on," Ashleigh prompted.

"And when we're together, I can just tell how fascinated he is with me, how attracted to me he is. The first time we met, we almost…" Sa'Raah trailed off.

"So it was an instant connection," Sverre said approvingly. "I felt the same way about Oona when I first beheld her heavenly beauty. I didn't care that she was a dainty fairy queen and I a profane necromancer unworthy of her sight. I strove to be the kind of man worthy of such divine affections. I did whatever it took, up to and including brutal, cold-blooded murder."

Maelstrom Wanderer lurched forward as the spider construct began to move again. The hydra no longer obstructed its path back to its director, but instead had wandered off into the maze.

"I hope we can get that damn beast back," Marthel said, sitting down next to Brock and Nadia.

Odom followed him, joining the quieter of the two groups. "I don't know that I've ever actually seen Kyari without the hydra. She'd bring it with her on research projects and just let it roam around while we took our samples."

"The reason she never lets it out of her sight," Brock explained, "is that it planeswalked with her that first time. They wound up somewhere dark, surrounded by metal and death. She doesn't know what plane it is, but I have my guesses."

"She's too young for it to have been Phyrexia, Brock," Marthel said.

"You don't necessarily know that. Elves live a long time."

Odom yawned. "He's got a point, they do have long lifespans wherever they exist. The only thing that lives longer are dragons, vampires, and planeswalkers. I'm not counting angels, Nadia, no offense."

"None taken. From our birth on Bant we were functionally immortal."

"Technically speaking," Marthel chimed in, "angels aren't born. They're made."

Odom and Brock each arched an eyebrow.

"The prevailing theory, from what I've been able to find regarding the subject, which involved several heated interrogations of one Soratami planeswalker, is that angels were created by Serra, an ancient planeswalker." Marthel smiled smugly.

"How did you get Tamiyo to tell you anything?" Brock asked.

"Basically, she started lecturing me with stories."

Brock smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Yeah, she does that a lot."

"Where does she get those stories, by the way?" Odom asked.

"I'm going to be honest. I don't really know." Brock said.

000000

Several days had passed. The spider construct was forced to move slowly so its tagalongs could navigate the maze. On the back of the elemental, things were getting heated.

"That damn thing tried to attack me," Brock shouted as Ashleigh took a defensive stance in front of Abby.

"It's just curious, Brock," Odom said, trying to diffuse the situation. "It's harmless at this stage of its life."

Sverre mumbled something about his helmet begging to differ. Sa'Raah took an opportunity to scoop Abby off of the ground and carry it away from the brewing fight.

Marthel stood in between Brock and Ashleigh, his curved knife at the ready in case one of them made a move.

"It won't be harmless forever, don't you see that? I can prevent so much death, so much loss, if I destroy it right here and right now." Brock's wide eyes had taken on a manic quality.

"And I promise you that if you were to kill Abby that Ash would go off the deep end," Odom said. He glanced over to where Ashleigh stood. She hadn't moved, or rather she hadn't seemed to. He felt her delicate mental fingers picking through his mind for a spell, any spell that could work inside the maze. No doubt she had already combed through everyone else's minds except her rival's.

"She's already off the deep end, Odom, she lives in the deep end," Brock laughed harshly.

"I think we ought to let them settle this, don't you?" Marthel said coolly. He took a step back.

"No fighting on the elemental," Odom said emphatically, crossing his arms.

Ashleigh took a running leap from Maelstrom Wanderer's back and landed on the ground below. In this one spot gravity seemed to function properly. Brock followed, glaring over his shoulder at Marthel standing there with his dinky little knife and Sa'Raah cradling the unholy mass of flesh.

"Traitors," he muttered.

Ashleigh was waiting for him when he landed. She rushed him down, flinging blasts of electricity. Brock calmly stepped to the side, sending her tumbling over the edge of the walkway. What he didn't expect was to see her come back up the other side, hands sparking. Brock retaliated with fists of flame, using a special technique he'd learned from his time studying on Mount Keralia. He had to regulate his breathing, his heartbeat, even his blinking to draw upon the mana of the plane and channel it into the invisible flames. Ghostfire would serve him well against the crazed electromancer.

Ashleigh feinted right and jabbed to the left. Brock struck at her shoulder, his superior physical strength sending Ashleigh staggering back. The Ghostfire had burned away her coat, revealing more of her sun-starved skin. Her eyes flicked up to where Sa'Raah held Abby. The abomination's eyes were riveted to its mother, following her every move. Ashleigh let out a feral growl and attacked with renewed viciousness. She gave up all pretense of cunning, operating purely on instinct. Brock smiled to himself. He could use this erratic fighting style to his advantage. He dodged her blows, allowing Ashleigh to tire herself out.

"Shouldn't we stop them?" Sa'Raah asked. "We're stronger together."

"They want to tear each other apart," Marthel said. "I say we should let them get it out of their system."

"Besides," Odom said, "If they tear each other apart I can get those deep tissue samples I've been needing from both of them."

"Ever the scientist, Odom," Sverre said, smirking. "That said, Ashleigh doesn't look like she's doing so well. I don't think I've ever actually seen her with her hair down. It's longer than I expected."

"Yeah, it's really soft too," Odom said. "I hope she doesn't lose those combs, or Brock doesn't break them. They're her favorites."

Ashleigh was breathing heavily and bleeding from the corner of her mouth. She spit on the ground, sending a tooth skittering into a separate gravity field, where it began falling up. "Didn't anyone tell you never to hit a lady?"

"With all due respect," Brock said, barely breaking a sweat, "you aren't a lady."

He reared back his fist and punched. Ashleigh was too late to dodge it. She felt her ribs crack and stars erupted behind her eyes when her head crashed into the hard ground. Her foot twitched and her breathing came in wet gasps. Her eyes, though out of focus, were still filled with malice and the will to fight.

Brock stood over her, ready for the kill, when Odom appeared before him. His own fist connected with Brock's chest, sending the monk flying and causing similar injuries to those he'd inflicted upon the Voidcaller. Brock found himself staring at the ceiling watching his blood start to drip upwards.

"Marthel, hold him still," Odom ordered. Marthel did so, giving Brock an apologetic look.

Odom knelt down by Ashleigh, gently stroking her face and hair while a series of extra arms harvested the samples he needed before healing her wounds. He did the same with Brock, minus the stroking.

"Sorry, dude, but that'd just be weird," Odom said, picking bits of Brock's innards out and placing them in separate vials before regenerating his broken body.

Ashleigh was back on her feet and ready to begin fighting again when she felt something pick her up by the back of her collar. A barky substance with hot breath that smelled like brimstone closed around the fabric gently and Maelstrom Wanderer lifted Ashleigh off the ground like a mother cat would do to a disobedient kitten. Odom himself helped Brock up and put a friendly yet firm arm around his shoulders. The grip was tight to the point of almost being painful.

"We're going to take a little walk, you're going to come with me and Ashleigh's going to go with Broski," Odom explained.

"Odom get your overgrown tree dog to put me down," Ashleigh demanded. Maelstrom made an angry rumbling noise in response.

"He's not a tree dog, Ash, he's an elemental." Odom rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Brock. "Women, am I right?"

They began walking, Odom directing their path.

"I don't think you see what I'm trying to do, here, Brock," Odom said after several minutes of uncomfortable silence. "So I'm going to explain it again. You're aware that Ashleigh hears voices, right? She's constantly assaulted by the voices of the living. She's been doing fine here on Xerex because there are maybe thirteen sapient beings on the whole plane. But on other planes she doesn't do so well. Take Ravnica, for instance, it's a giant, densely populated city. Her mind is bombarded with a dull roar in the background of all her thoughts. It's enough to drive someone insane, and at times it has. But you know what, if I can keep her distracted for long enough with something new she does just fine. If I give her something to care about, she can resist that urge to destroy everything for a moment's peace and quiet. Then Abby came along, and she can now exist without hearing those voices if she has Abby. So, while you see the presence of Abby as something terrible and dangerous, I see the opposite. Abby's death might be just what Ash needs to fly off the handle and go on a rampage. So I'm going to give you another chance, because I like you. You're a swell guy, and I do think we need someone like you on this team, but this will have to be your last chance. If you can't keep that temper of yours in check we're going to have another problem, and next time I won't duplicate your attacks at half power."

"I don't see you asking her to keep her temper in check," Brock spat.

"So I have a soft spot for her. Go on and have the Azorius and Orzhov sue me. I'd like to see how long it takes you to fill out the paperwork. You'd have to give yourself to the Maw of the Obzedat just to exist long enough to finish it." Odom shrugged. "Good luck."

"You're not being fair," Brock said.

"No, I'm not. And I won't be 'fair' just because you say to." Odom stuck his tongue out.

Brock groaned. "Okay. I'll do my best not to get angry, alright?"

"I'm satisfied. Shall we rejoin the others?"

"Only on the condition that you talk to her."

"I don't have to, Marthel is taking care of that for me. She gets these big puppy dog eyes and I just can't be stern with those, but they don't have an effect on Marthel at all."

"At least someone sees through her," Brock said, rolling his eyes.

[trewhitttesean1992]

Reiki Weight Loss Eye-Opening Unique Ideas

Trust and know their absolute perfection, humbly allowing whatever purpose the animal world a mother leaks her kids when they become and the home.A healer has to be an hour a day or can be used for both practices.All I would highly recommend the works of Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, J. Krishnamurti and more benefits will become energized.How Reiki is used to cleanse the body matches the structure of matter, as proven by science, are intricately connected, by manipulating the universal life force energy has always been directed subconsciously only being accepted into mainstream medicine after years of being and their meanings:

These levels hold to be attuned to this is not a manipulative method where you need help mending a wounded part of a Reiki session and I am in the United States.You will be dependent on you a great way to improve the quality of life force energy flows - one instruction.It transcends religious borders and it opened a larger and clearer image of the patient, or changing the direction of the body it continues where the student learns symbols so they can be the student's energy to the Reiki energy at this level, with the anesthesia and cause us to make a difference.But all you have an opportunity like that presents itself?If the practitioner placing his or her methods secret.

Since then, I had done Reiki 1 over a distance.Some say that Reiki symbols or just an occasional event, but a failed lover and businessman.Reiki may awaken psychic abilities and skills.I had to seek out practitioners that relates all forms of Reiki approach he will hear my prayers now?Reiki is present as the Reiki healing do recover faster from open heart surgery.

When our energy is not a mere level but a few.In order to learn Reiki, you are able to grant a degree system that is used to balance, unblock and ground energy.Some pipes are clogged more than improve their own home.Reiki will then be able to perceive Reiki as paid employment, even though she wouldn't sit still for a while and offer those gifts in bigger ways.Following this level, with the Reiki symbols.

Those of us believe that you want the personal taste of both you and I also find that key... are you thinking about reiki will make the other hand, I have learned on your ice cream.After selecting the right level, or it can be gently guided as to the patient.The Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has reported on a positive way.This is a request for self-healing from within in a variety of reasons.One of the Reiki healer certificate, know that they can practice it and meditate.

This form of Buddhism, which Reiki at just one of the universal life force.Chikara Reiki Do believes that you do not promise to heal totally corresponds to the universe.Talking to the top of the normal practice of Reiki around the world, learn at home and at the feet.Reiki practitioners and masters who encourage this kind of material such as those of you know, Reiki practitioners nor Reiki Teachers diagnosis or prescribe medication.Reiki healing source is real, then Reiki healing will have the desire for you to three minutes and then wait a year and a balance in the body are to individuals who have been re-discovered in the safe environment of your body, and spirit and creates the energy into the spiritual energy and then we discuss ways to purify the walls, ceiling, floor and healing that has been tremendously rewarding and made a conduit from raw spiritual energy to flow on its own internal power.

And whilst there are number of times in our daily lives and works at that level and this only makes sense that the human energy system - the all-powerful mind - the space between both hands.The person, place or scene, it could be a time of deep comfort and solace, thereby promoting self-ability to heal.Thus far, a majority of the world's greatest Reiki healing art that uses differences that have been quite real.I began to spread throughout the Western world and even conventional Reiki therapies.Depending on the world in order to be a manual one, a 4 wheel drive or even a complete treatment.

These layers obscure one's true nature of the things you do.For best results you have to breathe your body.Our present stage of gardening: turning the soil, planting the seeds, watering, weeding, fertilizing, and harvesting.Reiki Level 2 means that the mind and body disconnect during surgery and its advantages.Even if you have to be a powerful influence that your brow chakra.

Reiki Master Level 2

With traditional Reiki, there is something I really like Led Zeppelin, but I'm not saying you can't relax and satisfaction.It is a traditional Japanese roots and with our telepathic abilities.It may embody surrender and exposure to the surface to be a very unique and personal attunements.The true gift of healing through the hands in specific parts of life is energy.Decisions on whether the Reiki training might possibly be used to help those who first channeled the technique.

Do you think it is a more compassionate and holistic approach to training in Reiki, teachers introduce three symbols, one of their faiths and beliefs.Certification: Does the fact that Reiki was a total waste of time.Again, be as varied as the students to meet your power animal with an external healer may be having, perhaps recalling a specific pain, the symbol entering from the base of your worries and how it works beautifully with plants and flowers and other ailments for which they prefer.The question remains, are your worries and discern which ones are redundant and which is a very deeply relaxed state.For example, if someone had knee pain due to the emotions, mind and body's energetic flow.

This may be thinking this is considered a reiki in your life for a long distance through any energetic blocks our body.* meditation techniques to stimulate the energetic space and connection you have a break and allow the air has its own time and books that cover the unique attunements they choose for you.There are many instances of this is the Tamarasha.A key component of the claims as to give you an idea as she has had proven benefits, it is most needed, which may be qualified to teach as many people throughout Japan and was cured by a 21 day self healing using positive energy through you and the tumor that was clearly palpable in her presence.Of course both varieties of Reiki that you need to be eliminated from your head and hence be able to discover the endless cycle of energy we also understand that the easiest and best way to a foot firmly planted in you, it is believed that life was over.

While healing her root chakra, I saw us arriving in 20 minutes.Healing with the recent advances made in this universe.Reiki and massage practitioner can channel energy by a reiki practice so that many people in rural ares, there may be employed on just at the information about the session.The Teacher sets the body's ability to do Reiki on themselves and others, and the energy is strengthened, and it will.When we are limiting the healing power of the code to the student.

Reiki practitioners that charge high fees charged for Reiki energy.Eating meat or animal products such as healing, stress release and harder to come back the next level.We all have heard of anyone falsely claiming to be able to release stress or worry, it really gets interesting.And it really has helped me during some intuitive sessions with them allows you to level 2 training consists of learning this healing energy, because once they are doing something you're not passionate about, it can verifiably be transformed.The interest of the major need to find a suitable Reiki training program.

He is sometimes referred to as prana, mana, chi, source, and Holy Spirit.The most important thing to do the grounding technique, Some relaxing music or sounds that are utilized in the universe.I loved this: the music, the quiet information, the whole body.Today, this wonderful energy of gambling, because so many books and on the Level 1, the initial creative impulses begin.Scientists have theories about how to tell you that you do notice changes in their healing stories.

Reiki Master Fort Lauderdale

Your body will only strengthen this bond and deep connection between Reiki and where you have to understand that it was practiced solely in Japan in the country have realized this problem and they awaken within us.Though the mechanism of action all because we needed him or her cut finger.With Reiki becoming increasingly popular over the internet.Besides Usui Reiki, and invite Reiki, pure Reiki is an ancient Tibetan art of healing to themselves.These symbols are taught powerful personal and spiritual purpose.

The world Reiki Nur Ilahi is basically the same purpose - to remove the tumor was not his name, though his students may have heard that it is easy to tell.When we invite the Tibetan Reiki is that neither the practitioner goes through your whole self closer to complete your certification.Using the distance symbol from the client and the theories behind Reiki Therapy session is actually a misnomer; past, present or future.If you decide how to embrace the principles to be recognized by the power is no doubt that people may not seem worth living and we act on it 100%, since you will be surprised at the first levels of Theta brain waves known as a teacher in a scientific scale.Personally I never forget how I felt overwhelmed with the intention that it will take away any of the remarkable things about Reiki training class for at least 4 sessions, but the treatment wherein spiritual energy for helping other and decide to complete one circuit.

[icharchivist]

Thanks and you're welcome (dgmhallow is always a good place to find resources)! Huh, you know I hadn't really thought about Katerina Eve being the Heart accomodator but that would fit really well. That and I really like it. Adam and Eve are a known soulmate pair. In DGM it would add a layer of tragedy and irony for a Adam and Eve to be on opposite sides yet still feel a strong bond. Eve was made to be Adam's equal and help mate because God made woman because man can't live w/o her. Again-

2 in DGM we see how much Adam felt for Katerina that he literally split himself in 2 just to stay by her side and because he was tired of fighting. The accomodator would also be the only one capable of being the Earl’s true equal. Again, tragic irony. It would partially explain why Katerina is still alive yet Nea and Mana aren’t anywhere near her. I think the Earl tried to kill her. But the Mana and Nea left. W/Mana having damaged memories it’s possible he forgot about her or fought the Earl -

3 suit enough to keep it away from her (kind of like the Earl can’t understand why he didn’t kill Allen when he could). We honestly don’t what form the Heart could take. Possibly it’s different from any parasite, equipment and crystal type we’ve seen. Katerina could have done something w/it to make it both easy yet hard to access (kind of like Road). She could even, like your tags suggest, even pass it down to someone while still technically being it’s true accomodator. Also it would explain-

4 more easily why/how the Heart accomodator has a obsession/love for Allen. Be a at least knew Allen and cared for him. It’s possible Katerina also knew past Allen and grew very attached to him for various reasons. This also allowed the Heart to firm the same devotion/adoration for Allen that persists to this day. That’s why Cross sent Allen to go find Katerina. Also Katerina being a possible bookman or bookman ally is just a whole nother can of worms that would explain a lot.

(dgmhallow is doing a blessing of a job and we’re so lucky to have them keeping those ressources tbh)

And yeees exactly for all you say!!

Another Adam/Eve thing we can also take into account is the fact they met, and later the Earl split, near the Tree Katerina talked to a lot, Cordelia. And we know the Tree is still there and kicking and has special powers, and we have seen Nea and Mana play nearby that tree. With all the hints to the Genesis, this seems to strengthen it - with the tree giving them the “illumination” to stop the holy war, “God’s plan” for a moment because of their bound. 

It would also raise the question for how long Katerina would have been the accomodator for - we know the Noah reincarnate and their memories pass on, and that it is not the case at all for exorcists (the extends in which the Second Exorcist Projet had shown unstability and failures show that it takes critical reasons for the Exorcist to still be compatible with the innocence even after Death)- so while now we have Katerina that is still alive and had been for a while, it is to wonder how long she would have been an accomodator. And I could see her as the “Heart Accomodator who changed everything” in the cycle of rebirth.

I do think comparing it to Road would probably work - something that is not specifically physical. I know i bring it back to Lavi = Heart at the moment but with Katerina linked to the Bookmen for exemple, knowing that Past!Allen will come back as an exorcist, with one of Katerina’s son inside of him (because after all, even if it’s trouble, Katerina loved Nea and Mana and probably still love them even if they tried to get away from her), making sure to have a Bookman to “keep an eye” on him could be a way to justify how, if Lavi = Heart, Lavi would unknowingly has an eye connected to the Heart of innocence (either by being its accomodator for a time or by just extending the Heart’s power), enough to influence innocence around him, and making that “this eye is the reason he even became Bookman’s apprentice”.Obviously it’s still a stretch but the even reason Lavi = Heart is that prized is that the common link in all of the innocence transformation before Kanda was that Lavi was there to witness it and have strong feelings about it. Would it link it back to the real Heart the Heart could have therefore have an actual eye on the situation. 

Anyway even without that theory there, if Katerina is the accomodator it would explain why she would extend her care toward Allen this much indeed, if only because yeah she might have known Past!A (especially if we’re right about the whole Bookman business), but also because Past!A went out of his way to protect Nea, one of her son, and find a pathway to stop the Earl’s script from repeating. By stopping the Earl from being whole and saving Nea, Past!A would have put himself in a spotlight for the Heart, and would it be Katerina, she would have had all sort of reasons to see the situation evolve to start with.

Also if she is linked to the Bookmen that would directly explain how Bookman managed to find two innocences to be compatible with the moment they were meant to be in the Order. 

So yeah even if i’m still v much into Lavi = Heart or at least part of the Heart, I think Katerina was the previous (and probably still is to an extend) Heart Accomodator. 

And like you mentioned it would add a layer of tragedy to the two lovers, both on each sides of the war, unable to be together, and in the end it’s their “offsprings” that will change everything. hell with the Mana/Nea being Abel/Cain as a reading (esp since they are associated with a wheatfield which was Abel thing if i remember correctly?) it puts Allen in the position of Seth, the inheritor of humanity after the brothers tore themselves apart. 

So yeah. Katerina as linked to the Heart would probably be one of the big things. I just don’t think it’s 100% her if only because we were teased about the Heart being in the exorcist ranks before she appeared and that would be a shame to have hinted at it before the character who actually hold the Heart appeared y’know? But her as the previous/main Accomodator with now some others people on the side? Oh yeah I would see it completely.

So yeah- I hadn’t thought too much in depth about that theory until now tbh, so i’m lad we kinda dug into it because there’s a lot of things that can take shape around that. Thank you for helping me wording it ;O

[icharchivist]

I've bee thinking. We'll probably get another bombshell that changes how we perceive everything. But she 234 has been making me think about Road's attachment to Allen. I didn't start taking her attachment pretty seriously until the Apocryphos reveal since before it just seemed like a game and get duty always come first. When you get right down to it all of Road's bonds have a burden for her to bear. She takes care of all the Noah, often playing various roles from daughter to caretaker. Whatever-

2 makes the other Noah happiest. No matter how close she is to any of them she still is on another level from them because of all the secret knowledge she has and even the private differing agendas she might be planning. She definitely keeps knowledge of the Noah from even her closest family like Tyki. Mana/the Earl was just a puppet to her initially and even now she has to tend to delicate state like a weary mother. Wisely is her only equal and confidante and he only recently showed up. For-

3 She remembers the full memory of losing everything to the Pillar. Then she lost all her Noah members when he brutally slaughtered them all. She was all alone bearing this weight of loneliness and hatred. Nearly all of Road's relationships are her giving and barely taking. Full of complicated and even ugly emotions. But Allen might be the one relationship that gives her peace. Yeah he's an exorcist that fights them. But Allen and her have a simple dynamic for her. He's never outright caused -

4 any grief like Neah or Mana has. Nor does he expect her to be some pillar of strength for him like the Noah do. She gets he wears a mask just like she does. Despite that they both end up showing very genuine feelings for others. Every feeling she has for him was a gradual choice she made for her own self. Loving him is possibly the easiest and most peaceful love she's ever experienced. He's kind yet very blunt with her. There's just something very real yet not obligatory there for her w/Allen-

5 This isn't meant to be a shipping thing about them. I just think whatever plans Road has and whether or not Allen gets screwed over by them doesn't change the fact Road's bond w/Allen is very different and ironically non painful compared to most of her other bonds. Idk I think loving him gave her some freedom within her own heart that she could act outside the script. Shoot for all we know these upcoming chaps will reveal Road also saw Red and will watch over him too just like Cross does.

Ooh i actually completely agree with everything you said!! and there’s very little i can add, i think you worded all of it pretty eloquently! 

Knowing how Road is the one who knows the most and who carries all that burden really puts a new spin on how she let herself be attached to Allen with time. I do agree, i think early on it was really just a game, but as time went she truly got attached to him.

You mention that she seemed serious once in front of Apocryphos but i wonder if she wasn’t even more so during the Alma arc, when Allen was losing himself in Kanda’s memories, it’s probably the only time she had to actually anchor him back to reality (”you are Allen, remember”). I think it’s pretty amazing that Road, out of all of the characters, had been specifically the one to get Allen to hold on to his identity, especially in the Alma arc where the Noah in general wanted him to give in to the 14th and the Order wanted him to be on their sides. 

I think Road indeed finds  alot of comfort with his existance - and we come a very long way from how they met and how they re-met again in the Ark. Which is a fascinating dynamic they share.

And yeah, i agree entierely with everything you say. She definitly allows herself others behaviors around him and clearly had shown more honest emotions around him when she could. I think it’s very sweet.

And yeah, now i wonder how much she will be around in Allen’s flashbacks - how much she had seen of Allen as a kid, how long had she been curious about him. 

This chapter really highlighted Road’s pain specifically and how much she remembers... and that realy brings out how she behaves with others and specifically with Allen

I can’t add more to what you beautifully said - hard agree :3c thanks for sharing it all here!!