#divine alliance

[alliance-addict]

tantalizing thoughts

pairing: ichiro yamahara x pete wilson!!!

CW: prolonged staring (hott), nonconsensual mind reading, pete still has both legs (ik a lot of people don't like this but !!), SLIGHT! dom/sub type dynamics, blushing and reassurance, implied sex!!, unrequited love

A/N: OMFGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG DID YOU GUYS SEE THE NEW EPISODE OF THE DIVINE ALLIANCE TV SHOW IM CRYIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, so when i was watching i just had this idea come to me cus of when ICHIRO AND PETE LOOKED AT EACH OTHER. like yeah ik they all look at each other but ik ichiro was reading his thoughts and then he SMIRKEEEEEED omfgg sdhakjshdjkshfkjaskajshdjkasd anyways~

As usual, the massive Divine Alliance's living room was full. It was the Alliance's movie night, which happened once a week. Usually everyone watched the movie together, huddled up onto the couch with sodas and popcorn.

Everyone except Ichiro.

This week, they decided to watch the first Harry Potter movie, The Sorcerer's Stone. When Ichiro walked into the room and sat down, everyone was stunned. Nonetheless, though, they were pleased to have the entire Alliance together enjoying an evening.

Pete was hoping to have an evening away from Ichiro, seeing as the mysterious Japanese man always plagued his thoughts. While he wasn't unhappy to have him around, Pete had really wanted to focus on the movie instead of Ichiro. In fact, he found himself glancing Ichiro's way every few seconds, eventually catching the attention of Ichiro himself.

Ichiro had been reading Pete's mind since he walked into the room, becoming more and more amused by the second as more and more of Pete's thoughts were about himself. He pretended not to notice Pete's gaze somehow always finding its way back to him. After some time, he decided to tease Pete, turning his own gaze to the long-haired man's.

Pete became embarrassed, his cheeks flushing bright pink. Caught in the act, Pete saw no reason to turn away. He locked his eyes with Ichiro's, the latter's lips turning up into a devilish smirk.

Come to my room, Pete heard in his head. The voice wasn't his own--and he knew exactly who it belonged to. Pete felt compelled by a force that wasn't his own to get up from his seat.

"I'm going to use the bathroom," he squeaked, standing up suddenly. Nobody seemed too bothered, keeping their attention focused on the movie. Pete's legs trembled as he walked the short distance to Ichiro's bedroom.

Ichiro's bedroom was dark, with only the moonlight lighting the room. Pete sat on Ichiro's bed, running his hands over the silky comforter. Pete was glad it wasn't wool. The window was open, letting a slight, nighttime breeze into the room, and with only his thin pajamas covering his body, he shivered.

"Harry Potter is my favorite movie," Ichiro said, walking into his bedroom and locking the door behind him. "But I couldn't hear it over someone's naughty thoughts."

"They weren't naughty," Pete murmured.

"What was that?" Ichiro asked, striding over to Pete and standing in front of him.

"I wasn't-"

Pete was cut off by Ichiro placing a hand on his shoulder, pushing him onto the bed, his other arm caging him in.

"Try that again," Ichiro growled.

Pete gulped, his cheeks set ablaze once more. He stared at Ichiro's face, which was right in front of Pete's. Pete accidentally took a slightly deeper breath, inhaling Ichiro's natural earthy scent.

"Pete," Ichiro whispered, his voice softer this time. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Pete's eyebrows furrowed together, and he searched Ichiro's face for any sign of malevolence. When he found none, he nodded slightly.

Ichiro smirked again. "Good," he praised, reaching for Pete's shirt. "Now let me show you what I was thinking about."

[corpseaten]

When ⠀ I ⠀ say ⠀ I ⠀ like ⠀ toxicity ⠀ in ⠀ a relationship . ⠀. ⠀ I ⠀ don’t ⠀ mean ⠀ little ⠀ stuff ⠀ like ⠀ getting ⠀ jealous ⠀ over everything ⠀ I ⠀ mean ⠀ like ⠀ this ⠀ guy. running ⠀ away ⠀? I ⠀ don’t ⠀ think ⠀ so! ⠀ Get back ⠀ here.

[impossible-rat-babies]

saw mechanics in rabanastre I would have thought were cool if people weren’t dying all over the place

[theeflowerofcarnage]

finished dai like all the way so now i gotta lot of thoughts that i must let simmer in my mind on low heat while i play DA:O...and maybe DA: II

[obp-ht]

OF BUIRED PROMISES AND HIDDEN TRUTHS

"History has been buried, and promises have been broken. Death lurks around every corner of your history. Are you willing to delve deep to find the truth? You may end up uncovering more than what you bargained for..."

(I need to redo this page so badly AGH)

Welcome to my Xenomoggy series, OBP&HT! You can call me Neon or Light, I use They/Them pronouns. My main is @neon-lights-stuff ! This story is inspired by a number of other Xenomoggy stories such as Ailurocide, Cats of Eden Valley, The World of Ignavus, and Vernal Redblades, along with a handful of Warrior cats rewrites.

CONTENT WARNING LIST

[To be updated]

[Tag list and Masterpost list under the cut!]

MASTERPOSTS

The Affiliation of The Everlasting Star;

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- The Welkin Peak Fedaration;

- The Steepe Bound Fedaration;

- The Cospe Seek Fedaration;

- The Muskeg Twine Fedaration;

The Republic(Name pending);

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The Factions Alliance;

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The Fellowship of The Divine Quartet;

- Followers of The Flourishing Earth;

- Followers of The Radiant Sky;

- Followers of The Ever-deep Sea;

- Followers of The Scorching Flames;

Unaffiliated Groups:

- Bone Coalition;

- Moggi of the Wandering Moon;

- The Ivris Kin;

- Clan of The Whispering Caverns;

More to be added!

TAG LIST

#Of Buired Promise's and Hidden Truths & #OBP&HT; Will be tagged on all posts

#Neon answers; answering ask! (If I get any lol)

#OBP&HT: NAME; Character tag!

More to be added!

[nerosdayinanime]

generational trauama<3

very basic explanation: Shuya, the youngest child, was killed during a mission Sanemi was leading & Kyogo was very disrespectful and dismissive about it bc he doesnt see them as anything other than fodder. Sanemi, overcome with the grief of his latest sibling's death and the years of abuse, lost his shit and lunged at him with intent to kill.

His arm went through Kyogo's chest and together they went through the window, Kyogo briefly fought back and Sanemi used a wind jutsu to utterly shred the inside of his chest cavity. He sits back and processes what just happened and realizes that the pain and grief hasn't gone away.

Shizu finally gets to him- Genya close behind though I didn't show it -and he breaks down over the fact he just killed so brutally so easily. He's become a monster just like Kyogo shaped him to be. Shizu calls for some water & washes the blood off, then gets the bone fragments out and heals him.

Rest of the clan's freaking the hell out bc He Just Snapped We're Next Oh Fuck Oh Fuck, no one knows what to do abt Kyogo bleeding out, but hes just Sitting There, Crying

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

God's Promises are Eternal

Grass quickly dies, and flowers fall to the ground. But God's promise will be true for ever.’ — Isaiah 40:8 | Easy English Bible (EASY) Easy English Bible © MissionAssist 2023 (Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807) a member of the Wycliffe Global Alliance Cross References: Matthew 5:18; 1 Peter 1:25; Numbers 23:19; Psalm 111:8; Psalm 119:89; Isaiah 46:10; Isaiah 55:11; Isaiah 59:21; Jeremiah 44:29

[waraxarcana]

One of these days, I really need to write a scene of Hawkins slaughtering an entire tavern full of people because he overheard a few men commenting on Ikkaku's wanted photo. Just being completely brutal and possessive and Apoo, Kid, and Killer just staring, more than a little surprised because they'd assumed Hawkins would be the calm one in this alliance. But now they understand that he's just as messed up as any other pirate. Possibly more so, if he's getting like this over a bounty poster for a woman that's on another crew and that he hasn't even seen in person for two years.

Their next hint that this dude's an utter possessive psychopath would be catching a glimpse of the High Priestess tarot card and realizing he's changed out the one in his normal skeleton deck for one that looks just like Ikkaku.

[voiceoutofstars]

Fan narration of a Relic entry in HSR’s Data Bank. This is the story of both pieces of the Broken Keel set.

Music is “A Long Way” by SergePavkinMusic.

[enbyboiwonder]

I thought so. I thought “enervate” meant “weaken.” Ysuran has a spell called Enervation that drains HP from the enemies in front of him, and I keep thinking it’s the one that lowers their dmg, but that’s Ray of Enfeeblement. Outside of BGDA2, Enervation has a chance to kill an enemy outright, and if it doesn’t, it temporarily reduces their dmg. I think. The wiki says it “suppresses their lifeforce” and also that it will “increase an undead creature’s un-lifeforce.” So does it also deal damage? Decrease CON? Urg, this is one of those spells I never use in NWN so I don’t know…

I should probably be playing that instead of BGDA2 tbh, so I can rework Ysuran’s spells for Misao. He’s missing some you’d expect a necromancer to have (Control Undead, anyone??), and some don’t work like you’d expect (this one possibly, plus his Animate Dead is actually Summon Undead). And that’s not even counting that I wanna have Misao learn some cleric spells too!

[maperezstuff]

My Friend, My Sister ~ an Answered Prayer

Again, left alone, with no one to share my heart, I regret­ted that I never stayed in touch with old classmates or fin­ished school. It’s what he wanted. Although I had advanced to the tenth grade, I never went back, relying solely on Donny’s moral and finan­cial support. I regretted that, too. I felt my prayers answered the day a neighbor knocked on our door. I recognized her immediately. At…

[charlietheepicwriter7]

Despite Danny's best efforts, no matter how much time past, Amity Park refused to see Phantom as a hero.

Sure, there were pockets of support, particularly among teens, but most of the town blames Phantom for the property damage, saying if he didn't fight the ghosts then it wouldn't be so bad, to that time he got mind controlled by Freakshow and "attacked" the mayor. It wears him down. It wears Tucker and Sam down. Jazz can only try to support them all.

Then one day, a member of the Justice League visits. Someone minor, and kinda a jerk... maybe a Wonder Twin? Zan? Whatever. They don't investigate; they don't look deeper. They listen to the town folks and declare the ghost hunters, Red Huntress and the Fentons, to be the official heroes of the town.

Worse? Danny Phantom is officially considered a villain to the Justice League. Tuck hacks into the Watchtower and confirms that they have a file (a heavily inaccurate file) about how to defeat Phantom.

Danny doesn't think he can do this anymore.

A few weeks later, a young villain escapes into Amity and demands (begs) that Danny help them escape from the hero after them. No idea who, I can't find a lot of info on teen villains in DC, so let's fudge some ages and make it Kyd Wyckyd from the Teen Titans cartoon. Danny agrees, because to hell with the Justice Losers, and they defeat the hero, becoming friends in the process. Kyd confesses that they became a villain after being ostracized bc of how they look, and they've been trying to avoid villain organizations because HIVE was abusive, but it's really hard to be a villain alone bc of all the heroes.

Sam gets an idea. Tucker agrees with the idea. Jazz is just happy they'll end up making friends.

The next day, the Teen Villain Alliance is formed, ready to assist with any teenage illegal shenanigans their allies might get into.

Some notes:

It's created to be a healthier option for teen "villains" to connect with others and support each other.

It's more important that this is for Teens rather than Villains. They're tired of adult villains taking advantage of them. The TVA would rather ally with a teen vigilante than with an adult villain.

Again, no idea who the teen villains are, but Klarion is definitely here. He leaves the Light for the chaos of the TVA. Maybe Ember is there too?

Timeline wise, this is around when Tim is still Robin, but Damien has arrived at Wayne Manor.

This is because, when it comes time to try to infiltrate the TVA, they'll have a convenient child-assassin who has none of the monitors of a teen hero that Phantom immediately picks up on.

Damien, who at this point has been abandoned by his mother, dismissed and scolded by his father, and has had no success at carving his own place in the family, jumps at the chance. He is then surrounded by peers who don't insult him or try to change his behavior (too much; jazz is trying to help him find healthier methods of expressing himself). He... might not want to continue being a spy.

Danny, Sam, Tuck, and Jazz are the founding members.

Danny reinvents himself as the High Prince of the Infinite, Prince Phantom Dark. He got kingship from fighting Pariah Dark, but since he's still alive, he's only a prince. He steals the last name Dark as an intimidation tatic against those in the know; only Danny would have the balls to claim family with Pariah.

Sam works as a powerless villain, but she might no be powerless? Either way, Danny gives her a bunch of repurposed Fenton tech, and she buys the rest with her parents credit card. She does NOT care if that's traced back to the Mansons. She would choose something goth, maybe something spider related or even bat?

I love Pharaoh Tucker, so I think he should get magic powers? Since pharaohs of old were considered the balance between the real and the divine. He's still a tech guy, now he's a tech and magic guy.

Jazz isn't really a villain, more of a team mom who's planning on using everyone's psyche's as her thesis paper. You know what, that's her callsign, she's Psyche. Sometimes she flirts with Nightwing.

[ikkaku-of-heart]

@kaizokugaris liked this for a Goddess AU starter.

Ikkaku sighed, holding up her lantern, its golden glow warm and comforting in the darkness of the underground labyrinth. Really, how did that swordsman end up here of all places? If she didn’t literally know better, she’d say he got lost deliberately as a way to lure her to the mortal realm. But he hadn’t. He was genuinely a man who always seemed to get lost in the most bizarre places. It was rather impressive, really. She hadn’t sensed any divine touch clinging to him, so he clearly hadn’t been cursed or anything. Perhaps he was just unlucky.

Well, he was at least lucky enough to have caught the Goddess of Light and Guidance’s personal attention. More than once, even. It helped that he was stubborn, and that he didn’t seem to get the hint that he was supposed to follow the will-‘o-the-wisps she sent to him, not ignore them and walk the other way.

She’d hear no end of this from her brother, she was certain. There was no way her attention towards this one mortal had gone unnoticed by Law or the other gods.

Turning a corner, she at last found the wandering swordsman who had gotten himself lost again. Despite her mild annoyance, she found herself smiling when she saw him. “Really, Zoro, is there any mortal with a worse sense of direction than you?” she teased, poking his muscular chest in playful reproach. “You know, there are easier ways to get the attention of the gods.”

[impossible-rat-babies]

so normal about video games and OC’s right now !

[pyrrhiccomedy]

A DM’s Fair Play Guide To Plot Twists

I love running a game with a lot of surprises. The challenge to pulling this off well is that, unless you’re playing a one on one game, your players outnumber you: and between them, they have a good chance of figuring out what’s going to happen, no matter how sneaky and clever you are.

The first way of dealing with this - which I’ll just call the bullshit way - is to not give your players the information they need to solve the mystery. Don’t let them find out about the secret society until it’s too late. Don’t give them any reason to suspect that their NPC ally is planning to kill them. Don’t let them find the murder weapon, don’t let them locate the witnesses, don’t give them the chance to skip to the end of their investigation.

This sucks, and if you run your games like this, you’re going to piss off your players. Because it isn’t fair.

In mystery literature, a “fair play mystery” is one where the reader is given all of the information they need in order to figure out the solution before the Big Reveal. It’s what makes the reveal good: that GASP, the “oh shit, the knife! the knife from the party! that was hers! I forgot!”

Pulling off a twist in a fair play game is an incredible feeling. Your players will think you’re a genius (or an absolute dick bastard, which is just as good) and they’ll respect it more when they land in hot water that they plausibly could have avoided. So how do you run a fair play game without your players figuring out the twists ahead of time, given that you’re definitely not smarter than all of your players put together?

By fucking with their expectations.

Here are some things that I keep in mind, to keep my players guessing. And it’s important, with all of this, that if your players see through something, let them have it. They should figure out a lot of things on their own! But if you’re regularly seeding your stories with all of this stuff, eventually your players will miss something. Those are somethings you can build on. The same way that a low level enemy who gets away once can keep coming back again and again until they become an important antagonist, a misapprehension your party proves to have a blindspot for can grow and develop until they get smacked with a breathtaking twist. 

What’s a twist if not the sudden overturning of an assumption you never thought to question?

1: Make your powerful friendly NPCs know a lot...but not as much as the players think they do.

Player characters often end up with powerful allies. It would be very convenient for the party if those allies always had accurate information. Make sure they don’t always enjoy that convenience.

It’s a balancing act: you want your powerful NPCs to be powerful. You want this alliance to be meaningful and beneficial to your players. But give your NPC an Achilles heel of some kind, when it comes to the information at their disposal. The Noble General commands powerful forces and knows the lay of the enemy’s land well...but that doesn’t mean he knows what every squadron and scouting party is up to. The Political Mastermind may know the ins and outs of the court, and have keen insight into the motivations of others: but he has an enemy who pisses him off so much that he loses all objectivity around her. The Powerful Wizard can call upon great magic to aid the party: but his divinations aren’t as accurate as he thinks they are, and he’s prone to finding, in his signs and omens, what he wants to see, more than what’s actually there.

Most of the time, their information should be good! That will make it more likely that your players will trust them the one time when it isn’t.

2. Let (apparently) less powerful NPCs sometimes know more than the players think they do. 

Most NPCs aren’t the Noble General or the Powerful Wizard. Most NPCs are Daves, designed to get the players from place to place. Most of those Daves know about as much as you’d expect them to. But some Daves have plans of their own.

You don’t always have to signpost with big blinking lights which of your NPCs are ‘important,’ and which ones are ‘unimportant.’ Sneak in a crafty Dave from time to time. That assistant they talk to, every time they go to see the prince? That bitch knows everything, and she’s almost ready to make her move. 

3: There is no such thing as a completely reliable witness. 

If the players only get information from one person, that information should be flawed in at least one, potentially small, but important way. Smart players will seek a second opinion, or at least allow for the possibility that their information may be incomplete. But even smart players get out over their skis sometimes.

4: Let your NPCs be aware of the power of a first impression. 

If an NPC gives a strong first impression of being a particular kind of person, it’s because they’re comfortable giving that impression. That might be because it’s who they are. But maybe not.

One of the first characters the PCs met in a VtM campaign I ran was Gawaine. Gawaine was a good old pine-scented man’s man, with salt and pepper stubble and a blue Ford truck. He listened to AC/DC, and talked about the war. He was affable and honest and willing to lend a hand. You already know Gawaine. Everybody knows a Gawaine. Gawaines are trustworthy, salt of the earth types. You don’t necessarily think to question a Gawaine.

That’s exactly why Gawaine was such a useful persona for Krystiyan, the Tzimisce Voivode, a cruel and alien sculptor of flesh who “never left his haven.” There were plenty of clues that they were the same person, but that campaign was in its endgame before the players put them all together.

5: Sometimes, dangerous and villainous NPCs should be helpful and cooperative. 

Not even necessarily because they’re manipulating the players, or even deceiving them about their true natures, but because their interests and the players’ interests genuinely align...for the moment. 

One of the easiest levers in your players’ brains to exploit is the expectation that people who help you are your friends. Even if your players know, consciously, that they shouldn’t trust this person, most of the time they kind of can’t help it, if the NPC is genuinely helpful to them and at least a little charismatic. 

6: Sometimes, good and valuable NPCs should be unhelpful and uncooperative. 

No matter how mature your players are, there’s a natural tendency to react to uncooperative NPCs with a reflexive, “Hey, fuck you! We’re the protagonists! This guy is an asshole!” so from time to time have a helpful, honest, good-aligned NPC have a wholly justified but as-yet-unknown-to-the-party reason to flatly refuse to deal with them.

7: Every NPC should have a secret. 

Not necessarily a bad secret. Were it to be revealed, it might even make the party like them more! But for their own reasons, the NPC does not want their secret to come out, and they will lie to the party to protect it. Players go crazy when they realize they’re being lied to, and often jump to some wild assumptions about your NPC’s motivations. I’ve had an NPC lie about the opening hours of a shop, and had the PCs assume that they were black market dealers for the villain when the dude just wanted to be able to close early so he could go smoke weed in the park.

8. As a DM, it’s polite to remind your players of the common knowledge their characters would possess...even when it doesn’t reflect the truth.

We all know it’s tedious when the DM calls for a roll when you’re just asking for common knowledge. I shouldn’t have to make a roll to know the dumb space word for plastic in a Star Wars game. I shouldn’t have to make a roll to know who the Holy Roman Emperor is in a game about medieval vampires. The DM should supply common knowledge for free, whenever it comes up.

That doesn’t mean common knowledge is true.

This is different from just lying to your players, because you don’t put the weight of DM word-of-God behind it. It’s not “You would know this guy is a Ventrue, based on XYZ.” It’s “it would be a common assumption that this guy is a Ventrue, based on XYZ.” He might not be a Ventrue. It might in fact be extremely important that he is not a Ventrue. But if it is commonly assumed that he’s a Ventrue, that is - word for word - something you can share with your players. If they don’t look any deeper than common knowledge, that’s on them.

9. Obviously untrustworthy NPCs provide great air coverage for less obviously untrustworthy NPCs.

The obviously untrustworthy NPC might or might not be planning to betray the party. But if you introduce two untrustworthy NPCs in the same storyline, and one of them seems normal and cool and has a genuine plot-related reason to be there, and the other one is Jaffar, Jaffar’s gonna get clocked, but Susan over there will probably slip under the radar, and might even get tapped to help out with the whole Jaffar situation. They might get Susan’s number, by the end of the session. Susan might become an ‘ally.’ Susan might even get romanced by a party member. Play your cards right, and Jaffar might just end up a footnote in the introduction of Susan, Scourge of Worlds and most hated NPC in the entire campaign.

10. Your villains should always have a secret plan B.

Your villain isn’t stupid, right? And your villain probably isn’t so arrogant that it is inconceivable to them that their plan might fail. They’ve been planning this ritual for ten thousand years, after all. It’s always possible that some plucky band of heroes could show up at the last minute and murder your high priest, or steal your amulet, or seduce your second in command. So what does your villain have in his back pocket to make the players go, “Oh, shit - he planned for this!”

This may mean that there is a whole separate plot happening, running alongside the main story. This is great, because when weird things happen, the players have to figure out whether this is part of Plot A or Plot B, and working out who did what and why gets a lot more interesting. If they end up foiling Plot A, great - your villain was also secretly behind Plot B the whole time, and will transfer all of his resources over to that. 

Sometimes your players will figure out that Plots A and B were both the same plot the whole time, with the same villain at the head, and they’ll feel like the smartest people on the planet, and it will be their favorite moment of the entire game. That’s great! You gave them that!

Sometimes, they won’t. And when the villain of Plot A, apparently defeated, starts laughing and reveals that he was also the mastermind behind Plot B, which is now too late to be stopped, that will probably be your favorite moment of the entire game.