#frenzied cavalier

[solarvulpes]

[abigail-pent]

thoughts on HTN Act One as I reread for the ??th time:

- very early on the narration says John appeared to Harrow in "what seemed to you to be his guise as the Kindly Prince" - ooh the shade

- when the Body appears to Harrow "time could be relied upon to work as it ought" - which seems connected to John's ability to stop or slow down time

- John was keeping the bodies of the 9th as insurance... against what exactly??

- Both Harrow and Alecto are described as having identical divots in their lips. This absolutely cannot be an accident or a coincidence. We know that Harrow also is meant to look exactly like Anastasia, and that she is confirmed to be of the Tombkeeper's line. But the lip thing sort of suggests she might somehow be a descendant of Alecto too...? Which sort of gels really well with everything we hear later about Alecto's particular fondness for Anastasia, and her instinct to kiss Harrow on sight... and like... anything is possible through necromancy and/or whatever thalergetic power Alecto has going on... and also would make Harrow and Gideon descendants of Alecto and John, respectively, which has one hell of a symmetry to it... so I guess I'm a "Harrow is a descendant of Anastasia and Alecto" truther, this is my truth now

- also: we know from NTN that a version of Alecto can take residence in Harrow's body, and we have an idea (in part from the part of ATN chapter 1 that tazmuir read that one time) that Harrow followed some kind of revenant link at the end of HTN and ended up in a version of the Tomb, in what seems like Alecto's body. which implies there is a revenant link between Harrow and Alecto. and we know from the end of HTN and the shocking nature of the Nonius summons that it is exceedingly rare to form a revenant link out of pure force of will alone. now, Harrow is not lacking in force of will, and neither is Alecto. but Harrow has not physically interacted with Alecto that much at all, even though she spent a great deal of her young life being effectively haunted by her, which we've established happens by revenant link. I posit that the revenant link between them might be this strong because of a genetic link between Harrow and Alecto, which (using the Silas/Colum logic of the Eighth House) might better enable Harrow and Alecto to like, mutually displace their souls and sort of swap bodies for basically the whole length of NTN.

- the reason Harrow and Ortus are not permitted to further the Tombkeeper's line, besides the obvious that neither of them want to and also yuck, is that it would mingle the Drearburh scion and cavalier lines beyond repair. which implies of course that BOTH the scion and cav lines are important to preserve, at least on the Ninth. the Ninth cav is supposed to have a particular ancestor - presumably Samael - and that ancestor cannot be Anastasia.

- so Pyrrha helped Anastasia decorate a nursery for her child with Alecto, not with Samael; and Samael likely had a kid somewhere already with someone else. Ortus was a descendant and by implication probably Nonius was too?

- does Harrow still owe Ianthe the favor of the chain, even after fixing her arm?

- what the fuck is the favor of the chain

- besides that it obviously recalls Samael in some way

- you know how at the beginning of HTN when Ianthe tells Harrow "I will tell you when my sister is dead, thank you, Harrowhark, and that day is not today!" well it's been bugging me for like 4 whole years because that sure sounds like they have some kind of necromantic walkie talkie situation going on. but if there is some kind of necromantic link between them, like @silasoctakiseron suggested re their possibly identical nature + eventful birth, then... maybe there is?? a one-way "find my twin" beacon?????

- when Harrow and Ortus are in the dream bubble and she's like "I think 'bone frenzy' might be a term open to coarse misinterpretation, personally" and he says "he thought nobody who read the Noniad would be the sort of churl who misread a simple and evocative collocation like 'bone frenzy'" and he goes on to suggest that "such a person probably didn't even read in the first place, and would be more inclined to trifle with prurient magazines or pamphlets than to bother themselves with such a complex epic as the Noniad" and "he wouldn't want such a person to read his poetry anyway" - THE SOUL MELD, IT'S HAPPENING, AND ORTUS KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT IS GOING ON!

- John sure did hallow that old man's bones on the Mithraeum...

- there's a bit of a parallel between Alecto's "you are going down a dark corridor. You need to turn around" and John's "walk towards me" when Harrow is in the River

- fascinating that John says "the River is a predator"...

- "The choice is beyond me now, Nigenad, unless you can conjure me the spirit of Matthias Nonius, in which case I'll take on his services if he promises to not speechify!" AHH THE FORESHADOWING! I HAVE MISSED THIS ONE FOR LITERALLY 4 YEARS

[thewertsearch]

Ask Comp 29/05

Anonymous asked: Having the car available as an alchemy ingredient now, what should John make first? ~DJ

John has unlocked the ability to fly, but I don't think he's as fast as he was with the jetpack. I think his best option is to merge it with Dad's automobile to create the Jetson Car.

Anonymous asked: the actor who played rufio in hook did his own homestuck liveblog back in the day. when he got to this part he was Somewhat Perturbed. @morganwick asked: Fun fact: around the end of Act 5, Dante Basco, who played Rufio in Hook, started a Tumblr and was immediately besieged by Homestucks pushing him to read the comic. So he started liveblogging it. Take a guess which scene everyone, including Hussie, was waiting for him to get to more than any other.

I can't believe I'm competing with Zuko himself on the Homestuck Liveblogging stage. How the hell can I measure up to that?

@wickedsick asked: The best part about the Wallet is that it's a physical object: you can give it to other people, send it across the tubes, and even store it inside another modus!

It really is a shockingly useful and versatile modus.

With this, his absurd physical stats, and his obvious determination, I feel like Dad would be an exceptionally talented Player.

@manorinthewoods submitted: >John is an immortal God >Still applies seatbelt, because safety is important ~LOSS (24/5/24) Anonymous asked: Obviously there is some deep, hidden classpect meaning to the sudden Seatbelt PSA!

Seatbelts are in cars.

Cars run on gas.

You expel gas when you breathe.

John is the Heir of Breath.

Checkmate, Scratch!

@marinerofthestars asked: Now that you’ve learned what Gamzee’s like sober, do you still reckon he’d be useless or actively detrimental as the Cavalier of Necromancer!Jade?

Oh, good point. A more focused Gamzee could certainly be a dangerous cavalier, especially if he shares the STRENGTH enjoyed by other highbloods. However, that presupposes that he's loyal to Jade, and the current incarnation of Gamzee isn't loyal to anyone.

Initially, I assumed that Gamzee would direct his violence primarily towards lowbloods - but said he was going to kill everyone, aristocrats included. Jade's status as Reverend Daughter wouldn't protect her here.

Besides, even if he was subservient to Jade, I don't think he'd be very reliable. Sure, he's probably better in a fight, but I don't think he'd be particularly useful when they're trying to complete their actual objective - namely, the Lyctor labs. Could you imagine Jade trying to pilot him in Imaging and Response?

At best, Frenzied Gamzee is a decent siphoning target - but that won't be much help either. In the original question, I gave the Houses their canon specialties, and the Ninth aren't siphoners.

In short, a sufficiently loyal Gamzee would be more useful in this state, but not a lot more.

@morganwick asked: So, you still think rendering Gamzee's text in all-lowercase makes him come off as a "chill guy" with a "Californian surfer dude accent"?

Forgot about that, haha. I think the contrast here is in what, exactly, Gamzee is saying in lowercase.

Lowercase Soporified Gamzee does sound like a surfer dude, because he's saying surfer dude things.

Lowercase Frenzied Gamzee, however, sounds like the Joker talking about his scars.

@morganwick asked: This is the part I was worried about your lax spoiler policy ruining things. When you opened the doors for people to offer up title suggestions for you that hadn't appeared in the comic yet Rage was one of the first aspects you got. At some point, if you'd bothered to keep track, Gamzee would have been the one aspect-less troll, and Rage would have stood out as the one non-joke troll-less aspect you knew about. So my concern was that if you started thinking about what it would mean for Gamzee to have Rage as his aspect, it might lessen the shock of seeing him now. A bit overly paranoid? Maybe, especially since Eridan being called the Prince of Hope came after Gamzee's "BlAsPhEmY" moment so more likely you'd have just connected it to the latter if anything, but we've seen some pretty perceptive bloggers in our time so this is to give some insight into the mindset behind a stricter spoiler policy.

It could definitely have been a problem - especially if I'd taken the time to enumerate the Aspects in detail. According to Cat, there were several asks requesting that I do so, which she filtered out in order to obfuscate Rage a little. Good choice, I think. If someone had called attention to it, I'm sure I'd have noticed that it was probably Gamzee's Aspect.

I still think the fun I was having with Aspect guesses was worth the risk, but I also see where you're coming from. Luckily, it never actually came up, so no harm was done.

@bladekindeyewear asked: VAGUE EXTERNAL MEDIA CLASSPECTING: According to certain theoretical fan frameworks, The Joker is a picture-perfect example of a Bard of Rage even across his incredibly wide variety of iterations, and Batman happens to be a good example of a Knight of Rage.

All Bards of Rage must be clowns, no exceptions.

Actually, Gamzee has both Joker and Two-Face vibes, doesn't he? He essentially has two separate quirks now, and he's also insisting that he's 'both' of his Mirthful Messiahs. Sollux is gonna sue someone.

Anonymous asked: So if going God Tier is merging the conscience of the real self into the dream self, what happens when a real self is prototyped with something else? Does Aradia still have some frog in her?

I certainly hope she does, but we haven't seen any yet.

As you pointed out, this is technically Aradia's dream self, which was never merged with the Frogsprite. It's possible that some internal 'froggy' traits were carried over from her realself when she ascended, but it's impossible to say for sure. We still don't know how this alternate form of ascension actually works.

@tacticaltaxonomist asked: im not rereading myself atm but i love following along your posts as you do, thank you for sharing! Anonymous asked: it makes me really happy to see new readers and I hope u have a good time :D

Thank you kindly!

I'm happy to be back and in the swing of things, and I'm even happier that I've been able to maintain a decent pace so far.

@krixwell asked: For what it's worth, Jack did "spare" PM when she proved she had the guts to actually go and actually get him the white king and queen's crowns, even though he had every reason to kill her. She was a Prospitian, had visibly just killed one of Jack's best men, had gotten the seemingly useless physical crowns rather than carrying out the murders they were supposed to represent (Jack likely knew this, since HB saw her get the king's crown), and was demanding one of Jack's most powerful weapons in exchange – Jack had nothing to gain from leaving her alive, and a fair bit to lose by honoring a deal that he used to half-heartedly offer to basically anyone who visited his office. As Hussie put it in recap 2, pages later but not many, "[Jack] came, and [PM?] traded the two white crowns for the green box, Jade's present to John. He appeared pleased to uphold the bargain, either out of the misunderstanding that he was still under control of its contents, or out of respect for PM?'s tenacity and brutality in pursuing the prize. Only he knows." Around the same time, WV was also left as the sole survivor of Jack's massacre on the Battlefield. WV was standing front and center of his rebel army, mere meters away when Jack killed the Black King, so it wouldn't just be that Jack missed him. (Recap 2: "Jack then killed the entire rebellion army, sparing only WV?. Perhaps to leave a survivor to tell the story, or perhaps out of respect for a fellow mutineer. Only he knows.") Before he got so powerful, there's also the time he released Dad Egbert from Dersite imprisonment, after the latter destroyed his jester hat. So yes, Jack has been known to spare people, at least pre-Becsprite… but only he knows why, and Eridan wouldn't have had access to any of these moments through the Trollian viewport.

The droll is beckoned. The bargain, honored.

That's a good point. Jack does appear to have a sense of honor, and I do genuinely think that these gestures were motivated by respect.

Eridan, though, he'd have zero respect for. I guarantee it.

@burntheupholstery asked: homestuck filtered through your comments is so much funnier for me because - and get this - i don't understand even a BIT of computer science

Give it a few more Acts, and I'll get you up to speed. >:)

@ipunchvampires asked: Minor gripe, but it's a bit annoying to me that the "Alterniabound" walkarounds have an obviously-developer-intended order of operations, but make no effort to signal this to the first-time reader. Like the dialogue in "Past Karkat: Wake up" is written such that going around the room counterclockwise with Karkat, then Vriska, then Terezi makes the most narrative sense, yet it's incredibly common for people to start clockwise, and when they get around to Terezi, Karkat acts like he's hearing about the humans for the first time even though he's heard about them from every other character in the meteor. @morganwick asked: There are, in fact, different conversations available if you talk to Kanaya and Feferi/Sollux as Karkat; it's just the items strewn around the lab that have the same flavor text. @helium--hydride asked: Did you check all of the interactions in this flash? You can be Karkat, and I think there was an interaction between Karkat and Sollux/Feferi that you missed.

So there is!

Not much to liveblog here, but it's good to know in the future that all combinations of conversational partners will, as a rule, yield new dialogue.

Anonymous asked: it’s a fun story and stuff but what are your thoughts on the music so far?? i mean we all know megalovania but do you have any fave tracks that stood out? top 5? the HS soundtrack is so unique imo (mine so far is explore remix - dave and jade made it together on freshjamz)

We've got a big enough library at this point that I probably can highlight some favorites. I think my top 5, in no particular order, are:

Sunslammer

The Beginning of Something Really Excellent

Savior of the Waking World

MeGaLoVania (Aradia version)

Descend

@elkian asked: "Oh, for the love of peace. Is there anyone that this globe-headed chucklefuck doesn’t have in his pocket?" - I don't know if you intended this pun about Cue Ball Head but I cackled

That one was on purpose. The guy's still an orb!

@abibeur asked: Honestly I was expecting your reaction to be like Prak from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (see below) and I was not disappointed. “Tell us about it,” said Ford. “Oh, I can't remember any of it now,” said Prak. “I thought of writing some of it down, but first I couldn't find a pencil, and then I thought, why bother?” There was a long silence, during which they thought they could feel the Universe age a little. Prak stared into the torchlight. “None of it?” said Arthur at last. “You can remember none of it?” “No. Except most of the good bits were about frogs, I remember that.” Suddenly he was hooting with laughter again and stamping his feet on the ground. “You would not believe some of the things about frogs,” he gasped. “Come on let's go and find ourselves a frog. Boy, will I ever see them in a new light!” He leapt to his feet and did a tiny little dance. Then he stopped and took a long drag at his cigarette. “Let's find a frog I can laugh at,” he said simply. I can't believe Douglas Adams predicted Homestuck.

Can't believe Prak canonically learned about Sburb sessions when he overdosed on truth serum 😲

Anonymous asked: if bilious slick is the universe, then it stands to reason that the Vast Croak = the Big Bang

Or the Big Crunch, given that 'croaking' is a euphemism for dying...

@bladekindeyewear asked: AAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA WE WERE WAITING FOR YOU TO GET TO THIS REVEAL EVERYTHING YOU'VE SAID ABOUT FROGS HAS HAD US LAUGHING SO HARD!!! don't feel bad this hits every reader and liveblogger the same way and it's GREAT nobody guesses it, it's like we're laughing WITH you not at you i promise, and gosh even just YOUR LAST REMARK ABOUT THE DOOR DURING THE RECAP AHAHAHAHAHAHH Anonymous asked: /post/749478863076196352 "We finally get to learn the function of the House Door – and apparently, it leads directly into the newly created universe. Makes a lot of sense. This, of course, nixes my theory that it leads to Bilious Slick." reading that was the fucking TEXTBOOK DEFINITION of dramatic irony Anonymous asked: you: oh, the door leads to the new universe, not bilious slick like i theorized! kanaya: Bet

Oh, god, I didn't even think about that. The door does lead to Slick, just in a way that was completely impossible to predict. I'm giving myself partial credit for that one.

@sanctferum asked: after everything the troll's black queen went through as a result of her refusal to defile her being with frogness, it is incredibly ironic that she would be bestowed the universal load-bearing powers she was given by Scratch upon becoming Snowman - and in so doing, have her own life force directly tied to that of a Genesis Frog. And you just know Scratch was insufferably smug about it too

@galaxa-13 asked: When I first read Homestuck and there were mentions of ol' B. Slick or any frog I just glazed over it. Oh, OK, just another weird thing in this tapestry of weird. On following read throughs, when I knew the significance, I still just glazed over it. Yeah yeah, frog is the universe, moving on. So when you started questioning all the frogs I got giddy, because I knew that YOU'D have a bigger reaction than I ever did.

Yeah, I was so lost with those frogs. I definitely didn't suspect that the answer would be anything as monumental as this.

I sure fucking didn't, Kanaya.

@drakethedeep asked: Congratulations on reaching the genesis frog reveal! Now, what are your thoughts on the metaphysical implications that universes are living biological creatures?

It gels well with a theorypost I was sent before about how Sburb's timeline system may have evolved naturally over time. The idea that universes are biologically alive certainly lends credence to the idea that the entire reality of Homestuck is fundamentally organic. Maybe the entire multiverse is actually inside another, second-order cosmic animal...

(Because it's Hussie, that animal is probably a clown.)

Anonymous asked: about the Vast Croak: (from page 2308) “[Frogs] go by many names, and so does the reviled patron god they herald - THE GREAT DETESTATION, KING PONDSQUATTER, SPEAKER OF THE VAST JOKE, or most commonly, BILIOUS SLICK.”

I didn't consider that Vast Joke could just be a corruption of Croak.

If so, then I'm not sure why Aradia's referring to it as if it's an actual joke. Curious.

@mapswithoutwyoming asked: This is a bit of a weird message, but: I’ve been plotting a Homestuck fanfic, and I was getting confused about whether the lunar sways I’d assigned to the main characters made sense. I was so deep into orchestrating the interlocking and paradoxical web of events that changing it even a little would have had catastrophic ramifications, but I was starting to wonder if it wouldn’t make sense not to. But you referencing your theory about the dispositions made my earlier decisions click for me. thx

Happy to help! And when I'm out of spoiler territory for the fic, I'd love to read it.

@ben-guy asked: In regards to your joke about Jerma in the tags… man, just imagine him streaming Sburb. "W-what? No chat, I'm NOT going to- I'm not going to prototype myself. That's an atrocious idea. I don't even know what that means! Listen, it's just not happening. Okay. Okay, a million off the boon-debt" Just imagine… Jerma imps. They would be insufferable. Also, his server player gets to play Jerma's Dollhouse for real. TBH, the Dollhouse steam has some minor HS vibes already… Making me feel totally justified in sharing this classic HS meme with you

Look, we all know Jermasprite would happen.

Oh, man - and prototyping him turns all the Underlings into chat members, so that when Jack is watching his progress through the Fourth Wall, it also contains a live feed of Imps and Orges spamming 'next session'.

Anonymous asked: Hey, you're right, the trolls might not have gone through the brooding cavern trials, since they were delivered to the surface on meteors, not birthed in the caves. Which would mean that when Vriska talked about how she remembered her trials, she was just lying.

It's possible that the meteors were delivered directly into the caverns somehow, but that's definitely not certain.

Vriska's assertion is suspicious either way, though - would she really have memories from being a newborn grub? If the trolls could remember their infancy, then they'd already know they came from meteors.

@manorinthewoods asked: I was going to write something about Locked Home (HS chars in Canaan House) being in the wrecked troll session, but upon further inspection, I can't see an easy way to set that up without opening a few of WV's cans of worms. So, instead, here's a different question - since lighting the Forge would clear LOFAF's frost, would lighting Kanaya's Forge have cleared LORAF's rays? What would that even mean? ~LOSS (15/5/24)

I thought it could have receded her oceans, but you're right - the Forge's environmental changes might always be associated with its Land's named trait.

Maybe let's split the difference, and say that activating the Forge intensifies LORAF's rays, causing them to boil the oceans away.

@divineerdrick asked: Hello again! Just wanted to say how much I love your analysis of what Jade is going through with Jadesprite. In fact, it's a rare treat to see a first time reader dig into how Rose and Jade and the events around their Dream Selves affect them. But I especially want to congratulate you on again pointing out something I'd never really noticed, and that is how playful Kanaya is with the text in her conversations. It really is a great gag, and I never noticed how consistent it was.

Thank you! Yeah, a big part of why Kanaya is so great is that a lot of her gags are very understated. Half the time, you don't even read them as gags - they just scan as charming aspects of her personality.

@heliotropopause asked: "Actually, can anyone confirm at what point the fic will be safe to read?" It's been a while since I read it, and I haven't read the fragment of TSG act three that only exists on tumblr since I didn't know about it at the time, but I'm about 85% sure you'll be good to pick it up once you finish act five. The whole setting is built on lore from late act five, and while it references something from a ways into act six at least once, i don't think there's anything there that could rightfully be called a spoiler. (And when you're done with TSG, you can pick up Taz's husband's The Vienna Game, which is even better, though of course doesn't tie into TLT. It should be spoiler-free after page 4468.)

I've still got a while to wait, then - but not quite as long as I feared. Works for me!

@manorinthewoods asked: That image of Vriska demanding that WV not interfere is… really weirdly creepy, and I can't help but feel like I missed that whole sequence. I guess it might not have stuck with me because I didn't bother translating the Morse code - which I assume the Homestuck Collection can do for you, which is another reason why I should have used that. ~LOSS (11/5/24)

Yeah, my heart sank when I read that part.

I really thought Vriska was about to do something to hurt WV, which would have sent her careening down the tier list faster than you can say 'main character syndrome'.

@manorinthewoods asked: "Why, though? I had assumed that these stations were going to be used to restore civilization on this planet. How are they going to repair Earth with no access to technology? Surely they’re not going to start from scratch?" Bold of you to assume Earth will be repaired. ~LOSS (11/5/24)

Terezi seems to think it will - but clearly, the stations aren't involved.

Maybe the game thinks it'd be cheating, or that using Sburb tech to build civilizations would make them too advanced to be threatened by its meteors the next time around.

@necrowyrm asked: The only possible thing you can liveblog after homestuck is now The Earthbound Halloween Hack in order to experience the original megalovania in all it's glory

You are SO right. I'll also make a quick detour through Smash Ultimate, of course.

@adhd-coomer submitted:

LMAO, that literally is what that is, isn't it?

@captorations submitted:

my birthday cake from years ago (but not many... but not *not* many.) deadname nuked from orbit. my sister who got me into homestuck arranged it and maybe one day i will forgive her #for the cake or for getting me into homestuck? yes. #note: this is a joke i was/am amused by the former and very grateful for the latter

Yes, oh my god! That really is the perfect Karkat face for a cake.

I'm going to be brainstorming Homestuck meals for the rest of the week.

[heliads]

Hi!

I love your writing so much!

I would love to request an angsty Strollonso fic where Lance gets into a crash and the team doesn’t tell Nando how bad it was and he finds out later from another driver and freaks out and goes to the hospital to see him. Maybe Lance has to calm him down and keep him from going after his dad or something.

This is my first time requesting so I hope it’s okay lol.

If you don’t get to it, no worries! Thanks!

'didn't get the call' - fernando x lance

masterlist

It’s race week. Things always get real during race week.

One would think that a couple decades of seasons of Formula One racing would prepare Fernando Alonso for the frenzy of a long weekend spent overseas, but he’s had ample time to determine the contrary. Sure, he’s gotten better at shaking off the nerves a little, sloughing off like an old scar the urge to run or lash out, but part of it still remains inside his lungs, rattling the tissue more than he feels is necessary. It’s race week. What’s the worst that could happen?

That same sentiment, however, doesn’t seem to apply to the rest of the paddock. Everywhere Fernando goes, he seems the same sort of tension bubbling to fury underneath everyone’s skin. The few gazes that dare to lift to his are strained, the undereye bags larger than usual. Even his race engineer seems skittish, and after a year of dealing with Fernando watching live race broadcasts while making overtakes and other various misdemeanors, Fernando has assumed that nothing could shake the guy.

Fernando tries to think about what could have possibly gone wrong to demand this level of response, but nothing comes to mind. In the end, it was, truly, just another weekend. Fernando had done reasonably well– a fourth place result, while frustratingly shy of a podium, is still a good result. Aston Martin as a whole has been down as of late, and even though they would rather appreciate the points boost of a podium, fourth position is still better than the points of sixth, or eighth, or not even getting points at all.

All in all, it had been a relatively decent race from Fernando’s point of view. He’d had some good overtakes, and provided some good defense against the challenging Red Bulls until they passed him like they do against every other car on track. It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t mediocre, either. That’s Aston for you. That’s life.

In fact, Fernando had even felt so satisfied after the race that he’d gone ahead and asked how Lance had fared while he was turning his car towards parc ferme. It’s been a little indulgence that Fernando has allowed himself out of late, caring about his teammate. Call him overly cavalier, but this is, actually, quite a sign of change in Fernando, especially after the past two years at Alpine. Fernando hasn’t always been in the business of viewing his teammates as more than obstacles.

Perhaps that’s just a sign that he’s getting old, Fernando thinks fondly as he meanders towards his driver’s room. The apparently advanced age of entering his forties is making him sentimental. How charming. Then again, it’s something altogether different when one’s teammate is, well, Lance.

Lance.

Fernando had been careful when he first arrived at Aston Martin. Lance was the boss’ son, for one thing, and Esteban’s close friend, for another. Of course he would have to be careful. It’s not as if Aston Martin would be dramatic enough to fire Fernando if he let slip a critical comment of his teammate in yet another drawn-out press conference, but they’d probably retaliate with something below the belt, like a pay cut.

So he’d watched his tongue, and watched his temper. The only thing Fernando hadn’t kept in check was his heart. Maybe that was because he assumed he wouldn’t have to, that years of experience would have made him as cold as his teammate’s home country, but as it turns out, even a two time world champion can be wrong on occasion, and Fernando was wrong about Lance.

Fernando isn’t quite sure that he could put into words what Lance means to him. He’s not sure that he wants to try. Some things are best kept secret, hidden under the protective cover of supposedly forced team bonding and aggressively proud post-race interviews. Overcommitting to an overtake before you know you’ve got it can ruin a race. Spelling out in precise, heart-stopping red syllables what Lance Stroll means to Fernando could ruin his whole enterprise.

Even still, small things slip through the self-imposed barrier. Fernando squeezes Lance’s shoulders when they run into each other in the media pen and pretends he doesn’t notice how Lance’s entire body wracks the second Fernando touches him. He certainly doesn’t store that information away for later use. And, his latest vice, Fernando keeps asking his race engineer how Lance has done in the race, making it public that Fernando is interested. People know now. How daring.

This time, though, his race engineer had been surprisingly tight-lipped, mentioning only that he would have to get back to Fernando on that front. Usually, the background chatter from the pit wall is quiet so as to not distract the driver, but this time an uproar of static had cut through the engineer’s words, making it more difficult to make him out. There had been rumors of a red flag coming out on the last lap, but as it happened most cars would be able to clear without trouble, so nothing had been mentioned. His race engineer had also been silent on that front.

Who is Fernando to worry, though? If something bad had happened, he would have been informed. Fernando makes it a habit to stay aware. It wasn’t him, it couldn’t be his teammate, and thus Fernando’s capacity for caring is significantly limited. He’ll put out a somber Instagram story later if his PR agent reminds him. All will be well.

The further he travels through the Aston Martin motorhome, though, the more uneasy Fernando feels. Everyone is rushing around, all speaking to each other in terse whispers that he can’t quite pick up. Fernando feels as if he’s the eye of a hurricane, surrounded by restless whirlwinds of deep green water.

This doesn’t make sense. Eventually, Fernando’s impatience gets the better of him and he stops one of the trainers, who’s been parked in a corner of the room and frantically texting so he doesn’t get in the way. The man practically jumps out of his skin when Fernando nudges his arm, he’s so keyed up. Strange. Also unsettling.

“What’s going on?” Fernando asks. The confusion makes his voice terse, it sounds like he’s a soldier out on a battlefield. He doesn’t even feel that worried, not yet, but from the way everyone else is acting, he feels as if he should be.

The trainer avoids his eyes. “Nothing,” he says evasively.

“Oh, and that’s why you look as if someone just shot you in the leg?” Fernando deadpans.

The trainer grimaces. “Alright, but I’m not supposed to tell you. Lance, uh, got in a crash. Last lap of the race. The engineers wanted you to focus on reviewing your data so you aren’t supposed to know about it.”

This is the part where Fernando should assure the trainer that they’re both on the same page and of course he won’t say a word about it, but a complete blankness has settled over his brain, erasing the ability to think anything at all other than the same question over and over again:  Lance crashed?

“What happened?” Fernando asks. He hardly recognizes the sound of his own voice. “Was it bad?”

“Not bad,” the trainer says, but he’s still not looking directly at Fernando. “We’re still checking him out, obviously, but he should be good to go for the next race.”

He coughs pointedly, and this is when Fernando knows it’s time to move on. He’s been assured that his teammate will be fit to race next weekend, and as a hardened driver, that’s all he should care about. Still, as he walks back down the hall again, Fernando can’t convince himself to let it go. Would everyone really be this worried if it was just a small collision? They would tell him, surely, if it was worse. They would have to tell him.

Maybe they just don’t know yet, Fernando reasons with himself. Maybe they legitimately have no clue until Lance returns from medical testing. Even the most insignificant fender-benders can have lingering damage if your hands aren’t in the right place or something else goes wrong. Everyone could just be stressing until they hear back for sure that everything is fine.

Fernando returns to his driver’s room and shuts the door. He sits down absentmindedly in a chair. After about five minutes, it registers that he forgot to turn the light on. He’s not in total darkness, a window is half open, but Fernando can’t quite convince himself to try and flip the switch. Lance was in a crash. Lance is hurt, maybe.

It unravels Fernando down to the last stitch. Lance had been in the bike accident in January, Fernando is not unused to being in a situation in which Lance is hurt, but for some reason this feels far, far worse. He doesn’t like knowing that Lance isn’t alright. It unnerves him, like a car running with a mismatched tire. All of Fernando’s systems are off-kilter.

His phone pings by his side, and now Fernando’s the one who feels like he’s leaping several centimeters out of his chair. Running an absentminded hand through his hair to calm himself down, Fernando reaches for his phone to check the notification, but the message he reads does little to steady his spirit.

Mick Schumacher.

Why aren’t you at the hospital?

Fernando responds immediately.

What are you talking about?

Mick’s answer is swift and to the point.

Lance.

Instantly, Fernando’s blood chills.

They told me he was fine. Why is he in the hospital?

This time, Mick takes a while. Unable to take the pressure, Fernando gets up and starts pacing back and forth in the confines of his driver’s room. At last, Mick responds.

Bad crash. He’s been unconscious but just woke up.

Fernando is out the door before he even finishes reading the text. He’s still in his disgusting race suit, but the sweat will just have to keep cooling, because there’s no way Fernando is sparing so much as a second for anything but getting to Lance. He manages to ask Mick what hospital Lance is occupying while fishing around for his keys, and then he’s off, breaking what he’s sure are several speed limits and a myriad of traffic violations while he’s at it.

Fernando bursts through the door, feeling eerily like a guy out of a rom-com his older sister, Lorena, used to watch. He’s buff enough for the role, certainly, but nothing about this is movie material. Real life is ugly. People get into crashes and don’t miraculously walk out. Beautiful boys with dark eyes lie unresponsive in hospital beds and no one talks about it until it’s too late.

Mick is already in the waiting room and stands up when Fernando arrives. He takes in Fernando’s bedraggled appearance with a raised eyebrow. “Well, I did ask you to get here fast, but I appreciate your dedication to it.”

“Of course,” Fernando says distractedly. “How is Lance?”

Mick nods, again, the raised eyebrow. “He’s been asking for you. There are a couple of Aston Martin guys here, but they just kept ducking the question whenever he brought up where you were.”

Fernando makes a low, ugly sound in the back of his throat. “They did the same thing to me.”

Some of the tension leaves Mick’s face. “They really didn’t tell you, did they?”

“Not at all,” Fernando makes out. “Where is he?”

Mick tells him the number and points him in the right direction. “Be careful,” is all he says before Fernando is too far gone to hear him.

Fernando hurries down the hall. Some of the nurses make an attempt to stop him, but he just ducks around their questioning gazes until he’s knocking on Lance’s door. He can see a vague silhouette through the half-closed blinds, but it’s not until a faint, groggy voice tells him to come inside that Fernando can decide for sure that yes, this is Lance, and yes, Fernando should have been informed of this immediately.

Fernando shuts the door quietly behind him. He walks quietly to the chair, and he sits quietly, breathing quietly, looking quietly, until Lance rolls his eyes and says, “I’m not going to die if you act normally, you know.”

Fernando relaxes a little bit. “Who said anything about dying?”

“Not me,” Lance says, that smug smile starting to surface even despite the IV in his arm, the bandages across his chest, the–

“Stop looking at those,” Lance says unexpectedly, cutting off Fernando’s train of thought. “I’m fine. Honestly.”

Fernando looks at him askance. “You sound like half your car is lodged inside your ribcage. Is that fine?”

Lance pulls a face. “Okay, I’m a little less than fine. It’s alright, though.”

“Tell me what happened,” Fernando says. He didn’t think it came out as an order, but instantly Lance straightens up even despite the constraints of the hospital bed and starts speaking, a faint blush on his cheeks. Interesting. Another thing to remember for later.

“There was a crash,” Lance begins somewhat uncertainly.

“So I’ve heard,” Fernando says, somewhat bemused. Humor is easier. It distracts him from the fact that Lance is lying here, practically lifeless, looking no more likely to move a muscle than get up and start running laps. It kills him, the inability to do anything other than sit here and crack jokes. This is not who he was supposed to be. Nothing about this is right.

Lance looks at him, playfully annoyed, and then continues again. “There was a crash. I don’t remember most of it. I was coming out of a series of turns, I think. Someone hit me. I don’t know who, steered right into me. Not their choice, I’m sure, but it took both of us straight into the barriers.”

His face contorts with confusion as he attempts to remember what happened. The lapses in memory startle Fernando more than he would like. “You must have gotten a serious hit to your head,” he says, unable to keep a grim tinge out of his words.

“That’s what the doctors said,” Lance confirms, grimacing. “I don’t really remember a lot between the crash and waking up here. They said I was out for more than half an hour.”

Fernando presses a hand to his face, dragging it roughly across the skin to try and wake himself up out of this terrible nightmare that has somehow become his reality. “All of this, and no one saw fit to tell me?”

Lance’s brow furrows. “Dad was going to make sure you knew. He told me that himself.”

All of Fernando’s grief leaves him a swift rush, replaced with blind fury. “Lawrence said that?”

At last, he has a culprit for why so much time passed before Fernando heard about this accident, and it was Lance’s own father. Disgraceful. As if Fernando hasn’t spent all of his time at Aston Martin trying to get in Lawrence’s good graces to promote the wellbeing of the team. As if he hasn’t held back on what he really wants with Lance in the name of good faith in the face of the team owner, and now this? Well. Maybe Fernando should have pulled his favorite card and simply done what he wanted in the first place.

He stands up before he realizes it. “Where are you going?” Lance asks, confused.

“I’m going to have some words with your father,” Fernando announces.

Lance’s face falls, and he starts trying to pull himself more into a seated position on his elbows. “Wait, no. He didn’t– he wasn’t trying to hurt you, Fernando, he just didn’t want you to worry.”

“The only thing I want to do right now,” Fernando informs him, “is worry.”

“Charming,” Lance says, then, in a voice verging on panic as Fernando nears the door, “Seriously, don’t. It’s not worth it.”

“What wouldn’t be?” Fernando asks, deceptively calm despite the inferno boiling between the bars of his ribcage.

He’s already at the door. Fernando can see Lawrence talking on the phone in the waiting room, where Mick is eyeing him icily– he’s on the phone while his son is in the hospital, what an asshole– and he’s about to go out there and tell Lawrence exactly what he thinks of this, bystanders be damned, but then Lance’s voice comes again, soft and quiet, and Fernando stops, fingers resting on the cool metal of the doorknob.

“Stay with me. Please.”

That’s all it takes to slow Fernando’s insatiable temper, as it turns out. Who knows how many managers and PR officers would have killed to get that information, and they’re only four words. Four words spoken by Lance Stroll, which makes the difference.

Fernando returns to his seat by Lance’s side. Lance looks distinctly pleased with himself. “I didn’t know you were so open to receiving instructions. I think I’m going to remember that.”

“You’ll forget this by tomorrow. Strong painkillers do that sometimes,” Fernando insists.

Lance’s lips curl into a catlike smile. “Sure thing, Fernando.”

Maybe he’s right after all. Fernando thinks that he might not ever forget the peace of a room when it’s just the two of them, how the heart monitor sharply upticks when Fernando reaches over to take Lance’s hand and both of them pretend they don’t notice it. Lance will be alright eventually. Wounds will heal, scars will fade, and a ferocious driver named Fernando Alonso will accept that the biggest chink in his forged-by-fire armor is a young man named Lance Stroll, and there is nothing wrong about that at all.

f1 tag list: @j-brielmalfoy, @juphey

all tags list: @wordsarelife

[wolves-and-stars]

FAMOUS WOLFSTAR AU FIC RECS

(A list of the the best famous AU fics, including youtube, musician/band, and acting)

1. Sex Pistols by ArtificialAorta (ffnet) 86k

MUSICIAN/BAND AU!

I love this fic, it was on my last list too, remus is the lead singer and gutarist for the punk rock band belladonna, and he meets the lead singer of the pop band maraders, sirius black, at a press tour.

The music the author mentions in the fic is so good, it really helps you get immeresed in the scene they mention the song for.

2. Stalking Sirius by remuslives23 (ao3) 36k

MUSICIAN SIRIUS BLACK

Journalist remus lupin finds out a secret about sirius black, the lead singer of the band marauders, and uses it as leverage to gain an interview with the ever mysterious and elusive singer.

3. Whatever Words I Say by orphan_account (ao3) 23k

MUSICIAN SIRIUS BLACK

Remus Lupin is hired by lily evans and her PR company to babysit sirius black, the lead singer of her husband's band, the marauders, after the latest media frenzy cause by Sirius' cavalier attitude. Remus realises maybe sirius doesn't act out because of any of the expected reasons.

4. Never Above You, Never Below by orphan_account (ao3) 5k

ACTOR SIRIUS BLACK

Sirius just wants to shop at tesco in peace when a young boy recongnises him and drags out his father, remus lupin. It would annoy sirius, except the guy is kind of cute. (Actor! Sirius, Single dad! Remus) starring baby teddy.

5. Addicted To The Magic by orphan_account (ao3) 14k

ACTOR SIRIUS BLACK

Remus runs into a stranger on the tube and gets swept up in a whirlwind romance, except he doesnt know what the starnger does or really anything about him. Maybe he'll find out at the party sirius' invites him to?

Side pairing of james and lily, but isn't boring like all the other ones, they actually have personalities other than being the boring hetero couple.

6. Forever Is a State of Mind by orphan_account (ao3) 25k

YOUTUBER AU!

Remus lupin is runs a dance youtube channel, where he posts choreographies with his son teddy. He's also deaf and people find it hard to understand how someone who can't hear music could love to dance so much, people like rita skeeter who hires snape as a terp for a new paper article she wants to write about him. Except sanpe is the kind of terp that only signs SLS, remus runs into james, CODA, who helps him out. He also happens to introduce him to sirius black his best mate who is a MUA youtuber, with a decent amount of followers.

With a side pairing of polyamorous james/lily/regulus raising harry together. (Y'all dont understand this fic made me jump in the jegulus train way back in 2016, and ive been patiently waiting for all of you to catch up)

7. real life has no appeal by orphan_account (ao3) 7k

YOUTUBER AU!

Sirius, james and peter have a channel where they break into places overnight, trying to escape getting caught. James starts dating lily, who happens to be remus' roomate. Remus has his own channel, less break-in, more artsy. Sirius happens to text remus. They happen to fall for each other.

8. Wizard beat by eprime

MUSICIAN REMUS LUPIN

Sirius black is remus lupins biggest fan, their new roomate john finds his passion for the singer very annoying. Sirius finds his new roomate annoying, or does he?

9. The Prom Date by xivz (ao3) 48k

MUSICIAN SIRIUS BLACK

Remus Lupin does something very out of character, he sends a promposal video to Sirius Black, the very famous singer/actor/model who hes had a crush on for wuite some time.

Siruius Black happes to accept his request. And is determined to break the rules of their contract by relentlessly pursuing him.

10. The tell-all end-all with Sirius Black by wolvesandstars 1.5k

MUSICIAN SIRIUS BLACK

This one is by me, sorry about the shameless plus, i really wanted the list to have 10 in them.

Give it a try, its about how the paps speculate about sirius blacks mystery boyfriend and all the conspiracies surrounding him and his ex-best friend and ex-roomate remus lupin.

[abysskeeper]

Bronch day sucks. Too busy to actually write this week. But! I've been sitting on this for a while and after rereading it last night...yeah, I'm still pleased with this.

So, WIP time (apt for Wednesday). I love me some wizard angst fights. Who knows, one day I may even complete this.

******

They were hurtling towards the final confrontation still somewhat in the dark, and he was hurtling towards his judgment. It was…a necessity—divinely tasked. He couldn’t see a way out of it now, and the way she continued to refuse the truth hurt. It hurt him to know there was someone like her still keeping faith in him, and it hurt him to watch her work herself into a frenzy trying to save him.

He wasn’t worth it. It was not what he wanted, but Gale Dekarios had made his mistakes and knew his path towards penance. It was a path he could take, so long as he had her at his side until the end.

“Is that so wrong?!” he demanded. “If we are correct in our theories based on what we read in Thorm’s room, this is an elder brain controlled by the Dead Three. That alone is already magnificently worse than when we believed this was simply an illithid invasion!”

“And I do not agree the sacrifice is worth it before we are even certain of what we are dealing with,” she refuted, throwing up a hand in exasperation. “I am not relying on your death to solve all our problems before we are even fully sure of what they are!”

“We have a very simple solution to it before this whole plot grows even more out of hand! One life for the Sword Coast, that hardly seems like a sacrifice.” It wasn’t a sacrifice at all. It was the only thing he was meant to do from the moment the Orb fused into his chest, he had to believe that. He had to. “One life to prevent a future you have already seen and know can come to pass—”

“A future that is one of several possible outcomes!” Nox corrected on a cry. She glared up at him, anger glinting in the few tears pricking her violet eyes. “You might be so cavalier with your life, Gale, but I am not,” she hissed at him. And despite his anger, despite his annoyance—at her, at the situation, at what he was charged to do—his heart stuttered with her admittance. “I don’t want you do die. None of us want you to die.”

“Alright…” He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and taking a step away from her. He needed a moment to disengage before he said something he didn’t mean—or, perhaps, said something he meant all too much. “Disregarding the several issues that exist with you making that decision for me, and there are several—” He glared at her to get his point across. She narrowed her eyes at him in return. “—Did you not think that I would want to be down there, regardless?”

Nox’s jaw clenched and her nostrils flared with the release of a breath. “And did you not think that the rest of us would take necessary measures to prevent you from killing yours—”

“This isn’t about that!” Gale shouted. It was an outburst of tangled emotions, rage and fear and an overwhelming sadness, but he felt it cooling in the few seconds her shocked expression stared back at him. “Do not cast me from your side, Nox’ani,” he said, the desperation pumping in his heart bleeding into his voice. “I have had more than my fill of that in my life already.”

She stilled in front of him, momentarily stunned at his admittance. He watched her composure fall, the same fear and desperation flowing in his veins mirrored in her eyes. Then it was gone, schooled behind a mask of cold, metallic resolve. She sincerely believed she was doing him a favor. He did not know how else to convey this was anything but.

“This is hardly the same,” Nox bit back, harsh. Her arms crossed over her chest once more.

“Isn’t it?” Gale demanded, mimicking her stance and rocking back on his feet. Was it better to show his anger or his despair? He didn’t know, but he was bordering on both. “Because it certainly feels the same.”

“No! No, it isn’t at all! Don’t you dare compare me to her,” she ground out. “One was over a grandiose mistake you should have known better than to make, and one is over whether or not you deserve the right to live because of that mistake!”

“And that is ultimately my decision to make in the end,” he pointed out, voice rough from holding back tears.

“It is,” she agreed dangerously low. Her hand clutched at her staff, still stuck in the ground. “But I find it difficult to believe you are acting of your own accord.”

Gale swallowed, struck nervous by the puzzle in her words. “And what is that supposed to mean?”

“Do you truly want to die?” Nox asked quietly. “Do you truly want to sacrifice your life to save the world? Do you truly believe this is the only way? Or is it your own gods’ damned ego being stroked by a Goddess to court her own means in the end?”

He momentarily forgot how to breathe, indignation flaring in his veins to temporarily burn away everything else. “You…you think it is pride that is driving me to blow myself up to the Heavens?!” he asked, incredulous. “You believe my ego is so easily inflated I would consider killing myself over some pretty words and half-baked promises? This is Mystra! This is eternal salvation!”

“I don’t know what else it could be!” she shot back. Nox growled out a string of curses in Elvish under her breath and ran a shaky hand through her hair. “Of course you are the only one who could solve this problem, right?” she demanded, glare snapping up to meet his eyes. “Only you can fix it and bring an end to the Absolute? Only you have the capabilities, never mind everyone else and what we can do. Never mind none of us want to watch you die for a threat we could handle!”

“Nox…”

Some of his anger chilled the longer she shouted at him, ironically enough. He could practically see the desperation rising in her throat, her arms flailing like a signal for him to understand what she was saying. For him to understand what she was truly saying beneath the surface. And he wanted to—he so dearly desired to—but it still didn’t change the truth sitting before them. “My Goddess asked this of me—”

“Your Goddess forsook you!” Nox reminded him with an exasperated shout. “And now she demands penance in the form of your life for a mistake she refused—still refuses—to explain! How is that right? How is that demand worthy of consideration?!”

Gale remained silent, taking a moment to truly examine her. Heavy bags rested under tired, pleading eyes while she panted with exertion and frantic appeal for him to see her version of sense. For all he probably should have, he couldn’t prevent the fondness welling in his heart at watching her argue with him for his life. It was charming, heartwarming…and very reminiscent of a life he once knew. The words were out of his mouth before he consciously thought on them, “…for someone who so often speaks of hubris, you have little self-reflection.”

She recoiled like she had been zapped. “And what, exactly, do you mean by that?”

He shouldn’t have spoken a word. “This is Mystra,” he answered softly, honestly. That was all he could do. “You are asking me to consider you and your words above the command of the Goddess of Magic.”

He intended it as a compliment. It was a compliment, in his eyes. It took some gall—it took some care and some heart for someone to demand something of that nature. It was still the wrong thing to say. Gale watched the deep wound cleave through her eyes, her jaw falling open in shock and unfettered pain. Just as quickly, she snapped her mouth shut and turned away from him. He still noticed how she tugged at the collar of her robe and how her hand remained, clenching the fabric and trembling slightly.

A grave error, indeed. “…Nox—”

“You’re right,” she said, voice chillingly quiet, “I do speak on hubris often. But do not misconstrue what I am asking here. I am no better than Mystra. I am far, far below the Goddess…on all counts, I see now, but I am still asking you to consider what I am saying. As a friend and…as one who knows hubris.”

Nox breathed deep and the mask slipped over her with her exhale, a glossy veneer as cool as the ice she wielded. Elegant, beautiful, fragile. “I speak on pride because I know what it is, Gale. I speak not on mine because I have already had it trampled.” Her hand slipped from her staff, defeated, and she rocked between her heels and the balls of her feet. “My pride was believing I could ever step into my mother’s shoes and fulfill her role after we lost her. Elturians did not believe me. My own sister did not believe me and Elturel fell. Again.”

She turned away from him, her feet dragging her into a slow, circular pace around her staff as she contemplated it. Gale wanted her to stop then. He knew where this was going, she had already recounted her history to him. She hadn’t said it, but he knew there was a lot to regret in it.

“My pride was believing I would ever be able to recreate the lost art of chronomancy where my mother failed. Now I am chained to a past I cannot escape and haunted by a future I do not know how to prevent,” Nox continued, words rising in volume and speed. “My pride was believing I could ever act like my sister and step into a leadership role with respect. It is something I have here only because of her, I know this—”

That was blatantly untrue.

“And my pride was in hoping I could still use that regardless. My pride was in hoping I could talk to a talented, stubborn, good wizard as a peer and a friend and have him consider my words!” she said, motioning towards him in exasperation. Or as an example. A few tears started spilling from her eyes. “And my hubris was falling for that stubborn man—who tasted power and divinity beyond what I could ever comprehend or compare to—and believing I ever stood a chance!”

They both froze. Gale stared at her, Nox stared back, eyes wide enough that she appeared as though she were just caught in the midst of a crime. It was the appearance of someone who instantly regretted saying way too much in a fit of madness. Her tears fell faster, slipping from glittering eyes that she squeezed shut before violently turning on her heel from him.

His mind screamed at him to step forward. To respond. To pull her back before she inevitably left. He didn’t—couldn’t—move.

“Oh…fuck it,” she growled. She uprooted Mourning Frost from the ground with a quick yank. “Just…do whatever you will,” she muttered roughly and began walking further into the darkness of the cursed lands. “I have tried all I can.”

[nonasemporium]

ortus

send me a character [Ortus] and i’ll list:

favorite thing about them: Every moment of Harrow the Ninth he was there, I was for him. Favorite thing is hard to list because there's a few different things--I like his investment in Matthias and the Noniad in general, I like that he clearly has a lot of insight after his death on the Ninth, I like that he has this clear undercurrent of frustration and how it was bubbling out of him despite himself. I like how much of a person he is.

least favorite thing about them: Nothing I can say about him is anything he doesn't already know about himself tbh. I guess that despite everything he turned around to thinking maybe he should've been a cav or tried to be a cav, like the whole system is fucked, not that he's necessarily unaware it sucks, but it'd be cool to think a little bigger as well to how horrible the Houses are as a whole rather than live in the daydreams of heroics.

favorite line: Oh, there's so many I love him so much actually, truly: Ortus primly said he thought that nobody who read the Noniad would be the sort of churl who misread a simple and evocative collocation like bone frenzy; he went on to suggest that such a person probably didn’t even read in the first place, and would be more inclined to trifle with prurient magazines or pamphlets than to bother themselves with a complex epic such as the Noniad; he said that he wouldn’t want such a person to read his poetry anyway. or: “Nigenad,” she said, “I am what I am, and I am seventeen. Yet I assure you that I contain multitudes.” “I am fully aware of that, my lady,” said Ortus. Which was perfectly correct of him to say. But Harrow somehow did not like the way he said it. or: “Harrowhark—I don’t understand why you chose me.” Harrow said, “There was nobody else.” His mask slipped, and not the mask made of alabaster and black paint. Ortus looked at her with his steady dark gaze, and his heavy face flickered; she realised with electrified astonishment that he was exasperated. “You never did possess an imagination,” he said, and, obviously upset with himself, his mask reappeared as swiftly as if slapped back on with both hands. or: “You knew,” she said. “You knew the whole time that Mortus the Ninth died at their command.” Now Ortus’s face changed. It slid a second time into paint-splattered, black-irised, hooded contempt. He looked at her as though she were tedious. He looked at her as though he did not know who she was. His contempt made the doors she heard in her ears slam in an orchestra of unfathomable sound. He looked at her as though she were a squalling infant; as though she had not spoken, but rather opened her mouth and vomited. “Harrow,” he said curtly, “you are not the only person who can add up two and two, and arrive at four.” and finally, because I could keep going: Ortus dropped his book. He rose from the chair. He put his arms about her. The dead cavalier held her with a quiet, unassuming firmness; he petted her hair like a brother, and he said, “I am so sorry, Harrowhark. I am sorry for everything … I am sorry for what they did … I am sorry that I was no kind of cavalier to you. I was so much older, and too selfish to take esponsibility, and too affrighted by the idea of doing anything difficult or painful. I was weak because weakness is easy, and because rebuff is hard. I should have known there was really nobody left … I should have seen the cruelty in what Crux and Aiglamene encouraged you to bear. I knew what had happened to my father, and I suspected for so long what had happened to the Reverend Father and Mother. I knew I had been spared, somehow, from the crèche flu, and that my mother had been driven demented by the truth. I should have offered help. I should have died for you. Gideon should still be alive. I was, and am, a grown man, and you both were neglected children.”

brOTP: Honestly, him and Harrow, and it's tragic and it's horrible and neither would choose it, but also in the end there, I think they do see each other. If Harrow isn't an option or if I'm talking about a more equal friendship, him working out his beef with Protesilaus is fun.

OTP: I literally will die on the hill that Colum x Ortus is the best fucking ship for both of them, I will ride for them into fucking battle, I fucking love it so much please everyone open your hearts. I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed AND ALONE. The PARALLELS when Ortus is Harrow's cavalier. Let me in, LET ME IN.

nOTP: I cannot imagine pairing him with Harrow or Gideon and meaning it. None of them would be happy there at all, ever.

random headcanon: Genuinely think that Gideon was being kept partially to have to have cav children with him and that's why she got even a little cav training and it makes me sick to think of and I think it's both part of her revulsion at him and also his avoidance of her.

unpopular opinion: I don't know why this is unpopular but he was ready to tear Protesilaus apart, he was so threatened and infuriated by him and it was so funny to me. "And that other dog, too, who is he," he was mad as hell. King.

song i associate with them: I know this is so strange, but legitimately 'Underworld' from Epic: The Musical. He has so many overlapping sentiments--guilt, rage, despair, loss, pride, longing, etc.

favorite picture of them: this piece actually

[prestigious-subclasses]

Prestige Classes

In D&D 3.5, there are almost 300 prestige classes. Shouldn't they all be converted to D&D 5e subclasses? No. No they should not. And yet, here we are. Some prestige classes are ... weird and so might be converted to something other than a subclass, if at all.

A breakdown is below the cut.

Core Subclasses

Arcane Archer

Arcane Trickster

Archmage

Assassin

Blackguard

Dragon Disciple

Duelist

Dwarven Defender

Eldritch Knight

Hierophant

Horizon Walker

Loremaster

Mystic Theurge

Red Wizard

Shadowdancer

Thaumaturgist

Psionic

Cerebremancer

Elocater

Fist of Zuoken

Illithid Slayer

Metamind

Psion Uncarnate

Pyrokineticist

Thrallherd

War Mind

Complete Champion

Fist of the Forest

Forest Reeve

Holt Warden

Mythic Exemplar

Ordained Champion

Paragnostic Apostle

Paragnostic Initiate

Sanctified One

Shadowspy

Shadowstriker

Squire of Legend

Complete Mage

Abjurant Champion

Eldritch Disciple

Eldritch Theurge

Enlightened Spirit

Holy Scourge

Lyric Thaumaturge

Master Specialist

Nightmare Spinner

Ultimate Magus

Unseen Seer

Wild Soul

Complete Psionic

Anarchic Initiate

Ebon Saint

Ectopic Adept

Flayerspawn Psychic

Illumine Soul

Soulbow

Storm Disciple

Zerth Cenobite

Complete Scoundrel

Avenging Executioner

Battle Trickster

Cloaked Dancer

Combat Trapsmith

Fortune's Friend

Gray Guard

Magical Trickster

Malconvoker

Master of Masks

Mountebank

Psibond Agent

Spellwarp Sniper

Uncanny Trickster

Complete Warrior

Bear Warrior

Bladesinger

Cavalier

Dark Hunter

Darkwood Stalker

Dervish

Drunken Master

Exotic Weapon Master

Eye of Gruumsh

Frenzied Berserker

Gnome Giant-Slayer

Halfling Outrider

Hulking Hurler

Hunter of the Dead

Invisible Blade

Justiciar

Kensai

Knight of the Chalice

Knight Protector

Master of the Unseen Hand

Master Thrower

Mindspy

Nature’s Warrior

Occult Slayer

Order of the Bow Initiate

Purple Dragon Knight

Rage Mage

Ravager

Reaping Mauler

Ronin

Spellsword

Stonelord

Tattooed Monk

Thayan Knight

War Chanter

Warshaper

Cityscape

Ebonmar Infiltrator

Crimson Scourge

Urban Savant

Dungeonscape

Beast Heart Adept

Dungeon Lord

Trapsmith

Sandstorm

Ashworm Dragoon

Lord of Tides

Sand Shaper

Scion of Tem-Et-Nu

Scorpion Heritor

Walker in the Waste

Drow of the Underdark

Arachnomancer

Cavestalker

Demonbinder

Dread Fang of Lolth

Eye of Lolth

Insidious Corrupter

Kinslayer

Fiendish Codex II

Hellbreaker

Hellfire Warlock

Hellreaver

Soulguard

Book of Exalted Deeds

Anointed Knight

Apostle of Peace

Beloved of Valarian

Celestial Mystic

Champion of Gwynharwyf

Defender of Sealtiel

Emissary of Barachiel

Exalted Arcanist

Fist of Raziel

Initiate of Pistis Sophia

Lion of Talisid

Prophet of Erathaol

Risen Martyr

Sentinel of Bharrai

Skylord

Slayer of Domiel

Stalker of Kharash

Swanmay

Sword of Righteousness

Troubadour of Stars

Vassal of Bahamut

Wonderworker

Dragon Magic

Diamond Dragon

Dragon Descendant

Dragon Lord

Hand of the Winged Masters

Pact-bound Adept

Swift Wing

Wyrm Wizard

Miniatures Handbook

Bonded Summoner

Dragon Samurai

Havoc Mage

Skullclan Hunter

Tactical Soldier

War Hulk

Warchief

Tome of Battle

Bloodclaw Master

Bloodstorm Blade

Deepstone Sentinel

Eternal Blade

Jade Phoenix Mage

Master of Nine

Ruby Knight Vindicator

Shadow Sun Ninja

Underdark

Arachnomancer

Cavelord

Deep Diviner

Drow Judicator

Illithid Body Tamer

Imaskari Vengeance Taker

Inquisitor of the Drowning Goddess

Prime Underdark Guide

Sea Mother Whip

Shadowcrafter

Vermin Keeper

Yathchol Webrider

Epic

Agent Retriever

Cosmic Descryer

Divine Emissary

Epic Infiltrator

Guardian Paramount

High Proselytizer

Legendary Dreadnought

Perfect Wight

Union Sentinel

[chocochipbiscuit]

Femslash February Recs: ORIGINAL WORK!

I love Femslash February and am usually all up in fanfics (as witnessed by my bookmarked F/F fics…) but! I’ve actually been on a binge reading original sapphic work lately, and want to yell about my favorites!

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri:

“A captive princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic become unlikely allies on a dark journey to save their empire from the princess's traitor brother.

Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of the powerful, magical deathless waters — but is now little more than a decaying ruin.

Priya is a maidservant, one among several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to clean Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, so long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides.

But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to depose her brother from his throne. The other is a priestess seeking to find her family. Together, they will change the fate of an empire.”

There are so many great characters, and I love how full and complex they feel; everyone has their own motives, whether it’s conquest or survival, and Priya and Malini’s goals are not always in alignment (and oh BOY that complicated web of trust and loyalty really gets put to the test in the second book) but their relationship is utterly the backbone of the book, navigating the boundaries whether the daughter of conquerors can ever ‘just’ be sweethearts with a temple child whose mere survival spits in the empire’s eye.

Also, if you read: please yell about Bhumika with me!!!!

This is the first of The Burning Kingdoms trilogy. Two books are out already (The Jasmine Throne and The Oleander Sword) and I love them both!

Content warnings for in-world homophobia and sexism, mostly shown through the attitudes of the empire towards the people they’ve conquered.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: 

“The Emperor needs necromancers.

The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.

Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit.

Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service.

Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die.

Of course, some things are better left dead.”

Deranged lesbian necromancers….IN SPACE!!!! I fully admit that I didn’t read this for the longest time because I was convinced that it wouldn’t live up to the hype, but I absolutely devoured it!!! Also the first of The Locked Tomb series, which has three books (Gideon the Ninth, Harrow the Ninth, Nona the Ninth) which are available for your frenzied consumption!

Feminine Pursuits by Olivia Waite: Historical F/F romance!!! I’m listing the series title instead of individual books, but each book absolutely stands on its own and is well worth reading! Do you like age gap romance with two passionate women scarred by lovers past? Then check out A Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics! (Also, astronomy!!!) Or are two middle-aged women, one a widow and the other in a lavender marriage, more your speed? Then try The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows! (Also, bees!!!!) Or maybe you’d prefer a rivals to lovers romance that culminates in a heist? Then oh boy but The Hellion’s Waltz is there for you! (Also, music!!!)

These books are set in the 1800s and there is period-typical sexism and homophobia (particularly in The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows), including some frank discussions that the women involved may not be able to marry or have more ‘conventional’ families, but these are all romance novels. That means happy endings!

Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan:

“Mrs. Bertrice Martin—a widow, some seventy-three years young—has kept her youthful-ish appearance with the most powerful of home remedies: daily doses of spite, regular baths in man-tears, and refusing to give so much as a single damn about her Terrible Nephew.

Then proper, correct Miss Violetta Beauchamps, a sprightly young thing of nine and sixty, crashes into her life. The Terrible Nephew is living in her rooming house, and Violetta wants him gone.

Mrs. Martin isn’t about to start giving damns, not even for someone as intriguing as Miss Violetta. But she hatches another plan—to make her nephew sorry, to make Miss Violetta smile, and to have the finest adventure of all time.

If she makes Terrible Men angry and wins the hand of a lovely lady in the process? Those are just added bonuses.

Author’s Note: Sometimes I write villains who are subtle and nuanced. This is not one of those times. The Terrible Nephew is terrible, and terrible things happen to him because he deserves them. Sometime villains really are bad and wrong, and sometimes, we want them to suffer a lot of consequences."

Another historical F/F romance, and an utter romp! The nephew is indeed Terrible and much of the reason he’s able to be Terrible is because of the institutionalized sexism and social hierarchy of the period. However, he does get harassed and punished in entertaining ways! And Violetta and Bertrice are delights.

[dan6085]

Here are 20 of the most controversial NBA players of all time, along with some of the reasons why they were controversial:

1. Dennis Rodman - Rodman was known for his flamboyant personality and controversial behavior both on and off the court, including his numerous piercings, wild hairstyles, and clashes with teammates and opponents.

2. Kobe Bryant - Bryant was accused of sexual assault in 2003, which caused a media frenzy and damaged his reputation.

3. Allen Iverson - Iverson was known for his rebellious attitude and legal troubles, including his arrest for carrying a concealed weapon.

4. Ron Artest/Metta World Peace - Artest is infamous for his role in the "Malice at the Palace" brawl in 2004, in which he charged into the stands and fought with fans.

5. Latrell Sprewell - Sprewell was suspended by the NBA for choking his coach during a practice.

6. Charles Barkley - Barkley was known for his outspoken and sometimes controversial comments, including his criticism of Michael Jordan and his admission to gambling.

7. Gilbert Arenas - Arenas was suspended for bringing guns into the locker room and engaging in a dispute with a teammate.

8. Shaquille O'Neal - O'Neal was involved in several controversial incidents, including his feud with Kobe Bryant and his comments about Yao Ming.

9. LeBron James - James has been criticized for his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2010 and join the Miami Heat.

10. Karl Malone - Malone was accused of fathering a child with a minor when he was in college and was involved in a controversy over his comments about HIV.

11. Stephon Marbury - Marbury was known for his erratic behavior and clashes with coaches and teammates.

12. Dwight Howard - Howard has been involved in several controversies, including his feud with Kobe Bryant and his comments about the LGBTQ+ community.

13. Dennis Johnson - Johnson was involved in several controversies during his career, including a suspension for spitting on a fan.

14. Rasheed Wallace - Wallace was known for his temper and was frequently fined for arguing with officials and making obscene gestures.

15. Wilt Chamberlain - Chamberlain was involved in several controversies during his career, including his admission to bedding over 20,000 women.

16. Chris Andersen - Andersen was suspended for violating the NBA's drug policy and was later accused of having inappropriate relationships with a minor.

17. Steve Nash - Nash was involved in a controversy over his support of Arizona's controversial immigration law.

18. Latrell Sprewell - Sprewell was known for his temper and was involved in several on-court altercations with opponents.

19. Carmelo Anthony - Anthony has been involved in several controversies, including his suspension for his role in a brawl between the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets.

20. Jason Kidd - Kidd was involved in a controversy over his domestic violence arrest and subsequent divorce.

These players were controversial for a variety of reasons, including their behavior on and off the court, legal troubles, and outspoken personalities. While some were able to overcome their controversies and continue successful careers, others were not as fortunate and saw their reputations permanently damaged.

[drastrochris]

Harrow the Ninth, chapters 18 & 21:

She said, with uncharacteristic frenzy: “Why am I here?”

Dulcie -- Lady Dulcinea, do you mind if I ask you to get Silas Octakiseron with us?

[...] “Reverend Daughter, if you can, when you can, Coronabeth Tridentarius.  And her sister of course,” she added, though Harrowhark thought that addition was a bit belated.  “With the cavalier.  Again, if you can.  I haven’t been able to check [...]

“Is this how it happens, Lady Pent?” she asked soberly.

[...]  “No.  It’s not.”

On this reread, I’m now seeing how incredible Abigail was, and that Cytherea is damn lucky that she was the first one she killed.  She’s put together what’s going on, she knows who she should be able to find in Canaan House and who will be dead, she’s amazing.

[vh-rp]

Warrior Knight Archetype

While Warriors focus on attacking, the Knight focuses on defense. Their mastery of armor is second to none, and they are skilled in damage mitigation first and foremost. These characters are the tanks on the battlefield, soaking up damage so that their allies don't have to.

Foci: Cavalier At home in the saddle, these warriors prefer mounted combat; they can bond with almost anything that can be ridden. If you ask them how they do it, they're not going to know what to tell you, as it's different for every Cavalier. Mounted knights are terrible at range but great at high speeds, and their mounts are often trained to participate in battle alongside them.

Within this foci fall the following abilities:

Charge: The character charges full-tilt ahead, riding down anything in their path.

Rider’s Seat:The Cavalier’s bond with their mount prevents them from being thrown from the saddle.

Mounted Combat: The Cavalier is skilled at fighting from the saddle.

War Horse: The mount is trained in combat, too. They participate in the battle with tooth, hoof, or claw, as the case may be.

Team Effort: The Cavalier fights best with a cavalry. They get bonuses to power and speed if there are other Cavaliers in the party.

Foci: Juggernaut These stalwart warriors make themselves the biggest target on the battlefield. When enemies take the bait, Vanguards pick them apart with brutal precision. These people are large, intimidating, and showy, and they're always going to put themselves in the most conspicuous place in the battle. When surrounded, they will use pure strength to rip their enemies to pieces. Juggernaut’s usually, but not always, favor heavy two-handed weapons.

Within this foci fall the following abilities:

Aggro: The juggernaut steps right into the heart of the battle, drawing the attention of any enemies nearby.

Pointed Target: The juggernaut makes a show of targeting a specific enemy, luring other foes into complacency…or frenzy.

Force of Will: The juggernaut’s commanding presence physically draws enemies into striking range.

Man of Steel: A powerful physique allows the character to knock aside any enemies who are in the way

War Cry: The juggernaut lets out a fearsome cry that demoralizes all nearby enemies.

Foci: Shield Bearer Armored combatants who specialize in shield based combat. Some utilize lances or swords in their off hands, while others make their shield their primary weapon. While they specialize in defense, many are also adept at the “sword and board” style of fighting. Shield bearers are punishing adversaries in combat, balanced fighters that are capable of doing damage without taking much themselves.

Within this foci fall the following abilities:

Shield Bash: The character charges forward, shield first. Enemies are knocked prone.

Impenetrable Defense: The character’s got a shield, and they know how to use it! They take significantly less damage when fighting with any type of shield.

Duck and Cover: Archers find these characters especially annoying. Arrows stand little chance against a trained shield bearer.

Dangerous Edge: The shield bearer smashes the edge of their shield into the opponent’s weak point, immediately crippling them.

Pummel: The character uses their shield as a bludgeoning tool, striking out several times in quick succession to beat an enemy into submission.

Foci: Sentinel The sentinel is an elite warrior who has mastered the art of the guard. Through their conquests and expeditions, they learn to use it to defend themselves from harm and defend those who they’re allied with. Sentinels are masters with armor, and are trained to soak up as much damage as possible. The very sight of them can strike fear into their enemy. These soldiers sometimes wear so much armor that it's difficult to identify who or even what race they are.

Within this foci fall the following abilities:

Heavy Armor: The sentinel wears heavy armor that would otherwise be far too cumbersome for anyone else. They move at reduced speed, but their defense is unparalleled.

Bulwark: The sentinel places themselves in their enemies’ path, entirely blocking the way forward.

Damage Sponge: The sentinel is steeled against pain. Their tolerance is through the roof, and their stamina on the battlefield is second to none.

No Pain No Gain: Through sheer willpower, the sentinel can temporarily halt their own blood loss, able to survive otherwise mortal wounds until they can be attended by a healer.

Fearsome Aura: The sentinel’s intimidating aura demoralizes enemies.

[laresearchette]

Thursday, May 09, 2024 Canadian TV Listings (Times Eastern)

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES: PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: SUMMER SCHOOL (Crave) 11:00pm

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

AMAZON PRIME CANADA THE GOAT MAXON HALL: THE WORLD AGAINST US YODHA

CRAVE TV COOL HAND LUKE PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: SUMMER SCHOOL (Season 2, Episodes 1-2)   NETFLIX CANADA BODKIN THE GUARDIAN OF THE MONARCHS (MX) MOTHER OF THE BRIDE THANK YOU, NEXT (TR)

NHL HOCKEY (CBC/SN) 7:00pm: Game 3 - Rangers vs. Hurricanes (SN/SN360) 9:50pm: Game 2 - Avalanche vs. Stars

NBA BASKETBALL (TSN4/TSN5) 7:00pm: Game 2 - Cavaliers vs. Celtics (SN1) 9:30pm: Game 2 - Mavericks vs. Thunder

PWHL HOCKEY (TSN/TSN5) 7:00pm: Game 1 - Boston vs. Montreal

QMJHL HOCKEY (TSN2) 7:00pm: Game 1 - Drummondville Voltigeurs vs. Baie-Comeau Drakkar

OHL HOCKEY (TSN3) 7:00pm: Game 1 - Oshawa Generals vs. London Knights

MLB BASEBALL (SN Now) 7:30pm: Guardians vs. White Sox

LAW & ORDER TORONTO: CRIMINAL INTENT (City TV) 8:00pm: The death of a prominent rapper-turned-producer sends Graff and Bateman on the tail of a frenzied serial killer at large in the city.

THE BRIDGE (Discovery Canada) 8:00pm: After new contestant Gail joins the build and attempts to fight her team's overwhelming fatigue, both beaches are presented with an opportunity to leave early with some of the prize money.

THE GREAT POTTERY THROW DOWN (Makeful) 8:00pm: Embossed Table Light and Decadent Design Skills

LEGO MASTERS AUSTRALIA (Discovery Canada) 9:00pm: Teams are challenged to build their vision of the future seen through the view of a window frame.

PORTRAIT ARTIST OF THE YEAR (Makeful) 9:00pm: Josh Widdicombe, Nicky Spence, Shirley Ballas

HOUSE HUNTERS: ALL STARS (HGTV Canada) 9:00pm/9:30pm (SERIES PREMIERE): An artist relocates from Hawaii and looks for a new home in the heart of downtown Indianapolis; she's open to projects and a place with rental potential, so she enlists Indy expert Mina Starsiak Hawk to find the right place in the right neighborhood. In Episode Two, after finding love later in life, a Sioux Falls couple turns to Chelsea and Cole DeBoer to help get them out of their cramped townhouse and into a home with more space; he's looking for a traditional one-story, but she wants ultra-modern with two.

SWAMP MYSTERIES (History Canada) 9:00pm (SEASON PREMIERE):  Troy gets a call from a local rancher with a huge problem; feral hogs are tearing his property apart, and no matter what he does, he can't get rid of them; some say the ranch is cursed.

[gasolinexhoney]

Well here I go again…

Embraced in his arms along the shores of Mautari Bay.

The sunrise envelops us in a warm glow and lights his cocoa eyes on fire, as if to mirror the lit fireplace back at our lodge; I see myself ablaze in them.

He holds me close, swaying to a soundless song.

There is a peace in the clean air, one I am all-too familiar with;

The sound of the wind bunts and glides against the leaves in the trees,

The seaside gulls chattering in the distance.

He and I are completely alone and absorbing every second.

I cup his chiseled face in my hand, and his- gently wraps around my wrist, causing his biceps to further expand and sends the butterflies in my stomach into a frenzy.

My fingers travel through his dark, lush hair then end gliding down the nape of his neck.

He smirks a little from the tickle.

His hands are gently resting on the small of my back.

He rests his head against mine and closes his firey eyes.

Our lips are millemmiters apart but I dare not lean in first; I wait with a pounding heart; so loud I swore I felt the ground shake with every beat.

 The sunlight shone on his gingerbread skin like gold fairy dust, accentuating the hard lines of his physique.

Under his rolled up sleeves, scenes of internal wars and passions were permanently inked on his golden skin.

The unbuttoned top off his collared shirt bore more of these scenes. I ran my fingers gently along what seemed to be a wing traveling along his sternum.

A black-beaked gull swooped just above us and his flinch breaks the romantic scene with comedic laughter.

Yet I am drawn in again to that perfect smile.

His full chevron ‘stache fit rather perfectly with his rural, fourties era style; ribbed-knit collared shirt with a working-man’s pair of trousers.

His almost-black hair swooped over to one side in a proper mess.

He was something out of a romantic novel.

A lover of life and philosophy.

He was a reader, a scholar, a seducer.

He was a sober, hard working, inked-up cavalier.

But there was one thing he wasn’t:

mine.

He was no ones.

This perfect man had entered my life two seasons ago, only meeting in secrecy.

I never asked why, I never wanted to know if there was another or were more; I simply desired to pretend I was his only.

The way he entered my home, sometimes silly, sometimes serious and seductive, but always thrilled.

A cool evening, he rushed into my arms, pressed his lips to mine, picked me off the floor and lied me gently onto my lounger.

This man never entered me. He only teased.

I waited for the moment he would initiate, but he never did and I wondered if he only hesistated so as to receive consent from me first; I wondered if he waited for me to initiate.

Even still, the passion escalated the tension between our bodies to a point where his excitement was remarkably obvious.

But I could not cross that line. I knew in the past, removing that boundary would shorten our time together from months to weeks, days, or even hours. And instead, increase our time apart the opposite, until I would no longer hear from him again.

And so I kept him guessing, guessing what I felt like, what I tasted like, what I performed like.

He wanted my body, but I wanted his heart.

And there, standing along that bay, I believe I had it.

I rested my head in the crook of his neck and shoulder, and he whispered those forbidden words to me.

He wanted my body, I wanted his heart.

And so we remained,

hesitant,

resistant-

increasing the tension between our beings, ever-longing the rush of desire; forever- until one of us breaks…

retrieving what they wanted,

drowning themselves in their desire for a moment,

taking all they can from the other…

taking, taking, and taking some more.

and then when the phase is over and the butterflies die off one by one,

they vanish without a trace.

Leaving nothing but regret and anger for the one they left behind.

He won’t break. And neither will I.

The tension builds.

Not long before one of us gives in,

Or gives up.

Let the games begin

and may the weakest of the two fall victim to lust

or love.

[dm-zorc]

How to Play as Kisara, Soul of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in 5e

Image of Maiden with Eyes of Blue (Kisara) by @icedchaiarts

Who is Kisara, Blue-Eyes White Dragon?

Kisara is a human from ancient Egypt who has pale skin, and long flowing white hair with bright blue eyes. The people of her time believed she was a witch and a bad omen. She was timid, passive, and lonely at first. Despite her reserved and passive nature, she has a quiet confidence about herself. She became more assertive after making friends with Priest Seto. At first she was unable to control her spirit, nor did she know how powerful her spirit was. She was forced to call upon her spirit and to manifest it against her will by Seto’s father who wished to use her as a weapon.  The friendship between Kisara and Seto would bloom, and Seto fought for her freedom.

Her spirit, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon earned the reputation of a legendary ferocious dragon prone to destruction. Just the sight of the dragon was enough to throw people into a frenzied panic with its breath weapon laying waste to those who provoked her wrath.

The Church of the White Dragon

The Legend of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon spread far and wide. In modern day a group of worshippers came together to give praise to the dragon. They view the dragon as a protector, and not a force of destruction. The Blue-Eyes keep order.  Followers of the White Dragon call themselves the Eyes of Blue.  They see dragons as mightier than gods. They may dye their hair white, or pale blue, carve draconic effigies, and worship in a mausoleum.  Eyes of Blue followers tend to have some capacity of magical powers such as Zealot Barbarians, Tempest Clerics, Cavalier Fighters, Ascendant Dragon Monks, Watchers Paladin, Drakewarden Rangers, Draconic Sorcerers, and Evocation Wizards. The power of the blue-eyes is destructive, and it must be protected.

How to Play as a Dragon in 5e?

If you wanted to play as Dragon in 5e you could play as a Dragonborn from either EGW or FTD and take levels in the following classes: Light Domain Cleric or Fiend Warlock for a Fire Dragon, Tempest Domain Cleric for a Lightning Dragon, Ascendant Dragon Monk, Storm Heard Barbarian, or Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer for more broader draconic / elemental options.  My first thought was to build a sorcerer; however, they are missing one key spell that Kisara needs to become a true dragon, true polymorph. Thankfully Fizban's Treasury of Dragons has introduced draconic options for players. In 5e you cannot have all of the powers of a dragon at 1st level. The draconic power needs time to grow, your character needs time to adapt to the immense power of the dragon, tapping into too much of the dragon’s power too quickly could cause them to disintegrate from the inside out.

Kisara, Blue-Eyes White Dragon

Summary

Ancestry — Variant Human. Kisara is a variant human. She’s not physically strong, nor very charismatic, though she has a strong heart, and spirit that manifests itself as a dragon in times of trouble. She needs to keep her concentration up so she’s taking the Resilient (Constitution) feat to gain proficiency in Constitution Saving Throws. You can say she has the resilience and vigor of a dragon, and picking up the Investigation skill. Background — Urchin. Because of her living in poverty she is receiving the Urchin Background. Class — Evocation Wizard. This class has all of the spells we need to roleplay a person who has the destructive spirit of a dragon. One could roleplay this in such a way as a warlock patron, using their highest level spell slots first for the most destruction until their power source is drained and she needs to rest. During combat she might even remember any of the damage she causes, and has frequent black outs until higher levels when she and her draconic spirit learn to work together. You could multiclass for two levels of Tempest Cleric for “Destructive Wrath”and medium or heavy armor, and shield proficiency. Three reasons why I didn’t go down this path. (a) I imagine most tables only play levels 1 - 10, and (b) I did not want to delay the “draconic spell progression” for two levels, and (c) Kisara never wore armor. 

Level By Level

Level 1

Variant Human, Feat: Resilient (Constitution)

Ability Scores

STR 8 / DEX 16 / CON 16 / INT 16 / WIS 8 / CHA 8

Saving Throws

STR -1 / DEX + 3 / CON +5 / INT +5 / WIS +1 / CHA -1 

Skills

Sleight of Hand +5, Stealth +5, Arcana +5, Investigation +5, Religion +5 

Hit Points 9 & AC 13 (16 w/ Mage Armor) (18 w/ Shield) (21 w/ Mage Armor and Shield) 

Her spellbook could be a Draconic Totem that she holds as an arcane focus which contains spell cards inside of it for her spells. Or just ignore the spellbook, and pretend that it doesn’t exist.

Spells DC 13 & +5 to hit.

C: Ray of Frost, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion 1: Chromatic Orb, Thunder Wave, Mage Armor, Shield, Comprehend Languages, Find Familiar

There aren’t many *good* Lightning Cantrips so we have to make do with Ray of Frost, describe the cold damage as a “shock” to their nervous system that stuns them a little.  (take any damaging cantrip you want, preferably one that you get to roll the d20.)

Chromatic Orb and Thunder Wave are for tiny motes of destruction. Find Familiar gives you a Draconic Owl, a spirit ryu. That can use the help action, and eventually get a breath weapon.

Arcane Recovery

Once per day: Recover Spell Slots on a short rest.

Level 2

Evocation Wizard

Sculpt Spells. The power of mass destruction will soon be in your hands, with Sculpt Spells, you can keep your allies safe while the rampaging dragon punishes your enemies.

+Absorb Elements, +Feather Fall With absorb elements you have the resistances of a dragon (providing you have the spell slot).

Feather Fall might save your life one day and will let you glide gently to the ground if you get knocked out of the air.

Level 3

Cantrip Formulas. You can swap your cantrips daily so you can try out other cantrips.

+Dragon's Breath, +Shatter

Your “draconic familiar (Owl)” now has a lightning breath weapon (and you could too).  Your little dragon spirit flies around the battlefield forcing lighting onto your enemies.

Shatter is your draconic roar, a thunderous cry.

Level 4

Feat: War Caster. Now hopefully you’ll never drop concentration on a spell ever again, very important to save your spell slots.  Also if a creature provokes an opportunity attack against you, you can cast a spell as long as that creature would be affected by that spell, which might become important next level when you get your first big “breath weapon”

+Toll the Dead, +Gentle Repose, +Augury

I wanted to get some “cleric” spells on this build, these are mostly for flavor, but Gentle Repose could keep someone important alive to give them a chance at resurrection.

Level 5

Ability Scores

STR 8 / DEX 16 / CON 16 / INT 16 / WIS 8 / CHA 8

Saving Throws

STR -1 / DEX + 3 / CON +6 / INT +6 / WIS +2 / CHA -1 

Skills

Sleight of Hand +6, Stealth +6, Arcana +6, Investigation +6, Religion +6 

Hit Points 37 & AC 13 (16 w/ Mage Armor) (18 w/ Shield) (21 w/ Mage Armor and Shield)

+Lightning Bolt, +Thunder Step

We did not grab misty step so Thunder Step has to make due, and Lightning Bolt is our “White Lightning” (at least for right now)

Level 6

Potent Cantrip

Damaging Saving Throw cantrips become a little more valuable because of this feature, at least you know you’ll be doing at least 1 damage to a creature.

+Counter Spell, +Dispel Magic

Level 7

+Sickening Radiance (“Holy Burst Stream”), +Banishment

Sickening Radiance unleashes a radiant light that, if your allies could force enemies into your light, could kill your enemies within 6 turns due to exhaustion. 

Level 8

ASI: +2 INT

+Arcane Eye, +Divination

Level 9

Ability Scores

STR 8 / DEX 16 / CON 16 / INT 18 / WIS 8 / CHA 8

Saving Throws

STR -1 / DEX + 3 / CON +7 / INT +8 / WIS +3 / CHA -1 

Skills

Sleight of Hand +7, Stealth +7, Arcana +8, Investigation +8, Religion +8 

Hit Points 65 & AC 13 (16 w/ Mage Armor) (18 w/ Shield) (21 w/ Mage Armor and Shield)

+Summon Draconic Spirit, +Rary's Telepathic Bond

At 9th level you can summon your BLUE EYES WHITE DRAGON, and RIDE ON IT

Spells DC 16 & +8 to hit.

BEWD - 5th level Spell Slot AC 19, 60 HP, you can make them either radiant or lightning, and share their residences. Two attacks: 1d6 +9, 1d6+9, then a 2d6 breath attack (and it won’t even hurt your allies because of Sculpt Spells. At least, I hope it works that way.  It is attacking using your spell save DC)  You manifested your draconic spirit at 9th level.

Level 10

Empowered Evocation. +4 damage on evocation spells.

+Prestidigitation, +Wall of Force, +Wall of Light

Level 11

+Globe of Invulnerability, +Chain Lightning

Level 12

ASI +2 INT

+Sunbeam, +True Seeing

Level 13

Ability Scores

STR 8 / DEX 16 / CON 16 / INT 20 / WIS 8 / CHA 8

Saving Throws

STR -1 / DEX + 3 / CON +8 / INT +10 / WIS +4 / CHA -1 

Skills

Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +8, Arcana +10, Investigation +10, Religion +10 

Hit Points 93 & AC 13 (16 w/ Mage Armor) (18 w/ Shield) (21 w/ Mage Armor and Shield)

Spells DC 18 & +10 to hit.

+Draconic Transformation, +Forcecage

You can now become the dragon with Draconic Transformation, furthermore Forcecage combos nicely with Sickening Radiance. 

Level 14

Overchannel. You can do maximum damage with one 5th level or lower spell slot, but the second time you use this feature, you take 2d12 necrotic damage for each level of the spell, immediately after you cast it.

+Plane Shift, +Reverse Gravity

Level 15

+Illusory Dragon, +Maze

Level 16

ASI: +2 Dex

+Antipathy/Sympathy, +Sunburst

Sunburst is a stronger “Burst Stream of Destruction” that blinds her enemies.

Level 17

Ability Scores

STR 8 / DEX 18 / CON 16 / INT 20 / WIS 8 / CHA 8

Saving Throws

STR -1 / DEX + 4 / CON +8 / INT +10 / WIS +4 / CHA -1 

Skills

Sleight of Hand +10, Stealth +10, Arcana +11, Investigation +11, Religion +11 

Hit Points 121 & AC 14 (17 w/ Mage Armor) (19 w/ Shield) (22 w/ Mage Armor and Shield)

Spells DC 19 & +11 to hit.

+True Polymorph, +Prismatic Wall

17th LEVEL!!! You are now the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, not only in spirit, but also in flesh.  Transform into the Adult Blue Dragon, (or Ancient Crystal Dragon at 19th level)

Level 18

Spell Mastery: Shield or Mage Armor, and Shatter or Gentle Repose

+Wish, +Simulacrum

Level 19

ASI +2 DEX

+Leomund’s Tiny Hut, +Detect Magic

Level 20

Ability Scores

STR 8 / DEX 20 / CON 16 / INT 20 / WIS 8 / CHA 8

Saving Throws

STR -1 / DEX + 5 / CON +8 / INT +10 / WIS +4 / CHA -1 

Skills

Sleight of Hand +11, Stealth +11, Arcana +11, Investigation +11, Religion +11 

Hit Points 142 & AC 15 (18 w/ Mage Armor) (20 w/ Shield) (25 w/ Mage Armor and Shield)

Spells DC 19 & +11 to hit.

Signature Spells Lightning Bolt, Counterspell

+Phantom Steed, +Plane Shift

Kisara’s Spellbook 

(in alphabetical wizard) @ 20th level the most important spells are bolded.

C: Mage Hand, Minor Illusion, Prestidigitation, Ray of Frost, Toll the Dead

1st: Absorb Elements, Chromatic Orb, Feather Fall, Mage Armor, Shield, Thunderwave

1st (Rit.): Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Find Familiar

2nd: Dragon's Breath, Shatter

2nd (Rit.): Augury, Gentle Repose

3rd: Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Lightning Bolt, Thunder Step

3rd (Rit.): Leomund's Tiny Hut, Gentle Repose, Phantom Steed

4th: Arcane Eye, Banishment, Sickening Radiance

4th (Rit.): Divination

5th: Summon Draconic Spirit, Wall of Force, Wall of Light

5th (Rit.): Rary's Telepathic Bond

6th: Chain Lightning, Globe of Invulnerability, Sunbeam, True Seeing

7th: Draconic Transformation, Forcecage, Plane Shift, Reverse Gravity, Simulacrum

8th: Antipathy/Sympathy, Illusory Dragon, Maze, Sunburst

9th: Prismatic Wall, True Polymorph, Wish

Note

There was a reddit thread titled “Yu-Gi-Oh D&D characters” and well Clericofsune and Fate & Phantasms heavily inspired me to create 5e content.  This is my first ever public player build.

[gideonpyrrha]

Dearest pals most distinguished,

CLUTCH this flimsy with delight and fervour, for now I reign upon you delicious bites of praise:

CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR DISTINGUISHED APPOINTMENT TO MASTER WARDEN, DEAREST PALAMEDES SEXTUS, WITH MUCH LOVE AND HOPE I PRAY THAT ALL FUTURE BOOKS IN THE ARCHIVE ARE NEVER LOCKED AWAY FROM YOUR PRESIDING EYES, FOREVERMORE, AMEN

AND CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR DISTINGUISHED APPOINTMENT TO CAVALIER PRIMARY, DEAREST CAMILLA HECT, TO WHOM I CANNOT MAKE A JOKE BECAUSE THIS IS THE MOST UNSURPRISING TURN OF EVENTS EVER ACCOMPLISHED

Really! Your last letter! I would’ve danced, if I could! Instead I made a delighted sound I will not deign to describe here, except for the fact that it may have sent Pro and Mia’s cat into a short little frenzy. Heedless, I am so happy for you both. I convinced Pro to let me host a lovely little dinner in your honour. It’ll be just like a regular dinner except I’ll be thinking of you and C the entire time. Best I could do with mere minutes worth of planning and my fragile, fragile disposition, I’m afraid — still bound to be the best party on Cypris, regardless.

I’m flattered you’ve invited me into your ongoing investigation regarding the Mysterious Note in the Mysterious Wooden Ball. (To C — Pal, I assume you’re reading out loud, but if you aren’t, please pass the note over — did the Doctor Sex stuff really happen that way? P isn’t embellishing for the sake of storytelling and/or alleviating my boredom, is he?? TOTALLY valid line of inquiry, btw, before he makes a fuss! I KNOW he’s done it before, I can tell! C, I trust you to be honest.) I’m not sure what other insights I can derive here that you haven’t already figured out, but I must say it is a very lovely love letter.

By the way, I managed to convince the eldest to start smuggling extramural mags in for me. (The cigarettes were a joke — I was being COMPLETELY serious about the extramurals). This was a needlessly complicated affair that I’m sure both you and C are rapturously awaiting my detailed recounting of, but I’ll spare you the gory specifics by noting that I’ve recently become addicted to an action-romance serial written at the very back of the mag. It’s called No Bones Left to Die, and it’s awful. I’ve started writing side stories for it. I fully expect you and C both to have read it by next correspondence—I always enjoy how you tear these things apart.

Yrs,

DULCIE