#i know i made some league of legends ones but i no longer have access to that discord server channel

[neonacidtrip]

I’ve been making memes for friends for years and decided I should share the ones I could easily find

[sheriff-caitlyn]

I started this blog in 2014, as the first Caitlyn on tumblr, and obviously I’ve been through a lot of retcons and changes myself, not only adapting to Riot’s own public retcons (from the minor, like her aesthetics, to the major, like the removal of the Institute of War as an integral part of their lore) but also to my own. That’s the thing about playing a character as complex as this, is that you learn more as you go. In your interactions with others and the creation of backstory, history, and other bits of worldbuilding to better understand the world you’re in, a character goes from a handful of images and some in-game voicelines to a fully-fledged person with a complex narrative. Sometimes things change, and that’s fine. But there are some changes which... aren’t. 

For all the fingerprints I’ve put on her, she is still not my character. But I care. Sunk-cost fallacy, maybe, but I care about this character I have been involved in and I care about the direction she has been taken. So, without further ado, I’d like to delve into:

The Recent Caitlyn Update In Piltover’s New Context or, We Gotta Fetishise Police Violence, I Mean, Look At Her, She’s So Hot

Back in August 2015, I went, ‘Oh No, they’re going to try to turn Piltover into Gotham City, aren’t they?’, and lo and behold, suddenly we have Poison Ivy now. But I will get back to that, later. In this particular thread, I noted that many of the characters in Piltover seemed destined for a revamp that would rob them of what originally drew us to them in the first place, and that Piltover seemed destined for a rework that would wash out much of their character. Piltover and Zaun were always meant to be polar opposites, but suddenly we were seeing glimpses of Piltover being ‘not as good as everyone thinks’, which hinted that Piltover and Zaun were destined not to be polar opposites in the future, but indistinguishable from each other. It worried me that the only thing telling these two fascinating cities apart would be the sunlight.

So, when we have so much potential for a clash between Zaun and Piltover, between ‘Science No Matter The Cost’ and ‘We Must Advance The World With Care’, why change Piltover to some murky middleground, turning peace and security into wartime capitalism? A world where the people are shitty, where weapons and profit come first, and the only ones making a stand are the ones who are so embittered they have nothing better to do?

Because it has to be ‘interesting’. We’re going to lose bits that we like, that we’re familiar with. And that’s why I’m concerned.

This was before Piltover and Zaun were squished together in an ugly - and utterly ham-fisted - method of showing How Complex The Future Is. There’s layers, guys! Literal layers to this one single city! That means it’s deep! But when I say ‘bits that we like, that we’re familiar with’, I’m not clinging to a fanon interpretation. I’m saying the things that drew us to the world and to the characters to begin with. I could adapt from Caitlyn turning from brown-haired and brown-eyed to black-haired and blue-eyed, because even through I had been doing art, at that point, the change gave me an opportunity to express and discover more about her character (her eye colour being influenced by her mother’s magic, for one). But some of the more stark changes - to family, to job, to personality, to the city of Piltover itself - these result in a character changing completely. I was worried that the cool detective who literally made the world a better place would be chopped and changed into something unrecognisable. I even expounded on my concerns in November 2016, where I could see some of the ways the writers at Rito might make adjustments in the direction of their lore updates.

All this to say, I’ve been working on her for a while, and I was bracing for some bad news. This? This is kind of the worst.

Caitlyn has always been the Sheriff of Piltover, an authority figure, a representative of the law and order that Piltover is famous for. Piltover’s peace and financial prosperity has been directly linked to Caitlyn’s concerted effort to eradicate crime (not criminals, crime! Which, as I have mentioned particularly in this post from 2014, means she upended and reformed the justice system, from the legal process to the prisons to how people are treated as citizens). The city is safe, people have greater access to personal wealth and development, classism is erased, society is flourishing. Zaun, as Piltover’s polar opposite, is a corporate nightmare, with ‘do as thou wilt’, private bodyguards for the rich and powerful while the poor scramble to survive in a system that barely treats them as human. Vi, as a Zaunite, brings a lot of her ‘violence as a problem-solver’ methodology to Piltover’s law-enforcement, though she seems to have no intention of returning to Zaun and seems to have bonded with Caitlyn (‘teamwork!’) to Get Shit Done. And, apparently, there is still shit that needs to be done, though nowhere near as much as there had been in the Bad Old Days.

Vi was, at the time, the awkward-grit-teeth-grin-ha-ha-um-yeah representation of police violence. ‘Resist arrest’, she cries gleefully, as she beats people and breaks down buildings, and we are supposed to go ‘ha, isn’t that funny’ with varying degrees of sincerity. Of course Piltover is going to have problems: anywhere that has wealth and stability is going to be targeted by the envious and the needy. Peace needs to be protected. The problem lies in how that protection is enacted.

So now we have the recent Legends of Runeterra update to Caitlyn, an update which looked at the context of Piltover needing protection, as well as the modern context of Riot’s California location in the Years of Our Lord 2020-2021, and then decided ‘you know what we need? Police violence, everyone loves police violence’.

MAN I thought the stripper-cop skins were bad but here we go!

Her Yordle Snap-Traps (which I envisioned as from the Yordle Military, rather than a racially-profiling weapon as, y’know, they work on human-and-larger-sized people as well) have now been replaced by electroshock grenades, the intent gone from incapacitation and observation to outright paralysis and destruction. Her net-short is now apparently electro-conductive (admittedly, I have had one (1) single RP where that happened, but it came at both a cost to Caitlyn and to her weapon’s efficiency as a result, a last-resort against a dangerous opponent). Caitlyn’s cards in LoR take her from being a detective coordinating ideas and people and putting together a case to a SWAT team leader. This might be the biggest problem in working for a non-combat-oriented character in a MOBA, or in any fighting game: the game needs to find rationalisations for all of their characters being there, being combatants, being able to kill (even if, as Riot says, the lore is separate from the game). We have monsters and soldiers and ancient powers who of course they know how to spill blood and relish in doing so. But pacifists, like Karma or Bard? Explorers like Ezreal? And a sheriff, a peacekeeper, a law-keeper, someone mindful of responsibility and the importance of saving every life possible, like Caitlyn? They’re stripped of that depth and complexity in-game, but there was always the lore that backed them up. But they’ve done away with that completely. Caitlyn was never special operations. She was never military. But now she is, because she had to be changed to fit better into a fighting game. They had to make her violent, and as a result, they have undermined not only everything about the character that made her interesting to begin with - turning her now into a representative of police brutality, but with long hair, pouty lips, and a thigh gap - but they’re also re-writing the context of Piltover. It was bad enough to squish Piltover and Zaun together. But now, Caitlyn’s update is proof that Piltover has gone from a steampunk utopia to a violent, oppressive and cynical post-industrial world. The depiction of Caitlyn as a SWAT team leader (complete with special-forces beret, because hat! Caitlyn wears a hat! Nevermind the fact that she’s no longer wearing a distinctive tophat but instead a symbol of extreme state-sponsored force!) shows us that Piltover’s ‘army’ is not designed as a defence against outsiders, but as an offensive force against their own people. Caitlyn is supposed to be the representation of how peace and order is maintained in one of the largest factions in League of Legends, and if her method of maintaining order is straight-up police violence against their own citizens, then it’s not really peace and order. It’s authoritarianism at best, and facism at worst.

Piltover was different from every other nation in Runeterra because it didn’t have a military. It had defenders, and it had a powerful economy, and it had a democratic political system. But the Piltover update retconned Caitlyn’s hard work. The gangs were back - though now they’re big powerful families like Clan Ferros - and Caitlyn has been de-aged so that she’s still new to the force, that she hasn’t even had her chance to change anything. Her importance to Piltover is minimised... and why is Vi even there? (Oh boy I guess you’re going to have to watch Arcane to find out! Coming to a Netflix near you soon!) With a younger Caitlyn in a violent society, she has no choice but to be violent herself... even if that undermines everything previously established about Piltover and about Caitlyn. This update has made Piltover just as ugly and oppressive as Demacia, Noxus, and Zaun. It’s just another army equipped to do violence, but now that violence is turned inwards. This isn’t protection, it’s control. It’s fear. It’s oppression. Caitlyn is no longer a peacekeeper. She’s a monster. Chopped and changed, as I feared, into something completely unrecognisable from how she began in a world that no longer looks like what it had been... or should be.

It’s hard to tell what came first, the change to Piltover or the change to Caitlyn. Either way, the changes are inextricably linked. Caitlyn was integral to Piltover’s modern state, and Piltover is integral to Caitlyn as a character. Her (original) drive was to make the city and all its people better; Piltover was a utopia because of the effort of Caitlyn, and of people like her, people who wanted a better world. This new iteration of Piltover - full of fear and violence and hypocricy, layered over Zaun in such a way that makes ham-fisted commentary about the wealth/class divide - undermines the value of the individual. It removes agency. It removes hope, which had been integral to Piltover. Piltover is no longer the CIty of Progress... it’s the City of ‘you better be rich and pretty if you want to progress’. And Caitlyn is no longer a force for good or a representative of responsibility, because those things don’t exist in Piltover anymore. Legends of Runeterra has turned Caitlyn into a bitch, someone to hate. She has a marked lack of respect for people, as demonstrated in her new character traits of ‘casually-racist’ (her lines to Veigar), ‘condescending’ (her lines to Viktor), with some added pride in her violence (’here’s my calling card *shoots gun*’ and ‘I aim to win and my aim is excellent’). She is a representative of her city, and she is a terrible person now. Piltover is terrible. Piltover is ugly. 

But Caitlyn avoids that last part. And she’ll get away with it, because she’s a hot twenty-something.

In 2015, I drew Caitlyn-as-Swain, as an AU for what might have been. The overwhelming response at the time was ‘aaa she’s so hot I’d follow that leader of Noxus’, prompting a good friend Swain RPer to comment that Swain - who was, at the time, the withered man in green and gold who needed a cane - was just as smart as Caitlyn if not more so, a proven capable leader, but when it comes down to it, sex-appeal will always trump characterisation and storytelling, and that’s disheartening for someone who puts so much work into stories, to context, to something deeper than ‘Just another MOBA’. And here I am, in 2021, looking at how Caitlyn has been stripped of her fascinating and complex characterisation while maintaining her long legs, long hair, and corsetted figure. Now, I do appreciate the fact they’ve given her a better costume than miniskirt and boobtube. She deserves so much better. I even commissioned back in 2015 for a Better Look for Caitlyn; Tom aka FaerieFountain went on to make her new look canon. But she’s supposed to be a detective. She’s supposed to be careful and methodical and mindful of her status and power. Instead, she’s been made gleefully violent, leaving a lot of depth behind in order to become just Hot Cop With Gun. (As an aside, was anyone else uncomfortable with Caitlyn’s high-school skin? Especially when the writer actually tweeted ‘step on me’? Hello? Ma’am? That is a high school student, that is a CHILD you are talking about? But Caitlyn is hot so it’s fine! Sexualise a child! it’s fine, she’s hot, it’s fine!) Almost everyone who has contacted me about Caitlyn’s LoR cards has been excited to see her. Good! She’s a great character! Or, she was. But the enthusiasm about her is tied to how she’s so violent, how she uses her power to abuse those who don’t conform. But she looks great, smoking hot, you know? And when she’s smoking hot, her dangerous and abusive behaviour and attitude are completely excused. An update to a character needs to take into account characterisation as well as the visuals. Her update, sadly, has focused on the all-too-prevalent problem of the viciousness of state-sponsored violence, rather than the complexity of detective work, of puzzle solving and intellectualism, but because she looks hot and speaks in that British accent, no-one’s going to care. Hot ladies can get away with so much, because legs and pouty lips, but I guess she’s also a cop or whatever.

And, as a momentary aside, why is an eco-terrorist suddenly Caitlyn’s longtime foe? It makes zero sense for Piltover and for Caitlyn that someone who plant-based powers is her biggest rival and the city’s biggest threat. Zero sense, until you take into account that Piltover has been stripped of its character and made into something more aligned with modern authoritarianism than the hopeful vibes of steampunk. Environmentalism? Not on my watch! Deploy the police (the good guys!) to silence the protesters (who are obviously the bad guys becase they’re protesting)! Because Piltover and Zaun are one city now, and therefore indistinguishable, we have a fucking Poison Ivy character causing enough trouble in Piltover to warrant entire fucking SWAT teams opening fire within the city limits and around peoples’ homes! Not Zaun, which is the environmental nightmare, but Piltover! With its fresh air and open skies! Yes, that’s a great place for an eco-terrorist to blame and/or try to fix! The whole thing is honestly so backwards! Like they’ve decided to make a cool character in the form of Corina and just shove her into the story, rather than finding a place in the narrative that suits her. The idea that Corina is C makes no sense. Caitlyn vs C is supposed to be Sherlock versus Moriarty, Ganimard versus Lupin, ACME versus Carmen Sandiego, world’s greatest detective against the world’s greatest thief. It focused on the intellectual battle, the need for self-improvement, and - most importantly! - that this was a fight that didn’t result in gunfire or people being put in bodybags. But we can’t have that in our fighting game! We can’t have people thinking, because that’s not the kind of game we have, it’s left-click-shoot out here on the Rift or in the cards. So now we have a woman with plant powers bombing Piltover, and a policewoman kicking down doors and opening fire. And she’s right there, in Caitlyn’s new splash art, within reaching distance of the sheriff!

She’s right there! In hot pink with a flower in her fucking hair! And Caitlyn doesn’t even notice? Looks like one of my major gripes about Caitlyn being updated - Incompetence - is rearing its ugly head. She cannot even see someone not five feet from her. Oooh, look out, Piltover, no-one can figure out why this single eco-terrorist is causing problems for years, but Caitlyn will figure it out! With her gun! Because she’s a cop with a gun, and cops with guns never cause more problems than they solve, right?

Look... I know. I know she’s not my character. I know that everything I’ve done is fan-interpretation. But I’ve worked for so long and hard and done so much research, and things I’ve done have even been seen by - and used by! - the company itself (not just in the ‘oh what a coincidence’ sense, either, I know my link on Hextech as a form of magic made it to several of the writers, some of whom later contacted me). I might be too jaded by all the disappointment to take it personally anymore, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t still happen. We know Riot Games could be and should be better. So many people in this community - and people who have since moved on - put so much love and effort into the characters and the world, building up from scraps and guesswork and extrapolation. It wasn’t our world, but we enjoyed playing in it. We enjoyed struggling in it, because it pushed us to be thoughtful, creative, to be engaged and interested. Critical Theory doesn’t have to be negative... but this recent update to Caitlyn’s character and to Piltover as a whole is... it’s a step backwards. They’ve gone for the ‘ooh isn’t this gritty and dark’ approach, and swept away so much of what made the original so interesting, creative, engaging to begin with. They’d rather have controversy than people genuinely enjoying the thing that they’re opening their wallet for. 

Caitlyn was a detective who focused on responsibility, intellectualism, and care. What she is now is not the same Caitlyn they started with, and expresses a set of values that I do not support. This blog will continue to be focusing on the old lore, on what Piltover has been and what it should be: a hopeful utopia, a place for people to grow and be responsible and thoughtful and mindful of their place on the world stage. It’s not going to be perfect, but there’s hope, and there’s people here who want the world, and everyone in it, to be better than it is. I hope you join me, no matter who you are.

[tigerkirby215]

5e Kai’Sa, the Daughter of the Void build (League of Legends)

(Artwork made for Riot Games)

Dammit I couldn’t help myself. Sorry mister T B Skyen but Kai’Sa is queen. I just find her fun: I still think her design is awful but man she’s fun to play. Also Kai’Sa is queen of K/DA and Ahri is a thot. Evelynn > Akali > Kai’Sa > Seraphine > Ahri don’t @ me.

GOALS

A moving target lives longer - In order to survive the void you need to improvise. Dodge attacks and keep ready for danger from all angles.

This skin lives on me, and hunts with me - If you want to fight back you need to adapt with a suit that doesn’t just fight with you, but fights as you.

Prey marked - To overcome the void you need to cut it down to size with deadly plasma clinging to them and slicing through their armor.

RACE

Kai’Sa is a Human but being forced to survive against the Void gives you more than a bit of variance. And hey: Tasha’s exists, so how about we use some Tasha’s rules on a Mark of Finding Human! Normally Mark of Finding increases your Wisdom and Constitution but I’d instead suggest increasing your Intelligence by 2 and your Charisma by 1, to learn how the void acts and somehow look great while doing it.

Regardless of your Ability Scores you get Darkvision which humans don’t normally get, Hunter’s Intuition to add a d4 to Perception and Survival checks, and Finder’s Magic to cast Hunter’s Mark once per Long Rest, for a low level Caustic Wounds mark. You can also cast Locate Object once per Long Rest with this feature once you hit level 3 to search for Tears.

If Eberron content isn’t allowed: The reason I opted for a Dragonmarked race is because there aren’t many interesting feats that work for Kai’Sa. However Sharpshooter, Prodigy, Mobile, Alert, Observant (increase Intelligence), and the Tracker feat from Tasha’s are all good.

Elemental Adept is also good if you choose Lightning, however please discuss with your DM the specific wording of this feat! You won’t be using spells with this feat which means that depending on interpretation Elemental Adept may not work!

ABILITY SCORES

15; INTELLIGENCE - Survival is more than just instinct. Yes I am aware that Survival is a Wisdom skill in 5e, but you need intellect to create the tools to survive the Void.

14; DEXTERITY - The life of an ADC is one of constantly running and gunning. 14 DEX will give us enough maneuverability as an ADC for something important.

13; CHARISMA - Apparently the Void does wonders for the complexion, as you’ve got the looks to make it in K-Pop.

12; WISDOM - Hey here’s where that Survival proficiency comes in.

10; CONSTITUTION - You’re an ADC with an ADC’s health bar but you’re still allowed to not instantly die.

8; STRENGTH - The suit does most of the lifting; all we need to do is shoot.

(Something something feel free to swap WIS and CON if you want better HP and worse RP.)

BACKGROUND

There are quite a few backgrounds that would make sense for the daughter of the void, but the most logical one would probably be the Haunted One background from Curse of Strahd. Survival proficiency is a must and you can opt for either Arcana or Investigation proficiency as your other skill. (I personally took Investigation.) You also get a language of your choice (pick whatever you think Shuriman is) as well as an exotic language: Deep Speech is likely what they speak in the Void.

Your feature Heart of Darkness lets everyone know that you have seen the Void, and it is coming. Commoners will extend every courtesy to try to help you, as long as you’ve not proven to be a danger to them. They will even take up arms to fight alongside you, should you find yourself facing an enemy alone.  "The monsters are coming. We'll be ready. I'll make sure of it."

(Artwork made for Riot Games)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - ROGUE 1

Starting off as a Rogue because the first step in survival is being skilled. Thankfully you get four skills, so grab Stealth, Insight (important later), Acrobatics, and Performance. Because you need to be able to do the dance numbers after all! You also get Expertise in two skills that you’re proficient in: Survival will help you survive (yeah duh) and Stealth will help you hide (also yeah duh.) And finally you get Thieves’ Cant: a secret code you can speak so that the creatures of the Void don’t listen in.

But of course the main feature of being a Rogue is Sneak Attack. If you attack an enemy with Advantage, or if the enemy is within 5 feet of an ally, you’ll inflict a Caustic Wound to do an additional d6 of damage. You can only Sneak Attack with a Ranged or a Finesse weapon, and you haven’t got the suit yet so opt for a Crossbow until then is my advice.

LEVEL 2 - ROGUE 2

Second level Rogues get Cunning Action to Dash, Disengage, or Hide as a Bonus Action. You won’t be Supercharging your suit to turn invisible yet because... well you don’t have a suit. But if you can’t fight you must take flight.  "It's fight or flight, only now I do not run."

LEVEL 3 - ARTIFICER 1

To survive the Rogue you need to make it part of yourself. Artificers don’t necessarily bond with Void symbiotes, but they do create tools for survival with Magical Tinkering. You can apply a bunch of effects to small, non-magical items such as sounds for distractions, smells for distractions, or messages for messages. Read over the ability to see everything you can do.

You also get Spellcasting as an Artificer. You can learn two cantrips from the Artificer list: for a bit of a boost to your abilities take Guidance for the extra bit of human determination. If you want to coordinate a team up with your support Message will let you keep your plans relatively secret.

You can prepare 3 spells from the Artificer list: Longstrider will keep you in the fight while staying away from danger, and Featherfall will give you and your friends a safe way out in a pinch. And taking Heal is never a bad choice as an ADC, so grab Cure Wounds in case of emergency.

LEVEL 4 - ARTIFICER 2

Second level Artificers get Infusions, which allows you to turn regular items into magic items. To keep the void away your main tool will be an Enhanced Weapon, making your shots just a little more deadly. To make sure you (or your allies) can see any incoming danger Goggles of Night will either provide or improve darkvision. To keep your items on hand a Bag of Holding will allow you to carry everything. And for your final infusion Armor of Magical Strength will help you fight against tanks and knockups. Well, knockdowns anyways. You can also prepare another spell like Disguise Self, because skins equal wins.

LEVEL 5 - ARTIFICER 3

Level 3 Artificers can choose their subclass and it’s Tasha’s time! The Armorer gets a suit of armor that lives with you and fights with you. Tools of the Trade gives you proficiency with Smith’s Tools as well as Heavy Armor, both of which don’t matter because we won’t be using them much.

But you can use your Smith’s Tools to make any armor (not just heavy armor!) into Arcane Armor. The main initial features to note is that you can use the armor as a spellcasting focus, the armor can’t be removed against your will, it expands to cover your entire body (although you can retract or deploy the helmet as a bonus action by pressing F6), the armor replaces any missing limbs, and finally you can doff or don the armor as an action.

But this is all secondary to your choice of Armor Model, and we will be going for the Infiltrator armor. You have Powered Steps for +5 movement speed and a Dampening Field which makes your Armor provide Advantage on Stealth checks. I should mention that if you haven’t already you should grab some Medium armor: a Breastplate would be your best bet without giving Disadvantage on Stealth.

But the best feature is the Lightning Launcher. It counts as a simple ranged weapon, with a normal range of 90 feet and a long range of 300 feet. It deals a d6 of lightning damage, and once per turn when you hit a creature you can deal an extra d6 lightning damage to that target. Now here’s the thing: it may use INT to attack but Sneak Attack works on any ranged weapon, regardless of what stat you use to attack! So RAW you can sneak attack with the Lightning Launcher!

Additionally because I’m obliged to mention it you get The Right Tool for the Job, allowing you to make a set of Artisan’s Tools over the course of an hour. You also get Magic Missile and Thunderwave as Armorer subclass-specific spells, for some Icathian Rain and some support peeling. 

(Artwork made for Riot Games)

LEVEL 6 - ARTIFICER 4

4th level Artificers get an Ability Score Improvement but I’m going to instead suggest the Skill Expert Feat from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. You can increase an ability score of your choice by 1 (increase Intelligence because it’s uneven and it’s tied to your Lightning Launchers), you get proficiency in one skill of your choice (I opted for Arcana because to defeat the Void you must know it inside and out), and you get Expertise in a skill of your choice. (I went for Insight which will be useful later.)

You can also prepare more spells with more INT but we’re going to wait for...

LEVEL 7 - ARTIFICER 5

5th level Armorers get an Extra Attack, allowing them to attack twice instead of once with the attack action as the name “Extra Attack” implies. More attacks means more chances to Sneak Attack, don’t forget!

You also get access to second level spells. Armorer Artificers get Shatter and Mirror Image innately, for some AP offense and some MR defense. You can also grab those spells I didn’t prepare earlier: for some more defense take Blur to give enemies disadvantage to hit you, and to turn invisible with Supercharge grab Invisibility!

LEVEL 8 - ROGUE 3

Hey remember when we were a Rogue? Third level Rogues get to choose their Roguish Archetype and here’s something out of left field: we’ll be going for the Inquisitive archetype. You have an Ear for Deceit so you can’t roll below an 8 on an Insight check to determine if someone is lying (meaning that with Expertise you can’t roll below a 15) and Eye for Detail lets you make a Perception or Investigation check as a Bonus Action.

But remember when I told you to take Insight expertise? Well Insightful Fighting lets you mark a foe with Caustic Wounds to do more damage to them. As a bonus action you can make an Insight check against a creature's Deception. If you succeed, you can use your Sneak Attack against that target even if you don’t have advantage on the attack roll, but not if you have disadvantage. This benefit lasts for 1 minute or until you successfully use this feature against a different target. This will be how we’ll Sneak Attack while still remaining on the move, which on that note your Sneak Attack damage increases to 2d6.

LEVEL 9 - WARLOCK 1

(Shit meme by yours truly.)

Hi hi ecks dee Warlock time. More specifically an Archfey Warlock for more K-Pop fame.

Your choice of Warlock subclass doesn’t matter too much. Celestial, Fiend, and Great Old One also work well but I felt that Archfey made the most sense given the abilities. Technically any Warlock works, but I didn’t opt for the other Warlocks as they have abilities that Kai’Sa doesn’t have. (Flight, Tentacles, Summoning Ghosts, etc.)

As an Archfey Warlock you have Fey Presence: as an action you can cause each creature in a 10 foot cube to make a Wisdom saving throw against your Warlock spell DC. The creatures that fail their saving throws are all charmed or frightened by you (depending on if you do K-Pop Dances or use your Frightening Void Suit) until the end of your next turn. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

You also get Pact Magic, which is like spellcasting only you have funny meme spell slots! You get two cantrips from the Warlock list: to do some general void shenanigans take Prestidigitation, and for a Void Seeker you’re likely not going to use because your auto attacks are better take Eldritch Blast.

You also get two spells from the Warlock list and the main one we’re here for is Hex to mark your enemies with more Caustic Wounds. Other than that? Eh: Comprehend Languages might be good after being in the Void for so long. Truthfully there’s little in particular that we need from the early levels other than Hex.

LEVEL 10 - WARLOCK 2

Second level Warlocks get access to Eldritch Invocations and man am I happy that Tasha’s made Eldritch Mind available to all Warlocks, because I don’t have space in this build for Warcaster. But Eldritch Mind gives you Advantage on Concentration checks to keep your marks up! Your other invocation doesn’t matter much: I personally opted for Devil’s Sight but we’re going to end up replacing it eventually.

You can also learn another Warlock spell like Charm Person if you need to persuade people to follow your cause.

LEVEL 11 - WARLOCK 3

Third level Warlocks get their Pact Boon and hey wouldn’t it be funny if I took the new and all-around “worst” Pact Boon because none of the other ones make sense? The Pact of the Talisman grants a talisman (yeah duh) that you can wear or you can give to an ally. If the wearer fails a skill check while wearing the talisman they can add a d4 to the check. They can use definitely-not-Guidance a number of times equal to your Proficiency bonus, and the talisman regains all uses at the end of a Long Rest.

I’ll be honest: this item is already pretty bad, and the fact that it only works on failed skill checks just makes it worse. Talk to your DM about potentially just making this a bottle of Guidance. You know what isn’t bad? Second level spells like Misty Step for not Flash. 

(Artwork made for Riot Games)

LEVEL 12 - WARLOCK 4

4th level Warlocks get another Ability Score Improvement: cap off your Intelligence for a deadly duo with your armor.

You can also learn another spell and I know you already have Invisibility as an Artificer spell but it doesn’t depend much on your Charisma, so better to take it as a Warlock spell and prepare another Artificer spell. Which by the way: more INT means you can prepare more Artificer spells, but I won’t mention them for now.

You also get another cantrip like Mage Hand for some utility. Who says the suit can’t grab stuff off the high shelf?

LEVEL 13 - WARLOCK 5

5th level Warlocks get more Eldritch Invocations. You know what’s fun for someone with levels in Rogue? MORE Invisibility! One With Shadows lets you turn invisible with an action if you’re in an area of dim light or darkness. The invisibility stops if you move, but if it works for Teemo it can work for you.

You can also learn third level spells like Blink from the Archfey list to make it even harder to hit you!

LEVEL 14 - WARLOCK 6

6th level Archfey Warlocks can Flash and Dash into invisibly with Misty Escape. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to turn invisible and teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. You remain invisible until the start of your next turn unless you attack or cast a spell. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

You can also learn another spell like Tongues, in case the creatures of the Void want some last words.

LEVEL 15 - WARLOCK 7

7th level Warlocks finally get the Eldritch Invocations we want! Firstly grab Relentless Hex for some Killer Instinct to quickly close the distance with a foe. Is this massively redundant for a ranged build that can Dash every turn? Yeah probably, but it is in-character.

Additionally you can replace one of your other invocations with Protection of the Talisman, giving you another set of d4s that can be added to failed Saving Throws! So now along with being pocket Guidance the talisman is also pocket Bless! But you have a proficiency bonus number of d4s that you can use on Saving Throws in a pinch, which also come back on a Long Rest.

You can also learn 4th level spells and how about we just stop becoming visible entirely? Greater Invisibility from the Archfey list lets you be invisible even if you attack! Yeah it’s unfair, but the Void doesn’t care. You can also get rid of regular Invisibility for a stronger mark thanks to Elemental Bane: make an enemy lose resistance to Lightning damage and take extra damage when you shoot them with your Lightning zappers!

(Artwork made for Riot Games)

LEVEL 16 - ARTIFICER 6

About time we finished upgrading our suit. 6th level Artificers get Tool Expertise, which is exactly what it sounds like: double proficiency when making checks with tools.

But more importantly you get more Infusions: for a better +1 blaster that can be used Defensively a Radiant Weapon can be used as a flashlight, and you can use a reaction to blind an enemy that attacks you. So you can either choose to flash away or fight back. If you need to do more AP damage instead a Spell-Refueling Ring will let you restore a spell slot of third level or lower once per day. Adaptability is key to survival.

And speaking of adaptability: you can prepare some new spells like Invisibility that we ditched from Warlock, as well as See Invisibility for some control wards. The support can’t be the only one warding!

LEVEL 17 - ARTIFICER 7

7th level Artificers can save others after saving themselves. Flash of Genius lets you use your Reaction to give yourself or an ally a boost to an ability check or saving throw equal to your Intelligence modifier. You’ve spent so much time in the Void that you know every step to survive, even if Survival is a Wisdom skill.

LEVEL 18 - ARTIFICER 8

8th level Artificers get an Ability Score Improvement. Hey wouldn’t it be funny if we ignored our secondary spellcasting modifier and just made our blaster better? The Sharpshooter feat gives a number of benefits: you can attack at Long Range without Disadvantage (meaning that you can Sneak Attack from 300 feet away), you can ignore half and three-quarters cover, and before attacking with a ranged weapon you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll to do +10 damage if it hits. This means against weak foes with low armor you’ll be shredding through them with ease!

You can also prepare another spell like Enhance Ability to further adapt to danger.

LEVEL 19 - ARTIFICER 9

9th level Armorers can get six slotted thanks to Armor Modifications. Each piece of your armor counts as a separate item for the sake of infusions, and you can make two more infusions as long as they apply to your armor!

You can also prepare third level Artificer spells: as an Armorer you know Hypnotic Pattern and Lightning Bolt, one of which is far more in-character than the other. But if you want to just be harder, better, faster, and stronger take Haste. Just don’t lose concentration and get stunned in a team fight.

LEVEL 20 - ARTIFICER 10

Our capstone is the 10th level of Artificer to actually get 6-slotted thanks to Magic Item Adept. You can attune to up to 4 magic items, and you can also craft magic items more cheaply like that matters at level 20.

Being able to attune to more items is good because you can make more infusions like a Cloak of Protection for a bit more protection (duh) or a Helm of Awareness for advantage on initiative checks and the inability to be surprised.

It should also be mentioned that your Enhanced Weapon infusion is now a +2 instead of a +1, so it might be good to replace the Radiant Weapon with something more deadly.

But most importantly you can prepare another Artificer spell like Aid back at second level, because you are allowed to get defensive stats as an ADC. But above all else you finally at long last get ANOTHER ARTIFICER CANTRIP! Take Mending to fix your dance dress and pretend that a new utility cantrip at level 20 is in any way useful.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

This skin is fashioned for survival - Who would’ve guessed that a character in power armor with half a dozen ways to turn invisible or otherwise be harder to hit would be evasive? You’ve got ridiculous mobility by dashing every turn, tons of spells to make it all the harder to hit you, and of course a Breastplate that gives you 16 AC. Which pro tip: RAW you can equip a shield and still use your blaster! Heck, you can equip a sword too so you can defend yourself in melee range!

And honed by instinct - It wasn’t really my intention but you’re quite the little skill monkey, with a good spread of proficiencies and Expertise in some very useful ones like Insight.

Marked by the void - Your damage without aid isn’t amazing, but you have plenty of marks to easily up your DPS without jumping through too many hoops to do so.

CONS

Void rule number one: don’t die - You invested a lot in damage... not so much in the other areas. Sub-par saving throws, bad health, and even if you have a lot of skills you have even more that you don’t know jack about.

Take your time, Kai'Sa - You need a few rounds to get to your full effectiveness. At a bare minimum you need two rounds to buff yourself. Not to mention that all your best abilities are limited throughout the day by spell slots and charges.

Stay alert, stay aggressive - Your kit is rather loaded with many options clawing for your bonus action or reaction, and many Concentration spells that are difficult to keep when your CON saves are at a flat 0. (Even if you have Advantage thanks to Eldritch Mind.)

But you’re not here to be perfect. Your job is to survive and then save the world. Become one with the end of the universe, and then go in to destroy it. Be ready for anything that may come your way, be it giant monsters, little deadly critters, or a potential music label.

(Artwork made for Riot Games)

[dagenspear]

Crisis On Infinite Earths Outline Fix, Part 5: Laurel Returns!

This is the conclusion to the Crisis, Part 5! This is a bit of a longer one again. For parts 1, 2, 3 & 4, here:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

I thank God for these ideas, if He wills, that He blessed me with:

The bright green light consumes the screen.

Kara, Wally, Jjonn, Ray, Sara and Kate all wake up in their new earth.

But things are different. Black Lightning's, Supergirl's, Earth 1's, Earth 3's and another earth's are now all merged into 1. Lex is the head of the DEO. All the speedsters remember everything. Cisco's powers are back, which when he touches Wally, vibes his pre-crisis memories back. The history of Earth 3 is now apart of that earth's, the Justice Society Of America having been prominent heroes, with the members of Jay Garrick Flash, Dinah Drake Black Canary (Laurel and Sara's mom), Ted Grant Wildcat, Dr. Fate, Hawkman/Hawkgirl, Alan Scott Green Lantern, and others, apart of the team in the 80's & 90's. Barry Allen's Flash has been erased, having never existed. Wally is seen as The Flash, the 2nd Flash there's ever been, after Jay Garrick. John Diggle's life has been altered as well.

Cisco misses Barry, but has become accepting of the situation after the preparations made for it and sees it as his responsibility to maintain the protection of the city. He uses his vibing to give Caitlin, Ralph and the others their memories back, but Wally stops him from giving them to Joe and Iris, saying that he doesn't want them to bear the heartbreak of losing Barry all over again.

Iris is the head of the Central City Citizen, which Post Crisis is a prominent newspaper.

Wally is left to ponder that the people see him as the Flash, him refusing to wear the costume, stating that he's not the Flash. Cisco tells him that the people think he is.

Mia is angry and guilty about the loss of her dad. Diggle has guilt that he couldn't be there for him when it happened.

Cisco picks up a reading of something coming from space, and traces it to landing outside STAR Labs, which he confronts, to find a man landing there.

Sara and Diggle talk about Oliver's loss and she tries to assuage his guilt, stating that no matter what, Oliver wouldn't have wanted him to die fighting this threat, and that Oliver was very stubborn, which they both have a small laugh about.

Sara comforts Mia, whose beginning to be accepting of her dad's death and that he died saving the multiverse, seeing him as a hero.

Sara, though having wanted to continue fighting, is still depressed about the fact that so much of her family is gone and that she has almost no one in her life. Which she talks with Mia about.

That's when they're attacked by some shadow creatures. They fight them, but are pinned down, about to be torn apart, when suddenly...

A sonic scream emerges from the side! BLASTING THEM BACK! And from the side...

Emerges Black Canary.

Sara is shocked. But apprehensive... until Black Canary looks at them and acknowledges Sara as her sister with a smile and rushes to her. Sara realizing that this is E1 Laurel. Alive. Laurel helps her up and Sara touches her shoulders, almost in disbelief that this is real, tears springing to her eyes, before hugging her, crying, in tears of happiness and grief. Mia almost smiles at the moment as well. Mia realizes and says that if they attacked them, they may attack the others as well.

They go to STAR Labs to warn them about what's happening. And are met with Cisco stating that he knows it's not over, as they've been told by someone, that someone revealing themself as the Green Lantern AKA Guy Gardner, from the Justice League Of America 1997 TV Movie, played by Matthew Settle.

Everyone is brought together, Diggle, Kate and Mia included. Guy Gardner tells them that he was from the other earth that was merged with the others, and is questioned by Diggle in how he survived the merge with all his memories intact. He says that his ring protected him. Cisco and Guy explain that the antimatter verse portal is still open, but is slowly closing as this new timeline, of sorts, cements, and if it does, those shadow creatures will be stuck here. Cisco determines that they're gonna need to recreate the sonic pulse to try and get those shadow creatures to them, so they can somehow get them into the portal before it closes. Laurel volunteers to do it, in spite of Sara's concern. Cisco explains that because there's no way to know where they are, they're gonna need to double the pulse from before to get all of them to them. Diggle suggests Dinah. Laurel questions that, but Cisco states that the Dinah Diggle is suggesting is Zinda Blake post-crisis and doesn't have a sonic cry and Laurel's mom has never had powers. Diggle realizes that he hasn't gotten all his memories straight yet. Cisco then says that there's someone else who can help them.

We cut to E2 Laurel standing in front of Laurel. Laurel is uncertain about this. E2 Laurel maintains her memories of pre-crisis. Laurel asks how this is possible. Cisco speculates that with the merging of some universes there may be holdovers from the previous, then stating that both Laurels have the metagene for the canary cry, a now discovered gene post crisis, and, with his memories of EX Laurel, he speculates at least most, if not all the Laurels in the multiverse, have one as well. But E2's was activated by dark matter, while post crisis Laurel's was activated by a gene bomb HIVE set off in 2014, HIVE post crisis being an organization who sought to enhance humanity, using techological and biological enhancements. Laurel asks E2 Laurel if she can be trusted with her history as a villain. E2 Laurel points out that she remembers nearly dying to help and hopes that's gained something. Sara vouches for her. Laurel trusts Sara's judgement and agrees.

The group all agree that the only reason the shadow creatures would have a reason to attack them is based on the Anti-Monitor being alive still. They talk about how that's possible, Sara, among the Legends, suggests that as time hasn't fully cemented yet, he may not be erased, Cisco then suggesting that he also may be acting essentially as a time remnant or using something to keep himself from erasure, like tech or something. Jjonn tells them that he read the Anti-Monitor's mind before he transported himself away and he read that because his plan to cause an antimatter universe of his own in place of our multiverse has been stopped, he's willing to try and prevent the multiverse from forming at all, even if it means his own destruction. They work out how he'd do that, coming to the conclusion that he can use the temporal zone to go to the dawn of time to try and undo it at it's inception.

As the group works out their plan, Guy Gardner uses the STAR Labs computers to look into information about his friends post crisis, from his earth, and where they are now.

His Barry Allen is now Darryl Frye, a detective in Central City.

B. B. Dacosta is now Green Fury, her alter ego as a pop star, Madonna-esque.

His Ray Palmer is now Al Pratt, a respected physics college Professor, and first Atom post crisis.

Tori Olafsdotter is now Mary Pratt, married to Al Pratt, and a reporter.

His Martian Manhunter is unable to be located here.

Diggle is there and tells him glad that a lot of his friends are okay on this earth. Guy Gardner understands that he speaks from a place of a grief at his friend having died in the crisis. Guy Gardner and Diggle bond over that, Guy telling him that now all his friends are found, that Martian Manhunter from his earth is still missing, but he has faith that he's out there somewhere and Diggle has to have faith that his friend is somewhere out there too. Diggle agrees that he does, that it's like Oliver said, it's God's plan.

The team works out the plan.

Before starting, Sara apologizes to Laurel for what happened on the boat. Laurel tells her that she didn't go through with it. Sara says that she would've and that kills her, for being jealous and petty like that, saying that she wanted to have what Laurel had, be her, but she was just hurting herself and her whole family, stating that she doesn't want this, hating herself, to hold her back anymore, that she wants to move forward. Laurel agrees.

Kara and Kate talk, Kate telling her that she can't find Bruce and doesn't know where he is. Kara tells her that she can't give up.

The majority of the group tracks the energy signature of the Anti-Monitor, courtesy of Cisco with combination of tech and his vibe powers, through the temporal zone in a waverider pod, as Diggle, Wally, Guy Gardner, E2 Laurel and Laurel remain on the waverider, above earth. The waverider pod containing Sara, Kara, Alex, Kate, Ray, Cisco and Jjonn.

The 2 Laurels begin their sonic pulse. Guy Gardner explains that they're going to have to act quickly, as his ring is running out of power, and that's why he can't use it for flight while he's using it for the trapping of the shadow creatures and why he'll have to stand at the open door of the waverider as he does it. When Diggle asks if he can recharge it, Guy tells him that post crisis the ring isn't his anymore and will seek out it's true bearer when the time comes, and because of that he doesn't have access to charging it. When the shadow creatures are drawn to the waverider by the sonic pulse, Guy Gardner uses his ring to capture them, giving the go ahead to Wally to superspeed a speedforce portal into the closing antimatter portal, allowing Guy Gardner to funnel the creatures into it.

Meanwhile the others chase after the energy signature of the Anti-Monitor in the wavrider pod, as he flies through the temporal zone. They get close to him, but, realizing they can't catch up, Cisco breaches them both into a neutral area, the vanishing point. The waverider pod crashing. When the group climbs out, they see...

Anti-Monitor standing, unscathed, towering over them, in full comic book Crisis On Infinite Earths Anti-Monitor tech body armor.

Cisco breaches away quickly.

The Anti-Monitor mocks them for that and bringing him here, stating that he's been erased from existence, so the vanishing point no longer holds it's sway over containing him.

Sara states that they didn't bring him here for that. They just didn't want anything or anyone to be in the crossfire, when they destroy him.

They begin the battle:

Atom blasting the Anti-Monitor, even trying to fly into his ear, shrunken, but he's slapped away.

Jjonn flies into him, reaching into his chest by phasing, but the armor he's wearing electrocutes and burns Jjonn. The Anti-Monitor then responding by punching into his chest, him flying backward, being smashed into the ground.

Kara and Kate double team him in an attack of distraction and offensiveness, but are blasted away by an energy beam.

Alex begins shooting at him from behind, telling him not to touch her sister, but he, unaffected, simply redirects his beams at her, which she just barely dodges, then, on the ground, leg badly hurt, being met with another blast directly at her.

Kara quickly superspeeds inbetween her sister and the beam, trying to hold it back with her heat vision, him walking up to her, pushing her heat vision back into her eyes, grabbing her head, placing his hand over her eyes, the heat vision burning them, BLINDING HER, her yelling out in pain.

Back on the wavrider Diggle, flying above earth, tells those on board that it's time. The 2 Laurels are ready.

Sara comes up behind him with a blade, but he grabs her quickly by the throat, destroying her blade, mocking her for thinking it'd work, then saying that now she's alone again. Sara smirks, saying that she's far from alone.

Suddenly a breach opens and Brandon Routh Superman emerges, flying like a freight train into the Anti-Monitor. The Anti Monitor's grip on Sara is immediately broken, him being SMASHED into the ground.

Cisco exits the breach right after, as Cisco as ever, exclaiming, "Was that a bird? A plane? Why, I think it was Superman!" He then asks Sara if she's okay. She says that she is, but what took him so long? He explains that they had a couple last minute additions.

Out of the breach emerges:

E1 Black Canary

E2 Black Canary

Killer Frost

Citizen Steel

Heatwave

Tyler Hoechlin Superman

Black Lightning

Tom Welling Superman

Obviously Brandon Routh Superman, as he re-positions himself.

They all engage in battle with the Anti-Monitor. Their powers all together do some damage. Atom's blasts, the canary cries, the electric blasts, the cold blasting, the flamethrower flames, the heat visions of all the Supermen doing the most damage. But he's still too powerful to defeat. Cisco tries to use his breaches to slice the Anti-Monitor apart, but his suit breaks the breaches apart when they close in on him.

Alex crawls over to check on Kara, whose eyes seem almost seared in a way.

In the waverider, Guy Gardner is having a hard time containing all the shadow creatures as he funnels them into the antimatter portal. Diggle, flying the waverider with some difficulty, tells Wally that the others need help down there. Wally's uncertain he can. Diggle lays it out, telling him that it doesn't matter what he thinks, because they still need the Flash. Wally takes the Flash ring out of his pocket, pondering it. Diggle asks him if he's ready to do what it takes to save everyone. Wally, in resolve, places the ring on his finger, and extends his fist, the Flash symbol on the ring glowing in almost a lightning crackle blaze.

In the battle, Sara tells them to try to hit the Anti-Monitor with all their powers all at once. They make an attempt, but he's too powerful for them to get at with all those hits at once. Cisco tries something, throwing his breaches around the Anti-Monitor's hands, then giving the Supermen the go ahead. The Supermen do so. Brandon Routh Superman grabbing his left arm, Tom Welling Superman grabbing his right, Tyler Hoechlin Superman grabbing his head, them all holding him in place.

On the waverider, Guy Gardner's green lantern power ring starts to drain, just as the last batch of the shadow creatures are getting to the antimatter portal. He tells Diggle he's almost there. Diggle tells him it could kill him. Guy states that they have to make sure they're all gone now, as the antimatter portal's about to close, it taking all of his willpower to hold it. Just as the last shadow creature gets in, the portal closes, Guy's power ring runs out and he falls unconscious from exhaustion, falling out of the waverider into earth's atmosphere. The Green Lantern ring slips from his finger and flies off as he falls. But just before Guy's about to be hit with the heat of re-entry...

Diggle swoops in with the waverider and catches him!

The Supermen holding the Anti-Monitor gives the others the room to throw their powers (canary cries, lightning, etc.) at him at the same time. It does more damage, but he still struggles. Tom Welling Superman stating that they can't hold him much longer. Sara asks how he's still so powerful.

Kara, hearing this, realizes, and tells them, that he's still empowered by the energy of the sun that was used to cause him to form and it may take a similar energy to destroy him. Cisco, as he holds the breaches around Anti-Monitor, intensely struggling, his nose bleeding a lot, says that it could work. Sara states that the only way to be sure would be to drop him into it directly. Cisco says that could result in the energy of the sun blowing back and killing all of them here. Kara tells them no, then asking Cisco if he has enough power to drop her in front of the sun. Cisco begrudgingly says yes, understanding her goal. Kara stands up, her eyes still seared, telling him to do so on her go ahead. Alex asks Kara what she's doing. She tells Alex that Nazi Supergirl could absorb enough of the energy of a sun to explode, and that if she gets enough, she could destroy him. Alex asserts that Nazi Supergirl died from it. Kara acknowledges that. Alex telling her no, she won't accept that. Kara hugs Alex tightly, telling her that she can't lose her home again and quickly pushes Alex away from her, telling her that she loves her and tell Lena she's sorry, then telling Cisco "now", the breach opening around Kara, taking her and closing just as quickly before Alex can stop it.

Tyler Hoechlin Superman asks what's happening.

Kara floats before the energy of the yellow sun of earth, it energizing her, the energy flowing to and healing her eyes, her opening them, with the energy of the yellow sun making them glow.

At Kara's request, Cisco breaches her back into the battle.

Kara floats over the battle, telling the Supermen to get away from the Anti-Monitor. Tyler Hoechlin Superman, realizing himself what's happening, tells her no, that he can't let her die, there has to be another way. The other Supermen agree. Kara states that he has a son to take care of, all of the Supermen do, it has to be her, that protecting him was her job in the first place. Tyler Hoechlin Superman continues to reject that.

But in a flash of lightning, all the Supermen are pulled away from the Anti-Monitor, and Wally stands before them, in the full Flash costume.

The Flash lives again, as Wally circles the Anti-Monitor at superspeed, throwing lightning at him multiple times, this keeping him in place...

Allowing Kara to enact her plan. She says to Tyler Hoechlin Superman, "I love you, Kal-El." and flies towards the Anti-Monitor, her heat vision BLAZING with the fire of the sun, searing into him, it burning through his armor, burning him from the inside out, FLAMES igniting from the eyes of his suit! This use of her powers causing her eyes to crack with yellow sun energy bleeding out, the cracks spreading more and more. The Anti-Monitor, enraged, yells out, "NO!" And Kara collides with him, the force of it IMPLODING THEM IN A FLASH OF LIGHT!

Leaving nothing but a crater, and Kara's torn cape. Alex and Tyler Hoechlin Superman rushing there, seeing only the cape, them both breaking down, almost leaning on eachother, Alex devastated, inconsolable. The other Supermen stand silently in mourning, placing their hands on their shoulders in an attempt at comfort. Everyone else surrounding them, in silence.

The President gives a speech, honoring the sacrifices of Supergirl and the Green Arrow with a statue of an \S/ in National City and one of Green Arrow being built in Starling City.

Diggle visits Guy Gardner in the hospital who tells Diggle that his time is over and now it's his turn. We confirm that Diggle, now having gained full memory of both earths, in this post-crisis, his name is John Stewart.

The team honors the Flash silently with a Flash symbol built in it and empty seats for Barry, Oliver, Kara, even Bruce at the new table, in the Hall Of Justice.

In the montage of showing the earths with show the same things, but now with inclusions of:

The Birds Of Prey TV Series Earth, showing that team now working with Kevin Conroy Batman, who has a renewed pursuit of heroism.

Tom Welling Superman with Lois, watching their kids, before he gets an alert on a fire in Metropolis, with Lois being proud of him.

Justice League Of America TV Movie Martian Manhunter alive, leading martians on Mars.

Earth 1 Bruce, alive, stranded on another earth, but on the search for a way back.

Gotham TV Series Bruce as Batman in his earth.

Some quick flashes with the Batman 89 earth and Batman 66 earth.

On a re-established Earth 90 E-90 Flash speeds through the city, before getting a message from Christina McGee of a bank robbery by Trickster, E-90 Flash smirking and then speeding off to it.

On earth prime, something falling to earth in front of Diggle, but stopping just short of hitting the ground and it redirecting and pointing right at him. It emanating a green light reflecting on his face.

Ending still on the Superman The Movie nod of Brandon Routh Superman flying, his symbol back to yellow and red.

THE END.

In case ya’ll are curious, Kara and Barry aren’t really dead and aren’t gone for good. In their respective seasons, they’d return after a couple episodes or so. Please review and tell me what you think!

[dnowit41]

HOW LUKA DONCIC IS EVOLVING AS THE LEADER OF THE MAVS

JAN 18, 2021 ISAAC HARRIS

It was a somber day in early December when the table was set to say goodbye to a legend. It would be J.J. Barea’s final day as a player for the Dallas Mavericks.

Donnie Nelson spoke to the media and offered his bittersweet remarks about Barea’s career. J.J. took questions as it was an emotional day for everyone. In Rick Carlisle’s interview, I wanted to ask him one question.

Obviously, the day was all about Barea’s success story and career in Dallas. But at the same time, I also wondered about the young Mavericks team Barea was departing in the middle of training camp. A team that is made up of 15 players under the age of 30. With Barea’s departure, it left just James Johnson and Boban Marjanovic as the only over-30 players. On top of that, Barea was a franchise legend and beloved by everyone. He was a leader.

So the question I wanted to ask Carlisle was about that leadership baton. With Barea now departing, who gets it next? After I uttered that question to Carlisle, he responded pretty quick and in a firm manner.

“Luka Doncic is our leader,” Carlisle said. “There is no question about that.”

I had put too much weight into the age part of the conversation. In the back of my mind, like a lot of Mavs fans, the 2011 title team still feels like yesterday. This was a squad that started three guys over the age of 30 in the Finals with four more coming off the bench. It was a veteran-laden team from top to bottom. But what about a 2020 Dallas Mavericks team, that by age and experience, is built virtually the opposite of the 2011 group?

Can Luka Doncic, at the age of 21, be the leader of a playoff team in the NBA?

Absolutely—because age doesn’t make a leader.

“There are certain players who have a certain leadership personality,” Carlisle said.  “They have a charisma and magnetism. He [Luka Doncic] has that and that is no secret. Each year he becomes more and more that guy.”

When Doncic was acquired by Dallas in a draft night trade in 2018, the Mavs knew what they were getting: a European prodigy who was arguably the most decorated young European basketball player of all-time. Doncic went pro at the age of 13 at Real Madrid and over the course of his teenage years won the MVP of the Liga ACB, EuroLeague, and EuroLeague Final Four. It wasn’t just the highlights and stat lines that made Doncic stand out, it was also the fact that on a professional team with grown men, veterans such as Sergio Llull and Rudy Fernandez were deferring to the 18-year-old Doncic. And by following Doncic’s lead, Real Madrid found themselves hoisting several championship trophies in his last season in Europe.

Doncic then arrived in Dallas, a city and franchise that had been led for the past two decades by another European: Dirk Nowitzki. As Nowitzki was at the end of his career and the Mavericks still had long-standing veterans like Barea and Devin Harris, Doncic was just a teenaged rookie—no matter how accomplished he had been overseas. But Doncic, a natural leader, had respect for his new vets and didn’t want to step on any toes.

As Doncic tight-roped the rookie-role, once he was on the court, it was clear that he was a natural leader. In the first week of voluntary scrimmages and workouts he was handing out instructions and telling teammates where to go. But as his first few years in the league went on, the veterans on the team, prior to Doncic’s arrival, slowly departed. In the same week, the Mavs traded DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews and Harrison Barnes. Nowitzki rode off into the sunset a few months later. Harris is working for Fox Sports Southwest and Barea is no longer on the team.

There was no doubt remaining. This is Luka Doncic’s team.

But it isn’t just because he’s the best player on the team. It isn’t like a quarterback situation in football. For a lot of NFL teams, whoever starts at quarterback is deemed a team captain by default. Some might think that for an NBA team that whoever the best player is on the team is naturally thrust into the top leadership role when that simply isn’t the case every time.

“There are instances where the best player is not a leader,” said a former scout for the Boston Celtics. “They either don’t have the characteristics of a leader, or they lead in different ways. Some players lead vocally and some are introverted and lead through example.”

The scout continued by using Paul Pierce as a prime example of that. “Pierce was clearly the team’s best player, but he was quiet for the most part and let his game and work ethic do his leading for him. Antoine Walker was an All-Star level player but not as talented as Pierce. He was the team’s backbone and heart. He did most of the talking and the players looked to him for leadership.”

Leadership is basically the process or method in which someone motivates or influences the behavior of others—but how that is done looks different for everyone. Leadership styles differ by the person. Some leaders like to direct, point and vocally coach people into reaching their fullest potential while some leaders tone it back vocally and lead by example. On a recent episode of The Old Man & the Three Podcast, Barea was talking about Dirk’s incredible 2011 run while also describing him as a leader to the team. “He doesn’t talk much,” Barea said. “If you know him, he leads by example. But he doesn’t lead by talking.”

That was Nowitzki’s style of leadership. His work ethic, hours in the gym, and play on the biggest of stages earned him the respect in the locker room. In a way, the leadership path has already been paved in Dallas for Doncic. And in the first few years of his young career, he is doing exactly that.

“He’s an MVP candidate and is a born leader on the floor as you can see,” says a former assistant coach. “He’s not one of those guys it seems that will be on everyone all day every day, but once he’s on the floor it’s a completely different story.”

Doncic set the records and served up magical highlights. He dished out fun passes and put-up stat lines as a rookie that put him with some of the greats. His play on the court earned him the respect, but it was the fun, carefree style and charisma that opened up a lane of leadership that loosened up the mood for everyone.

“He is the type of guy who leads by his play,” Willie Cauley-Stein said. “And when he does, it is fun. He’s a kid. He has fun with the game and you can tell. The way he crafts and approaches the game is fun.”

Nobody likes the uptight, all-serious boss, the one you dread seeing every Monday morning and Chick-Fil-A being open on Sunday is more likely to happen than seeing a smile on their face. That type of leadership isn’t motivating to a lot of people. But Luka is the opposite of that. When you have a leader that breaks the ice, it enables the people around them to fully spread their wings.

“For him, I think he leads by making everything fun instead of so serious all of the time…Luka is always coming in with something to lighten the mood,” Cauley-Stein continued.

When talking to Kristaps Porzingis about Luka as a leader, he too pointed not just to his leading on the court, but how that care-free mentality is a way of leadership. “It comes natural to him because he is capable of doing great things on the court,” Porzingis said. “He is leading by playing great basketball. He has that I-don’t-care mentality when he needs to. I mean that in a good way. He is not afraid of the big moments. He can be careless and that is why he can play so freely. That is just Luka.”

There is never a moment too big for Luka. His basketball knowledge is off the charts and he already has a LeBron-like ability to maximize everyone’s strengths around him on the basketball court. When he was given the Matador nickname early on in his career from former assistant coach, Mike Procopio, it wasn’t because of the Spanish background, but because of the control he has on the court and the entertaining show he puts on for the crowd. Luka has a gravitational force about him that not only draws in the crowd and fans, but teammates too. “Luka is in control from tip to final buzzer and his teammates know it,” one former assistant told me. “He reminds me of Tom Brady to be honest. Someone that was born to lead an organization and has the generational type talent to back it up… he’s a fantastic kid that people gravitate to. He’s great with teammates, coaches, fans. It’s easy to see how all of Europe loved the kid…well besides the fans of the teams he destroyed in the ACB & EuroLeague.”

Doncic is a leader, but he’s an evolving leader in my opinion. When you talk to anyone around the team about Doncic as a leader, you will naturally hear about him leading by example. After losing to the Hornets at home earlier in the season, Doncic didn’t go immediately to the ice bath nor did he leave the arena. He stayed on the court after the game getting up shots with assistant coaches for more than 30 minutes. This is what leaders do. When the team and head coach preached about defense to start the season, it is Doncic that has set the tone defensively (Carlisle’s words, not mine) for what is now a top five defense in the NBA over the first few weeks. That is what leaders do.

Doncic leads by example, but where he has evolved is in his leadership when the ball isn’t in his hands. Luka the leader looked different as a rookie. The majority of his leadership came from the play on the basketball court. But as the past year or so has gone along, Luka the leader of men has evolved.

“He has grown with his chemistry with the guys,” Brunson said. “He has been able to connect with everybody. Guys feed off his energy. That is our go-to guy. He has definitely evolved [as a leader]. There is obviously a lot on his shoulders at the age of 21 and we have to be there to protect him and help him every step of the way.”

When the Mavs went to Orlando for the bubble experience last fall, the only access to the team for fans across the world was what social media provided. Pictures and videos of the team fishing, swimming, playing pickleball and plenty of other activities circulated on social media. The Mavs became the source for fun content and the team’s chemistry was off the charts. So, who was getting the team together for all of that?

“When you got your leader in Luka, and Luka’s a guy that he loves his teammates and he’s always texting ‘hey let’s do this, let’s play cards, let’s go to the pool, let’s go fishing,” Barea said. “It’s all about the team and about having fun.”

When the Mavs were up at pick 31 in the 2020 NBA draft and selected Tyrell Terry out of Stanford in the second round, who was the first Maverick to reach out to him a short time after?

Luka Doncic.

Going back to Barea, there was more to the quote. In describing Dirk’s leadership, he said, “He doesn’t talk much. If you know him, he leads by example. But he doesn’t lead by talking.”

The second half of that quote was this.

“But that year [2011], in timeouts and before the games, he was talking. He was talking loud, pointing fingers. He was on all the time.” Barea said.

Nowitzki evolved as a leader. He picked his spots to be more hands-on and vocal. James Johnson, who has only been with the Mavericks a few short months, had this to say about Doncic as the leader of the team.

“Emerging,” Johnson said. “He is definitely emerging, if not already, as the leader of our team. He is still building and letting his game do the speaking and yet still being able to voice his own opinion in practice.”

It’s that balance that Luka is now discovering in his third season. Dirk paved his own leadership path with the Mavs for over two decades, but Luka isn’t Dirk and that is OK. He is paving his own leadership path and it’s one that brings the best out of his teammates. It maximizes their strengths and inspires them to be better. It allows everyone to have fun and brings the team together both on and off the court.

Luka isn’t Dirk or anyone else. He is Luka Doncic and the leader of the Dallas Mavericks.

[tragedybunny]

The Blade’s Edge - A League of Legends Fanfiction - Chapter 13

They had a simple arrangement. She was the weapon to be used on his enemies. Things get more complicated when emotions bleed into what should simple. Now the two of them find themselves on the precipice of something that was entirely unexpected.

He’s already gone when I awake, of course, the sun indicating that it’s already near mid-day. How do I still feel tired? I roll over and stare at the canopy above me, reliving the feeling of him undressing me last night and pulling me into his arms before sleep overtook me. It’s maddening. No, I’ll continue in my resolve to see nothing in it, to not give meaning where there is none. I suppress the memory and pull myself from bed, heading to my room to dress for the day. A note waits for me on my dressing table, written in his measured script, exacting and precise, as would be expected from him. 

“I trust tonight the Guild will be meeting and you will take control of it with little resistance. Once you have that firmly in hand I require a task of you. Augustus Montrose must be eliminated tonight, he’s begun to realize the alliance between his sister and myself. As always, take care of yourself.  - J”

“PS. I was informed that you were almost out of that violet perfume you always wear.”  

  I finally notice the ornate glass bottle to the left of where the note was, full of the aforementioned scent. My reward for being a good little pet. I wonder what Augustus’s death will earn me. That poor little idiot, he tried so desperately to be important and powerful, he’s earned a death sentence instead. I’d almost feel bad for him, but getting in that deep with any faction in Noxian politics is basically asking to be struck down at any moment. 

After I’m dressed I ring for Gwen and she appears in short order, always eager to be of use. “Yes Madame.” She has a sober look to her face, as if she already has sensed why she’s here. 

I sit at the dressing table and examine the wide bruise that has bloomed on the right side of my face.  “I’ll need your kitchen boy to come through, I need to know where Montrose intends to be tonight.” 

In the mirror, I see her expression change to one of smug self-satisfaction. “As it turns out, I took the initiative to inquire after him this morning. He complained that tonight another elaborate dinner party has been planned, even after all the Solstice revels. Montrose is celebrating some new, powerful friends he’s made.”

I stop and turn towards her. “Did he mention a woman at all, unusually pale?” How deep is he in, what are we about to stir up?

She bites her lip and shakes her head. “No, just some of the usual nobility who rankle at the loss of privilege they’ve experienced. He’ll stay in the kitchens after dinner and the other servants have been dismissed. Knock if you see no movement inside.” 

Well, we won’t be taking a piece off the board that she’ll desperately miss. “Perfect, thank you, Gwen, that will be all.” I dismiss her with a gesture and turn my attention to readying myself for the Guild tonight. Augustus will be easy to find when I’m ready for him. 

Weapons sharpened and muscles stretched in case of confrontation, Inara, Lark, and I gather early in the Guild’s headquarters, finding it empty thanks to a generous bribe I supplied via Lark.  The unassuming building sits amidst a group of others housing various government functions. While most of High Command still functions from within the Immortal Bastion itself, bureaucracy has spread like a fungus to the area around it. It’s a reflection of the temple district in that way, both of them evolving over the years with Noxus itself, Old Town pressing up against them both and the Bastion as the nobility grappled for power.  In times past, the Grand General dwelt in the Immortal Bastion, making it the ultimate seat of power. Jericho is different, preferring the control he has over his own family home to the mysteries and hidden spaces where a plot could come to fruition at any time. Of course, he still has unfettered access to it anytime he wishes. The Guild’s place here would shock outsiders who don’t understand it’s place within Noxus. Assassination has never been a method that our government or military has considered off-limits. The position in Intelligence of a Guild Officer enables the government to make use of its services at will, effectively making the it an unofficial branch of High Command. 

I spent countless hours here as a child before our move to Shurima, and many more once we returned. I know all its twists and turns and nooks and crannies as well as that of my own family’s home. I even pass a small alcove I remember as a favorite of mine for spying, shrinking into the shadows as a child to listen to the adults around me. We clear the rambling structure room by room, including any hidden ones and secret passages that I know of, ensuring no one is lying in wait. Next, all secondary exits are secured, leaving only the main door as the way in or out. When I’m satisfied that everything is in place, Inara and I retreat to a side room off the main hall, to await or moment. 

They trickle in through the next couple of hours, Inara and I taking shifts pressed up against the door to listen, some voices we recognize, some are unknown. Someone opens a stored cask of ale, they drink and converse, some begin to openly mourn the fallen. There’s a rising tide among them, confirmed dead members, Marius among them, who is targeting them? For what reason? Suspicions are aimed everywhere, including the Grand General. When the time is right, Lark raps on the wall next our hiding space, three sharp knocks, it’s time. 

We emerge and push through the crowd to the very center, gasps and whispers following in our wake as recognition dawns on them. Time seems slow, this is it, the moment there’s no going back from. Now that I’ve come to it though, I know that every step I’ve taken has lead me here. Perhaps there is such a thing as destiny, and this is mine. Destiny or not, I am no longer General Du Couteau’s shamed daughter, and no longer the Grand General’s pet, I am Commander of the Assasin’s Guild, a force and entity in my own right. 

“Brothers and sisters, your leaders are dead. They were weak and have paid the price for that. I stand before you now to take my rightful place in their stead, as your Commander.” Raucous noise breaks out among them, the three we recruited before this passionately on my side in the debate. 

The din reaches its crescendo and a woman steps to the forefront. “You would deliver us into the hands of the Usurper, to be used as his weapon.” 

I snort, someone was bound to put this forth. “The Grand General is the rightful ruler of Noxus, along with the others of the Trifarix. The Guild will support High Command as it always has, nothing more, nothing less.”

“So says the Grand Whore. Do you believe you can deceive…” She’s cut off by the dagger that flies from my hand and buries in her chest. I’m weary of the same nonsense being spewed over and over again.

No other moves to challenge me, they’re undecided, for the moment. “As I was saying.” Inara covers the fallen in a cloak and moves her discreetly out of the crowd. “Our numbers have dwindled, our coffers are depleted, and those arrogant bastard ‘guilds’ take our potential recruits. Let us rectify this, and find our strength once again. We’ll scour the lessor guilds from Noxus, once and for all, and become the power we were meant to be.” 

Father made a grave error in his leadership, he finally succumbed to the Black Rose. His single-minded pursuit of their objectives took a toll on the Guild. I can see it in their faces, they hunger for a return to glory. The murmuring returns, this time it begins to swing in my favor. She took down Marius, we would have the Grand General’s support, she’s here and Marcus is not. Lark joins in, adding to the momentum, a vote is called for. I take note and the slim few who still dissent, they’ll have to be watched. When it finally ends, I’m officially Guild Commander Katarina Du Couteau, with Lark and Inara acting as seneschals. 

My first order of business is just as I promised, both the Guild and Jericho, I assign a few of our members to begin tracking our competition. My second act is far less exciting, Inara and I head to the archives to understand the degree of disorder things have fallen to, leaving Lark to monitor for any fresh discord. I have some time before it will be clear to go after Augustus. I had briefly considered assigning someone else to the task, but I’m familiar with the Montrose estate. I suppose it’s fitting, he once said I stole his heart, now I’ll steal his life. 

The Guild records are a shambles that reflect the last few years of leadership. I thumb through the latest records, noting the brazen embezzlement, and stare longingly at the fire. Inara laughs at me from behind a stack of loose papers belonging to gods know where. “Didn’t think this would be the hard part?” 

I lay my head down on the desk. “How did it get this bad? Is this a Guild of idiots?” 

“This is what happens when we rely on anyone who volunteers to do this. We only get thieves and idiots.” She sighs as she tosses the stack back down in front of her. 

“Nevermind, I resign my position.” That gets a small laugh from her and her eyes brighten a bit. I stand and stretch, time to get the blood flowing back into my limbs. “I’m done, I’ve got some other business to handle.” 

“Happy hunting, Commander.” For all that we have a mess ahead of us to deal with, there’s satisfaction about her. It makes me even more proud of what we’ve accomplished here tonight. 

The city is quiet, still wrapped in a snowy mantle from the other night. I move through the streets in welcome solitude, reaching the Montrose estate with ease. With my cloak tucked around me, I watch the kitchen from the garden, someone has left a lamp burning so I can see the vague shapes within. When I’m finally satisfied that no unwanted company is around, I approach, keeping my cloak tight, and tap lightly. It only takes a second before a scrawny young man with dirty blonde hair cracks the door, the corners of his mouth up turning into a vicious smile the second he sees me. “He’s saying a drunken farewell to his guests, a girl awaits him in the blue parlor upstairs.” With that he vanishes up the servant stairs, leaving me with free reign. 

With the other servants all withdrawn to their quarters the halls of the manor are as silent as the grave. I cautiously stalk through them, not making a sound, nearing the blue parlor.  My plan is to take the girl first and wait for him. Quick and clean, he won’t even know what happened. Then I hear it, from a room back near the main staircase, that ancient snarling voice. “Augustus, you spoiled little hedonist, where are you?” 

“Coming Grandmother!” His impatient reply comes from the bottom of the stairs. Life is good sometimes. 

The old woman is ensconced in an over-decorated bedroom that’s rotten with faded glory. I slip in and silently shut the door behind me. She scrambles to prop herself up in bed, she knows I’m not her grandson. Her eyes have begun to fail though, so that’s all she can make out. “Wh-who’s there?” She summons some power to her voice, she’s so used to being obeyed. She and many others are relics of old Noxus, a time when the nobility were parasites, feeding off the strength of the Empire. They are a vain, petty, self-absorbed, lot whose time has passed. 

I steal to her side and she makes a quiet gasp as her eyes finally reveal me. “Death Lady Montrose, death is among you tonight.” She makes to cry out but my hand slams down over her mouth. “This will be the fate of all who refuse to bend to the Empire’s new order.” I slide my blade between her ribs and down into her heart, a task made easy since she has no strength to struggle against me with. She slumps forward, her lifeblood draining into her fine bed covers. 

There are footsteps in the hall, Augustus finally decided to answer his grandmother’s summons, and I slip behind the door to await him. It's only a moment before he throws it open snarling. “What do you want, you old bat?”

Three steps in and he finally takes in the scene before him, coming to a dead stop. I softly shut the door once again. He sucks in a breath as if he wants to scream and then I’m right behind him, breathing down his neck quite literally. He laughs, a mirthless sound. “Two nights. I was allowed to live two nights after getting too close to you. He’s certainly possessive.” 

  “Don’t be dramatic. This is about something entirely beyond you and me.” He’s unnervingly pliant as I put the dagger to his throat. Poor, weak Augustus, he doesn’t even know how to resist me. He sniffles when he feels it against his skin, all his bravado evaporated. He’s not the first I’ve seen to shed tears at their end and I’m not inclined to be moved by it. 

“I would’ve done great things, you could have joined me at my side, Kat.” The words are marred by a strangled sobbing that he fights to keep from overtaking him. Back firm, but shoulders quaking, he struggles to meet his end with dignity. 

“I’m already doing great things.” I dig the edge of the blade into his flesh and a whimper escapes him. His knees buckle immediately and I step back from him as his life flows into the plush carpet. It’s not long before a shudder marks his last breath. 

Surveying the carnage around me I realize I may have gone a bit far with the old woman’s death. If Coraline faces repercussions from it Jericho will be furious. But then again, I smile to myself, it had been deeply satisfying putting an end to that bulwark of old Noxus. Either way, it is done and can’t be changed. I’ll need to slip out before that girl gets impatient and comes looking for Augustus. 

I find the kitchen door left slightly ajar after heading back down the servant stairs. I shut it fast behind me and return to the waiting darkness of the night. It’s been a long night and I feel it in the stitched wound in my leg and the aching bruise on my face, and it feels wondrous. Tonight I am triumphant. I finally have what my father once promised to me. I took it with strength and cunning, as a Noxian should. Would father be proud? Perhaps I should go ask mother, a cruel, petty voice inside whispers. No, forget it. I’m beyond her, she’s nothing, a ghost haunting the ruin of her own life. The rage I have toward her will not be so easily extinguished though.

I focus myself back on the Guild, that thundering sensation as the crowd declared for me. I feel pride welling up in me, my confidence soaring. I’m damned self-satisfied and achingly confident as I approach the house. I wonder if Jericho is awake. He shouldn’t be but he rarely sleeps as much as he ought to. If he is, we should celebrate tonight’s success. The thought of him whispering in my ear about how pleased he is with me sends a shiver through me. 

I’m broken out of my reverie by the sight of Dras shutting the gate. Odd that it’s open at this hour. He looks up at me and quickly looks away, but movement on the stairs has already drawn my attention. Jericho, he stops at the door when he hears me on the walk behind him. Breathing becomes difficult as I ascend the stairs to where he’s paused. I’ve always known I wasn’t the only one, I’ve just never had to viscerally confront it until this moment. 

“Kat.” He already sounds like he’s going to attempt some insincere apology. I brush past him, an ache spreading through my chest. Then it hits me, the cloying smell of decaying roses, the scent that always marks her presence. Her, why her?  Of course, it’s all another little power game to him. He puts a hand on my shoulder.

I shake it off with a violent shrug. “Don’t touch me.” I need to get away from him. I feel my eyes start to sting. No, I can’t do this in front of him. 

He cuts in front of me, blocking my way to the stairs. “Don’t be like this.” He’s so irritatingly calm compared to the storm exploding inside me. 

I put my hand up to ward him off. “It’s fine.” My voice somehow remains steady. “Exclusivity wasn’t part of our arrangement. I just want to be alone.” 

He steps forward, stubbornly ignoring everything I said, and reaches out to put his hand on my cheek. Gods, that normally has the power to melt me. “If it is fine, why are you being dramatic?” How typical of him.

“Fuck you.” I shove his hand away from me. “You always have to have the last word. You could’ve just let me walk away.”

He pinches the bridge of his nose, eyes shut for a second, as though I’m the one who’s offended him. “Fine go. I’d rather not put up with a childish tantrum.”

Childish, it stings in ways I can’t define. The pain of it all twists and transforms, becoming fury. I close the distance between us, tilting my head to glare up at him. “Maybe you’d prefer to not put up with me at all? I can arrange that.”

“Try it. What have you ever accomplished in your life without me.” He snaps back at me. 

Black washes over my vision, my thoughts vanishing into rage, and I lash out, striking him across the face. He catches my wrist with his left hand as I pull back. That roiling anger too quickly vanishes, replaced by a sudden dread as his eyes begin to smolder an unnatural crimson. I’ve never born witness to the demon truly unleashed. An aura of terrible power blazes around him, filling the hall with a haunting flickering red light. I quake slightly as I feel those unliving fingers dig into my wrist. “You ungrateful little bitch.” Another voice speaks along with his. Is it him or the demon in control now? 

Instead of the unnatural warmth of his touch that I know so well, a burning begins to singe my skin. “Let go!” I try to pull away and I flashback to that night that started all of this, a similar altercation between us,  how frighteningly strong he actually was. “Jericho, you’re hurting me.” In fear and desperation, I step forward and slam my shoulder into his chest.

He inhales sharply, backing up, and let’s go. His eyes close and that terrible power dissipates, coiling itself back inside him. I turn and flee, scared, humiliated, heartbroken. “Kat wait. I’m so sorry.” He calls after me, but I can’t even turn to face him. 

I slam the door to my room behind me and collapse into the window seat. Pulling my knees up to my chest, I try and steady my rapidly beating heart and panting breath. I should leave, just forget whatever this absurd arrangement has become and go. I look down at my wrist, a scarlet, irritated handprint wraps around it. I shift and a sheath digs into my back, causing me to recoil as though someone was behind me.  “Godsdamn it.” I pull out the dagger and send it across the room to embed in the wall. “Damn it all.” I rip the other blade from my back and toss it to the ground with a snarl before pulling my legs back up to my chest. Why can’t I find it in me to leave?

I stare apathetically out at the dark city until there’s a soft knock at the door. I’ll have to face him sooner or later anyway. “You wouldn’t go away if I told you to, so you might as well come in.” 

He doesn’t meet my eyes as he enters, genuine guilt for once written on his features. “I wanted to apologize. You told me that I should not wait to do so. So I am here. Peace offering?” He holds out a bottle of wine, Shuriman, dark and bitter, very fitting. 

Perhaps I am mad, but now that he’s here I don’t want him to leave me alone. I take the bottle and gesture to the seat next to me. As he sits I take a long pull from it. “Well, I’m listening.” 

He fixes his gaze on the floor. “That was...not entirely me. However, losing control, that was my fault. And I do beg your forgiveness. I will understand if you do not wish to give it.” 

After everything tonight I’ve grown numb and his words leave me oddly empty. But that lack of feeling brings some clarity, he’s not the only one who bears responsibility for what happened. “I shouldn’t have hit you. I’m sorry about that.” I take another pull off the bottle. “Interesting choice for an apology, what should I make of it?”

He shrugs. “I was sure you would be gone. I actually planned to drink myself to sleep.” 

I hand him back the bottle. “Would you really allow that?”

At last, he turns to look up at me, our eyes locking.  “I would not stop you if that is what you really wanted.” He passes the bottle back to me. 

I take another long pull. “And where would I go? What would I do?” Our fingers touch as he takes the bottle back from my hand and he brushes his thumb along mine.

“You would work something out. You don’t really need me. That’s the truth, despite what I said earlier. ” Is it? I stretch my legs out into his lap and hiss as pain shoots through my leg.  He looks at the floor again. “I forgot about your leg.” He sets the bottle to the side and takes my hand, looking pointedly at my wrist. “Should I go? Am I only making things worse?” 

I don’t think I could bear it if he did. “No, it’s fine, stay.” I leave my hand in his. He squeezes it ever so slightly as if he’s worried I’ll make him let go. 

Suddenly he leans over, arms around my waist and leaning his head against my chest. “I would prefer it if you didn’t leave though. I would miss you.” 

Why is it that the only mercy that exists in my soul is for him? I wrap my arms around his shoulders and return his embrace. “I’m not going to leave.” 

“Swear it?” he asks softly. 

“I swear I’m not leaving.” I kiss the top of his head and lean my cheek against it. 

He sighs as though he’s been relieved of a great burden. “And I swear to take more care from now on.” He pulls himself even tighter against me. “My Kitten.”  Does he really not know that oath or not, I can be nowhere but by his side?

[ur-mom-kayn]

Loyalty Chapter 8: The Good Bye

Zed Pov

In the last few weeks, Zed took a detailed look at the league system. It was really what Shen had described. He did not like the idea that he had to confine himself to 4 attacks. The actual damage is scaled by the league. He would be weaker in principle than in real life. That pissed him off a bit, but what applies for him was also the same for Shen and his friends. The system tries to create fair conditions for all. Should be right with him. He would still take them all down. In that sense, his summoner had something on it.

Zed had not only focused on the league but also increased his private hours with Kayn. The boy's words hurt him a lot, but in the end, he was right. His desire to kill Shen was greater than giving up money and staying with his disciples. It was not right for him to let Kayn down. That's why he also tried to devote every free minute to him. He gave so much for him that the topic 'league' did not stand between them. They made good use of their time, so Kayn was able to develop his own strong 'Umbral Trespass' technique. He jumped into the body of another and injured him from the inside out. Zed used to pretend to be a training partner, but only on the condition that he let the part hurting him. There were other victims for that.

Over time, Kayn was 15 years old and a bit bigger. He certainly trusted him to be able to lead the Order, but he did not want to untangle that burden all by himself. He also lacked the certain maturity and the leadership qualities. A few of his other men would be far more suitable for this job. But how was he supposed to let Kayn know he was not mature enough? His arrogance exceeded a new level each time. Criticism just bounced off him like a sign. Insight was a foreign word for him. That could still be cheerful.

At dinner, Zed finally decided to tell his men about joining the league. That would be the final blow in Kayn's face. He hated himself for hurting the boy, but he knew it was best for everyone involved. As usual, everyone sat in their seats and waited for Zed's release. But this time he would give a speech before. When everyone had something under their nose, Zed stood up and asked for attention. "I'm sorry, but the food has to wait. I want to announce something important to you. Maybe one or the other has already seen something of the league of legends on his missions. This is a place where the best fighters from all over Runeterra compete against each other in teams. After many considerations, I have decided to join as a representative of the Order of Shadow. My accession will bring us a lot of prestige and, above all, a lot of money. Unfortunately, the catch of the whole thing will be that I will not be there for a long time. During my absence, therefore, I will leave the leadership over the order of my elite. I trust you. Please take care of my students." Especially on Kayn., The latter he kept better for himself, but his men understood him even without words.

Most of his students sought eye contact with Kayn, but he just dodged. At least Zed's decision surprised him. He had apparently been mentally prepared for it already. At least that's how he looked. His face showed no signs of emotion. After Zed's speech could finally be eaten. Of course, there was only one topic at the table - the league and the future of the Order. "Ehm Master, how should we actually divide your tasks among us?" Satoshi asked in the round. Zed immediately pulled his mask down behind the cabin to answer his question. He preferred to speak with an echoing voice.

"You can make that out among you. I do not care who does what. As long as you can agree with you. Lead the Order as if it makes no difference if I'm there or not." "Okay, and what will Kayn play for a role? Is not he something like your right hand?" Did the boy really have to kick his ass so much? Kayn had not even spoken the whole evening. It was strange when the jester of the table did not speak a word. He really did not want to transfer it. "Kayn will do what he thinks is right. Cooperate with him and involve him in important decisions. He can best represent my opinion. Yet issues related to finance are better left to the elders of you." Hopefully, Kayn did not feel overly aggrieved, but his math and accountability skills were not up to scratch.

"Good, I understand, Master. And you Kayn? You are so quiet all evening. Do not you have anything to say?" Immediately you heard the clink of a falling spoon. Kayn looked a little tense. His body was almost convulsive. "I ... I've already added my mustard to this topic some time ago. Master Zed knows my opinion and I have nothing left to add ... Master? May I leave the table prematurely for once?" Though he tried to stay cool, Zed recognized the storm that was raging in his eyes. Without thinking much about it, he allowed him to leave the table. Still, Kayn's passive-aggressive stance hurt him. His men were also completely silent after Kayn left the dining room.

When dinner was over, Zed first went to Kayn's room. He was very worried about him. Maybe the future responsibility might be too big for him. Or maybe he just mourned for his master. No matter what it was, it had to be quickly removed from the world. Zed certainly did not intend to leave him in this mode. He could not shake the feeling that something was still left unsaid between them. And that very thought drove him crazy.

Arrived in front of his room, he carefully knocked on the massive wood. "Kayn, may I come in?" "Yes Master," he answered as always. Being allowed to enter the question was relatively unnecessary with them. Nevertheless, they always asked each other for safety's sake. Zed pushed the door aside and entered. Behind him, he closed the door again. In the room, he found Kayn cuddled in his bed. Involuntarily, he just stared at the wall, as if he had been lying there for minutes and thinking. Zed felt miserable because he knew he was responsible. If only Shen had not told him about the league.

Carefully he moved to the bed and lay down on the other side. Then he took off the annoying mask and put it on the bedside table. Kayn still did not move. How should he do that? "Hey Kayn, are you alright? Forget it. Stupid question. Is there anything I can do for you so that parting will not be so hard for you?" "Yes. Do not go.", He answered immediately. Zed already expected an answer in the direction. "Okay, and now seriously. You know very well that you can not change my mind. Say ... Are you mad at me or something? "

Finally, Kayn turned around and looked into Zed's face. His eyes were relatively expressionless and meaningless. Where was the lively child, please? "Okay. So you're mad at me. I've understood." "No. You did not understand anything. I can not be mad at you Master. Not even angry or disappointed. It is your life. You can do whatever you want. I was selfish that I wanted to have you all to myself. And I did not even waste a second on that if you want the same thing. Apparently not, but it's okay with me. Nobody wants to be tied to a child at the age of 25. I can do it. I can grow up on my own. Please do not worry about me."

"And how I make myself some. You are and will remain my son. Of course, I want to take care of you. Please do not think anything wrong about me. However, I have to say that your words sounded very mature. I think you are already grown up. What I do not understand is why you sound so emotionless? Even to your comrades. Why?" Kayn shrugged his shoulders and then approached his master. Before answering, he put his head down on Zed's chest. "It's so easier for me. If I turn off my feelings, then I can not grieve for you. I'm sorry. I try to behave again." Zed believed that such an impulsive person as Kayn would never be able to switch off his feelings. But then he had been wrong about the boy again. He understood his motivations. He also preferred to switch off his feelings in such situations. But it felt wrong this time. Kayn could not just be forgotten.

"Are you trying to avoid pain?" Zed asked after a slightly longer conversation break. Kayn clenched his fingers in Zed's shirt. Slowly his mask seemed to crumble. "I ... eh ... Master, I can not do that. I do not want pain. I'm so happy by your side. What do I do when you are no longer there? Who will scold me if I go to bed late, or forget to brush my teeth? Who will make me learn for the 'school'? Where is my motivation? You can not control me from such a great distance and commands from another mouth, I'm interested in a shit. What should I do?" Zed was the least concerned about such things. It was absurd things for which a father was responsible. Kayn was not worried about his training, just annoying stuff.

"Are you serious?! Please do not be ridiculous. I expect you to be disciplined around the clock. It does not matter if I watch you or not. If you're crapping on such things, make sure that you are at least plagued by a guilty conscience. Remember, I would be disappointed with you if you do not behave yourself. That's all I can do for you. Just keep my strictly eyes in mind." Kayn smiled a little. Finally a sign of emotion. "What's so funny?" "'Strictly.", The boy mocked the term. "You've never really got me hooked." "Because you're normally a very obedient boy. Wait, until you do shit. Then your ass will go down on you " "It will never come to that" Kayn answered as arrogantly as ever. He should not be too sure. Everybody makes mistakes and it was only a matter of time until the perfect Kayn finally builds shit. Of course, Zed wished that it never came to that, but he knew that day would come.

...

The next morning came too fast. Zed spent his last evening with Kayn. He somehow owed him that. Nevertheless, the farewell was not easy. Minutes passed in which Kayn just held his master around his waist and buried his face in his chest. In the long run, it was a bit uncomfortable for the older one, because his whole order was gathered around him. But pushing him away was not possible either. Everyone knew that they had a special relationship with each other, but how far they went was supposed to be hidden. "Kayn ... do you want to let go?" "One more minute please, Master." Zed sighed but let it go.

As promised, Kayn let go after another minute. "Thanks, master. Please take care of yourself and please make us proud. Everyone in this world should be frightened by the name 'Order of Shadow'." "I'll see to that, boy. And you make sure that we live up to our reputation." "Yes, Master! ", All his students answered in unison. Now it was really time to say goodbye. Zed waved to everyone again until he finally turned around and finally disappeared.

...

After a much too long boat trip and a ride through the Ironspike Trail, Zed finally arrived at the Institute of War. A huge castle waited for him. From the outside, everything was decorated magnificently and decorated to the smallest detail. At the entrance, employees were already waiting for his arrival. "Master Zed, may I take you to your quarters?" A man in a long robe asked him. He had not much left but to follow the man. The 'quarters' were divided into their regions. For outcasts and others, there was an extra department. Zed, on the other hand, was a door-to-door neighbor with Shen and co. He counted as a complete Ionian and he was glad about that, only he would have liked to have more distance to Shen.

Each room has a name on the door. Passing by, Zed recognized his brother's room. From there he always counted. To his disappointment, his room was only 2 doors away. Between Shen and Zed lived only knowing the hamster. Arriving at his room, he got his key from the employee. Zed did not hesitate any longer and opened the door. He showed a large spacious room with a large bathroom. But otherwise, nothing spectacular was available. Actually, he would have expected something more. Before Zed could complain, the man behind him spoke up. "Since we do not know your taste, we have for the time being only the most necessary furnished. At your bedside table, you will find a catalog of furniture and decorative items. Just let us know and we will set up your room to your liking."Zed liked that earlier. His room was far too bright. Black curtains were more appropriate than white ones. The birds could have come to that, too. As if the Master of Shadow would like the light.

"What about the kitchen and the rest?" "Of course we have a communal kitchen where everyone can cook their favorite dishes or they can be cooked to order. In addition, we have various lounges with various activities. Occasionally parties are thrown so the champions get to know each other better ... " "Enough. I understood. Can I be alone now?" "Of course. Please be in the gap in 3 hours so that our team can detect your attacks. In addition, in 5 hours, a photo session and ... " "Can you just not write down the shit for me? I do not feel like memorizing everything." "Yeah ... " The man quickly reached for a pen and paper and wrote down his appointments for Zed. Then he quickly searched the distance and left Zed alone.

He threw himself in his small single bed and leafed through the catalog. Here, new furniture had to be produced as quickly as possible. Shit if he had to build everything himself, this bald cave definitely needed a new coat of paint. As he went through the catalog and tagged his favorites, there was a knock at his door. "What's up?" He practically yelled at the door. "May I come in, brother?" It's just not the idiot. Zed was already in a bad mood about the move anyway. Shen did not promote his mood. "Do something you can not do." Shen opened the door and entered the room. Zed did not care about his guest. He did not care about him in principle.

As if nothing had happened between them, Shen simply threw himself on his back at the end of the bed. "Shall we let the masquerade be, Zed?" Without replying, Zed took off his mask. He really did not need to hide from Kayn and Shen. One took him as he was and the other was responsible for his appearance. Shen did not get away with it either. His face was decorated with slight scars. Nevertheless, the suggestion came from him and he also took off his mask. It was a very strange situation. You do not usually lie down in the bed of the man who murdered your father, but Shen seemed to be in great control. He had to. The contract clearly stated that you can not kill champions outside the divide. He hopes he did not give him any reason to break this rule.

"What are you doing here Shen? And why?" "I was a little surprised to find you here. Did not think that you want to settle for the many rules here. Most of all, I thought you wanted to take care of your 'son." The boy was only here to put him on the bag. Kayn was a very critical topic that he was reluctant to talk about. Even if he could talk about him for hours. "Kayn is mature enough. He does not need me anymore." " Although I have to admit that he is incredibly strong. Be honest, he can use the forbidden technique, right?" "No technique is forbidden brother. But yes. You're right. He is incredibly strong. He will one day become a great assassin."

Shen straightened to a seated position and smiled at Zed. "You have changed Zed. Apart from that, you are very out of balance. Your compassion for others has risen sharply." "Oh shut up Shen. I am exactly the same cold bastard as before. Kayn is an exception. He deserves my attention. You have no idea what's in it. I will not make the same mistake as Kusho. I will recognize and promote his talent. If necessary, I will also give him some paternal love. I prefer falling out of my role as being tipped off the back. "

"Maybe you are right, brother. And I believe that Kayn is dangerous. Just tell me, what makes him so special? You must have had a reason to teach him the forbidden technique." "Sure, I even had several. The boy is incredibly well in control. I could definitely trust him with the training. But that was not what fascinated me from the beginning. Kayn is able to lead any weapon at the highest level. He controls every fighting position and depending on the situation, he can adapt accordingly very quickly. "

"Hm ... I should not underestimate him when he's old enough to fight me. Anyway, I'm leaving now. Was nice with you. If you need someone to chat, or if you have general questions, I'm only two doors away from you." "Tch. Certainly.", He spat mockingly at him in farewell. Zed had no interest in improving his relationship with Shen. He was here to kill him every day over and over again. Nice chats were rather counterproductive.

[dodogamingzone]

What are the top 3 video games you have put the most hours into?

Let's share some great games for us to spend some time on. I will start first:

1. ARK: Survival Evolved (3000+ hrs)

With the love of survival gameplay and dinosaurs, I've been playing ARK since early access and I still enjoy it. From PvP to PvE, I got to spend so many hours with my friends. Taming and breeding dinos, designing and building houses, fighting against bosses and players... There are sooo many things I can do in the game. Although it has been online for more than five years, it still remains one of the most active open world survival games.

2. League of Legends (1000+ hrs)

The most famous MOBA game ever. I've been playing League since high school. Made lots of friends there and have also seen many of them leave the game. Today, most players are very good at the game and League has become harder and harder. I no longer enjoy summoner's rift and became an ARAM-only casual player. I still play several ARAM games per week.

3. The Witcher 3 (400+ hrs)

Love the narrative, the gameplay, the graphics (thanks for the mods)... Really enjoy my time looking for clues, getting to know what happened... For the 400+ hrs I put in, I don't find a single quest boring.

Wow, all my favorites were launched so many years ago... Now, it's your turn, what are the top 3 games you have put in the most of your time?

[aparecium-hq]

Welcome again to Aparecium, Pat! You have been accepted for Julian Wood with the fc Brenton Thwaites (Sorry to everyone else for the name switcheroo, but Pat was hoping to be sneaky). You always create such detailed and interesting characters, and we love how all-in Julian is related to muggle integration. Check out the new member checklist, and jump right in. 

CHARACTER BASICS

Birthday (Age): July 10 (25) Gender (Pronouns): Cisgender Male, he/him Sexuality: Demisexual Blood Status: Pureblood Hogwarts House/School: Gryffindor Occupation: App-stronomer for Wix Wonders Tech Faceclaim: Brenton Thwaites (alt. Charlie Rowe, Grant Gustin) Any requested changes? Literally if there’s anything in here I have to change let me know and I’ll get right on it!  

BIOGRAPHY

If Oliver Wood could have seven children, he would—instead he had to live with only three. Julian Wood spent more time on a broomstick than his own two legs and became the default captain of Little League Quidditch. His younger brothers looked up to him and the whole family, save for his stepmother Daphne Greengrass, dreamt of being legends. With the three of them, they could be an unstoppable chaser team. Four years later the Wood brothers were all playing for Gryffindor, their chemistry on the pitch unmatched.

That is until Julian decided to take Muggle Studies.

It was an easy class, he had been told, just enough to get the marks he needed to play for Gryffindor. Why it was an easy class was another story: there were a handful of muggleborns there for the same reason, but not quite the same apathy as those who had grown up in the wizarding world. Julian was eventually pulled into the inside jokes that Muggle Studies was a joke… not because all of it was useless to anyone with a wand, but because muggles have far surpassed what the class was making them out to believe.

His muggleborn friends told him the cold hard facts that were somehow left out of the wizarding curriculum. Muggles not only had bigger telescopes, but they had so many ways to study the stars. So much more existed beyond what they learned in class. Galaxies. Black holes. Dark matter. Hell, muggles knew what Pluto looked like. All Julian could glean were the mysterious buzzwords they tossed around—but one thing that fascinated him the most was that muggles have been exploring space in the last seventy years. There were races about who orbited space first or who got to the moon first, which no book in their library seemed to cover.

Daphne had always been supportive of the Wood brothers’ dreams on the pitch, but she had always advised—or perhaps even hinted at—the possibility that there was an alternative. For the first time, Julian took his studies seriously for a reason that wasn’t meeting the minimum to play in the next match, unsure of why he cared so much now to make sure that he didn’t close the door something different than what he had been destined to be.

Especially since his new obsession seemed to collide in very messy ways with his current one, and he couldn’t find a way to reconcile them. Sure, wixen could design brooms to go higher and faster, but Julian had tried and there was always a limit. He wasn’t sure what subject would be able to push the boundaries, but he passed his Astronomy OWL with an Outstanding. That same year, the Madley Principles of Magic and Technology published their discoveries.

Julian had no doubt that he still loved flying. He still loved Quidditch and he still loved his family. But he turned down the captaincy to catch up on Arithmancy, forcing doors open that weren’t there before. Upon graduation, he spurned the Quidditch recruiters that came to visit, instead set on a ludicrous idea inspired by some light reading from Muggle Studies.

Daisy Hookum’s My Life As A Muggle pushed the envelope for its time, and even Julian had doubts about abandoning everything he knew for something he doesn’t even know would come to fruition. Even his muggleborn friends felt that he was being a little extreme for someone who had grown up in a sheltered magical world, considering that most of them didn’t go back to a world they no longer really belonged in.

But Laura Madley, in her infinite wisdom, thought it was a wonderful experiment; it would be a true test of their work if a wix could use their technology outside of the magical bounds. Julian was provided with the first model of the wizarding smart phone (though at the time the only thing he could do was call Madley Industries for assistance on arithmancy shortcuts he could use on a muggle computer) along with a small stipend and falsified transcripts to attend university.

In the muggle world, astronomy was part of the physics department. Julian soon realized that he was incredibly behind in his coursework even if Transfiguration and Charms prepared him a little for classical mechanics; at the end of the day, he was a wizard and he literally didn’t know how to do math. (Let’s be real, they’re not teaching calculus at Hogwarts.) He swallowed his pride and it turns out, the true meaning of physics was the friends you made along the way, while all of you suffer through all-nighters over pizza then getting trashed at the bar after finals. Still, it was difficult—and a little miserable, really—to keep about 98% of his life secret from the people he had bonded with, so there was a relief when he finished his degree and returned to the wizarding world on a more permanent basis.

Not without consequence, obviously. Julian’s brothers had all given him the cold shoulder, despite the fact that Julian was around for every holiday. He was a disappointment to his father, but at least Daphne braved going to the muggle world to celebrate his second graduation with him. His pureblood friends weren’t eager to have coffee believing that Julian was long lost to the muggle world. He had lost touch with many of his muggleborn friends from Hogwarts, and some were skeptical of (or perhaps even offendedby) his immersion because Julian got to live a life that had perhaps been taken away from them by the virtue of the fact that they were magical and stayed that way.  

He had been fortunate that upon his return, the magical world caught the tech craze—and while the world wide wix web flourished within the fingertips of every witch, wizard, and wix, Julian was well aware that his access to information was still limited without the connection to the muggle web.

This also meant that it was up to him to make sure that the magical world had its eyes opened to the possibilities. Inspired by his university professors, he started a video channel that explained the muggle research and discovery within the framework of the astrology that everyone was required to take as a class at Hogwarts. His videos are rather popular with students, though there are more conservative wixen who have sent howlers about his content—to which Julian had to learn to reply back that there were other channels of entertainment for them to follow, if they were so bothered by what he was doing. Even if he did think it was hypocritical of them to use a piece of tech that has non-magical roots, only to criticize something that explained how it all worked.

Chaser or not, Julian was still a Wood through and through. The Wood family motto was all we do is win, and even without his father or his brothers, he would find a way. If not a first-place trophy, then he would be the first in something else. He helped pioneer the muggle immersion program through Madley Industries and became the first pureblood to graduate from muggle university. The first physics graduate to work for a wizarding company, Wix Wonders Tech, where he worked on a wizarding version of the muggle apps that already existed to track the stars and planets.

Yes, it was very lonely at the top. The despondency he felt as the only wix surrounded by muggles was difficult to shake, now that he had all of this knowledge and experience that very few understood. But still, it was experience that formed the truest trophy to be earned on the figurative mantlepiece in Julian’s head: he was going to be the first wix in space.

CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE

How does your character feel about their family?

Once upon a time, Julian’s brothers were his best friends. He wanted so much to share his passions with them, and maybe he did when he had first learned about dark matter in school. He eventually realized that he didn’t want to bore them with what would be (at the time) psychobabble, so he kept it to himself. There came a point in time that the only thing they could talk about was Quidditch, and Julian didn’t mind that their relationship was on a mutual interest—up until Julian left school. Julian is aware that his brothers think that he betrayed them, and he hasn’t made an attempt to reconcile. He doesn’t think it’s worth the effort to be rebuffed.

As much as he knew he was disappointing his brothers, he knew how much of a blow this would be to Oliver’s dream, coupled with the fact that there was no such thing as privacy in the life of a professional athlete. If Adrian Pucey was scorned for having a squib daughter, then Julian wasn’t sure how much his father had been shamed when he chose to run off and be a muggle for the better part of four years. Still, Julian had heard worse stories: he hadn’t been burned off any family trees yet, but he still wishes that his father understood that their passions were, in essence, one and the same.

From what Julian was aware of, Daphne had no idea what the difference between a quaffle and a bludger was when she first met Oliver. How the two of them managed to get married eventually was a mystery to Julian, but he appreciated her as the voice of reason in his late teens. That didn’t mean she wasn’t a skeptic when Julian revealed his plan after having talked to Laura Madley, nor was he unaware that she was making a sacrifice when she ventured deeper into the muggle world than she had ever gone before—just to make sure he wasn’t by himself when he put on a mortarboard and walked down the aisle. He hasn’t told her yet that he plans to go to space; even that’s a little much for her to handle.  

What does your character value in a friendship?

Julian has met quite a cast of characters when he went to university, and he wants to see dependability in his friends. He knows what it’s like to be the one dallying on a group project or the one struggling with a homework assignment—while at the same time, he’s impatient when he’s the one on top of things. Even if he was the one that left the magical world, he feels like he’s been abandoned and he needs people to rely on. Even though he knows there’s a lot that he’s got to take on alone, he needs his friends to walk up that hill alongside him.

How would your character describe their own work ethic? Is that an accurate measure of themself?

After four years of school, Julian’s got binders full of assignments and pages of calculations to show for the fact that he would say he worked pretty hard to get to the top. However, he thinks he’s finished with the hard part, meaning that the mental work of knowing and understanding muggle science and reconciling it with the magical education he had, not realizing that the magical world isn’t going to team up with the muggle space agencies overnight. Even while working on his app, Julian tends to take shortcuts that he considers “efficient”, though sometimes it’s more work to go back and explain what he was trying to do and fix whatever he missed.

How would a stranger who has just met your character describe them?

It depends on the stranger—but overall, it’s going to be a little strange to interact with him regardless. To a muggle, Julian is a wonderful handsome young man, who, for some reason, doesn’t have a phone number, so that’s a little weird. He also tends to pause a lot and really think about what he’s got to say, especially since his early muggle days had a lot of bullshitting involved and he’s not a great liar. His experience at university has given him more stories to draw upon, but he’s still afraid of mix up the two worlds he’s straddling.

To a wix, Julian is a wonderful handsome young man, who, for some reason, looks like he’s judging you. While he appreciates magic for what it’s capable of, there’s a hint of frustration bubbling underneath, knowing that the bulk of magical folk are still either on the fence about integration or staunchly against it. He thinks he knows more than everyone around him when he’s in the wizarding world, and it seems like that ego was probably inherited from Oliver himself—it’s very much a Wood family trait to believe that the world revolves around you.

What magical skill or talent is your character most proud of?

Magical skill? Quite honestly, he missed flying the most. He was rather lithe for a chaser and his broom skills were fantastic when he still played. He’s actually still good with a broom, though he can’t quite do stunts as much as he did when he was at school. A part of him wants to try out for one of the local Quidditch teams but he’s afraid he’ll get laughed off the pitch. Aside from his other research accomplishments, Julian still holds Gryffindor’s victories dearly—a momento of the time when his own selfishness didn’t get in the way of her interpersonal relationships in the magical world.

PARA SAMPLE

“Oh—you got me a poster.” Julian couldn’t help but be a little disappointed at the rolled up paper that Ramona had brought him, tied at the ends with her muggle hairties. He started unravelling it as Ramona leaned back into her seat. The train lurched forward and the station slid out of view. Julian didn’t even look out the window for his parents, but neither were his brothers. They were all really doing the same thing, moving through the compartments and finding their friends.

“Late birthday present—or congrats on not getting trolled on your OWLs?” Ramona explained. The pun had been lost on Julian, and he didn’t notice her roll her eyes. Still, he was hoping for something a little more than a poster. Then again, he shouldn’t be expecting any gifts at all; his birthday had been weeks ago, and OWL results were sent weeks before that. She did, however, call him out on his bullshit. “Don’t be such a brat about it, Julian!”

There was a reddish sphere with a pale heart across its front. Julian squinted and extended his arms, not really sure what he was looking at. “You said it was a birthday gift, not a Valentine’s day—”

He was quickly interrupted by a smack in the head with the notepad he didn’t see her take from her bag. “It’s Pluto.”

“The planet?”

“No, the dog.” The joke had been lost on Julian again, and Ramona gave a dramatic sigh. “I swear they’re not teaching us anything in this class. That photo was taken by a NASA spacecraft in 2015—”

There were so many words that Ramona had said in her last sentence that Julian waved to interrupt. What the hell was a nah-suh? Or a space-cracked? And what is it with muggles without their moving pictures? Julian managed to pick something to ask her first.  “Wait, 2015? This was like, three years ago! Muggles already know what Pluto looks like?”

His disappointment shifted to wonder, his hands were still outstretched and looking at the heart on the surface of the planet. He bit his lip, a somber longing rising in his chest. He had more questions, some that he wasn’t sure Ramona could answer, and many that couldn’t be formulated yet because he didn’t have the words.

“Yeah, and they have high-res photos of every other planet, asteroid, and moon you could think of.”

“What does high-rest mean?”

“Oh my god—it means that they have like, super detailed pictures of stuff.”

Julian nodded, then carefully rolled up the poster again. It could go above his bed; he was sure he could make room with all of the other Quidditch posters he had already hanging. Viktor Krum could shift a little to the left, he was sure. But he knew one thing for certain as he wound the hairties around the ends again. “Muggles apparently have way cooler shit than we do, don’t they?”

A small knock at the door interrupted them. “Anything from the trolley, dears?”

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Character Teaser

It was not a fascination with muggles that spurred Julian on to kill his father’s dream of the perfect chaser trio, but the simple fact that muggles have progressed far beyond the magical world’s wildest dreams. After graduation, he applied to muggle university as a physics major, taking advantage of the Madley Industries prototypes to fit in—only to come back to a magical world steeped into muggle technology. Nowadays he uses his knowledge of muggle physics and magical astronomy to make videos on the world wide wix web (with mixed reviews from the students that watch them and the parents hovering over their shoulders) and program astronomy apps for Wix Wonders Tech (with eager arithmancers on his side). With all of the progress in the last decade, Julian is sure that it’s within his lifetime to reach his goal: to be the first wix to go to space.

Feelings on Magical Integration

There’s so much that the muggle world has discovered, especially considering that their tools for study of astronomy have far outpaced what wixen are dealing with. In spite of the magical world separating themselves from the muggle, the muggle world was still just as fascinated with the skies above. Julian was incredibly limited in what he could use to continue his study upon his return to the magical world, and he knows what muggles are capable of. If they can get to the moon on their own, maybe a little bit of magic can help them get to Mars.

Connections

Dominique Weasley: Although they both have very different reasons for being in support of magical integration, Julian appreciates that there’s someone there who feels just as strongly as he does about it. Little do they acknowledge that both of their reasons are a little selfish.

Thom Nguyen: While she wasn’t the one who introduced Julian to astronomy and space travel, Julian still enjoyed asking her questions about the muggle world. Nowadays he enjoys her updates on Quidditch.

Molly Weasley: If her muggle mother could make waves in the wizarding community, then Julian could survive being a wizard in the muggle world. She was the one who first posited the idea of muggle immersion based on Daisy Hookum’s book, and introduced him to her aunt and mother.

Fred Weasley: Even though Julian had intended to do a full immersion into muggle university, he was always surprised crossed paths with a few people from Hogwarts—and it was a bit of a relief to be able to talk about his primary school experiences instead of making things up about being on the football team.

Adrian Pucey: Julian comes into Muggle Magics often enough that he’s asked Adrian to let him know the next time the shop has model rockets.

Yariel Florez: To Yariel, Julian’s a nice guy, but it’s hard to overlook the fact that Julian’s obsessed with a world that neither of them belong in. Yariel left it behind, but he doesn’t understand why Julian can’t leave it alone.

Vale Longbottom: Julian often goes to Vale for help while developing his apps, especially considering Vale’s experience with muggle and magical accessibility tools; however, Julian’s eagerness for more tends to drown out Vale’s suggestions for usefulness.

Nikhail Ollivander: Julian works across the street from the wand shop and has helped him connect to other wandmakers around the world. He’s tried to talk Nikhail into selling phone and tablet cases in addition to wand holsters.

Lily Potter: Lily is one of the few wix that tests Julian’s apps, even if Julian himself isn’t comfortable with astrology. He knows that this is one of the markets he’s going to appeal to anyway.

Dierdra Jones: Julian hadn’t been present for her meteoric rise—as much as he’d like to call himself a fan, he feels like he’s just jumping on the bandwagon.

Raphael Selwyn: When they met at Hogwarts, both of them had big shoes to fill. But if there’s one thing Julian doesn’t understand, it’s that he has something to prove and Raphael has everything to lose.

[tigerkirby215]

5e Kindred the Eternal Hunters build (League of Legends)

⚠️ WARNING: THE FOLLOWING BUILD USES CONTENT FROM THE MYTHIC ODYSSEYS OF THEROS SOURCEBOOK. DO NOT OPEN IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SPOILERS. ⚠️

(Artwork by Riot Games)

"Lamb, tell me a story."

"There was once a nerd with a D&D addiction who was very bored."

"Why was it bored?"

"All things were shut down because of Coronavirus, so they had nothing to do."

"Did he do something productive with his time?"

"He took a new D&D source book and opened it to a page right down the middle."

"So he'd have something to do?"

"So he'd have something to do.”

GOALS

Never one... without the other - Kindred is no longer grey, but a being of Black and White. But they’re still fully grey, and are intertwined together.

Every life... ends with us - The shadow of death chooses who lives... or rather who dies first.

Not here, not yet - But sometimes death needs a pause, and who better than death itself to choose when its time?

RACE

Lamb is the main character you control, and if you wish for cloven hooves then a Satyr is the best choice. Your Charisma increases by 2 and your Dexterity increases by 1. You can also Ram enemies to do bludgeoning damage equal to a d4 plus your strength.

You’re considered Fey which makes you immune to many spells that only target humanoids, and in addition you have Magic Resistance for advantage against all spells, making you highly resistant to magic!

Finally you have Mirthful Leaps, letting you add a d8 to the height or length of any jump you make. And you are a Reveler which gives you proficiency in Persuasion, Performance, and a musical instrument of your choice: your theme is heavy on the strings so I opted for a Viol personally.

If Satyr isn’t allowed: Shifter is probably your best replacement for an animalistic character. Wildhunt is the obvious pick but Swiftstride is much more in-character for Kindred’s kit.

ABILITY SCORES

15; WISDOM - You have hunted down thousands of marks. You know exactly what every animal or person thinks when they die.

14; DEXTERITY - Lamb’s grace is second only to her skill with a bow.

13; INTELLIGENCE - When you’re as old as time itself you know most things about the world.

12; CHARISMA - Perhaps not the most in-character, but the grey man is naturally intimidating.

10; CONSTITUTION - You have an ADC’s health bar even if you’re a jungler, but the fragile lamb isn’t as in character as...

8; STRENGTH - You wield a bow, not an axe. It’s on Wolf to fight the tough prey.

If you want a more optimized character then swap Constitution and Intelligence, but these stats are better oriented for roleplay.

BACKGROUND

Unfortunately there’s no “literal embodiment of death” background, but Sage is pretty good to mimic a being as old as time. You gain proficiency with Arcana and History along with two languages of your choice. As a Researcher you know where to find any information you can’t remember. That doesn’t mean it’ll be easy to access however...

(Artwork by Riot Games)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - CLERIC 1

Considering that you’re literally a god (of sorts) naturally we’ll be starting as a Cleric. You get two skills from the Cleric list: Religion is the obvious pick, and Insight will help you tell if your target wants the mercy of an arrow... or the jaws of a wolf.

Clerics can also choose their domain at level 1 and naturally since you’re a god of death the Grave domain will help you usher your marks into the beyond. As you stand at the edge of the Circle of Mortality any healing you cast on someone at 0 health will heal for the maximum amount, in case it’s not yet time for your allies. And if all else fails you are also capable of casting Spare the Dying with a range of 30 feet, guaranteeing that your arrow will only find its mark when its time.

Speaking of right time: with Eyes of the Grave you are able to identify anyone who’s beyond their time. As an action you can magically detect any undead within 60 feet of you, as long as they aren’t behind total cover or are protected from divination magic. This sense lasts one round and doesn’t tell you anything about a creature’s capabilities or identity. You can use feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier before needing to Long Rest.

And of course as a Cleric you are capable of Spellcasting. You learn three cantrips from the Cleric list: Toll the Dead is an obvious choice to lead your marks, and Guidance can be a gentle hand to lead them away. And finally Thaumaturgy will make sure that the people know when Kindred has made their mark.

Grave Clerics know the Bane and False Life spells innately, letting them either keep themselves on the battlefield or make sure their enemies have a harder time fighting against the jaws of death. For your prepared spells Healing Word will help you keep your allies away from Wolf, and Guiding Bolt will help you guide your arrow. Detect Magic will also let you see if anyone is trying to hold off your mark, if they wish for Wolf’s jaws.

LEVEL 2 - CLERIC 2

At level 2 Clerics gain access to their Channel Divinity. All Clerics can Turn Undead, forcing undead creatures to make a Wisdom save or flee from their hunter. In addition Grave Clerics can mark a target for a Path to the Grave. As an action you can mark a target and make them vulnerable to the next attack against them, so you can claim your mark quick.

You can also prepare another spell and Detect Evil and Good will let you find your mark, whoever... or whatever it may be.

LEVEL 3 - RANGER 1

You have your mark now you can get your bow. When you multiclass into Ranger you can choose one skill from their list: most of the options make sense but for ease of understanding I’d suggest Animal Handling to deal with Wolf. Speaking of Wolf you can now actually mark people with Favored Foe, giving you the ability to cast Hunter’s Mark without concentration a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier.

If you’re worrying about your inability to jump you don’t need to since we’ll be using the Class Feature Variants for Ranger to get Deft Explorer, and from Deft Explorer we’ll get the Canny feature for Expertise in Athletics along with two additional languages. Yes rules-as-written jumping relies on flat strength instead of Athletics, but rules-as-written for jumping is dumb since you can technically high jump over 780 feet rules-as-written. So if you have a cool DM chances are they’ll let you jump with Athletics.

LEVEL 4 - RANGER 2

Level 2 Rangers get a Fighting Style and you may be surprised that we’re picking Archery for +2 to hit with ranged weapons, such a long bow. You also get access to Spellcasting. You get two spells from the Ranger list: Beast Bond will let you bond with Wolf so you can speak and work together to chase your prey, and Zephyr Strike will let you speed up with Ghostblade and to do more damage when you hit.

LEVEL 5 - RANGER 3

I’ve mentioned Wolf many times but we’ve yet to get our other half. Thankfully Beastmaster will make sure that you’re never one without the other. You get a Ranger’s Companion, and with the Class Feature Variants you get two universal options. Despite the fact that he’s a “wolf” Wolf flies, so a Beast of the Air would make the most sense. I’m not going to describe the stat block too much (you can see it for yourself) but I will mention the important things here:

Wolf has an AC of 13

Wolf has health equal to a number of d6s equal to your Ranger level plus your Wisdom modifier and 1 from his Constitution modifier. In short the calculation for Wolf’s health is (d6 + WIS mod + 1) * Ranger level.

As a bonus action you can either make Wolf hide or have him make a Shred attack. Shred has a +5 to hit and does a d6 + 3 damage on hit.

Wolf doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks

If Wolf “dies” you can spend a spell slot to bring him back him back after a minute. "Are you there, dear Wolf?" "I am, little Lamb."

With Class Feature Variants you also get Primal Awareness, giving you the ability to cast certain spells once per Long Rest. At third level you get Detect Magic and Speak with Animals. Yes you already have Detect Magic but you can prepare something else if you wish. Speaking of which you learn another spell but for now I’m going to hold off on it, so take whatever you wish.

LEVEL 6 - RANGER 4

4th level Rangers get another Ability Score Improvement, but you may notice that uneven Dexterity score so... Athlete feat! For once there’s actually a reason for this beyond the +1 to Dexterity, as you can make a running long jump or high jump with only 5 feet of run up instead of 10, so you can hop around as you please. Being able to climb and stand up fast is an added bonus.

LEVEL 7 - RANGER 5

5th level Rangers get an Extra Attack, allowing them to attack twice with the attack action on their turn, so you can shoot two arrows instead of one per turn.

You can also learn second level spells now, which means that you can now cast Beast Sense and Locate Animals or Plants once per long rest. You can also learn Healing Spirit to keep your allies from needing your arrow, and from the Class Feature Variants list Magic Weapon will help enhance your shots to guarantee that your arrow is swift and painless.

(Artwork by RinRinDaishi on DeviantArt)

LEVEL 8 - CLERIC 3

At level 3 you can prepare second level Cleric spells. Should probably mention that that spell progression between a full caster and a half caster is odd, so be sure to check the Player Handbook to understand how many spell slots you should have. Anyways as a Grave Cleric you have Gentle Repose and Ray of Enfeeblement innately prepared for further control of live and death, and Enhance Ability will let you guide those who would aid you with your marks.

LEVEL 9 - CLERIC 4

At level 4 you get another Ability Score Improvement, and even though we still have some odd Ability Scores Dexterity is far more important to aim our bow and dodge our enemies.

You can also learn another cantrip and Mending can help clean the area after Wolf is done. For your leveled spell Warding Bond will let you share some of the pain with Wolf, to make sure that you’re forever one.

LEVEL 10 - CLERIC 5

At level 5 Clerics can Destroy Undead of CR 1/2 or lower with their Turn Undead Channel Divinity. Does this ability scale very poorly in multiclass builds? Yes. Does it matter? No, because Turn Undead is rather situational as-is.

You know what isn’t situational? Revivify and Vampiric Touch to keep both yourself and your allies in the fight. Along with your innate spells you can prepare third level spells and Speak with Dead will allow you to give your marks their final words. Perhaps not always useful, but hey you can prepare whatever you want.

LEVEL 11 - CLERIC 6

6th level Grave Clerics are Sentinel at Death’s Door. If your enemies are trying to do your job you can spend a reaction to negate a critical hit. You can use this reaction a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier, and regain all uses on a Long Rest.

You can also prepare another spell: if you can get in melee range Bestow Curse will allow you to make sure that your mark is effective. (But again you can prepare other spells if you don’t want to get into melee range.) And to top it off you can use your Channel Divinity twice for even more marks!

LEVEL 12 - CLERIC 7

7th level Clerics get access to 4th level spells which means that finally we can get our ultimate as a Grave Cleric with Death Ward. It’s not AoE not is it continuous but it will stop someone from dying. You do also get Blight as a Grave Cleric; seeing as Death Ward serves as Lamb’s mercy then Blight can serve as Wolf’s ferociousness? Regardless Locate Creature will let you find your mark however you wish to deal with them.

LEVEL 13 - CLERIC 8

Our final level is the 8th level in Cleric for Potent Spellcasting, but seeing as we aren’t casting spells I’m again going to suggest you take Blessed Strikes from the Class Feature Variants UA to do a d8 of damage with one of your arrows per turn. More ADC damage spikes!

You also get an Ability Score Improvement at this level and since we’re maxing out our divine influence I’d suggest increasing both your Intelligence and Wisdom by 1 to finally get rid of those odd numbers. This means that you can prepare two more spells from the Cleric list: Banish will help you deal with any creatures who aren’t in your jurisdiction, and Freedom of Movement will put a stop to anyone trying to stop you. But again you can prepare any spells you wish as a Cleric so pick and choose whatever you think will be useful.

(Artwork by merkerinn on DeviantArt)

LEVEL 14 - RANGER 6

Now that we are full Kindred it’s time to adapt Wolf further. Level 6 Rangers get Favored Enemy and Natural Explorer Improvements but since we’re using Class Feature Variants you instead get another feature from Deft Explorer: Tireless will make sure that no one can hold back the inevitable, as you gain the ability to temporarily shield yourself as well as decrease Exhaustion during short rests.

LEVEL 15 - RANGER 7

With 7 levels in Ranger Wolf now has Exceptional Training. You can now command Wolf to take the Dash, Disengage, or Help action on his turn if you command him with your bonus action. Additionally Wolf now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical attacks and damage, because apparently the embodiment of death wasn’t magical?

Speaking of magic you can also learn another Ranger spell: Pass Without a Trace will allow you and all your allies to add +10 to their stealth roll, so that no one can see Kindred come.

LEVEL 16 - RANGER 8

8th level means an Ability Score Improvement, so it’s time to max out that Dexterity modifier for shots that always strike at the heart.

And to help you chase prey with Wolf Land’s Stride allows you to move through nonmagical difficult terrain without using extra movement. You can also pass through nonmagical plants without being slowed or taking damage because of them. In addition, you have advantage on saving throws against plants that are magically created or manipulated to impede movement, such those created by the entangle spell. The Shadow Isles are full of death; you won’t be held back by the warden.

LEVEL 17 - RANGER 9

9th level Rangers can cast third level Ranger spells. Thanks to Primal Awareness you can cast Speak with Plants once per day. If you want to use red buff however grab Flame Arrows to set your shots ablaze.

LEVEL 18 - RANGER 10

10th level Rangers get more Natural Explorer Improvements, which for us means we can take Roving from Deft Explorer. Your movement speed increases by 5 (on top of the 5 from being a Satyr, so 40 total) and you get a swim speed equal to your movement speed! You also get Hide in Plain Sight, allowing you to spend 1 minute to hide for +10 to stealth checks. Could you just cast Pass Without a Trace instead? Yeah probably.

While I like Fade Away from Class Feature Variants unfortunately Kindred can’t turn invisible.

LEVEL 19 - RANGER 11

Level 11 Beastmasters access Bestial Fury, letting Wolf attack twice instead of once! Is this extremely late to get what amounts to an extra d6 + 3 damage that probably won’t hit because of Wolf’s chance to hit? Yeah probably.

But at least you get another spell! Grab a late-game Adaptive Helm with Protection from Energy to keep you from taking too much from Volibear or Shyvana.

LEVEL 20 - RANGER 12

Our final level is the 12th level of Ranger for an Ability Score Improvement that’s going straight into Wisdom to buff all your spells as well as Wolf. This does mean that you get to prepare another Cleric spell but it’s so late now that pretty much anything would work.

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Your next treat, dear Wolf - While you perhaps don’t do the most damage with your shots it’s more than likely that your arrow will fly true, and you have many a mark and spell to make your shots pierce even the toughest of hides.

Hurry, Lamb. Faster! - Along with the obvious anti-magic benefits of playing a Satyr the mobility can’t be ignored, with long leaps despite your low strength and 40 feet of movement thanks to Roving.

Beauty fades; that is why it is beautiful - You have a positive score in every social stat and quite a few skill proficiencies, making you rather adept among those who revel you... or fear you.

CONS

I'm hungry, I'm hungry, I'm bored, chase chase chase! - Two reworks later and Beastmaster Ranger is still underwhelming. While this build does good at early levels it quickly falls off as Wolf’s jaws become less useful. Be sure to talk to your DM about how to make Beastmaster Ranger more playable. Or perhaps just play Artificer?

What do all stories have in common, dear Wolf? - Your spell slots are limited, meaning that eventually your resources will run out. What’s more is that while your slots go up to level 7 the level of your spells stop at 4, and while you can upcast your spells will never be as good as a spell that was meant to be cast at that level.

Is this what it feels like to end? - While you have a lot of ways to keep yourself in the fight your health and armor really leave something to be desired. You’ll probably only have a little over 100 health which means that a Power Word Kill can put a stop to you with ease.

But your mark is guaranteed to fall in time; it is merely up to them if they choose an arrow or teeth. Every life ends with you one way or another: just make sure that the life ending isn’t your own. A grey man sitting in a grey room leads to a very sad Wolf.

(Artwork by inkinesss on DeviantArt)

[wannawrite]

Can I ask who you’re closest friends are and can you say why you love them and what you think of them idk I’ve seen people be super positive about their mutuals so I WANAN see who your closest are

hello anon! I’m sure someone sent you to do this so…..expose yourself please. Even though Admin N doesn’t talk much to them, we’re super positive about our mutuals even if we don’t show it explicitly all the time but friends, I love you SO much!! you can always count on me, okie?

Side note, I’ll be away until Nov 7 so it’ll just be Admin N on this blog until then! I won’t have access to my laptop on holiday but rest assured, all requests are in the works right now! I’m sure Admin N will feed you guys well.

Had to be truthful, I can’t include all my mutuals here because some of us aren’t the closest but hey, they’re still my friends so s/o to:

@woojinieeokay I love Diamond even if we don’t always talk because of timezones and all but she’s my gem. Truly the sweetest person ??? VERY hard working and organised writer, one of the best out here. Also one of the first few mutuals I had!! 💓 Closeness: Friends, definitely. I want to talk more

@boo-jinyoung was @lai-gvanlinahhh! Summer is definitely the sunshine in everyone’s life no joke. We haven’t talked much lately because she’s on semi-hiatus and I really miss her :((( Our conversations sometimes end up in memes or photosets to kill each other, true friendship ❤️Closeness: people who exchange memes need to become friends. missing you bby!

@wannableveryone knows who this is. Hana knows everyone? Miss Popularity. every W1 blog I visit is her friend, I don’t even know how. A super popular and sweet person. On semi-hiatus as well but you’ll know when she comes back. Our conversations are just us yelling and memes tbh 💗Closeness: she’s in the circle, for sure

@huynbin oh god here we go. I REALLY CAN’T EXPRESS HOW MUCH I LOVE RAE - even though she a hoe sometimes but - literally so nice ??? especially when I’m being a bitch ??? I was genuinely worried when she ghosted on me. Okay but I love all her weird asks, her comical commentary - sometimes - and her bright! [er than my future] personality. A goof, I love her. 💕 Closeness: she’s my homegirl, can’t lie.

@woojinstinygfThe mother of all of us and I’m her youngest child. Always super supportive and also offers the best advice. Literally treats me like her child omg. Cheerful and adorable, just like her chihuahua. The best person you could ever be friends because she sends you snaps of her dog and her eyeliner is always on fleek. 💖Closeness: I am her youngest daughter

@pinksausageduoout of my league yet she still talks to me and is genuinely a ball of fluff. A true, living definition of killer rookie. EXTREMELY TALENTED HAVE YOU SEEN HER WORKS so naturally, even though I’ve been on Tumblr longer, I really look up to Dain. Such a sweetheart, just pure sunshine. Bonus! One of the prettiest people you will ever meet. In fact, all my friends are really gorgeous wtf? 💜 Closeness: Daitia is the realest ship since both our names are difficult to pronounce

@onlyjihoons was @mochamark Another one with a rare name, God bless. Zelia is working really hard right now for O Levels, jiayou baby! Tried to turn me into a hardcore Jihoon stan with pics - yet you dream about Guanlin - made me hungry with Reese’s cereal at 11pm at night while reading some of my works which apparently makes her soft ??? :”) A talented writer as well!! Do check her blog out! Oh yeah, also a great ballerina, she danced her way into my heart! 💛Closeness: 大姐, pretty close friend :”)

@alliwannado-w1Iris is a living prodigy holy shit I strive to be like her and as organised as her theme. Siri, how do you write as well as Iris? Did you mean: how to be a legend? Over hypes me and loves me so I have to love her DOUBLE THE AMOUNT BACK. I can fall asleep knowing that a icon supports me and loves me ??? She has the best ideas and never disappoints. Please help her reach her milestone because she’ll post something spectacular when she does! She’s also working really hard for Os right now, jiayou love!💙Closeness: senpai

@perkwoojinthis girl has a honey pot emoji next to her name on Snapchat and she’s sweeter than that for sure. Jas once looked up to our blog? and we inspired her to start writing too what on Earth? Go stan her please, her writing comes once in a blue moon but are worth the wait, I promise! Supports me and sticks up for me + also a great adviser. Forgets to reply to me on Tumblr but it’s fine, the friendship is going strong.💘Closeness: the honey to my tea

[womenofcolor15]

EXCLUSIVE: If The NBA Needs Some Help When It Returns, 'Good Fight' Star Nyambi Nyambi’s Star-Studded Line Up Could Be A Problem!

Nyambi Nyambi checks in with TheYBF.com about how he’s handling being quarantined. Sorry ladies, he has a #QuaratineBAE. Also, if the NBA needs some help when it returns, he has a star-studded line up that would be a problem. Get into our chit chat with “The Good Fight” actor inside…

”The Good Fight” – the popular CBS All Access legal drama – is back with a new season, which is currently streaming. Star Nyambi Nyambi plays investigator Jay DiPersia, who is one of the in-house investigators at Reddick Boseman & Kolstad.

TheYBF.com got the chance to chop it up with Nyambi and he shared how he’s handling self-isolation during the global Coronavirus pandemic. Sorry, ladies. He has a #QuaratineBae.

”With the PS4, the XBOX, the Nintendo Switch, my comic books, drawing,” Nyambi told YBF LA correspondent Shannan Johnson during a Zoom call. "I have my lady that I spend a lot of time with,” he revealed. “I do have a Quarantine BAE. I do,” he shared.

The Nigerian-American actor shared how they’re figuring out how to spend time together since she’s actually working longer hours being at home. Nyambi said he keeps a low profile in the background while she works. Sometimes, she’ll pause/mute her Zoom meetings so he can “Usain Bolt” past the screen. Ha!

The comic book aficionado said the first comic book he purchased with his own money was "Batman: Year One." He shared he grew up reading the comics on the back of the newspaper. Living in a Nigerian home, he didn't even know there was a such thing as a comic book store until grad school in 2005. He recalled going to purchase his first comic book with a classmate on a Wednesday because new comics would come out on Wednesdays. Nyambi shared he really couldn't afford to buy comics until he booked a role one "Mike & Molly." Wow.

Being locked down is allowing him to enjoy his introverted activities. However, he said he has extrovert skills.

“I’m actually an introvert. I’m an introvert with extrovert skills. I set up everything so I can be in place where I don’t have to go anywhere. My video games, my art, my TVs,” he said.

Right now, the NBA has been put on pause amid the global Coronavirus pandemic. However, when the league does come back, if they need some help, Nyambi has them covered.

Nyambi has assembled a star-studded team that would give some of the pros a run for their money. FUN FACT: Nyambi earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Bucknell University before earning his Masters of Fine Arts from the Graduate Acting Program at New York University. He played four years of Division 1 basketball for Bucknell and made the ESPN Dick Vitale All-Name Team honoring the best names in college basketball. Post-college, Nyambi took on the role of coach and led basketball teams at teen camps for several years. So, like we said, his team would be a problem.

He’s naturally a Los Angeles Laker fan (a Magic Johnson fan to be specific), so if he had to be drafted to a team he obviously would pick the Lakers.

”Yeah, and I’m still good,” he said.

Talk your ish, Nyambi!

If the NBA approached him about playing in the league and he had to pick four other actors to play with him, who would he choose?

His starting line up would include: Oscar winning actor Mahershala Ali – “Mahershala, he actually played college ball,” he shared.

“Big Bang Theory” star Kunal Nayyar – “He’s not the greatest basketball player, but he works so hard. I need somebody who works hard.”

Black Panther star Michael B. Jordan – “And then Michael B. Jordan because I need a Michael Jordan on my team. You got to have a Michael Jordan on your team. He can ball, he’s good.”

Lastly, he picked legendary NBA legend Kareem Adbdul Jabbar.

”He was in it [The Game of Death], so he’s an actor. He’s on IMDB. Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Boom! That’s my set up,” he said.

Ha! Very clever.

          View this post on Instagram

                  For those who don’t know, or those who think they know but haven’t seen it, you don’t know what you’re missing. The best show on television. Stream @TheGoodFightCBS on @CBSAllaccess. When you do, tell a friend. #TheGoodFight

A post shared by Nyambi Nyambi (@nyambi) on Apr 30, 2020 at 4:59pm PDT

  Check out Season 4 of "The Good Fight" on CBS All Access.

Photo: Lauren Toub

[Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2020/05/01/exclusive-if-the-nba-needs-some-help-when-it-returns-good-fight-star-nyambi-nyambi%E2%80%99s-star

[junker-town]

The Overwatch League is back, and it’s a lot different

This season of the OWL could have consequences for all of esports. Here’s everything you need to know.

The Overwatch League returns for Season 3 at 1 p.m. ET Saturday, and you can catch all of the matches on YouTube.

For the uninitiated, Overwatch is a fast-paced video game that looks chaotic on screen, but requires incredible coordination and communication, making it an excellent competitive sport in which teamwork usually trumps individual skill.

The league is making big changes for the coming season that could major ramifications not just for the competitors, but esports as a whole. Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming Overwatch League season.

I’m super new here, what is Overwatch?

Overwatch is a 6-vs-6 class-based shooter in which two teams fight over objectives. Unlike Counter-Strike or Fortnite, where the only difference between characters is the guns they pick up, Overwatch characters have unique abilities.

If you’ve never seen competitive Overwatch before, I recommend this summer’s World Cup match between the United States and South Korea to get started.

How does the Overwatch League work?

The league consists of 20 teams, split into Atlantic and Pacific divisions, that play 28 regular-season games apiece. The division winners get the top two seeds in the playoffs, followed by the next four teams with the best records regardless of division. The teams ranked seventh through 12th go to a wild card tournament to determine the final two playoff spots.

Playoffs are double-elimination, so any teams that slip up get a second chance to make a run to the final.

Are OWL teams actually playing in their home markets now?

Yes!

Overwatch League started in 2018 with teams named after cities, with the hope being that it could become the first game in esports to create local fandom just like traditional sports. The league started with 12 teams, then expanded to 20 squads representing cities in six different countries. Most of the teams are owned by esports organizations that compete in other games, and are promoted as part of those brands despite being named after cities and not their parent organizations.

Though the teams are tied to regions their names, they played exclusively at Blizzard’s studio in Los Angeles in Season 1. The show went on the road for a small number of local team-hosted matches in Season 2. For the start of the current season — Season 3 — the LA studio has been left behind entirely, and all the matches will be played in the teams’ home markets.

The league is hoping to build off the big success of its homestand weekends in Dallas and Atlanta last season. The league returns to Dallas in Week 1, and will also have matches hosted by the New York Excelsior in New York City.

Why can’t I find the Overwatch League on Twitch?

Almost every esports tournament that matters can be found on Twitch, so people who haven’t kept up with the news are going to be in for a shock when they don’t know where to find the Overwatch League on Saturday. Activision Blizzard has signed a deal to give its three biggest esports titles — Overwatch, Call of Duty and Hearthstone — exclusively to YouTube.

The platform draws hundreds of millions of eyeballs on its gaming-related content, but has not seriously competed with Twitch on live events. It is clearly willing to throw around a lot of money to change that. No one knows how much the YouTube deal is, but it’s rumored to be more than OWL’s last one, which was worth $90 million over two years.

Leaving the platform where most of your audience hangs out is a bold move!

Yeah. It’s possible that Blizzard has drastically underestimated how much of its audience is casual. Most Overwatch League streams sat between 100,000 and 150,000 concurrent viewers during matches. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, but the first week of Call of Duty League peaked at about 75,000 viewers on YouTube. A lot of people go to Twitch to see what’s on, notice OWL is popping, and check it out. That doesn’t really happen on YouTube, which currently has a bad live content recommendation system.

But it’s possible that Blizzard and its advertisers don’t really care about live viewership. Video on demand is a lot more easily accessible on YouTube than it is on Twitch, where Call of Duty League is off to a solid start. Week 1’s marquee match between the Chicago Huntsmen and Optic Gaming has roughly 516K views as of publish time.

OWL should see a dip in live viewership over the first few weeks of this season, but it could wind up with more total viewership in the end.

Where did my favorite caster go?

Controversially, the Overwatch League has seen some of its top commentators leave this offseason. The departure of former OWL commissioner Nate Nanzer, who joined Fortnite publisher Epic Games, apparently led to irreconcilable differences of opinion about staffing and creative vision between Blizzard and some of its talent.

Christopher “Montecristo” Mykles and Erik “DoA” Lonnquist, who were extremely popular League of Legends casters before signing on with OWL full time, are the highest-profile departures. Fans won’t be happy to see Auguste “Semmler” Massonat or Malik Forté go, either. (Chris Puckett is no longer with Blizzard full time, but could potentially make appearances, since he’s still working with the company on a freelance basis.)

Alarmingly, the league has yet to announce a complete talent lineup. The league’s signature voices, the duo of Mitch “Uber” Leslie and Matt “Mr. X” Morello, have yet to confirm they’ll be back for Season 3. And while they’re expected to return, the OWL wouldn’t feel the same without them.

Hey so ... it seems like a lot could go wrong here

Yeaaaaaaaah. If you care about esports in general, not just Overwatch, you should be keeping an eye on the league this season. Considering the big risks that the league has made by going to an all-homestand model, changing platforms and declining to re-sign top talent, it’s possible that this season could go very badly for OWL. And given that investors have collectively sunk over a billion dollars into the league, failure could have long-term consequences for esports as a whole.

This is not to say that a massive failure on the part of OWL would stop the growth of esports. Rather, that it would inform the business model going forward. Is it viable to run franchise leagues like traditional sports leagues? Or does esports need to follow a completely different model?

Enough of that, let’s talk about the games. What am I looking at here?

Overwatch currently has 31 heroes, and teams play six of them at a time. Heroes are not exclusive to one team, like League of Legends or Dota 2; both teams can play Mei at the same time, for example.

The characters are split into three different classes. Tanks have high survivability and damage mitigation. Support characters can heal teammates. And damage characters focus almost exclusively on eliminating enemies. Teams have to pick two characters in each class. Games are often decided by which team can combine these abilities with the best coordination, rather than simply who’s good at shooting.

Here’s a good explanation of the game’s four different map types. Overwatch League matches rotate through the map types and are first to three map victories, due to the possibility of draws.

What is “the meta?”

When you watch Overwatch League, you’ll hear casters refer to the meta on occasion. This means the metagame — the game inside the game, or the current preferred strategy.

“Meta” alludes to how how hard it is to balance a video game like Overwatch in a way that makes all characters equally viable in professional play. There will almost always be a composition of six characters that is ideal for a particular situation, given their combination of abilities.

Blizzard recently released a new version of the game with small tweaks to the strengths and weaknesses of a few characters. While these small differences are hardly noticeable if you play the game yourself at low ranks, they’re extremely important to how the game is played at the professional level. No professional matches have been played on the latest version of Overwatch, so even the best players can only guess at what the current meta is.

We will likely see a variety of strategies in the opening matches, before teams finally settle into a clearly defined meta. But there’s a wrinkle this year ...

New for this season: Hero pools

Every week, four of the strongest characters in the game — one tank, one support and two damage — will be banned from Overwatch League play in an effort to shake up the meta.

Last season, fans got sick of seeing the same characters and strategies over and over again. Before the league mandated that teams picked two characters in each class, the meta was something called GOATS, named after the team that popularized the strategy. This three-tank, three-support, no-damage character composition forced star players who preferred damage dealers to use the tank hero Zarya or the support hero Brigitte instead. This was annoying to fans as well as players, who were bored with having to play Brigitte, a character with a low skill ceiling.

Mandated 2-2-2 was initially celebrated by the community, but ended up making things worse. The double shield composition led by tanks Orisa and Sigma was even less fun to watch (and play) than GOATS.

To avoid running into a problem like that again, Blizzard introduced the banned hero pool system. So even if the meta is bland one week, you can be sure that different characters will be played the next week.

I’m not from any of the cities that have teams, want to give me a rooting interest?

Front-runners: If you’re a fan of the Yankees, Patriots and Barcelona, may I suggest the San Francisco Shock? The Season 2 champions are widely expected to win the league again this season. The introduction of hero pools could have been a massive shakeup, but it actually just benefits San Francisco more than anyone else. The Shock don’t have the best player in the league on any character, but have a top-five player in the league on literally every character. They don’t have a set starting lineup, but 10 players they can swap in and out seamlessly depending on the map and which heroes are banned.

Pure fun: If you care about play style more than wins and losses, the Chengdu Hunters are for you. They were the only team to consistently buck the GOATS trend and play damage characters on a regular basis early last season, and are expected to keep playing off-meta compositions thanks to Ameng, the only player in the league whose best character is the tank Wrecking Ball.

Moneyball: If you really liked that book or movie, you’ll be able to get into the Boston Uprising, who have become the OWL’s Oakland A’s. Boston specializes in picking up undervalued players from the second tier Contenders, developing them, selling them to other teams for a profit, then replacing them with fresh Contenders talent.

Talking smack: If you really just want to get into a team that is funny and loud and likes taunting, you should support the Atlanta Reign.

Lovable losers: Despite disappointing results, the core of the Houston Outlaws has remained intact for three seasons, mostly because of their strong fanbase and lovely personalities that make them very hard to fire. Muma, Rawkus and Linkzr are among the league’s most popular players, even if they lose more than they win.

Yoooooooo! Deadass, I just want a team that’s dope as hell. That’s facts, bro: Los Angeles Gladiators.

I want a team that wins but I don’t want to seem like a really obvious bandwagoner, you know what I mean?: Hell yeah, I know exactly what you mean. The Shanghai Dragons set a global sports record for futility by losing their first 42 matches. But the team finished a respectable 13-15 last season, then made some big additions during the offseason. They’re going to be really good, so get on board now before the bandwagon fills up.

[carry-on-my-wayward-butt]

To you ane anyone who knows anything about Net Neutrality, I was wondering if anyone could tell me/give me tips on what I should write to fcc? I honestly don't know enough about net neutrality to know what to say...

i personally used form letters! form letters are like templates, they take care of what to say so you don’t have to worry about Saying It Right.

here’s one from BattleForTheNet:

Dear Senators and Representatives:

Please support any amendment that would strike out Sections 628, 629 and 630 from the Government Appropriations. These sections would undermine the FCC's Net Neutrality rules and prevent the agency from enforcing these critical protections. It is unacceptable to use a budget bill to circumvent the FCC's open rulemaking process that millions of citizens participated in.

The American people have called for strong net neutrality rules. Congress should let the FCC do its job, and not engage in unproductive partisan brinksmanship.

Thank you,[Your name here]

you can edit it(or not!) according to yr will and there’s no pressure :)  and here’s another, much longer one, that might help you learn what the current Net Neutrality battle is all about!

The FCC's Open Internet Rules (net neutrality rules) are extremely important to me. I urge you to protect them.

I don't want ISPs to have the power to block websites, slow them down, give some sites an advantage over others, or split the Internet into "fast lanes" for companies that pay and "slow lanes" for the rest.

Now is not the time to let giant ISPs censor what we see and do online.

Censorship by ISPs is a serious problem. Comcast has throttled Netflix, AT&T blocked FaceTime, Time Warner Cable throttled the popular game League of Legends, and Verizon admitted it will introduce fast lanes for sites that pay-and slow lanes for everyone else-if the FCC lifts the rules. This hurts consumers and businesses large and small.

Courts have made clear that if the FCC ends Title II classification, the FCC must let ISPs offer "fast lanes" to websites for a fee.

Chairman Pai has made clear that he intends to do exactly this.

But if some companies can pay our ISPs to have their content load faster, startups and small businesses that can't pay those fees won't be able to compete. You will kill the open marketplace that has enabled millions of small businesses and created the 5 most valuable companies in America-just to further enrich a few much less valuable cable giants famous for sky-high prices and abysmal customer service.

Internet providers will be able to impose a private tax on every sector of the American economy.

Moreover, under Chairman Pai's plan, ISPs will be able to make it more difficult to access political speech that they don't like. They'll be able to charge fees for website delivery that would make it harder for blogs, nonprofits, artists, and others who can't pay up to have their voices heard.

I'm sending this to the FCC's open proceeding, but I worry that Chairman Pai, a former Verizon lawyer, has made his plans and will ignore me and millions of other Americans.

So I'm also sending this to my members of Congress. Please publicly support the FCC's existing net neutrality rules based on Title II, and denounce Chairman Pai's plans. Do whatever you can to dissuade him.

Thank you!

i hope this has helped u!!

be sure to visit https://www.battleforthenet.com/ and they will direct your letter to the appropriate government office!

[wbwest]

New Post has been published on WilliamBruceWest.com

New Post has been published on http://www.williambrucewest.com/2017/07/28/west-week-ever-pop-culture-review-72817/

West Week Ever: Pop Culture In Review - 7/28/17

One of the best discoveries I’ve made has been the digital subchannel Heroes & Icons. If you’re a cord cutter, then get yourself an antenna and check this thing out. My favorite aspect of it, however, is the fact that it runs a 5-hour Star Trek block six nights a week. Star Trek at 8, Star Trek: The Next Generation at 9, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine at 10, Star Trek: Voyager at 11, and Enterprise at 12. Sunday through Friday. And on Sundays they actually kick things off with Star Trek: The Animated Series at 7. I’ve pretty much watched nothing but Star Trek for the past 2 weeks. I’ve been reacquainted with favorite episodes, like TNG‘s “Chain of Command” and DS9‘s “Far Beyond the Stars”. I’ve discovered some hidden gems, like TOS‘s ” The Cloud Minders”. I’ve even discovered that I don’t hate Voyager or Enterprise as much as I thought I did.

I don’t talk about this too much, but the first 12 years or so of my life were comprised of pretty much NOTHING but Star Trek. From 1987-94, my favorite show on television was The Next Generation. When DS9 debuted, I expected it to continue my love affair, but it felt too preachy with its Space Holocaust allegory. It was in the later seasons, once the Dominion War began, that it actually ensconced itself as my favorite iteration of the franchise. By the time Voyager debuted, I had discovered comics, and they became my new mistress. While I watched about 4 hours of TNG a day in high school (Channel 20 REALLY loved playing TNG), my heart didn’t have room in it for a new Trek, so I “No time for love, Dr. Jones”‘ed Captain Janeway and her crew. Enterprise debuted when I was in college, and  I was simply too busy worried about other shit to watch Captain Quantum Leap and his crew. Plus, due to some kind of contractual fallout, Ithaca didn’t get UPN. So, since the finale of DS9, my Trekkerdom lay dormant.

But when I say “I’ve forgotten more than you’ll ever know”, that’s primarily about Star Trek. I had several editions of the Star Trek Encyclopedia, I had the Technical Manual, the Technical Journal, the Star Trek Chronology. All of it. I’ve got the figures, and the role play toys. I even created my own uniform for Halloween back in the 90s. I was all Trek, 24/7, and you couldn’t tell me shit. Over time, though, that trivia got overwritten by X-Men 1st appearance notations and the names of TNBC actresses. What I’m saying, though, is that Heroes & Icons brought it all rushing back. It’s like I’m 15 again, blowing the evening watching Star Trek episodes I’ve already seen hundreds of times already. It’s also given me new perspectives on things that completely went over my head when I was younger. For example, Sisko is the Bajorans’ Space Jesus, and that’s pretty heavy. Even he doesn’t believe it, but in the end, yup it turns out he’s Space Jesus. I’ve also got thoughts on the current state of the franchise, too.

At SDCC, we got the above trailer for Star Trek: Discovery, which will air in North America on CBS All Access (yes, Dean, I know you’ll say All Anal Access because it sucks that we have to subscribe to another service just to watch this thing). I had no interest in this show because everything I heard about it didn’t sound like Star Trek. Now, though, the more they try to sell it as a bunch of new ideas, the more it just sounds like DS9. It’s gonna be Trek with interpersonal conflict. Great. I can get down with that. Its aesthetic seems more like late-era Stargate than Trek, though – especially those Klingon designs. There are certain things, though, that still feel like they miss the mark.

Take for example the fact that the show will feature the first same-sex couple on a Star Trek series, played by Rent‘s Anthony Rapp and My So Called Life‘s Wilson Cruz. Yeah, I get that representation is important, but it bothers me that this is being done in a prequel series, set before the events of the original Star Trek. With the exception of Enterprise, this is the series that takes place the closest to our timeline, so it’s really not much of a leap to think that same-sex couples exist. Ya know what would’ve meant more to me (as a straight, cis male who really doesn’t have a dog in the race but is still opinionated)? If the show had actually been a post-Dominion War, sequel series to TNG/DS9/Voyager, and it featured a same-sex couple. Science fiction tends to go 2 ways: it’s either dystopian or it’s about HOPE. As it stands, from what we’ve seen, same-sex couples are pretty much nonexistent in the 24th century. Yeah, I’m sure they exist, but we never saw them. It seems like it would be a testament to how enduring they are to see them that far in the future as opposed to just a couple of hundred years from now, when Discovery is set.

I could also be politicizing this for my own agenda, as I really want to know what happened after the war ended. Sure, there are books and stuff, but those things aren’t canon. I feel there are so many stories to tell from that era, and I’d love to see the franchise move forward instead of dance between the raindrops of continuity in the past. It feels like they’re stalling, which is how it felt with Enterprise and even the Kelvin movies. Someone, somewhere out there has got to have a great idea as to how to move the franchise forward and I hope CBS/Paramount finds them sooner rather than later.

SDCC Bullet Points

The bulk of San Diego Comic Con took place over the weekend, and here’s some stuff that debuted:

Michelle Pfeiffer is Hank Pym’s lost wife, Janet Van Dyne, in Ant-Man and The Wasp

The Captain Marvel film will be set in the 90s, and introduce the Skrulls to the MCU. Oh, and Nick Fury will have 2 eyes

We got this trailer for Ready Player One, which was hella polarizing. It seems a lot of folks hated the book on which it’s based. If you ask me, it just looks like a cinematic version of this commercial:

Comic creator Frank Miller, of 300 and Sin City fame, is writing a Superman: Year One story with art from John Romita Jr. Nothing about that sentence makes me want to open my wallet.

We got a new trailer for X-Men spinoff, The Gifted. I’m actually surprised they used established mutants like Polaris and Thunderbird. And is that actually Fenris?! I want to like this, but it just looks so…Fox.

We got a new trailer for The Defenders on Netflix. I get that this is the culmination of all the Marvel Netflix shows, but it didn’t do much for me since I’ve only seen 2 out of 5 seasons so far. There’s no way I’ll get caught up by this premiere date, but I’m sure it’ll mean more to me once I’m up to date. Kinda tired of the hallway fight trope, though.

Legends of Tomorrow is such a fun show. It started kinda dry, but got so much better last year. It reminds me of a syndicated Saturday afternoon show, but in a good way.

This Justice League trailer did very little for me. It’s like, sure, Wonder Woman’s cool, but we JUST saw her. Aquaman seems cool, but he’s not really “Aquaman”. I’ll see it, but I ain’t looking forward to it. No, for me, November belongs to:

Things You Might Have Missed This Week

We’ll have to wait a bit longer for our annual dose of Abbi and Ilana, as Comedy Central has moved the Broad City season 4 premiere from August 23rd to September 13th

A few months ago, it was reported that Amy Schumer would be starring in a Barbie movie. Well, I made fun of that, she blocked me on Twitter, and then eventually dropped out of the role. Now they’re reporting that Anne Hathaway is up for the role, which is somehow more bewildering than the Schumer choice…

Justin Bieber cancelled the rest of his Purpose world tour because he was “committing his life to Christ”. This pissed off his crew, as they were left without jobs. He, then, proceeded to run over a paparazzo with his truck while leaving church. I swear, you can’t make this shit up!

Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has replaced Bill Gates as the richest man in the world.

Beginning September 29th, Hulu will begin streaming the Warner Bros shows that comprised ABC’s TGIF lineup, including Perfect Strangers, Family Matters, Full House, Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper, and Step By Step. Meanwhile, Netflix is feverishly developing Perfecter Strangers, Family Still Matters, Chillin’ With Mr. Cooper, and Step By Step By Step.

I haven’t seen a non-country music video in years, but apparently they still make them, as Katy Perry will host the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards

Speaking of the VMAs, following the lead of the MTV Movie Awards, they’re doing away with the gendered categories Best Male/Best Female Artist, to be replaced by Artist of the Year. Also, in a bit of pandering,  they’ve created the Best Fight Against the System, for those artists who have called for folks to #RESIST and all that.

Though I felt its farcical nature wore a bit thin during its first season, TBS’s Angie Tribeca has been renewed for season 4.

Smallville‘s Tom Welling is joining Fox’s Lucifer and *yawn* that’s really all there is to say about that.

Netflix has ordered 20 episodes of the animated series Disenchantment from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening. It will features the voices of Nat Faxon, Eric Andre, and Abbi Jacobson. Apparently it’s about elves and trolls and shit. Not really my bag, baby.

Person of Interest‘s Michael Emerson has been cast in a mysterious role for Arrow‘s 6th season. So, he’s probably Deathstroke’s accountant or something.

Because SyFy just doesn’t care anymore, and because they need something to air between Sharknados, Wynonna Earp has been renewed for a 3rd season.

The Wonder Woman sequel has a release date of December 13th, 2019

Apple discontinued the iPod Nano and Shuffle models, as they are the last remaining models that cannot run iOS apps.

Current Superman Henry Cavill grew a mustache for his role in Mission Impossible 37: Mission Harder, which will have to be digitally removed for Justice League reshoots. Ya know, the movie where he’s supposed to be dead, but is actually the worst kept secret in Hollywood.

Lionel Richie and Charlie Puth are in talks to join ABC’s American Idol reboot as judges. Yeah, that’s funny. Unless they’re coaching the contestants on how to get caught cheating while dancing on the ceiling, I’m not sure what Richie’s old ass brings to the table. And Puth is simply too new to be judging anybody.

New James Bond film in 2019. Nobody knows who’s playing him or directing the thing, but it’s coming. Yesiree, Bob!

Since they’re handing out cinematic universes like chicken samples at a food court, the John Wick universe will be expanded by the female-focused film, Ballerina.

Michael Phelps raced a CGI shark and people felt betrayed. He’s the friggin’ son of Poseidon! He can’t race ACTUAL sharks! There would be civil unrest beneath the surface!

With DC being the political capital of the country, it’s hard for a news person to stand out because the place is crawling with them. That wasn’t true, however, for Jim Vance. Everyone knew him and the man was an institution. Coming to NBC4 in 1969, he was one of the first Black anchors in a major news market. He anchored for over 4 decades, ingraining himself into the families of those who watched him.

When I was a toddler, I was really into the local news (I’ve always said I’m regressing as I get older), and I could name every anchor on every local newscast. And this was a golden age of DC news. You had the great Glenn Brenner, you had Maury Povich before he became a talk show host, and you had Vance. There was something about him that made him seem like your aunt’s cool boyfriend. He was an old man with a hoop earring. We used to laugh about it, but secretly I was hating because I knew I’d never be able to pull that off at his age. He rode motorcycles and laughed inappropriately at news stories he found funny. He was a guy who made you glad to watch the news, especially as the cries of Fake News! grew louder.

Back in May, Vance announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer, and it advanced rather quickly. He passed away last Saturday morning, and the announcement touched all corners of the DC area (no, I’m not calling it the DMV!). It was touching to see all of the tributes to him on the local stations, from those who were colleagues and competitors. Last Saturday night, News4 spent the entire 11 PM news talking about Vance and what he meant to DC. This might sound crazy, but it was so refreshing to watch the news without a single drop of actual news being reported. No Trump b.s., no local murders, not even a weather report. Just 30 minutes about a man who we basically grew up with in our homes. I always kinda took him for granted because you just expected he would be there every evening, but I’ve certainly missed him since he’s gone. I know he won’t mean much to those of you outside the DC viewing area, but believe me when I say that everybody here knew who Jim Vance was, and we’re all going to miss him in one way or another. For that reason, Jim Vance had the West Life Ever.

[ishouldntbedoingthings]

I just want somewhere to say my thoughts

These past couple of weeks have been really hard. I started a new course for mostly learning how to do barista, but also including bar and cafe service. A “food and beverage service” course, apparently. I have never really had a job. I have had jobs, but not to this extent. This isn’t technically a job, but I’m at the course for basically 9-4 almost every weekday, sometimes starting at 10 and sometimes finishing at 3. It’s very intense for me, who has never worked such hours. I know I’m week. I’ve always been a weak, cowardly person. But, I am doing it. I haven’t given up yet. So I guess that’s something. I don’t know. I almost cried on both the barista classes we had last week on Thursday and Friday because I just kept hating myself for doing bad. And some times people would say something that also triggered a similar response. Nothing bad by itself, but my mind was in a weird place. Now, me feeling really shit and hating myself when I do bad is nothing new. I do that all the time. This is the main reason why I no longer play league of legends as much as I did any more. I know it’s just a game, which is usually meant for having fun. I am stupid, yes, but I understand that much at least. But I just couldn’t get the fucking milk pouring, and I just couldn’t help but hate myself. I had another barista class on Wednesday and hated myself less, and also didn’t almost cry that time, somehow, and made one good milk pour. So some improvement I guess? Who knows.

On the first day on the 19th, I sat at a group of 4 or 6 tables in a square/rectangle, and a girl sat on the corner diagonal to me. Let’s call her A. I can be a technically outgoing person in that I will talk to people. I’m actually not a very sociable person at all, but I like talking to people when I have the chance. And she wasn’t talking to anyone so I had a chance. Another friend who I had met the week before also sat by us because I was the only one she knew. Let’s call her B. Turns out the two of them went to the same school, and even maybe in the same class? Either way, I hung out with them both during the orientation day that we had, and after course, B had to go home so I hung out a bit with A. I can’t quite remember what we did, but we seemed to get along. I mentioned her to my then girlfriend, and I talked really positively about her because she’s really cool. Let’s call this then-girlfriend C. C has jealousy problems, which are most likely my fault. Early in our relationship, or early in when we knew each other, I did some bad shit. Like asking for photos and stuff. It’s no excuse, but I have a very high sex drive, and that was controlling what I was saying at the time, I think. She eventually kind of did, and I have since tried to never look at those again, lest I remember what she did for my shitty self. But then, after I talked to a friend about the weird situation I was in, I started being like “well, I can’t meet you and I have a high sex drive so I want to do sexy stuff with people” and such. See, she’s in another country, and none of us have even close to the money to make it to either one’s country. We once broke up over this reason, but then she didn’t say good night one night, when she usually does. I found out in the morning. Even if we were technically not together in my head, she couldn’t bare it, so we made a kind of deal where she would kind of think of us as being together until I found someone. Or something. So we still said good morning and good night everyday. So when she didn’t, stupid me thought of the worst, which I always do. I’m not a very calm person when it comes to stuff like this. I kept thinking that maybe she had died, and I had literally 0 way of finding out for the most part. I met her originally on Facebook, so I do have access to who’s friends with her. I was planning to message one of her friends as she had a similar name to C’s daughter. Before I sent the message though, C responded finally. Turns out her internet is just often shit, and this was a specific case of that where it hadn’t worked since that night, at least from 9 pm (by my time, as I’m 4 hours ahead of her). I was so worried, and I was crying so many happy tears when she finally responded again. I thought these tears and this worry meant I loved her, and so I asked her to be my girlfriend this time, and I even started telling people that I had a girlfriend because of this. I don’t know what love is. I don’t know if I’ve ever really known it. And if this was love, then that’s great. She was my first girlfriend, as I was never really popular with really anyone when I was in high school, but it’s not like I cared much about my personal hygiene nor how I looked, so that probably didn’t help. But yeah, so we got back together, and it was great for awhile. But lately those same thoughts started coming back, but I kept shaking my head and trying to ignore those thoughts, as I have come to do. So, I started talking about A to C enthusiastically. Like, she was such a cool person to be around for me. And that ignited C’s jealousy. Then all the talk about how being in a long-distance relationship started up again. And we got to talking. And we decided that, it would maybe be best to break up. That was last weekend. Being in a long-distance relationship is probably just not for me. I want to be able to BE with someone. I think. And as my feelings for A grew, when she confessed that she has a crush for a recent addition to our group, let’s call him D (A is bisexual by the way), to me. And to keep it secret, obviously, which I shall try to do. I am not the best at secrets, but as long as D doesn’t ask about it, it should be fine. But, with this, I thought I might as well confess my crush for her. And A is just a great person in general, including just really “yeah that’s fair enough” and just accepting of things. And so thankfully, this isn’t going to ruin our friendship. Which is great. Even if I know nothing can happen, at least right now, I still love hanging out with her. Though I don’t have much hope anything will happen, I don’t know the future. Though, obviously doubts about myself come with rejection. I know that what it most likely is, obviously, that she likes someone else, and A and D have great synergy with their personalities. They make each other laugh, have their own in jokes through snapchat, and app I literally downloaded just to add them. I’m not a very good match for her personality. And that’s fine. I just have to accept it. But, that doesn’t mean it stops the thoughts. Personality is one of the things that affect whether someone gets a crush on someone, but also looks helps. He is quite cute, as she says, and he indeed is. I am very much not. I am trans, and only about 7 and a half months on estrogen. I’m neither a good looking man and CERTAINLY not a good looking woman. Hell you would never think “women” by seeing my face. So I can understand not being attracted to me that way. But this is probably me overthinking things as well, as it is probably the personality thing, and she does like spending time with him, it seems. Which is fair. I thought it would be weird to start feeling something for someone in such a short time, but she has felt something in an even shorter time, as he came into our group late. So that’s... reassuring? At least for knowing that. Sometimes when I’m trying to go to sleep I see naughty stuff about her, but I try and shake that off again because that’s probably weird, but I don’t know if she isn’t doing that over D as well, and that’s probably not exactly something you ask. I’m a very weird person and like talking about anything, but obviously not everyone does, and although she has said that if I say or ask something that she finds uncomfortable, then she’ll tell me and I’ll stop, but even then I don’t want to lose her as a friend, so I keep hesitating about things. I keep wondering if I’ve been too weird about stuff and that has put her off me. I don’t know. But I should stop. Definitely. Anyway, so, after I did, I felt fine about it. I didn’t feel any different. But I think I started feeling more down about it later on. I’ll probably get over this in the next few days, as it usually doesn’t take me too long to get over things. Let us see anyway. That night, I mentioned it to my ex-girlfriend, and so we talked more about our breakup and how it was pretty real this time, and that was that I guess. But at some point, she sent me some song lyrics. Even if it wasn’t English, just looking up the first word and then reading the first three lines just made me cry, and I couldn’t take it. This is my very first breakup after all. It just makes me so sad that this is ending, but also the lyrics. I won’t be putting them here, partially because translation is a bitch, but also because I still haven’t read passed those first three lines and can’t bear to read the rest right now. Maybe in a few days time, but it’s still probably not best to put them here, where no one will read my words anyway. And so throughout the night I have been crying a bit. My body and/or my emotions, possibly due to my male upbringing, didn’t bring many tears. They did bring some, particularly when I started reading that song, and kind of every time I remember it. Oh well. We’ll see what happens with this in the next few days I guess.

My other problem is my transgenderism. Like, lately it’s been kind of tough. I’ve been especially self-conscious about my voice and my face. Sometimes I’ve just not wanted to talk because of how I sound. And I can’t really look at my face because of how masculine it looks. No one would look at me and say “woman”. But there are other problems, too. Particularly, am I even fucking actually a woman? Am I transgender? Or am I just an overly sexual man who likes the sexual fantasy of being a woman? Me thinking of myself as a woman started near the start of uni. For the last couple years of high school, I got more and more interested in the female body. And the pleasure that they get in orgasms and how that works. I started listening to orgasms on YouTube and other places, what with no smart phone and no computer at home at the time, I believe. Or at least no chance to do such a thing. And of course, I started imagining myself as a female when I masturbate. I may or may not have been doing that earlier in high school, but I don’t know what is real any more as my current thoughts distort my past memories. As I started masturbating like that, at uni, I started thinking more and more that maybe I like thinking of myself as a woman. I worked with that through uni, and there was the transgender day of visibility that I had heard of on March 31st I think it was, and to celebrate it, I decided to come out on Facebook. I thought my kind of bully mum would judge me, so I blocked her from seeing that post. It was around that time that I got the opportunity to leave my mum’s house thanks to a friend making a post in a Facebook group we’re both in. I felt less like I might be judged, as I only kind of knew one of the 4 people there, and so I started looking for skirts and dresses or something, and started wearing them. Looked for makeup and shaved legs and such but found that they weren’t for me. Later that year, I believe, thanks to a work therapist that I was seeing once through a government thing, I got to go see someone about my gender dysphoria, which I did, and that’s what got me on medication. But that doesn’t mean it hasn’t left me wondering like, am I really someone who is ACTUALLY transgender. There is an article a trans man wrote wondering the same thing that I haven’t read yet and it’s late here, so I don’t know his thoughts on it, if only for himself, but I just sometimes don’t feel like I am transgender, for the reasons listed above. Am I really not just oversexualising the female body onto myself? I am liking my changes, even if slow, but I’m still not sure. And I just keep hating myself over it. As well as because of the problems above. And I just keep wanting to die again. Life is a pain in the ass man. I don’t feel that I’m expressing the disdain for myself very well in this paragraph specifically, but oh well. We’ll see what happens in a couple of years anyway, if I’m not dead by then anyway.