#ravenj

[breelandwalker]

Hey Bree!

I'm working on a spell to help get an apartment, which is obviously a Very Big Very Important spell for me, so I feel it deserves some more pizzazz than the spells I normally do. Normal routine for me is carving/writing some sigils onto a candle and letting it burn, and that's that. But I'm honestly struggling to come up with ways to make this spell feel more special/impactful that aren't just "more candles." I'd love to hear if you had any ideas on how to spice it up a bit or add something that feels more substantial to my spellwork here. Thanks!

Ooo, good question! Ragnar and I bought a house this past year and we actually did a spell together to help us find just the right place. I'm sure it could be altered to find an apartment too.

I started out, coincidentally, with the same framework that I used for a long-ago love spell to find my perfect match - a list. We sat down together and drew up a list of a dozen or so things that we needed and wanted from our new home, then wrote them on large whole bay leaves that I found at the supermarket. I added these to a jar with a few coins and some herbs for success and happiness. Then we held the jar together and focused on everything we hoped for and breathed that wish into the jar before closing it up.

The jar was sealed with green wax from the stub of a candle spelled for success and abundance (I got it ages ago at Mystic Moon of Norfolk - thanks Deb!) and I took the extra step of securing it with kitchen twine and a lucky shield knot medallion off a bottle of our favorite whiskey. Then the jar was set in the window to catch the light of the full moon.

If I recall correctly, this spell was cast in either August or September of 2022. It was one of the harvest moons, but I can't remember if it was grain or fruit, only that it was still warm outside and light in the evening. But it had to be one of those two, because the week of Samhain that year, we checked out a house that Ragnar found by happenstance that turned out to be perfect and our offer was accepted the day after Halloween. We moved the following January.

The spell jar remains in our home for good luck and we'll keep it there until the time is right to make a new one with new wishes.

So for your apartment search, I'd recommend doing something similar. Write down your wants and needs for your new place and pop the list (or a bunch of bay leaves with wishes written on them) into a jar with your preferred herbs for success and happiness. (If you'd like to specially prepare your bay leaves for wishing spells, here's a spell that I use for the purpose.)

Here are a few suggestions for herbs (and purposes) to include:

Rose Petal and Orange Peel - good luck, attraction to find a new place

Basil and Rosemary - abundance of green space (and funds)

Borage and Juniper - something to help protect against scams and overpricing

Ginger - catalyst / energy to a quick and easy closing process

Orris Root and Marshmallow Root - gentle persuasion for an accepted offer

Vervain - general home blessing

Breathe your wish into the jar and cap it, then seal with twine and wax and perhaps a lucky charm. You might even use one of your bespelled candles for the sealing, that might be a nice touch. Put the jar out to catch sunlight or moonlight, whichever resonates most with you. (My practice tends toward the lunar.) Keep it somewhere safe and keep searching!

Hope this helps and best of luck to you!

[sovpologist]

bye i feel so stupid i just realized that petra’s name is a play on “revenge”

[totdeadites]

Our friend and amazing artist, Raven J shows off his color work on a piece he made of our very own Mz. M and he put it to the tune of our song, Aquaphobic. Check out Raven J's work on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Unshure-498695363629155/ #synthpop #electronicmusic #comicart #thedeadites #trickortreatradio #horrormusic #dancemusic #femalevocals #femalesingers #Horrorpop #shockrock #ravenj

[chemicalmagecraft]

The Gamer Hero, Deku Chapter 9

A/N: Okay, thanks to everyone who contributed to that explosion of suggestions. Was nice. A few things:

Remzal Von Enili: That is an interesting idea and I wish I could find a way to use it.

ImSoBored246: I don't think I'm going to go that extreme, but thanks for the suggestion.

Plasma Dragon 312: That's a cool skill. I already had an idea for PhysEnd's upgrade, so unfortunately that's probably not going to be it, but I appreciate you suggesting a skill and am going to try to find a way to include it somehow.

RavenJ: Thanks for telling me that. WAIT DANGIT! At the very least, you can't tell me his hair isn't antigravity...

To everyone who suggested a fire-type Pokémon for Izuku: Thank you! You all had great ideas and I honestly wish I could pick them all, buuuut there would be some logistic problems with that... The winning suggestion, however, goes to a guest because I liked the Pokémon and logic behind it used and then grew too attached to my design to change my mind. Not gonna say what it is here, though.

And considering how well that worked out, I'd also appreciate any title suggestions for as-of-yet untitled characters and also skill suggestions. Because I highly appreciate any time someone gives me an excuse to do less work, lol.

xoxoxo

Yuuei was... surprisingly mundane. I don't know what I was expecting, but after the rush of being taught by pro heroes wore off, it was actually boring. At least it was good for leveling Enlightenment. Though Enlightenment actually leveled rather slowly for a level one skill, probably because it was a prestige skill. I was really excited to see what getting that up would do.

Of course, there was one class that I didn't want to miss one second of. Hero Basic Training.

"I AM HERE!" All Might shouted as he burst through the door in his silver age costume, causing a wave of excitement to run through the class. "Today will be your first class with me, All Might! In this class, you will learn what you will need to defeat villains and save lives! But before we begin!" He pointed at some panels on the wall that Observe told me held our hero costumes behind them! On cue, they slowly came out from the wall. "I'm not the only one who's going to be in costume today! Suit up in your new outfits and meet me at training ground beta!

xoxoxo

All Might gave his trademark brilliant smile as he watched us slow-walk through the entrance to training ground beta, somehow in perfect sync. "They say clothes make the pros, class, and you are no exception!" Everyone looked so cool in their costumes!

"Hey, Deku!" Uraraka said as she walked over to me. She had a black-and-pink bodysuit that looked like a futuristic space suit. "I love your costume! It's supposed to be like an RPG character, right?"

"Yeah that was the idea," I said. At first, I'd wanted a jumpsuit with horns that looked like All Might's hair, but when I showed it to Kacchan he hit me so hard I leveled up Physical Endurance (though to be fair I was almost to the next level at the time) and told me that it would be too obvious and it'd make me look like a rabbit. 

Upon threat of further violence, I agreed to change my outfit to something a little more original, and decided to just go with the RPG theme that my Quirk gave me. I had a green waistcoat over a long-sleeved white shirt, dark green pants, my sweet red shoes, white gloves, a small utility belt that I suppose was superfluous with my inventory but still looked cool, and a green hooded cloak that I had include rabbit ears as a joke to Kacchan at first, then decided I liked it and kept it. It all had light armor that didn't mess with the look or harm my mobility but still added slightly to my defenses. The most surprising part, though, was that my request for a sword so I didn't have to waste mana on Bound Blade was accepted. Sure, I had spells that worked well with a sword, but I could also make swords and I didn't expect them to let me have a sword on my first year. "I think yours looks nice too." I also expected that without Gamer's Mind I would have been very flustered...

Ururaka sighed. "I wish I'd been more specific with my costume, this is a little embarrassing..."

"Look at it this way; at least you're not Ponytail or Invisible," Kacchan said with an amused grin. His costume was pretty cool, but I still think those gauntlets looked a little too bulky, even after he had them reduced a bit and include switchable sweat cartridges at my suggestion. I saw he also had the water bottle I'd suggested to keep hydrated so he could sweat more. "One of them's half naked and the other's only wearing gloves and shoes."

"In my defense, I need bare skin for my Quirk, Creation," Yaoyorozu stated.

"Dude, I'm naked, like, all the time when I'm at home," Hagakure told Kacchan. I noticed that her title was transparent. Not fully invisible, but harder to see than it used to be. I shrugged it off as my Quirk making it harder for me to see her title because she was supposed to be harder to see. "And I got points in the entrance exam by sneaking around buck naked and messing around with the robots' innards and stuff."

Mineta gave a thumbs-up. "Naked ladies..." He drooled... Ugh.

"Nobody asked you, Dick-for-brains!" Kacchan shouted at him.

"Now that you're all in costume, we're going to begin with combat training!" All Might told us. "Unlike the entrance exam, where you fought robots outside, today you'll all be fighting each other indoors! Now, can anyone tell me why it is important to know how to fight indoors?"

Almost immediately, Iida's hand shot up. "While it is true that most confrontations between heroes and villains happen outdoors, the vast majority of all fights between heroes and villains are in fact inside!" He was wearing really cool white armor that reminded me of Ingenium and my Observe told me was more to reduce wind resistance than defend from attacks.

"Exactly, young Iida! And so for your training exercise today, you will be divided into teams of two! Those teams will then be pitted against each other, one hero team against one villain team! The villains will be hiding a fake bomb somewhere in the building and it will be the heroes' job to find it! The heroes will win if they capture both villains or touch the bomb! On the other hand, the villains win if they capture the heroes or survive to the end of the time limit! And try not to hurt each other too hard!" Then he pulled out a cardboard box. "And the teams will be decided by drawing lots!"

"Why lots?" Iida asked.

"Pros can't always choose who they're working with, so maybe it's to represent that?" I offered.

"Exactly, young Midoriya! Now, let's see who the teams are!"

xoxoxo

In a freak twist of fate that further cemented my decision to no longer grind LUC because it's not that worth it, Uraraka and I, in team A, were put against Kacchan and Iida in team D. Kacchan and Iida as the villain team were given five minutes to get set up, and we were allowed to plan outside while they were in there. I sighed. "What's wrong, Midoriya?" Uraraka asked.

"I know that this might sound a little bit like bragging, but Kacchan's really the only person in the class that I know for sure could win in a fight against me. I think Todoroki might be able to put up a decent fight, but Kacchan knows what I can do the best and his Quirk and magic combined make him a definite threat. Plus, he's the only person who might be able to counter the plan I came up with."

Uraraka grinned. "Then we're just gonna have to do our best! What's the plan?"

I nodded. "First, I'm going to summon reinforcements. Don't freak out." I summoned all of my elementals, including my new fire elemental, Blaise. He wore a light brown long-sleeved shirt with thin black horizontal lines. His black pants, black shoes, and black gloves covered up the rest of his skin below his neck. He had a mane of wild white hair with five wavy red... ponytails(?) arranged in a way that made his head the center of a five-pointed star. He also had a neck warmer/mask in the same shade of white as his hair that was pulled up over his nose. What little skin on his face that was visible was pitch-black, and his scleraless eyes glowed bright blue. He was probably the least human-looking elemental I had.

"Wow, what kind of spell is this?" Uraraka asked as she crouched down a bit to look at Dune. Thankfully, I'd managed to get Dune to switch from a gun to some sort of military-type knife sheathed on her sleeve in public.

"Sup, I'm Dune," Dune introduced herself.

"Halitus," Halitus muttered.

Rayne gave her a wide, toothy grin and pulled out her sword. "I'm Rayne! Need something stabbed?"

"No, Rayne," Blaise sighed as he grabbed her hand and lowered the sword she was brandishing for her. "Name's Blaise."

Uraraka laughed, causing Rayne to give a toothy grin and blush a little. "These are my elementals," I said. "They're able to control the elements. My plan is to use a certain spell I have to sneak into the building." I bit my lip. "Unfortunately, the best way to use it is to have you act as a distraction... Is that okay?"

She nodded. "It's totally okay! I'm guessing there's technical stuff at work?"

"Yeah. The spell, Illusion Barrier, takes me and anything I include into a sort of pocket dimension, and while I know how to exclude my elementals, I don't think I can put you in and not me..."

"I said it's fine!" Uraraka beamed. "That's super cool though! So you can just disappear at will? That's gotta be so useful!"

"Start!" All Might's voice said from our earpieces.

"I'm pulling us in!" I warned. "Illusion Barrier!" Nothing seemed to change, but I knew it worked. "Right, we should probably split up so we can cover more ground. Objects, like the bomb, will still be where they were when I used the spell, but Kacchan and Iida aren't in the barrier. I saw them on my map in the northern part of the building, but the map doesn't show elevation, so we need to check each floor. Let's go!"

xoxoxo

Bakugou sighed. This was going to be a fucking nightmare. "I am loath to act on the side of the villains, even if it's just for practice, but if I must, then I shall," Ingenium Junior said.

"'Kay, first off, Glasses, you're gonna have to think like a villain sometimes if you wanna get the jump on the real villains," Bakugou said. "Second off, can you please let me think?"

"Ah, yes. Is Midoriya likely to give us trouble?"

Bakugou gave a deeper sigh. "More like he's gonna fucking appear out of thin air on top of the bomb if I don't figure out a counter to what I'm pretty sure is dimensional fuckery. Deku's got a spell called Illusion Barrier that lets him go to some other dimension of total bullshit or something where everything's the same but nobody's there."

Even through his helmet, Bakugou could see Glasses' wince. "That sounds like it'll be difficult to counter. I will defer to your lead."

"Right, first off, this." Bakugou made a fire ball, using it to summon Pyra. Like Deku's elementals, Pyra seemed to have ranked up, causing her to look older and gain a small bump on her forehead for some reason. "This is Pyra. She's made of fire. Deal with it."

"Hello," Pyra said with a small wave. "I am a fire elemental."

"If I know Deku like I know Deku, and I know Deku, then Round Face is gonna pop out of nowhere sometime soon with at least one of Deku's four elementals to distract us. By the way, Deku has four Pyras of various elements. Deal with it. While that happens, Deku'll make his way over to the bomb in his Bullshit Barrier and just pop back in on top of it. I want you and Pyra to hold off Round Face and the elementals while I try to enact Operation Punch Deku in the Fucking Face from Another Dimension, or OPDFFAD for short. That sound good?"

Glasses nodded. "It does, though I'd like to know what OPDFFAD entails, if you don't mind me asking."

"Step one is to make some kind of sensory spell that can hopefully be used to sense dimensional fuckery. I've already made a spell that I think can do that, but I have to concentrate on it and it's a bitch on my mana. Step two is to try using it on Deku while he's entering or exiting Bullshitland. Step three, try to use that data to sense where Deku is in Bullshitland and then cause my fist to enter Bullshitland with magic."

"There are a lot of ifs in that plan..." Glasses sounded a little doubtful.

Bakugou glared at him. "You got a better plan?"

"On the other hand, this is a training exercise. Why exactly do you think your spell will sense Midoriya's Illusion Barrier?"

"Because I used it on Round Face and felt something when she used her Quirk that wasn't magic, which I'm assuming was her gravity fuckery, which according to Einstein is a type of dimensional fuckery."

"I... do not believe those were his exact words, but that sounds about right."

"Then I got Deku to use his inventory and felt a similar but different feeling, which pretty much confirms it's Fuckery Detection."

"I literally cannot argue with that logic."

"Now shut up so I can detect fuckery." Bakugou leaned on the bomb so he could close his eyes and reach out with his Fuckery Detection. It needed him to spread out a thin layer of mana over the area he wanted to detect, which meant that he wouldn't be able to use it over too large of an area if he wanted to do it for a while. Thankfully, Pyra had given him the general direction of Deku's and Round Face's heat signatures, so he was able to find the two relatively easily, plus all four of Deku's elementals. 

Just a few fucking moments after he got set up, All Might announced that the heroes could start, causing Deku drag them all into Bullshitland. Bakugou definitely felt... something when they fucked off, but he felt like he'd need to feel an exit to get any concrete idea. Still, he definitely felt just the lightest bit of a person-shaped spatial disturbance or whatever the fuck where the heroes were. He was able to follow one of the signals that he thought might have been Round Face until it made its way to the room with the bomb, convening with some other, shorter, human-shaped disturbances.

"Get ready," Bakugou warned, then concentrated harder on the signal. He was just in time to catch Round Face and the elementals getting dumped out of Bullshitland, which gave Bakugou a surprising degree of insight on how Illusion Barrier worked. He felt Bullshitland change when Round Face was spat out, then felt it change back a few moments later when Deku presumably recast the spell. It seemed like there was some sort of dimensional barrier or whatever the fuck that was already there, and Deku called on a part of it to use his Illusion Barrier, which Bakugou figured made sense of what Deku was muttering about when he was talking about his spell. But with that knowledge, Bakugou figured he could maybe punch Deku. He grinned as he felt Deku's signature approaching, then Blast Rushed at it when it jumped toward the bomb. "DIEEEEEEE!"

xoxoxo

The plan seemed to be going off without a hitch. Uraraka found the bomb quickly enough and called me to bring my elementals over. As they got into position, I found a spot that was out of the way enough that the villain team wouldn't notice me blink into existence for a moment, but close enough that I could get over to the bomb quickly and not keep Uraraka waiting for too long. I undid the Illusion Barrier for a moment before pulling myself and only myself back in. I'd had a lot of practice with exiting and reentering Illusion Barrier whenever I was switching between empty and skeletons, so it took less than a second. I ran toward the bomb as fast as I could, using Air Aura and Speed Up to get there faster. Within a few seconds, I saw and jumped at the fake bomb, aiming to land on top of it so I could just appear there and win. It looked like I was about to win!

Then Kacchan faded into existence in front of me, screaming, "DIEEEEEEE!" He punched me on the jaw, throwing me back. I was stunned, but more from the shock of Kacchan appeaing out of nowhere in an area I never expected him to than from pain. "You thought you could escape fighting me by fucking off to Bullshitland, Deku?" Kacchan smirked at me. "Fuck that noise."

"How?" I asked. I noted that I could see Iida and Pyra fighting my team as I got up. "Did the skill fail?"

"Fuck yeah it did!" His grin widened and he pointed at himself. "And I was the one who made it fail!"

"I'm gonna stab you!" I heard Rayne say gleefully.

I immediately turned to see Rayne brandishing her sword at Iida. "No maiming, Rayne!" I shouted frantically.

"But he tried to kick the pretty lady!" she retorted.

"No!" I said like I was telling a little kid not to draw on the walls. I turned back to Kacchan. "Sorry, didn't want Rayne to kill Iida."

He shrugged. "That's fair. Now hit me with your bes-" He cut himself off by using his gauntlets to block the flat of my sword. Kacchan being Kacchan, this only served to make him look extremely happy. After a quick test showing that trying to recast Illusion Barrier was futile, I used Air Aura to strike at him with a quick flurry of blows. Even though he wasn't as fast as me, Kacchan was fast enough that he could use both gauntlets to block my strikes. Of course, my plan wasn't to hit him with a sword. Instead, I kept his attention on my sword as I got out the capture tape that All Might gave us. I managed to make a loop with the tape with my hand and then gave Kacchan a particularly hard swipe. When he blocked, I tried to catch his hands in the loop, which would have disqualified him. Unfortunately, he incinerated the tape before it even touched him and then backhanded me, knocking me back. 

I tried to jump over Kacchan, but he Blast Rushed up at me and punched at me again, though this time I Air Jumped away, landing on the side of a pillar. I pushed off of the pillar with eight percent One For All, aiming to get over Kacchan. Unfortunately, he just flew up to me, causing me to to jump up to the ceiling and kick off away from Kacchan. This time, I threw an Air Shot at him, blasting him back and me toward the bomb. For good measure, I threw a Bind at him, which I really should have done earlier. Without Kacchan to deal with, I realized that maybe I might be falling hard enough to damage the bomb, so I braked with air mana. While it didn't stop me completely, I slowed down enough that I touched down on the bomb relatively lightly. "HERO TEAM WINS!" All Might announced.

xoxoxo

After the battle ended, All Might had us meet up in the room where the rest of the class had watched our fight for a review of our fight. "Now," All Might said, "who can tell me who the MVP if this round was?"

Yaoyorozu raised her hand. "Surely it's Midoriya, right? He came up with the plan, and it would have gone without a hitch if the matchups had gone any differently."

I felt my cheeks heating up a bit. "N-no, surely the others deserve some of the credit too..."

Kacchan slapped me upside the head. "You won, idiot."

"Yeah, but you three and the elementals also..."

"I won't deny that everyone contributed, young Midoriya! However, you most certainly deserve the spot of MVP!"

My eyes watered a bit. "Thanks, everyone..."

"And unless there are any more questions, let us begin with the second match!" All Might loudly declared. I perked up at that. I was really excited to see everyone's Quirks in a fight.

xoxoxo

A/N: And now dimensional fuckery is an actual scientific term thanks to Kacchan. Because it made me laugh and that's about half of how my writing works.

And FYI, Deku's outfit is basically his outfit from the fantasy AU thing in that one outro, but with a cloak to make him more wizardy. Bakugou's outfit is mostly the same except for the changes noted. Everyone else is the same.

[zorarka]

Petra Venj

In this DLC you could say she was out for

RaVenj

*Gets backhanded by Ikora for the crappy pun*