#they are super regular people with super regular working class problems

[ginkovskij]

kaurismäki save me.... aki kaurismäki... save me aki.....

[jnece-maharlika]

Amity parkers are feral and insane

-Gothamites.

Somehow, someway, Casper high finds their selves in Gotham.

It could be a field trip or a ghost shoved them in a portal, doesn't matter, they're in Gotham.

As they arrive in Gotham, the Casper teachers decide to turn this into something educational and hire a tour guide from Gotham Academy (or was it Gotham university? I forgot) GA agrees and also Sends some of their students to partner up with the amity parkers as a sort "buddy" and to hopefully teacher em the ways of surviving in Gotham.

To the gothamites, the amity parkers look like children who have never been exposed to crime in their life, never been mugged, never been been kidnapped.

But the truth is, compared to the BS amity is used to, Gothams issues are like kindergarten.

First thing the tour guide hears when she greets Casper high Mr lancer telling them to, "Please don't walk into danger, please don't try and provoke the joker, I know he's a bitch but still. If you find yourself in a tricky situation, do not hesitate to punch yourself to freedom, but ABSOLUTELY NO CRITICAL HITs these are NORMAL people they're not like us or the ghosts, they will not survive. Please do not give phantom problems, He's already failing in class he doesn't need more problems"

Its important to keep in mind that:

amity parkers and ghosts are buddies now.

The Ambient ectoplasm gave them a form of super strength, also making it so that they are able to touch ghost.

They join the ghost brawls everyone in a while and has some wins.

Most, if not all are liminal in a way.

Everyone knows that Danny is phantom but have signed an NDA that says they aren't allowed to tell anyone who isn't a native amity parker who he is.

Things is, The gothamites don't know about this and take it as if Mr lancer and the students are underestimating Gotham. So as a from of pettiness, all the Gotham students decided to bring their amity partner to the most dangerous places they can think of.

Niky has lead sam into a park that poison ivy frequents. Of course, poison ivy is there but instead of running away in fear like niky expected, Sam runs up to ivy, complements her and joins the path of eco terrorism.

Tucker and his partner Vic finds himself in the middle of a riddler attack, locked in a room with no way out, a countdown timer with 20 secs remaining and a riddle in a computer.

Vic is panicking as he tries to figure it out, he looked to tucker for help. Tucker just shrugged and hacked the computer, not even bothering to solve the riddle. It worked and Vic is baffled and the riddler is frustrated.

Danny find himself in the hands of the joker, (his partner ran the moment joker was seen) hanging upside down on top of a large pool of acid, because, it's classic for joker. He is also being live streamed.

The teachers in GA are panicking, the bats are panicking.

Casper high teacher took one look at the stream and shrugged. "Eh, he'll be fine." They also called the number that joker has displayed on the screen, just to say, "Daniel Fenton, make sure your back before in GA 6 pm or else were leaving you to find the hotel on your own."

The time is 5:30 pm.

It takes 25 minutes to walk from Joker to GA.

Danny sighs, might as well start walking.

He uses intangibility to free himself and fall into the vat of acid.

The Gothamites are shocked and screaming, the bats are shocked. Amity parkes went "oh" and continued placing bets on how fast Danny will get back.

Danny then proceeds to swim out of the acid pool, punch the joker in the face, knocking him out in a single hit and then proceeds to casually squeeze out the acid from his Casper high "I am a proud amitian" shirt as if it's regular water.

All of this was done in 5 minutes.

All of this was caught on stream.

The Gothamites are passed out, the bats are questioning everything. Batman is searching up everything he can about acid side effects and about Danny but ends up with nothing.

The amity parkers just raised their bets even further.

Danny somehow makes it back 10 minutes late and Wes wins the bet.

[thatrandomsarahchick]

DC x DP short

I'm picturing Danny moving to Gotham once he's an adult. He came out to his parents, and it went fine. More than fine. They listened to how he was struggling at school because he kept having to chase down the ghosts they let out by leaving the portal open. Jack was super proud of his son for being a ghost hunter even as a ghost, but Maddie understood his concern and set up some new protocols for the portal.

It now automatically closes after two minutes unless a specific command is put in by Danny to keep it open while he is in the Zone, and the shielding around it actually works to stop ghosts coming trig without hurting them now.

The shine of the mortal world has worn off for most of his regulars now, and those that come through have figured out compromises so they can still fulfil their obsessions without hurting others. The meta-protection act officially disbands the GIW, and Red Huntress is given a very thorough speaking to about personal bias and vendettas. She's not allowed back in the field until she comes to the realisation that ghosts are people too, and that she been the bad guy by hunting them the way she did. Phantom is officially recognised as a Hero, but he turns down working for any teams or joining the Big Leagues. He agrees to act as a back up though, in case of any world ending event.

By the time senior year rolls around, Danny has gotten his grades up enough that he can go to a pretty decent university if he wants to. He chooses Gotham University for his engineering degree because they're a feeder school for Wayne Enterprises, who in turn are a feeder company for working for the Justice League as a civilian engineer. Tucker also chooses GU for their tech program, while Sam elects not to go to university straight away.

Tucker and Danny move into an apartment right on the borders of Crime Alley and The Narrows. Tucker manages an impressive 4 months as a local hacker before Oracle notices him, but Danny only manages 3 weeks before he's spotted by a Bat.

He's lying down a foot above his building's roof, looking at the stars. It's a very rare cloudless night, and the power is out in his area. Poison Ivy had launched an attack earlier in the day that had taken cut the power lines, with her mutant plants feeding on the smog and pollution to get stronger.

Duke was up late, finishing the day shift by a quick loop of The Narrows, when he noticed a slightly glowing teenager(?) floating on one of the roofs. He takes note that the man isn't causing any harm and is just peacefully stargazing, before calling it in to Jason. He was technically supposed to be off the clock an hour ago, and besides, the building was on the Crime Alley side of this street. It's Jason's problem now.

Jason, on the other hand, is exhausted and just wants to have a quiet patrol before collapsing in bed. He hadn't been hit by Ivy's plants, but had taken a couple of tumbles while dodging them. He heads over to the address Duke gave him, to find the guy still floating there staring at the sky. He gets it, he does, he would float above the grime that coats Gotham rooftops if he could, but it's dangerous for a meta to be so unawares of his surroundings like this while obviously displaying his powers.

Danny, meanwhile, had clocked both of the vigilantes coming near him, but was really hoping that they would leave him alone. It had been a very long day for him. He'd finally managed to get to campus for his class, only to find that the place was covered in overgrown plants. He'd had to freeze a few to get into the building, and had then spent most of the afternoon in the library due to his class being cancelled. Unfortunately for him, his nearly finished assignment that he'd spent the day working on was eaten by one of the giant flowers on his way home. He'd been 'saved' by the stabby Robin, which had caused him to then also lose his laptop as they crashed to the rooftop a few streets over.

Thankfully, he had an amazing best friend in Tucker, who was doing his best to recover as much data as possible. On the downside, though, Tucker was mad at him for now having saved a backup of his files since they left Amity. He'd fled to the roof to escape his wrath, plans of bribes in the form of food running through his mind, when he'd caught sight of the Stars. Holy shit. It was so clear tonight!

He didn't even realise he'd begun to glow and float, too caught up in naming all of the stars and constellations he could see. His Obsession was feeling very satisfied tonight. Usually he had to invisibly fly above the cloud cover to see such a sight. Sure, the light pollution was still bad, but his mind was able to fill in the blanks across the sky.

The moment Jason landed on his roof, Danny heaved a great sigh. Damnit. The fun police were here. He wrenched his eyes from the sky, only to notice that - oh, shit - he was floating again. He fell to the roof with a light thump.

"Heeeyyy stranger, come here often?" Danny asked, as he rolled over to his side, propping his head up on his hand.

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

Cute Spider Society Headcanons:

[a long post of random headcanons about the fun stuff at Spider Society HQ - all cool things for your Spidersona to do]

There's absolutely regular talent shows and battles of the band every quarter or so.

Spider-people usually aren't the most popular back home on their Earth's, so Miguel permits having shows and activities like this so Spider-people can bond and relieve stress between Canon Events

Hobie has won multiple times - His and Gwen's band won last quarter, BUT they don't always win. MetroSpider is another past winner.

The rule is Spider-members only. But if your powers help your music, you can use them (ie, Hobie can play guitar without an amp-)

Training is a HUGE thing.

And it's mandatory even between missions. Time trails, Web strength testing, problem resolution training, weekly classes - It's a lot.

Your training schedule isn't always the same, and your classes are determined by your skill, specific powers, and universe

Money isn't used on campus. It's banned actually, and mostly useless when everyone is from a universe with a different exchange rate, political climate, tender etc.

Instead, The main currency is based on a points system connected to training/missions.

The more missions you do, or the more you train (therefore making you a better hero to your universe), the more points you earn

Things like the cafeteria and dorms are completely free. But points can be used to earn perks like suit upgrades, or things from the commissary

The Commissary is a store on campus where you can buy authorized items from other Earth's.

They have everything from training materials like mechanical webbing - with different properties/effects - to leisure things like cool video games from Margo's world or music from other time eras, vintage things from old universes, etc

Points can also be used for a number of other stuff such as:

Extra jumps on your watch. The more missions you do, the more jumps you can buy, allowing you to go to other universes on your off time (to hang with friends)

Suit Upgrades. Your suit is surveyed and upgraded for free at joining, and it gets upgraded with every class you gain (C Class -> B Class -> A Class -> etc.)

However, you can use points to upgrade or even just redesign your suit. There is a Suit Center where fashionable and genius Spider-people will help you design and adjust your suit based on your universe and villains

There's support groups, a lot centered around Canon Events.

For teens and young Spider-people there's an Educational Program

It can be done part-time with active mission work or full-time on campus

You train in multiversal research, Spider genetics, and other technology such as Doc Ock technology and Green Goblin biology

You can be offered a job on campus after completion - Margo is a graduate of this

If your participate in Educational Program, Lyla will be your mentor and you'll report to her

Educational students live in separate dorms, and the program is kinda intense, but VERY fun

There are different focuses in the program

Spider-Geneticists have a short residency after, they help take Spider vitals and oversee Training

You can also specialise in Spider-medicine - in which you work in the Infirmary

There are some CRAZY (secret) Parties all over the Spider-verse.

Disco-Spider loves a good party. Her and Pavi through insane ragers, a new one in a different universe everytime

Miguel has no idea

But partying on the walls and ceiling while Spider-people play super-human live shows in the world's craziest mosh-pit -

Spider-parties hit different.

It's one of the only time everyone is unmasked around each other

There's a really loose dress code

You DO NOT have to wear your suit 24/7. What is someone gonna do, rat you out in your universe?

Everyone is in their suit for ATSV cause Miguel asked them to be completely professional that day (as an intimidation tactic)

That's why Jess, Gwen, Peter, and Hobie are all fine showing their faces as soon as they get to campus.

If anything it's usually seen as weird to be wearing your mask all the time

Casual clothing is allowed. Skirts and dresses without anything underneath aren't allowed (you'll be upsidedown.)

You're expected to have two suits (one main, one spare - you get these at joining) for missions and a separate training outfit for your classes

There's super sports teams

Spidey Football (European not American) expands the rules to all four walls with a ball engineered to stick like Spidey-people do

Track & Swing Team - which Pavitr is a star member of

A small swim-and-dive team for the swimmers, and a small Roller Derby league for the skaters

Pavitr is also a star on the gymnastics team

There's also things like ballet groups, though Gwen doesn't take part

There's a REALLY GOOD Glee club. Spider-strength gives some crazy lung-capacity.

Disco is on the Glee club, and they take it very seriously

Living on campus doesn't threaten your home verse - you'll still be on call!

Lyla monitors all universes for anamolies - sending Anamoly Teams of 2-6

However if your universe experiences a non-anamoly, your watch will be pinged for a mandatory report, and you'll be sent to your universe to handle it

As such, your watch is like a doctor's pager. You can be called for anamolies or your universe at any time (If you're an active member in your universe, living on Society Campus, or have a contact negotiated for that. Class S members like Hobie can negotiate to be Selective Active members)

There's a little underground Spider-market

If you ask Hobie, he can definitely hack your watch for you.

If your Electro has been beating your ass, you can get your hands on electro-resistant webbing without spending points.

The Society has a small group of people willing to trade you for anything you've got, or even just help you out for the hell of it.

You just have to know where and who to ask

There's a couple Spideys that don't pay electric because someone hooked them up with a super clean Futuristic generator

MJ's, Black Cats, Osborns, and Deadpools are allowed on campus with clearance, a daypass, and a chaperone (their Spidey)

Only for short periods, or if they're super injured. An MJ might pop in when Peter forgets his lunch.

Aunt Mays are not.

It's considered very rude to call them by their 'base names' - ie. calling MJs 'Mary-Janes' or calling Black Cats 'Felicias'

Not all MJs are Mary-Janes

Though, using the term 'a Parker' is common on campus to refer to large Peter Parker population

Roughly 45-50% of the people on campus are named Peter.

There's other 'groups' - such as 'Not-Parkers' (Non-Peter iterations like Pavitr), and 'Duplicates' (Hobie Brown, Gwen Stacy, MJs, Felicia Hardy NightSpider etc)

Though calling them these things are way less common or accepted than calling someone a Parker ('Not-Parker'is neutral. 'Duplicate' is offensive)

[awellboiledicicle]

I feel like Arven would try his hand at growing the herba mystica in his dorm, have a problem, and refuse to ask for help until Protag and Co find him haunting the horticulture section of the library for the fifth straight day without sleep.

At which point Protag shrugs and suggests asking their mom, since she’s got a really big garden that’s growing super well.

Cut to Arven awkwardly having tea and thanking everything holy that he paid attention in Languages enough to understand when she jumps into Galarian on a word she doesn’t know in Paldaen. Protag is telling their mom about the herbs and their journey to find them, and even excitedly telling her about what the herbs did for Mabosstiff. Arven tries not to feel weird about the feelings that well up when she gives him a genuinely sympathetic look and apologizes that he had to go through that alone for so long. After he chokes out the ‘thank you’ in response, Protag rounds back to growing the herbs-- they could help people AND pokemon. And they should, which is why Arven is wary of, like, asking a commercial source for help. He’s not stupid, he knows the herbs would be skwovet’d away for who knows how long until they’re fully studied. And yeah, they should be studied, but he feels... like he should be involved. Some part of him wonders if its his parent’s influence in him, wanting a stake in finding out the why of it. Some part of it is his desire to make food that’s good for everyone. Right now, though, there’s not enough of the herbs to do much with anyway. Thus why they’re there.

Protag’s mom suggests a climate controlled greenhouse-- partially to simulate the environment each herb was found in, and partially to keep out wild pokemon to keep more titans from growing. Unfortunately, the greenhouse at the academy is full and it’s not like Arven has a place outside there where he can be to keep an eye on things. So she suggests they build it in the back garden of their house and Arven will “just have to visit to keep up with things”. Protag offers to split their room with him while they set up, so they don’t have to flying taxi back and forth every day--though they still can when normal classes are in progress.

First day there, though, Arven sleeps on the couch. Under a cozy blanket that smells like lavender, with a stomach full of home cooked food. Mabosstiff is curled up against the couch with his head on his paws, snoozing away. First break he spends there, he has his own bed and Protag’s mom knows what kind of foods he likes. The herbs are growing well, but somehow he’s more focused on the house, rather than the greenhouse. Mabosstiff has claimed the skwovet plush as his own, though he does begrudgingly share with Protag’s starter on occasion. By the time the herbs are ready to be harvested and studied, he’s a regular fixture. Spends holidays and weekends there, when not catching up on studies. His half of the room has his signature yellow aesthetic. There are bookcases of old notebooks Protag brought him from his parent’s lab--nothing about the crater per se, but things that had been moved down there and left behind. Copies of personal pokemon observations. Formula books with notes in the margins, an old journal that mentions getting a maschiff that bonded with baby Arven. Journals about him. He keeps them at the house so he can focus on school-- and so, if he reads them and gets worked up, he’ll know someone will hear him cry and snap him out of it.

There’s a point where a ‘family’ picture is being taken. He’s pulled in by Protag and their mom, insisting he and his pokemon count as family-- why wouldn’t he be in the photo? I think he’d probably be trying very hard not to cry, at least until the picture was taken.

I just feel like he could use being adopted.

[the---hermit]

I have not kept it a secret that this semester commuting has been really rough on me. By the time I get home in the middle of the afternoon even if I only had to sit in a hour and a half lecture I feel like an overcooked noodle. And the mornings aren't any easier, my anxiety has been spiking a lot lately, and that messes me up completly, and it's particularly hard on my stomach. Let's just say it's a very demanding period of my life both physically and emotionally and I have been doing my best to get through it with ups and downs, but most importantly by trying to properly take care of myself. I decided to compile a list of small things that have been helping me, both for future reference as well as for people who might be dealing with similar issues.

Prep everything I can the night before. I don't leave the house until more or less mid morning since my class is on lunch time more or less (and this will come up again), so I do have time to do stuff in the morning, but if I have already put everything I need in my backpack, picked an outfit for the day and checked that I have my bus ticket the night before I can have a much calmer morning. Having a calm morning is fundamental for me on any day, so especially when I have a stressful and energy demanding day ahead I want to make sure I don't have to rush, and here is my second point.

Try to have a morning as calm as possible before I have to leave. I am a morning person so I wake up quite early which means I have plenty of time to take it easy. And this means drink my tea as I read my book, prep the last few things I need, like my waterbottle, eat (on which I'll have a later point). Overall my morning before leaving needs to be slow and mostly made of things for myself so again my precious reading time, listening tocmusic as I get ready to get in a better mood and so on.

Taking my meds regularly. It's the logical thing to do, if I am in a period in which my anxiety is worse than usual the number one goal is to be consistent with meds, they are there to help me even if sometimes I forget that.

Finding ways to enjoy food when anxiety fucks up my stomach. What happens is that as soon as I have an anxiety spike for some reason I get very nauseous, which is terribly by itself and it gets worse when it makes me struggle to enjoy my food. But I found a couple of ways to work around that in the past few weeks. Eating when I am away from home is much worse so what I do is embrace the little hobbit in me and have more meals when I am at home, and just bring some snacks on the road if I need them. That means I have two breakfasts before I have to leave the house, the last being a bit more filling. And then when I get home no matter how tired I am or what time it is I cook something for myself, something simple, but I take the time to make something good that fills me up and makes me happy. Because having a full stomach does improve your mood belove me. When I am on the road I bring some lighter snacks that can help me if I feel like I need to have something but that will also work well if I have a spike in anxiety and correlated nausea. I usually eat some homemade bread while I walk from the bus stop to my uni, and then snack on some nuts while I wait for the lecture. And I always have an emergency sweet treat in my backpack because that is something that I actually do on a regular basis. This thing has been working very well, I have had less problems with my stomach acting up, and I am definitely getting all the nutrients I need during the day, just at times that are a bit different from my normal routine.

Bring tea with me. It's something I never did before but it's becoming the one thing I won't give up. I either make a green tea or an herbal tea that I drink before the lecture, and it's been so good for me both physically and mentally. It's been super cold so the warm treat is really needed, but most importantly it's been very comforting and calming, so shutout to my dad for suggesting that.

Having little things to look out for during the commute. This mostly consists of me listing to podcasts, and re:dracula has been of great company in my commutes last year so it's nice it's become a bit of a tradition. It's just good for me not to associate commuting with negative things, so now I just percieve it as poscast time which makes it much much better. This also includes texing friends when I feel like I can look at the screen of my phone without getting car sick (again when anxiety messes me up I can get random car sickness), that's good to keep my mind off things and make the commute feel lighter.

Total relax when I get home. Which sometimes means lying in bed with a cup of tea and nothing more. If I have enough brain power I might read a comic, or play stupid midless games on my tablet for a bit. Honestly just things that need as little energy and brainpower as possible because by that time I do not have much energy or brainpower left, and it's okay. I normally use up a lot of energy when going out and it this period of time all tasks require I use even more energy. I can't do much about it other than accept it and do my best to tke care of myself.

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

@intertexts okay before i answer the second trigger question i NEED to talk about the trickster/clarence/mal backstory. fuck . okay. you know the drill. nhw essay under the cut:

ok first off this is the required listening for reading this post bc ive imagined all of this in the form of an animatic (trickster pov). there was like a 4-hour span of time at work one day last week where i just had this song on repeat and zoned out thinking abt this while i did absent cleaning tasks. so thats how u KNOW im insane

ok so i still havent thought of a name for the city. but ive been thinking about this city as a parallel equivalent to the spirit world. ironically, its a city that doesnt have a huge parahuman population, so its relatively quiet. the cape presence is pretty small. the lead hero in the city is Whisperer (aka clarence albert), a striker/mover/stranger. he can fly, turn invisible (NOT intangible!!!!!!!!), and if he can get a hand on someone he can calm their emotions just by touching them. it's effectively like a tranquilizer, except theyre not asleep theyre just not feeling whatever strong emotions led them to causing trouble in the first place. (thinking abt this like a touch-based version of the calm emotions spell in dnd, its concentration so the effect is limited to when hes actually touching someone. when he lets go, theres a small window of time before they reorient themselves and are back to whatever they were feeling before) (this is to parallel the idea that the whisperer can pull chaos spirits out of possessed people like william did to atlas).

anyway. distracted. Whisperer's partner was originally a rogue named Ghoul, a huge hulking Brute cape who didnt really cause many serious problems but was a huge disturbance to the local people just beacuse of his monstrous appearance. Clarence confronted him and Ghoul dropped his changer form to reveal mallard conway, a man who had only recently triggered and was essentially.. lost. directionless. he didnt know what to do with his powers, since they were so... different. hes a master/changer/brute, with the ability to create strong illusions and influence people in his regular form, but can change forms to be a hulking monster with brute strength. essentially both brains and brawn in one guy. clarence asks him something along the lines of "well if you have nowhere else to go, why not come wiht me?" and basically. takes him under his wing? i guess? its not like he trains him, but just by being around clarence, mal learns what its like to be.. good. not selfish and heartless. clarence isnt much involved with capes from other cities since their own is pretty quiet, so his main focus is to just kind of keep the peace. keep the balance.

this goes on for... a long time. clarence and mal (whisperer and purgatory << mal's new hero name) are basically inseparable. call it love, call it brotherhood, call it a one-sided hero worship crush on mal's end. who knows. theyre secretive, not in the public eye much unless they need to be. UNTIL. some new villain triggers and is an IMMEDIATE s-class. now i have a couple different ideas for how and why exactly the trickster triggers and where he comes from but honestly im okay with leaving it a mystery for now. one day he shows up like a natural disaster. it becomes a situation VERY similar to nilbog- the prt forces get called in, they try to take him down with non-capes first since hes a high leveled master and they dont want him to immediately gain super powerful puppets to control. this,, does not work and basically just feeds him fodder to make his numbers grow VERY quickly. Whisperer and Purgatory (mostly whisperer) can't sit back and watch this Trickster guy just keep absorbing innocents into his masses and use them to do his dirty work anymore, so Whisperer wants to confront him. I think Purgatory tries to hold him back at first (mainly due to the fear of losing him, but he words it as "we're not supposed to, if either of us get caught it would be so much worse for everyone involved"). Whisperer does not listen to him and goes anyway; hes convinced that with his power, all he needs to do is touch Trickster and everything will be so much easier to handle once hes out of commission. the fight DOES NOT GO THIS WAY. clar and mal actually are able to fight their way up to the trickster, clarence gets a hand on him.. but his power doesnt work. theres this moment where the trickster freezes like maybe something did happen, but then clarence realizes like... he cant feel anything. i think usually he can tell what sort of emotion he's repressing when he uses his power; sort of innately understands what sort of effect hes having on a person, but with the trickster it jsut feels like. nothing. theres nothing there. and then he starts laughing and breaks the silence and turns around to grab clarence and hurt him in some way. mal is preoccupied; hes fighting off puppets as theyre sort of swarming the area, allowing clarence a moment to use his power... and then he sees whats happening.

i dont think trickster is particularly strong on his own. but. i mean. his name is trickster. i think he probably keeps some sort of secret weapon on him. knives in his coat to make the "ive got a trick up my sleeve" joke. he slashes clarences throat, doesnt even bother trying to control him. what would he want with a power like that anyway? clarence is basically his antithesis- calming instead of chaos. that sort of power is almost like an insult to him. so he kills him. clarence is laying there bleeding out, trickster is laughing over him, mal drops everything and runs over to clarences side, trying desperately to talk to him or stop the bleeding or ANYTHING. he dies in mals arms. mal fucking. fully snaps. instant brute form, he wants to tear the trickster limb from limb, kill anything that moves around him etc etc etc. in his rage, hes not really fighting very well, hes leaving himself vulnerable, theres a lot of openings etc etc. trickster fucks up his face pretty bad (this is how he gets those big scars like he has in canon).

however, MALS powers are more fun so he doesnt outright kill him. its harder to take control of him both because of his current rage state and also the fact that hes also a master and part of mals power kind of cancels out some of the tricksters control. so instead of puppeteering him right away, trickster forces him out of the city. he of course tries to keep going back in, but at that point the PRT has made the decision to put the city under quarantine and just let him take it. they keep mal from going back in. (clarence's body is still in there. he doesnt even get a burial.) . you know how mannequins main thing is that he was originally a hero that was driven crazy by the simurgh attack that killed his wife and daughter? yeah thats what happened to mal. he was just totally unreachable after this. clarence basically saved his life, was his best and only friend, was his mentor, was the person who taught him how to be good... and now hes gone. what else does mal have left. he goes back to being called Ghoul. he joins the s9. his rage and grief eventually settle into a manipulative calm, and he starts using his master powers more than his brute powers, to get what he wants from people.

aaaand then . years later. he sees the new wards team on tv, and theres a hero with a cape that looks achingly familiar. surely it cant be him, clarence is dead, has been dead for years... but there he is. theres his costume. this new hero is even ghost-themed. as smart and manipulative and greasy as mal is i think theres a fundamental piece of him thats just. really irreparably unhinged. seeing something that reminds him of clarence again drives all common sense out of his mind and he defaults to "thats him" even though he would logically know that its not. and thats why hes so obsessed with wibby. he knows this new cape calls himself Wraith, but like. capes change their names all the time! mal even did it himself once! maybe if he calls him Whisperer enough times, he'll remember who he is.

theres some more to this plotwise that mostly just deals with. the plot. but i feel like this is a good setup for mals whole thing :]

[fingerless-glovez]

College au part 2

Guy

• Majoring in political science and government

• Genuinely interested in politics, just isn't as intense about it as Roc

• Wants to be friends with people but Roc said "no"

• Not like most people want to be real friends to him anyway, especially not in his course

• Is currently being pressured to accept a political marriage, but would rather marry for love (sap)

• Jasper is the only one who understands

Dia

• Majoring in botany

• Attends all of his classes virtually

• Has a mushroom farm in his room

• He sings to them to help them grow. Aquia is sworn to secrecy about it

• Has Lou wrapped around his finger

• Found a snake in the bushes, named it Linos, and it is now his pet. Lou was unsuccessful in convincing him to put Linos back outside

• Is this grounds for expulsion? Yes. Does Lou expel him? Nope. Why? Because Dia is why

Sherry

• Majoring in human resources services

• Wants to create more positive workplaces, especially for women

• The only mentally stable person in this goddamn school

• Student council president (thanks, chirp!)

• Ya gurl beat out both Guy and Toa, who were competing for the position and tied for runners-up

• Probably helps that she had the power of baked goods (and Grayson's supervision) on her side

Aquia

• Majoring in botany

• Works at a flower shop

• Poor boy just wants to make friends and study plants but everyone just wants to use him to get in with Guy

• Lack of familial affection go brrr

• Roc doesn't give a shit about his younger sons

• Guy is always busy and has no interest in Aquia's life

• Rahm is too busy trying to make Aquia Roc's successor to notice that he clearly doesn't want to be in politics and loves his brother too much to take his dreams

• Zev is the only one who keeps in regular contact with him, but he's more interested in telling him all about his problems with class, homework, girls, y'know, typical high school stuff. He also asks a lot about how Guy is doing before taking any interest in Aquia

• Fluent in Floriography (language of the flowers)

• Tends to the garden on the school roof at night

• Rio runs into him up there and notices how well cared for the flowers look, and also that Aquia is really sad. They are now gardening buddies

Jasper

• "Majoring" in hospitality

• Isn't actually here to further a career. Roc sent him with Guy as a spy to make sure no one is plotting to sabotage either Guy or the family as a whole

• Works at the same bar as Lance

• NOT a r**ist, and he does NOT do that shit he did in his consort route

• He just listens in on conversations while making drinks (that have NOT been drugged or spiked in any way) and serving people

• He's that one asshole that corrects people's grammar when they text him

• If you don't text like you're writing a government document he will copy your message and correct it

Violet: is anyone free on saturday. i accidentally bought an extra movie ticket and mc fenn and sherry said there all gonna be busy

Jasper: *Is anyone free on Saturday? I've accidentally bought an extra movie ticket, and MC, Fenn and Sherry said they're all going to be busy.

Jasper: I'll be available on Saturday. What movie are we seeing?

Violet: Die.

• May or may not be fucking Guy and Fenn on the side, who knows

Violet

• Majoring in fashion design

• Doesn't care for the designs you would see at a Met Gala and knows how to create things that are good looking and practical but also unique

• Also makes her own accessories

• MC is her usual model

• Met Fenn in high school

• Apparently the guy she'd been dating was two-timing her with Fenn. She was super mad at him at first, but Fenn offered to help dish out some revenge

• He's her wingman and shoulder to cry on when she gets rejected

• Regular at Lance and Jasper's bar

• She dated Jasper for a while until realized he was using a fake identity to spy on her and her friends, and she's hated his guts ever since

• The only reason she still talks to him is because they're in the same friend group as the other valets

• If Jasper corrects her grammar in the group chat one more time, she's stealing his glasses and replacing his normal pens with invisible ink pens. Then we’ll see how good his grammar is

Tino

• Majoring in hospitality

• Works part-time at his family's hotel

• He and Lynt have been best friends since childhood because their fathers are also friends and business partners

• He used to "help" Lynt with all his school work (did most of it for him). He can't really do that anymore since they’re in different majors

• Gets Lynt out of bed every morning. And makes dinner every night. And cleans the dorm. And does the dishes...

• Okay, Lynt does eventually start picking up the slack when he realizes the ungodly amount of work Tino does

• This boy has not had a full night's sleep since the 3RD GRADE

• Like bro do you need to cram every single night?

• Half the time he passes out at his desk studying. Sometimes he'll fall asleep in a common room or something, and someone has to take him back to his room

• It is because of this that Lynt has taken special interest in researching insomnia

• Has to be dragged out by the valets to take a break from doing literally everything all the time

Tino: "B-But I have to study for my skills test-"

Knight: "You mean your skills test that's 3 months away and you've been cramming for since you started the course? Dude, you need a life and you're coming to the arcade with us."

• Definitely got shoved into his locker in high school

• That's what he gets for trying to mind his own business and not bother anyone in a fucking high school

Lou

• Headmaster of the academy

• Has a Ph.D in education

• Is fully aware that he has several politicians' children in his school and that he's being spied on

• Guess what? He's spying on them, too

• He's part of a political party called Iritium and is gathering information on his competition through their children

• Guy, Toa, and Lance's rooms are bugged with microphones. He knows Christoph is living with Lance, but to avoid raising suspicion, he doesn't do anything about it yet

• He's still debating whether or not to bug Aquia's room because Dia is his roommate and he'd rather not invade his privacy

• Prank wars are common at the academy, but he has reigned as prank king since his own school years and he refuses to be dethroned

• Has two doves in his office, Phinney and Nix

• There have been many occasions where someone would pass by his office and see him having a full conversation with them

• He once argued with Phinney while MC sat right across from him. He lost

[just-thoughts-no-vibes]

Every day I think about how the Legend of Korra Season 4 could have been one of the best parts of the entire Avatar franchise if the main villain wasn't a new big evil, but already established issues that should have been dealt with long ago.

Ever since the original series, the authors have presented the Earth Kingdom as a place that even without war has a million problems because it's ruled by incompetent monarchs who do not care about the people and whose lack of interest is used by other parts of this corrupt machine.

We have seen how great the class difference is in all parts of the kingdom, especially in Ba Sing Se, how the army treats civilians, how they are willing to send children to war, how the most powerful force in the kingdom can betray its people in a second, how the queen enslaves her people believing they belong to her, how the prince won't lift a finger to help his people, how the king won't even listen to the peasants until the Avatar threatens him, and much more.

In addition to the problems in the Earth Kingdom, we have also seen the problem of apathy coming from other world leaders who have turned their backs on a country that has fallen into chaos. No one except Tenzin lifted a finger to help in any way. They sent no money, no medical or military aid. Their fix was putting an 18-year-old in charge and leaving her to do everything herself.

Two things specifically catch my eye. The only man who actually tried to do something is a member of a nation that has no material resources, no army, and has just begun to recover from the genocide. On the other hand, the leader of the ex-Fire Nation colony that was never given back to the Earth Kingdom didn't provide any help for the said kingdom. The only thing he did was ask a super-rich person to do something, she said no, and he was like oh well too bad. Also yes, I have a problem with Suyin in this situation, not because she refused to be a temporary leader, but because she had the means to help and chose to do nothing. It would be one thing if she were a regular civilian who couldn't do much, but she is not. She is literally among the top 5 richest people in the world, a ruler of the only province in the kingdom that wasn't affected by the death of the queen, and has a metal-bending army that is acknowledged worldwide. Yet, I don't remember her doing anything to help, be it just sending some funds.

Basically, there are so many issues surrounding the Earth Kingdom and Season 4 was the IDEAL time to talk about them. The setup was perfect: the country is in chaos, the avatar can't help, the richest layer of society does nothing, the only world ruler who tries to help is the air nomad, and everyone is okay with the throne being taken by a spoiled prince who doesn't care about the duties of a king.

And just think how much more interesting Kuvira would be in this scenario. I always saw her being a villain as a cheap way to say "Oh look! She is awful! Now you have to ignore everyone else being bad because she is the REAL bad guy!". And to be completely honest, taking into account her backstory, the way she was raised in Zaofu, the fact that she genuinely wanted to help, a lot of things that were said about her by other characters, and the way she surrendered and acted in Ruins of the Empire, it's completely out of place for her to be a villain. She would work just perfectly as a character who is easy to villainize but is not actually evil. She could have been used to criticize the monarchy and the world leaders while also questioning Avatar's place in the world. Literally everyone would benefit from her being a villain: monarchs who don't want to be seen in a bad light because of her reign, world leaders who don't want to be perceived as bad because they did nothing while a teenage girl risked her life every day to do the job, Suyin who turned a blind eye on suffering and ultimately abandoned Kuvira to do everything herself, and Korra who needs to prove she is still useful even if Kuvira was the one taking care of everything.

With Kuvira as a villain, they don't have to work on themselves and their policies, they don't need to change anything, and the status quo remains. But if Kuvira wasn't a villain, but a character that people want and need to be evil, then we could truly look into the core of the problem, that is, the system itself. The world would be forced into radical changes, or at least the beginning of them. The government would be questioned like never before, the richest would be seen for what they really are, and the Avatar wouldn't be able to just beat a new villain and thus regain importance but would have to adapt to the needs of this new world.

But hey, it's easier to make a villain because of whom we simply can't concentrate on the cardinal mistakes of other characters, than actually criticize the system that is the problem. It was cowardly of the authors and I have to say it's really icky that a character who wanted to retrieve colonized land was evil.

[queenimmadolla]

Hellguard spicy headcanons?🌶

Oh man, imma give you spicy and somewhat sweet.

Hate sex.

Except it’s hate sex in that they’re super into each other, like crazy in love and they hate that so they fuck it out on the regular. Pretend it doesn’t mean anything even after they’re sweaty, sated and plastered to one another on his shitty mattress and his fingers are stroking over her skin, nose nudging her sweat soaked bangs out of the way so he can press his lips to her forehead or when he’s kissing her wet shoulder after they’ve just gone at it in the locked showers at the pool, helping her get back into her swimsuit since she can barely stand on her shaky legs. Anytime they have a snarky interaction in public—guaranteed to be fucking afterwards. True enemies to lovers.

Eddie also goes to the pool during its open season to rile her up with both antagonistic comments, and his lack of a shirt. Knows how much of a sucker she is for his tatties, can still feel her tongue tracing over them—even when she’s posted on the lifeguard chair. And god—does her swimsuit fuck with him. He tries to stop by to mess with her (and mess around with her) a couple of times a week, but he can only see her in that red swimsuit so many times and not fuck her in public. He is only a man.

And billy—oh Billy’s a fucking problem. Eddie has never wanted someone dead that badly before because he knows Hargrove has no real interest in Heather, she’s pleasant to him (as she is to anyone who isn’t Eddie) but he doesn’t really talk to her. Unless Eddie’s around. Eddie knows he’s trying to provoke him, trying to get Eddie to punch his fucking face right into his skull for looking at his girl, who’s not his girl. That’s when Eddie has to whisk her away for a quickie that’s so rough, Heather will still feel him inside of her the following day. She’s always a little off of her game afterwards, still dazed and cum dumb, so Curtis might be under the water for a sec when he gets that cramp after over exhorting himself from dunking people into the pool since Heather had been too busy thinking about the way Eddie pressed her into the outside wall of the community pool building—on the side hidden by trees and rarely ever passed by if the overgrown grass was any sign—and held up as Eddie fucked into her with hard thrusts that sent her sunglasses flying off her head, ruined her high side pony, and had her crying out in pleasure while salivating against Eddie’s palm to keep them from being discovered. When she snaps out of her daze, she’s jumping in to save Curtis (he’s always fine, gets yelled at by Heather for dunking people’s heads in the first place and sometimes he pretends to drown just so he can get her attention).

Heather hates and loves it when he makes an appearance at the pool. Loves that he gets to see her showing some skin—she’s grown out of being insecure, something about wearing the lifeguard bathing suit and the fact that she’s an authoritative figure at the pool fills her with confidence, Heather also knows Eddie likes what he sees whenever he looks at her, and it makes him mad because she’s got such a smart ass mouth on her, and she loves how that makes her feel─hates that she has to watch the few girls brave enough to approach him in public, hates seeing him flirt with them because he knows she’s watching from behind her sunglasses. He’s trying to make her jealous and she HATES that it works.

My gorls hit me with some good headcanons too, Heather teaching a water aerobics class for the elderly and Eddie signing up because he’s the devil in her life (he wants to be around her). Eddie intentionally tries to annoy her, keep that back-and-forth banter they’ve been doing their entire high school careers going to ensure she knows summer break is for a break in school and not a break with him. It works, Heather’s annoyed but the elderly can see things neither wants to acknowledge. It took a while for some of the older ladies to get used to him, always making comments about his metal like appearance—but when he’s a sweetheart to them, helping them out of the pool, he’s got all the golden girls ready to go up to bat for him—or rather, ready to help him get the girl (the gorls have also decided our golden girls try to hit on Wayne through Eddie and some even try to flirt with Eddie themselves lol). But now whenever Heather is going around to make sure they’re all doing good forms, they’re chatting her up about how sweet Eddie is, how much of a catch he’d be and Heather, dear, you wouldn’t happen to be seeing anyone would you?

I see Heather as trying her hardest to be taken seriously, to keep that feeling she got a taste of during her first summer as a lifeguard, so she pursues class politics and campaigns for class dances and their attached monarchy (she will be prom queen one day, mark her words) and we all have an inkling to what Eddie does in response to everything she does. He’s the fire to her water. They shouldn’t get along and that’s ingrained in them, so they don’t know how to handle it when all of their moments together prove that while they may be opposites, they compliment each other in ways they cold never have imagined.

(Eddie always votes for her in anything and everything she does, has the Hellfire club do it too, This shit bites but if we gotta do it, might as well get Holloway up there so she can publicly choke during her speech—would pay BIG bucks to see her run off that stage, he lingers in the back of the crowds, small smirk on his face when she effortlessly makes her way through public speaking—because she’s good at it even if he knows she’s shaking in her shoes and rehearsed a billion times before. He’s proud.)

I can literally go on and on. You know what Hellguard does to me!

[velvet-vox]

An analysis of Doll on a Roleplay battle setting.

Here's a little something to remember in regards to the things discussed in this post:

Tank beats Melee

Melee beats Support

Support beats Critter

Critter beats Tank

I head canon that Doll is (in an RPG setting) a Critter/Tank but mostly a long distance damage dealer that relies on dealing critical hits (metaphor for her plans) with tanking features and talents that allows her to take in a lot of damage (metaphor for her incredible survivability) in line with these stats:

And the funny and interesting thing about it is that her life trajectory probably wasn't this; in fact, I believe that originally Doll was expected due to her behaviour, personality type, and attitude towards situations to become a Tank/Melee (but more specifically an high damage dealing Tank) but after the death of her parents and the hands of V she took a forceful nose dive into rewriting her class trajectory in order to accommodate for her new goals, because it makes perfect sense:

Uzi is definitely a Critter/Melee but not a straightforward one; for context, a Critter/Melee in the language I am using is a long distance damage dealer that gains advantages from actually getting up close, it's a super rare play style that jives well with Uzi being an unconventional protagonist, but it doesn't stop there as Uzi also doubles down as an all-rounder by also having a blunt, defensive personality and being fairly resistant and resilient like a Tank but also having an understanding, highly empathetic and forgiving personality like a Support that allows her to help her teammates in battle and shrug off some of the trauma caused by her situation.

N on the other end is a Melee/Critter (opposite attract each other:) but not a straight up assassin like V in the sense that N is mostly a regular Melee that has counterplay for Tanks and his capable of getting through other people defenses (metaphor for penetrating the bunker at the start of the season) and he's not a glass cannon like other damage focused Melee and Critters tend to be, (although I don't think he has Tank like qualities in the same way as Uzi, rather he has a moderately high base health pool) and has on top of that the qualities of a Support like Uzi to help his teammates by cleansing debuffs and giving bonuses.

(Side note: even though Uzi and N have the qualities of Support, none of them are healers, they are only buffers and cleansers, they heal themselves and only themselves once they kill, hence why they are the most dysfunctional main trio of all time. Nuzi still works by the way, in the same way Wall-E and EVE works).

V instead, arguably the most complex character of the series, is your typical glass cannon Melee/Critter assassin that deals massive damage up close but can't take back said damage. But where it becomes interesting is that V, much like Doll, wasn't initially projected for this play style as we can clearly see from her original timid maid persona that she was probably more inclined towards being a Support, but unlike Doll, she was fully capable of making that transition because she was motivated by the desire to protect N while keeping him distant, while Doll never fully managed to let go of her Tank origins because she was motivated by hatred and not love.

And as you all can clearly see, the problem with Doll being a Tank becomes self evident: all of the protagonists have the characteristics of Critters, the one class who counters Tanks, meaning that each and every single one of them could have easily mauled her like her family had been if she didn't change her ways; which is ironic, since Tank counters Melee, V main class, so even if Doll couldn't defeat V in a combat situation, she would have hard countered her on a narrative level, so in committing to the Critter play style, she lost an important advantage on that front and, narratively, allowed V to destroy her like her parents were.

And it all comes together to bite her in the ass in episode 7 when she faces Tessa/Cyn who I believe, despite what the colour scheme might imply, it's a Melee/Support who stacks attack buffs on herself; you know, Melee who's the class countered by Tanks (of the which Doll isn't anymore) and villainous Support, the class that counters Critters, aka the class Doll traded Tank for.

As to why I believe fake Tessa is Melee/Support, there are a couple of reasons, but you can mostly get it by their personality and play style; Cyn in their dialogues doesn't try to get under N skin to then deal as much damage as possible all in one go like a Critter would, instead, she slowly destroys his sense of security like a Melee would, also, the Absolute Solver is definitely a Support type of villain since they give their abilities to Uzi and Doll, even if inadvertently, which would make sense narratively to have an unstoppable Support force against our 3 Critter protagonists and to have N and V, our 2 Melees working for him, be the ones who can stop him through Uzi's help.

And lastly, the main reason why Doll even manages to reach Uzi inside the chapel is thanks to that Tank characteristic that she chose to forsake and neglect, and now, that characteristic is not strong and trained enough to allow her to survive, but it has just enough of a presence to allow her to get a final warning out, much like her redemption was always possible despite not being reachable anymore.

Want more?

[papirouge]

The discussion of aubrey's blackness has nothing to do with him being mixed, being biracial, or being light skinned. It has to do with the fact that a mixed Canadian boy, raised by a white mom in an upper middle class Toronto, has crafted a persona for himself emulating and glorifying (some of the worst parts of) black american rap culture, a persona that he wears like costume to make himself appear "more black" and thus "more legitimate" to the industry he is a part of.

He wants all the benefits of blackness while simultaneously engaging in anti-blackness and colourism. Yes, PLENTY of other rappers do the exact same thing (perpetuate anti-blackness and colourism). But drake paraded his father's existence around as a way to make sure people knew he was A Real Negro™. He affects a blaccent that we KNOW he doesn't actually have. He truly uses his blackness as a tool for success and takes it off when it's not beneficial. That's not something fully black people have the luxury of. When you get down to the brass tacks, he is something of a culture vulture because of this. Kendrick recognizes that drake is black, but that he's only black when it suits him and THAT is the problem. That's why people want to "revoke his black card" and it's why Ken says he personally takes issue with drake using n*gga. People are misinterpreting this as him coming for drake for being mixed or light skinned, for him not being really black. The truth is he is coming for drake for being someone who has crafted a persona of blackness for himself and used the clout of other black artists in the industry to build himself‚ his clout‚ and his reputation as a black artist up while being both anti-black and mixed. His work with other black rappers (who rap about lived experience as opposed to emulating it) feels like colonization instead of collaboration. It's similar to the kind of heat another artist caught not long ago: being black when it benefited them but '''opting out''' (if you will) when it didn't.

Mixed people will always have a seat at the table— Kendrick even extends that offer to drake's son, meaning he recognizes mixed people's blackness. The real issue is that no one likes it when mixed people are anti-black and engage in misogynoir, but then profit off of their blackness in the same breath. And it feels a bit disingenuous to ignore that valid complaint and instead make it about *black people trying to police who the Real Blacks are*.

You're message is so confusing anon because you start by saying that Drake's blackness isn't the issue then go on to enumerate issues related to with whiteness : "mixed Canadian mom" "suburban white mom"

Sorry but pulling out a persona is a thing for a bunch of Black rap artists - male or female. For example Megan the Stallion comes from a regular family. She wasn't in that hood rap shit and yet started to mingle with pos like Tory Lanez, when her initial social background would never make her meet men like that. Mixed/light skin rap girl hang around (dark skin) hood chick all the time and I see no one seethe against them of performing Blackness or pulling out persona to appear "more Black" (i.e Ice Spice)

Unambitious rap artists surround themselves with "bad guys" for additional street cred all the times and no one says shit.

But it's a problem for Drake precisely because he's not fully Black, so there will always be a suspicion

And I don't get the sudden gatekeeping of USAmerican rap culture when US rappers are themselves leeches to other musical scene and foreign music genre & culture to spice up their music 🤔

So getting mad at Drake because he.....fakes his accent (the only criticism that's not found in plentiful of other rappers) sounds super silly to me.

Him being mixed is definitely an aggravating factor for all this criticism and I'm tired of people acting like it wasn't lol

[munchkinfox-the-deviant-fox]

Tell Me About Your MC!

I wanna know more about people's precious babies!

Name

Gender/Sexuality/Age

Do they have any special talents?

What do they want more than anything?

What is their main goal?

What is getting in the way of achieving that goal?

What are they passionate about?

What are some of their quirks?

What do they love?

What do they hate?

What are their flaws?

What do they look like? (pic or description!)

What are their bad habits?

What's their backstory?

What is the most important thing to them and how do they protect it?

What else is important about your MC? Tell me all about it and don't you dare hold back! I want to hear it!!!

Here's all about my MC!

Rhene (read as Renée or 'reh-nay') but only her mother calls her that. Everyone else calls her Rhen.

CIS Female, Heterosexual, 27 at Season 1

Her special talent is her insight and problem-solving abilities. She's really good at understanding other perspectives and helping others find the optimal solution to whatever their issue is. However, whenever she's involved in the problem situation, she's like a cat in a paper-bag and can't problem-solve for her life.

Rhen wants to live a life where she's happy.

Rhen's main goal changes over time. When she first arrived to the Devildom, she just wanted to learn and practice magic. Rhen's story deviates from canon, but past season 2, Rhen's goal is to help and support Diavolo in his dream in whatever way she can.

Rhen is passionate about music and demonology. For Rhen, music helps her express and regulate her emotions, and then she became really invested in learning about Devildom history and about the different life forms that exist.

Rhen is super sensitive to heat. It's why she never wears her hair down. It isn't until Asmo teaches her a charm that she starts to wear her hair down. Almost never wear a bra. Rhen can lie but doesn't like to. 95% when she does lie, she purposefully makes it obvious that she's lying; in a sarcastic kind of way.

Rhen loves physical touch. This girl has been so touch starved for so long and touch is one of her displays of affection so she's constantly wanting to have some sort of contact with her friends or partners. Rhen LOVES Cheese. Mac 'n Cheese is her favorite food and the brothers quickly got tired of eating it whenever she was in charge of making dinner that they made a rule that she could only make the dish once a month.

She hates being told what to do. It immediately triggers her chaotic-brat mode. It's just her immediate reaction even if it's something reasonable.

Rhen struggles to not try and manage other people's feelings/reactions in any given situation. It really interferes with her ability to communicate effectively because the impulse to manage other people will sometimes keep her from communicating when she needs to.

13. Rhen has a bad habit of not showering when her depression gets bad, especially her hair. Since she throws it up into a bun, it's usually not noticable. Asmo has been a big help in this department and has helped her keep a more regular routine.

14. Rhen grew up with a perfectly average, white, middle class family lifestyle. Her mother was a helicopter parent and it created a strained relationship as Rhen grew up. Graduating high school, Rhen immediately went to university by her parents' insistence. She graduated with a Linguistics major and a minor in Japanese & Latin. She worked as a Copy Editor for a few different publishing houses, then went freelance and struggled financially. At one point she was shopping at a resale store when she heard the woman behind the counter stressing over paperwork and she couldn’t figure out how to fix, organize, and digitize it. Rhen offered to help her, showed her the process, but the woman (a board member of the nonprofit) was still confused and overwhelmed. She asked Rhen how she knew all this and Rhen told her how organizing, editing and perfecting stuff was her job. So she offered to pay Rhen to do the job and since she wasn’t making much off of freelance work (and she felt bad leaving the mess for this woman who clearly had no idea how to do this) she agreed. Eventually became hired and took on more responsibility, essentially becoming their Communications Specialist which included helping manage their website, and offered services of going over people’s resumes to help perfect them. A few years go by and the woman who brought her on ended up getting ousted by the board (bullshit politics that boiled down to her wanting to be efficient at giving people the aid and resources they need and the rest of the board wanting to pull in as much money as possible, even though that's not what a nonprofit is for) and Rhen's pay was cut to the point where she had to quit. This is around the time Rhen decides to study abroad before beginning a Master's program.

15. To Rhen, her relationship with the brothers and Diavolo are the most important thing to her. Before coming to the Devildom, Rhen always avoided confrontation, even to the detriment of herself or others. However, Rhen has grown to no longer let things slide and she will do whatever is necessary to protect her people.

16. Rhen's childhood left it's mark on her in the fact way that, she had friends, but for one reason or another, she was typically an after thought; not someone her friends cared if she came along or not. It left Rhen with a desperate need for affection (not even in a romantic aspect), so Rhen developed some unhealthy behavior where she believed that others would only value her if she provided goods or services to the relationship. Her best friend she met in high school became her only support system and a unhealthy co-dependent relationship developed between the two of them. They eventually worked through the toxic traits and now maintain a healthy relationship. Rhen, though, is still working through a lot of self-deprecating, toxic behaviors, but the life she's building in the Devildom has been a positive effect.

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #302: Senji Muramasa

happy new years, babes! today on Fate and Phantasms we’ve got 2023’s next top saber, Senji Muramasa! he’s a Forge Cleric to make the swords, and a Kensei Monk to draw as much power out of them as possible. as long as they’re katanas.

check out his build breakdown below the cut, or his character sheet over here!

next up: we already did the genji-killing genji, so… bird up!

Race and Background

yeah, Senji’s a Human. that means he gets +1 Dexterity and Constitution, as well as proficiency in Investigation to figure out swords better and the Fighting Initiate feat for some Great Weapon Fighting, letting you re-roll 1s and 2s on damage dealt by two-handed weapons. that’s not a huge help out the gate unless you really like quarterstaves, but we’ll get there, I promise.

making swords all the time is kind of a Guild Artisan sort of gig, if you squint. that gives you proficiency in Insight and Persuasion. you’ve gotta sell those swords somehow.

Ability Scores

if you want to get all you can out of your swords (and survive long enough to do it,) you need some Dexterity. and if you want to see so good you can look into the future, that’s Wisdom, in more ways than one. third up is Constitution, again to survive all that sword-fighting you’re about to do.  After that, some Strength is in order. Shirou isn’t super ripped, but he’s got some muscle on him. that does mean your Intelligence isn’t that high, but tbh we only need to know about swords, and you do! finally, we’re dumping Charisma. you’re a crotchety old man, you only really care about the art, and you did technically work for the alien god that one time, which is… oof. still, we’re glad you make the heel-face turn when you did.

Class Levels

1. monk 1: i’m sure your sick swordplay skillz actually came after your forging knowledge, but i like living! so we’re going with the class that has unarmored defense first. that adds your wisdom to your ac while you don’t wear armor or shields! no problem! you’re not running around with unlimited chainmail works after all.

you also get martial arts! you can use your dexterity when attacking with monk weapons and your fists, plus you can make an unarmed attack as a bonus action when you attack with your main action! on top of all that, you get a martial arts die that grows as you level up, and all your monk-y attacks use that as their damage floor. if you’re using a weapon with a bigger die, use the normal one. if it would have a smaller die, use the martial arts one!

2. monk 2: second level monks can use ki to dodge, disengage, dash, or attack twice as a bonus action! you get your monk level in ki points every short rest, so feel free to go fast! you also get swordy options for your ki later, don’t worry!

on top of that, your unarmored movement helps you move a little faster than other swordsmen. or it would if we didn’t keep giving swordy people monk levels! still, u go fast, stay out of people’s reach. good strategy.

3. monk 3: at third level you set down the way of the kensei, teaching you the path of the kensei, which is a totally different thing. actually it’s like four different different things. anyway. you can grab some kensei weapons, one melee and one ranged. you get proficiency in them if you don’t have that already, and you can only pick weapons that aren’t heavy or special. grab a longsword for a fance katana, and whatever for the ranged attack. it’s whatever, who cares. not a sword.

while you have a kensei weapon in your hand and make an unarmed attack, you can make an agile parry for free, getting +2 ac for the rest of the round. good stuff for a guy dressed in regular clothes!

*sigh* if you really want to throw things around like some kind of… archer, you can use a kensei shot as a bonus action, making all your ranged kensei weapon attacks deal an extra 1d4 damage that round. funnily enough, this doesn’t need to be your ranged weapon- it just has to be a ranged attack. so even dnd supports emiya being an archer, throwin swords willy and nilly!

you also get the way of the brush. it’s a tool proficiency!

that was a lot for one level, and we’re not even done yet! third level monks can deflect missiles as a reaction, reducing incoming damage from an attack like an arrow or bullet. if you reduce the damage to zero you can even throw the attack back by spending a ki point! we rlly didn’t intend this build to be so archery, i swear.

4. monk 4: use your first asi to bump up your wisdom! smart smarter, dodge tougher, all that jazz. plus you can slow fall as a reaction. when you think about it, falling doesn’t deal damage- landing does. so all you have to do is block the earth before you hit the ground, and boom! no fall damage. genius.

5. monk 5: fifth level monks can make an extra attack each action! more sword! more! you can also turn your melee strikes into stunning strikes, forcing a constitution save on whoever you hit. if they fail, they’re stunned for a round. then you get advantage on all melee attacks against them for a bit! hit ‘em like a big fleshy pinata!

if you’re having trouble hitting, try spending some ki on your focused aim. spend ki points on a missed attack, add to the roll, maybe don’t miss. easy peasy. just make sure you’re spending on stuff that might actually hit, no point wasting resources on nat 1s.

6. monk 6: sixth level monks get ki empowered strikes and become one with the blade, which practically do the same thing! now your unarmed attacks and kensei attacks are magical to overcome resistances. you can also make a deft strike once per turn, adding your martial arts die to your damage roll. more dice! more rerolling! more! more!

7. cleric 1: if you want to make good swords, you need to have the power of god and anime on your side! HAAAAAAAAA! by that i mean ur a forge cleric! when you pick this class, you get proficiency with heavy armor and smith’s tools, one of those does not matter. betcha can’t guess which one! it’s the armor. y’know, the unarmored defense and all.

fortunately, your blessing of the forge is a little better, letting you turn any armor or weapon you touch into a +1 version at the end of a long rest for the rest of the day.

you also get some spells, tho tbh this build doesn’t really care about them too much. outside of like, two spells, your domain list is fine. speaking of, you get Identify to figure out any cool magic swords you find and Searing Smite. swords are cool. fire is cool. fire swords are extra cool, ironically. hit someone, watch them burn for a bit.

8. Cleric 2: second level clerics can Channel Divinity once per short rest in two ways. Turn Undead is whatever, we haven’t had to deal with skeletons much since Fuyuki, the real draw is Artisan’s Blessing. now you can spend an hour to turn raw metal into any nonmagical metal item worth less than 100 gold. we’re here for swords, but you can realistically make a lot more than that. you can even duplicate items if you want. that being said, we still have a price cap, so these aren’t masterworks just yet. still, make one of these and apply blessing of the forge, then once a local lord is impressed by your craftmanship you can just pump out regular swords and charge through the nose!

9. Cleric 3: third level clerics get second level spells like Heat Metal and Magic Weapon. annoyingly, you can’t heat your own sword for extra damage, it just hurts you if you do that. ugh. you can also grab one of the two spells I’d want from outside your subclass, Augury. now you can spend a minute sizing up a creature to figure out how well fighting them will go. if you might win, you’ll get weal. if you might lose, woe. you can also get both or neither, and using it over and over again will make the spell less accurate. if you’re really worried about your odds, upcasting smites tends to make people win.

10. Cleric 4: when you finally get another ASI, use it to grab the Slasher feat. aside from just being a cool genre of movies it also powers up your slashing attacks and your dexterity- once per turn, you can reduce the speed of a creature you hit with slashing damage, and now your critical hits give enemies disadvantage on attacks for a round. you are the sword guy, you get sword feats. if I could give you great weapon master in a way that would actually work, I would.

11. Cleric 5: fifth level clerics can Destroy Undead when they use their Turn Undead CD. if the undead in question is CR ½ or lower and fails their save, they die instantly. DEATH! DEAAAATH! or redeath, i guess.

you also get third level spells, like Elemental Weapon and Protection from Energy. now you can get a permanent fire sword that doesn’t constantly make you try to drop it! again, we don’t really need other spells. I mean smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, I’m just saying this guy’s a saber. cleric’s got one of the most stacked spell lists in the game, don’t let me stop you from abusing that.

12. Cleric 6: sixth level clerics can Channel Divinity twice a short rest, and you can use the Soul of the Forge. that means you have resistance to fire damage, and you get +1 AC while… wearing… heavy armor. yeah, these classes don’t exactly match up, as you can see.

13. Monk 7: bouncing back to monk, you can use your Evasion to dodge fireballs too, giving you complete negation on a successful dexterity save, and half damage on a failed one. which is then halved again if you’re actually dealing with fire. they have their moments.

you can also use your Stillness of Mind to counteract an effect charming or frightening you as an action, which is nice since we can’t focus on wisdom in this build as much as most monks.

14. Monk 8: use this ASI to grab the Piercer feat! most swords are slashing, but shortswords are still swords, so we have to be thorough. with this, you can re-roll a die of piercing damage once per turn, and you deal an extra die of damage with critical hits. I prefer the bigger swords, but you do you. rapiers are also pretty valid.

15. Monk 9: ninth level monks get an Unarmored Movement Improvement, letting you run up walls and over water as long as you end your turn on regular ground. servants get up to some wacky shit, I wouldn’t put this past them.

16. Monk 10: tenth level monks have a Purity of Body that makes you immune to disease and poison. neat. again, something most servants would have if we could afford it in every build.

17. Monk 11: at eleventh level, we get our last goodie from the way of the kensei, letting you Sharpen the Blade. as a bonus action, you can spend up to 3 ki points, adding that amount to your kensei weapon’s attack and damage rolls for up to a minute, as long as you aren’t already using a magic weapon with a bonus to attacks and damage rolls. get the most out of any sword! even a wooden plank is deadly in your hands.

18. Monk 12: use this ASI to bump up your Dexterity again. if you want to get the most out of a sword, your swording hands need to be at their best.

19. Cleric 7: seventh level clerics get fourth level spells. sure, Wall of Fire is nice, but your other subclass spell is fantastic. Fabricate lets you turn any amount of raw materials into a finished product after ten minutes. you can create a larger or smaller object, or medium if you’re making it out of metal or stone. you need better materials for better product, but masterwork products require proficiency with the tools you’d use to make them in the first place- fortunately, you have proficiency with smith’s tools, so you can quicksmith the hell out of these swords.

you also get your second spell we actually want here- Divination. you need to spend 25 gold, but it only takes an action to ask a god a question about something happening within a week. figuring out the future of creatures you’re fighting so you can sever it sounds like a good choice. that being said, your DM isn’t actually able to see the future, so expect some leeway. also, casting it over and over makes it less reliable, so don’t rely on your clairvoyance too much.

20. Cleric 8: our final level of the build is surprisingly busy for once. you get the Tough feat for an extra 40 HP, but your Destroy Undead also affects creatures of CR 1 and lower, and you make Divine Strikes once a turn, adding 1d8 fire damage to your weapon attacks.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

you are good with swords, and you are good with just about every sword. just about any sword that deals less than a d8 of damage gets its damage boosted already, and you can make any sword you touch into a masterpiece of magical damage in a single bonus action. and that’s all before we add in any deft strikes or divine strikes, all of which get their damage rerolled by your great weapon fighting if you’re using a longsword like you should be. you deal a good amount of damage, you’re consistent, and you always get the best shake out of any weapon you use.

everybody wants weapons, and you can make weapons out of just about anything. if it’s metal, artisan’s blessing. if it’s not? fabricate. you can turn anything into a sword, and you make any sword good. it’s also a pretty easy way to make money if you need it. it’s a dangerous world out there, nobody wants to go it alone.

you are incredibly accurate, which is a lifesaver against high AC enemies. with a maxed out dexterity, plus your proficiency, plus a sharpened blade and focused aim, you can add +20 to an attack roll if you really need to hit something. and with smites, you only need one attack to count for a lot of damage.

Cons:

your multiclassing doesn’t quite work together at points. for example, you can’t use blessing of the forge on your own weapon for a consistent boost if you plan on using Sharpen the Blade on it at all that day. also, the forge cleric’s heavy armor stuff just doesn’t work at all, which stinks.

kensei monks don’t use Ki quite as fast as most others, but they still burn it nonetheless. sharpening the blade all the way will cut your ki pool by 25%, all for one fight. fortunately, clerics have cool stuff to use their bonus action on beyond just flurries of blows, so it’s not all bad.

you have low charisma, so you might have trouble getting your money’s worth out of your swords if you plan on selling them yourself. maybe hang out with a bard or something. oh wait, is that why you switched to Guda’s side?

[my-castles-crumbling]

Hey. I’m not sure if i need advice or if i just need to vent but i’m pretty angry and you’re really good at listening to random people talk abt their problems. (Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes)

So i had to to work the evening shift both days this weekend, and because of my particular brand of anxiety, i cant really do anything leading up to my shift. Like i get super nervous that i’m going to forget abt my shift if i do anything other than scroll through my phone or stare off into space. And then i found out that i’m also working the Monday and Tuesday after this weekend after school. At this point i’m pretty tired and knowing i wont even have a break after school is even worse. So, for my mental health I decided to skip school this Monday.

This is where the issue comes up. My mom was super against me skipping and we had a whole argument abt it. Basically i shouldn’t skip bc i’m “technically” truant, meaning i’ve skipped more than 11 days since school stared and they COULD either send me to court or have me pay a fine. Ik that sounds bad but they almost never send anyone to court or even make them pay any fines and most of my absences are from the first semester so i actually haven’t skipped in a while. Also half of those absences are my mom’s fault bc she forgot to email the school that i was sick or send them my doctors note which accounts for about 5 of my absences. And as long as one of my parents excuses the absence (which my dad is always willing to do) it doesn’t even count towards my truancy. When i tell her this she immediately pivots and says that well if she has to go to work then i have to go to school. Now i’ve always been really big on independence, i’m only an 18 year old senior in l Highschool but i KNOW thats bullshit, She works from home all the time and i was planning to do basically the same thing where i do the majority of my work at home and catch up on sleep until my work shift in the evening. So far this is pretty normal for my arguments about with her. Until i put my foot down and tell her that i’m old enough to have the right decide these types of things for myself and that i don’t think its fair for her to just decide for me. Usually she would relent but this time she threatened to CALL THE POLICE ON ME. I’m not exaggerating the escalation from a regular argument to a full screaming match was insane.

I was just so upset and it felt like she didn’t even see me as person who just needs a break sometimes. I was too scared to see if she would really call the police so i went to school. So, here i am silently fuming in class. I don’t even know if i’ll get through school with how mentally exhausted i am. Thats basically it. Just tell me if i’m in the wrong or over reacting or if i’m in the right. I’m such a mixture of angry and exhausted that none of this might make sense, but whatever. Thank you so much for listening.

Hi!!!

Well, I think there are separate parts to this:

Your mom isn't listening to your emotions. This happens a lot with parents, and it's frustrating. Even though she was making a valid point with the truancy, threatening to call the police and throwing her own (irrelevant) work in your face wasn't the way to do it. I've always wondered why parents think kids are going to listen if they aren't given the respect of the acknowledgement of their feelings.

The entire argument is difficult because, there are layers here. from what you're telling me, your mother is some of the reason you have some of these unexcused absences, because she hasn't done the paperwork. But I also am wondering, how can you even be considered truant if you're 18? And, at age 18, isn't it your decision? I'm confused on the laws here.

Given all of this...would I personally risk skipping school if I was risking truancy? Probably not. But I've always been afraid to get in trouble.

But I feel like that's not even the biggest issue. Can your mom not send the doctor notes to school to get some of your previous absences excused?

Also...the petty part of me is like...your mom is saying she has to go to work...but you have to go to work and school. so that's not an argument.

I feel like your mom didn't handle this well, to be honest. I know she's trying to prevent you from getting in trouble, but there were other ways to do it. I hope that makes sense?

Also, I hope work is going well! I'm naming you school anon.

[snorfbin]

i feel like the difference between zos with eso and larian with bg3 is like night and day. larian put so much love and effort into bg3 but it feels like zos actually fucking hates their players and wants everyone to suffer

like when it comes to updates it feels like larian is kissing me with tongue but zos barely even gives me scraps, even when they hype up how long their patch notes are. there was one "fix" zos had implemented on pts where youd only get sprinting animations when you actually held shift to sprint otherwise youd just get the normal running animation. as someone who does a lot of mat farming ive got a super speedy toon and it looked so damn stupid. like imagine someones running around twice as fast as usain bolt but with the gait of a casual jogger! so stupid and ugly! the "fix" never actually made it to the live server bc this is one of the few times zos actually listened to the players but guess what made it on to the patch notes for the live server soon after? yup! they said in the patch notes that this "fix" was on the live server when it wasnt at all! they just left it in the official live server patch notes to pad out the length bc they spent so much time hyping up how long the patch notes were gonna be bc they were fixing so much stuff

ive never had any issues with combat at all in bg3, it works exceedingly well and i quite enjoy it. and then zos broke the blocking mechanic... three times in a row... ive also been having problems with my 2 arcanists too. if i use my green beam but literally anything interrupts me then i cant use ANY of my abilities at all until the beam ability normally wouldve ended. normally if someone bashes you while channeling an ability like that you just cant recast that ability for like 2 secs at most but you can still use other abilities. for me i cant do anything at all. anything that interrupts my ability will cause this to happen such as a summoned companion finally appearing. this isnt a lag thing either, it happens when my ping is as low as 70 or off the charts at 999. the arcanist class is part of a $70 dlc and altho i got it on sale id expect any game company to do some fucking quality checks on their shit before launching it!

larians depiction of the world makes sense too compared with some of the more recent eso dlcs. like necrom is an ancient city, possibly one of the oldest in morrowind and prolly like 4 thousand years old. its also the epicenter of morrowinds funerary culture where people go to cremate their honoured dead. you can see carts all over the city carrying coffins. so tell me why in a city that relies on carts for something so fucking culturally important and so regular do they not have some sorta permanent infrastructure for carts? they just have wooden ramps barely big enough for a single cart on MOST stair cases, theres even some stairs near the cremation section of the city with absolutely no ramps whatsoever. death be so common by the time of eso with shit like the knehatan flu and the three banners war and molag bals planemeld and so on and so forth, its a very turbulent time with people dying left right and center! the stairs that do have ramps only have one single ramp! oh good lord the traffic jams must be a fucking nightmare! what if one of those ramps breaks bc its literally just made of wood? what are people to do then? i doubt you could get away with just leaving your ancestor there for a bit either bc ancestors and their care are so important to the culture! youre just fucked if one of those shitty ramps snaps like a twig underneath the very constant wear and tear! the main gate doesnt even have ramps either, the main fucking gate to the city is rampless!

larians fast at fixing their bugs and mistakes too. meanwhile necrom launched with a couple of audio mistakes. most notably the telvanni peninsula zone didnt have any ambient music at all and throughout azandars whole questline all other npcs had no audio to their dialogue so the game would skip right over subtitles, thankfully i already had npc subtitles turned on in my chatbox so i had the luxury to read them while azandar immediately went right back to speaking. it took zos several fucking months to fix those audio issues. i literally beat bg3 in the time it took zos to fix the audio bug, i even made several new ocs with backstories in that time too. also during that time playing bg3 i didnt have any issues with missing music or dialogue audio! when larian does encounter a bug or mistake its usually fixed by the 2nd update after the mistake comes up

zos has also outright stolen tes fanart and passed it off as their own creation and put it in a lootbox people could spend irl money to gamble for. lately with my last rant about the jubilee maintenance it feels like theyre trying to pit players against each other rather than taking responsibility for their shitty way of handling the scenario. they turned the situation into an us versus them sorta fight on the forums between folks who just wanted the rewards from the final day of the jubilee event and those who wanted access to their account back, zos just sat back and watched everyone bicker and fight

playing bg3 has made me fully aware of just how shitty eso is. like i can handle some of the bugs zos throws my way bc ive spent years playing skyrim, its just the usual tes bugs. with each quarter tho it feels like a new round of bugs comes in, just as many as are in skyrim. the bugs and errors and mistakes just keep adding up more and more and more. its just never ending shit and bg3 wouldnt treat me like that!