Ancient God (self-diagnosed)

Another Helltrooper (last from me i promise)

Mark (not his real name)

a new recruit, a Riojan man with messy short-ish black hair and a close cropped beard, seems to be in his late 30s. He is an excellent archer and not bad swordsman either. He loves to play cards and other gambling games with the rest of the helltroopers (though he mostly loses); though hes a pretty calm guy and takes his losses in stride. He spends a lot of time learning and practicing chain sign, and seems to be picking it up quickly. He can read pretty well although he mostly cares about books on Caelian engineering, architecture, and warfare. It’s clear to the other members that he has served in some military capacity previously based on how he carries himself (and sometimes slips up and give the Riojan salute) but never brings it up-that life is gone now. He doesn’t talk much outside of the increasingly frequent use of chain sign and other simple gestures and emoting.

Hes joined up with a mercenary company because part of him missed service and the opportunity for gold; and the chain specifically because chain sign and the chronicle were a great interest to him.

Were he to be a player character he would be a human fighter (probably battlemaster) with the solider background

People have been asking about colors and ref for this animatic!  This would’ve been handy while I was drawing it, but hindsight is 20/20.  Anyway, I made the designs with animation in mind so they’re all very simple, and it turned out fine!  Never did sort out how their waist wraps go on though, oops. >.>

Bear with my shitposting. Here is my current Paisley playlist. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1CgXup19ksY1bZaey7tbCn?si=dwuqRVIdRSa_JG8fZhbNoQ Infinite Mirror - Lite. Originally I didn’t think I would put this on the playlist but this is what trial and error sounds like when I think of Paisley. Pushing limits, reinterpreting notes, making new ones. He’s got a knack for illusions, and there’s something about this which makes me think of the potential times he would have tried something new, had it work, and then spent countless hours trying to replicate it, asking the Khoursirian for help. Man O To - Nu. Coffeehouses, warm evenings, second-rate wine, singing with friends on the docks, picking fights alongside them, running from the ones they couldn’t win, that half-impressed , half-cautious smile on dad’s face when he saw those tricks of the light, and those days spent talking to the Khoursirian. It’s a sweet and nostalgic look back on a youth well spent in Capital. Flight Over Venice 2 - Jesper Kyd. I mean, come on. The entire AC2 sountrack could fit Rioja, but there’s something about this piece which really fits The Stays. Feeling’s Gone - Cat Empire. Everything went to shit in Capital, and the kid who would become Paisley left. It’s not like everyone at home is gone, and these Helltroopers seem like a decent lot. In some other life, he probably thought in those earlier years, perhaps he would have liked to be a bard. He can sing as a soldier, though, and he’ll always have the knack and his spellbook, and with company like this, that’s good enough. Brother - NEEDTOBREATHE. The kid who became Paisley was no stranger to being “the sensible one,” even if only in comparison to his goon squad. Who would have thought a bunch of young folk with hangups become mercenaries? Guess someone has to be the adult in the room, even if this hypothetical adult has to occasionally fight hooligan instinct. Randy Dandy-Oh - The Dreadnoughts. Gotta love the way a room sounds singing. It has to be some unique quality of soldiers to know how to carry a tune. Whisper - The Dear Hunter. Who knows, maybe he could have been important if he didn’t sign on to The Chain. He doesn’t really care, though. Everyone here must have made stupid decisions to end up in the Fuck Up Squad. Even if the scholars don’t remember the name of the man who is now Paisley, the Chronicle will. The Tragedy - Pax Cecilia. Blackbottom really shook things up. Dozens of Helltroopers dead, the contract left unfinished, the officers all on board that boat which got away. Time for a few hard, straight-faced weeks of picking up the pieces and getting everything back together. Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits. This is next to The Mercenary by Iron Maiden on songs that have become inseparable from the Chain of Acheron in my head.

Chain of Acheron, Helltrooper Match.

“You see the docks on fire??”

> “I mean, technically yeah, but I also found the kid’s dog :D”

Okay so I spent more time on this than I had intended, but everyone meet Match!

half-elf sorcerer, rank-and-file soldier

5′8″, they/them

chaotic good

has a tendency to accidentally set things on fire hence the nickname ‘Match’

always has good intentions though!

is not allowed to light candles using the firebolt anymore

joined the Chain because they needed to quickly disappear after accidentally setting a noble’s house alight, stayed because they like the people

thinks they are smooth but is actually just a huge dork

always holds a match between their teeth because they think it looks Cool and Edgy™ 

Yesterday’s Eyeliner™ 

calls everyone darling

tries to play it smooth and aloof but will immediately melt at the slightest bit of affection

11/10 would squeeze Bigcat on sight because  b i g  c a t

(close-ups on my instagram: paper.shield.illustrations)

ikea released introductions on how to build different furniture forts

the actual meaning of the word aplatonic

I’ve seen a lot of hate recently on certain words used by the aromantic community to describe their experiences, so I feel that some clarification needs to be made.

The term aplatonic does not mean someone who doesn’t want friends. It does not mean someone who doesn’t have friends, or someone who is antisocial. It is not ‘uwu I don’t have any friends I’m so queeeeeer’. No, stop spreading that information. Aplatonic is simply a descriptor used by some aro people to explain that they do not experience squishes nor desire to be in qpps/qprs. (Squishes are essentially friend-crushes, it’s the aromantic equivalent of a crush, except there is not romantic attraction involved. QPRs or QPPs are queer/quasi platonic partnerships/relationships: essentially non-romantic domestic life partners)

Because of the confusing way these are often explained and because of the -platonic suffix, people unfamiliar with these terms automatically jump to “so friends?” Lemme stop you right there buddy. No, people in qpps are not 'just friends’. It is a term used to essentially describe non-romantic life partners. People in qps sometimes live together, get married, raise children together, etc. It is not 'just being best friends’. It is not trying to make friendships seem unimportant or secondary.

Many aro people do desire to be in long term relationships. They still do not experience romantic attraction (hence being aromantic). Many aro people experience squishes. However, many do not. In order to simplify this, the word aplatonic was created so that people who do not experience this can more accurately describe their experiences in the aro community with as few words as possible. There’s a lot of focus in the aro community on having qpp/qprs, so there was absolutely a necessity for this word. 

Aplatonic is a word also often used by neurodivergent aroaces who struggle with forming relationships of any kind with people, and tumblr’s quick jump to make fun of it is frankly kind of ableist.

That one post that was being spread around where the anon was asking if aplatonic people are LGBT+ was not someone asking if people who don’t want friends are LGBT+. Rather it was asking if an aroace person is in a domestic partnership with someone of the same gender as them, and they are considered LGBT+, shouldn’t all aromantic asexuals be considered LGBT+ as well because their attraction(s) are the same? (And yes, I know that in that case the partners would be seen as gay from society, even though they are aroace, but I digress) At least that was my interpretation of the ask.

The -platonic suffix is not meant to be used like the -romantic and -sexual suffixes used in the ace/aro split attraction model. The whole discourse honestly has confused a lot of people about what the split attraction model is and it’s really irking me. People gotta stop acting like 100% cis straight people are going to suddenly start identifying as aplatonic. It’s specifically an aro word to describe the ways in which aro people experience attraction. It is not an identity by itself, no one is claiming it to be. It is a descriptor of aromanticism. Anyway, people outside of the aro community need to stop policing aro words and stop taking the parts that make up a word at face value.

The Adventure Zone: Amnesty but with Magnus Chase style chapter titles

Please Do Not Set Fire to the Birthday Boy

When Chewbacca Met Bigfoot

Have You Tried Hurling Literal Shit at the Superbear?

I Agreed to Help Save The World and All I Got Was This Dumb Embroidered Tree

We Interrupt This Monster Attack for A Brief Interlude of Sword Puns

Hey Kid, Lemme See Your Ankles

PHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON

We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Towel

Thank You for Not Petting Heathcliff the Enchanter

These Are A Few of My Favorite Waterparks

Opportunity Knocks, but Destiny Shows Up in Your Bedroom in the Middle of the Night to Yell at You About Interplanetary Doom

Anyway, Soup

Death by Gatorade

Jetpack vs. Pizza Hut

Damn, Mothman, You Live Like This?

Boom, Touched It! Almost Died! Worth It. 

Duck Duck Goat

Never Give a Goatman Gardening Equipment

You Leave My Friend Alone or I’ll Punch Him So Hard He Grows Wings

To Minimize Injury While Monster Hunting, Use Proper Headgear

You Don’t Deserve to Meet My Therapy Puppets

Maybe It’s a Concussion, Maybe It’s Krampus

Skitchy Business

Yep, He’s Dead, But Don’t Worry, I Know Reiki

butts butts butts butts butts butts butts

Blob Lies

Terrible Harm

Beam Me Down, Beefcake

Good Thing We Had This Spare Player Character Locked in the Basement

And Then I Had to Take a Math Test Naked, So What’s That Mean, Prophetically Speaking?

Counterpoint: I’m a Harp Seal

Spoiler Warning for Final Fantasy VII

According to my Calculations, Violence is the Answer

Don’t Go Through the Portal, There’s a Real Big Bug in There

Are You There, Aubrey? It’s Me, God

So We’re on a Spaceship, Right, I’m Freaking Out, Beacon’s on a Rampage, and We’ve Still Got Half an Episode Left

Epilogue: A World of Pure Imagination

Part 1: The Adventure Zone Balance but with Percy Jackson style chapter titles

Concept: Star Trek style quasi-utopian deep space drama, except all of the ship’s non-human crew members are really obviously based on particular sci-fi horror tropes.

The chief physician is an amorphous mass of tentacles and teeth that’s infested the entire medical bay, transforming it into a quivering nightmare of meat and viscera. It speaks with a conspicuously posh accent; the human crew members affectionately call it “Doc”.

The head of security is a lurking, probably humanoid something-or-other that’s mostly imperceptible in the visual spectrum, save as a faintly shimmering distortion in the air. Her lack of visibility is treated as a running gag, with the most frequent bits involving a. other crew members not realising she’s in the room until she speaks up, and b. her making reference to various unlikely anatomic features which, of course, the audience cannot see.

The ship’s computer is a blatantly rampant AI that speaks in a chorus of voices. It tends to talk in cryptic, pseudo-religious metaphors which contrast to humorous effect with the mundanity of the topic at hand, and sometimes wanders off on rambling philosophical tangents that require whoever it’s speaking with to remind it to get to the point. You can tell when it’s paying attention to a particular part of the ship because the lighting turns blood red.

The lead science officer is just a huge fucking spider.

(The captain is an apparently ordinary – albeit extremely photogenic – human. We don’t find out what their real deal is until the season finale; what’s revealed firmly establishes them as the freakiest one of the lot!)

i learned that Binghamton University researchers have been working on a self-healing concrete that uses a specific type of fungi as a healing agent. When the fungus is mixed with concrete, it lies dormant until cracks appear, when spores germinate, grow and precipitate calcium carbonate to heal the cracks (x)

Have I mentioned my love for the warlock class? I love the way its set up mechanic wise, the flavor potential, and the spellcasting is evocative as heck!

Want to have a pact with a cosmic being that allows you to summon shooting stars when you cast eldritch blast?

Want to be the only mortal that can comprehend the madness of the great old ones?

Want to have an archfey that abducted you as a child to be the friend of their own child?

Want to have your soul sold to the lord of the hunt before your birth and have to pay the price for it by serving them?

Want to make a pact with a storm elemental that like a symbiote lives in your body disguised as your natural bioelectricity?

Want an ancient dragon to keeps you as part of its hoard and in exchange grants you a long life and its protection?

Want some sword you picked up whisper into your mind that you need to fight against those who oppress you?

Want the spirits of your ancestors to grant you great power to protect the current member of the bloodline?

Want Asamodeus to favor you because you remind them of a mortal they once loved many eons ago?

Want to be the only survivor of a shipwreck and then have the dead souls of your crewmates grant you access to the arcane and in exchange you take care of their unfinished business on the mortal plane?

Warlock! Warlock! Warlock!