Just silly things here

[timefornonsense]

I tried restarting Patrick's BG3 playthrough, but I let Ava join in via a multitav mod and

it's basically her game now

[timefornonsense]

"Patrick being a Menace" list

*Can get so distracted while awakening that it's a danger to himself and those around him; is prone to things like falling from enormous heights or walking through hazards (fire, seas where monsters live, etc) or not pulling away from someone about to maim him.

*May start doing things like stacking furniture at seemingly impossible angles, then scrambling up to sit on the highest chair.

*Occasionally will do something like unknowingly stand inside a door and/or in 'too many' planes of existence.

*Could end up, say, accidentally taking mind-altering substances instead of achieving intended effect of destroying harmful artifact.

*If he "snaps" due to stress and grief, he may start just indiscriminately resurrecting the dead, including his enemies.

*...And then genuinely forget to tell his allies.

*His methods of determining whether someone is friend or foe might get... strange. Like "I trust you because you didn't attack when I broke your chair with another chair" or "I arranged the rocks in a specific pattern and you imitated my style" types of things.

*Instinctively tries to gently nudge things that aren't quite there yet into sentience and free will, regardless of any problems this may create.

*Change has long had a pretty noticeable tendency to suddenly decide it is rather fond of people who try to fight it, to the point where the drunken philosopher's people consider that a legitimate way to try to gain its notice. This has some interesting effects on how Patrick interacts with his enemies.

*Deliberate rejections of freedom may anger Patrick to the point of being willing to condemn the offender to what he would consider a fate worse than death.

*...But if he then realizes he was wrong, he'll do almost anything to free that person.

*Long-term, Patrick usually cannot resist interacting with cursed objects. Change, in its Patrick form, is simply too curious for it to realize it may be overwhelming this sliver of its consciousness, effectively making it literally impossible to resist temptation.

*Mainverse Patrick knows better than to race off to save an ally without waiting for backup, but that doesn't necessarily mean he'd never do it.

[musecastle]

Work is particularly draining this week, so I may not do any more ic writing till our big project is done Sunday. Debating whether to add the door randomizer mod to Skyrim and do as much as I can with a non-dragonborn run with a variant of Patrick.

[timefornonsense]

I added a mod that lets you put off Dragon Rising indefinitely and another where the doors will usually function normally, so sometimes they just don't lead where he's expecting. So far: he was trying to warn people about the dragon like he was asked to, but is currently in a random farmhouse in the Rift instead.

[musecastle]

The spookiest part of all BG3 playthroughs involving Patrick is how the game keeps glitching through different runs in ways that have consistently made it seem like some of the NPCs are learning through the different iterations. One example: the goblin that had about 50 dead versions of themselves the first couple of playthroughs, stayed away from the reason they were making Mischief that angry the next playthrough and only died once, and THIS time, joined the party's side in a massive fight and didn't have to die at all.

And there's Kar'niss, somehow waking up from being knocked out (even though that's supposed to be impossible when that status isn't listed as temporary), went back to Moonrise, and... apparently led a bunch of people to abandon Ketheric?

This time a bunch of the corpses that would usually have hostile auras are staying entirely neutral. Or even friendly, somehow.

Don't worry, Patrick at least has the sense not to help this one, even if she does claim to be a friend.

[timefornonsense]

Between the time the death gods were first contained on Earth (sort of) and the time Patrick was born, the "dreaming" (for lack of a better word) part of Change's consciousness just... became impossible to find, as far as the Drunken Philosopher could tell. He's still not sure what happened, and of course, Patrick can't explain it, either.

[musecastle]

Time to create a wheel of choices that has no relevance yet.

[musecastle]

wheel

[musecastle]

You can skip this wheel, by the way, in the event of a scenario that involves compulsion/mind control. He might try killing the victim to free them, but he will not respond by ignoring the situation or intentionally making it worse (he just doesn't see dying as worse).

[timefornonsense]

I do also have a secondary wheel set up for the "random objects" option. Depending on what they are, Patrick may consider them informative. (ex. when he and his allies were facing another eldritch being, he got something he interpreted as teasing and concluded it must see this horror as a friend, and was warning itself that it wouldn't be willing to harm its friend)

[musecastle]

Prescott Shepard wip

Full name: Prescott Shepard

Physical appearance: Mostly human, still. Sometimes the insides of his eyes appear to be on fire [or lit from inside by tiny bioluminescent creatures?], and there aren’t always two of them. The six gradually-sprouting wings are getting more and more difficult to hide, and he fears their eyes will open soon. When he smiles, his teeth are too numerous and too sharp.

Age: Looks to be around 45-50 years old (is likely significantly older)

Height: 6’5”. Another alteration for a man who never quite reached 6’.

Body build: Lithe

Shape of face: Everything once angular about it has softened. Is it just a sign of age?

Eye color: Red Brown…?

Glasses or contacts: Not anymore

Hair color: Greying, but still mostly a soft brown.

Type of hair: Straight, once. Increasingly looks and acts like a living rope.

Hairstyle: Kept back in a single braid, now that a short conservative style is no longer an option.

Usual fashion of dress: Formal; stylish

Personality: Ambitious and power-hungry. Loyal enough to the one he serves to be grudgingly genuine in his offers of help. Cruel enough to want those he’s forced to help to suffer every step of the way if they’ve proven themselves meddlesome in the past.

Family: Parents no longer living; two older siblings. Divorced, with two children; they have not been a major feature in his life for over a decade now, though he does care for them, and they visit and talk occasionally. Attends annual Shepard family reunion some years.

Religion: Worships region-eating entity with something akin to a kind soul. He wants to usher in a new age of darkness; it just wants him to open up a soup kitchen or hold a canned goods drive for a local food bank. (Not that it’s ever that specific. It just notes that people are hungry, and there’s a distressed low hum till Prescott does something about that.)

Occupation: See above. Businessman, philanthropist? You could call him a priest and not exactly be wrong.

[musecastle]

Pages From The Past: Rose ("Jennifer Anderson nee Shepard")

-for now, a guest muse available by request-

Currently living as Jennifer Shepard Anderson – only daughter of a pair of wealthy eccentrics – Rose is, in reality, the incorporeal being who reanimated and possessed the dead girl’s body over thirty years ago, in a terrible promise to a dear friend, born of a lie that was meant to be kind: the claim that there was nothing she could do. And of course she lied; Jen’s spirit had already moved on. She knew the risks in ignoring that. Her friend did not.

And so Rose never once brought up the fact that in a strange way, her friend was asking her to disappear – to cease to exist as herself in order to become something that was almost Jenny. 

The being with centuries’ worth of lived experience threw herself wholly into the role of a rich 20-something, gradually allowing herself to reclaim little bits of her identity over the decades. Less than she might have, of course, had her old friend not reacted so negatively to any sign of Rose. 

“Jen” had to break up with Todd, of course, but she’d imitated the true Jennifer Shepard a little too well. Todd never suspected this wasn’t really his girlfriend, but he immediately knew something was very wrong, and he just wouldn’t let it go. 

So, eventually, when he confronted her – Rose told him everything. Showed him the truth. Explained that Jenny had accidentally gone over the cliff that night in a blind terror, though her memories did not hold the cause. Todd still couldn’t let it go, and, in truth, it had been troubling Rose, too. They decided to work together to learn more, and were soon joined in this endeavor by Rose’s partner William.

To everyone else, their complicated dynamic just looked like the classic love triangle. To Rose, these were the two people preventing her from losing herself entirely. 

Then Todd was murdered, and while Rose and William waited for him to return as a ghost, he never did. So William left his current host body and possessed Todd’s corpse, luring his murderer into the open and avenging Todd Anderson. 

All the world knows is that Todd and Jenny got back together. Todd finally won over her once-disapproving parents, and the couple eventually married. 

When Rose’s own child was born, the little family moved to a farm about half an hour away: something the world was no longer certain that Jennifer Shepard would never have done. If you’re looking for work, especially if there’s a touch of the supernatural about you that makes it difficult to keep most jobs, she and her husband are known to be good employers who offer decent pay.

[Rose {the Night/Secrets; hidden things} is the only one of her people to have naturally retained knowledge of the runes/sigils that repel or draw wraiths, or can bind them to their current corporeal form until the body's death -- having created those in the first place.]

[musecastle]

If Change likes any mortal follower enough to find overt fanaticism towards it endearing or just one of their quirks (rather than annoying), they may not remain mortal for long.

How would someone know if they qualified? Well, for a start, it will have approached them first, rather than the other way around.

Patrick himself would rather die than willingly reveal his identity to this type, even the ones he loves. If he trusts any Change-aligned mortal... or really, anyone... that much, it will be someone who knows what they're dealing with, but is still willing to scold him or tell him he's being an idiot, should they feel the need.

[timefornonsense]

Lore Worked Out During Playthroughs: Mischief

*Party kept finding dead alternate version of Mischief in camp; apparently Mischief killed them? Patrick said he wasn't sure he could trust Mischief, and was found 'dead' the next day. Was overjoyed when revived. By attacking Patrick rather than any of the mortals with them, Mischief, in this oddity's mind, proved he knew where the line was.

*Mischief Killed 50 of the same enemy over the course of two playthroughs, after which he would proceed to massacre the rest of the goblins in the village. In the latest playthrough, the much-killed goblin joined the initial fight on the party's side, saving that group of goblins.

*Kept getting bored and evidently going off to kill the enemies while everyone else slept.

*We discovered a significant hidden reason as to why he'd want to protect the world he's in.

*Mischief's distraction is the reason Patrick got an eye gouged out some of these times.

*If Mischief's watching, disappointing Patrick too much or rejecting attempts to offer a path to redemption is a great way to get yourself killed.

*Intentionally made it harder for Patrick to stay under the radar half the time. Potentially the type to kill people just before Patrick shows up with friends he has convinced he's an ordinary human, and ensure resurrecting victims could not be done with any subtlety. "Your secrets or their lives" type of thing.

*Would have joined Patrick in half-illithid state out of solidarity if the game allowed for it.

[timefornonsense]

Forgot to mention the time Mischief liked a particular mortal ... and so deliberately got him into a potentially fatal amount of trouble with the terrifying criminal organization he worked for.

[musecastle]

When it comes to gods that may be considered similar to themselves, members of "Patrick's" pantheon have a tendency to treat prayers, queries, etc addressed to one deity as though they were addressed to the other, should the one directly named not answer. There seem to be a combination of two reasons for this, and in his current form, Patrick can rarely be sure which one is in play.

1. They consider themselves, in some sense, the same entity. Under a different name, perhaps a different aspect, true, but still the same in some fundamental way. [And that complicates the nature of awareness for them. Even with the aid of one of their death gods, the band of conspirators could only trap these entities as those cultures knew them.]

Tell Patrick about any sufficiently ancient god that shares domains and/or characteristics with him, and he likely won't be certain this isn't the case. It's unclear enough, at least, that if a follower of such an entity calls out for aid from their god? Patrick may step in to protect them immediately, even in a situation where he'd normally be reluctant to get involved.

2. They consider the other god's goals especially compatible with theirs and vice-versa. This may not always look to be the case if seen from a mortal point of view.

In terms of threads, the practical result is this: if your muse calls him by the name of a being they're familiar with who's archetypally similar to what Patrick knows he is (once he's aware of that, at least), there's a decent chance he'll effectively respond with "maybe?" instead of correcting them. Because they may just be right.

[timefornonsense]

BG3 Patrick, folks.

[timefornonsense]

Okay, I'm fairly sure their respective classes are wrong. But I think this is as close as I can really get in the character creator, appearance-wise, for William and Rose.

[timefornonsense]

Lore Worked Out During Playthroughs: Mischief

*Party kept finding dead alternate version of Mischief in camp; apparently Mischief killed them? Patrick said he wasn't sure he could trust Mischief, and was found 'dead' the next day. Was overjoyed when revived. By attacking Patrick rather than any of the mortals with them, Mischief, in this oddity's mind, proved he knew where the line was.

*Mischief Killed 50 of the same enemy over the course of two playthroughs, after which he would proceed to massacre the rest of the goblins in the village. In the latest playthrough, the much-killed goblin joined the initial fight on the party's side, saving that group of goblins.

*Kept getting bored and evidently going off to kill the enemies while everyone else slept.

*We discovered a significant hidden reason as to why he'd want to protect the world he's in.

*Mischief's distraction is the reason Patrick got an eye gouged out some of these times.

*If Mischief's watching, disappointing Patrick too much or rejecting attempts to offer a path to redemption is a great way to get yourself killed.

*Intentionally made it harder for Patrick to stay under the radar half the time. Potentially the type to kill people just before Patrick shows up with friends he has convinced he's an ordinary human, and ensure resurrecting victims could not be done with any subtlety. "Your secrets or their lives" type of thing.

*Would have joined Patrick in half-illithid state out of solidarity if the game allowed for it.

[timefornonsense]

They obviously don't look quite like this in mainverse, but it may be helpful for general vibes: the BG3 renditions of Dreams, Mischief, and Patrick.

[timefornonsense]

One thing Patrick does understand, once he knows enough, is just how much faith the Drunken Philosopher must have had in him as a person to even hope the plan would work as intended. If, at least, Patrick is right about why the champion did what he did. And he/it, in turn, admires the Philosopher and is genuinely grateful and humbled in a way people rarely see with beings like it.

[timefornonsense]

from a disco conversation during work break where we were discussing how Patrick in all forms would like my friend's merman oc and might show up to help him find ways to be on land [their question: "would he always look like a many-eyed terror or could he maybe possess/override Patrick, and just look human?"]

kalaquaya — 11:09 PM Also, I think the way that eldritch horror Patrick works in terms of "override" is: it could bring so much more of its own consciousness into the mix that it would essentially drown out that mortal-esque sliver? [11:11 PM] But Patrick would find that traumatic, and it isn't the type to deliberately hurt itself that way. It also cares about people's free will. Its own included.