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collecting-stories · 4 years

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Thanksgiving - ep. 04 - Georgia

Summary: It’s Thanksgiving in King County and you won’t let Daryl celebrate alone.

A/N: I’m really going for the slowburn this time.

Georgia Masterlist | The Walking Dead Masterlist

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

“Nice backpack,” Rick laughed, picking the bright yellow backpack up from the lawn chair.

“It ain’t mine.” He shrugged, lighting up a cigarette.

Rick had come over for beers. An odd night off from work without the academy in the morning he had decided to stop ‘round at Daryl’s. It was already dark out when he’d pulled up outside his best friend’s house and Daryl was working on a jeep by the light of the carport. When he walked up he’d spotted the backpack sitting there, an odd contrast to anything else lying around.

“Didn’t think it was.” Rick replied, “so who’s the girl?”

“Don’t know what yer talkin’ ‘bout.”

“There’s a Jeep in your driveway and some girl’s backpack in your truck.” Rick pointed out, “you know, I’m a cop, I’m trained to notice these things.”

“Ya ain’t a cop yet.” Daryl muttered, heading over to the fridge and grabbing a beer.

“So?”

“I’m fixing someone’s car and she left her bag. That’s all.”

Daryl had realized that you left your backpack there after he drove you home on Sunday night. He’d gotten all the way back home when he saw your bright yellow backpack sitting on the floor of his truck. He had called you when he got inside. He felt stupid, standing in the kitchen with the phone pressed to his ear, waiting for you to answer like he was some dumb high school kid.

You had answered after the second ring, “Hello?”

“Hey...it’s Daryl, ya left yer bag in my truck.”

“Oh my gosh...I totally did, didn’t I? I'm so sorry.”

“It’s alright. Ya want me ta drop it off?” He asked.

“Are you at the garage tomorrow morning? Glenn is driving me to school, we could stop and I could grab it?” You asked, unsure how else you were going to get the backpack. You couldn’t leave now that you were home or your mom would get suspicious. She knew Maggie was grounded and there was no way she’d let you out after dark to hang out with Glenn or Tara or Rosita.

“Yeah I’ll be there.”

Somehow the bright yellow monstrosity had ended up back in Daryl’s possession. It wasn’t much of a mystery though. You had stopped, just like you said you would, before school in the morning. While you were there you had mentioned getting the second payment to him that afternoon. Part of that agreement somehow involved driving you from school to the diner where your bag had once again been forsaken in his truck.

Now he had to figure out how to get it to you all over again and Rick was trying to rifle through it. “Would ya quit that?” Daryl grumbled, grabbing the bag and putting it back in his truck. He had set it on the chair so he didn’t forget it but Rick was bothering him.

“I just wanna know who she is,” Rick replied. “College student.”

“I told ya I’m just fixing a car.”

“Please tell me she’s at least 18 D.”

“It ain’t like that.” Daryl slammed the truck door shut and glared at him, face flush at the accusation that he thought of you in a way that wasn’t just a client. “I’m fixing a car.”

“Alright.”

It had taken Rick getting a call from his mom to swing by for dinner to finally get him to leave Daryl’s house. Not that Daryl wanted to be rid of him, with Merle in prison for the next six months Rick was the only other friend he had. He did want to return your backpack though and he figured it was worth stopping at the diner to see if you were there. You were always telling him how you worked all the time and while he wasn’t sure if you really did or if you were exaggerating he thought it was worth a shot, plus he assumed you would need it for school. Axel, Tiny, Dale, and even T-Dog weren’t strangers to the diner but you had never seen Daryl come in before so you were surprised when you saw him walk through the door.

“Hey!” When you saw the backpack in his hands you smiled, “I’m so sorry.”

“Ya say that but yer smiling." He replied, setting it on one of the stools and sitting down beside it.

“I’m honestly sorry.” You insisted, though it wasn’t truthful in the slightest. All you could really feel was happy that he had gone out of his way to bring the bag back to you. “Can I get you anything? On the house.”

It was pretty dead at 9pm on a Monday night. Most people weren’t out so late in King County. Daryl took the menu off the counter and opened it, looking through the options. “I’ll have some coffee.”

“Okay,” you poured him a cup and went to give another patron their meal. When you came back Daryl was still looking through the menu. “Are you still free on Thursday?”

“Why?” He asked, “what’s Thursday?”

“Thanksgiving.”

“I got work in the morning.” He replied, “Probably won’t work on the car honestly.”

“No, I wasn’t asking for that. I was wondering if you wanted to come around for dinner. Patricia has a bunch of people at the diner for a big Thanksgiving dinner. Like the Greene’s and Dale usually comes.”

“Yah, I don’t think so.” The last thing Daryl needed was to show up somewhere he knew he wouldn’t be welcome. He knew the invitation was innocent, you were just trying to be nice, but he didn’t need to embarrass himself by hanging around more than he was welcome.

“Okay, well, if you change your mind I’m making apple pie.”

Unsurprisingly, Daryl did not change his mind. He spent his thanksgiving the way he did every year, drinking beer and watching the game on TV because it was all that was on. Will bailed on anything Thanksgiving related almost as soon as he woke up, leaving for a bar over in Woodbury. Daryl had grilled a steak but otherwise he had skipped out on dinner.

He was almost asleep on the old laz-e-boy when a knock on the side door startled him awake. Rick never stopped by on Thanksgiving and there was only one other person he could think of that would come by his house.

“Ya know when someone declines an offer to see ya that don’t mean ya need to come by.” He said, leaning in the door and blocking you from coming inside. You looked kind of adorable, a corduroy brown pinafore dress and cream turtleneck.

“I know but I come bearing apple pie.” You bartered, holding up the wrapped up pie dish.

“A’ight, come on.” Daryl moved aside to let you in.

“That was easier than I thought.”

“I know ya well enough ta know ya ain’t just gonna leave if I ask.”

“You are correct.” You smiled. You eyed the beer cans sitting on the coffee table, “having a party?”

“Something like that.” He took the pie dish from you and set it on the coffee table before heading into the kitchen in search of clean utensils. You sat down the couch, looking around the Dixon’s home. The TV was sitting on an entertainment system that looked seconds from falling apart, the carpet was stained with cigarette ash and other substances.

“This is...”

“Its a piece a shit.” Daryl replied, walking into the living room and sitting down beside you. “How was yer Thanksgiving?”

“It was alright...Maggie’s not talking to her dad so that was kinda awkward. I sat at the kids table with Beth and Sean.” You said, “better than sitting with the adults. Anyway, I told you I was making pie and I didn’t want you to miss out because, honest to god, I make the best apple pie in Georgia.”

Daryl nodded, more interested in the pie than in who you sat with at dinner. The last time he had apple pie he was probably seven and his mom had bought it premade from the grocery store because he had begged for it. “Ain’t got anything to weigh it against.” He finally said, scooping up some with his fork and taking a bite.

You held your fork in your hand, waiting for a reaction. Daryl had terrible eating habits. He ate too fast and didn’t pay attention to whether the food was going completely in his mouth all the time. Growing up in a house with Merle and Will hadn’t exactly instilled strong table manners in him. Mostly they ate their meals at the TV, on fold out tables or the coffee table or he ate in the camper away from his dad. The last time they used a kitchen table it had been in their old house before his mom died.

“Good?” You chanced while he ate.

He hummed around a mouthful. You took a bite and smiled. Last year you had almost messed it up with the wrong apples but this year it was perfect.

“Yer good at this.”

“Baking?”

“Yeah. Can’t cook anything if it ain’t on a grill.”

“You might be able to make an apple pie on a grill...I’ve never tried.” You teased and he smiled just enough that you caught it.

“Where do your parents think you are?” He asked, getting up and grabbing a beer from the kitchen fridge.

“Tara’s. Can I have one?”

“No.”

“Oh come on. I’m almost 18.”

“I ain’t giving ya alcohol. Last thing I need is some girl going home drunk from here.” He replied.

“I won’t be drunk! I can drink like, a whole case of Zima before I get drunk.”

“That shit’s disgusting.”

“Oh I’m sorry, your Pabst is so great.” You sassed. Daryl rolled his eyes and held the can out to you, the one he’d just been drinking from. You took it, downing as much of a gulp as you could stand and imagining that you could maybe taste him on it. But the taste of the cheap beer won out and you nearly gagged as it went down, “that’s disgusting.”

“Gets ya drunk.”

“Are you?”

“Right now, no.” Though he wasn’t totally sober. If he was he would have never let you in his house. “Most a those are my dad’s. Had ‘em ‘fore he left for the bar.” He said, dropping onto the couch beside you.

“I think this is the most we’ve ever had a conversation.” You pointed out.

Daryl nodded and grinned, “maybe I am drunk.”

The next morning, as Daryl stepped out of the 7-11 with a pack of cigarettes and a coffee, he caught sight of you standing at the driver’s side of his truck and fixing your hair in the sideview mirror. You had stayed longer than you intended the night before; long enough that you had to call Glenn to pick you up because Daryl refused to drive you home after drinking.

“Ya gonna pump my gas for me.” He asked and you spun around, smiling.

“I can. But it’ll cost you.”

“I’ll tell ya what,” Daryl picked up the gas nozzle and placed it in the truck, trapping you between him and the hose, “I’ll give ya the pie plate back.”

“Deal.” You turned slightly and reached for the nozzle, putting your hand over his, “but I’m only doing this because my mom already asked about the pie plate. Now move it, this is my job.”

You caught the slightest smile as he pulled his hand away and held them both up in mock surrender. He leaned against the driver’s door and took a sip of his coffee while he watched the numbers on the screen. “Ya working today?”

“Yeah, Lori wouldn’t clock me in early cause she’s on some power trip. Patricia left her in charge and she said I was trying to steal hours from Amy, she’s new, but I’m not. I don’t care about Amy or her hours.” You replied.

“Yes or no woulda worked.” He teased.

“I’m gonna think of the most long winded ways to answer your questions from now on. Just to annoy the hell outta ya.”

“Ya already do.”

“I do not! You love hanging out with me.”

He hummed and reached around you to grab the nozzle, clicking off the handle so the gas flow would stop but keeping you trapped. “There ya go. Pie plate is yours.”

“Thanks.”

He was slow to step away, almost reluctant, “I’ll see ya ‘round.”

“Okay.”

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ommsims · 3 years

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story process challenge

i was tagged by @xldkx to do this challenge, created by @herpixels , like a month? a month and a half? ago and it’s been sitting half finished in my drafts for nearly as long. *sigh* (regardless, i love stuff like this so even if it takes me forever to get to it, i appreciate the tags! 💕).

i decided to answer all the qs because it took me damn long enough to get to this, so i might as well put some extra elbow grease into it (plus it was fun!). btw it’s all going under a cut b/c it is long. i apologize in advance.

1. My Writing Process - used to be a hot damn mess. literally word docs strewn throughout my pc. However, I recently switched to using Onenote (it’s what i use to organize my d&d campaign notes) and hoo-boy is it so much nicer. this is how it’s set up and it’s honestly night and day. i can have a page with outlines, a page to organize & order screenshots, and a separate page for drafting text, and i can easily toggle though them without having to switch windows? a big thumbs up from me.

When it comes to actual writing- I used to write my drafts in novel format, which i enjoyed but it made “converting” them into tumblr posts time consuming and frustrating. I ended up scrapping most of the text in the process, retaining pretty much only the dialogue.

Anyway, nowadays I write in more of a screenplay format: dialogue only + key scene information with the occasional note to self.

I do keep a master “arcs” page with key events and each individual character’s arc from beginning to end and secondary “outline” pages with slightly more detailed outline for each leg of the project. No screencaps b/c spoilers galore!

My typical work flow process for a scene goes: (1) brainstorm scene ideas, (2) take screenshots, (3) organize screenshots into a rough storyboard, (4) add 1st draft of text, (5) edit photos, (6) edit text, (7) upload to "drafts” here on tumblr, (8) let sit for a bit (9) take a final look at things/proofread and edit as needed. It may sound counterintuitive, but i find it much easier to write dialogue for a set of images rather than attempt to take images based on prewritten text. I feel more comfortable editing and tweaking tone and content in the text this way. Otherwise, I get frustrated when I “can’t” shoot a scene exactly as it appeared in my head.

2. How I build my scenes - A lot of what i do is rooted in gameplay, therefore my sets are usually (a) play-tested and (b) not super pretty. I’ve certainly improved at decorating & building over the years but more often than not I download lots off tumblr and the gallery because I don’t have the patience, aptitude, or time to build all of my own sets. That being said, I frequently gut builds only to build a number of completely unrelated mini sets inside to reduce the number of times i have to replace lots. I also keep a list of “important locations” and where certain characters live / will move to, to help keep this all straight as there aren’t nearly enough lots per neighborhood or even per world in this damn game...

my least favorite part of scene building is actually decorating. lol. Don’t get me wrong, I love clutter. I honestly do. but fuck me if i expect myself to spend hours meticulously decorating a set, spend another 3 hours toggling back and forth b/w BB & live modes adjusting things to get rid of the damn routing errors. (yeah, yeah, i know i could ignore them, they’re not important, especially in those scenarios where i’m using a set for screenshots and nothing else, but idk. it really grinds my gears.) and then have to replace the lot like a week later because there aren’t enough lots in the game. *sigh*

3. CC/Pose Making - i do not consider myself to be a cc creator nor a pose maker but i do dabble occasionally. And to be completely honest i’d much rather spend my time doing other stuff, so it’s not high on my list of priorities atm. plus there are so many talented cc creators in this community; i can usually get by with what’s already out there.

4. Getting in the zone - Honestly, I do a lot of brainstorming for plot & dialogue in the shower. I don’t have any particular playlists to get me “in the writing mood” but I do enjoy listening to music as I work. Either instrumental stuff or simply artists/songs I like. If something just so happens to “fit” a scene I’m working on, one i’ve got planned, or even just gives me vibes for a certain character or group, I add a quick note to the top of said scene’s draft. Most of the time I stick it in the recesses of my brain and add a quick link when I finally get to the point of posting the draft to tumblr. For whatever reason, when I have one of those “oh this song is perfect for X” moments it’s essentially ingrained in my mind for the rest of eternity.

5. The screenshot folder - this will most likely give some of you out there major anxiety. but i swear it’s an organized chaos. :)

yep. 32.9gb of screenshots & related things...

So with the raws from a single random scene selected, you can see i take roughly 10 screenshots per image posted. not terrible i guess but i’m working on it. Typically I take screenshots and once I’m done editing a scene I’ll move them from the general folder to a more specific project folder.

6. Captions - I’ll answer this in three parts:

for my townie story. not really. I prefer using the text box. I tend to write (& re-write) the dialogue for each one of these scenes several times over as I add more “scenes” into my drafts. It would be incredibly inefficient, time consuming, and would waste a lot more space on my pc to have to save .psds of each image just so i could edit dialogue when I decide: “oh hey maybe so and so needs to bring up X in this scene” and then change my mind an hour later.

for niko, noor, & co. I’m a text on image type gal here. don’t really know why, but it gives the project a different energy. ironically it makes it feel more laid-back to me. which i guess makes sense, it’s a much more light-hearted “story” than my townie project. which is, imo, very soapy haha.

for legacy stuff. all text goes below the images in the text box. reasoning: it’s gameplay, I don’t brainstorm, outline, or pre-write for this. I play the game, take screenshots, plug ‘em into my drafts and write some commentary / dialogue to go along with it.

7. Editing - i am a creature of habit and have not majorly changed my editing process in probably a year and a half (when I began using reshade and had to adjust my color correcting psd). it’s a super basic system:

drag & drop my “color correction” psd.

run actions in ps. (i made my own “all-in-one” actions to really streamline the process; i have different “actions sets” for my premades’ story and for other things that get posted to tumblr. even if no one else notices it, i like the little details that keep my projects separate and “identifiable”.

voila. all set to upload.

sometimes i crop images, add “text effects”, or do more in depth editing (i.e. editing a phone screen or adding rain etc.) but overall i try and keep it simple for myself.

8. Throwback - i posted an image of one of the first (but never posted) scenes I’d written for my townie project up above. but as for how would i redo a scene i’d already posted. well i’m currently re-doing my townie story so i guess i’ll just say you’ll see how it’s redone when i get to part 1! 😉

anyway, no tags because i’m so embarrassingly late to this party but if you hadn’t gotten around to this tag, wanted to do it but didn’t get a tag, or started it and left it to sit and now you’re thinking “oh god that was months ago should i even post this anymore?!?” consider yourself tagged by me and go ahead and post it for all to see!

#tag train #story process challenge #it's long. it's rambly. but that's me.#this one was a challenge! a challenge but fun.

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etraytin · 4 years

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Quarantine, Days 228-229

October 25 and 26 I have retreated deep into fanfic this evening to avoid thinking too much about how fucked we all are vis-a-vis the Supreme Court, but I didn't journal last night so here I am to make up for it. Last night I did have a good excuse though: I took a muscle relaxer for my shoulder and fell asleep at 7:30, then didn't wake up until 7:00 this morning. A lot more sleep than I usually get, but I did need it! Not a lot happened yesterday anyway. No school on Sunday, but the kiddo had to do some more makeup work anyway, much to his chagrin. There's only one more week in the first quarter, so we are up against a very hard deadline if he wants to get gradable work in so it can actually be graded. He's getting closer, though.

Husband and the kiddo played a game of D&D, but I had to go try and catch a cat. That went poorly, mostly because I forgot to remove one of the blocks we'd had under the trap so it wouldn't fall down while we were trap training. So when I pulled the rope, the trap didn't close all the way, and the target cat was off like a bat out of hell. I'm going to go back Tuesday night and hope she's forgotten her startle. God, I felt like such a dumbass, especially since it was rainy and miserable and I'd driven a long way to do this trapping. By the time I got home I was exhausted and sore, hence the medication and sleep. Today while the kiddo was doing school work, I experimented with fried wontons. I picked up some premade wonton wrappers a while ago and have just let them sit in the fridge, but I don't want them to go to waste. I'd thought about doing crab rangoons but I have no crab, so I made cream cheese wontons instead. Half a block of cream cheese (4oz), half a teaspoon of sugar and half a teaspoon of onion powder made up the filling. I had to use my coffee grinder to make dried minced onion into powder since I don't have any onion powder somehow. I'm sure I have some, god knows where. But I mixed that up, put a dollop in the middle of each wrapper, brushed all four edges with a little egg, and folded each one so all four corners met in the middle in that distinctive wonton shape. I had very little vegetable oil so I used my smallest pan and fried two at a time, but I ended up with eleven decent wontons and only one that fell apart, so not bad. They tasted good! I will probably do that one again. Since I already had the oil going, I also did some of those super thin rice noodles that instantly puff up hugely in hot oil and we ate those. I did set off the smoke alarm, but only once. Good job, me! Kiddo got caught doing Among Us after bedtime _again_ so now he is off electronics for awhile. It will have to be a longer punishment this time because this is the second infraction in a week. I am thinking maybe no electronics till all the makeup assignments are done (and done WELL), just to kill two birds with one stone. He is definitely going to be crabby about it, especially since he has a dentist appointment on Wednesday, but such is life. It's not like he doesn't have a billion toys. That's about all the news there is right now, so I 'm going to go back to carefully not doomscrolling and living in a happy imaginary world that is so much nicer than the shitshow we currently have. Eight more days, and we just might turn a corner. Please, please, please let us turn a corner in eight days.

#quarantine #recipe #tnr

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split-n-splice · 4 years

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Dr. D’s offered to make dinner before when she was angry so this isn’t OOC of him, nopenopenope I outta make a new header soon

[Chapter Guide]

8. Distance – 1

Dr. Drakken wasn’t ready to give her the satisfaction of elaborating on how she’d disrupted him, but some amends were in order for his outburst in the garage. Reward for delivering an entire fully-operational jet loaded to the brim with exclusive tech would have to come later when he could think of something better.

For now, he swallowed his pride, tossed his jacket, and rolled up his sleeves.

He’d hit her. He couldn’t take back the fact, even if she’d laughed it off. He was lucky she hadn’t returned it on the spot, and she hadn’t exactly been shy to remind him so on the way up to the lab, feigning a punch that made him flinch before she burst out with mean laughter. If jets and towers and fame couldn’t please her, he doubted trivial favors like making her dinner would, but one had to start somewhere. It was all he could think of in a pinch at this time of night anyway.

While Shego took her sweet time with her post-mission shower, Dr. Drakken donned his apron and busied himself in the kitchen. He made note he’d have to stock it better, and soon, but he made do with what he had. It was pure luck he’d roughly planned out a meal in advance anyway when he’d gone shopping the other night for the ingredients needed for his devil’s food muffins.

Not a moment too soon, the superhuman thief dressed down to sweats and sweater strode into his living quarters without so much as a knock, as was the evening routine for her, and made a beeline for his couch with the intent of commandeering his television for the next while. He hastily tossed aside his splattered apron and couldn’t help throwing a nervous glance to the living room, paranoid he may have missed a scrap of evidence of his snooping.

Drakken cleared his throat to grab her attention before she could reach the couch. He caught her eye – she glared, he gulped – and she followed his glance and tiny nod to a plate of spaghetti he set down for her at the kitchen island. The fleeting thought crossed his mind that maybe it was time to invest in a regular dining table, but he pushed the thought aside before it could take root, the idea of dining with anyone regularly enough to need one ejected along with it.

The timer dinged behind him.

++X++

Shego cocked her brow at the man’s back as she approached cautiously, but he was busy slathering garlic-laced butter on crisped French bread.

She scrutinized the quick fixin’s on the platter before her. He needed work on his presentation, as the pasta was simply glopped on in a generous heap. But the smell was heavenly, she’d give him that. A glance to the empty cans and messy cutting board shoved aside on the counter indicated the sauce had been made from scratch, which left her just a little dubious. She hadn’t had spaghetti from scratch in more than four years. All the times she’d made the hasty dish for her family, the sauce had been premade from a can, and forget taking the time to shape meatballs. Furthermore, mushrooms and tomatoes had been banned from all meals to circumvent her baby brothers’ pickiness, and it was a relief not to see corn mixed with the noodles for a change. She’d be lying through her teeth if she said it didn’t make her mouth water.

Yet no matter how famished she was, she wasn’t gullible enough to tuck into the offering just like that. She stood a step back from the counter as the blue man turned with a hot slice of garlic bread balanced on a spatula to slip onto the edge of her untouched plate. He kept his eyes downcast while hers narrowed on him.

Shego broke first. “You cook?” she asked incredulously, although she was lured that much closer by the warm garlic bread.

“Occasionally,” mumbled Drakken without so much as a glance back at her as he served himself practically one noodle at a time. “It’s good to take a break from the lab sometimes.”

Sometimes. That was laughable. Once in a blue moon, maybe. Given how dusty his cookware had become, it was hard to believe he was the sort of man to know how to cook for himself at all. Come to think of it, she was a little surprised he hadn’t asked her to yet. It was a woman’s job after all, according her household, though she’d only done the chore because letting anyone else take over meant a bigger mess to clean or having her allowance cut.

As Shego watched the steam rise from the food, still straining to resist the temptation, she couldn’t help noticing another underlying smell hovering in the stagnant air over the permeating aroma of garlic and spice. It didn’t smell like it belonged in an evil man’s lair, but it backed up his claim nonetheless.

“No wonder it smells cakey in here,” she muttered with a light scoff. She didn’t have to see his face to know he was blushing. The tips of his ears gave it away. No wonder he was stalling.

“Muffins, actually,” he more or less squeaked, and had to clear his throat. “I’m burned out on them, so help yourself. They’re in the fridge.” He spooned some pasta back into the pan, still hesitant to face her.

Shego perched on a barstool and poked at the food suspiciously with the fork he’d left her. She almost hoped it would poke back to distract her from the awkward vibe hovering in the air thicker than the warm aromas of her boss’s cooking. “Alright, chief,” she sighed. “You’re acting like a baby. Man up. What was with that tantrum back there?”

His back still to her as he hovered over the stove, Drakken paused with noodles halfway to his mouth. He almost looked back at her, but shook his head instead. “You should have called,” he stated, and quickly busied himself with chewing.

Shego shrugged and apologized dryly, “Sorry. I was busy.”

She slouched over the counter, pushing a meatball around with her fork. She studied her plate with growing apprehension, even as delicious as it looked. This was the first time she’d seen any indication of the man having culinary skills. He might have been stuffing his face with noodles from his own plate now, but so soon after his outburst in the garage, Shego couldn’t shake the distrust. This was all too convenient. She looked closely at the pasta, but if it was laced with anything special, she couldn’t tell it apart from the parmesan or seasonings.

She waited another moment until Dr. Drakken finally braved turning around to lean against the far counter, though he still kept his eyes deliberately down on his own plate. She studied him carefully for a reaction that could justify her misgivings as she asked bluntly, “This isn’t poisoned, is it?”

The sulky mad scientist grimaced and shot a quick frown up at her. “It’s dinner,” he clarified curtly. “Bon appétit.”

Shego wasn’t convinced. She hummed skeptically and beckoned him with a finger. The shifty man hesitated a moment before pulling up a stool to sit across from her like a civilized host, though he frowned in her direction as she twirled noodles around her fork.

Drakken lurched backwards when she held it up to him suddenly, nodding in silent answer when he stared back at her in questioning. He opened his mouth as if to argue that he wasn’t trying to poison her – but she took the opportunity to forcefully give him the first bite from her plate just in case. He almost spat it out in reflex, but must have thought better of it as she fixed him in a dangerous glare.

She waited until he’d swallowed before wiping her fork clean on a napkin and accepting the meal.

Offended, he snorted and grumbled half to himself, “My cooking isn’t that bad.”

“I get food poisoning just looking in your fridge,” she shot back under her breath. She didn’t trust the meatballs either. They could have easily been tampered with. For good measure, she rolled a few of his onto her plate in exchange for hers. The trade-off earned her a deep frown and an indignant huff, but he didn’t voice complaint as he grouchily ate his sauce-slathered meal. At least the garlic bread she could be confident about.

Shego took only a couple cautious bites before dropping her fork. She really couldn’t let him off the hook so easy. Not without a better apology than spaghetti, and not until he quit pouting.

“So. You threw a fit all because I didn’t check in like a good little girl. Is that it?” she shot over, flicking a glower up at him, but he continued to sheepishly avoid looking up. Shego mirrored his frown for a long moment before shrugging meekly to herself and shaking her head with exasperated sigh as she accepted the length of the metaphorical leash. If he had a leash on her at all, her little stint had proven she could yank it out of his hands whenever she wanted. “But you didn’t call to nag me, so…thanks for that.”

“I was tempted,” he admitted tersely, stabbing mercilessly at a meatball.

“And that’s fine. What matters is you didn’t.”

The man must have lost his appetite, because he set his fork down to chew instead on something verbal. “You had my car, so don’t sound so smug,” he groused, flashing a glare up at her at last. He folded his hands under his chin and frowned back down again. “You’re free to come and go as you please. If I have to beg and bribe for your alliance, then your heart wouldn’t be in it, and frankly I doubt you’d work as efficiently if I forced you to be here against your will. I’m sure you’ve had your fill of that anyway. I suppose you’ve been due for some freedom.”

It took Shego a moment to digest before quipping, “Are you talking to me, or your plate?” to which Dr. Drakken flicked his scowl up at her for a split second before his dark tired eyes darted away again. Nonetheless, she nodded and gave a small hum in agreement. The freedom she had now was more than her family and team had ever granted her. A villain shouldn’t have been the one to give her that though.

++X++

Another moment under her watchful stare, and Dr. Drakken finally lost his cool, the girl on the other side of the kitchen island recoiling back from him. All the grief his company’s absence had given him over the past few days resurfaced again, and for the first time in ages, there was someone besides himself to hear it.

“I missed you,” he blurted accusingly, and the slip tasted vile on his tongue. He slammed his fist on the counter in frustration. She’d gotten his goat, that was certain. He almost wished that would be enough to satisfy her, almost wished she would laugh and flip her hair and leave him to stew now – but instead she sat back and stared. Why he was compelled to answer that stare was beyond his understanding. “You had me so damn worried, Shego.” He clapped a hand over his mouth and bit his cheek.

The watchful superhuman before him offered nothing more than her jaded gaze and a listening ear. Drakken clammed up for a moment, shamefaced that he’d cracked. But she was waiting.

His hands flailed as he rambled in a rush to explain before he could think better of it. “I hardly know you,” he snapped at her. “How was I to know if you were really going to be come back, or if you’d just run off for good, or if you were backstabbing me? And when you didn’t call, I didn’t know if you’d been caught, and I was—hhnng!” He groaned. He was worried for what it spelled for him, sure, but he’d never been worried for anyone else before – at least not in a long while. And he had been worried for her, at least a little bit. That was as bad as missing the nuisance that loitered idly in his lab every day of the past two weeks.

Drakken hung his head and wanted to pull his hair out. He had to come up with a more professional way of dealing with this woman, because this just wouldn’t do. Henchmen were easy. Henchmen stayed down below, out of sight, out of mind, until he needed them.

Shego stared at him for a moment longer before tentatively offering, “I’m…sorry?”

The halfhearted apology made him snort. “No, I’m sorry,” he grumbled, still gripping his hair. Her quizzical stare was impossible to ignore, and he made the mistake of glancing up at it. He swallowed as something danced to life among his entrails. Something warm. It was almost sickening, and it certainly didn’t belong there after he’d sworn off it years ago. “I’ve given up on making friends, but I thought you – I mean – it just pissed me off, alright? I wasn’t sure if I’d been played for a fool or if I’d done something wrong – I-I shouldn’t have lost my temper – but you can’t blame me. You left me out of sorts.” Drakken clamped his mouth shut again before he could dig at himself any deeper. She had to be loving his suffering. Another glance up revealed that maybe he was wrong.

Shego shifted, her eyes dropping finally as she loaded pasta onto her slice of garlic bread. She smirked and gave a small laugh, quiet and unsure. “Your henchmen don’t count as friends?” she asked quizzically.

“Not a snowball’s chance in hell,” Drakken sighed miserably. They were hired manpower. The henchmen palled around among each other. Not so much with him. They didn’t fill the social void by any means. Drakken frowned back down to his food with a shake of his head. “I don’t need lackeys who resent me. I merely try to stay on okay terms with them so they don’t quit, or worse – turn mutinous.”

“And you think I won’t?” Shego scoffed, not even trying to mask the note of amusement. It shouldn’t have stung. She hardly qualified as a friend anymore than the henchmen did.

“I should hope not,” Drakken grumbled. “This has all been quite the trying trust exercise, I’ll have you know. I’m not a trusting person, but risks I’ll take.”

Shego hummed and muttered, “Ditto.” It seemed she was ready to let the subject of how adversely she’d affected the blue loner blow over. She went back to eating quietly.

Her plate was half-cleared when she hummed again for his attention. “Hey, Doc?” He glanced up to see her waving her fork at him, but thankfully not to shove in his face again. “If you ever do amount some big-shot world-dictator, what’ll that make me? The number one receptionist in the world? ‘Cause I’ll tell ya what, that ain’t gonna fly. It’s gonna have to be something pretty good if you don’t want me to kick your butt off your high horse.”

Well, at least she was getting that out in the open now rather than surprising him later down the road.

His face went slack as he chewed slowly, giving it a moment of thought. He peeked up to her still watching him, waiting for a reply. It was a serious question, he realized, and maybe a serious threat of premeditated mutiny. If he was the subject of a long con, so be it. He’d cross that bridge when he got there.

For now, Drakken shrugged. “I suppose you would be a fearsome partner in crime,” he jibbed carefully. He flapped a hand as he threw out ideas, “I’d probably have you overseeing torture of defiant rebels, commanding armies of mass chaos, living in the lap of luxury in some penthouse somewhere – the works.” Her devious snicker was contagious, and he found himself smiling along with her.

There was that bloom in his gut again. He shut it down quick and poked at his food.

“Those are some pretty sweet lies, Dr. D,” noted his dinner guest, shaking her head though still smirking even as his faltered. “But this could be fun. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us if you’re going to make you any sort of king.”

“You bet we do,” he agreed, and popped an entire meatball in his mouth so he wouldn’t have to speak for a while.

Which, regrettably, he wound up choking on. He was given a heavy thump on the back and handed a glass of water. It was hard to be thankful when the fearsome partner in crime chortled at his plight. Heartless partner, more like. He found it impossible to look her in the eye again for some time after.

He couldn’t be sure if dinner was unnecessary in smoothing out whatever disruption he’d caused with the whole garage incident, but she seemed in a better mood than when she’d come skulking in at least. It could be justified anyway, since he was past due for decent meal, but just seeing her go for a second slice of garlic bread almost made it worthwhile. He wasn’t entirely convinced she’d forgiven him, though he hoped she had. He still wouldn’t put it past her to return the gesture eventually, only her strike was bound to hurt far worse than the brash swipe he’d taken at her.

Normally, Drakken avoided lingering in the living room when she was there, but her cagey glances had lessened, and she was flashing wry little smiles now, and sharing with him an account her little stint back in Go City. It was hard not to settle into his recliner while she tucked herself into a nearest corner of the couch to give her report. She promised she’d removed the license plates before leading police on a chase so they couldn’t trace it to him, and that was fine and all, but an offhanded mumble of praise when she bit into a glazed devil’s food muffin must have been the highlight of his evening. It was a close second to receiving a jet anyway.

When she fell asleep stretched across his couch ten minutes into a new episode of Space Passage, Drakken didn’t have it in him to wake her to make her go back to her own room like a decent human being. She’d just driven all the way to the opposite coast and hijacked a jet all on her own. She deserved some undisturbed rest. He suspected she’d get up after a catnap and mosey off anyway.

Come morning, Drakken had just about forgotten she’d crashed in front of the TV, which was still on, and his initial response was surprise and discomfort of finding someone asleep in his own apartment-esque personal living space. The shock subsided, and he was left with the confliction of realizing how inexplicably nice it was for her of all people to be the last person he saw before he went to bed and the first person when he rose. He supposed he might like the sight of any pretty girl crashing on his couch though, even if she was a little less than lovely with disheveled hair and rumpled grey sweats and sweater from last night.

Drakken pulled his robe tighter, wondering if he ought to change into something more respectable than fleece, but the next order of business on his daily agenda was a stronger pull. He set the coffee to brew and hurried back to his room to dress for good measure, finding himself standing in his closet for a minute too long before scoffing to himself for pausing to consider his appearance. His day was destined to be spent overseeing henchmen in the garage, so he grabbed anything that wouldn’t cost much to replace if ruined, even if it was less than professional. The impulse to stop in front of a mirror to wonder if a black crew-neck was too loose on him was resisted as he hurried out, stuffing his shirt into the waist of his trousers.

He didn’t mean to slam his bedroom door in his own aggravation, and he winced, eyes daring to the couch, and breathed a sigh of relief to find Shego hadn’t stirred.

While Drakken busied himself in the kitchen again, taking her into account and making extra flapjacks to err on the side of caution, he had to wonder if the snake asleep on his couch knew how alarmingly fast she was getting to him with wry smiles and little touches and snarky quips, or if she was only playing him to pass the time. He had to wonder as well if he’d ever shake the ingrained fear of the latter. Whatever the case, letting himself play right into her hands was not an option, especially not when her hands were dangerous.

From the corner of his eye, he watched as the young woman groggily sat up, groaning about bright lights. Her hair fell in a frazzled mess around her shoulders, face scrunched in displeasure to be awake. She didn’t seem nearly as surprised to be here as he’d been to find her. He tried not to glance her way as she leaned over the back of the couch for a while, yawning and rubbing sleep from her eyes.

By her glower, Drakken had to assume she was in a crabby mood. By now, that was decidedly pretty normal for her. “Good morning, sunshine,” he chimed wryly from the kitchen.

++X++

Growling out a curt, “Shaddup,” Shego flipped him the bird before hefting herself up from the soft corduroy cushions.

She slumped into the kitchen a moment later, drawn in by the smell of coffee, and had to stop herself from reaching for another muffin and grab the creamer instead. She couldn’t help noticing his fridge was actually immaculately clean for a change. She’d expected him to fill it with beakers of questionable contents again over her weekend absence.

Once she had her mug, she was ready to leave to nurse a headache in the privacy of her own bedroom, but the blue man tending the stove beside her slid a plate of pancakes over in front of her before she could go anywhere. She weighed the options of leaving it, taking it, or sticking around. She decided she’d spent too much time too close to Dr. Drakken already since last night – they’d chatted and watched television and laughed and that in itself was enough to make her shudder now – so she sheepishly took the offering and retreated to her room without so much as a thank you. She felt a little bad for it too, because they might have been the best damn blueberry pancakes she’d ever had.

As per usual, she would forget about the dirty plate on her dresser until the shame caught up to her and she’d sneak it all the way back to the kitchen, but that wouldn’t be today.

Today, she loitered in the garage with Drakken and his goons. The remaining henchmen were the ones he’d brought with him to Go City, the same three stooges she’d pummeled in the geek lab. Claiming they were his best had clearly been a shoddy attempt to talk them up. It was almost disappointing the young fellow she’d had her eye on was stationed elsewhere on guard duty, but she suspected it was by his own choice. Any of the subordinates taking a shine to her was explicitly frowned upon after all, but she decided she wasn’t missing out on much. She could save mingling with the guys for the next time she felt like getting Dr. Drakken out of sorts.

For the better half of the day, Shego took the opportunity to soak up the autumn sunlight spilling in from the gaping garage door, basking on the warm concrete with her arms folded behind her head. At one point, she heard a goon utter concerns to Drakken, and Drakken shouted irritably, asking if she’d fainted, then barked at her to quit lazing about. He was answered with an obstinate middle finger, and Shego smirked to herself when it was the henchmen to take the heat for it.

She only got up off the floor when he actually gave her something to do, even if it was a trivial gofer run.

At the grumpy man’s command, she grudgingly fetched his leather notebook from the kitchen, and idly flipped through it as she strode back across the hangar to Drakken. It was a fairly new pad, bound in leather, and there wasn’t much in it yet. Besides the notes on the power staves, her gloves, and a grocery list, she recognized a distinct feminine figure buried among jumbles of important-looking formulas that probably should have been jotted down somewhere better than a little pocket notepad.

She brandished the open book and teasingly cocked her brow at Dr. Drakken when he saw what page she was turned to. His face flushed that peculiar shade of purple again. Maybe she was pushing it when she held the notebook out of his reach and mockingly asked, “So the robo tits are cosmetic, huh?” There wasn’t much to ogle at in the chest department on the androids, but it was still an opportunity to mock.

The man echoed her in a stuffy nagging tone with curled lip, and tried again to take back his notebook. He didn’t justify his reasoning behind the bots’ chests, barely a step up from flat, but she supposed it would have been more off-putting if she didn’t know already that their entire exoskeletons were made of steel. She could worry for him when he started trying to manufacture synthetic flesh.

Shego snickered nonetheless, giving Dr. Drakken a moment of difficulty as she danced around him before he caught her arm and she surrendered the notepad.

She stepped back from the grumbling blushing man in favor of admiring the spoils of her treason. She scrutinized the beautiful family jet being meticulously dismantled just so Drakken could analyze its inner workings. Earlier, she’d tried explaining a little about it, but he’d brushed her off saying he wanted it to be a surprise. He was as giddy as a boy on Christmas enthralled by a new puzzle to solve, so she took it as no disrespect and decided to let him have his fun. She just hoped she hadn’t stolen the valuable plane for it to wind up a hunk of junk like all the others in his scrappy little warehouse.

She was about to ask what his plans with it even were when a small unfamiliar vibration low on her leg gave her a start. She stared dumbly down at her utility pouch for a second before snapping it open and digging out a compact wireless phone, the likes of which she swore she’d only seen Global Justice agents and other elite individuals use.

Curious glances were thrown her way, and she turned her back to them.

Up until yesterday, Dr. Drakken had been the only one with the number. He’d been the one to give it to her not long after moving in, proudly taking credit for the design until she’d called him a copycat. She of course had no one to ring up since they were a little too far out for pizza delivery, so she hadn’t had a reason to use it. She’d almost forgotten she’d stopped by a couple of acquaintances in Go City yesterday, one of which she’d mistakenly given the number to. The caller ID brought a smile to her face nonetheless, though she knew better than to hope the girl was calling for a friendly chat.

Shilo ran a hand over her face as she picked up, as if doing so would wipe away the mask of Shego.

“Alex, baby, talk to me,” she chirped, ignoring the pang in her chest at the longing for a familiar voice. She would never go as far as to call the former-classmate a friend, but the delinquent was a reliable dealer who knew how to keep her mouth shut if one had the cash. And Shilo had certainly had the cash when she’d paid Go City a visit. It was almost certain the girl was still looking to take advantage of that.

“Hey, hon,” sang the junkie, sounding peculiarly sober. Her voice quavered, a nervous tell. “How’s life on the lam treating you?”

Just like that, Shilo wasn’t so happy to hear the acquaintance. She tensed, drawing her conclusion fast. The miscreant was known for being as carefree and bold as could be. Nothing made that laidback gal anxious except for Shilo’s intimidating up-tight goody-two-shoes big brother Hugo who’d nearly ratted her out on several occasions.

She barely had it in her to put some pep back into her tone to disguise her suspicions, answering quickly, “It’s great.” She found herself fidgeting, twirling a lock of hair around her finger.

Alex cut to the point, the absence of idle chitchat and musings raising another red flag. “I was thinking it would be cool if you could come hang out sometime,” she went on. “Or maybe we could – I could take a road trip to come see your new digs.” More red flags. The dealer wasn’t known for prying into the lives of her clientele, her only interest was in their money, and never would she offer to go out of her way for anything. She was too lazy to be that social. If one wanted the goods, they had to come to her, and bring exact change.

“I can hang tonight,” Shilo lied confidently anyway, a wry smirk quirking her lips. “Seven, behind the SM?”

“That sounds….yeah, that sounds great. So anyway, um, I wanted to tell you about—”

“Sorry, I’m sorta busy. Catch you later.” She didn’t want to seem too hasty, but she didn’t want to give what remained of Team Go a chance to work any techno-geekery magic to track her down. But the opportunity to make her big brother feel like a sucker was too great, and she smiled at the notion of what he’d look like tonight when he realized his stakeout behind a shopping center was a bust.

To be on the safe side, Shego incinerated the mobile phone. Dr. Drakken would just have to make or buy her a new one if it was that important, but she’d undoubtedly screwed up by giving out the number. Even if the lost signal might prevent them from pinpointing her exact location, they still had the area code now.

“You’re going to have to walk or ask politely,” came Dr. Drakken’s displeased warning, and she spun around to stare at him with a raised brow. He had his notebook open, tapping his pen on his chin in between scribbling in it. “I’m not driving you,” he explained. “And if you want to stay here, you are not stealing another car for something as frivolous as a date. You’re paid to steal for me, not from me, Shego.”

“Oh,” she uttered, and shook her head. “Yeah, no. That was…” Her lying mojo dissolved when Dr. Drakken’s eyes narrowed as he fixed a probing gaze on her. Shego sighed wretchedly as she crossed her arms. Honesty was in her best interest in this case, even if it was hard to suck it up and spit out her honest guess, “I don’t think my brothers are going to just let this one slide.” She nodded to the jet, half-skinned now and a wing disconnected. “They’re going to try even harder to find me. They just can’t keep their noses out of my business.”

To be fair, stealing a jet was crossing the line, but she couldn’t stop the resentment from rising like bile anyway.

The leather-bound notebook snapped shut with a tiny clap that made her jump. Dr. Drakken hummed in grim contemplation as he stalked toward her. “That would not be ideal,” he said, and turned a sharp scowl back at his two henchmen standing beside the open belly of the aircraft, nervously awaiting orders. “Lux!” he barked, and the pudgier of the two straightened up.

“Y-yes, sir?”

“Is your in-law still hiring?”

If remembering his name was surprising, then retaining any extra information about him was. The poor man was so stupefied, he didn’t know how to answer, so he gaped like a fish for a moment before shrugging and then quickly nodding unconvincingly.

Dr. Drakken barked an order for Shego to get changed and went straight for the dingy utility van, and she braced for an earful as he hauled her across town. Over the ride, his mumbles and grumbles gave away the course of action he was devising and reviewing, and though Shego had her qualms with it, she felt it unwise to argue just yet. She’d humor him, for now, but time would tell whether she actually went along with it. She really had half a mind not to. She didn’t like the picture his mutterings painted, but at least it didn’t sound like he planned to get rid of her entirely.

They were stopped at a light on Main Street when he finally spoke up, running it by her at last. “No one can blame you for wanting strike out to lead a commendable average life,” he explained. “Going back to school to pretend you’ve gone straight-laced would make a good cover. For now you’ll lay off any risky criminal activity until they’re satisfied. In any case, it won’t hurt you to have something to fall back on if this venture doesn’t work out. It’ll be good for you.”

Despite his worked-up nerves, she was sure she caught him flick an almost sad glance her way. The night they’d arrived in Nevada, he’d asked her if she regretted coming with him, but something about that look had her wondering now if he was the one having second thoughts.

“Careful, Dr. D,” Shego groused tartly. “Being considerate of others isn’t very befitting of a man who prides himself in evil.”

He stared at her for a second more before the traffic light turned green and his gaze hardened into a frown at the road. “My motives are selfish, I assure you,” said Dr. Drakken, gripping the wheel tighter and gnashing his teeth as if to bite back a more severe retort. “I am established here. I have to protect myself. Besides, you’ll go stir crazy if I ask you to hole yourself up, and letting you lead the hounds to my door would mean a substantial setback I can’t afford yet. I think it’s best you stay away for a while. I’ll still call on you if I need you.”

Shego studied him for a moment longer before sighing in reluctant resignation. That he considered her future without him, and maybe even her wellbeing in the present – it struck a chord, and not one that sounded right. She scoffed to make light of it though. “Are you sure you aren’t going soft?” she quipped. “Seems a little like you regret hiring me.”

He flicked a scowl at her, but then his gaze dropped, and that fleeting hint of remorse again was all the evidence she needed.

“Ignore my brothers,” Shego snapped hotly. “I’ll deal with them if they come. There’s no reason to send me away.” She wanted to believe that, but how could she convince him if she couldn’t convince herself? His henchmen wore Hench Co brand uniforms for Pete’s sake. There was no playing innocent if Team Go or worse stormed the lair.

“Just do this for me to pacify your family, Shego, please,” Drakken all but begged. “I don’t want to lose you, but if you present yourself in the open, then when they do find you, they’ll see you’re doing alright for yourself. You need to make it look like you’re not up to anything sketchy.” His brow knit and his hands tightened on the wheel again. “And if they still try to take you, I’ll disintegrate them or something.”

Shego hoped he was only joking. She really couldn’t tell. “I don’t want them dead.”

“Fine, then,” Drakken snorted. “I’ll hit them with a stun gun. Better?”

Propping her elbow up on the open window, Shego leaned her cheek on her fist and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Just what makes you think you can make me go back to school anyway?” she shot drably. The thought of going back to any sort of institution didn’t agree with her.

“What, would you rather spend all your free time keeping my chair warm?”

She frowned. It shouldn’t have made her face warm over, but maybe he had a point. Maybe it would be good for her to get out and have a life. She liked the relative peace as of late, but being a recluse and cooped up with him all the time didn’t suit her well either. She needed her fresh air sometimes. It wasn’t like she was very busy anyway.

“We’ll worry about college later,” Drakken added in a pensive mumble. “Think it’s a bit late anyway.”

She was relieved for that slack, but she still hoped this ruse wouldn’t last that long. College was a big commitment, but so was tagging along with him. Shego groaned anyway and shook her head. “What do you expect me to do in the meantime?”

#CACKLING IN THE DISTANCE. a lotta this one is from the original first draft and i just aldkfugh #The Company You Keep fic #Drakgo

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self-loving-vampire · 4 years

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I’ll probably elaborate on this more later but the topic came up earlier so I feel like saying at least this:

I feel like most people are capable of DMing.

I know that from the outside it can look like it takes a ton of effort, especially if you look at the people who invent their own settings. Those people are certainly some of the most creative out there (they invent entire interactive worlds after all) but you don’t need to do that, especially not if you’re starting out.

You don’t need to be particularly creative or smart to DM. What you need is 3 things:

Resources

While you are free to bend or ignore the rules of the game if they get in the way of your vision, they still provide an extremely useful framework and a lot of inspiration. I know I can come up with very exciting ideas just from reading monster stat blocks.

If you are new, I especially recommend getting your hands on a published adventure of some sort, preferably one that assumes the party starts at level 1.

A good premade adventure has everything you need. It tells you what the encounters are, what the players can do, what the town is like, and more. You can just use the information provided and have a decent chance of having a good time.

But on top of that, a premade adventure can give you a basic model for your own campaign. It is normal for players to take an existing module or adventure path and then edit it in some way to suit their tastes, adapt it to their setting, or fix problems. Personally, I have written over 30,000 words expanding a premade adventure I’m currently running with over 40 side quests and several bonus dungeons the players may never even find, I’m still not done with it either.

Resources can be more than just official D&D materials too. Any media you consume can serve to inspire you.

For example, I once made this setting in which the player characters were all from monstrous races and had to manage a dungeon in the Underdark. That was partly inspired by Dungeon Keeper but also from a multitude of other sources.

Dedication

Even if you don’t write your own stuff, which can be very time-consuming on its own, you are going to need patience and dedication to read everything and stick with the game for the 100+ sessions a full campaign is likely to take.

Besides that, you probably will be bad at it when you start DMing or creating. You may even be bad for a long time, but practice can help you improve.

If you are self-conscious, you can choose not to use your earlier original materials but do keep reading and writing.

The ability to deal with the players

Now, this one is semi-optional to a degree. If you have good players who are not assholes and don’t cause problems, you don’t particularly need to manage them. This is the ideal scenario but actually not too difficult to achieve if you play with close friends.

But even then, it helps to avoid certain attitudes that can make interacting with players uncomfortable, and unfortunately some of these attitudes are apparently common enough to be old stereotypes.

One of those stereotypes is the killer DM. While it is true that the DM is supposed to present obstacles for the party to overcome, some seem to think that they are supposed to actually kill the party.

Don’t even try to do this. As the DM you can easily kill the party without even trying. It is fine to make a hard campaign to a degree, and there are contexts and player groups where that can be seen as positive, but generally if you go out of your way to kill your players you just end up without a satisfying story. No one wins.

Another stereotype is the controlling DM who wants to keep their game on rails. Some amount of railroading is acceptable sometimes (generally if you strongly push players towards reasonable things they already wanted to do anyway) but if you start forcing people to act against their wishes, leave them feeling like they have no agency, and generally try to limit even reasonable actions because they get in the way of what you want to do, that could bother people.

There are many others, but a good rule of thumb is to try to please the players without just giving them everything they want easily. I’ll probably explain more about what I would suggest there on another post.

Conclusion

I believe that everyone has at least one story within them that they may want to bring out and play with together with their friends. What I am here to say is: You can do that.

You can not only write your story, you can have your friends take central roles in it and co-create it with you.

#dungeons and dragons #dnd #long post

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annakie · 5 years

Photo

So this past weekend I went to GenCon for the second time.

GenCon is the largest gaming convention in the world with about 70k individual attendees every year, held in Indianapolis, Indiana. The first time I went was in 2009, with a friend from the internet, and it was a blast. This time I went with a bunch of my everyday friends, some of my favoritest people in the world, and it was even more fun.

Part one of my long recap, including lots of pictures, below.

SOME PRE-GENCON NOTES

Our group does love boardgames, but we do RPGs (like D&D) together even more. D&D actually doesn't have a very big presence at GenCon. There was some D&D going on, but it isn't a main focus of the con and my friends aren't super into 5e anyway. (We're actually doing a 4e game right now since it's one friend's favorite system.)

So when we signed up for events, we were trying hard to get into a bunch of Pathfinder stuff, especially Pathfinder 2, which was releasing the first day of GenCon. We got into two events, but ended up filling more slots with Starfinder. None of us were particularly interested in Starfinder, which is a Sci-Fi setting also put out by Paizio... it was always like "Eh, we might check Starfinder out sometime maybe." but we weren't that excited about it. But since we had gotten into two games to fill up some timeslots, we decided to go ahead and at least learn the system ahead of time for those of us who'd be playing in the SF games.

That would be Marcus, who is our DM most of the time when we play RPGs, Jeremy, and Brian, who is Marcus' oldest daughter's fiancee. We created characters the week before GenCon and got together twice to knock out some beginning level adventures.

What we didn't expect, at all, was to fall head over heels into Starfinder. Three of us ended up picking the same race (Lashunta, who are basically Mantis from GotG) and decided our characters were siblings, then decided so was Brian's character, even though he was a Vesk... a lizard-man race. Jeremy's Operative (Space Rogue/Pilot/smuggler)Zafo is the oldest, my Envoy (space bard/doctor/xenobiologist/archeologist) Vikiri, and Marcus' Technomancer (Space Wizard/Computer whiz/K-pop rockstar) Alissia are twin sisters, and Brian's Soldier Kronk (Space Meatshield/Master Chef) is our baby brother.

We fucking LOVE these characters and the whole world of Starfinder, and also our dear Father and Mother, who we always strive to make proud of us. Starfinder is really so much fun and we're running official modules as we're a part of the Organized Play Starfinder Society and they're... so good? Anyway, here we are, playing Starfinder for like six hours the Thursday night before Gencon because that's the only day we could physically be in the same room. (the other time we played via Discord.)

WEDNESDAY

So anyway, then we actually went to Gencon! Jeremy and I got flights together and rooms (separate) at the same hotel to make travel more convenient. Everyone else, which was Marcus, wife Laura, daughters Gwen and Kirstyn and Kirstyn friend Ally, and Gwen's fiancee Brian, drove. 14 hours from Dallas to Indy... Jeremy and I have talked about it for next year, we'll see.

I took Wednesday off to finish packing and relax, and then just before Jeremy came to pick me up, our flight got delayed two hours. We decided we'd then have time for a leisurely lunch instead of fast food, and so we went to one of my favorite places to eat, a Canadian cafe. The service was slower than expected, but we were still tracking to be at the airport about an hour before our original takeoff time, three before our “new” takeoff time.

And then... while we were driving to the airport... our flight got UN-DELAYED. What. The. Fuck.

Our leisurely afternoon turned hectic as we got to the airport as fast as possible then, I checked in our bags while Jeremy parked the car, got in line in Security, and oh nooo the line was long. I started to get nervous about making the flight. Apparently, we weren't the only people who had done the same thing.

We hoofed it through the airport, though and made it to the gate with like 5 minutes to spare until boarding, just enough time to take a bathroom break and get a bottle of water. We got on the flight though! And sat there. And sat there. And... sat there. And then got kicked off the plane for an electrical issue. Then sat in the gate for an hour or so until another airplane arrived. Turns out, our flight ended up being delayed... about two hours.

ANYWAY. We made it, de-planed at Indy, collected our bags, taxied to the hotel. We were staying at a Red Roof Inn outside of the airport area, we were trying to do this cheap and with each of us paying for a hotel room, staying near downtown wasn't an option. $65/night for a hotel is a lot better than $200+/night for being closer, especially when you can split Lyft fares. (Could have rented a car but we did the math... especially factoring in parking at $20-30 a day plus the hotel charging for parking... much cheaper to Lyft everywhere.)

After settling into the hotel we had to go to the convention center and get our tickets. I had my badge mailed to me, but all events require tickets and Marcus had ordered all our tickets... and you have to pick up your tickets yourself. The Will Call line at 10pm on Wednesday night was... an hour and fifteen minutes long. So we waited in that. Nothing particularly cool or terrible happened, but it's just one of those GenCon experiences. This year apparently 15% of the events had electronic tickets. Next year that's supposed to go up to 75%. Let's hope so. The GenCon provided Wifi was actually pretty good.

We headed back to the hotel afterwards and were both hungry again at this point, so we ate at the only available option... Waffle House... at like 12:30 at night. Seemed like a good way to end our first night, as long as we didn't get food poisoning.

...which we did not. :p

THURSDAY

So another fun thing about GenCon this year that we found out a day or two earlier is that the entire freeway from the Airport to downtown was going to be closed all weekend. Adding lots of time to our commute (and thus $ to our Lyft fares, but we still saved money.) So we got up extra early, discovered how terrible our hotel's free breakfast was (very... most days I had a cold bagel with a scraping of cream cheese and if I was lucky, a banana) and got a Lyft into town. Except it took 30 minutes to get a Lyft. From then on, we scheduled them ahead of time.

But HEY! Eventually, we were there! We found the room for our first game and met Brian and eventually Marcus outside. Our first scheduled game was Star Wars, the Fantasy Flight Games system (which is now known as Genesys). This is a system that Marcus ran Jeremy and I and other friends a 2+ year campaign in, so the three of us were very familiar with the rules. Kirstyn and Ally also joined us, and Kirstyn had played it once before.

So I've mentioned before that Jeremy, Marcus and I go to a local con called GamerNation Con every year. Two years ago the guest of honor was a guy named Sterling Hershey who is a well-known loremaster for Star Wars and helped write the SWFFG system. We played in a game he ran that year. Hilariously, Sterling was our GM for this game, as well. It was a good way to kick off the weekend.

Jeremy played a Jedi and I was his Padawan, Ally and Brian played Clone soldiers ( the game took place in the Clone Wars era) Kirstyn played a shark-race diplomat and Marcus was her "get it done" operative type.

Ally, Marcus and Brian.

The Table setup

Brian, Jeremy and Kirstyn

And of course, our DM.

Our next game was a 13th Age, with Marcus, Jeremy, Brian and I, plus two "new friends" and a DM who was very good at and familiar with the system. We've been doing a 13th Age game as our "Main Game" for about a year, since our SWFFG game ended and like Starfinder, it's a system that we were all very skeptical about at first and have found ourselves LOVING.

I really enjoyed this DM. He did a lot to challenge us to roleplay, I think the only time we spend game time making up backgrounds for our characters and making any character creation choices. (They were basically premades but he had us choose names and do some history stuff which only makes sense if you know 13th Age.)

He did some really cool mechanics as well, like one that made travel interesting... one person would say something bad that happened in our journey and the next would say "But it was all okay, because..." and use that as a way to bring depth to the adventure. Like one person said "It was bad when the owlbears attacked us..." and then I answered, "But it was all okay, because our supplies had been running low, and now we had plenty of meat to eat on the journey!" Then I said "It was bad when we came across a village that had been wiped out by disease." and the next person said "But it was okay, because we learned a vital clue, and kept the disease from spreading!" and the DM gave us a clue about what was coming up.

I played a Bard in this game.... okay the thing is, I love playing bards. Support classes in general, but I always have to pull myself away from the urge to play a bard. But there were only a couple of character sheets left when they came around and Marcus wanted to play a wizard so I did bard. Apparently, Bard is one of most complex classes in the game, and the DM said I did great. We were 5th level (out of 10) so they were already pretty in-depth characters. We're only level 3 in our campaign at home, so it was fun to see how powerful we'd become.

Also what I love about 13th Age is that the world is just... weird. You think that Anything Can Happen in D&D but honestly, the world of 13th Age is just so much broader and weirder and it was fun to see this DM's interpretation of it. One of my favorite games of the con.

Our fighter, Jeremy the Monk and Brian the Barbarian.

Marcus, our rogue, and the DM.

So that night, we had had a 3-hour break scheduled then were supposed to go to Lucas Oil to play the Call of Cthulu board game that night. But then Jeremy and I had been talking the night before and were thinking... maybe we could play more Starfinder.

We'd been planning on going to the Nerd Night (which is a thing where you go and play games plus support a charity with donations) to fill in those hours, so we asked Marcus if he'd mind skipping the board game so we could spend those hours doing Starfinder at NN instead. He gave in.

So we stopped and got some dinner at a food truck (had a pretty good burger and fries, we were starving since we'd just had whatever snacks we had brought with us for lunch) and then it took a little bit of time but we found Nerd Night, which was held in a hotel that had turned an old train station into a ballroom. It was very cool. After eating, resting, drinking lots of water, and doing some Starfinder Society paperwork, we got to work on Starfinder, finding a quiet table in the corner away from everyone to play at. And the module was SO FUN, our characters were on a reality-competition game show in order to bring glory to the Starfinder Society (and our family). And then a loud group of people decided to pick the table RIGHT NEXT TO US in an empty side- room to play their loud game at (seriously... wtf? THERE WERE AT LEAST A DOZEN OTHER TAbLES NOT NEXT TO US TO PICK!) so we packed up and moved to another corner, that was actually quieter and not as cold.

Then they kicked us out of Nerd Night at around 12:30, after it had closed. So we walked back to the ICC (Indiana Convention Center) and found a near-empty food court, pushed some tables together... and kept gaming. Until like, after 2AM.

We didn't officially finish the module yet but we were kicking so much ass that we had basically won it already anyway.

So yeah... back to the hotel... asleep by um... three?

The actual quiet corner table.

The Empty Food Court setup

FRIDAY, PART ONE

So the next morning everyone but me did True Dungeon, meeting at 10am. I bowed out because my back was too fucked up to stand for that long. It was a hard decision, but the right one for me. Instead, I spent a little bit of time shopping in the dealer hall, taking sit-down breaks against the wall when needed, and decided on what I'd want to buy later. Mostly I just went to three booths and peeked at a few more.

After a short hangout break, I went to a lecture I'd had my eye on anyway, all about Eberron (one of the "official" D&D worlds) by the actual creator of Eberron, Keith Baker. This was definitely my hidden gem of the weekend. He took a bunch of questions BEFORE the panel started that he jotted down and answered in his talk, which I thought was a great way of doing it, and still had time for more questions at the end. All the questions were also great, I thought, in contrast to a lot of con panels. I really enjoyed what he had to say, not only about Eberron, which is probably my favorite of all the official D&D worlds, but about worldbuilding in general. It was only an hour, but it was an hour well spent. There were only about 100 people there but I hope he enjoyed the panel as much as I enjoyed attending.

Afterwards, it was time to meet back up with the guys for my first of four games in the Paizo room. First up: STARFINDER!

We'd tried valiantly, but had only barely made it to level two with our SFS characters, so we each picked a premade "iconic" character who was the same class as our own, and re-skinned them to just say they were our characters. The module was pretty cool, dealing with a world that was a simulation that the inhabitants believed was real. I was a little frustrated with the DM at one point but otherwise had a very fun game.

This is the only pic I took of that game, damnit. And this was because my mom texted and said to tell the guys hi, so I sent this back to her.

And after that game... I parted ways with my friends once again. Because I had tickets... to Critical Role.

Okay this post is already really long, I'll finish up in a second post! Which I've already gotten a good chunk of written, so look for that later tonight or tomorrow night!

#gencon #gencon 2019 #starfinder #star wars rpg #13th age #keith baker #tabletop games #annakie's misc stuff

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obsoletesystem · 5 years

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D&D Ask Meme

@wisdom-fangs asked me to do all the questions of this D&D ask post. So I did. 1. A favorite character you have played. I really like playing monstrous characters. Currently in Adventurers League, I play Frattek Venvaris, bugbear rogue/barbarian, who is a delightfully goofy character. But I also miss playing Bajur Mashoir, a very charismatic lizardfolk "voodoo" shaman, whose catchphrase was: "As you can see, I am an alligator, sir..." spoken in a thick southern brawl. 2. Your favorite character that someone else has played. During a one shot the guy that played an evil halfling warlock sacrificed himself to blow up the big bad with a block of dynamite. The true MVP. 3. Your favorite side quest. Idk. 4. Your current campaign. I DM a homebrew campaign, in which the party is stuck between sides in a war between the local Jarl and a fey duchess who has taken over a part of the woods. I also participate as a player in a slight homebrewed Salt Marsh campaign, in which I play a tiefling cleric of Pelor. She's got a Sad Backstory. 5. Favorite NPC. The Loathesome Gribble, an NPC in the game I DM, who is a very small tiefling sorcerer with an immense knife collection and a four-armed aasimar monk girlfriend. He is found in the most of unlikely places and his signature spell is "Gribble's Hand of Sand", which may or may be not magical, as it blinds a creature with sand, but the material component is just a handfull of coarse sand. 6. Favorite death (monster, player character, NPC, etc). The druid in our home game charged into giant stag form at a huge burning construct (The Burning Man from Burning Man, but moving), missed his attack, upon which the Burning Man rolled nat 20's on BOTH ITS ATTACKS. No advantage, no nothing, just two straight 20's. He grabbed the stag by its antlers, turned its head 360 degrees, and dropped a flaming, mutilated dwarf to the ground. 7. Your favorite downtime activity. I always like to do something that tells a little bit about the culture of the creature I play. When I was on haitus because of school, I described how Frattek had spend some time with his little bugbear niece, and had just returned from a fun little war (seeing as bugbears love to fight). 8. Your favorite fight/encounter. We had to fight a vampire spawn in a dank, dark basement, but it was light outside, and Frattek is incredibly good at grappling creatures, so we dragged the vampire out from his basement into the sunlit street, and then made a run for it as we had broken into a house. 9. Your favorite thing about D&D. Coming together with friends and not drinking (a lot) or smoking weed. I like doing those things too, but it is also fun to just hang out and play games where heavy drinking is not really handy. 10. Your favorite enemy and the enemy you hate the most. Dragons are the best, spellcasters are the worst. Spellcasting Dragons are the bees knees. My players, however, are going to hate a certain spellcaster very much. Once they find out... 11. How often do you play and how often would you ideally like to play? Usually once a week, but I'd love to be able to balance twice a week. One day as player, one day as DM. 12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from. "Name and occupation, please" comes from when we played Pathfinder, and one of the characters died, but I didn't want to get rid of him yet or he was set up to be reincarnated or some shit idk. Anyway, his soul arrives in purgatory, which turns out to be this bureaucratic office, where he has to stand in line for a long, long time, before arriving at a booth/desk type situation, in which an Ophanim angel (one of them burning wheels full of eyes) floats that asks with a bored sigh "Name and occupation, please". The player answered, and was set up for reincarnation, which involved shooting his soul from a cannon/drop tube into the unborn baby of a local woman. The child grows up unnaturally quickly, and because it has the soul of a mature orc barbarian, it is more than a little trouble. Nephertheless, the "Name and occupation, please" gag remained forever. 13. Introduce your current party. My Homeboys, the Lords of Okab Volal, are Nazreen, a wood elf ranger who missed her wolf, played by @tabula-wasa, Tophr Thanestone, the previously mentioned dwarf druid who was murdered by a giant flaming effigy and subsequently reincarnated/put into the body of a frost elf woman (something he hasn't come to terms with) played by our bearded friend Glenn, and Adelon Vrena, half-elf bard/cleric/divine soul sorcerer a.k.a. Healer Supreme, who is really righteous but not above torturing a captive githyanki, and played by Arnaud. The Schadestenen (meaning "Damage Stones", as in dice), which is the OG Adventurers League group in the Spellenhoorn in Hoorn, consist of Aiden Rainbowscale (Albino orphan wood-elf monk/barbarian), Fjorgyn (dwarven cleric of Moradin, who died last week and still suffered from the Death Curse. RIP.), Frattek Venvaris (Bugbear barbarian/arcane trickster and gladiator/luchador, played by me), Gideon Thornton (cowardly Half-Orc Hexblade), Grommash Hellscream (Stereotypical Half-Orc Barbarian. Great guy.), Ruldra (disgraced Hobgoblin undead-hunting Ranger), Cadence (Powerful but stupid Half-elf Grave Cleric/Divine Soul Sorcerer who never learned how to read), Ullr (Arnaud's Gloom Stalker and Human Machine Gun), and Darin (half-elf ranger and Master Of Backflip). The Peeps from Salt Marsh, DMed by the guy that plays Darin, in which Arnaud plays William Wisenose, The Awfully Lucky Halfling Build (halfling wizard/bard/whatever), Cadence's player plays Sylver Ravenstar (half-elf bard/hexblade/run away princess), her friend plays Samm Enoch (Aasimar Bard and Very Handsome Man), Aiden's player plays Ankis (Aasimar Celestial Warlock and very secretive about both these facts because Back Story), and his friend plays Vena Malum (Human Bloodhunter, who is really buff and does that swirly thing with her falchions, and oh my...), Grommash's player plays Morgain of Astora (human paladin of Pelor, and companion/boyfriend/substitute son to my character), and I play Paytsarra Avèry (winged tiefling cleric of Pelor). Praise the sun. 14. Introduce any other parties you have played in or DM-ed. We had one party consisting of a drider, a very evil dwarf, a fire genasi, a gnome psychic, and a kenku ninja at one point. When the evil dwarf died, and I introduced the guy's new drow "medic", I knew I lost all cohesion of the group. 15. Do you have snacks during game times? My players do. I don't like snacks that much. 16. Do you play online or in person? Which do you prefer? In person. I tried playing online, and I think I would do again, but only if I'd have a really good headset. 17. What are some house rules that your group has? In the Salt Marsh campaign you double the value of the dice on a crit, which I think is disappointing. I just wanna roll a lot of dice :( 18. Does your party keep any pets? @tabula-wasa's ranger has a dire wolf...somewhere...

19. Do you or your party have any dice superstitions? Not that I know of. I do know some of my dice seem to roll better than others. 20. How did you get into D&D? How long have you been playing? I found a d&d character creation app on the web ages ago, and that sparked my interest. Later I joined a warhammer fantasy role play group with a friend I had been rp-ing online with a lot, but this was the real deal, at Arnaud's house. He dmed number of campaigns for us, and later he joined my pathfinder group which turned into a D&D 5th edition group. 21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done? Yeah. Frattek decided to be a hero and tried to assassinate an ogre torturer. He failed his shot. We had to fucking run. 22. What color was your first dragon? The first dragon I fought as a character was a young Red Dragon. Even at 5th level, we whooped its ass. He found himself in a cave, surrounded by fools, and we beat him to pulp. The first dragon I put in front of my players was a young White Dragon. It kicked their asses. 23. Do you use premade modules or original campaigns? I usually homebrew my own campaigns, but I have dmed some AL sessions. 24. How much planning/preparation do you do for a game? Not an incredible amount, but for my home game I prepare ideas months, even years, in advance. For DMs 25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for? A lot. The most notable was casting Dispel Magic on the demiplane-item the cultists were in... and then opening the demiplane underwater. 26. What was your favorite scene to write and show your characters. I had these zombies that always repeated the last thing they said before they died, which was cool and creepy. But the thing I really wrote out was the description of how an Astral Ship warps space around itself, and what that looks like from the people on the deck of the ship. 27. Do you allow homebrew content? If it's well written, absolutely, but there is a lot of shit out there. 28. How often do you use NPCs in a party? When it makes sense, but I try not to do that too often. 29. Do you prefer RP heavy sessions or combat sessions? I prefer RP sessions, but I am leaning more toward combat. On the other hand, I don't think it completely excludes each other nor should it. I am of the opinion that 30. Are your players diplomatic or murder hobos? Rather diplomatic, but they can definitely kick ass. For Players 31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race? I like casters, and I will always have an affinity for wizards, but arcane tricksters and eldritch knights are cool too. I like elves, and I like monstrous races; goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears. I like things that are pretty and scary, or creepy and goofy. 32. What role do you like to play the most? (Tank/healer/etc?) I usually mix a bit of tank and dps. I don't like being very frail, but I do enjoy doing a lot of damage in one shot. 33. How do you write your backstory, or do you even write a backstory? I tend to write a character from a concept, and then build out the backstory. How did this person become the person they are today? Even if you have something of a bugbear, or a hobgoblin, or a yuan-ti. They have had a childhood, they have role models, they have culture. But what is that? What defines a character? What makes them they way they are? I don't like playing monstrous races that have been adopted by a "better, nobler race" like humans and elves and dwarves. I get the appeal, but I also think it is a little trite, and a little condenscending, almost. I think a lot about what defines a monstrous identity, and being a Cultural Anthropologist, I think a lot about the way culture shapes the values and morality and thus also behaviour of a creature. Do hobgoblins tell their children bedtime stories? What are they about? How will a bugbear struggle in regular humanoid society, where his violent urges -natural to him- are equally, or even more excessively violently repressed and punished? Is this just for bugbears? Will they then look for each other, and find each other in their shared cultural/natural tendencies? Are there goblinoid lawyers or activist groups, that seek to protect other goblinoids from unjust treatment under laws that aren't theirs? How will your life be if you are a second or third or even fourth generation inhuman creature in a human society? Do they dream of returning to a society that is 'theirs'? And is there even such a thing? And if there is, will they actually fit in, or forever be an outcast, neither hob nor man? I tend to poke at such questions with my character backstories. 34. Do you tend pick weapons/spells for being useful or for flavor? Everything is useful, since everything is always situational. If you plan only for situations in which you are going to kill every living thing, then you shouldn't pick something like Rope Trick, or Magic Circle. But you do you. I very much dislike decoupling "flavour" from functionality. This is a game of make-belief, so everything you do is flavour. The mechanics are an abstraction of a fantastic reality, and though inherently important to the working of the game (without rules, it would merely be improvisation, which is also a kind of game, but schwa), it is all flavour. People that brag about how much average damage they can do with this or that specific build tire me. 35. How much roleplay do you like to do? All of the roleplay! But please let me punt goblins into the garbage sometimes!

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dramallamadingdang · 7 years

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Reply time!

First of all, thanks to everyone who offered up kitten name suggestions! They aren’t born yet (but will be if I play the game tonight), but I am now prepared with names for them. :)

Anyway, these are for @kayleigh-83, @mrningbrd, @carriests2designsworld, @acquiresimoleons, @nathanialroyale, @nyshabrokeit, @getmygameon, and @penig...

kayleigh-83 replied to your photoset “Amelia Shankel – Adrian and Gwendolyn’s spawn – became a toddler. She...”

LOL that laziness might be an impediment to skilling though!

Well, not for the toddler skills, though. My rule is that I lock toddler skill wants in the order they appear (besides potty-training, because that just happens naturally because of the toddler care schedule I employ in households that have toddlers). If there’s another Sim in the household with time, they will teach the kid the skill they have locked. Only the locked skill can be worked on until it is learned. Then I lock the next one the toddler rolls (if they roll more). I’m perfectly OK with toddlers not learning all of the toddler skills. Or any of them, for that matter, although they are all eventually potty-trained by default.

kayleigh-83 replied to your post “Name My (Pixel) Kittens! :)”

Weird true fact – years ago I read a historical fiction novel about Josephine Bonaparte, and after reading it, I decided that one day I wanted a pair of cats named Napoleon and Josephine because the pair of names were just so perfect together. So seeing them on your Simblr was kind of a trip!

It was unintentional on my part. A random pet name generator spat out the name “Napoleon,” and I went with it. (Had no idea it would actually fit him pretty well. :) ) And then when there was a want for another cat, it seemed logical to get a female named Josephine.

As for the real people...Say what you will about Napoleon, but he did love his wife. Their love letters are like, whoa! :) It’s too bad that they were never able to have children, or else I’m sure they’d’ve stayed together to the end. Or at least I hope they would have. Maybe in an alternate reality... :)

kayleigh-83 replied to your photoset “Promotions! This is where Adrian and Gwendolyn ended up by the end of...”

I'm trying to be better about not power skilling my way through promotions, without them rolling for the want to do so. Much more realistic that way. Although I do allow a bit of leeway for skilling that happens as a result of preferred hobby interactions, because that's its own kind of realism in itself. :)

My whole playing style is centered around Sims free-willing because, IMO, that’s how you learn who a Sim really is. Basically, they do what they want unless they roll up a want that I can actively fill. So, unless they roll up a want for a skill point, I don’t command them to skill. That said, I’ve made autonomous lots of stuff that isn’t by default, and some of it confers skill points. So, if they choose to read a cookbook or work on restoring a car, then so be it, but I’m not going to make them study cooking or mechanical unless they roll a want to do so. That’s how it works for me. Frankly, I find force-skilling and Sims at the top of their careers and raking in ridiculous amounts of money just incredibly boring, so this is what I eventually came up with to mitigate that.

As for Cherry, specifically...She seems entirely uninterested in bettering herself. Her life centers around sex, social interaction in general, bubble baths, and interacting with the dog, in that order. She’s a hedonist, really, and I can relate.

mrningbrd replied to your post “Name My (Pixel) Kittens! :)”

i like that people gave actual french names and i gave a dessert

Ah, but it’s a yummy dessert, so it’s all good! :)

(Is it bad that when I hear the new French president’s surname, I think of the dessert and laugh myself silly? :) )

carriests2designsworld replied to your photoset “I’m going to be using this 10-year-old window set made by Tiggy quite...”

I just finished setting up the base of my new town, Stockbridge. Yeah, well, my recolor list for this is already about 4 pages long. Including windows. So, I'm just going to snag these up, and add to my already-revolting downloads folder. Between your recolors, and mine...I may actually get a real post-apocalyptic neighborhood! LOL

Heh, I’m hoping I’ll get to play retro-Strangetown before the end of the year... :) Nah, that’s not true. I’m building it and making stuff for it concurrently, and I’m only building houses for the premades plus the two households in the family bin, so it shouldn’t be that long. I think. I hope. I can get a little obsessive with the making of stuff...

acquiresimoleons replied to your post “Some random thoughts before I do whatever it is I’m going to do...”

Offensive? Pffft :p i think you're awesome, extremely helpful and kind. I also really enjoy your gameplay, its so unique and entertaining :D

Aw, thank you! <3 I do try to be nice here on Tumblr and online in general...although if I’m feeling tetchy, I’ll occasionally go to Simsecret and argue with people. (Always under my name, though; I don’t do the silly “anon” thing. If I’ve got a beef with someone, I’ll own what I say to them and say it to their “face.” Anon is for pussies.) But in general, I’m a person of strong opinions and I live a...well, alternative lifestyle, both of which have the potential to offend or just piss off certain people, particularly certain people that I know follow me, but I try to rein that in here. I’m here on this blog to be all about a silly game, to share stuff and be helpful when I can, not to pick silly fights or to sling around politics and social issues or to be shocking for the sake of being shocking.

nathanialroyale replied to your post “Some random thoughts before I do whatever it is I’m going to do...”

I've been hmming on retexturing old dirty things for this theme or make them more medieval for my game. Otherwise I am sadly left with little ideas for this theme that could be useful to my current game :/

And oh, hey! Here comes some of that stuff that people might find gross, yay! :)

I am of the opinion that my game needs dungeon clutter, particularly things to hang on walls and/or peg racks. Which could be medieval or...um, not. ;) I’m also envisioning a certain kind of bed. I have a neighborhood wherein I occasionally play around with *ahem* certain things. I mean, it’d be nice if there was more functional dungeon-y stuff, but even non-functional decorative stuff can give the right atmosphere in combination with some functional stuff. Buuuuut what I’d like to have would require me to know how to mesh, which is a vast frontier that I have yet to breach. :) I do already have some stuff that could use some nicer/updated textures, though... I don’t know that anyone else would be interested, though, in terms of sharing. I have no idea how kinky/fetishy the community generally is and/or whether or not people would want to admit to it and/or whether or not other people who are kinky/fetishy would actually want that sort of stuff in their game, much less whether or not GOS would want such stuff posted there. ;) So...yeah. :)

nyshabrokeit replied to your post “Coupla replies before I toddle off to bed. :)”

I used to have inaccessible beds, but it bugs me that sims don't walk as close to the bed as they can before teleporting. The number of times I had a sim stand up from the dinner table and instantly teleport halfway across the house to bed... >.>

I have actually never had a Sim teleport across the house to get in a bed. They will do long-distance bed-making, though. Like, they’ll stand up from the breakfast table and do the bed-making animations while across the house the bed does the animations, too. But, for instance, in order to use the bed-for-three, even if I command the Sim who “owns” the middle space to go to bed, she’ll only follow the command if she’s in the same room as the bed. I don’t know if I have another mod that’s contributing to this, though.

getmygameon replied to your photoset “It’s winter! Time to take care of the autumn leaves because I don’t...”

Just don't catch on fire XD

That doesn’t happen to me, either. I think it’s because I have a mod that prevents fireplaces from starting fires. I’m guessing that burning leaf piles uses the same code, so the mod is nuking that, too.

getmygameon replied to your photo “Hmmmm. where are they off to? :) Oh! :) (I’ve never bred pets before,...”

I only bred once with my - oh my gosh I don't remember which fam - but it was kitties - 3 of em and couldn't tell em apart worth a damn lol XD

I think the game only has a certain number of puppy/kitten coat patterns, so, yeah, kittens all tend to look alike. But they tend to grow up looking very different. Napoleon and Josephine looked the same as each other as kittens -- white kittens -- but they look very different as adults. I suspect the same will be true for in-game-born puppies/kittens.

penig replied to your post “Replies! :)”

There's a lowest-common-denominator factor in HP's popularity, honestly. If you want a truly great fantasy author, read the greatest English language author of the 20th century, Diana Wynne Jones.

Well, I’ll say this for HP. I might not have any interest in reading it, myself, but it got my severely-dyslexic son -- who had great struggles with learning to read and being interested in reading -- to read. He’s always been a rather anti-intellectual jock (which has always irritated me, as a nerd), I think partly to cover up his reading struggles, but even his jock buddies when he was a kid decided it’d be not-uncool to read Harry Potter. So they did, and he did, too. And then because he got through the Harry Potter books, he felt encouraged enough to read some other things, too. So while he’ll never, ever be a great reader, at least he’s no longer afraid of books and he’s more confident that he can read, if he ever wants to. So, my son is probably one of those lowest common denominators, and frankly God bless JK Rowling for Harry. I just don’t have any interest in reading the books myself. :)

#kayleigh-83 #mrningbrd #carriests2designsworld #acquiresimoleons #nathanialroyale #nyshabrokeit #getmygameon #penig #replies

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fourteen--steps · 7 years

Photo

Thank you so much @headbuttingunicorn :D :D :D

I’m not 100% sure where my little guys originally came from but odds are good it was a feeder tank. The LFS if I’m being optimistic but probably like Petsmart. I rescued them from a bowl after about a week and a half dying in the lobby of my apartment building, they were definitely pretty sorry looking then :/

For the last year and a half or so the three survivors lived in this 50 g

Which technically could have sustained them for most of their lives (I think even by bare minimum standards a 65 would probably be necessary eventually for three fish), but it has weird dimensions (15x36x20″) and honestly?? They were just outgrowing it. They’re over 6 inches now at just a little over two years old. But I’ll talk about their care in here anyway because that’s where they’ve done most of their growing and living the majority of their life.

LOTS of filtration. I've had two Aquaclear 70s on this tank the whole time it’s been up, and for the last 4 months or so, a SunSun HW-304B canister as well. The AC’s are 300 gph (gallons per hour) each, and the SunSun is hOLY SHIT 525 gph oh my god how have I not noticed that.

(Weird story with that one??? I thought I ordered the 265 gph model, found I’d accidentally ordered the 370 gph model, and when the box arrived they had sent me this one which is oh my gooooodddddd 525 wat)

So I had around 600 (and then 1100 whooopps that’s maybe a little too much) total turnover per hour, or about 12x the volume of the tank. With goldfish I always recommend at least 10x, minimum. It really makes such a difference. Even if your water tests come up clear on water change day, the quicker you’re getting the ammonia and nitrite processed out of the water, the less stress the fish’s systems are under in the long run.

They're not expensive either! The Aquaclears are about $45 each online, and the canister is similar. Although sunsun being an Asian company their prices fluctuate a bit.

I have a shit ton of pothos on my tank too, for nitrate munching purposes since my water comes out of the tap already at 10-20 ppm. I.... think it’s going to eat me someday o_O this is it with like four feet of trimming at least.

And even with all that, water changes! I’ll admit I wasn’t always solid on my w/c schedule, my health is iffy at best and running on a 10 day schedule happened fairly often, although I DO NOT recommend that. To make up for it, I almost always do 60-90% changes. Contrary to popular belief, large water changes are not harmful to your fish or your cycle as long as you match the pH and temperature of the fresh water going in. I refill in chunks over the course of an hour or so to avoid shocking them, they pout during the process but as soon as I restart the filters they’re back to normal.

I recently, and I mean recently, as in last week, upgraded to a FRICKIN’ ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY GALLON TANK??? OMFUCKINGFUCK LOOK

I LOVE IT SO MUCH AND SO DO THEY :D

Holy shit I’ve been fighting with the manufacturers over this thing for wEEKS IT’S FINALLY HERE. 72″x24″x20″ which is such a good shape for goldfish, much better than the standard 150 which is taller and thinner. Ahhh they’re so happy they just go nyoooooom nyooom from one end to the other, and I can add more friends!! Right now I have Remy, Lilac, Ludi, and little Ametrine in there. Plus Sumi in quarantine, but she’s really sick all of a sudden which is why this post took longer than I meant it too, sorry :( I don’t know what happened she just dropsied out of nowhere the other night. She was due to join the others in a week or two, but if she pulls through she’s getting an extended QT now to be sure she’s really healthy

And a skinny lil blind dude I picked up not long ago who may or may not live by himself depending on if I think he can hold his own with the others or not? He’s a spunky cutie but Very Tiny.

Anyway the tank is kind of a mess cause I just chucked every piece of spare decor I have in there to give them something to do, but I have some nice driftwood and just bought a ton of anubias and I’m gonna try actual planted this time!!!

Food food yum yum :) Variety is the spice of life. This pic is from a while ago, I’ve added more to this now probably

I use the Omega One and Thera A as daily staples, rotated with smatterings of the other pellets, as well as Repashy Soilent Green and some of my own homemade gel foods. I really wanna try Northfin pellets too, or AAP Paradigm when I get around to it. I do veggies a few times a week, I’ll buy a bunch of stuff fresh and then blanch and freeze it in baggies to feed over the next couple months. Zucchini, peas, bok choy, cauliflower, kale, spinach, collard greens, broccoli, watercress, etc etc. I usually have four or five at any given time. The frozen proteins I do once every week or two. I’m super allergic to bloodworms so those are a special treat I only feed with gloves :P but they get mysis or brine shrimp usually.

It looks intimidating, but it’s not that difficult. I acquired this stuff bit by bit over the course of a year so you don’t have to go spend a ton of money at once. If I ever just happen to see something that looks fairly good quality for an okay price I’ll grab a small container to try out. Some I end up liking, some I don’t, but even the mediocre stuff I sometimes use as a junk treat, or as snail food. Like I wouldn’t use any of the foods here besides the Repashy, Omega One, Northfin, or NLS as staples. The Aqueon is okay-ish if you have no other option, but the Cobalt is too high in protein for daily feeding, and Hikari has gone so downhill in the last few years. I honestly wouldn’t even buy it, I just feel obligated to use up the bag I already have. Pick maybe two of those staple foods to keep on hand, rotate in veggies a few times a week, some frozen protein here and there and you’re set, don’t absolutely need anything else. Of course more is always better, if you can.

And yes, sigh, dumb as bricks aren’t they? Picky too sometimes. Try a bunch of different vegetables, leafy greens are a good place to start, or zucchini. Boil them soft (you can just chuck it in a glass of conditioned water in the microwave for 2-5 minutes) and cut it into little bite sized pieces. If they don’t go for it right away, keep trying for a couple of days in a row. Eventually they’ll get hungry and warm up to it. Keep your plec occupied with something of his own to eat and feed the goldies at the other end of the tank to try and get them all a bit of something green to eat.

Veggies high in carotenes are really good for enhancing color. So besides your obvious ones like carrot and sweet potato, that’s also going to be your dark leafy greens! If you can get your lil guys onto stuff like collard, spinach, chard, etc, that’ll definitely make a difference in their coloration :)

Gel foods are also a really good option for picky eaters. I’ve never heard of a goldfish that doesn’t like gel, seriously, they adore that shit. You can get premade mixes like Repashy, which you just mix up with some hot water and set in the fridge or freezer. Or you can make your own! Here’s some recipe ideas, or just google “goldfish gel food,” you can scale them waaaaay down if you want. I make pretty small batches that last a long time. And feel free to swap out ingredients too and experiment, or make up your own completely. Just stick to lean, low mercury seafood, and produce without too much sugar and you can mix and match as you please. The one in my freezer right now is mostly watercress and bok choy, a couple spoonfuls of NLS, some cloves of fresh garlic, spirulina, a few baby carrots, a bunch of gross string algae I scooped out of the snail tank, and a dash of paprika. The kids adore it.

Uhhhh let’s see, anything else? I treat with prazi once a year or so, preventative maintenance, like deworming your dog. Besides that I keep medicating to a minimum unless it’s really dire. Minor scrapes and bumps I leave be. Have pretty hard high pH water, usually around 8-8.2. No heater or chiller but the water temp stays low-mid 70s most of the time

I dunno, just plenty of love and attention! I redecorate their tank and make them little toys (try some sturdy nontoxic plastic beads threaded on fishing line, especially if you can find somewhere to wedge food in, enjoy the ensuing adorable) talk to them, draw on the glass...

I love them!!! So much!!!! I owe them my life many times over, that’s not an exaggeration at all. Seeing them in their new tank has really reminded me of how far they’ve come and how much they mean to me. I’m not always a perfect owner and there are times I fall down on their care, but they’re still fat and happy and I’m always trying to do better

#fishblr #goldfish #goldfish care #My Children yes good #fishies

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serabiet · 7 years

Note

I hear you're accepting asks about Strange County, so would you mind sharing some facts about your version of Nervous Subject? Maybe do a five-facts meme for him if it's easier for you that way, or just write whatever you feel worth sharing - I'm not picky, as long as I get to learn more about the intriguing man in the long black coat. :) (also, this probably goes without saying, but I'm utterly in love with your blog and pics. Please never stop doing what you do!

Heyooo! Thank you so much and thanks for this ask!

This interpretation of Nervous as the Man in the Long Black Coat came to be after I watched the Dust Devil, a 1992 movie that’s not super well-known, but pretty memorable desert gothic horror with beautiful cinematography. It was the first movie in ages I had to rewatch the next day, look up what was going on locally at the time of making the film for context, and I just got a crazy buzz from it in general! Then I put on Bob Dylan (only I ended up preferring Mark Lanegan’s cover of the song as Nervous’s theme), and Nervous started to turn into the Nameless Man who flickers into existence only to fade out after he’s done what he came to do. Murder Ballads, gothic romance and horror, Sergio Leone’s westerns, all these things I love were factoring in. I also definitely pulled some juice from Stephen King’s Black Tower series, the Stand, and other works that involve his malevolent many-names-yet-no-true-name trickster being in black.

I have to give a shout-out to @emperorofthedark for how she’s spun him in her sim stories as well. Her dark and beautiful interpretations of the premades that taste like ash and metal are a major ingredient in what I’m cooking up.

With these as inspiration, his canonical heritage and (lack of) personality points, he’s a neat fit for one of my favorite concepts: the cruel not-quite-human who hears someone exhausted and lost calling to him, seduces, and then destroys them. It’s a ridiculous reach when you first think of Nervous Subject and add the word seduction there, but I can’t help but dig it a lot :D

[there’s a read-more under this that doesn’t seem to be working on mobile?]

In Strange County’s setting, he’s not a person living in town and greeting neighbors at the grocery store. No one knows (or remembers, if they’ve met him) he exists. People just disappear into the desert sometimes, leaving behind grieving and confused family members who don’t know he was involved. There is no closure or catharsis for the living, just melancholic sunsets and eventually, faded memories. His victims in the past have included Lyla Grunt, Annie Howell, and town’s previous sheriff. Olive’s the only one who knows who or what her ‘son’ is, but she’s not much of a gossip or a team player. She has other things on her mind anyway, what with not being entirely sure if she herself is dead or alive. Not that anyone would remember what she says, or having talked to her at all either.

Strangetown is Nervous’s playground. With the military abandoning its desert base, it’s slowly dying out, and turning into a liminal space where everyone feels out of place and surreal. Exactly as he likes it.

I’m not sure yet what bone he has to pick with the Beakers – other than the issue’s root will be inspired by the canon set-up – but he’s to blame for the couple’s disappearance, which is the catalyst that kicks up my story. He’s tied to the land, so maybe Loki dug too deep into the soil trying to compete with the Curious brothers’ research, and unwittingly summoned him. We’ll see.

As for his connection with Lilith, the sad sack of a gothic horror heroine? They go back almost a decade, even if Lilith doesn’t remember it. She ran away from home as a teen and ended up missing for years, only to come back changed. Her then-boyfriend Dirk knew where she was hiding at the beginning, but soon lost contact as well. After that, no one knew. Lilith came back a melancholic insomniac claiming a convenient amnesia, with an endless sense of homelessness, and abnormally good intuition when it comes to other people even if she can’t seem to relate or connect to all that many of them. Allegra’s one of the few exceptions.

The missing years did something to Lilith: she can walk the line, the foggy places. In Strangetown for some reason – besides Ophelia – she seems to be one of the very few people who can consistently remember the existence of 13 Dead End Lane and its lady. The house, like Nervous and Olive, both exists and at the same time, doesn’t. Back when Ophelia still lived in it, the house stood more firmly in this reality.

Well, that’s something about Nervous (and other characters) in my game! He’s definitely the antagonist of the story, and while not really a big bad, he does have a mean streak. Put plainly, he is death because his father is, and that makes him just part of the cycle instead of an opponent to beat. I’m fond of what he’s turning out to be in my game, and I hope I’ll be able to bring out enough nuance writing him in this light. Again, thanks for asking, I enjoyed talking about the demon dude! 8-))))

#esotheria-sims #io has an answer of a sort #asks replies answers #strange county #strange county text #nervous subject #mentions of:#lilith pleasant #ophelia nigmos #olive specter #long post

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missnicolealways · 7 years

Text

Cataclysm ~ Chp 1-3

Chapter 1 Year 2470

Shaeden woke up with her face in the book she was reading. She loved to read. Reading anything from old fantasy novels to botany books; and at a phenomenal rate. She could get through seven to nine books in one week. Some of it is research for her position in Raven Rock while others were simply for pleasure. She had always been different from everyone else in everything she did.

Shaeden was one of the predecessors, a rare person in their society. There were only three predecessors in all of the bunker. There was the one they called the Elder, Shaeden’s mentor, and a younger boy named Colt.

As babies are born they get an initial shot of Radcon. Every once in a while, the Radcon not only boosts the immune system to deflect radiation but also gives the host an extra ability to learn at an increased rate. There has never been more than three people alive with the extra ability at any given time. The council had decided a long time ago to separate the predecessors out from normal education and allow a freer range of development. The Elder was always the one to share the stories of before the cataclysm and it was Shaeden’s job to remember all the details about the Crust. When the time comes for people to rebirth onto the Crust the vast knowledge of the past from predecessors is what will help them regain a solid foundation.

Shaeden found herself alone in the library, which was one of the biggest spots in the bunker. The library held all sorts of old books and art. It was open to the public at all times since the council wanted everyone to have access to educational materials from the past. Most knowledge shared within Raven Rock was digital. Messages from the council as well as newly written articles could always be easily found but with a bit more maneuvering there was a vast amount of digital information to access.

Her tablet beeped twice and then the recording played as it does every day, “Good afternoon Shaeden, it is your time for reflection. Thank you.”

Most of the population used smart contact lens instead of a tablet, but Shaeden liked the ability to have it in her hands instead of in her head. She got up and began heading to the reflection room. This was really an hour block of time where you are exposed to strong UV lights to keep the population’s vitamin D up. After research, they also found that the time spent meditating helped develop the hardwiring of your brain to allow for a smoother, easier flow of thoughts.

Shaeden turned out of the library and headed for the elevators. Reflection is on the first-floor closet to the Crust. Also on the first floor was agriculture, where all of the plants were grown as well as a fish hatchery and chickens. Everyone played a role here at Raven Rock and no matter your bloodline you could aim to be in just about any position you wanted. Of course, there was a balance system but you can constantly update your list of desired positions as they became available.

The Administration consisted of two platforms of power. First there was the Descendants of the President; it was believed that without their guidance we would not be alive today. The other half of the Administration were common everyday people. The spot to hold a position on the Council rotated among those who chose to put their name in the Elected Box. The drawings were held every six months as to maintain a constant flow of new ideas. They would pick names one by one until that box was empty, at which point they would move on to the second box. There were only two boxes, one they drew from and one placed in the library, where you could enter your name. The Council consisted of seven people with a minimum age of 23.

Shaeden’s thoughts were like a spider web where she would weave different thoughts together until the web was complete. This made her and excellent problem solver. As she entered the reflection room she walked over to her number, which was digitally displayed on her tablet and also on the ground under where the UV light hung. The room looked like sun spots in neatly lined rows. It held over four hundred spots which were in constant hourly rotation with five minutes in-between. Once you got used to where your spot was it became easier to achieve the five-minute goal.

Shaeden sat directly center of her sun spot and crossed her legs. She liked to begin in a meditation stance and then would rotate to lying down on her front and then back. The last five minutes she always spent stretching with her eyes closed reaching up to the light as if it were the sun. Shaeden stood tall with average body weight, and long red hair that ran down her back. Her face was pretty and always gave off a kind expression. Her eyes are what drew people in though; they were stark aqua blue. Many people didn’t talk to her, but those who did knew how her smile lit up her whole face.

Shaeden’s reflection time was right before supper. The Café, with its long wooden tables, would fill up quickly as soon as food was served. At times, the roar of four thousand voices could be deafening when all she wanted to do was eat in peace. Food was line style where you would pick up your premade plate and head to whatever seat you would like. She made her way to her friends. Her current problem to solve for the Council was how to make some new clothing designs. Ideally the outfit would require sleeves and pants that can be easily removed for reflection. Maybe if I can talk to agriculture, possibly up the hemp plants just for a while. Of course, they would need to take the space from some other crop. Her thoughts rambled on.

“Shae!” Shaeden looked up at the call of her nickname. With a smile, her thoughts receded as she approached her friends. “Shae, did you hear that Thorn got promoted into the sentinel?!” Iris exclaimed.

Iris was the chattiest in the group, she always knew the gossip. Iris was beautiful with deep brunette hair that fell into curls and eyes that were light grey. The others in the small group were Camilla and Autumn. Twins as fate would find it. Twins were the only exception to the one baby rule. They looked almost identical but Shaeden could always tell the difference. They went through different phases where they wanted to look nothing like the other but always came back to wanting to be the cute twins. Their skin was smooth and dark like cocoa and they had elegant facial structure. Currently they both had their hair cut short; they had heard gossip from Iris that you absorbed more vitamin D this way.

“No, I didn’t hear about Thorn. That is wonderful for him!” Shaeden replied. She and Thorn had grown up together. They were best friends all through childhood. I wonder why he didn’t come and tell me himself. Then again, we haven’t talked in quite a while, Shaeden thought.

Iris watched her, waiting for some kind of expression to expose how Shaeden felt about the whole thing. After a minute of realizing she couldn’t break Shae’s bubble Iris began to chatter off again. “Yeah, anyways, he is looking more and more attractive each year.” Poking more at Shaeden. Still no reaction. “But you know who else is in guard that I would love to have some one on one time with? Hawke!” Iris giggled with the twins. Iris went on chatting and they all tried to stay interested but it seemed like she could go on for hours.

“The yearly dance is coming up for the Den”, Iris stated.

The Den was a slang term for Raven Rock. Seemed to roll off the tongue easier. “I have already started scraping up materials to make my dress breathtaking.” Iris works in the sewing section of the clothing center. So, it seemed like she always had the best dress. Camila and Autumn then chimed in about their ideas for their dress. Shaeden tuned them out mostly since she never tried to be the most fashionable or one to stand out. Being a predecessor did that for her.

The Midnight Ball was the name for the special event that took place once a year. It was a chance for people to dress up and mingle together. The council implemented the idea shortly after coming to Raven Rock. The ball was a way to not only encourage happiness in a bleak situation but it also allowed people to meet others that may not share their schedule. They also used this as a way to form families, and pushed the fact that it was each individuals’ responsibility to have a child. Once a vow was taken, they would move you to the family living quarters. You would be fully encouraged to have a child. Once someone says their vows then they are partners for life.

After dinner Shaeden set out to go see her father and grandmother. All three of them lived in separate single living quarters. Each living quarter consisted of a small center area that could comfortably fit four people; a small bedroom with a bed and dresser off to the side, and a bathroom. Families got an extra bedroom and slightly larger living quarters.

Shaeden and her father always met at her grandmother’s and visited for about thirty minutes each day. Most families tried to stay connected and all of them generally assembled in the living space of the oldest relative. Shaeden could see her father up ahead waiting for her in a small corner, same as always. A smile found its way onto Shaeden’s face. she loved to spend time with her father and grandmother. Once her mom passed away, family time was something they found time for every day.

“Hey Buttercup!” Steele said.

“Hey Dad!” Shaeden responded. Steele was tall and toned. He had short chestnut hair that was speckled with grey, and light blue eyes.

“I spent my day studying worms. How about you?”

“The council still has me working on a better design for everyday clothing. Something breathable and light but strong.” Shaeden replied with a sigh. “I thought about talking with agriculture to see what plant options we might have, but hemp seems to be the most viable option right now.”

“Well, we have a pretty strong group of silk worms. I almost have them modified to create the thickest, toughest silk yet. Maybe that’s something you could use?” Steele proclaimed as he and Shaeden walked down the hall toward the elderly living area. Most people worked until death, usually ending in a position as teacher or trainer. However, some people lose the physical ability to continue working.

“Worms - now that could be a great small source of materials.” Shaeden said smiling up at her dad.

“Exactly! We can breed them at a quick rate until we have a steady source. They produce copious amounts within a twenty-four-hour period.” Steel readily volunteered information to help as they strode up to Luna’s door.

“I will draw up some thoughts tomorrow.” Shaeden said as she knocked on the door.

“Good evening Sugar!” Luna exclaimed as she hugged Shaeden.

“Hey grandma.” Shaeden responded with a smile

“So good to see you Steele.” Luna said holding a big smile on her face the whole time. “This is my favorite time of day!” Luna was thin and short. She had white hair and golden eyes. Luna was Rosalean’s mom; Shaeden’s late mother. Steele had easily been adopted by Luna about 30 years ago, when Rosalean and he had gotten married.

Their conversation included new knowledge from the day and each other’s thoughts on the most recent news. Luna always had some sort of cookie or little cake that she had probably held on to from dinner. Raven Rock did not have a strict food policy and no one ever went hungry. Each living quarters had a cabinet for snacks or quick morning breakfast bars. If someone did not show up for work or dinner one of the ‘cheer’ nurses would come and visit with a hot meal. If you were found sick they would then sign you up for daily meals to be delivered as well as medicine depending on the severity of the sickness. If you were found too sick to be alone, you would then be taken to the sanitarium where further evaluations would take place.

As their conversations drew to a close, hugs were exchanged before Steele and Shaeden headed off to separate cabins. Living quarters were arranged by marital status and age. Only a couple of things could make you have to change living quarters. At eighteen you got assigned a room; having a family got you moved to the family section, and getting old or sick beyond work got you moved to the assisted living. Shaeden finally made it to her door, went inside and dressed for bed. Around seven pm the lights changed from a bright white, to soft yellow. Eventually, around nine pm the same lights turned a soft blue which faded to black as the bed registered the change in body heat. The light settings could also be modified on your tablet. As she was sprawling out in her bed she looked around at the standard room. The walls were a soft green color and her dresser was made of canvas drawers in a metal frame. The lights dimmed to blue and Shaeden turned onto her side as she fell into a deep sleep.

Chapter 2

“Good morning, Thorn. The time is now seven am.” The lights slowly brightened to a soft blue. Thorn turned over and gently stretched his muscles awake. He sat up with his legs over the bed. He slowly rolled his head in a circle to stretch his neck. Thorn was tall with sandy blonde hair and soft caramel colored eyes. He had broad shoulders and muscle that showed he worked out. It was normal for Thorn to be stopped by many ‘damsels in distress’. Thorn was a part of the sentinel. The sentinel was the top group of the guard. The guard was the eyes and ears of Raven Rock. The guard ensured peace inside the walls whereas the sentinel focused on the outside of the walls and on special missions. Thorn was currently assigned to a new unit that was being trained an array of new skills. Those who did not make it through training became eliminated and would go back to regular guard duty.

As Thorn stood up he watched the tiles on the ground. As his feet touched the floor the tiles lit up to a light green. Thorn smiled, watching his steps never got old. The tiles in Raven Rock were kinetic energy tiles. The tiles absorbed the energy from each step taken by all of the populous. That was just one of the ways energy was sustained in Raven Rock. The beds also had heat absorbers to turn natural body heat into electricity. Over decades the scientists and some of the sentinel came up with a way to deploy the solar panels that had been built with the bunker. Raven Rock was also equipped with geothermal technology, so energy came directly from the Earth’s core. The bunker was also located on an underwater aquafer from which they drew some hydraulic power; but mainly it was their clean water supply.

Thorn walked over to his tablet and swiped it up onto the wall in the living area. Okay, daily schedule. Reflection this morning after breakfast then down to the sentinel headquarters. Thorn thought as he switched over to the news; Nothing different, he noticed as he scrolled through the feed. He turned and went into the bathroom to prepare for the day. Lastly, he put in his bionic contact lenses and his schedule settled into the top left corner of his vision. The lenses were customizable; slide shows of your family, the day’s food menu, your individual schedule, and articles were just a few things you could view while walking.

After dressing and grabbing a quick breakfast bar, Thorn was out the door and on his way to reflection. The Den was made up of eight floors. The top floor belonged to food and agriculture as well as reflection time. The second floor was where all meals were prepared and where the dining hall was, as well as a large auditorium where the rare play may be held or speakers come and try to educate others in their field, also called ‘recruiting meetings’ by the teens at Raven Rock.

The third floor held ‘centers’, which is where individuals would go work to contribute in their own way to Raven Rock’s survival. Clothing, small kitchens for food experiments, and computer monitoring were just a few centers held in the Den. The descendants and council also met on this level in one of the larger sections with multiple rooms. Many people had to no idea what was down those hallways.

On the fourth floor, there were classrooms for the children and the library. Study sessions also took place on this floor, so there were multiple empty research rooms in rows, for free use, anytime. The fifth and sixth floor contained the living quarters as well as a great room, equipped with cards, board games, and puzzles, among other things, for groups of friends to play. Both floors also had a gym with an array of equipment. Challenging exercises like rock climbing or balancing on a tight rope were Thorn’s favorite; although they had trampolines and basketball as well.

On the seventh floor were the labs and the sanitarium. In the labs, various scientists, normally in the top of their field, came together to fix energy problems, water issues, agricultural dilemmas, and experiment on new medicines. Most of the sentinel remained on the third floor but there was also a significant presence of them around the labs.

The eighth floor was reserved for the water chemist and evacuation. It was the strongest section of the bunker, in case of earthquakes or some other natural disaster. The water chemists ensure that clean water is always filtered through Raven Rock for human use. Water recycled from showers and sinks drained into a vat that would then clean the water for reuse on plants, among other things.

As Thorn entered reflection and headed toward his circle. He caught Iris out of the corner of his eye. She was waving at him with the biggest smile she could present. She seemed to be making it a point to talk to him more. He mainly kept to himself except for a couple guy friends. He managed to make it to his spot without being stopped and he pushed up his sleeves and pant legs to expose more skin to the sun. Thorn sat leaning back on his arms with his legs out in front of him as he closed his eyes to meditate.

“Thorn,” Iris said as she nudged him back to reality. It didn’t happen often but on occasion Thorn got trapped in his pondering. He opened his eyes in a casual way as if he meant to sit a bit longer than others.

“Iris,” he responded coolly. Her face turned into a smile.

“Just making sure you weren’t getting lost,” She said flirtatiously. “I heard you got a promotion, I would like to personally say, congratulations!”

“Thank you,” Thorn said as he stood up. “I’m not really sure of all the details yet but I’ll be glad to learn new things”

“Yeah, I always try to learn new things when I make clothing. Learning how to cut fabric, or if green really can go with blue.” Iris stood there looking up to the ceiling as if she was thinking, maybe, a bit too hard. The next group of people were entering for their reflection time. An automatic device sprayed the mat, down under the light, to eliminate any germs from being transferred.

“Well, I have to get to my next station, so I’ll see ya later.” Thorn stated to Iris and then headed out the door toward the elevators. Once inside he hit the number seven.

“Please place your eye before the senor to verify your identity.” Thorn looked into the blue light as it scanned his eyeball up and down.

“Access granted. Welcome back Thorn.” The automated computer system, Ava, ran most of the electronic interactions. Thorn stepped out on to level seven. The seventh floor was made of many hallways with doors, but the walls were a pleasant yellow and well decorated.

“Ava, please give me directions to my assignment,” Thorn said aloud. Ava could respond to requests on tablets or contacts. His top left schedule quickly changed to a map with a light red line indicating which corner should be taken next. Thorn arrived to sentinel lab 2311 and opened the door. He was greeted with smiles and hellos and he reacted accordingly.

“Alright guys, let’s get down to business now that the tardy person has finally showed up.” Ivy stated with a smile. Ivy was the instructor of the group. She was beautiful with long straight black hair and a sleek body type. Everyone took their seats and quietly awaited todays lesson. “Today we will be experimenting with fire. We will observe many plants burning and test to see if the smoke gives us any clues as to what type of plant it is. Also, we have come up with some new designs to ignite fire in almost any situation.”

Thorn was interested. He always enjoyed learning new things and it didn’t hurt that Ivy was the one teaching him. With the thought of learning new things, he was steadily reminded of Shaeden. She had taught him just about everything growing up and tutored him regularly so he could stay in the top of his class. Her father, Steele, had taught Thorn that it was okay to seek knowledge as a man, even though his own late father would constantly remind him of the opposite. Staring into the fire as plant after plant was burned he still couldn’t keep his thoughts far from Shaeden. She never did congratulate me, but I guess it only fair since I was the one to end communication, Thorn thought. Thinking of Shaeden only made him want to go see her more but he also took his position very seriously and having both did not seem like a viable option.

“Alright! This is the part I have looked forward to all day. Alden, could I please insist you be my volunteer for this next demonstration,” Ivy said.

“Absolutely,” Alden quickly responded. Ivy took out a large glass tank and filled it with water from the hose that came to the lab.

Ivy pulled out what looked like a small pack of paper. “These are matches. You may have heard of them from your history classes but they are the most efficient and reliable form of fire ever since the nineteen hundreds.” She opened the fold, “This is a standard pack. It comes with twenty-two individual matches.” She pulled out a box from the drawer of her desk and began passing the matches out for everyone to look at. “Okay. So, take the pack and break off a match. These matches are waterproof and today we will see if we can even light them underwater.” Ivy went on with the demonstration. Also, allowing everyone to light their own match. The match did light under the water. But for a shorter amount of time. She explained how matches were not made with the same material back then and how no one could light a fire in the rain. Rain… like a big shower. I can’t even imagine, Thorn thought as he tried to picture the earth and rain falling down on it.

Class came to a close and Ivy was sure to get all of the matches back. Thorn was the last one left cleaning up when Cedar walked through the door. “Ivy, listen to me, please,” Cedar said before noticing Thorn was still there. Cedar was one of the top agricultural scientists in the Den. As soon as he saw Thorn he uttered, “I’m so sorry, I did not see you there.” Cedar was lanky with brunette hair that looked like it may need to be cut by someone soon or it would be covering his eyes. He was a very kind-hearted man.

“No problem, just finishing cleaning up,” Thorn stated as he stood up and headed toward the door. “Have a good evening” he said with a small wave. As soon as he was out the door Cedar began to plea with Ivy, but Thorn had no interest in hearing other people’s problems.

Thorn headed to the dining hall for his dinner. Lunch had been brought to them in class but for dinner he would not be so lucky. The council insisted everyone eat as many meals as possible together so the community would form a strong bond. With this relationship in place with neighbors, the crime rates remained low. There are always troublemakers, but the more you know the person next to you the less you want to harm or take anything from them.

Thorn headed through the line and grabbed his plate. He saw his friend Flint sitting and talking with a group of the guard. “There is the man of the week,” Flint said. “How is class? No one is being a bully yet are they? Or are you the bully?” Thorn and the guys laughed. They all knew Thorn could not talk about classified information.

Flint was a doctor’s assistant in the sanitarium where they treated deeper problems than just the flu. He was tall with dark hair and dark eyes. Some of the guys went on to talk about the troublemakers they found that day. Most of the time they were under the age of 18. After dinner and a couple laughs Thorn said his goodbyes and headed out. He was on his way to the library to do some assigned research, when he saw Shaeden up ahead. Her face was buried in a book, which made Thorn grin. Well, there is no avoiding her this time, Thorn thought. He was not one to jump and dodge a situation should it occur.

Shaeden looked up and caught Thorn in her sight. Her breath got caught in her throat. Thorn smiled, “Hey Shaeden, how are you?”

“I am good.” Their walking came to a stop when they met in the middle of the hallway. “How are you? I heard about your promotion, congratulations!” Shaeden responded earnestly with a smile.

“Thank you. I’m just excited to be doing something different. Learning new things.” Thorn answered.

“Learning was always your favorite,” Shaeden grinned.

“Hey, listen, I’ve been thinking about the past a lot recently…”, Thorn stopped short as the alarms started to go off, which was a sign for the people to evacuate to the eighth floor. There was no one around them, not many people frequented the library and classes were out. It was just the reverberating sound of the alarm ringing off the walls. Thorn instinctively grabbed Shaeden’s hand and started to run. The earth was growling. It was an earthquake. And from the sound of it one of the largest ones since Shaeden and Thorn had been alive. As they ran down the hall chunks of rock fell from the ceiling. Some pieces so big it was almost like the bunker was trying to fall apart.

Thorn kept dodging rocks and leading them toward the stairs. Shaeden began to slow as the situation started to overwhelm her thoughts. She stopped and let go of Thorn’s hand for just a second. Thorn’s reflexes were incredible but not quick enough. He grabbed her hand and tried to pull her to his chest. The large rock was faster than Thorn’s pull and landed on Shaeden’s leg. She screamed in pain as the rock pinned her leg to the floor.

“I won’t leave you Shae, it’s going to be ok.” Thorn started to push at the rock until he was finally able to flip it off of Shaeden’s leg. Her leg looked bloody and the bruise was already starting to show. Thorn grabbed her up into his arms and continued to the stairs. Thorn’s mind was racing for a plan B, the stairs were still several halls down.

Shaeden looked up at Thorn, “in lab D4 there is a sound proof room for study purposes. It’s also a really strong, well-padded room.” Thorn nodded and ran toward the lab. The alarms were causing a thumping pain in Shaeden’s head as she tried everything to distract herself from it. She began to hum.

Thorn could see the pain writhed on Shaeden’s face. This was a sensory overload for her and he knew it. They reached the lab and as quick as Thorn opened the door, they were in and the door was sealed back behind them. The alarms sounded like faded waves in comparison. Thorn took this opportunity to look at Shaeden’s leg. It was most likely broken.

“We are going to be fine, let’s just wait it out in here and as soon as I get notice I will take you to see a doctor.” Shaeden had no energy to do anything but nod in response to Thorn’s words.

Chapter 3

Part of the council sat at the computer main frame as they focused on bringing power back to all of Raven Rock, and recovering any injured. They knew there would need to be clean up which was another thing the guards did for the complex.

“We need to find Shaeden. Colt and the Elder are accounted for but Shaeden is not to be found. Since she insists, on not wearing contacts, meaning we cannot key in her location.” Jay, one of the current powers from the Eden Descendant line, was well aware of how important Shaeden was for Raven Rock. To lose a predecessor is to lose a whole line of memories. Not to mention a waste of incredible abilities. The Eden family all stood tall with a fit figure. Black hair and deep green eyes that would give away their bloodline any day.

“We will find her Jay, she was on her way from the library so she probably found a safe place on that level.” Alaric responded with a cool tone. Alaric was a member of the council, but he also worked with the descendants personally.

They left the message lines open so the population could contact the mainframe and check in as safe. As power was manually turned back on, floor by floor, more and more green dots showed up next to a large list of names on the far wall. The list had the names of everyone in Raven Rock.

“Ok, sending power to the fourth floor now,” said Chip. Chip was one of the best computer technicians in the Den. “I think I may have something over here!” Jay rushed over. It was Thorn and he was carrying Shaeden. She looked injured and in need of attention.

“Send in an emergency response team now.” Jay grabbed the microphone. “Broadcast me to the fourth floor,” he said with a quick glimpse to Chip. With a few buttons pushed he was on the fourth-floor speakers. “Thorn, help is on the way!”

Keep up to date with whole chapters and previous chapters at nicolegrobmyer.com

I will post a chapter or two a week until it is all released on my website. let me know what you think of my work.

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tapwrites · 7 years

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First Steps of an RPG Toddler

A couple of weeks ago, a few of us were out looking around gaming shops for board games. We stumbled across the D&D Starter Set. Now, I’ve been interested in roleplaying for a while now, but all attempts to get my family involved have been disastrous (this’ll come back later; stay tuned). However, one of our number had had a decent amount of experiencing playing and DMing D&D before, so we went for it.

We played our first session of only around an hour and half or so. We didn’t get too far, but had enough fun fumbling around trying to “play our character” that we arranged to meet up the next week.

Our DM brought in one of his friends who was also well-versed in the act of roleplay, we threw out the premades and made our own characters from scratch. (Though I chose to keep the version of my premade I had in my head which turned out a lot different to what was in the Starter Set anyway.)

It was pretty awesome. We were easing better into our characters this time and, while we knew the first couple of beats from last time, we managed to not metagame too horrifically. We did some battle, saved some good guys from some bad guys, and learned of more saving needing doing.

Now, our DM would need 2 weeks to prep the next session, and our new friend couldn’t commit to yet another RPG (he’s already running 2 or 3 by the sounds of it). So I had the idea of maybe trying out other RPGs and one-shots and so on in the off-weeks. And, for some reason, I thought it would be a good idea to volunteer running a one-shot of my own in one week’s time.

@.@”

I’d seen the Tabletop guys play Fate Core a few weeks before, and it sounded like fun. The rules seemed light and more narrative-focussed (which for a writer like me was exactly what I was looking for).

youtube

And it was free! Aaaand there was a streamlined version you can get started with even faster! Bullseye!

So I blasted through the online Fate SRD (System Resource Document) and learned Fate Accelerated in a couple of days, basically making my own reference document as I went. And so, the feverish drafting began.

I came up with the bare bones of a world fairly quickly, developed a bit of backstory and conspiracy type stuff that may or may not come into play, and then started the first draft of the one shot itself.

The thing was, I didn’t know what I was doing. Like, at all.

“How much detail should go in an adventure? How much should be prepared ahead of time? What if the PCs (Player Characters) do this? What if they do that?” It basically turned into one huge outline with a grand total of one branching decision point (which of course immediately resumed the same plot thread).

I was starting to get nervous; I knew no one that has played fate before I could ask about the systems, I knew no one that had rolled their own world and one-shot. And all of that worry started souring things. What if this whole thing was just not worth it anyway? What if my “simple fantasy world” was too simple and colourful to actually be interesting?

We found a third player. I had a basic idea of the world and the kind of people the PCs will be and what they’ll get up to. And so I sent round the basic overview to them all to great reception. This really picked up my spirits. I was taken aback by all the positivity, particularly from the friend that would be joining us--and the world of roleplaying--for the first time. It gave me the confidence to press on.

I made a second draft, moving things around, developing the enemies and obstacles the players would face, generating a map or two, going through what kinds of things could come up in conversations with NPCs...

I made a third draft, getting things down to bare bones so I could see where things needed to be fleshed out. Then I turned that into draft 3.1, the final draft, which had speeches and flowery descriptions and funky little mechanics specialised for some part of the story, and so on, and so on...

The thing is--and I’ve talked about this before--I don’t “do” stress. Stress and I don’t get along. I was pretty much a nervous wreck the couple of days leading up to “my game,” and even kind of a mess on the drive there. So much going through my head, so many unanswered questions. I had no control, no bearing on what was going to happen.

Then we began...

#RPG #Fate Accelerated #Dungeons and Dragons #dnd 5e #newbie

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self-loving-vampire · 4 years

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One of the D&D campaigns I’m currently running that isn’t a premade adventure path or anything takes place in a world where:

(Content warning: War, self-harm, death, racism.)

1- There is no alignment. Alignment-based spells and effects instead depend on the values of your specific gods or philosophies.

2- Astrology is real in a sort of Elder Scrolls-like sense. People can be born with special abilities and personality traits based on their sign.

3- Humans and their allies are fighting a losing war against various different greenskin (orc + goblinoid) hordes, each with its own values and methods (for example, some focus on harnessing plagues, others on engineering, there is one that mates with demons to create stronger fiend-orcs, etc.) These greenskins are not inherently evil, but their creator god is warlike and wishes to dominate all life, and only allows afterlife access to those who fight for him. Some tribes have managed to break off from this and gain the protection of other gods, but this is rare as their kind is not trusted.

4- On top of this war, the gods in general are divided into various factions and alliances that are often fragile due to the differences in values and goals between the gods.

5- The above conflicts are not the only ones the party has to deal with. There are many other issues plaguing the world, both minor and major.

6- There are systems in place for player characters to gain favor with their gods. Gaining enough favor results in rewards such as bonuses, abilities, access to prestige classes, and even templates. Players can gain favor by furthering their deity’s goals, making sacrifices, and more.

The Party

The player characters grew up in an orphanage in an island city-state following a variety of tragic circumstances. I have actually made the orphanage itself in Minecraft just because.

Anyway, the orphans living here were nice and formed strong bonds with each other but there was always this underlying worry about the war that has made them yearn for safety and security.

As a result, they have turned to various ways of making money to hopefully secure a safe place for themselves.

One group of orphans formed an adventuring party for this purpose, hoping to finance their friends while also helping people at the same time.

Its members are:

Deirdre Mallory - Deirdre was born under the sign of the Lich, making her pale and skeletal. Every person has a unique set of “instructions” on how to become a lich, and those born under this sign are already partway there from birth.

Her body reacts to positive and negative energy as if she were undead (meaning that standard healing magic hurts her). She does not need to eat or sleep, and her health is poor.

But in return, she has a gift for necromancy... one that has not always benefited her.

Her touch can release a burst of negative energy, which heals her but saps the life of others. When she was five years old she accidentally killed her mother when this touch first manifested, her horrified father called her a monster, beating and abandoning her to the orphanage.

Deirdre grew up feeling a lot of guilt and self-loathing, but the vampire goddess Rozalin (who watches over Lichborn as a whole due to their affinity for undeath) whispered to her and informed her of her condition.

She developed the habit of self-harming with a dagger and then using her touch to heal herself, both as a form of punishment and a way to “train” herself on how to control her touch, or at least that’s the justification she used. The entire incident with her mother also made her fear touching others due to worries about hurting them.

While Deirdre is rather distant in general, the others at the orphanage treated her with kindness and she ended up becoming very attached to them. She also became very devoted to Rozalin, following her instructions in hopes of pleasing her new “mother”.

She is now a Necromancer/Cleric. Her ultimate goal is to become a vampire, join Rozalin, and bring undeath to the entire world. She feels that if everyone was undead then not only would they not die (she’s very afraid of losing anyone else), they would also be healed and happy with her touch instead of being hurt.

In an undead world, she would be a source of joy rather than fear.

Nyxisha - Nyxisha is a lamia, a flesh-eating snake woman, from a distant land.

Her family traveled for a long time to escape the war, but both of her parents died along the way. She ended up in the orphanage with the others and soon became a protective and reliable “older sister” figure to most of the other orphans.

Following the death of her parents, Nyxisha became devoutly religious, following the cunning lamia goddess Selestithis. When Nyxisha approached the local temple to Selestithis, the other lamia refugees there discovered that she had the favor of her goddess, on top of that she was born under the sign of the Hydra. Those born under the hydra are tough and heal from injuries quickly, but have elemental vulnerabilities.

Given her gifts and divine favor, Nyxisha was trained as a crusader/cleric, which fits her masochistic nature and her wish to protect her friends.

Nyxisha has a very caring and kind personality, and she is currently helping Deirdre overcome her fear of touch and self-harm issues. Nyxisha is also extremely good with words, making reasonable points and easily convincing others to act according to her wishes.

Kaiya - Kaiya has security as a special interest, studying locks, traps, and other defenses with a lot of passion. She is a rogue/sorcerer, but the origin of her arcane blood is unknown.

Her parents died as a result of the war when she was young, but she is doing fine thanks to her bonds with the other orphans. She has a curious and kind personality.

She is a fox girl born under the sign of the succubus, which makes her more charming but causes more devout followers of other deities to feel some degree of discomfort around her (which is more pronounced when they don’t know her well yet).

Lilias Aulin - Lilias is an altruistic and innocent girl, a foreign noble born to a couple of knights from the now-destroyed Order of the White Rose. Both of them died in defense of their city against the greenskin attacks. Fortunately, they made plans to have her taken to a different city before the battle.

Less fortunately, the servant who was instructed to take care of her ended up abandoning her at the orphanage when she was 6 years old. She grew up with a lot of abandonment issues that cause her to cling strongly to her fellow orphans.

She can be very needy and gets scared easily, but at the same time she feels the need to prove herself in reckless and self-destructive ways so others won’t abandon her.

While she is normally an extremely nice person, she despises orcs and goblinoids for ruining her former life and will show no mercy to them.

She was born under the sign of the Angel, which causes others to trust her more easily and gives her immunity to disease, but also attracts the attention of fiends who wish to corrupt or harm her.

She is now a fighter/warlord with a more supportive role. She is training to become a cavalier and fight on horseback.

#long post #you can easily tell which one is my PC

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