#just a drood dude

[demonologue]

Tavuary weekly prompt 1: Fluff

I’m sure camp is a favourite place for many of us, but it is legitimately the best part of the game for me. The wild and untamed boost of ace serotonin I get from tucking the party in for the night and giving them all forehead kisses... I have to force myself not to long rest more than necessary.

Title: All Is Well

Characters: Gale, Lae'zel, Shadowheart, Astarion, Scratch, Tav

Rating: T

Summary: Just a druid dad doing his best to take care of this found family.

All Is Well

Finally, another long day has come to an end. Camp has gone quiet in that way it tends to do when fatigue is about to win out over the hunger, petty squabbles, and inventory management. It’s time to tuck everyone in before your long rest. 

You start with Gale. Maybe it’s cheating to get the bedtime story first, but he’s so good at telling them. It always makes you smile. Is he for real? It doesn’t matter. Sometimes finding joy in what’s on the surface is safe. You know his secret, and you have an agreement about it. Just like your agreement with Lae’zel to murder each other if you start to turn. 

She’s next, giving you a curt nod as you walk over. That leather undergarment is something. She’s something. You want to tell her how impressed you are with all the progress she’s made in the short time you’ve known one another. Is she young for a Githyanki? You have no damn clue. But she feels like a new recruit somehow. You want to give her the space respect demands, but you also want to support her when she lets you. It happens now and then. The two of you have made progress. 

“Greetings.” A lot of progress.

“Just coming by to say goodnight,” you tell her. “I’d say sweet dreams, but I feel like you’ll just curse at me in Gith.” 

She does. “K’chakhi.” But there’s a certain quirk to her lips. Maybe it’s just you, but her insults sound more affectionate than they used to.

You chuckle. “See you in the morning.” 

“Not if I see you first, istik.”

You walk away smiling. Ignore Astarion, as he stands outside his tent, poised like an actor about to monologue, pretending to read. There will be no sweet good night there. 

You have an agreement with him, too, but it’s a sinister, one-sided one. You know you’re being used, but it’s the only thing he’ll accept from you right now. Will it be enough to facilitate a change later? Is change even possible for someone like him? 

You’re ready to do what is necessary if he shows his true colors or harms the others. For now, you’ve agreed to watch one another’s backs, and you think he might be considering loosely holding up his end of the bargain. That has to be enough for now. But he gets no good night. You feel sure he’d just reply with a snarky retort anyway.

Finally, you’re here. And you just watch Shadowheart praying quietly for a few moments. She looks up and sees you before you make yourself known. “Lady of Sorrows guide us. Did you want something?” There’s always this sadness that lingers in the air around her, but right now, it’s more concentrated. Like a dart fired into the shield of devotion with which she guards her heart. 

“You alright?” you ask softly. 

“What a strange thing to ask.” She stands and turns her back to you, pretending to look out at the horizon. Her tone is clearly an imitation of someone else. Perhaps that Mother Superior she’s told you about. Someone cold and uncaring. But it’s not her. 

“Is it?” You move up to stand behind her. Just out of arm’s reach, you feel it before you see it. Tears like starlight slipping down her cheeks. “Oh, kitten. I’m sorry.” 

You never know what to say to her. Nothing is ever quite right. And words are never enough. So you move close and rest your chin on top of her head, careful not to touch her with any other part of you. This is your secret language, just the two of you. How you ask permission. 

“I don’t know–!” Her voice cuts off, her shoulders trembling. You gently wrap your arms around her, and just stand quietly as she cries. Like a comforting tree bearing silent witness. Eventually, she turns toward you and rests her head against your chest. She never returns the embrace, and that’s perfectly okay. 

Times like this, it’s hard for you, too. Hard not to think about the little girl who will never grow into a woman. How much this woman, trying so hard to hide the little girl inside her, reminds you of your own daughter. Maybe the stoic tree lets slip a tear, too.

“I’m so proud of you,” you tell her softly. “You’re doing so well. Better and better every day.” 

This summons forth more tears. The clerics of Shar are not big on positive reinforcement, you guess. 

“Thank you,” she says at last, when the tears have finally subsided. Shadowheart steps back, and it’s over, her autonomy restored. She stands on her own again. 

“Any time,” you tell her warmly. And grin. “Don’t tell the others, but you know...you’re my favourite.” 

It startles a half smile from her. “You’re the only one I trust, so I suppose you’re mine, too.” 

“Sleep tight,” you tell her with a little wave. “Don’t let the–er. Well. If he does, make sure it’s consensual.” 

“I’d sooner kill him.” 

“That’s my girl.” The ghost of a smile remains as you walk back to the campfire, feeling more tired with every step. 

“Were you two talking about me again? I feel like you were.” Silent feet fall into step beside you. “You know I can always tell.”

“Would you just fuck off?” So much for savoring a moment. His pervasive anxiety is toxic and contagious. Of course he listens to everything everyone says, always. Surrounded by shadows, this one, mind and body. 

“Honestly, darling, you’re not quite my type.” 

“Go to bed, Astarion.” 

“I thought that’s what we were attempting to arrange. Or you were. As I said, I’m not much interested in the big, muscley, goody-goody type.” He waves a hand in your direction, gesturing idly at ‘all that.’

“Go sleep on your own bedroll. Alone. Please.” He gets under your skin too easily. You don’t mean to speak so harshly, but you always do. Take a deep breath. “When you’re ready. Obviously, I’m not telling you what to do.” 

“Bloody well right you’re not!” He looks down his nose at you the way he always looks down his nose at you (which is a neat trick, considering he’s almost a foot shorter than you are). That effortless air of superiority mixed with naked disgust. His sickly sweet tone drifts back to you over his shoulder as he slinks away: “Sweet dreams~” 

You bite back the urge to tell him to fuck off again. “Behave.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it, darling.”

You know deep in your gut, you’re going to have to kill him eventually. But not today. Please, gods. Can you just rest, just this once? 

You must have been more tired than you thought. When you open your eyes, everyone else is sound asleep, gathered around the fire. You have that dizzy feeling that means your nightly offering has been accepted. Glance over and see him resting silently with the others. It’s the only time he looks remotely at peace.

At the edge of the firelight, Scratch looks out watchfully at the darkness. You call for him in a language he understands, and he pads over to lie down, his comforting bulk leaning against you. You push your fingers into his soft, white fur and slip into a blissfully dreamless sleep.

#bg3 #tavuary #fanfiction #just a drood dude #cozy dad vibes #hugs for party members who need them #fuck off astarion #my sweet baby girl shart #let's go lae'zel #gale is my favorite eccentric grandpa #scratch is goodest boy

[titleleaf]

I saw that you anti-recced The Terror, and I’ve heard a lot of people talking about how good it is, so I was wondering if you’d elaborate more on why you don’t like it? I haven’t seen it and now I’m curious bc this is the first I’ve heard of someone disliking/hating it

I should be clear that my beef is with the novel! The series does a lot of work to deal with some of the novel’s weaker points, and it’s generally pretty successful at taking the fun interesting parts of the premise and scrapping everything else. The series still has flaws, but I would (and do!) definitely recommend it to people, which I wouldn’t really do with the novel. 

The tl;dr version is that I found the book to be racist/sexist in ways that the supposed narrative purpose did not remotely warrant, and also just straight-up badly written. (If anyone on this internet is a valiant Simmons defender and this is their favorite novel, it’s ok to stop reading now, my feelings from here on down are unilaterally negative.)

It seems to be a pretty broadly well-liked novel in terms of its atmosphere -- it has some elements I enjoy, and scenes I think work pretty well, but from a literary pov, oof, not a book I ever want to reread. It wasn’t compelling enough as a horror novel or a historical disaster narrative to justify how long and just how grindingly... ugh it is. It’s fully possible to make unpleasant, stressed-out, flawed characters still interesting to spend time with, as a reader if not an actual person, and when your novel is almost a thousand pages long, an author needs to do that. Simmons just doesn’t. 

Apart from more serious issues I have with the text, I’m annoyed by the way Simmons characterizes his Erebites and Terrors as Ohoho Unenlightened Victorians who all single-handedly and individually manifest the worst of Victorian imperialism and bigotry. (Except Fitzjames, who’s low-key Tiny Tim. And... Irving? Who is an absolute fuck machine.) There’s a lot of historical research about the individual Franklin expedition sailors that’s only become available since the publishing of Simmons’ novel in 2007, but Simmons just... does the straight-up worst with what he had at the time of writing, and as a result fucking none of his characters are interesting or likeable. He’s trying to write a big beefy 19th century novel but he doesn’t have the chops and I just could not give a fuck about anyone. Simmons does not miss a fucking chance to shoehorn in a stereotype (about Irish people! about women! about gay people! about Indigenous people!) and the result isssssss baddddd. The prose is bad! The pacing is bad! The way it handles its themes is bad! But above all, the experience of reading it is bad. 

In terms of more serious, non-stylistic stuff, I think Simmons’ handling of his characters’ racism and sexism extends to a degree that becomes itself racist and sexist. This is a subjective one, but Simmons himself seems to be a marked right-wing asshole, so I’m not really inclined to cut him any slack. I don’t think depiction is the same thing as endorsement, but it just hits a point where it’s like “okay, Dan, is this for something, or are you just luxuriating in this?” It sounds like Drood and The Abominable are pretty similar in this department, but my desire to give them a try and find out

Simmons has a sexism problem in his own right, even independent from characters’ thoughts and attitudes -- I don’t think it would be impossible to write a character with a plot arc like book!Silna’s, or book!Sophia Cracroft’s, and have the end result still be on the whole a serious and enjoyable book with few but well-rounded women characters, but he does, uh. Not do that. At all. I don’t need a book about an all-dude expedition to be a feminist masterpiece but I do need it to actively suck less, and to take fewer detours for the sake of random sexist potshots at tangentially related historical women. I don’t have the background to really unpack the issues with his treatment of indigenous, First Nations, and Inuit characters but my instinct is that it’s also not great, with the same blurring of lines between enthusiastic POV treatment of period racist attitudes/blithely racist depictions with no excuse of a narrative filter to offset them. 

Simmons’ treatment of gay characters/male-male sexuality is also at best chronologically shaky (he gives one character, designated good gay(tm) Bridgens, the most generic 19th Century Uranian mishmash backstory because he doesn’t apparently give a shit that his novel is set in 1845-1848 and not, like 1885) and at worst... actively bad (again, making its human antagonist Hickey a serial sexual predator who rapes boys and cognitively disabled men just because he’s very very evil and also gay. And also circumcised?) The show does a fair amount to remedy this and the above sexism, including massively revising Hickey’s character and plotline, but the book wears its bullshit on its sleeve and it’s just tiresome. So that’s, I guess, my beef with The Terror as a novel -- it’s racist, it’s sexist, and it’s fucking tiresome. Even if the series were as straight-up insufferable as the book, which thank God it isn’t, it’s only a single ten-episode series adapting that plotline; I listened to the novel in audiobook form and it’s nearly 30 hours long. I was ready to gnaw my own arm off.

There are well-written Neo-Victorian novels that use ye olde imperial bigotry to make a good point, and there are well-written horror novels that use polar isolation and maritime traditions to create atmosphere and dread (for the latter shout-out to Elizabeth Lowry’s Dark Water) but they all have to be well-written first and this novel is not. 

#ska reads a thing #Anonymous

[feyariel]

In other news, I’m torn about what I’m doing with my new Pathfinder character.

The original character concept was a Ranger (houndmaster/falconer), only the hounds/falcons were Velociraptors (the actual animals, not the Jurassic Park ones;¹ in game terms, I could quibble with the actual stats [I won’t], but mainly I just don’t want it to grow). The meme inspiration was Robot Chicken, but only after seeing Simon Stålenhag‘s gorgeous illustration of three Archaeopteryx (which may as well be a Velociraptors, given the pronounced talons).

Then I got to thinking:

“Why only have the same animals? Why not have a falcon [or other flyer], a hound [BLINK HOUND!], and a falcon/blue jay/hound?”

“Hmm...falconry isn’t all that great with the animal companion mechanics, which like bigger animals. Birds are better for scouting. ...”

”Maybe a Familiar instead?”

“Hey, what if I combined my familiars and animal companions? I’d have Pokémon!” (Scouts for feats. Finds a gajillion.)

“Oh right, Magical Children get the best familiars: their version of the familiar class feature also comes with free Improved Familiar upgrades [including templates] and transformation sequences. If I take that feat that makes the familiar go off of character level, I’d only have to dip a single level to get that benefit!”

“Wait a minute... Those are Digimon!”

“If I really want to start shit, I can have this going on and get other companion critters as I desire. An Eidolon! A Charizard! The Blue-Eyes White Dragon! STANDO POWAAA!”

And from there, having irritated the friend² I was bouncing ideas off of by not concentrating on the character (see above concept³), I tried making the Uno/YuGiOh caster as the trainer.

It works (and, if I play my cards right [pun absolutely intended], it could work quite well), but the whole point was to have a character be almost nothing but animemes and to reveal them one by one to the party. Since I’ve struggled to figure things out over the last two or so weeks, though, I’ve spoiled the surprise, which kinda ruins everything.

Between that and tonight’s bout of depression symptoms (losing interest in things which once interested me), I’m looking at other character concepts. Heck, I’d play a divine caster -- and I don’t like being the healbot.⁴ I’m kinda leaning towards Shabti and Warpriest (which isn’t exactly a healbot), though I could do just about any race/class combination.

Le sigh.

(Tangential footnotes below cut.)

¹ Contrary to what Tumblr keeps saying, Crichton admits in the forward to the book that he chose “Velociraptor” over “Deinonychus” (which they are) because of a mistake in his research (he thought they’d been moved into the same genus) and then personal preference (evocative meaning + phonoaesthetics; I prefer “Deinonychus” [dino + nigh/-cuss, “terrible claw”] to “Velociraptor” [”quick thief,” which is a neat but increasingly inapplicable name]). The ones in the movie are too tall for Deinonychus (which are wolf-sized, but looooong), but not big enough to be Utahraptors (which are ginormous). Achillobator is closer, but the movie!raptors aren’t long enough.

² He claims he’s Eeyore. I (and others) think he’s just a curmudgeon. Nonetheless, I’m too much of a people pleaser not to try buttering him up.

³ Mind you, not only is his current character similarly just a dude, but what characterization he has boils down to 1.) his familiar and 2.) being the latest in a long line of archery builds. Point being, I shouldn’t feel obligated to defend what characterization I do and do not have with him.

⁴ WoW burnt me out on it. I felt like I was somehow both bottoming (well, being the magical girlfriend; I was a female purple drood in BC and early Wrath, but never made it out of Vanilla content) and big spoon as I sat there, refreshing the tank’s health bar, not paying attention to the rest of the battle. So boring!

[yv-sketches]

A long unnecessary post about the Wizards of Once movie

WARNING: MAJOR WIZARDS OF ONCE and TWICE MAGIC SPOILERS

Please do not click read more unless you’ve read it. This is not a cool theory or analysis post. It’s not very fancy either, I came up with this a few days ago while trying to fall asleep. It is just me wondering how in the world Dreamworks will pull off the movie. 

AKA: I’m pointing out all the plotholes that could show up in said movie.

~

There are 3 main character plotlines.

Xar does not have magic.

Wish has magic that works on iron and multiple lives.

The relationship between them and their parents.

The conclusion to these depends entirely on what Cressida will write. 20 bucks that the parents and children will reconcile. Other than that, I have no idea where these will go.

There are also two main story plotlines:

The warrior and wizard tribes are enemies.

The witches have returned.

Now the conclusion to these plotlines should obviously be that the wizards and warriors will work together to get rid of the witches. (Unless there will be a grand plot twist, because I, and httydbooks-doodler as well, do not believe one species is completely evil)

The thing is, that’s quite a lot for one movie. Unlike a series, a movie, especially a first movie, should work as a standalone. Httyd 1 is a solid movie, the two sequels and series are not super necessary to understand httyd 1.

Once (TWOO book 1. My mom calls them Once and Twice because that’s easier, and I caught on) however, is a far cry from that. The warriors and wizards are still enemies. The kingwitch is alive, there are more witches out there and the two main characters split up. You cannot end a movie like that.

~

And that does not include all the subplots, like the Encanzorax (yes that’s what I call the ship now) plot, Bodkin’s crush on Wish, that one wizard that wants to overthrow Encanzo, Caliburn’s previous lives, the fact that Wish has multiple lives, Sychorax’s room full of decapitated heads, the mysterious sword. Encanzo’s black fingernail/backstory, whatever happened to the Sweet Track, all those creatures in Gormincrag that are not really treated, the witchsmeller who is headed for the capital... ect ect ect.

~

They could of course shove Once and Twice together and end with the party at the end of Twice. It would be a pretty solid ending. The witches have been defeated and wizards abd warriors CAN get along, even if it’s just for one night. However, I think that is a very, very, VERY bad idea character wise.

In Once, Encanzo is introduced as this wise, regal wizard king who is frustrated by his sons but also loves them. Sychorax is the scary, clever and tricky warrior queen with lots of secrets. The first half of Twice bends these characterisations a little. Encanzo wants to get Xar out of prison and sasses the Drood commander in a way that Xar would be proud of. Sychorax does care about the wizards, she hired the Witchsmeller to save both tribes from the witches (Not that that was such a great idea) and goes along with the “Help the wizard boy is kidnapping me!” scheme, even though she knows very well that Wish is being a bit of a traitor.

And then comes the story. The story deconstructs EV-E-RY-THING we know about these two. Encanzo was a clever and tricky young man, just like Xar, who saved his sprite even though it got him in danger, just like Xar, and who was not afraid of Sychorax shooting a freaking arrow at him. Sychorax was a nice person, just like Wish, who apparently has horrible, truly evil cousins. She did not care that Tor was a wizard, just like Wish happily befriends Xar, and did the ‘right’ thing (preventing the witches’ return) even if it meant getting rid of ger love.

To introduce, establish and then deconstruct these characters in the span of 1 movie is nearly impossible, especially because these are secondary characters whose story is not one of the main plotlines.

~

Another thing about movies is the tendency to make the main characters cool and appealing. After all, movies are watched by a whole lot of people.

The thing about httyd was: the main characters were a ragtag bunch of misfits. The TWOO characters even more so. Hiccup and Camicazi were very competent, just underestimated.

Xar on the other hand is a magic-less boy with a magical creature squad that doesn’t function optimally, who hides his frustration and sadness behind a huge ego.

Wish is a tiny little thing with a lot of magic that she cannot use yet, severe dyslexia and self esteem issues.

Bodkin is a bookworm pressured by his family to be a Household Defender who faints in violent situations. As bonus: all of them feel like they fail their parents.

Httyd 1 Hiccup was very close to the original, but in all derative and sequel works he has cool armour, a flaming sword, wings and a group of friends.

With mixed writing, Xar could easily become insufferable. He’s already annoying, but in the book we can read his thoughts and feelings and can conclude that he is a good person in the end. If they want a cool girl character (which I feel is a bit of a trend) Wish could become an Astrid. I like Astrid, but it doesn’t suit Wish. Not. At. All. Bodkin could become the comic relief one and his crush on Wish could be like that scene in httyd 1 where Hiccup stares at Astrid with heart eyes.

( I think would have been better left out. Hiccup and Astrid meet during dragon training, Astrid gets suspicious when Hiccup nails it every time, romantic flight happens, Toothless is their secret, they become friends and eventually fall in love. Same result, just without the ‘the girl the main character likes conveniently falls in love with him’)

~

Furthermore, movies usually have three parts. I’m pretty sure there are official charts for that, but here’s my blueprint:

Setting up the story and characters (movie Hiccup not being very viking-y and freeing the dragon he just shot down)

Building up suspense (Hiccup building that new tail fin, acing dragon class and finding the nest)

Everything goes wrong and then everything turns out fine. (The kill ring, Stoick takes Toothless, Hiccup defeats the Red death.)

Once, by comparison is kind of a mess. We introduce Xar and Wish and they meet. (Setting up story and characters) They travel to the wizard encampment. Scary scene where Wish kills a witch (The suspense) Squeezjoos gets hurt. (Everything goes wrong) They travel to the warrior fort. Xar gets thrown in the dungeon and then outwits Sychorax. (The suspense 2) The Kingwitch escapes (Everything goes wrong 2) They defeat the kingwitch (Everything turns out fine ??? )

Parts 2 and 3 happen twice, which tends not work very well on the big screen. And everything is not even fine at the end. I’m pretty sure that roots out a close adaptation.

~

Then there is the main plot. The plot of a movie has to wrap itself up in 100 minutes or so. Httyd’s long plot of ‘Humans can be forgetful and cruel and tend to repeat mistakes, and the efforts of one kind boy are not enough to change the way a society thinks about and acts towards dragons and fellow humans alike.’ (Man that was a crappy description) was changed into “Dragons steal from humans because they have to and the humans do not understand that and fight back.” because the book plot simply doesn’t fit in those 100 minutes. Not even in a triology. The same goes for TWOO, just look at the long list of subplots listed somewhere above. Even if you get rid of all the minor ones, the 5 main plots are already a lot.

~

So the only option is: dramatically change the plot, just like with httyd. Which is not a huge problem. Dreamworks has good writers and directors. It happened once, I’m pretty sure it could happend twice. (Pun very much intended.)

Maybe we’ll have two fandoms again? A book and a movie fandom, who knows? (If that means there will be two awesome, albeit different, series and two fandoms that get along well, I’m game.)

~

The thing about that is: The main factions in TWOO are both humans. In the httyd movies dragons are animal-like and do not speak or think compex thoughts. They could apply the same logic on the witches and make them nightmarish creatures, but not on the wizards and warriors. The httyd movie dragons are controlled by the Red death/Drago’s bewilderbeast/evil dudes working for the tv series villain. Their actions have a direct cause, and destroying said cause turns the dragons back into the peaceful, quirky creatures they are.

The warriors and wizards on the other hand are both human. They think and feel and remember. And there is no way Wish and Xar (both seen as odd by their respective tribes) can convince their ENTIRE cultures to accept each other. Encanzo and Sychorax refused to change at the end of book 2, and it will take a long long while for Xar and Wish to turn that around. All the insults wizards and warriors exchange give a good idea just how bad the tribes think the others are.

“Wizards are barbarians, sleeping under the stars in the company of animals and practising chaos and disorder.”

“Warriors are turnips in tin cans who destroy the forest, steal land and decorate themselves with useless warrior jewelry.”

These tribes are not going to change in 1 movie.

Not in a realistic way.

Not even with a very different plot.

[headlesssamurai]

do you have any reading recommendations you'd wanna mention?

Always, dude. This is assuming you mean recommendations besides Neuromancer and Snow Crash. I read tons of shit though, so it’s a bit of a broad request. But if you’re talking fiction, almost anything by Dan Simmons is what springs to my mind this early in the morning. For real, that dude’s been on my mind lately since I watched the first season of AMC’s adaptation of The Terror. That made me want to dust off my old copies of Hyperion. Personally, I’d start with Drood or The Abominable, and work from there.

Also, you might try Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk, The Expanse books by James S.A. Corey, Postcards from the Edge by Carrie Fisher, A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick, and I recommend Gene Brewer’s book K-PAX to just about everyone.

If you’re more for non-fiction though, Michael Herr’s Dispatches has always been hypnotically fascinating as an uncomfortably intimate portrait of war, Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life was quite contemplative, and I’ve been reading some of Emma Goldman’s essays recently.

If you’re into comics and graphic novels though, maybe give The Surrogates a shot, the art’s weird but the story is great. Also Locke & Key is a wonderful weird, suspense/gothic horror type book which strangely doesn’t rely on gore as its weight to throw around, and Ed Brubaker’s Kill Or Be Killed has gotten me deeply fucked up inside, and Kill the Minotaur by Christian Cantamessa & Chris Pasetto was an adventure so wicked I felt more like I was watching a movie than reading a comic book.

Hopefully that’s a nice load of scattershot for you.

                 侍   headless                                              

#curious people #anonymeisters #reader #books #reading #addictions #some people collect coins #also belle gif #beauty and the beast #i'm a goner #beer and vodka #drunk replies

[sublimegentlemanalpaca]

From Biflindi to Enn Roberts.

So after the campaign with Biflindi I ended up joining my friends for a few more sessions. Each with a different character. There was the Barbarian Cornelius (aka Ceas). He was for a Series of Holiday themed One shots. There was the Bard Archibald Rosenstern (aka ‘Spoons’ on account of his talent for playing the Spoons). He was for a Tournament Oneshot thing. And there was also Otto the Gnome Bard. He played the Hurdy Gurdy and was a member of the Antonio Trading Company (‘Our Business is Everything and our Intent everywhere). If I recall correctly the Antonio trading company was basically an organization a bunch of Gay people (mainly due to various Shakespearean Characters by the name Antonio) who worked as Traders, Bodyguards, and some third thing I forget. I know that their symbol (because thinking up symbols is always fun) was three ships, each ship having a flag with one of the things the Company dealt with. A sword, Coins, and some third thing. There might not have actually been a third thing...but three always tends to work. I forget what he was for....I know he had a cart and a Donkey...or mule? I’m pretty sure the Donkey and or Mule had a Name, but I can’t recall (It was probably a reference of some kind). But enough of those guys. Onto the guy mentioned in the title thing. Enn Roberts. Enn Roberts was a rogue class dude who was an attempt at not making Biflindi again. Since according to my peers the others were more or less Biflindi lite or some such. To give an idea going by my DM pals better understanding of alignment Biflindi was true Neutral while Enn was apparently Chaotic Evil? One of the first things with Enn was his Backstory or rather how to not go over board with it. Biflindi’s Backstory was like 6 to 8 pages all told. Enn’s was a few sentences. He was the sort of criminal that’s worked with everyone yet wasn’t the sort who worked as a information broker. His line of work was Burglary, Pickpocketing, etc. In particular he worked with another Criminal by the name of Tva (which I think is Dutch for two?) Graves as ‘Scientific Facilitators’. The classic smallish thinker and large muscle. A few other things about Enn. Like how Biflindi was a collection of References to Fairytales and stuff, Enn was also a bunch of References wearing a Coat and busted up hat. For one...his real name being Edgar Agustue Pym. And his favorite brand of Pipe tabacco Being Tamerlane. Two other things about Enn. He always remembered what people owed him and what he owed others (and would always bring it up upon meeting those people. You owe me 14 silvers on account of that card game you lost. You owe me a Plantium. And you know right well what for). He also remembered insults. And would pay them back in kind. For example at one point a character in the campaign asked if Enn was a pedophile (which was not the case). I think it had something to do with Enn’s use of the word Sonny. Enn’s response was to rip out two of the guy’s teeth with pliers. Also, he’d occasionally slip into a kinda sorta southern Accent. Much to the amusement of my peers. His main goal was to find his old associate Tva (real name Charles Drood) who left him in the middle of the night after Enn spent the last of their money buying Tva some soup. Enn’s been looking for him for up to Eight years...so as to get back the five coppers owed to him because of the soup. Another way to sum up Enn going by the observation of others....is upon meeting someone his first thought is generally how can I take advantage of this person. If you care to know more about Enn’s exploits (Like how he nearly died from accidentally tripping on Fantasy Acid, Was killed by Tiefling Sweeney Todd, came back as a Ghost for a bit. And a bit more) feel free to say so. I can definitely say I didn’t just make Biflindi again (Biflindi is a far better person than Enn for one thing) Make of this what you will. Al, the Chronographing Cottager and Prince of Naming

#DnD #Al rambling #Enn Roberts #the Not Biflindi DnD character #he’s an asshole

[aliveandfullofjoy]

Don’t ask me just how it happened. I wish I knew.

I went on a boredom/curiosity induced spree and figured out the ages of the winners for Actress and Actor in a Musical at the Tonys. 

Now for the purposes of Actress, let’s assume Bette Midler is winning this year for Dolly. If she does, she will become the oldest winner of the award by a healthy margin: the current record holder, Ruth Brown (Black and Blue, 1989), was 61 when she won. Midler is currently 71.

So in that case, the ten oldest winners of Actress are:

Bette Midler (Hello, Dolly!, 2017) - 71 years, 6 months, 11 days

Ruth Brown (Black and Blue, 1989) - 61 years, 4 months, 24 days

Chita Rivera (Kiss of the Spider Woman, 1993) - 60 years, 4 months, 15 days

Patti LuPone (Gypsy, 2008) - 59 years, 1 month, 26 days

Lauren Bacall (Woman of the Year, 1981) - 56 years, 8 months, 24 days

Thelma Ritter (New Girl in Town, 1958) - 56 years, 2 months, 0 days

Christine Ebersole (Grey Gardens, 2007) - 54 years, 3 months, 21 days

Gertrude Lawrence (The King and I, 1952) - 53 years, 8 months, 27 days

Angela Lansbury (Sweeney Todd, 1979) - 53 years, 7 months, 19 days

Dorothy Loudon (Annie, 1977) - 51 years, 8 months, 20 days

The youngest Actress winner, by again, a pretty hard-to-beat record, is Liza Minnelli, who was 19 when she won for Flora the Red Menace in 1965. Behind her are Lea Salonga (Miss Saigon, 1991), who was 20, and Jennifer Holliday (Dreamgirls, 1982) who was 21. Cynthia Erivo is the youngest living Tony-winning lead actress, being born in 1987.

The dudes aren’t quite as interesting. The two oldest Actor winners have some distance between the rest--Bert Lahr (Foxy, 1964) is the oldest, at 68, and behind him is George Rose (Drood, 1986), who was 66. Of course, the three Billy Elliots are the three youngest winners (Trent Kowalik is the youngest, at age 14), but what’s worth noting is that if Ben Platt ends up winning this year for Dear Evan Hansen, at 23, he’ll be the youngest actor to win the award by himself. That’s gotta count for something, right? Especially in the year that Bette Midler might become the oldest Actress winner?