And a second one for the Directors Cut ⭐- anything about any story of yours, please. Whatever you want to talk about.
If you’re going to give me carte blanche, I’m going to pick an obscure one. Dragon Raid.
The vast majority of my gaming experience has been in MMOs. I was introduced to MUDs my first year of college, then soon thereafter to Everquest. I played that for several years, then Guild Wars, EQ2, Lord of the Rings Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, and a whole bunch of others. But Everquest is probably what I think of the most, so a lot of the details of this story are inspired by Everquest.
For example, the raid itself is patterned on the Lady Vox raid. Vox was one of the three endgame raid bosses when the game launched, but by the time I picked it up she was considered barely worthwhile unless you needed white dragon scales. She lived in an ice cavern, and you had to get through ice giants to get to her. She had a fear attack that would send you running uncontrollably away - the one time I did the raid I spent a lot of time running into the wall.
So that sets the scene. The characters’ classes, on the other hand are absolutely not Everquest.
Obi is a classic rogue - dual wields knives and his magic is all based around various cloaks of invisibility
Shirayuki is some kind of alchemist - I was thinking of Rikku in Final Fantasy X, but she definitely specializes in creating magic items
Mitsuhide is a paladin but with some of the shout abilities of the Guild Wars fighter
Kiki is some kind of a spellsword - a physical fighter who summons weapons. She’s inspired by the weapons the elementalist could summon in Guild Wars 2
Zen is some kind of fighter - I didn’t put a lot of thought into the specific flavor, but I’d guess something swashbuckler-like with lighter weapons, good evasion, and quips
Ryuu is a classic Everquest Cleric, probably with all his tradeskills maxed
Kihal is like an Everquest beastlord, but with a whole flock of birds
Izana is something like a Guild Wars Paragon, with abilities that strengthen his party. He wields a sword, though, not a spear like the paragon does. His short-lived fire-breathing mount is totally the one from Golden Axe 2.
Suzu is probably the same class as Shirayuki
Garrack and Shidan are both wizards - I’m picturing the Everquest 2 version with lots of big elemental explosions
And this is based on the classic “stuck in a MMO world” trope that so many have copied after Sword Art Online and Log Horizon and so on. My husband enjoys those, so I’ve sat through so many. It has so much potential for interesting stories, and I am generally disappointed. But I digress.
So this is a raid they all would have done before, and there’s been a lot more nervousness about raiding since there’s more at stake. They’ve all been pooling their resources to build the key and locate the lock, and now they just have to get through the encounter to do it.
Shirayuki and Obi have been in a relationship for a short while at this point, and they’re approaching this mission with very different expectations. She can’t wait to get out of this game and be with him for real, and he’s sure that this is the end of everything. Of course they’re not talking about it.
I have zero idea why the lock was a old-time computer, save for maximum incongruousness.
Picking out usernames cracked me up:
StateofYo is Zen - based on an old Smothers Brothers comedy routine. Every time the yo-yo man was going to perform he had to be in a “State of Yo” - my brain went Zen > state of Zen > state of Yo and I was happy.
NotYourDad is Mitsuhide. He’s not Zen’s dad, not Obi’s dad, but in this story he does have two children
Kiki is Kiki. She doesn’t mess around.
KeepYourPantsOn is Obi. Because an obi is a belt? It also made me laugh. He’s the last to leave because he’s still hesitating.
The last section is something I’ve always wondered, how people go back to their life after something like this. I think Sword Art Online addressed it, but most don’t, and I wanted to picture Obi not only having lost the escapist version of himself he wishes he was, but the girl who loved him, too. At least he assumes so, because he likes the game Obi so much better, why wouldn’t everyone else?
But of course Shirayuki’s having none of that. She found a way to keep a piece of her character, and that’s enough for her, but she can tell that Obi’s not doing well. They all could.
So this is a story I wrote to amuse myself, and it still makes me happy to read it.
2 notes
·
View notes
Going for my first smoothie sip 🍫 to find Sammy mid skinny dip 😳🏊🏼 looks like I'll be sticking to toast next time 🙄🤔#goddamnsam #keepyourpantson {chocolate coooly smoothie ~ frozen narnas, dates, cacao, cinnamon + rice milk} best served in a tall glass without a miniature naked person 🍑👣 (at Byron Bay)
0 notes
Twelve26 & KeepYourPantsOn Trunk Show
Sunday night brought Boston Fashion Week 2015 to a close, and with it, an intimate showing of plus size fashion brand Twelve26. The Viselli Salon on Newbury street, was bustling with bloggers, stylists, models, and the stars of the evening, Eula Taylor (head designer of Twelve26) and Sivan Soffer (Founder and CEO of KeepYourPantsOn.com, AKA…
Twelve26 & KeepYourPantsOn Trunk Show was originally published on Boston Naturals
0 notes