#its a roll of the dice every time haha | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

kayzig · 1 year

Text

Rosen of Chroneria: Chapter 3

A bit of a mechanical run-down, first, as I am going to open with how I finally set up Rosen's Fate Aspects and Stunts! I also shifted his skill pyramid around since I think I learned a lot about him from Inkling to Final Draft.

I went almost completely seat-of-the-pants with oracles, and had a Celtic cross tarot reading that came pretty darn close to 100% actuality...

Let's take a look at those, for those who are interested in the mechanics - if that sounds boring, go ahead and scroll til you see STORY START in all-caps!

This is the final load-out for Rosen's Aspects.

High Concept: The Infernal Stranger of Chroneria Trouble: Hungry Hungry Hedonist Relationship: Judge Regent Alistair Has My Sworn Protection Free Aspects: Made Of Diamonds in a World Of Clay I Rise To Demolish Any Challenge…ANY Challenge

I think that High Concept is a lot of fun for giving him a very "Conan The Adventurer" vibe, and that Trouble aspect is good for reflecting that maintaining a huge semi-demonic bodybuilder will probably require a lot of calorie intake, and the concept of a "hedonist" in the Port of Lamour, with all its wealth and temptation, will create some interesting resistance for him.

Relationship-wise, I think the dice rolls really chose Alistair and his wife to be an anchor, to familiarize the Stranger to Chroneria in time.

For his free aspects, the "Made of Diamonds" one is dual-sided; maybe he could invoke it to get a better roll against environmental damage or an attack shift! Or, for comedic effect, maybe he sometimes just sometimes pulls a door off its hinges. I think about how this reflects on the character, and decide that his Stealth skill is probably not as good as I originally thought it could be, and make him worse at it, making him better at Empathy, instead, as he seems to rather easily care about the people entering his life.

The last aspect was fun to think about as the classic "warrior applying his sense of honor to every situation" - challenging Rosen to a duel? HE ACCEPTS! Challenging Rosen to see if he can move your couch in under 5 minutes? HA-HA, YOU WILL REGRET DOUBTING HIM! Challenging Rosen to see just how many pancakes he can eat? STAND BACK AND PREPARE TO BE AMAZED!

For his Stunts, I make a mock-up of a Barbarian's "Reckless Attack" feature from D&D, gave him the "Enduring" stunt to reduce the severity of a moderate physical consequence to a mild consequence once per session, and gave him a custom ability called "First Impression" to give him a +2 bonus when dealing with less familiar people who would be influenced by Rosen's heroic stature.

With that all aside…STORY START!

Rosen will have zero consequences and full refresh/stress for any further shenanigans.

I had ran a divination event to figure out how Chelise will feel, and used it to focus up and push myself to improve my accuracy on reading the Fate Chart dice rolls - I have a bad mix of ADHD/dyscalculia/dyslexia! It makes me constantly confuse that a LOW roll is a "no" and a HIGH roll on Fate Chart dice is a "yes" - I want to get better at that, and now you can join me, haha.

Operating on a 7 Chaos Level after the attack, at least for immediate feelings.

I got a "yes" when asking if Chelise would be more angry about this than scared; she is angry about things, but she only took one stress from a very non-lethal attack via the Sky Legion Scout, and was more incapacitated than "zero hp." She also understands the complexities of this weird situation, and further questions reveals that she wouldn't ask Alistair to get RID of Rosen, because while he's why they were attacked, he is also why they're safe.

I go for a Passage/Domain roll to dig for any potential clue-ins on her anger that I am only taking at face value Q: Domain Roll! Why is she angry? A: (I roll a Green d20 to center the Sky Legion) Power (A Purple d20 for her Environment) Weakness (my standard NPC d20 for her sense of self) Earth

My interpretation from this is that she married a powerful man as a way to keep herself close to power - but the guys who came in were even MORE powerful, could have easily teamed up and taken out her husband and his men if Rosen hadn't been there, and exposed that her home isn't as well-protected as they had felt. This has brought her "back down to earth".

In lieu of all this, the assassination, the infiltration of her home and her being attacked, her husband also being attacked…

Q: Would she demand that Rosen be used for their personal defense? (VERY Likely) A: 18 -EXCEPTIONAL yes - this is very definitely a DEMAND and not a REQUEST! "You went out and found a big dangerous man to bring home? Fine, but he's going to make sure this doesn't HAPPEN to me again!"

Alistair certainly loves his wife, and would have a hard time saying no to her, but would he ask Rosen? This is a huge hunky beefcake who he DOESN'T know THAT well, and who would suddenly be around his wife all the time, even when he isn't, and Alistair has that sense of "this me wife" machismo about Chelise.

Q: Would Alistair agree to this? (50/50) A: 36 -Yes, he is his wife's bitch.

Let's play with the Fate dice!

Alistair would like to make it a request to Rosen that he do this, and Rosen wouldn't be likely to turn it down for any reason, but: Rosen will see this as a chance to have access to someone who may be more amenable than Alistair to give him details on how to hunt down this assassin Rosen had decided he should PROBABLY just kill.

Alistair's Empathy (+2) versus Rosen's Deceive (-1!!!).

This reads to me as a situation of "hey pal, could you do this for me?" only to get a "…suuuuuuuuure…heh heh" kind of answer. Alistair absolutely sense that there's an ulterior motive, and will use Rapport to try and coerce the truth out of Rosen (Will to resist saying too much?).

Alistair's Rapport (+2) versus Rosen's Will (+5).

They're at a stalemate and will need a tie-breaker to win a 2 out of 3! Alistair knows that Rosen is acting suddenly cagey, and needs to know that his wife will be safe if he is entrusting her to Rosen.

I originally ended this with a final roll, but now that I have all of the details on the table, I think this is absolutely a sort of "GM compel" against Rosen's aspect, "Judge Regent Alistair Has My Sworn Protection". Rosen accepts, gaining a bonus Fate Point to spend.

From here, I did a Tarot reading to figure out what this day holds, since I didn't play for a bit and was feeling a little disconnected. I started with a single card pull and got the 2 of Cups! That feels like it relates to how this is about to complicate Chelise and Alistair's marriage, so I set out to do a full Celtic cross reading.

My overall take-away from it is that while all three of them are currently carrying their problems separately, and their over-reliance on the current "industry standard" or their lack of knowledge on their new undertakings is leaving them uncertain, and will end unsuccessfully if they don't focus on one thing and work to resolve it.

I roll a Passage Domain for all the major elements of the plot at the moment with the following results:

Rosen - 20; Power (I am reading this in Francesca Fiore's voice) Alistair - 14; Stillness Chelise - 10; Portals (again?!) The Assassin - 14 (again?!?!) The Remaining 2 Sky Legion Scouts - 4; Air (…) The Good Ship Justice's Crew - 6; Light and lastly, the Port of Lamour - 8; VIOLENCE!

I count on not Alistair and the Assassin to be inactive, with the former stepping out to do his actual job, with the latter being a very serious focus. I also decide to ask the Fate Chart, though it is Unlikely: is the Assassin known to the present characters (though they may not KNOW, you know)? With a 75, that's a no. I think that wherever the Good Ship Justice's crew is, they're probably trying to keep out of trouble (keeping it 'light'), and the last Sky Legion scouts got their information and returned home.

A clarification Tarot card for Chelise revealed the 2 of Swords. I start asking some oracle questions. 50/50 odds, on a Chaos 7

Q: Is the portal magic? A: 69. Heh. Shit, that's a yes.

Q: Is the Sky Legion making another attempt on the house once repairs are started while Alistair's away? A: 17, for a nearly EXCEPTIONAL yes.

Q: Are the Legion Scouts out for blood? A: 51: yeah.

I return to the map and begin writing up aspects, and give a bonus Aspect to Alistair for that nat 20 Power roll, because why not! I've been playing a lot of Fallout NV so I just give him the "Well-Rested" aspect for the scene, with one free invoke.

I roll 2d6 to find that there are 7 guards of Alistair's here, and given that the Sky Legion scouts are out for blood (and I've figured out how to adjust the challenges of their character sheets, oops oops), I roll them 3d6: 13 of them, pretty heckin' unlucky.

One last roll reveals that 3 different portals open. One last Fate question of: are the Scouts mostly inside? A 95 means no, so we have staggered waves…but are Alistair's guards mostly inside? I think it's unlikely given that they are watching the grounds, not operating under magical presumptions, and I think Chelise would PUSH for her home to still feel non-militant inside. An 84 on that roll means no - so I break up the Conflict.

I need to figure out a better way to track the rules of combat in Fate, especially for the mini mob fights I have been doing or if my homebrew rules are doing okay at this for my needs, but this fight still wound up very dramatic!

How it started? The minor guards all rocked their defense rolls, the Sky Legion whiffed all their attack rolls, and there was a great moment for Rosen to ask Chelise if her home life is always this exciting, before he wiped out 3 guys with one attack roll. Chelise got to answer "NO IT ISN'T" before fleeing.

How it ended? Only two of the House guards survived, Rosen took on a moderate and a severe consequence to resist some pretty heavy damage, killed all 13 scouts, chasing the last two into the streets, and Chelise was left trying to figure out how to girlboss the remaining guards into making order out of the mess of corpses in the guarden while also sending out word to Alistair that she is having The Worst day.

Rosen is going to use his stunt, Enduring, to reduce the Moderate Consequence of "Gut Stab" down to a Mild Consequence of "Flesh Wound", and is totally out of fate points.

Chelise makes a +3 Rapport role to get the guards to regroup, gathering up the Sky Legion scouts, and Rosen makes a +1 Empathy roll to do well enough to figure out he ought to help. One of the guards is sent out to bring word to Alistair, which leaves Chelise, a minor NPC with no fighting or healing abilities, with trying to just gather Rosen back inside so he can lay down or something, given that he is still holding on to a severe injury that needs to be healed to recover.

This has ramped things up further, so let's do an 8 Chaos…and consider this scene closed.

I have just a few more questions of the Fate chart and may have some subsequent world-building to do afterwards, and because I WANT it to be so, we'll do Likely.

Q: Will Chelise be able to get Rosen to a Healer? A: 38, yes!

Q: Will they be trustworthy? 50/50 A: 52, yes.

Q: Is it magical healing? 50/50 A: 25, yes.

Lastly….will the violent atmosphere of Port Lamour complicate this? 50/50 A: 36….yup.

Lots to consider…but I think this is more than I thought I'd get into just for today, and a lot to resolve next time. I'll definitely have to spend a bit more time figuring out the best way to stat combat out and what sort of extras/etc healing require.

#rosen of chroneria #solo ttrpg

1 note · View note

ohmykazuha · 3 years

Note

heyy congratulations on 50 followers!

for the event i'd like something platonic please, my ideal hangout would probably be games and i'm talking obscure board games, card games and dice games. also, sharing playlists and showing off our album collections (and dice and card collections because i'm a nerd)! my fav genshin character is childe and i'd have to say my ideal vision would be geo

thank you in advance :))

li my dear!!! hello!!! thank you for the wishes <3 let's get started!

the most platonic relationship you had seen – childe x gn!reader

"Hey, Teucer!" You smiled at the younger boy, who was already bringing you his favourite action toy, because "big brother Ajax had got it for him!". Teucer dragged you around the house excitedly.

"Haha, careful, Teucer." Childe smiled, scooping the little boy into a hug and grinning at you. "Did you manage to get the snacks?"

"Please. You know I did." You rolled your eyes good-naturedly, holding up the large bag filled with chips, candy and some chocolate for Teucer, whose eyes lit up at the prospect of it.

"Alright, alright. Go find Tonia or something, alright? I'll play with you later." Childe bent down to Teucer's height, the younger pouting but running off anyway.

"Shall we get started?" He brought you to the game room, shelving full of board games lining the walls. Childe had been a collector when he was younger, and he had never lost his love and affinity for the board games.

"Honestly, I'm surprised you kept all this. Wasn't this from back when you were 11?" You chuckled, gazing at a childhood game that hit you with a wave of nostalgia as you looked at its title.

"Eh, yeah. I couldn't bear to part with it." He shrugged, picking out a classic game of Cluedo.

You loved it every time you went over to his place to hang out. The two of you shared an extremely close bond, being close enough to be physically affectionate with each other – a quick hug when either of you were feeling down and whatnot! Your friendship with him also caused your music app to be filled with collaborative playlists from each other.

Childe definitely loved your shared interests. As a collector himself, he was drawn to you after seeing your card collection – immediately sparking a friendship between the both of you!

Yeah... definitely a platonic relationship. You loved Childe like family (DID SOMEONE SAY FAMILY XD) and nothing more, nothing less. He truly was a special someone to you.

HEYHEYHEY i hope this was okay!!! XD love you li! thanks for supporting this blog always <3

taglist: @bookuya, @mika-zuko, @dilucbar, @noirkkat, @starglitterz, @cherubbic, @the-gayest-sky-kid, @shxnosuke, @eternism

#jiawrites #ohmykazuha100 #ohmykazuha #genshin impact #genshin impact fluff #genshin impact fanfiction #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact x gn reader #genshin childe #childe x reader #childe #tartaglia x reader

63 notes · View notes

unohanadaydreams · 3 years

Note

I would kill for some awkward sex headcanons with your faves. Who has trouble getting it up? Who applies the condom on wrong? Who yells out the wrong name in the heat of things? Also, who cums in your eye and y’all have to come knocking on 4th division, blinded as you are by the wet ass money shot 👁👁

I can not express how much I fucking love this ask. Here are your unfortunately spicy takes below. @tater-tati come get your juice. please don’t get it in your eye. <3

Features: smut. not the fun kind but the funny kind. sometimes the sad kind.

Who has trouble getting it up?

1. As Nodt. Not only is he scared of death, but of ‘the little death’. He fucks like its the last thing he’s gonna do and will probably not have the courage to go all the way anyhow. RIP to anyone who wants to get nutted in. Your man gets soft the moment you ask him to cum.

2. Mayuri Kurotsuchi. It is truly painful how much this man wants to be above sex. He takes anti-depressants just to flaccid and Logical when you won’t leave him in peace. He’d be first place, but he refuses to permanently fuck with his huge wrinkly brain (tm).

3. Jushiro Ukitake. Poor guy just gets really worn out some days and either can’t start or fizzles out before he can finish. Just reassure him it’s fine and allow him to finish through with his fingers and mouth so he can salvage his dignity and it should be alright.

4. Ulquiorra Cifer. It’s not something with a firm explanation or cause. Sometimes he just can’t keep in the moment or the bodily feelings he has will just...leave. There’s really no tell or situation that keeps these bouts of numbness from happening, so sex can be a real roll of the dice. He’ll shrug it off and continue on without his third leg (wing?) though.

5. Ryuken Ishida. He’s become very adept at shoving the majority of bad thoughts and feelings down with keeping his mind on work. Unfortunately, this means sex can be a struggle when visualizing how busy he is gets in the way of visualizing you on top of him. Isn’t usually a problem since sexual escapades with him don’t usually involve his dick. (Kink master works around emotional and bodily problems: more at 5.)

Who applies the condom on wrong?

1. Byakuya Kuchiki. He isn’t ignorant about sex per se, just the particulars of casual sex, since he was groomed to be a squeaky clean figurehead. And you can’t really produce an heir while using a condom, can you? He doesn’t even know to where begin. He takes the unopened condom with absolute confidence despite his ignorance and pointedly does not look at you when you fix his handy work, which is so heinous you have to use another one. (He fucking bunched the extra latex at the base for some reason, leaving the head of dick no breathing room and it ripped.)

2. Keigo Asano. He’s just extremely nervous and keeps putting it on too quick, catching it with his nails, and ripping it each time. He makes a joke about how his cock is just ‘sort of a monster hahaha’, but he is getting sweatier and more desperate and oh no, oh no, he is getting soft.

3. Gin Ichimaru. Absolutely is on purpose. He knows how to put on a condom thanks to being forcibly detained by Unohana and given a menacing demonstration on a banana after pressuring a 4th division woman to fuck raw. Purely scumbag tactics.

4. Riruka Dokugamine. What, like she’s supposed to know? What’s she supposed to do? Watch porn or something? Disgusting. Learn how to do it yourself. She screams into her pillow later because she absolutely googled how to put on a condom and just fucked it up.

5. Like, every Arrancar. Szayelaporro is the only exception. Ulquiorra commits to learning after the first fumble. Grimmjow doubles down and insists its fucking dumb in the first place. Luppi refuses to wear one unless it’s an appealing color and probably flavored. Nnoitra hates it on principle--its like you’re trying to oppress his dick or something?? Harribel says--with a completely straight face--that the pull out method will be fine.

Who yells out the wrong name in the heat of things?

1. Momo Hinamori. She apologizes the moment she realizes and is fucking horrified. Really, she has no feelings for [redacted] anymore. She doesn’t know what happened. If she could, she’d go into witness protection.

2. Shunsui Kyoraku. Especially if you’re not romancing something heavy and are a one night stand. He tries to laugh it off, rubbing the back of neck and shrugging like it’s a ‘what can you do?’ moment. If you are romantically involved he will get drunk and depressed about it later on--just another reason he doesn’t deserve you.

3. Shuhei Hisagi. He might be thinking about the Seireitei Bulletin or about that party later tonight that you were both invited to and blurt out a name. Like, ‘holy shit titstitstitstits also the captain invited me to drinks later holy FUCK wow that feels soooo good -chan you fucking goddess fuckfuck oh right Captain--’, kind of train of thought. He boards the apology train and makes all the stops--flowers, heartfelt words, physical affection, an alright song cover with his guitar.

4. Uryu Ishida. In his defense, you were roleplaying and he simply called out your character’s name. This will happen a lot. It’s pretty hot, actually.

5. Isshin Kurosaki. It doesn’t happen a lot but sometimes he calls out his first wife’s name and it’s just something you have to live with. Just sad and unfunny and horrifying.

Who sends you to the 4th division via indecent blinding?

1. Renji Abarai. King of awkward good intentions, he leads your blind ass to the 4th division and waits by your side like a puppy waiting for punishment. He just gets really excited and forgot aiming was important. You insist it wasn’t as bad as the time he shot his load up your nose, though.

2. Akon. In his defense, you were playing with VR headsets and he shot his load in good faith while getting an imaginary face full of 3D anime waifu titties. He can’t imagine taking this to his captain and rushes you to the 4th division before anyone in the 12th can spot him.

3. Nanao Ise. She holds a lot of stress, so when she lets go, the result is usually a ridiculous amount of squirting. She leads you down deserted streets and disappears when anyone shows up, leaving you standing while blinded for like minutes at a time. She would rather die than have her peers find out and leaves you at the 4th division the moment they’ve written you down for intake.

4. Rangiku Matsumoto. She really likes to ride your face and it is simply not her fault that you aid and abet her. Of course if you’re going to play slip’n’slide so often, something is bound to go wrong. She leads you down to the 4th and if she sees someone she knows she’ll call out like ‘haha, guess what?’. It is the second time this month.

5. Shukuro Tsukishima + Gin Ichimaru. They didn’t do it on accident. Gin probably did it out of boredom, just to see you squirm and try to make your way to the 4th with him assisting....barely. Shukuro does it because you tried to tease him about his cooking or something and this is revenge. Have fun finding your way to the 4th by your own power.

#smut #bleach headcanons #this was so fucking funny to do #some of these were immediate fill ins #thats how confident i was #mars speaks #tater-tati

213 notes · View notes

crystalninjaphoenix · 3 years

Text

The Winter Solstice

Fantasy Masks AU: Chapter Seven

A JSE Fanfic

Well after last week’s brief foray into writing for a different fandom, we return to the septics once again. The FM!septics to be exact. It’s the winter solstice, meaning there are holidays to celebrate! Chase, Jackie, and Henrik have a great day that totally doesn’t become suddenly serious near the end haha nope just fun times all around with some world building and character development :) Enjoy :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The day dawned cold and snowy, but nobody at Wyvernlair cared. Not when today was the winter solstice. This was a time for celebration! And with all the people in the camp, there was bound to be a big party. Preparations had been ongoing for the past few weeks. Food was made, games were planned, and time was set aside for those honoring the various holy days. When the day itself dawned, normal duties were put on hold so that everyone could join in.

Chase woke up at sunrise. He had a quick breakfast—light, since there would be a lot of food at the feast planned for that night—and strolled about, taking in the changes. Everyone was bustling about as usual, but now they chattered with excitement. Some people had hung decorations outside their tents: replicas of snowflakes made from white-painted sticks, candles with carved designs set on the ground, pine branches and snippets of other winter-blooming plants scattered about. Combined with the white layer of snow, it was quite beautiful.

Yet, Chase felt a pang somewhere deep in his chest. Last year, he’d spent Longest Night with his family and the rest of the village. There’d been town celebrations in the square. He helped Quentin carve his first candle. And now? Now, he didn’t know where his family was.

“Chase!”

He was snapped out of his melancholy thoughts when he heard someone call his name. In the middle of turning to see who it was, that ‘someone’ barrelled straight into him. “Oof!” He was about to respond, but found he couldn’t, because he’d been wrapped in a tight bear hug.

“Sorry, did I knock the wind out of you? Sorry!” Jackie was too full of energy to notice he apologized twice. He gave Chase one last squeeze before breaking off the hug.

“It’s okay, just give me more warning next time.” Chase took a minute to catch his breath. “Well. Happy Longest Night, then?”

“Happy Longest Night, then!” Jackie repeated. He whirled his cloak around dramatically. It was still red, but slightly nicer, with a fur lining. His wolf mask was pushed back, sitting on his forehead. “You know the plan, right? We’re having games all day. War games, dice games, card games—a few strategy games, too, the ones we have the boards for in storage. Then there’s the feast later, and the Dark Vigil tonight.”

“Yea, I understand,” Chase said, a faint smile on his face. He couldn’t help it; Jackie was contagious. “How many people will be at the Vigil?”

“A fair share. Schneep won’t; he does something at moonrise instead.” Jackie shrugged. “Are you planning to do any of the games? What about archery?!”

Chase laughed. “No, no, I’m not good enough to compete in a war game. I’ll probably just drift around and join in where I can. Do you think anyone will be playing Luck of the Deal? I’m very good at that.”

Jackie rolled his eyes. “Everyone’s good at Luck of the Deal. That’s the whole thing about it, it’s luck.”

“You don’t know that. There’s skill involved, too,” Chase insisted.

Jackie patted his shoulder. “Whatever you say, Hunter. It’ll be some time before everything really gets going. Anything you want to do before that?”

“Umm...” Chase thought about it. “Well, is there anything I can do to help with the feast preparations? That’s usually a community thing, isn’t it?”

“Well we already have a lot of volunteers for cooking. They’ve already gotten started, in fact.” Jackie thought about it. “But if you want to help, you could put your hunting skills to the test in the surrounding woods. Always good to have more food than less, on these occasions. People would eat their plates, if it was possible.”

Chase laughed. “Oh, I know that. Amabel would eat us out of home on Longest Night. She must’ve gotten her appetite from Stacia’s side of the family.” Saying their names, the melancholy threatened to return.

“Honestly? I have a confession.” Jackie leaned closer. “I’m one of those types, too.”

“Oh? Somehow, that makes sense.”

“And somehow I’m offended.” Jackie gave him a playful shove. “If you want to go ahead, you know where the shortbows and arrows are. Oh!” His eyes widened as he remembered something. “But try not to shoot any pigeons. Those are important.”

“Important?” Chase put the pieces together. “You mean...messenger birds?”

Jackie nodded. “I don’t expect anyone to send messages on the solstice except for an emergency, but there might be some arriving that were sent a fews days, or even a week, ago. It takes a while to fly across the island.”

“Got it. I won’t shoot any pigeons.” Chase shook his head, a bit in awe. “Messenger birds.” He’d heard of them, but never seen them in use. Somehow, they seemed almost as magical as actual magic. Getting letters sent across the kingdom in a matter of days? That was amazing. “I’ll just head out, then.”

“Good luck, Chase!” Jackie said cheerfully, waving as he turned to leave. “Be back before noon, that’s when the fun will start!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If possible, it was even colder out in the forest, away from the magic heat of the dragon bones. Chase clutched his jacket tighter and made sure his hat was securely on his head. He doubted that he’d find any animals out here. By Longest Night, most of them were hibernating. But it was worth a shot.

Snow crunched under his feet, so he slowed down, carefully placing every step so it wouldn’t make too much noise. There wasn’t a lot of foliage to hide behind in the winter, but he had made sure to grab a white jacket from storage to help him blend in. He’d also turned his hat inside out so that the red ribbon around it didn’t show. After a while, he found what he thought was a good spot to wait. So he settled down, nocking an arrow so it would be ready to fly at any moment.

The world became very still. The only sound he heard was his breath, accompanied by the small puffs of mist that breath caused in the cold. He made sure not to move a muscle.

Until there was a sudden sound. Footsteps, very light, being pursued by much heavier ones. His eyes darted towards the sound. The bare branches of a bush rustled, and suddenly a streak of brown fur dashed out in front of him followed by something much larger—

Chase reacted, letting go of the bow string and loosing the arrow. It shot through the air and landed solidly in the brown furry something. Shocked, he laughed in the rush of actually shooting something moving that fast. But then a voice cried, “I knew it!”

“Wh...?” And Chase finally noticed what the large something pursuing the small animal actually was. He looked up from his position near the ground to see...Lukas. It took him a moment to recognize him without his usual fox mask, but once the brown-auburn hair and tall longbow registered, his heart immediately sank with dread. “What are you doing—”

Lukas took an arrow out of the quiver on his back and nocked it, aiming at Chase. “Did you think you could take me out when nobody was looking?! Claim it was an accident?!”

“What in the world?!” Chase stood up. Slowly, of course, he didn’t want to get skewered by that massive arrow. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t try to play dumb, you just tried to kill me!”

“I was shooting the rabbit!” He pointed at the small animal, which was, in fact, a rabbit.

“A likely cover story.”

All of a sudden, Chase felt hot rage rise up his throat. “I know you hate me but you don’t have to be an idiot about it!” he burst out.

That seemed to take Lukas by surprise. He blinked, and lowered his bow slightly.

“I don’t know what kind of trust issues you have or where they come from, but I’m sick of you always acting this way! I’ve been here for almost a full season now, and you still act like I’m about to stab you in the back the first opportunity I get! I know, you’re probably thinking something like ‘he’s playing a long game to get everyone to trust him,’ but let’s be honest, you’re just looking for any justification to be like this. I wouldn’t trust someone like me in your position either, but I wouldn’t be so obvious about it. You don’t have to like me, you don’t have to trust me, but elders be damned, you don’t have to stir up this much trouble for Jackie and Henrik and everyone else here!” Chase ran out of breath and was forced to stop. He waited silently for Lukas’s reaction.

For a while, there wasn’t one. Lukas just...stared at him. Then he lowered his bow fully, putting the arrow back in its quiver. “What are you doing out here?” he asked in a carefully-neutral tone.

“We have some time before the real celebrations start, so I thought I’d help out by trying to find more food for the feast,” Chase explained. He walked past Lukas and picked up the rabbit, trying not to feel sad. Something about shooting rabbits made him feel guilty. Maybe he respected how hard they worked to stay alive, running so swiftly. Or maybe he thought they were cute. “What are you doing out here?”

“The same thing,” Lukas answered.

Chase snorted. “And you decided to bring that monster of a bow for hunting?”

“It’s more powerful than yours,” Lukas retorted.

“Yes, but it’s also heavier and more cumbersome. I remember my second day here, Holly said that big bows like that were more suited for long range, while shortbows—” Chase waved his bow as an example. “—are better for mobility. Look at all these trees. Do you think you’re able to shoot long range in a forest? Not to mention if you miss, you’ll end up burying your arrow in a tree with all the force you need to fire it. That’ll just be a pain to pull out.”

“I know all this,” Lukas said irritably. “But I’m most familiar with this style of bow. I can make it work.”

“Maybe if you weren’t stomping around the woods,” Chase muttered.

“Excuse me?”

“You were running after the rabbit. Bad idea; you’ll never catch up with them. It’s better to wait and let the animals come to you. If you have to move, be quieter about it. And slow. Conserve your energy; animals get tired faster than humans.” Chase glanced downwards. “You’re wearing heavy boots, I see. Those will make a lot of sound no matter how much you try to be quiet. And your clothes stand out, too. Especially that red band on your wrist. It’s bright and you have to hide it. Like I did.” He turns his cap right-side out again, letting the red ribbon show.

“Hmm.” Lukas eyed him. He did that quite a lot, but somehow, it felt different this time. More...respectful. “Well. I’ll keep that in mind.” He turned away.

“Um...right.” Now that Lukas was leaving, Chase felt the sudden energy that had filled him starting to fade away. “I’ll...see you at the celebrations, then.”

Lukas didn’t say anything, but he raised his hand in acknowledgement, not stopping as he headed back to camp.

Well...that wasn’t too bad, all things considered. Lukas clearly didn’t think worse of him. And he had managed to shoot a rabbit, something he’d rarely done in all his years as a hunter. Though he’d only done that because the rabbit was too busy running from Lukas to notice him crouching nearby. So really, he should thank him.

Maybe later. For now, Chase headed back to camp, ready to join in on the festivities.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time Chase returned to Wyvernlair, the festivities were starting to get underway. Games, mostly. People gathered in circles playing cards, or in threes playing dice, or in pairs playing board games. Others clustered around the players, watching the game and shouting encouragement. Some food was already prepared. Plates of sweet buns and meat pies were passed around. Chase grabbed a couple buns as he looked around.

But though the camp inside the circle of dragon bones was crowded, most people were out on the combat field. That was where the war games were set up. Chase decided to stop by for a moment. Even if he wasn’t going to participate, he wanted to see how things were going.

Targets were set up for archers to test their skill. People had grabbed close-quarters training weapons and were sparring, onlookers cheering on their favored winner. Someone had dragged over a rock and a large branch, setting up a makeshift see-saw that people were standing on top of, trying to knife-fight without losing their balance. Chase shook his head at that particular event. He himself had some scars on his hands from knife-fights as a young man; they really weren’t worth the bragging rights.

There was an especially large crowd gathered around one particular sparring match. Chase stopped, edging his way into the mass of people as he tried to see what was going on. Wait a minute...was that Jackie?

Indeed, Jackie was one of the sparring participants. And he was easily outclassing his opponent. He easily danced around jabs and swipes, not striking for a while, then jumped forward and hit his opponent on the side with his wooden practice sword. The crowd cheered, and the two participants backed away, shaking hands as they parted. Chase could’ve sworn he saw money change hands among the watchers.

“Anyone want to go for another round?” Jackie called to the crowd. “Doesn’t have to be to the first contact. What about to the ground?”

At that, a tall man grabbed a practice sword from a nearby rack, stepped forward, and announced, “I accept the challenge!” The crowd cheered again. “To the ground!”

Jackie grinned. “To the ground! Someone give us a count!”

In unison, the crowd started chanting, counting down from five as Jackie and his opponent started circling each other. Chase joined in. “Five!...Four!...Three!...Two!...One!...Clash!”

The two men immediately started going at each other with the practice swords, jabbing and backing up, swiping and dodging. The new opponent tried to make use of his height advantage, but Jackie was just too fast. The sparring lasted a few minutes and the crowd was enthralled for every second. Until Jackie managed to get behind his opponent and knock out his legs, making him fall to the ground. The crowd cheered. The opponent got up, looking no worse for wear and in good spirits. He shook hands with Jackie before leaving. Now Chase was sure he saw people exchanging money.

“He’s got skill, doesn’t he?”

Chase looked up, and saw Holly standing beside him. “Oh. Yea, he’s really good.”

Holly laughed. “That’s an understatement. You know he trained at Fíornear Field?” Chase nodded. “Well, so did I. But he could beat me in a fight nine times out of ten.”

“Really?” Chase asked, interested. “That many times? I thought it would’ve been closer between you two.”

“Everyone does. I say it’s the size difference. But what Jackie lacks in height, he makes up for in practice and sheer determination.” Holly watched as Jackie started sparring with another opponent. “Anyway, Chase. Come to watch or try your hand?”

Chase laughed. “No, no, just watching.”

“Well. In that case.” Holly leaned closer. “Care to try for chance?”

“You mean betting? Don’t tempt me.” Chase shook his head. “Besides, I can tell that betting against Jackie is a waste of time and money.”

“Doesn’t have to be at this spar. There’s many more war games to be had. I hear there’s axe throwing.”

“Axe throwing?” Chase perked up. “Alright, I have to see that. Lead the way.”

Holly laughed, and the two of them left, heading towards a set of targets. Indeed, some people had taken up throwing axes at these targets. Not competing against each other at the moment, only themselves, and also showing off for the passersby. Chase watched as one of the axe-throwers hit the center of her target. Then, surprisingly, he recognized the axe-thrower. “Nemet!” he called.

Nemet turned around, smiling at him. “Hello, Chase! How are you?”

“I’m doing fine. What are you...uh...I didn’t know you threw axes.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Is it so unexpected?”

Chase shrugged. “Well, you’re a doctor.”

“I am. I am a doctor who likes to throw axes.” Nemet picked up a throwing axe on the ground beside her. She held it back, paused to aim, and threw. It landed right next to the last one she threw. Holly and Chase clapped, impressed.

“Wanna shoot something, Brodyson?”

Chase yelped in surprise at the voice that came from behind him. He spun around to see Tripp grinning up at him. “You did that on purpose,” he accused.

“Maybe,” Tripp said. He was tossing a rock back and forth between his hands. Getting bored of that, he threw it to the side. Magically, the rock curved around, shooting for the target, where it bounced off the handle of one of Nemet’s axes. “Ah, almost a bull’s eye. Anyway, wanna shoot something, Brodyson? We could have a triple competition, axes versus arrows versus sorcery.”

“Hmm.” Chase considered it. “You know I had only planned to watch, but...that doesn’t sound too bad.”

“Don’t let him pressure you if you don’t want to, Chase,” Nemet said.

“No, do let him pressure you, I want to see this!” Holly insisted.

Chase laughed. “Alright, fine. Just a few rounds.”

Though as the afternoon passed, those few rounds stretched out into many. Chase had never been one for war games, but somehow, he didn’t mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Eventually, of course, came the main draw of the winter celebrations: the feast. The people who’d volunteered to cook had been preparing food all day, and shortly before sunset, declared it ready. Instantly, a good half of everyone dropped what they were doing and headed over to the cooking fires.

Chase wasn’t sure what to expect from the feast. Wyvernlair didn’t use tables for food, so would everyone be standing around with plates? But it seemed as though they’d found tables, if just for today. Probably borrowed from storage. Some of the meat stayed on the skewer, roasting over the fires to keep it hot until someone wanted it. But most food was lined up on the tables, free to take. Sweet buns and meat pies, of course, but also preserved fruits that had been kept for a special occasion like this, and tarts covered in sugar, and pumpkin pie, and roasted potatoes, and more than could be counted.

Everyone ate until they couldn’t anymore, washing down the food with water, juice, and ale. Chase savored it, mingling and talking with the other Phantoms. And for once, he didn’t feel out of place here.

Time passed. The sun set. And as the feast died down, most people began talking about the Dark Vigil, the ceremony used to honor the Elder of Dark and thank them for protecting humankind from the shadows. Chase yawned. They’d be holding that in the center of camp, where a spot had been cleared specifically for that purpose. But it would be some time before everyone was ready. So, Chase decided to slip out. He headed towards the outside of the skeleton, away from the noise and bustle.

The stars were beautiful tonight. It was clear, without any clouds fogging the view, and the moon was nearly full. Chase leaned back against the bone and stared upward. He hadn’t really had the opportunity to appreciate the world lately. It was all busy, working with the Masked Phantoms. But it was nice to slow down for a moment.

Some minutes passed in silence. Then, he heard footsteps approaching. And then, a small thud, the sound of stumbling, and a muttered “Shiesse!”

Chase looked over towards the sounds, already grinning. “You doing alright there, Henrik?”

With a huff, Henrik emerged from the darkness. “I would be better if I know no one heard that,” he muttered.

Chase laughed. “Anyway, how’re you doing? I haven’t seen you all day.”

“Ah, I am fine.” Henrik leaned against the bone next to Chase. “I have been stuck in a dice game for most of the evening. I almost missed the moonrise.”

“I see. Jackie told me you had to do something around then. Is it like the Dark Vigil?” Chase asked.

“Similar, in ways. Different, in others.” Henrik looked up at the sky. He pointed upwards, at the moon. “She is beautiful tonight, yes? I never understood why your Elders never come from the sky.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Well, I understand there is the Winged Elder One, but they are for more weather, yes?” Henrik kept his eyes fixed skywards. “None of them are for the heavens.”

“Well why would they be?” Chase shrugged. “The sky’s beautiful and wonderful. But it’s so far away. We live on the earth. Shouldn’t we be more concerned with what’s down here?”

“Hmm. Perhaps.” Henrik sighed. He reached down his belt, removing his flask and taking a drink.

“Oh—” Chase started to say something, then stopped. It would probably be rude to ask, wouldn’t it?

Henrik looked over at him, and guessed what he was about to say. “Yes, I am still taking the medicine. It is...not something that goes away.”

“Sorry,” Chase mumbled. “I shouldn’t have—”

“Is okay,” Henrik said, giving him a small smile. “You are polite about it, so I do not mind.” He returned the flask to his belt. “Ah, though I am afraid I must change the subject now. I just remembered. We managed to get the materials for more plaster this week. So you can finally have a mask of your own!”

“I can?” Chase repeated.

“No need to sound so surprised,” Henrik chuckled.

“I did? I didn’t mean to. It just seems a bit...unreal.” Chase had left his borrowed mask, the hedgehog one, back in his tent. Most people had—or at least he assumed they had, since most of them were walking around without them.

“Yes, I understand.” Henrik nodded thoughtfully. “Do you want to wait?”

“Wait no, I didn’t say that—”

“I am just making sure.” Henrik playfully nudged his shoulder. “You will need to choose an animal, you know. Do you have anything in mind?”

“Oh right. I forgot about that part.” Chase thought about it for a moment. “What about...a deer?”

Henrik raised an eyebrow. “A deer?”

“Is that not allowed? I mean, Tripp’s mask has those ram horns so I figured antlers would—”

“No, is not that, I just suppose I did not expect that.”

Chase shrugged. “I like deer. They’re good animals. Um...do I have to make the mask myself, or...?”

“You can if you want, but if you’re not artistically inclined, someone else could do it easily enough. It’s not that difficult if you are...” Henrik trailed off. He was staring out into the trees, eyes fixed on a point. “Chase. Is something moving there?” And he pointed.

“Hm?” Chase peered into the darkness. Indeed, he could see the faint movement of shadows. “Oh, yea. It’s probably just an animal.” He paused. “That’s...getting closer?”

They looked at each other, but unsure what to do with this information, just turned back to watch the animal get closer. And closer. It was too small to be a threat, but Chase felt Henrik tense anyway. Eventually, the animal got close enough to make out what it was. “A...cat?” Chase asked, confused.

“A cat,” Henrik agreed.

“What’s a cat doing all the way out here?”

“I am not sure...” Henrik said slowly, brows lowered as he thought through the possibilities.

The cat continued its course, walking in a straight line up to the two of them. Chase crouched down and held out his hand. “Here, kitty.” Once it was close enough, the cat sniffed his hand. Then, satisfied, butted its head against it. Chase laughed. “Y’know I haven’t met that many cats. When I was young, maybe about twelve, Pastor Cait had a cat. We joked about that, since her name was so similar, ha. But it’s gone now. I don’t think the town had another cat since then. A couple dogs, but no cats.” He reached out and petted it. And after a few seconds of that, scooped up the cat and stood. “Does someone here have a cat?”

“No, there are no animals in camp,” Henrik said, still puzzled. “Does it have a collar?”

Chase checked. Difficult, given that the cat clearly didn’t like being held and was wriggling a bit. “Yea, right here.” He pointed to a braided leather collar around the cat’s neck. “No name, though. For the cat or its person.”

“Well. It is cold and snowy, and even with that fur, I don’t think the cat enjoys being out here,” Henrik stated. “Maybe we should take it into camp? We have that fire set up in the skull now, that could warm it up.”

“Good idea.”

The two of them headed back, passing between the dragon bones and into the main body of Wyvernlair. By now, the festivities were starting to die down. Games were ending, and a lot of people were getting ready to attend the Dark Vigil. Chase and Henrik walked quickly by, since the cat was really struggling against being held by this point. Luckily, it hadn’t used its claws yet, but Chase could already feel them digging into the fabric of his jacket.

They reached the skull soon, passing through the gap where it joined the rest of the bones and ending up inside. It was almost empty here. Except for two people and several birds. Chase blinked a bit at the surprising sight, but then remembered what Jackie had told him that morning. So these must be messenger birds, then. There were about seven of them, pigeons in a variety of colors; white, gray, brown, spotted. Actually, Jackie was here, too. Along with Ana, who Chase had figured out by now was the head of organization at Wyvernlair. They both seemed rather impatient, quickly putting away documents. Probably heading to the Vigil like most others.

Ana looked up, noticed Chase and Henrik, then turned to Jackie and said, “It’s your best friend and his best friend. They have a cat.”

“They have a what?” Jackie spun to look at them. “Oh elders, you have a cat. Where’d you get a cat?”

“It just wandered up,” Chase said. “We thought it might like to get out of the cold—ow!” The cat dug its claws into his skin, managing to pierce the jacket, and Chase instinctively opened his arms. Of course, the cat landed on its feet, and trotted over to the side of the fire, which was slowly dying but still giving off a lot of heat.

“I’ve never seen a cat like that before,” Jackie muttered. “That’s a really unique pattern, isn’t it?” The cat was mostly a brownish off-white, but its ears and tails were dark gray, almost black, and the tail had rings of lighter gray. Its legs were striped with light brown, and it had markings on its face of the same color. Big blue eyes stared up at the strange people.

“Oh!” Henrik’s eyes lit up. “I had not noticed outside! It was fairly dark. Oh, you are a pretty kitty, aren’t you?” He slowly approached the cat, and when it didn’t run away, bent over and started petting it.

Meanwhile, Ana was bored, and anxious to leave. She looked at Chase, and her eyes lit up with a strangely sly expression. “Hey, it’s Chase, isn’t it? Do you mind helping me open this?” She held out a small tube made of metal and leather. “I’ve been trying for a while, I think it’s stuck.”

“Um..sure,” Chase said warily. Was this going to be a joke of some kind? He took the small tube and turned it over in his hands. There was a door on the side of it, and after some effort, he figured out how to open it. Out fell three items. Two folded pieces of paper, made of pressed wood pulp and therefore pale brown, and a rolled-up piece of vellum tied with twine. “What’s this?”

“Messages,” Ana said, grinning. “Can you see names written on them?”

Chase looked down at the items, sorting through them. There was writing on the folded papers, but...well, it could just be his lack of reading skills, but it looked like absolute nonsense. “These are names?” he asked doubtfully.

Jackie and Henrik looked away from the cat, noticing the exchange between Chase and Ana. “What do you mean?” Jackie asked.

“These words written here, these are...names?” Chase shook his head. “I’ve just never heard names like this before. Um...here, I-I’ll try to read them. Uh...” He squinted at the writing in ink on the two papers. “This one is ‘Ee-uh-oo-koh’ and this one is...um...‘Ffssehffmuh.’ I think? The handwriting could be—”

Henrik’s eyes widened. Suddenly, he was right next to Chase, grabbing his arm and squeezing it tightly. “What is it?! The two papers?! Which one is—that one, can I see that one?”

“Whoa, hey, calm down!” Chase leaned back. “You mean this one?” He held out the paper with the ‘Fsefma’ name on it.

“Yes!” Henrik snatched it up, then retreated, unfolding it.

Jackie leaned over his shoulder, then grinned. “Oh, I see. Vsevna sent you a little letter, didn’t he? What’s it say? Is he confessing his love?”

“Shut up, Jackie,” Henrik said, holding the letter far away from him so he couldn’t read it. “Is just another report.”

Jackie laughed. “Yea, with your name on it. Come on, Henrik.”

“That does not mean anything.”

Chase, listening, raised an eyebrow. “So...I don’t know everything that’s going on, but I think I can figure out that this Fsefna person—”

“Vsevna,” Henrik corrected.

“...Vsefna—”

“Vsevna. It is important that you voice those sounds.”

“He’s the person you’re pining for, huh, Henrik?” Chase pressed on.

Henrik was slowly turning red. “I say nothing.”

“Right,” Chase said, grinning. “So, who is he?”

“He’s another one of the Phantoms,” Jackie said, sensing that Henrik wasn’t going to answer. “He and Yuko—that’s the other name on that second paper. Last we heard, they were in the Southern Moors with the rest of their crew. They said they’d scout it out for a bit more, then move on. These are probably their reports. Or...Yuko’s is a report, at least.”

“Shush,” Henrik muttered. He retreated a few steps away from the others, clutching the letter. As he passed Ana, he shot her a glare. “You make Chase open that on purpose.”

Ana just smiled. “Same results, right? Anyway, that’s the last capsule. Do you mind if I head out now?”

“No, go ahead, Ana. Send Harrison to take care of the birds,” Jackie said. She nodded, and left the skull. He then looked at Chase. “Uh...can I have the other two things?”

“Oh right.” Chase forgot he was still holding the other paper and the vellum scroll. He handed them over to Jackie, and the metal tube as well. “I’m surprised. That’s a lot for a bird to carry.”

“Well these guys are trained for it.” Jackie gestured at the pigeons, now strutting around the table. “Especially Mokin here, who had this stuff.” He patted the wings of a particular pigeon, mostly white but with brown wings, which had strangely curly feathers. “They all deserve the best seeds before we send them out again. Anyway.” Jackie unfolded the paper with Yuko’s name on it, scanning the words written there. At first, he looked excited to get a letter from this person. But the more he read, the more serious his expression became. “Henrik.”

Henrik looked away from his own letter, picking up on the tone in Jackie’s voice. “What is it?”

“I...read this while I open this scroll.” Jackie passed Henrik the letter, then began working on the twine knot holding the vellum shut.

Henrik read the letter quickly, and soon his expression matched Jackie’s. “Oh. Oh, Schwestern. Oh, no.”

Chase started to back up, feeling he shouldn’t listen to something like this. But Jackie noticed him leaving and said, “No, it’s fine, Chase. We should tell everyone this, anyway. Tomorrow, maybe.”

“What is it?” Chase asked anxiously.

“Well...you remember we told you about Marvin, right?” Jackie said slowly. “About how he went out on his own and we sometimes get reports of him?” He waited for Chase to nod before continuing. “This...was a report about him. Apparently, he was in the Moors. But...he didn’t just cause chaos and leave. He’s been...caught.”

“Caught?” Chase repeated numbly.

Jackie managed to untie the twine, and unrolled the vellum, scanning what was written there. He nodded grimly. “Yep. You know what this is?” He turned it around so Chase could see.

“That’s...a royal declaration, isn’t it?” Chase asked slowly. He recognized the format, and the royal seal in the corner. “Um...‘The King...announces a...mighty...triumph.’”

“You do not have to keep going, Chase,” Henrik said bitterly. “There are better words to read than that.” He took the declaration from Jackie, glancing at it for just a moment. “I see. Marvin is accused of attempting to kill the King and some other nobility. They caught him in the act, and now...they plan to execute him. Four weeks from now.”

Jackie looked over at the cat, now sitting and licking its paws, and gasped. “Henrik. You don’t think that’s his cat, do you?!”

“What? I suppose perhaps. But if it is, how did it get all the way up here?” Henrik sounded puzzled. “It takes a week or two to get to the Moors from here, and that is for humans on horseback. For a cat...”

“Wizardry?” Jackie guessed. “I don’t know, it was just a thought, since he likes cats so much.”

Everyone fell silent. Henrik looked back at the royal declaration, reading it slowly, taking in the information. “So...how are we going to do this?”

“Do what?” Jackie asked.

Henrik stared at him in surprise. “Well, we have to rescue him, of course.” Jackie didn’t say anything. “Do not tell me that you’re going to let your grudge stand in the way!”

“No, it’s not that!” Jackie protested. “It’s just—you read the letter, right? Yuko said that these declarations were sent everywhere. Since when has the King announced his next move like this? Everything he does, he does in secret. I mean, damn, the Phantoms are just rumors, and we’ve been taking serious action for years now. He’s hushed up so much, why wouldn’t he just make Marvin...you know, disappear? Why a public execution?”

“You think it is a trap,” Henrik stated.

“Well...yes,” Jackie admitted.

“That is fair, but if it’s a trap, who is he planning to catch? If he wants information about us, he could get it from Marvin.”

“But Marvin hasn’t been part of the group for a year now! His information would be out of date.”

“This does not change the fact that there is no guarantee it’s a trap in the first place. Perhaps he wants to strike fear into the population. Given his actions, it seems likely.”

“If it does turn out to be a trap, though, we can’t afford to lose anyone!”

Chase coughed awkwardly. Jackie and Henrik jumped, then turned to him, looking embarrassed to be fighting while he was still there. “You know...I don’t know if I have any place in this. I mean, you two are in charge, after all. But...I think you should try to get him back.”

Henrik and Jackie looked at each other, then back to Chase. “Are you trying to say something?” Jackie asked.

“I just...” Chase paused for a moment, searching for the words. “I don’t think...you should leave someone behind. He was still part of the Phantoms, right? Didn’t he help create it? A-and weren’t you three...Well. You don’t have to talk to him after we rescue him, but it just doesn’t seem right to leave someone behind in this situation. I know you had your fight and all, but maybe...this could be...you know.” He paused. “Also, I want to know if this cat is his or if some random cat just wandered by.”

Jackie laughed. “Yea, that would be good to know, wouldn’t it?” He sighed, and his expression fell, becoming serious as he was lost in thought.

Henrik leaned closer to him and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Jackie. Chase is right, this does not mean he is rejoining the group. You do not even have to go. But...we should do it. Marvin does not deserve this.”

After a moment, Jackie nodded. “You’re both right. Of course. Even though he was an ass last time we talked, that doesn’t mean I want Marvin dead.” He took a deep breath. “But we should prepare for the possibility of a trap. Just in case.”

“Of course we will,” Henrik assured him.

“...Hey. Chase.” Jackie gave him a smile. “Thank you. I-I don’t know what it is about you, but you know what to say. It’s really easy to talk to you about stuff like this.”

“It’s not a problem,” Chase said, returning the smile. “But, um...I think the Vigil is happening soon, so if we want to go—”

“Shit, I almost forgot about that!” Jackie gasped. “Henrik, I don’t want to leave the cat alone, can you look after it or something?”

“Don’t worry, I will take it to my tent,” Henrik said. “You two go and...is it alright to wish you fun? In a ceremony like this?”

“Come on, Schneep, you’ve lived here for over a decade, don’t talk like it’s so strange to you,” Jackie chuckled.

“I think it’s fun,” Chase said.

“Well, you two go have fun, then,” Henrik said. “I will see you later. Tomorrow, if not tonight.”

“Thanks, Schneep.” Jackie gave him a quick one-armed hug, then headed towards the skull entrance. “Let’s go, Chase. We don’t want to be late.”

They almost were. The Dark Vigil was about to start when they arrived, shuffling into the crowd. Everyone stood in a circle around a set of candles, one blue and the rest black, which were in turn set in a circle around several smooth, round pieces of black onyx. Three people stood inside, lighting the candles.

After the candles were alight, everyone sat on the ground, clashing a bit as they all tried to make room. Then once everyone was sitting with their legs crossed, the three in the center started the Vigil. They spoke the traditional lines, describing the Elder of Dark—their vague appearance, their actions, their history with the other Elders—and finished it by thanking them for their guardianship. Everyone joined in on the final part: “As you stand and watch vigil, so shall we this night.” And then silence fell.

During the silence of the Dark Vigil, each individual offered their thoughts about those who needed protection. In the past, Chase had asked for his family to be alright. For them all to stay healthy and happy. Today, he asked for that again. He wished, silently, desperately, for them to be safe. And not just them, but everyone else who had disappeared from his town, as well as all the other mountain towns that had been destroyed. He thought about Henrik and Jackie and all the other Phantoms he’d met here, and wished for them to have luck in this fight against the King. He thought about Marvin, someone who he’d never met but who was dear to his friends, and wished for them to be able to rescue him.

As Chase stared at the candle flames, he thought he saw...something. He wasn’t sure what. A shape in the smoke. The shape of a four-legged animal, with...antlers. A deer.

Then as was the tradition, the candles were extinguished, and the night was left in darkness.

#jacksepticeye #jacksepticeye fanfiction #jacksepticegos #jacksepticeye au #septic egos #septic egos au #chase brody #jackieboy man #dr schneeplestein #brigid writes fanfiction #fantasymasksau

20 notes · View notes

daisydoctor13 · 3 years

Text

First Lines Meme

Thank you to @ktlsyrtis, @fortytworedvines and @slightlyintimidating (every time i saw a tag I thought about doing it and just.....never got round to it, its been a busy week haha)

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favorite opening line. Then tag 10 authors!

This is the first line of the latest 20 posts on AO3, which includes collections (because I don’t have enough individual stories on there) but not the first line of each story within the collection (if that makes sense? I’m going to stop rambling now)

1. You’re here tonight (and that’s enough) - “Bernie, I’m sorry there’s clearly been a mix up with the rota,” Serena approaches her with a concerned look on her face, her brow furrowed.

2. First Impressions - “OK Mum don’t freak out,” Elinor started as she closed, no, slammed the front door, announcing her arrival in the house.

3. Itchy Feet, Soothing Hands - Bernie had been discharged from the physio with a stern, but fond, word of warning.

4. Between the dames and the horses - “If you want to ask me something, you should try words instead of Morse code.”

5. The weather outside is frightful (as long as you love me so) - “And people taking to the skies for travel this weekend are advised to check their flights as services are facing cancellations due to this unexpected bad weather.”

6. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine - “Hi Auntie Bernie. Is it okay if I still call you that? I know you’re not technically my Auntie and you weren’t married to Auntie Serena but I still called you that, but now you’re not together anymore I don’t know if I should.”

7. Cold Hands, Warm Hearts - Serena scowled as she took a sip from her flask, almost wishing she had added a little something extra to the coffee.

8. Our Love Was Made for Movie Screens (Collection) - Serena eyed Bernie warily as she slid into bed.

9. Wonderful Fic-mastime (Collection) - “What on earth has been happening here?!” Serena exclaimed as she entered her house.

10. How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given - Serena was glad they’d decided to go out for a meal at the weekend when they both had the day off.

11. Fragments of Eternity (Collection) - He hears murmurs around the hospital, the advantage of being able to sneak up on people despite being conspicuous.

12. The Power of Two (Collection, Kate Stewart) - Kate blinked through the sleep in her eyes, frowning as she realised it was still dark.

13. Something Old, Something New - After thirty years in medicine Bernie felt she had become immune to most things.

14. Another Roll of the Dice - Serena leant against the railings of the balcony, observing the city below her and absorbing the atmosphere.

15. The Wrong Side of Fifty - “You know what she needs?” Fletch commented to Morven as Serena’s office door had just been slammed so thoroughly that the blinds shook, “a new flame to get over Robbie the Bobby.”

16. Tibia your valentine (Zoe Evans) - "You doing anything nice later, doc?" Mr Carter asks as he shrugs on his coat.

17. Hey, Soul Sister - “Come on Auntie Serena, or we’ll be late picking up Auntie Bernie from the airport!”

18. This is the sound of my soul - “You’ve got to go Serena you’re the head girl. What head girl doesn’t go to the prom? It’s right up your street: music, dancing, smuggling alcohol in and having your wicked way with half the boys at St Cuthbert’s.”

19. What lasts forever can’t be rushed - Bernie checked her watch for about the 10th time in an hour, groaning.

20. A Silver of Hope - Bernie paced up and down on the platform, checking her watch and the announcement board every few seconds, desperate for the time to be going quicker.

Ohhhh so much dialogue! It’s what I expected really because I don’t always find it easy to set a scene, I find myself going straight into action. As @ktlsyrtis said it’s a great point about fanfic because you don’t need to introduce characters but lord I use a lot of speech to do that haha.

I think number 7 is my favourite because I could really picture that first scene and I’m hoping it just brings up an immediate sense of Serena and how she is feeling. Also I do like 15 as well for similar reasons (but also I’m just proud that it was my first ever thing posted)

everyone seems to have been tagged while i’ve got round to this oops

#my fic #fic writing #tagged #memes

6 notes · View notes

shiftytracts · 3 years

Text

This was gonna be a scenario post, hence the A and B format, but got so long (2.4k) it almost counts as a story. I’m less sure it counts as emeto--it’s all nausea/general digestive upset, no actual vomit. Also mentions scat and weight gain, but those tags would definitely constitute false advertising; they’re more like incidental story elements than kink elements.

A’s on new meds, whose side effects include slight but near-constant nausea. They wander one morning through the dark, brown-carpeted house they share with B (their SO) and another housemate (C), coffee cup in hand, still slightly sweat-sticky from bed but without the time to shower. It’s a small, thin-walled house, and C’s not up yet, so A and B keep off their shoes for as long as they can, trying not to make too much noise. A muffles their burps into the crook of their elbow. B makes eggs and toast for both; A’s gotta wolf ‘em before their appointment, but wishes they hadn’t—or at least that they’d skipped the orange juice, and maybe saved brushing their teeth for after breakfast. They head to their appointment with their heart pounding in their gut, queasy and bloated and short of breath, bubbly stiff cramps forming in new places every time they bend a different way, belly rumbling so much they wonder if B can hear it, if they can see it shake, can see A’s navel through their t-shirt.

(“Be honest”—A implores, when they wander back from the can to the kitchen sink where B stands washing grease off the breakfast plates—“do I look like a total fatass?”

(“What? No.” B laughs, rhetorically, and adds, “Why?”

(“Well ‘cause I sorta feel like one is all,” A says, peremptorily stroking up and down past their navel, but regretting it when this uncalled-for jiggling further upsets their stomach.

(“Aw. No, you look fine,” B assures them. They look back to their dishes, then at A again with preemptive shrug: “I guess if they were really looking someone might figure you’d had a big breakfast, but.” A yanks at their shirt, hoping to obscure this; “Don’t do that, you’ll stretch it,” B reminds them.)

A tries to crap before they leave but no dice—not time yet. Nasty cramps and cold sweat all through their shrink appointment. Comes home, gives vent to the pyroclastic flow, then collapses supine on the bed and unbuttons their shorts. Takes a nap.

Despite their best efforts B’s doings in there an hour or so after that wake A up; they direct A to the water glass they set by the bed. “Oh. Thanks,” A yawns, and asks if B’ll hand them pajama pants. B smiles and complies.

“Not going out again then, huh? Not feeling well?”

A shrugs. “No, I’m okay now, just kinda.” They try to make a hand gesture for tired or loopy, but judging from B’s lack of answering nod they figure this doesn’t suffice as explanation. “Might later though, I don’t know.”

“Mm.”

“Should eat something, probably.”

“Ah, yeah—get back on the horse?”

“Haha yeah.” Meanwhile A rubs their belly up and down as though to sound its opinion on the level of drawstring tightness they’ve selected. B sits next to them for a sec, puts a hand on their back, pecks their jaw.

“I guess you are a bit chubbier now,” B admits, feeling guilty for how they dodged A’s question on that score this morning.

“Seems that way,” allows A. This, they’re pretty sure, is the previous med’s fault. They wouldn’t’ve switched were that its only sin, of course, but the thing had the gall to be useless aside from its side effects of weight gain and insomnia. “Is it gross? Should I.”

“What? No,” B says again, and laughs rhetorically as before. “‘Gross’? Of course not.” B bats A’s jaw, very gently, playfully. “No matter what happens, I’m just happy you’re getting help.”

A’s answering smile lasts maybe a quarter of a second. “Thanks.” All the same they stand and spread their arms out to either side, to give B a better look. “Sure you don’t mind?”

B smiles, shakes their head chidingly, incredulously. “Why would I mind? It’s kinda cute, if anything.” To prove they mean it they go around behind A, rest the side of their face on the back of A’s neck, snake their hands around to A’s front and slot each one atop their waistband so B’s palms fit in the hollow between pelvis and flab. Roots around til they find the end of A’s shirt, pushes it out of the way, un- and re-does the drawstring so their pajama pants sit at a more flattering height. “That too tight?”

“No, it’s kinda grounding actually,” A shrugs. “Thanks.”

“Mhm. Now go eat something.”

A eats some leftover rice with soy sauce—C ordered way too much rice with their takeout two nights ago, and left the extra up for grabs. Then A figures they can handle two Oreos. Can’t stop burping after that, but only feels a little queasy, little squirmy. Lies on the couch with their laptop, alternately studying and playing Tetris (they’re a week or two into the fall semester; today’s Friday, which they have off from both classes and work). Until C gets home, at which point Mariokart happens. This makes A feel sick, though, not sure whether in a too much food or not enough kinda way, so they take their computer and go back to the bedroom, telling C they just want to remove themselves from the social distraction. Maintains this ruse until about halfway down the hallway, then lets go the foodbaby they’ve been suckin’ in and moves their free hand up and down it as they round the corner into their bedroom doorway. B’s all dressed and ready for their friend’s party now; has to go soon. They’re crisscross-applesauced on the bed looking at their phone, but they look up when A comes in. “Hey.”

“Hi! Feeling better?” B asks, with a slight frown that suggests they know the answer.

A busies their hands with setting their laptop on the bed so they can say, “Nope—queasatronic,” without seeming too self-pitying.

B nose-laughs but says, “Aw. I’m sorry.”

A shrugs, sits. “Eh.”

“Want me to stay home?—I could—?”

But this time A says, “What? No. ‘Course not, you should go. I’m fine, I’m.” (Shrugs, realizing already that this’ll sound like a guilt trip and wondering whether they secretly mean one. But they’re too bushed to think of another ending to the sentence.) “I’m used to this; don’t need a babysitter. You should go.”

“Okay. Thank you. If you’re sure.”

“No, please. Seriously.”

“Alright. What time is it?” B chirps, then presses the top button on their phone and reports, “5:24—yeah okay, I should go. Take care, feel better. Need anything?—I could stop at CVS, or.”

“Uh…” A mimes thinking about it, then spaces out for real.

“Well, you can text me if so,” B laughs.

“Cool. Sure. Have fun.”

“Thaaanks,” B says, swinging themselves by the hand around the doorjamb as they slip out. A arranges themselves supine again, hands folded on their stomach. Lets out an unimpressed sigh as though in summation. Doesn’t really wanna take a nap, but they try playing Tetris again and feel too icky when they try to focus their eyes on the screen. Closes their laptop but does not remove its warm weight from their lap, even though in the 5pm heat its plastic sticks to their wrists. Burps, mouth open, not loudly exactly but sorta high-pitched—as though they were an adolescent boy with a soda can, they scoff. Then wonders if they have any more diet ginger ale. Wanders out to the kitchen, in the extra wall space between which and the dining room (B calls it a “breakfast nook,” but A just assumes that’s a joke they don’t get) they keep their soda cans stacked on the floor next to the milk-cratey recycle bins. There is indeed one left. They grab that and a cup (and two ice cubes outta the tray in the freezer), too lazy to fetch the one B put water in for them earlier, and remind themselves to text B that they’ve run out.

C’s still out there, and notices A’s choice of beverage. “You alright?”

“Yeah, just. Guts’re on the fritz again.”

“Hm. Sorry, pal.”

“It’s cool.”

“You gonna be able to find something you can eat?”

“What?”

“Tonight, I mean. Is there food you can eat?”

A shrugs. “Still some rice left I guess.”

“I ask ‘cause I’m going to the store in an hour, so. If you want some saltines or something.”

“Oh.” A laughs; adds, “thanks. Think we still have some from last time though.”

“Okay. Well, if you think of anything you want.”

“Sure. Thanks.”

“No problem; good luck.”

At this departure from Hope you feel better A laughs slightly. “Thanks.” Heads back to their room, drinks their soda and melty ice. This is the hottest-ass part of the day, so when it’s gone they balance the still-cool glass on their clavicle. They feel much better now, if sorta bloated and fizzy. Quease level comparatively minimal. Figures they should eat again while they’ve got the, uh, guts for it.

Once they start on their second round of rice A finds they’re pretty hungry. Adds soy sauce a lot more zealously, this time, and risks the last leftover spring roll as well but regrets the grease. Has to make up for it with the unsauced bits of rice clinging to the edge of the styrofoam box—you know, like, a palate cleanser or whatever. They hiccup a little, then belch when they bring their plate to the sink, from the contact between gut and the edge of the counter: hadn’t thought about the extra room they take up now. Rubs a peremptory circle into the left side above the navel but finds they feel alright, for now—then 20 minutes later heads into the can, expecting lava from how their stomach cramps and rolls, but gets out only some air and a few wispy pebbles. Notices with greater dismay, then, on the way back to their room, how their belly queasily sloshes around when they walk. Doesn’t seem to have shrunk much.

In B’s mirror, back in their room, A finds they look pretty gigantic, too; they changed into a looser shirt after the first one got too sweaty, and in this comparative tent all you can tell is that the gut’s the widest part of their profile. They set their hands down on it to bring it down to size, and are dismayed at how little difference this makes. Does feel nicer that way though; leaves ‘em there as they trudge slowly back to their side of the bed, and pushes slow circles into each side. Sits heavily on the edge of the bed, hunched over a little. Can feel the tightness in their stomach that means either it’s going to rumble in that long drawn-out violating way where you feel like it’s loosing all your secrets or that you’re going to belch so loud you’ll wonder if you have to puke. Waits, then gives up on waiting and slowly, laboriously lies down. Stretches a little, tempting fate, but it kinda hurts: ties a weird knot high up on the right when they loosen back up. They put three fingers on it gently, and try to iron it out back and forth. Ah!—there it goes. Stomach starts growling, seems to shake everything up, then once that uneasy shifting’s done with it still keeps up the sound what seems a ludicrous, embarrassing long time. When that’s done they sigh and then burp a little. Laughs at themselves for this display. Carefully carefully carefully turns onto their side, facing away from the door, and tries to sleep, a protective hand curled around their stomach.

When B gets home much later that night they wake up a little (“Oh. Hi. How was the thing.” “Hey! Sorry to wake you. It was fun; I think it went well.” “That’s good.” “Mhm.” “Anyway good night.” B laughs: “Haha okay. Go back to sleep A.” They mean to reply at your service but instead say, “Open sesame”; B laughs and pats their hair so it itches their nose. When A swipes at it snot comes loose. They decide not to open that pandoras wormtails); figures they’ll fall back to sleep quick until the consciousness of nausea slides back into place, at which point they try to roll onto their back and find themselves ludicrously heavy. It takes several tries, and all their breath. They groan with bored self-pity, forgetting they’re not alone in the room.

Meanwhile B struggles out of their clothes and into pajama pants and an inside-out (but not backwards) tank top in the dark. “You okay?”

“Blugh. Not great.”

“Aw, still?”

“Yeah… nah,” A says, blinking, confusedly forgetting which answer is appropriate. “I gotta pee,” A decides. This helps a little, since it wakes them up all the way and therefore allows them to disentangle the need to pee from their other woes. In the bathroom mirror they look mostly deflated up top but still extra puffy and round lower down; at least it doesn’t hurt their stomach to stand up anymore. Only hurts like a menstrual cramp does after you take ibuprofen, but the quease that in that case is only incipient is much worse here. At one point they cough, and dread this “pandoras wormtails” too when it alerts them to all the mushy brittle things in their throat and chest. This also makes them start burping again, so that that’s how they end up greeting B when they get back to the doorway of their room: fist over their mouth, wincing a little, leaning into the wall for balance. B’s a good sport though. They face each other in bed and B lays both their warm hands on A’s stomach, whimpers in pity at how blown up they can tell it is.

“I’m sorry you don’t feel well,” they say in that affectionate half-asleep tone that always comes out querulous.

“It’s cool,” A says back.

B sloppily nods so that their jaw thuds against their pillow, hair spilling into their eyes, and tells A, “Just try to go back to sleep; feel betterinthmorning probbleby,” trying to get all the words out before a yawn.

#emetophilia #emeto cw

9 notes · View notes

grammarpedant · 3 years

Note

Tell us about the Murderbot ttrpg!! 👀👀👀

ahh thank you for the interest!!

it’s basically a project that spun out because i love tabletop rpgs and game design, and i love murderbot, and i also noticed that the Forged in the Dark system would work super well for the Murderbot Diaries

there are entire sections of the novels that I could write out with the game mechanics! like, the start of rescuing Mensah in Exit Strategy is clearly an Engagement Roll with a Social plan that resulted in a Desperate starting Position when the GreyCris rep immediately caught wise to the fishiness and drew a stun gun; and of course anytime Murderbot forces itself to talk to a human it’s expending Stress to push itself for an extra die (greater chance of success in an action it likely has no dice in) on its roll, etc etc. Hell, flashbacks and the stress mechanic just seem made for Murderbot and the type of fiction that the Murderbot Diaries is.

and there definitely are sci-fi Forged in the Dark games out there! Scum & Villainy is a game about space scoundrels (a la Han Solo, bounty hunters, or space rebels) that might work plenty well for a Murderbot Diaries game. In fact, the whole Rogues & Rampancy OC fic setting that @iztarshi and I write in was very inspired by and designed to work with Scum & Villainy.

but still... can we make Forged in the Dark more Murderbot? I think the answer is yes. So I’ve been listening to game design advice on the Beam Saber discord and putting together concepts for playbooks and thinking about how to shake up the FitD system to create a game that makes each session feel like a chapter or so of a Murderbot book.

Under a cut for length- If you or anyone else has feedback, discussion or questions, I would gladly welcome it!

Broad strokes, I want the game to be machine intelligence focused. the playbooks are “Functions”- Security, Comfort, Combat, Research, etc. The playbook is the primary thing by which a character defines itself (there aren’t “races” [gross] in FitD, although I’m toying with the idea of including Form abilities to account for organic, metal, digital etc people having radically different access and physicality) so coming up with not just unique special abilities but evocative exp triggers and useful special items is important. Here’s some examples of special abilities, names and phrasing tbd:

When You Need Me: [Security] Those who trust you know you’ll be there when you're needed most. Two times per mission, you can arrive on a scene where an ally needs you without paying flashback stress costs. How do timing, planning, chance and opportunity align to make this happen?

The Weak Point: [Playbook tbd, probably Research] You know what the weak point of every tool and system is: the dumb end user who operates it. When you exploit end-user vulnerability, you do so with increased effect. When you gather information by taking advantage of a tool or system's end users, take +1d.

How Bad Could It Be: [Human] When you act ill-advisedly and endanger yourself, mark playbook XP.

I laugh to myself about that last move a lot.

I have a lot of thoughts about how the Security playbook probably resembles an unholy mixture of Blades in the Dark’s Spider, Beam Saber’s Soldier, and the Sprawl’s Hacker, whereas the Combat playbook is just straightforwardly the Soldier. The Research playbook is definitely for ART- it’s information-gathering and data-crunching in both the scientific and the espionage sense, so it’ll touch on both the Hacker and Beam Saber’s Infiltrator. For the Human playbook, I’m touching on Monster of the Week’s the Mundane, and in general I’m experimenting with the idea of putting PbtA-style moves in special abilities, to mixed effect so far, I think. Otherwise, the Human playbook is mostly about getting and giving exp, and taking on more GM-side duties like world-building and thematic direction.

And unlike other games, the strength of playbooks is how easy it is to ‘multiclass’- you can pick any of a selection of abilities when you advance your playbook, including from other playbooks through Veteran advances, resulting in some unique and character-rich combinations.

I’m still having some trouble with how to change the action ratings and attributes to imitate the kinds of verbs that Murderbot and the people it deals with are use. (I think the attributes should be broadly separated into Physical, Social, and Feed, but I’m still unsure what to call them- for reference, Blades uses Prowess (physical), Resolve (social), and Insight (mental)). This system differs from mainstream TRPGs in that instead of skills or stats, you have action ratings, which broadly represent how you’re characterizing your approach to a challenge.

Here’s what Scum & Villainy’s action ratings and attributes look like:

And according to some game design theorists that i've been following, the Verbs- what a character is inclined to do and what the action rating is named for- is one of the most defining parts of what that character/what the game is like, so getting these action ratings nailed down will do a lot to characterize a Murderbot Diaries-like game.

Here’s what I have for the unnamed Physical attribute:

Assail: Subdue opposition with violence. Put your body in the line of fire and see whose parts give out first.

Maneuver: Scramble for positioning with agility or evasion. Get to the right place at the right time.

Operate: Handle inanimate objects with technical precision or bodily coordination. Manipulate a physical obstacle into or out of the way.

I’m definitely struggling most with the Feed attribute’s verbs, but feel free to ask me about the action ratings in the Social attribute. I’ve decided that Banter should be an important social action rating in the Murderbot RPG, and I do not regret this decision.

that’s some of what I have so far, but it’s not even getting into all the unanswered questions that I still have to address. Like, what should I do with Crew formation- a great mechanic where the group of players is characterized with its own character sheet and playbook- when the main character of the source fiction spends so much time avoiding being part of a team? (I think I have to assume that PreservationAux, the AC technologists, GoodNightLander Independent, and the crew of Perihelion are examples of crews in the text). what about factions? how extensively should I make up faction worldbuilding that will likely eventually be jossed as Ms Wells continues to write? What should I do with the score-downtime cycle that is so intrinsic to heist fiction, when the Murderbot Diaries doesn’t precisely use this cycle? And what should I replace it with if I decide to get rid of it?

Whew, that’s a lot! so you can see when I said “I don’t know where to start talking about this” I wasn’t joking, haha. thank you for reading if you got this far, and hopefully that wasn’t overwhelming!

tl;dr a Murderbot Diaries RPG would be really cool and is potentially doable, these are my thoughts and I’d love to hear what other people think.

#forged in the dark #tabletop rpgs #the murderbot diaries #murderbot #murderbot diaries #verso writes

14 notes · View notes

a-singing-carebear · 4 years

Text

Thank You Critical Role - My D&D story

“The adventure begins, they were always beside you. Your nerdy best friends and the DM to guide you”. Critical role, what more can I say?

I started playing dungeons and dragons when I was around 4\5th grade, playing with a group as an afternoon group\class. 4E, and I don't remember much besides my halfling ranger and a lot of glances and readthrough of my still existing Player's Handbook. (Well the first half of the book, the miniatures section didn’t really speak to me) Finding out my father was a DM when he was younger, and I even went to some events. I can't at all recall why I stopped, but the happiness and creativity wonder I felt still lingered in my mind.

I had the love for fantasy, I had things like LOTR, “hey! it’s just like D&D”, and a lot of creativity and storytelling crafting.

After that, I kinda moved on I guess, felt lonely, and like geekness and role-playing was a bad and childish thing (though it made me feel so spectacular). The closest I got was some lively Avatar OC with some new friends.

Fast forward to 2015, The episode “Dungeons, Dungeons & More Dungeons” from gravity falls. All those feelings rose again and I remembered how much I loved playing.

(also enjoy role-playing and with LARP being mentioned there too, when I went to some Cons I had a blast with the foam swords there).

I took out the 4e Player's Handbook, made with my brother (who got in and out of d&d by that time) a carved foam platform and a cubes map - thus started a made-up game by the name of "D&F" (Dungeons & Fandoms), using his found old dices and it's a 1 on 1 encounter magic arena with no distinct roles. What started as "let's make Ability Scores to characters from shows" became a random "I cast a tree of pancakes on you! -no, I burned it with fire-bending you’re dead". A game that also slowly died as we grew up and apart (“I mean, they used to be best friends, but then they got all stupid. Can you promise me you won't get stupid?”)

(FOUND IT!!!) A mild discovery of the ingenious song “Never Split The Party”, an actual d&d song I discovered after watching Semblance of Sanity and figuring out that their ditty “don’t you know you never split the party” is an actual song their singing.

youtube

[This video is just a d&d podcast they had, but kinda sums up everything I feel about why I enjoy D&D!]

Then another tiny spark 3 years later when the Voltron episode “Monsters & Mana” came out (BTW, a great d&d parody episode). Which mostly came to an end after a glance in the book and dices and helping a friend with ideas to craft his own RPG game.

We arrive at the date when everything changed (well, almost), December 7th, 2018. The day I discovered the “Mighty Nein Animated Intro - Your Turn To Roll” and my life were never the same.

youtube

Stumbled upon it by complete accident. I was at a loss for words, I heard the name “Critical Role” thrown about many times on tumbler’s trending list and saw pictures and art of mostly Jester. I didn't even know what is it - a tv show? a game? well, it looks like D&D. The song was incredible and brought me back, I started writing a full-fleshed out character - a human ranger taught by an elf, but the idea was quickly shifted to another fantasy story by me (it’s heard sticking to it when you know it’s just backstory and character info and you will not play and you have no one). But I continue watching this video on repeat (haha not even knowing what it actually is), scouting tumbler for info and watching some random animatics, learning it's probably a podcast d&d\rpg or something. It could have been amazing as a tv show (XD)… and then another video got released, same incredible essence of d&d song but different animation, and different characters That was my first introduction to Vox Machina.

youtube

I had to check this out. Tried to get into the fandom but got lost, even though the interest was there. Stepping upon the awesome cosplay OP and even found out about a hamilton album parody - and my musical loving self was ecstatic.

youtube

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIDuJAvTTRc&list=PL39vwIwCtLi3l4J6IMV6rS2HaLCujNzRT - Vox Machina: An Exandrian Musical)

Found the full podcast list of champion 1 and started this May. But it was hard following just by voice, and I wanted to see what was happening, every episode was 3-4 hours long, with me in my military base it was impossible. (also I thought to myself “it looks cool, but what so investing and amazing about watching some people play D&D - boy I was wrong).

Then my unexpected savior arrived, miss Corona the pandemic.

I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands and the Critical Role vids got suggested again on YouTube, yes indeed, I discovered there are actually filmed episodes. Towards the end of May, I started the journey and the flame reignited. I started talking to a good friend of mine about his interest in d&d and we started crafting characters - I resurrected my charter into a half-elven ranger with a full backstory. Down the road, I asked another two friends of mine about their interest in d&d (because maybe I can join together an actual party), one of them said, and I’m quoting “no I don’t have experience playing…but I swear I wanted to talk to you about D&D”. Unfortunately, the two friends groups didn’t mix but we made an improved first session with me as the fucking DM, simply magical. Later that week I started a 1on1 campaign with the other friend, with him as the DM and a marvelous start of an adventure (and helping him learn the rules as an ADM, with the past faded expirations I had).

All while fangirly, hyperfixation way continuing with the journey of Vox Machina, it’s amazing because as opposed to other shows I can also completely see the fandom growing along with the show and cast (i just hope I can catch up to the Mighty Nein before the inevitable 3rd campaign, 198 episodes to go - happy 100th ep!). It’s also difficult to get into the Critters fandom right now because most of the community is focused and recognized by Mighty Nein. Also burning up creativity slots and making more various characters then I could ever use - I’m enjoying myself so muchhh. Diving headfirst into this beautiful crazy of the mess that is D&D.

Nothing’s never too late and it’s ok if you have hiatus. It doesn’t make you any less worthy and I don’t need to feel bad about this journey of that a bunch of nerdy-ass voice actors sit around and play Dungeons & Dragons got me back to loving, playing and caring about the world of d&d, it’s part of the intent. As a fantasy lover (spells, costumes, items, structures, creatures, you name it), aspiring creative writer and an untalented lover of acting theatrical and role-playing, along with the incredible mechanism of RPG and the vast community, the amazing time with friends, its the game for me, it always had been. So thank you Critical Role for igniting that flame once again - even if I will lose it again I will always have you guys. “Can you answer the call? Dig in deep in your soul. As the legend unfolds, now it's your turn to roll!”

(sorry for the lengthy length, it was meant to be much shorter)

#critical role #vox machina #the mighty nein #geek and sundry #tabletop rpg #d&d #dungens and dragons #friends #dnd e4 #dnd e5 #ranger #longasspost #COVID19 #quarentinelife #critters

20 notes · View notes

floopaslopp · 4 years

Text

I've finally finished Sun's weapon, so here it is! Let me introduce y'all to...

Dice! (Name pending..)

...okay I'll be the first to admit it low key looks like cheese, just... let me explain how it works.

Basically, Dice works like any other dice. For Sun to use it in battle, he must roll it. Depending on whatever number he rolls (aka, the number that is facing upwards) it will dictate what weapon he summons.

So to sum it up, depending on the number Sun rolls, the dice can transform into six different weapons.

Let me list them for y'all.

If he rolls a 1... he gets a dagger

If he rolls a 2... he gets a shield

If he rolls a 3... he gets gauntlets (basically brass knuckles lol I chose this instead cause... he doesn't really have knuckles)

If he rolls a 4... he gets a whip

If he rolls a 5... he gets a hammer

And finally, if Sun rolls a 6... he gets a boomerang

Here's a couple facts about Dice (again, name is pending):

Wherever it is rolled, that's where the weapon will appear, so one of the first things Sun learns how to do is throwing and catching it in his paws without throwing it onto the floor (it takes awhile to perfect that skill). You can't gently roll it to get the number you want though, it has to be physically tossed.

The weapon doesn't just poof into appearance where Dice was rolled, it physically transforms into the weapon. However the transformation is surprisingly quick, less than a few seconds, so its easy to switch between them during battle

Related to the last one, there is a caveat to switching quickly between weapons though; Dice can overheat if switched too quickly too many times, which eventually makes it get stuck on the last weapon it was for up to 10 mins. So yeah, you can't just keep on rolling hoping to get the weapon you want/need. However! You can do it around 3 or 4 times before it overheats, so Sun can still do some sick ass trick shots lol

It's a weapon heavily based on luck, however if you know how to use every weapon effectively, then it limits your chances of getting stuck with one that will screw you over. It's a huge learning curve for Sun though, learning to fight in so many different ways, but he masters it....eventually.

So yeah, that's Sun's weapon! It's still being worked on, and I most definitely will change a few things about it; but I'm happy where it is atm.

Let me guys know if you like it or not, like I said in another post, I'm kinda worried people will think it's overpowered haha. In a way, it kinda is, but to get to that point you have to be really good at using it which Sun... definitely isn't lol. The plot centers about Dice a lot, both how Sun acquires it as well as how he learns to use it, so its important that the weapon is at least kinda interesting. Plus, in universe, the weapon is regarded as being pretty op, and how Sun should be happy to have such a gift, even though at first he kinda hates it haha

Anyway, send me an ask if you have questions, and thanks for reading!

#mao mao heroes of pure heart #mao mao #mao mao ocs #mmhop #tanya keys #tanyamao #sun mao keys #let me know what yall think!

19 notes · View notes

valdomarx · 5 years

Note

can you tell us about captain stevens and doctor potts' first kiss?

5 kisses that weren’t and one kiss that was

Stevens has been complaining for weeks about the SHIELD-issued exploding pens. Apparently they have the unfortunate tendency of going off in agents’ pockets. Eventually, Potts gets fed up of hearing about it.

The next time has has a quiet few hours, he throws together a prototype pen gun with a delayed charge. It’s not his most elegant work, but it’ll get the job done.

When Stevens comes to the workshop to bother him some more, Potts hands him the pen gun and hopes it will be a sufficient distraction that he’ll be left in peace for a few minutes longer.

Stevens’ eyes go wide. “Is this-”

“Yup.”

“You made it for me?”

Potts shrugs. “Yup.”

“Potts, I could kiss you.”

Potts answers without thinking. “Yeah, okay.”

Stevens stops. Blinks. Squints at him. “Wait, what?”

Potts realizes what just came out of his mouth. “I said HAHA NO WAY,” he covers. Nice. Subtle. Smooth.

“Oh. Okay.” It’s odd, but it seems like Stevens looks genuinely disappointed for a moment.

–

Stevens has gone and gotten himself stranded in Siberia. He was supposed to be investigating a top-secret hydroelectric dam the Soviets were building there, but last night he sent Potts a garbled radio message about how he’d had to stay behind and protect a group of defectors.

So Potts did the obvious thing and stole a SHIELD cargo plane.

Director Carter was going to give him hell for it, but he didn’t have time for formal requisitions when Stevens was in trouble.

The weather conditions in Siberia are abysmal and Potts can barely see where he’s flying through the thick snowy clouds. But he has his radio and he manages to zero in on Stevens’ position.

“Captain Stevens,” he calls over the transceiver. “I heard you and some friends needed a lift.”

“Potts!” Stevens’ voice is crackly over the radio. “By jove, it’s good to hear your voice. I thought we’d be stuck here in the snow until spring.”

Potts smiles despite himself. “Do I get that kiss now?”

“Potts, if you get us all out of here I’ll kiss you anywhere you’d like.”

Potts nearly loses control of the plane when he hears that, but he pulls himself together enough to land and take on Stevens and the men.

It’s probably just as well there are too many people around for him and Stevens to be left alone, or he might say something he’d regret.

–

“I need a DNA sample. Now.”

Potts isn’t in the mood for niceties. He’s halfway through a very exciting experiment which could actually combine strands of different DNA together, but to continue he urgently needs more human samples. Stevens had been the nearest warm body.

Stevens waggles his eyebrows. “You want saliva, blood, or something else?”

Potts glowers. Stevens never takes his scientific projects seriously. “Saliva,” he says curtly.

“You wanna collect a sample yourself?” Stevens is grinning like he thinks he’s hilarious.

Potts has a million things to do today, and trading barbs with Stevens is nowhere near the top of his list.

“A cheek swab will be fine.”

He grabs Stevens’ jaw, a bit more roughly than is strictly required, and shoves a q-tip into his mouth.

–

Potts hates going undercover.

They’d got a tip that someone was planning a heist at a fancy Vegas casino tonight, and Stevens had insisted that he needed Potts in the field to deal with the casino’s electronic security system.

Which, fine, but he doesn’t see why their cover has to involve playing craps, of all things.

He tugs at the hem of the stupid tuxedo Stevens had made him wear. He feels distinctly out of place among the rich glitterati of the casino. All he wants is to go home to his nice, quiet workshop.

Stevens, looking annoyingly elegant in his black tie, swings an arm around his shoulders. “Come on, baby,” he says, waving a pair of dice in his face, “give us a kiss for luck.”

Potts scowls.

Stevens leans in close to his ear. “Potts, sweetheart, you’re supposed to be playing my arm candy, remember? Try to at least look like you aren’t repulsed by me.”

Potts’ scowl deepens. But he relents and takes Stevens’ hand, dropping a quick kiss onto his knuckles.

Stevens rolls snake eyes.

–

People think that working for SHIELD is glamorous and exciting, but there are some parts of the job they don’t put in the employment brochure.

Stevens pushes open the door to the workshop and the snarky comment Potts had been about to make dies on his lips when he catches sight of him.

Stevens is slumped, his face is grey, and his eyes look vacant.

“Oh, Jesus, Stevens.” Potts pushes what he’s working on aside and goes to him. “Rough mission?”

Stevens nods but doesn’t say anything.

Potts knows that there aren’t any words that will help. So does the only thing he can think of, which is to pull him into an awkward hug.

Stevens freezes, and for a minute Potts thinks he’s mad a bad miscalculation. But then Stevens throws his arms around him in return and hugs him tight.

Potts rubs comfortingly circles into his back and pretends he can’t hear Stevens sniffling.

When Stevens eventually lets him go, his eyes are red and puffy. Potts reaches up and carefully wipes away a stray tear with his thumb.

Stevens gives him a small, sad smile and turns his face into Potts’ hand. He presses a kiss into his palm.

“Thank you, Potts,” he says quietly, “I needed that.”

For once Potts can’t bring himself to say anything mean in return.

–

“I’ve got a present for you.” Potts bounces on the balls of his feet. He’s been working on this for months and it’s finally ready.

“Yeah?” Stevens raises an eyebrow. “What kind of present?”

Potts very carefully takes the watch from its case and straps it round Stevens’ wrist. It looks like a regular wristwatch. “Try that button there,” he instructs.

Stevens taps the button on the side of the watch and gasps when a flat circle of light bursts from his wrist.

“What is it?” Stevens asks, turning his wrist and looking at it from every angle. Three translucent rings surround a blue center with a shining white star in the middle.

“It’s a light shield,” Potts tells him, feeling rather proud. Hard light holograms were decades ahead of current technology and he’d poured his heart and soul into that device.

Stevens pokes the shield and his jaw drops open when it blocks his touch.

“It’ll deflect knives, bullets, most light munitions. And when it’s not deployed it’s indistinguishable from an ordinary watch.”

“Potts, that’s amazing.”

Potts glows. “I wanted to keep you safe,” he admits. “For when I wasn’t around. We both know you get into no end of trouble when I’m not there to look out for you.”

Stevens taps the button to retract the shield and leans over the desk.

“You’re amazing.”

Potts has to hide his face behind a clipboard so Stevens won’t see him blushing.

Stevens puts a finger on top of the clipboard and pushes it out of the way. “It’s true. You’re always looking out for me.”

Potts can feel his cheeks glowing. “Someone has to.” He waits for Stevens to start teasing him.

But Stevens smiles at him ever so softly instead. “Then I’m glad it’s you.”

“Oh,” Potts says, coherently. He looks down when Stevens places a hand on top of his own on the workbench. “Oh.”

Stevens leans in closer. His eyes are the most fascinating shade of blue. “Thank you. For everything. For being you.”

“You know,” Potts says, too distracted to feel self-conscious, “you still owe me that kiss.”

Stevens grins. “Always keeping score, huh Potts?” he teases, and Potts is about to object but then Stevens grabs him by the tie and pulls him in for a most enthusiastic kiss.

When they break apart, they’re both breathing heavily. “Are we even now?” Stevens asks with a twinkle in his eye.

A huge, stupid smile spreads over Potts’ face. “Not even close,” he says, and leans in to kiss Stevens again.

#stevetony #stony #ishipallthings #bardingbeedle #replies #my writing #doctor potts & captain stevens #long post

624 notes · View notes

hrmphfft · 4 years

Text

controversial opinion time I guess but

hey gang? hey, gang. gang, hey. blaming your fans for them not reblogging your content enough (and saying that they’re Directly Responsible For Tumblr Dying) is an extremely passive aggressive, mean thing to do, and also completely ignores so many other reasons as to why engagement has changed on this site and posts don't circulate like they used to.

for one thing, whenever I see these posts, I rarely see the ops acknowledge the HUGE HIT to tumblr's userbase following the 2018 policy change/implementation of tumblr's terrible content filtering algorithm. tumblr lost roughly 1/3 of its engagement (https://mashable.com/article/tumblr-lost-a-third-of-its-users-after-porn-ban/) and countless content creators with it. some of them migrated to twitter and other sites, some of them seem to have straight-up vanished into thin air, and countless others lost their biggest or main userbase with barely any time to shift gears to something else. that's a huge, website-shaking change! but so often in these 'reblogs vs. likes' posts I don't see anyone acknowledging that and it makes me really upset!

you can't talk about the ways tumblr has undoubtedly changed these last few years and NOT address the nsfw ban! it's completely unfair to your fanbases to shift the blame of the biggest displacement of users the site has ever experienced on...the users who had no say in the policy change and reacted accordingly when the site started softbanning everyone, and filtering all sorts of tags from the search function (including important sfw ones, lest we forget The Entire Furry Fandom on tumblr discovering that basic-ass tags like #furry and #anthro were being blocked when the ban rolled around), and making uploading anything vaguely beige-colored a dice roll. tumblr still hasn't recovered from that, and unfortunately probably never will, not without some hail mary of policy changes and overhauls.

I've seen some pretty ageist shit regarding content engagement as well that tries to paint younger users as just Not Getting how tumblr functions vs. other social media sites like instagram and twitter, and on top of that just showcasing a really uncomfortable disconnect/animosity towards new users whose only crime is being younger than op and also more experienced with other social media platforms, it also is just. it's really unkind? it's super rude? how can you call your followers too clueless to know how reblogging works and then expect them to support your content via reblogging and not feel like you're insulting them until they give you the result you want?

moreover, lots of young/new tumblr users get the gist of tumblr's controls and get it very quickly! technology literacy is becoming more and more a part of everyday life for everyone, and if you really think that a teenager can't understand that reblogging puts a thing on their follower's dashboards, one of the main functionalities of the site (and also very similar to twitter, one of tumblr's main competitors), I really don't know what to say. sometimes people just straight-up don't want to reblog stuff to their blogs, and that's okay.

there's also a tendency to ignore the ways that blogging on tumblr has changed as its userbase has became more well-versed in its functions and, frankly, a portion of the userbase has grown up on this site. when I first started blogging on here, I was 17, I didn't use tags, I commented unrelated (and frankly sometimes really regrettably rude) replies directly onto artist's posts, and I basically just reblogged whatever I vaguely liked, and a lot of things I didn't totally get but thought Looked Cool/Funny so I reblogged anyways.

and that's fine, that's pretty par for the course of being young on the internet and doing whatever you want and having a good time (barring the rudeness, being respectful to people is the ideal), but as time went on my interests changed, my time spent online changed (I went from highschool to college to a full-time job that limits my time on social media), and I began engaging with tumblr's content differently. I made sideblogs for interests and content themes I didn't want on my main blog, I started liking stuff and then going back through my likes to reblog posts later, and generally speaking my number of posts a day dropped and I stopped being able to catch up on my dashboard every single day. and I'm sure my experience isn't unique for some other people on here.

a lot of the tumblr users I've known for a while just don't have the same level of intensity in fandoms like we did years back, not because of any malice or selfish, content-hogging intent, but because our priorities have changed. I definitely miss a lot of things about years past on tumblr when fandoms were booming and new Big Name Creators were cropping up all the time, and to be fair that's still happening on parts of the site if you know where to look! it's just different now. time has passed. people have changed!

that isn't to be defeatist and say that we can't show up for content we enjoy and reblog it, but instead that people can feel differently about stuff they used to adore, and be more particular about one thing or another they reblog, and straight-up miss stuff that they would have really liked but just didn't catch up on for a myriad of reasons. and that's also okay. engagement on tumblr is really, really tied up in personal preferences, and sometimes it feels like it does that more than most other social media sites. this is kind of the wild west of internet presences and everyone operates differently on here as a result.

and probably the most touchy point of all: no one is obligated to give you validation on the internet. no one. not even if they've read all of your fanfics you've worked really fucking hard on for forever and a day, or your comics that you've spent months, years, a lifetime researching and creating, or your beautifully, painstakingly timed and masked fan videos. they can absolutely consume any of these, and more, and they're still not obligated to reblog your work or promote you. it's not fair, yes, and it's completely understandable and super relatable to want recognition for the work you've done and the ways you've brightened other people's lives, but online most of your fans are still total strangers to you, and trying to control the behavior of total strangers because you’re owed their acknowledgement isn’t a healthy mindset to have.

and you can say that any fan of yours stops being a fan after they drop you for you lashing out at them for not unquestioningly giving you space on their blogs like you're owed, but being upset at being accused of bad behavior for what amounts to not wanting to reblog something this time around and changing your opinions based off of that is also a very understandable thing to do.

and that isn't because of any sort of innate cruelty, or pointed attack towards you. it's just because there is always a disconnect between the creator and the creation, and some people will never bridge that gap and engage with you more, or build a parasocial relationship with you, or seek out ways to support you. and plenty of others will do the exact opposite! it's a total dice roll because you're dealing with a lot more people than you realize scrolling past your content, and every person is different, and some of them don't fully understand how reblogs help a creator, and some of them do but just don't want that content on their feed, and none of them are inherently bad people for that.

I'm not saying creators have to be perfectly kind and civil and praise their fans all the time, but when you engage with your followers like it's a battle where you have to keep devising new ways to get them to share your content, it just comes across as super disingenuous, and people cop to that very fast.

it also, frankly, can make longtime fans who reblog your work regularly feel like their interest doesn't matter, and wasn't good enough, and that then it really is their fault that other people (other STRANGERS ON THE INTERNET) don't engage with your content the way you wanted them to. you don't owe them perfection, but that doesn't mean it isn't still an unkind thing to do.

so like. what can we do about this?

asking users to reblog your work is totally fine and can help! calls to action work more than nothing at all. it's possible to be respectful when asking people to reblog your work without also guilt-tripping them with "likes < reblogs" banners and passive aggressive tags/comments. generally speaking guilt is a really shitty motivational tool, and tends to breed more resentment than actual outcomes people want. like this post for example! I wouldn't have sat down and typed this all out if I didn't resent the hell out of being told I'm, personally, the reason tumblr is demonstrably not an ideal website for building a fanbase anymore. if I had that much power over this website I would have given the whole thing to the xkit team years ago and reveled in a functional website instead.

changing the way you post content might help! every site has its ideal posting days, times, and reasons for why some are ideal for one site and not another. doing a little research (https://sproutsocial.com/insights/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/) will yield some potentially helpful tips and tricks that might result in a post reaching more people. utilizing tumblr's search function is also important, and understanding the limits of the tag function (ie. only the first 5 tags of a post are used for tag searches) can help change one's habits to something a little more effective. this is why I tend to leave my tag babbling until after the main fandom/category tags on my posts, so that tumblr's jankass search has a better shot, haha

broadening your online presence can definitely help! this is by far the most terrifying option since it involves branching out onto other social media platforms, some of which really don't lend themselves to whatever fandom/content one produces, so like the other two above it's only a suggestion.

I keep coming back to twitter and instagram, but that's mainly because they're the two other powerhouses of social media right now, though admittedly they only really cater towards visual media (and mainly imagery, not longer video pieces), and they have their own weird quirks to learn and jank to deal with. but given how precarious tumblr's status has become in some ways, trying to build a presence on multiple sites means that you reach more people across the internet, and also means that if tumblr does yet another website-shattering policy change, your eggs aren't all in one basket.

of course these options aren't foolproof, and won't work for everyone in some cases or not at all for others, but my main point in all this is this: tumblr has irrevocably changed, its userbase has changed, and we are limited in the ways we can directly influence it, but there are still options. I'm by far not a social media expert, but then again none of the posts I've seen so far were made by social media experts either, so I honestly don't feel too bad for throwing my hat into the ring while we're all thrashing about in confusion

y'all aren't wrong that things have changed, but I'm begging you to have some compassion and to try not to turn the relationship between creators and consumers of content into a battleground, especially when a lot of the influences on these changes are things entirely outside of any of our's direct control.

also because it makes y'all sound exactly like this:

#long post #site engagement #a big long pissy rant because I am so goddamned tired y'all #especially because I can't escape these Hot Takes because none of them are tagged consistently #and new ones keep cropping up all the time #it's like whack-a-mole #every post I block sprouts another a few months later #tone doesn't carry through the internet very well but rest assured when I see shit like this #paired with people's screenshots of their like/reblog ratios #and it turning into a 'u think those notes are small check this out' party I get #really goddamned fed up with it #this is of course not comprehensive and mainly just me whingeing @ the whingeing but sometimes u just gotta

13 notes · View notes