#* can we please play dnd now? ; in character

[luck-of-the-drawings]

THE ORDER OF PALMS An order of holy folk that serve The Helm, working to create powerful Aasimar Paladins for the purpose of protecting any who hire their help. [BACKSTORY UNDER CUT]

One day, Gjör and her peers were lead by their mentor Opheria, to a mission far from their home. On the peak of that mountain village, they saw upon the horizon, the castle of their home go up in flames. Horrified and scared, the apprentices sought to follow their mentors guidance, and followed her lead into a small barn. It was there, that Opheria proceeded to slaughter each and everyone of the apprentices. It seemed she somehow had a hand in this sudden attack on the Order of Palms. Gjör D'annevual survived a sword through the 'heart', on account of a rare condition, that places her heart on the other side of her chest. When she finally managed to bring herself back home, the Order was insulted by her survival. She had so many better peers, why couldn't any of them have survived? This runt was seriously the only thing that survived Opherias wrath? It was better to just wash their hands clean of this. Thus the Order decided to banish Gjör from their ranks. She now travels the land in search of a purpose.

[whimsyprinx]

my desire to make more dnd characters vs the fact that I’m in no campaigns and don’t know when or if I’ll be in a campaign are fighting

[kingdomvel]

Steddie | 2.3k | first part

“Okay, what was that?” Gareth asks the moment they are inside the room they are using as a dressing room for tonight.

“What was what,” Eddie answers.

“You know damn well what I mean.”

Eddie doesn’t answer, putting his best poker face on.

“That weird mating ritual you have been performing with the boy in the front row the whole night, maybe?” Jeff adds.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Eddie says, his voice flat as he tries to avoid the other’s gazes. He takes a towel to dab at his forehead.

“Come on, man,” Freak butts in, “you told him to stay after the concert, you have told Chrissy to get them here. We said we were not going to be that kind of band, that we were going to be like My Chemical Romance: no groupies and after concert dnd sessions.”

“Yeah, if you go with that guy what happens to our dnd session.”

“We can play dnd any other day, okay?” Eddie snaps, his hands stretched in front of him. A part of him thinks he looks like that meme of Chris Pratt in front of the dinosaurs, the other part of him detests that he thought of him. “I will make it up to you.”

“Who are you and what have you done to our DM?” Freak asks, his voice serious.

“Yeah, what is this talk about postponing dnd for some boy?” Gareth adds, there is something in his tone Eddie doesn’t like.

“Some boy? Some boy? Am I the only one with eyes in this fucking band? He is the hottest person that has laid eyes on me and I’m not letting you fuckers take that opportunity from me for one session of dnd or I swear to God I am killing every one of your characters.”

The boys don’t answer, they look at him with wide eyes and raised eyebrows.

“Wow” a voice says from behind Eddie.

He doesn’t recognize the voice but the expressions on the rest of the band in front of him make him freeze. They go from slightly annoyed to wary and to bemused. Mainly a mix of all at the same time.

The sounds of steps approaching them break the silence that had fallen in the room, before a voice finishes breaking it.

“How does dnd work with you nerds anyway, are you all bards or what?”

The boys drop their mouths open. Eddie still doesn’t recognize the voice, but there is only one person it can belong to. He sounds just as good as he had imagined. Eddie is honestly afraid of turning around after what the boy- Steve- has surely heard.

“Don’t pay attention to him,” a woman’s voice says. There’s the sound of a hit and a quiet ‘ow’ from Steve under it. “He is just trying to sound all confident after whining-“

“Robin.”

“Telling me to not get my hopes up because he probably wasn’t anyone important and you just did this every concert-“

“Robin.”

“But of course he is the luckiest bitch in this planet and has his instant crush reciprocated and-“

“Enough!”

There are some muffled noises that Eddie can only guess are the girl trying to continue speaking. He wishes she wouldn’t stop. His knight in shining armour may be embarrassed, but the rant has put a smile on Eddie’s face, has given him confidence again. He crosses his legs and turns around slowly, his hands coming up beside him.

“By all means, let her continue.”

The adonis, the hottest man that has laid eyes on him, his knight in shining armour, Steve takes his hand away from the girl’s mouth and rubs it on his jeans. Eddie can only guess the girl has licked it. God he wants to be her so bad right now.

“Hey,” Steve says, his hand coming up for a small wave. “Sorry about Robin.”

“No need for that. I’m Eddie.”

“I know,” Steve answers with a cocky smile as he crosses his arms.

“Oh and now you are acting all full of yourself as if you didn’t ask for the name of the band like 20 times 2 hours ago.” Robin says.

“Will you please just shut the fuck up?” Steve asks with the confidence only a best friend can have.  

“Not a fan then?” Eddie asks amused.

“Not really my scene,” Steve answers. There is a scoff behind Eddie, and if he wasn’t so lost in Steve’s brown eyes, he may have moved to swat whoever it was. “But I sure am a fan now.”

There is now a groan behind Eddie, but he can only focus on the way his heart jumps at the words, the way Steve’s mouth lifts in one side in a smirk, how his eyes spark.  

“I can get you front row tickets to all the gigs, baby.”

There’s a gagging noise being Eddie, and this time he does turn around to swat at Gareth. The little shit just laughs at him.

When he turns back towards Steve he is looking between them with a smile on his lips and he looks- damn- he’s been looking beautiful since he saw him at the beginning of the concert that night, but now his hair is a mess from the almost two hours of sweating and moving around and Eddie’s on stage confidence is slowly being replaced by his fast beating heart.

“Look man I-“ Steve starts, “I don’t want to be a problem,” he adds, glancing behind Eddie as he bites his lip. The girl next to him- Robin- turns to him with an incredulous look on her eyes that Eddie is sure mirrors his own. “But you are hot, I want to take you on a date, and the others wanted to meet you.”

Robin rolls her eyes and looks at Eddie with an eyebrow up.

“The others?” Eddie manages to say, just before he remembers the teenagers around Steve all night.

“Yeah, they are with Chrissy, I asked them to give us five minutes before coming.”

Eddie is about to say something, maybe ask about the date Steve mentioned, but in a second the door is filled with said teenagers, the one with the curly hair in the middle of it.

“YOU GUYS ARE LEGENDS!” he exclaims. It makes Eddie less annoyed about being interrupted. No one has really called them legends before, they have just surpassed 150k listeners in Spotify.

It feels good hearing it.

The dressing room fills with chatter fast, the boys and the teenagers getting along without problem. They take photos, talk about music, about their instruments, about their dnd tradition. The bad part of it all is that Eddie gets separated from Steve. He catches his eye at some point and Steve sends a little wave his way that he answers. He is talking with Robin and Chrissy and, by what Eddie can hear, Chrissy is getting every video Robin has managed to get of Eddie’s and Steve’s interactions through the concert, even a closer video of the kiss than the one Chrissy managed to get. From what he can hear, she wants to post everything on their social media before ‘someone else does and steals the chance at going viral from them’.

Eddie doesn’t know how he feels about posting Steve like that, Eddie should have probably thought, about that before making out with the guy in front of all their audience. But he seems completely comfortable with all of it. Eddie guesses that comes with being as hot as Steve is and knowing it.

It’s some time later, enough that Eddie knows they won’t be able to stay much longer in the venue, that he finally has a chance to slip away. It’s perfect, he has just seen Steve leave the dressing room, probably in search of the toilet, and Gareth and the curly hair boy he has learned is called Dustin are so deep in conversation they don’t notice him stepping away from them and leaving too.

He catches Steve just as he is leaving the toilet. Eddie doesn’t stop to answer Steve’s surprised ‘oh, hey’ that turns into a more surprised ‘woah’ as Eddie pushes him back into the toilet and closes the door behind him.

“Hey” Eddie finally greets. Steve only looks at the closed door behind Eddie and then at him again with what Eddie hopes is amusement. God, he really hopes it’s amusement, he is just not realising how creepy this looks. “So, about that date.”

“Couldn’t wait until I came back?”

“No. I mean, yes.” Why is it so difficult to talk with a pretty boy? Eddie takes a deep breath, composes himself. Theatrics, he is good with those, they make him confident. “I was suffering, being deprived from your company by your companions, and didn’t have another option.”

Steve squints his eyes, “so you decided to have the date in the toilet?”

“What? No.”

Steve takes a step closer to Eddie so now their chests are almost touching. It hadn’t downed on Eddie before how they are almost the same height. It feels very important now when he has Steve’s face right in front of him, when he can look directly at his eyes, at how they drift down to Eddie’s lips. When his inevitably drift to Steve’s lips, the boy is biting his lower lip. “Eager.”

Eddie’s breath hitches in his throat, he may have miscalculated this. There’s something he wanted to say. “No, I-“

Steve chuckles, takes a step back. “Relax dude. I know you haven’t really agreed to the date yet, we got interrupted and all that.” Eddie is about to speak, to agree a thousand times to the date, but Steve keeps talking. “You just offered to buy me a couple of drinks and called me hot,” he smiles when he says that.

“I want the date.” Eddie says before Steve can keep talking, “as soon as possible.”

Steve steps back closer. “Eager.”

“We are leaving on tour, won’t be back for three months.” Eddie explains before all his brain functions completely shut down.

“I can wait three months.”

“I can’t.”

The next second Steve’s lips are on his, his hands are on his hair, and it only takes a second for Eddie’s to do the same. Steve is even a better kisser than he was in front of the audience. Steve pushes him against the door, brings a hand to his hip, pushes one of his legs between Eddie’s. Eddie just groans and lets himself be pushed and moved. Kissed. “Fuck,” he whispers when Steve pulls away for breath. Steve smiles, takes one of Eddie’s hands in his, and kisses him again. It’s so sweet and filthy at the same time Eddie might cry, but he just moves his hips forward, and Steve answers in kind, grinding against him and getting a groan out of both of them. Maybe the rockstars that hook up with people after concerts are onto something. Though Eddie doubts he would want to do this with someone that is not Steve.

A knock on the door startles them both, Robin’s voice coming from the other side.

“Steve?” Steve and Eddie stop kissing to look at each other in silence, their eyes wide. “Chrissy said we need to leave already and you’ve been in there so long I started to worry you were kidnapped. Wait, you are in there, right? Also, have you seen Eddie? He disappeared.” Steve moves, an innocent thing that has his groin brushing against Eddie’s. And he is only a man. He moans. “WAIT! Are you both in there? GROSS.”

Steve snorts, making Eddie smile. They can hear a couple of steps moving away from the door before they come back and there is a bang on the door.

“Steve! Come out you dingus, have you forgotten about your pack of kids?”

Steve lets out a whispered ‘fuck’ before he looks at Eddie with an apology in his eyes. Eddie lets himself be moved away from the door so Steve can open it to talk to his friend outside.

“Hey.”

Eddie opens the door more so he can also fit in the gap, Steve sends him a look, smiles at his appearance, and then looks at Robin again.

“Hey” Eddie greets too. Robin is looking at them and there is no hiding what they have been doing. She can surely see their bruised lips, their wild hair. Eddie just prays she doesn’t look down and sees the bulge in his pants.

“You two are gross, was making me see that once tonight not enough?”

“You have not really seen it this time,” Steve points.

“Still.”

“You are the one that came to interrupt.”

“And for a good reason! Your kids.”

“What about the kids,” Eddie asks.

“He promised to take them home.” Robin says.

“I promised to take them home.” Steve says at the same time, a resigned tone in his voice. He turns to Eddie, his brown eyes sad, and pinches his nose.

“Can’t she take them home?” Eddie points to Robin, and they both turn towards her again.

Robin takes a breath, stops, looks at them, looks at them, sees the tent in Eddie’s pants. Grimaces.

“FINE,” she agrees, and Eddie grins. “But you owe me. Big time.” She adds pointing at Steve.

“I’ll give you ice cream for life.” Steve says. It must be an inside joke because it makes Robin roll her eyes.

“Give me your car keys at least. Rockstar here can drive you home, can’t he?”

“I’ll have him home before eleven.” Eddie swears with a hand on his chest. The other two stare at him in silence. “A.m.” he adds.

“You heard him.” Steve says while handing Robin his keys.

“Okay,” Robin answers. She takes a step back. “Have fun.” She takes a couple of steps away before she turns around. “Use protection, he is a rockstar, we don’t know where his thing has been.”

“Hey,” Eddie protests, but Robin is already running away.

“She is kinda right.” Steve says with a shrug. Eddie purses his lips. “But I have an idea on where it can be in the near future.”

“Lead the way.”

Steve slips his hand into Eddie’s.

[kjsfandoms]

Lust and Love

Eddie Munson x Reader

Description: Eddie is dating the girl he's been pinning over for years- Chrissy Cunningham. What happens when a new girl enters his life?

Word Count: 3k

--------

Chrissy and Eddie have been dating for a good few months now and they both truly are happy. Eddie had been crushing on her since their middle school talent show and was insanely surprised when she came to him to buy drugs. The Chrissy Cunningham High buying drugs from him? He couldn’t believe it. 

Not long after their first deal, Chrissy started to realize that she really enjoyed Eddie’s company. One thing led to another and soon enough the freak of Hawkins High was dating the queen of Hawkins High.

Though they were dating and loved spending time together they still always made sure to have time for their friends. Hence why Eddie still sits at the hellfire table for lunch (also totally not because the majority of the popular kids hate him). 

One day during lunch as Eddie is sitting at the front of the table, munching on his pretzels, Dustin, Lucas, and Mike join him. “Hey, fellas.” Eddie says as the boys start eating their unpleasantly looking school lunch. They talk about DND for a good minute until Dustin turns around mid-conversation when he notices Y/N sit down at the table next to theirs.

“Hey, Y/N!”

“Hey there, Dustin.” Y/N replies as she takes off her headphones and gives him a friendly smile. Mike and Lucas then notice her as well and say their hellos. Eddie looks back and forth between the boys and this girl, Y/N. He takes in her appearance and notices the eyeliner, dark denim jeans, and the loosely hung Black Sabbath t-shirt. How the hell did these boys know this girl and why has he never seen her around?

She turns back to her own table and puts her headphones back on. He can briefly hear Judas Priest coming through them before being interrupted by Gareth sharing some more DND ideas.

— 

After school he walks Chrissy to her cheer practice before heading over to the drama room to set up for the upcoming hellfire session tonight. In there he spots Dustin who is also usually there sometimes to help Eddie set up. “Hey, man.” Eddie greets. “Hey, Eddie. I already set up everyone’s character sheets.” “Thanks, Henderson.”

As Eddie and Dustin continue to set up, the question from earlier still lingers on Eddie’s mind. Who was that girl? ‘Might as well ask’, he thinks to himself.

“Henderson, who was that girl you guys were saying hi to at lunch?”

“Oh, Y/N? We’ve known her for a few years now. She’s friends with Jonathan Byers so we met her by association. She’s really cool though. I’m surprised you guys have never met considering you have a lot in common. But why do you ask?” Dustin says as he pulls out some dice.

“Was just curious. Never seen her around.”

“Yeah, she can be more on the quiet and loner side, but she’s great when you get to know her.”

—

Hellfire went pretty good as Eddie had been playing that campaign for weeks now. The boys and Erica have already left by now, but he stayed back to clean up. As he’s putting away their chairs he hears the drama room doors open. In walks her. Y/N.

“Oh, hi! Sorry, didn’t know you guys were doing hellfire today. I’m just setting some things up for the talent show this weekend.” She says. That’s when Eddie notices her carrying two guitars and an amp. “Don’t worry, you’re all good. Just cleaning up. You want some help with that?” “Please,” she says with a breathy laugh, “carrying these all at once is not easy.” “Oh, trust me I know. I play in a band.” He says as he walks over to take the amp out of her arm.

They walk to the stage and as Eddie plugs in the amp Y/N sets up the guitars. Wanting to break the silence, Y/N asks, “So, you’re in a band. What do you play?” “Guitar. I also help write some of our songs.” Y/N looks up at him with a smile and says, “No way! I also play guitar and write songs. Though, it’s just for fun. I’m not in a band or anything.” Eddie looks shocked at this. He’s never met a girl that’s been into music like this, not to mention music that he likes. “That’s sick! Think I could hear one of your songs one day?” “Only if I get to hear one of yours.”

Continuing their conversation, they’re eventually interrupted when the drama doors open once again, this time revealing Chrissy. “Hey, babe!” Chrissy cheers and she walks over to give Eddie a hug. “Hey, Chris. How was practice?” Y/N watches as the obvious couple interact, slightly disappointed in the fact that he has a girlfriend. But Y/N isn’t the one to overstep boundaries and disrespect someone’s relationship, so she pushes those thoughts to the back of her mind. 

“Bye, Eddie, it was nice meeting you.” Y/N says with a smile as she starts to leave. 

“You too, Y/N.”

—

It's been a few weeks since the first interaction, but over those few weeks the two have created a friendship. They hang out every now and then, Eddie sharing his time between Y/N, Chrissy, and his hellfire friends.

This day in particular, Y/N and Eddie finally decided to act upon the deal they made when they first met, which was to hear each other's music. Eddie invited her over, but Y/N declined. She thought it’d be rude to hang out one on one with a man who is in a relationship inside his own home. Eddie understood where she was coming from, but assured her Chrissy knew. Still, she stuck to her word and the two agreed to meet up in the drama room after school instead.

“So, you wanna go first?” Y/N asks as the both of them sit criss cross on the stage floor, both holding guitars in their lap. “Why not.” Eddie replies as he takes his guitar pick off his neck and starts strumming. He opted to playing a more simple rock song of his rather than metal as he thought it’d be way too extra. When it came down to Y/N’s turn, she stuck to more of one of her indie-rock songs. 

“You’re better than I thought you’d be.” Eddie says with a playful grin.

 “Same for you, Munson.” 

“I’d like to state for the record, that was an easy song I played. I’m usually ten times more metal.” He says with a slight smirk, “You should really come watch me and my band play some time. We perform at the Hideout on Tuesdays. Maybe you could even perform one of your songs.”

“I’d love to watch you guys play, but as for me performing, hard pass. I’d rather stick to putting on a show for my stuffed animals rather than real people.” Y/N replies with a smile and small laugh.

“Oh, come on! I’ll be there to cheer you on. I bet your stuffed animals can’t do that.”

Y/N let out a dramatic playful gasp and jokingly says, “What?! Peter the pig always makes sure to give me a round-of-applause.” The two share a laugh and Eddie replies, “Fine. You can stick to your stuffed animal crowd. As for me, I can pick you up around seven after I pick up Chrissy, if that’s fine with you?”

“Sounds perfect.”

—

Tuesday comes around and Y/N is patiently waiting on her couch for Eddie. She eventually hears loud heavy rock music coming from outside and takes that as her cue to grab her things, not forgetting her guitar. Even though she said she didn't want to perform, she decided she wanted to surprise Eddie tonight by performing a new song of hers.

She runs outside and slides open the van door and greets Eddie and Chrissy as she goes to sit in the back. Soon enough they’re there and Eddie is parking the van. “I’m just gonna go help the boys set up. Are you guys good with waiting inside for a few minutes?” Eddie asks as they all start getting out of the van. “Yeah, that’s fine, Eds.” Chrissy replies back with a smile. Y/N had a few interactions with Chrissy since becoming friends with Eddie and from what she can tell, she’s the sweetest girl Y/N ever met. Eddie is a real lucky man, she must say.

As Y/N and Chrissy start walking inside, Chrissy notices the guitar case. “Oh, you’re playing too?!” Chrissy cheerfully asks. “Yeah, but don’t tell Eddie. Was gonna surprise him.” Y/N happily replies back, hoping that that didn’t upset Chrissy. Thankfully, Chrissy saw no problem with it and the two headed inside.

Chrissy takes a seat at one of the tables while Y/N places her guitar case next to the stage. They patiently wait and talk for a little bit as they wait for Eddie’s band. Soon enough, they hear the name ‘Corroded Coffin’ being announced on stage.

You watch as Eddie pours his heart and soul into his performance as his passion for guitar shines through. Chrissy wishes she could watch as deeply as you are, but she can’t help but pay attention to how whenever Eddie looks down at their table, his eyes travel to Y/N. 

—

The band finished up their last song and then walked off stage. As Eddie is putting his guitar back in his case, he hears the bar owner announce, “We have one more performance tonight! Please welcome, Y/N!”. Eddie perks up at this and immediately his attention is on the stage. Chrissy sees this. She nervously plays with the ribbon in her hair and looks at how Eddie’s eyes never left you as you walk onto the stage with your guitar.

Chrissy knows Eddie loves her, no doubt about it, but seeing the way Y/N and Eddie have bonded over the past few weeks, she knew his love for her was slowly decaying. They had so much in common, she should have seen it coming sooner. And Chrissy being the sweet girl that she is, couldn’t bring herself to be mad at it. She’s had her fair experiences with love and is well aware that you can’t choose who you fall for. 

She brings her focus back to the stage as Y/N starts playing guitar and eventually singing her most recent lyrics. ‘They even have similar writing styles’, Chrissy thinks to herself. She sighs and looks down at her hands. She loves Eddie, but this isn’t right. Chrissy isn’t the girl he wants anymore. Those years he spent pinning over her have gone to waste, which hurts Chrissy to admit.

She looked over at Eddie and that’s all it took for her to accept what was going to have to happen. His eyes were so full of admiration, lust, and love. The same way he used to look at her. 

Y/N walks off stage and Eddie immediately runs to her and gives her a hug so big he’s picking her off the ground. Y/N is first to break it as she knows Chrissy is right behind them. Chrissy notices this and sadly smiles to herself. She can’t even blame Y/N. She could tell how Y/N always made sure to respect their relationship and set boundaries. Y/N always made sure Eddie was spending more time with Chrissy than he was with her, she always made sure Eddie still walked Chrissy to practice after school even when he would offer to walk Y/N to her car, and she always made sure Eddie never stopped showing his love to Chrissy. 

Chrissy feels a tear slide down her face but quickly wipes it when the two of them start making their way over. 

“You guys were great!”, Chrissy cheers. 

“Thank you.” Both Eddie and Y/N say, almost in sync.

They finish up their night at the hideout with some fries and drinks then eventually head back out to Eddie’s van. Y/N is first to be dropped off which leaves the couple alone.

 “Eddie?”, Chrissy says sadly. 

“Yeah, Chris?” Eddie replies as he head bops to the music playing on the car radio.

“We need to talk.”

—

Eddie pulls up to Chrissy's house and stops the van in her driveway. “So, what did you want to talk about?” He asks.

 “I think we should break up.” 

Eddie sits in shock for a few moments before turning to face Chrissy and asks why. “Eddie, you know I love you and I know you have love for me. But you’re no longer in love with me.”, Chrissy says with watery eyes.

“Woah, woah, woah. What makes you think that, Chris?” Eddie says as he reaches for Chrissy’s hand, only for her to pull it away. “Don’t pretend like you don’t know, Eds. You like her, don’t you?”

At her words, Eddie looks down, refusing to make eye contact. His silence confirms Chrissy’s question. 

“It’s okay, Eddie.” “No, it’s not. It wasn’t supposed to go this way.” Eddie’s eyes start to gather tears as he still has yet to look up at Chrissy. “What do you mean?” Chrissy asks with furrowed eyebrows. “I mean,” he sighs before continuing, “I’ve had a crush on you for as long as I can remember. Never once have I ever felt that way towards another girl, so when me and you got together, I was the happiest man in the world. I truly started to believe that opposites do attract,” He finally looks up at Chrissy as he says, “but I think that’s only because I thought there was no other girl out there that was like me. But then I met Y/N.” Chrissy looks at him with sad eyes, but a soft smile. Eddie returns a sad smile back. “I really am sorry, Chris. This isn’t how I meant for things to go. But I do want you to know I truly was happy with you and I enjoyed our time together.” “It’s okay, Eddie. And me too. I don’t want to trap you in a relationship that you don’t want to be in.”

They sit in awkward, yet somewhat comforting silence for a moment before Chrissy asks one last question, “When did you know you fell for her?” “Today, actually. At the hideout.” This somewhat shocked Chrissy as she would've thought it’d be way earlier, though she lets Eddie continue, “Sure, these past few weeks my crush for her did start to develop, but it felt wrong considering I’m with- or well, I was with you, so I pushed the thought of being with her to the back of my mind. But seeing her today on that stage, I couldn’t hide it from myself anymore.” Eddie says, looking at his lap, somewhat disappointed at himself. He had been chasing Chrissy for years, and once he finally got the girl his heart decides to do a whole u-turn on him.

“Again, Chrissy, I really am sorry.” 

“It’s okay, Eddie. It’s okay. Go get her.” Chrissy says with a happier smile this time. Even though the smile was definitely forced, Eddie smiled back and gave Chrissy one last hug as a goodbye.

Eddie pulls out of Chrissy’s driveway and heads straight for Y/N’s house.

—

He climbs to her bedroom window and knocks. Y/N opens her curtains, not surprised to see Eddie as he surprised her with a similar visit a week ago for a quick smoke sesh. She opens the window and welcomes him in. 

“Hey, Y/N.” He pants out, slightly out of breath from climbing through your window.

“What’s up, Eddie?” Y/N asks. She notices Eddie is fidgeting with the rings on his fingers, a habit of his she recently noticed. 

“I wanted to talk to you about something. About us.” He says, head down as he can’t bring himself to make eye contact. He notices the shift in Y/N’s stance, sensing that she probably has an idea of what he’s about to say. 

“I like you.”

 She sighs before saying, “Eddie-” 

“I know,” Eddie cuts her off, “I know, I know, me and Chrissy. But we broke up.” Y/N looks up at him with shocked eyes and says, “What?! Why would you dump her for me?” Eddie grabs both of Y/N’s hands into his and looks her in the eye as he says, “She dumped me, Y/N.” Y/N takes her hands from his and puts them in her hair, slightly panicking. “No, no, no, no, I feel like a homewrecker, Eddie. This is wrong.” “I know it is, but I can’t control my feelings, Y/N.” 

He sits on the edge of her bed. She takes a seat next to him and deeply sighs. “I don’t even know what to say, Eddie.” He looks down at her and puts her hand in his once again. “Just say how you feel. If you don’t feel the same way, it’s fine. I can get up and leave and pretend this conversation didn’t even happen.” Y/N sighs once again as she responds, “Eddie, I like you too. But this feels so wrong.”

Eddie’s heart lightens at her confession. He smiles to himself before saying, “It’s all up to you, love. If it makes you feel any better, this was all Chrissy’s idea. I don’t want you to think she hates you for taking me away from her. None of this is your fault, okay?” He places a finger under her chin and lifts her face up to meet him eye to eye. He can tell how her eyes are full of so many different emotions right now, but he gives her a reassuring look.

“As much as I hate to admit it, I want to be with you, Eddie.”

“That’s all you had to say, sweetheart.” He replies with a smile, slowly bringing her face to his and letting their lips connect.

Y/N feels the guilt seep into her gut as she kisses Eddie, but can’t bring herself to stop. She had been crushing on this boy the moment she laid eyes on him. Sitting at the table next to his was totally not on purpose. She of course feels for Chrissy, but when Eddie and Y/N walked into school the next day hand in hand, she saw Chrissy give her a genuine smile and a thumbs up, and all of a sudden the guilt slowly started to disappear. 

[onelastskip]

reject canon, embrace delusion, the keyframes cast WILL PLAY D&D AND THEY WILL LIKE IT!!! (jokes, all love, so much love, I dearly love them and am happy with my headcanons blank house please don't hate me)

edit: i painted over some stuff the original is below still

context:

some rambly thoughts about keyframes and dnd below the cut:

you mean to tell me, Mr Percy Tozaki, lover of story based videogames, would not like DND??? Blasphemous.

Anyway between their individual lives and Deja's SGB duties, they don't have much time for DND, BUT WHEN THEY DO!!! it is so very lovely, oh I have so many thoughts on this,,,

Deja,,, my shining star,,, she would love dnd combat,,, I just know she's scouring the book and pulling off crazy combos and minmaxxing and subclassing and everything,,, can't even narrow her down to a class coz she'd be too good at all of them

AND PERCY!!! I hc him as playing a warlock coz personally I find them to have the,,, not the easiest,,, but like,,, when you run a campaign with a warlock you're basically required to weave their patron and their story into the main story,,, like in my opinion... so yeah they're the class for actually writing and playing out lore,,, plus they're just really fun to roleplay as,,, percy charisma spellcaster realness,,,

Jamie!!! We already know he likes mystery and convoluted magic systems and just all that stuff, he would have so much fun in dnd where the homebrew potential is endless??? IDK I just love ttrpgs so much a good GM can like just give enough stuff away to engage the players who are interested in learning about the world and still keep stuff hidden and and being able to improvise and oh my god I just love the genre so much,,, anyway I think he'd play a wizard or some other type of spellcaster

Cam!!! I just know they would have so much fun designing a character and maybe even,,, roleplaying??? perhaps,,, they do have a flare for the dramatic y'know? (the anime foam pit fight),,, idk just some thoughts,,, plus cosplay!! I could see them loving that,,,

Elio,,, oh my boy elio,,, now,, perhaps at first glance there isn't as much of a hook for him,, but y'know what I think he would simply enjoy being able to hang out with his friends and maybe his competitiveness would have him building his character in cool and unexpected ways idk,,,

now I do think perhaps there would be a bit of strife between the minmax combat group and the lore story group but this isn't real life so Chi can be an expert GM who's good at managing that stuff,,, okay? everyone's happy :)

Ahhh and I would've drawn Reynah but even in my delusions I know there's no universe where she has time to join a long running dnd campaign,,, it's the sad sad truth,,,

[twisted-wonderland-but-gayer]

Hi!! Really like your writing could we possibly get a drabble or something like that of Middle Schooler Yuu?

Hell-Raising Gremlin: A Middle Schooler

Synopsis: Yuu is a cringy middle schooler that curses a lot and insults people

Cw: Cringe writing. Yuu is 12 and Gn. Cursing. They call Riddle stupid and tell Azul he's gay. No romance ofc. Not proofread

“What the fuck?” Was one of the first things that came out of your mouth when you kicked off the door to your coffin. A crowd of eerily robed people turned to stare at you as if you were the weird one for wearing normal clothes. Each person had matching eyeliner and wait, does that person have horns… and a tail? What sort of fucked up LARP furry cult were you kidnapped into?

“Honestly…” Another voice rang out “Coming through the door of your own accord is virtually unheard of, why are you in such a rush?” A bird masked individual said as he approached you, two glowing yellow orbs peaking through the mask, each part of his person accessorized to fit a perfect aesthetic. Okay, thats a pretty cool costume you’ll admit, but it still doesn't change that you are obviously in the wrong place.

"Um… probably because some strange carriage literally kidnapped me and forced me into a coffin and then I woke up here? I don't think I'm in the right place."

"Hmm I don't think you are entirely lucid yet… a side effect of the teleportation magic perhaps…" the man wondered out loud.

"Can you break character for a second and tell me where the hell I am, dude?" You glared at him and a few of the weird adults around you laugh. You keep a brave face despite the fear building up.

"You are at Night Raven College, a prestigious magician training school in Twisted Wonderland." The masked man states bluntly and confidently like that explains everything.

"Didn't I just say to break character? I'm not playing DND here or anything, I need to get home, I'm not supposed to be here in this weird cult thing… I need to get home!" a few more laughs reverberated in the crowd.

"I'm being serious, this is a school for magicians"

"Right well… I don't have magic. How's that?" You give a smug smirk. "So please send me home?"

The man just gives an infuriating blank expression. "Why, you are here because the black carriage recognized you as a powerful mage! You should be quite proud of that given how young to appear to be! Please stand by and the mirror will sort you into your dorm shortly!"

"I was kidnapped first of all, and I don't even have that weird robe thing! Look dude, you got the wrong person! I'll go up to that mirror right now and show you!" You assume this "magic' mirror was just some computer check in thing. Hopefully when you give your name it'll prove you aren't on the list of whatever the fuck this is.

"My, so hasty… such is the youth I suppose. Fine then, go up to the mirror."

You must give props to this actor for staying in character the full time, but now wasn't the time. As you approach the mirror you hear whispers, and you see 5 individuals and a floating tablet standing by it, looking as superior as they could. Some glared at you, others looked intrigued.

The mirror spoke, "State thy name."

"Yuu…"

"You're soul is… invalid… I cannot read it. Therefore I sort you in no dorm."

The crowd murmurs amongst themselves as the masked person looks genuinely surprised. "Well then. I must apologize, there must be some mistake." You exhale in relief. Finally he gets it. "Mirror, send this person home!" No response. Why was he asking the mirror?

"Ahem… Mirror take this person—"

"I cannot."

"... huh…" You frown

"This child's home is nowhere. They do not exist here. They are from another dimension. Therefore, they cannot be sent home."

The crowd's murmurs get louder. You still don't believe in this whole weird magic school act thing. "Are you fucking kidding me, did I seriously get isekaied by a horse drawn carriage?" 

At that you see the floating tablet mute themselves. Before you could even turn around and ask for the masked man to get a real person to send you home, a strange creature runs in front of you. You stared at it in complete shock.

"Mrahaha! If they can't join this school, then there's room for me!" The weird cat thing talks. Flames came out its ears and its tail was forked. What the fuck, what the fuck. How is this cat on fire and talking?

The crowd laughed at the cat's words. "Oh yeah?! I'll show you!" The creature yells out. You didn't think much of it until you saw blue plumes of flames come from its mouth and aim directly into the crowd. The crowd yells and pushes each other around. You could feel the heat.

This couldn't be some high tech animatronic could it? You gawk as banners catch flames and you see some of the mages in the crowd casting water spells to put themselves out. Is this really another world…? No way… no way. You have to get hit by a truck for that! This just has to be a very weird fever dream...

Another blast of flames is fired across from you, growing bigger and bigger, threatening to engulf everything in the room. One person from before lets out an annoyed sigh and you see him turn to approach the flame. 

Without thinking you immediately run over to pull him back catching him by surprise and making him stumble. "Dude, what are you doing?!" The doll faced young man looks over at you in shock, before his race reddens.

"How DARE YOU try to—"

"Riddle enough! They were just trying to help!" Another taller green haired mad says with a clover on his face. "Come with me…" the man says before pulling you back protectively.

You watch as the strange ruby-haired man, Riddle– what a stupid name–, approaches the weird cat. He raises his arm before lowering it. "OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!" He yelled, and a strange collar appeared around the cat. The flames around the room suddenly die.

"Hey what gives?! What I'll just… huh?! My magic! Its…"

"Sealed away. That collar around your neck does not allow you to use magic." Riddle states. "No cats are allowed are celebrations, your very existence here is a violation." A few robed figures go to grab their cat and toss him out.

"Damn…" you mumbles as you step put from behind the stranger that protected you.

"You there, child." Riddle states, still looking upset. "What you did was dangerous, you should have never stepped in to try to help."

Oh this dudes attitude pissed you off with how condescending he sounded. "Well sorry for trying to fucking make sure you didn't burn yourself. God forbid I didn't know you could do that weird collar thing."

The green haired man paled and the face of Riddle got red. "Excuse me?! You need to learn how to treat your superiors with respect–"

"I respect whoever respects me regardless of age! And you're not superior at all! You throw tantrums like a kid!" You spat back and the crowd seemed to laugh. The green haired man tries to pull you back. "Come on now, Yuu try to be nice…"

"Why would I? He's the one that started it! He can start yelling at people for no good reason but I can't? Hell who the fuck even names their kid Riddle its such a stupid name!"

Riddle was fuming at this point and everyone just seemed to either cringe or watch in rapt excitement. "IT IS NOT! You have not followed a single rule of the entrance ceremony! Those who don't follow the rules should be punished! Especially rude ones like you!"

"Did you not hear the mirror? I'm not from this world! I literally don't know any rules at all! How are you gonna get mad at me for that?! You're the one that keeps yelling for no reason and then getting mad at me for giving back the same energy? And now you're trying to threaten me!"

"Enough!" The red head yells. "Apologize now or it's off with your head!"

"Oh no my magic that I totally have! I'm so scared! Go ahead and do it! You're only punishing me because I'm right! You can't ever comprehend being wrong so you need to make yourself look stronger in every other way because you're a coward and a control freak! I may not have been in this world long, but something tells me in the real world you can't collar everyone that upsets you! You're a coward and a god damn fucking tyrant that feels the need to prove himself superior to a fucking TWELVE year old just because I had the audacity to try and help you! I am twelve and everyone here appears to be an adult yet none of you are actually helping me! I wanna go home!"

"Enough!" The masked man's voice yells out and you huff and look away. "That is enough for both of you." You look over at another man with blueish hair and glasses along with a mole struggling to hold in a laugh. You narrow your eyes. "Oh I just KNOW your bitch ass isn't laughing with your birthing hips and gay little face!" The man's eyes widen and he stares in shock for moment before looking down at himself. The crowd erupts in laughter.

"Yuu!" The masked man reprimands before sighing. "Dorm leaders! Take your students to their new homes! I will deal with this… situation" As everyone left, you glared at Crowley.

"It's about time you fucking listened me, hot topic wannabe ass." Crowley could tell that this child would fit in perfectly here.

[artiststarme]

Hey Brother

Now with a Part 2!

Thank you to @nburkhardt, @doubleb11, and @straight4joekeery for the help brainstorming! I hope you guys like it and please leave your thoughts in the comments!

~*~*~*~

It was a quiet night at the trailer park and Steve was looking forward to spending a peaceful night with his boyfriend. Things had been hectic lately between work, the kids, and fielding phone calls from his parents so Steve desperately needed a night to just relax. He hadn’t been able to spend time with Eddie since the week prior during their weekly Buckley-Harrington-Munson movie night and if he didn’t get cuddles stat, he was going to go into withdrawal.

Unfortunately, Eddie did not share the same plans and instead was trying to coerce Steve once again into joining a DnD campaign with him and the kids. 

“Come on, babe! The first day of the new campaign is tomorrow and the kids would love it if you joined. We can come up with a character sheet tonight, we still have time! And I will help you the entire time, it’ll be fun!” Eddie begged him.

Steve shook his head, “look Eds, I really don’t want to play. I’m more than happy just watching you guys have fun. Besides, you know how bad I am at math. I’d be really bad at it.”

“I’ll do the math for you! Come on, your jock prowess will really help you and you’re great at strategizing. What if I postponed the campaign for tomorrow and came up with a one shot instead? Then you would get your feet wet and it wouldn’t be too much pressure,” he jut his lip out in a pout and widened his eyes. It kinda made him look like a dejected rat but in a cute way. 

Still, Steve shook his head. “No, I really don’t want to. Can you please drop this? I just want to watch a movie or something and relax. I don’t want to keep talking about your nerd game.”

All playful pretenses dropped and Eddie’s eyes narrowed. “Is that what this is about? The perfect Steve Harrington can’t play a game for nerds? I thought you were over all that.”

“Eddie, that’s not why. You know I don’t care about that anymore. I like watching you guys play, I just don’t understand it. Maybe some other time,” Steve placated him but it only served to make Eddie more mad. 

“That’s bullshit, Steve!” Steve’s blood ran cold at his words. “You don’t think the ‘perfect jock’ can play a nerd game? That’s just complete bullshit.”

Steve just stood up from the couch and collected his keys from the table beside the door. He turned to look at Eddie and spoke softly, “I’m sorry you feel that way. I’m going to go home.”

“Steve-”

“No, no, it’s uh- it’s just bullshit, right? I’ll catch you later.” Then, he went to his car and headed home. So much for a relaxing evening.  

How could things have changed so quickly? One second they were enjoying pizza and talking about dumb shit the kids had done in the past week and in the next they were arguing about nerds and jocks, the dumb shit from high school that didn’t mean anything. It’s all such… bullshit. He thought he was over all of that meaningless high school drama yet here he was. He was still messing things up without even trying. He should’ve just sucked it up and agreed to play the dumb game instead of ruining their night. No wonder Eddie was so mad at him.

When Steve got home, it was to a dark and empty house. He was alone once again with his parents on some trip, his boyfriend mad at him, his best friend out of town, and the kids no longer needing a babysitter. He hated this cavernous house, the bareness on the walls, and the emptiness that matched the feelings in his chest. He just wanted to go somewhere else, to be welcomed into another house that wasn’t so devoid of character. He thought that would be Eddie’s trailer but he wasn’t so sure anymore. 

He was torn from his thoughts at the ring of the landline. Steve considered not answering it, thinking it may be Eddie trying to apologize or rag on him some more. After his comments of being bullshit, Steve thought he deserved some pettiness. Ultimately though, the Midwestern politeness ingrained in him pushed Steve to answer the call. “Harrington residence, this is Steve. How can I help you?”

“Steve? Oh honey, I’m so sorry to be calling,” a tearful voice murmured. 

It took Steve a moment to place the voice but when he did, a strum of anxiety skittered across his chest. “Aunt Becky? What’s going on, are you okay?”

“Sweetheart, it’s your grandmother. She’s in critical condition and the doctors say she could pass at any time now. I already called your parents and they’re on their way. Honey, if you want to see her, you should come now.” 

Steve’s heart dropped. His mother’s mother, his grandma, had always been his favorite. She babysat him when he was younger, called him every few weeks to check in, and sent him the most thoughtful presents on his birthday and Christmas. Despite the chaos of his personal life at the moment, he had to go see her. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he didn’t get to say goodbye to her after all she’d done for him. 

“Um, okay. I’ll head up there now and I can be there in a few hours. Do you-do you need anything?” He asked his aunt. 

“No, that’s okay. Drive safe and let your brother know, okay?” 

Steve nodded in response before remembering that she couldn’t see him. “I’ll call him. See you soon.”

Steve hung up the phone before immediately picking it back up to call his brother. They weren’t close, especially after the events of Spring Break, but they were still family and he deserved the chance to say goodbye to his grandmother as well. There was no answer on his home phone so Steve dialed 9-1-1. 

“Hawkins Sheriff Department, this is Officer Callahan. What’s your emergency?”

“Phil, it's Steve. I know we’re not really talking but Grandma is dying tonight and I’m going to Illinois to say goodbye. Can you please come with me?”

“Wha- Steve? How do you know? What happened?” Phil stammered.

“Aunt Becky called, she says that Grandma is in critical condition and the doctors say that she could die at any time. If we want to see her, we have to go now.” Steve’s voice was panicked as he spoke. 

“Um- yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ll uh, I just need to write a note and I’ll come pick you up, okay? I’ll be there in ten minutes,” his brother comforted, his voice gentle over the phone. 

“Okay, bye.”

Steve rubbed a hand through his hair. Could this night get any worse? Not only was he on Eddie’s shit list, his grandma was dying, and now he had to sit in a car for four hours with his estranged, older step-brother. Lovely that this was how Steve’s life was going, just lovely. 

He threw some clothes in a bag along with his hair care products and a toothbrush and then he sat on the trunk of his car in the driveway waiting for Phil. He didn’t know how long he would be gone but he’d rather be prepared. On the fifteenth minute of waiting, Phil’s powder blue Volkswagen Beetle pulled up to the curb and his brother’s head popped out of the open window. 

“Let’s go, shitface! We don’t have time to waste!” He called obnoxiously. 

Steve grumbled as he got into the car but quieted when Phil handed him a coffee. 

“... Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” he waved away. 

They drove in silence for a few minutes until they passed the Leaving Hawkins sign and Steve spoke up. “I hate the mustache by the way.”

“Why would you say that to me?!”

“It looks like an emaciated squirrel died on your face!” Steve said. 

“That’s rich of you to say when you have so much hair it looks like a helmet!” Phil’s voice raised in defense. 

“That doesn’t even make sense!” Steve sputtered.

They squabbled the entire four hour drive to Illinois and it brought a feeling of levity to Steve’s chest. Despite the circumstances, he felt better than he had in a while and all it took was minorly bullying his brother to get there. 

~*~*~*~

Hopper has never been so confused in his life and that was saying something because he’s gone through some major shit. But getting woken up at the dredges of dawn to a panicked Eddie Munson showing up at his door would do that. Almost at the point of tears, he told him that Steve was missing after a fight they had the night prior and he was worried that something might have happened to him. 

Hopper had to deal with Munson knocking on his door before appropriate business hours, the kids panicking because of Steve maybe going missing, and Joyce panicking that something could be going on with the Upside Down. Why else would Steve go missing?

Things only got more complicated and confounding when he arrived at the station to see a poorly written note from Callahan stuck to his desk. It read, ‘me + brother out of town, gma is sick. B back soon. Toodles.’

So now not only is his kid missing, but he’s also down a deputy, and he’s got the Party breathing down his neck annoying him about it. 

Hopper took a big swig of his coffee and sighed, this was going to be a long weekend.

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[infiniteanalemma]

Nobility in Baldur's Gate

Edited to add: I never expected my silly, niche post to get as much attention as it has! I'm giving you all forehead smooches! 😚💋 I've gone through to clean up some things up as I've found new information. I also added a list of nobility that I've found in game and other sources to the end of the post. Thanks, y'all! I'm glad I'm not the only one to wonder about this stuff. Good stuff in the reblogs, too!

Baldur's Gate has dug itself deep in my brain, so I apologize to my poor mutuals who didn't follow me for BG3 content getting this onslaught of posts. Please bear with me until my hyperfixation wears off. 🙏

Now, I'll admit up front that I'm no expert in DnD lore*, so if I get things wrong, please feel free to correct me or just add in stuff I may have missed. I'm going off of what I've found in-game and my Google Fu skills.

That said, I do know enough about DnD to remember that Baldur's Gate nobility are called patriars, and that there are only a relative handful of actual patriar families. I was thinking about my "canon" Tav, Velassa, and her background in BG3. She's a modified OC that I plunked in-game during Early Access, so I made her a noble. It was just part of her existing character that I didn't think too deeply about. It was only after I starting playing that it occurred to me to wonder what exactly "a noble" is to a native Baldurian.

That got me digging a little more into the current state of the Baldurian nobility as of BG3. I don't know who--if anyone--needs or wants this, but I put this together for myself and decided to share it for anyone else who might be interested. I realize that this is probably pretty niche and it's rambly and long af, so I'll put it under a cut.

So, for starters, here's a list of all the patriar families, including "fallen" houses that are barely hanging on: Belt, Bormul, Caldwell, Dlusker, Durinbold, Eltan, Eomane, Exeltis, Gist, Guthmere, Hhune, Hlath, Hullhollyn, Irlentree, Jannath, Jhasso, Linnacker, Miyar, Nurthammas, Oathoon, Oberon, Portyr, Provoss, Ravenshade, Rillyn, Sashenstar, Shattershield, Silvershield, Tillerturn, Vammas, Vannath, Vanthampur, and Whitburn

From what I've gathered, Exeltis, Provoss and Ravenshade are all more-or-less destitute. Also, the Szarr family (Cazador's family) were patriars, but were believed to be entirely wiped out. No living descendants makes them a dead house, rather literally. 😏 (No, I'm not sorry.)

Now, we learn that Wyll's father is Ulder Ravengard, the Grand Duke. This brings us to the first point: There are four Dukes, known as the Council of Four, and the Grand Duke's job is to be the tie-breaker.

Traditionally, one of the Dukes is also the highest ranked officer of the Flaming Fist--that's Ravengard, who was a Fist promoted up through the ranks. Wyll tells us that his father was born lower class, and quite a few of the patriars seem to scorn him for that. The other Dukes are Belynne Stelmane, Dillard Portyr (more on him later) and Thalamra Vanthampur (more on her later, too). Of the four, two are patriars: Portyr and Vanthampur. We don't know much about Stelmane's past, except that she was a brilliant businesswoman, politician and--as we find out later--member of the Knights of the Shield. Apparently, you can't buy your way into the patriars, but maybe you can buy your way into being a Duke.

Skipping ahead a bit, when the player shows up to Gortash's coronation, there are a group of mostly patriars sitting in the boxes leading up to the front of the room. I'm listing them by seating arrangement, with box 1 and 2 being the left and right closest to Gortash, and 3 and 4 being farthest. (I don't know what, if anything, the seating arrangements imply. The second box has eight people, compared to four for all the rest.)

Lady Ailis Belt, Baron Callem Bormul, Lord Rugger Shattershield**, and Lady Alia Durinbold**

Lady Ruth Linnacker, Lord Sarken Eomane, Lady Freida Oberon, Lord Raylen Jannath, Lord Myer Ravenshade**, Lady Madeline Whitburn, Lady Beatrice Provoss, and Duke Dillard Portyr

Lady Winstra Hullhollyn, Admiral Peil Hullhollyn, Lord Randolph Vammas, and Lady Eshvelt Guthmere

Lord Milon Tillerturn, Lady Silifrey Sashenstar, Lord Petric Amber**, and Lady Haeril Birch**

Here's some pictures of the nobles sitting together. (Sorry for the terrible quality! I slapped it together for my own reference. 🙈)

The characters marked by ** aren't human, which is interesting because the information I found said all the patriar familes are human except the Shattershields. Myer Ravenshade is listed as human if you examine him, but he has a dwarf model. That might be a mistake, but I'm including him anyway. Alia Durinbold, from a presumably human patriar family, is a wood elf. Again, this could be a mistake, but unless Larian winds up changing it, it could mean that interracial marriages that once may have been looked down on are now becoming more acceptable. Petric Amber is also a wood elf, and Haeril Birch is a high elf.

Those last two are interesting because they are the only ones in the boxes who aren't patriars. If not for them, I'd have assumed the coronation was simply a demonstration for the patriars alone. Their inclusion means this is something else.

Digging around, my conclusion is that all the listed people are members of the Parliament of Peers--a 50 person advisory party to the Council of Four. However, what I found says that it's pretty rare for all 50 to attend meetings, and the usual group is between 20-30. There are exactly 20 named individuals listed, plus a group of unnamed "patriars" standing at the front.

Here they are, for what it's worth:

One thing I noticed here is that most of those listed here are Lord/Lady, but there are three other titles: Duke, Baron and Admiral. I've already talked about the Dukes. Looking into the patriars, the Hullhollyn family are notable for having a fleet of ships, so it makes sense that one of them would be an Admiral. That leaves the Baron.

I couldn't find anything about what it means to be a baron in Baldur's Gate. Going on real-world peerages, a baron/ess is generally the lowest "rank" of nobility. Basically, it's someone who was an official landowner (usually of an "important" bit of land) under the feudal system. Well and good, I suppose, but presumably all the Lords and Ladies of the patriars own land within the city. This particular Baron is also a patriar, but given that one doesn't need to be a patriar to become a Duke (normally a higher peer than a baron), that may not mean anything.

(Apparently, the term "Duke" was originally meant somewhat jokingly. That said, it still carries the weight of a title even if not the conventional one.) We don't see any other titles between Duke and Baron, so what does that mean?

This isn't canon, but my assumption is that it means the Baron owns important land outside of the city. This would make sense for Baron Bormul, given that the Bormul family apparently have investments in silver mines and vineyards. Assuming they own the mines/vineyards, that may make those lands "important" enough to the city for their owner to earn a title. Alternately, the Bormul family also has counterparts in Amn, so maybe baron is an Amnian title that got passed along. That's getting a bit far afield for me, though. 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, among the group at the coronation, pretty much everyone supports Gortash becoming Archduke, with the exception of Lady Sashenstar (an old woman who really isn't too impressed with this commoner) and Duke Portyr, who expresses some hesitation at the whole thing.

Duke Portyr is interesting here. Except for Ravengard (who is thralled and conducting the ceremony), Portyr is the only Duke present. Now, Stelmane is already dead, so that explains her absence. Vanthampur is also missing, which is interesting. Portyr first, though: he was Grand Duke before Ravengard. He's the one who re-instituted (Edited: and originally created!) the Parliament of Peers to make the day-to-day decisions of running the city, and ceded the title of Grand Duke to Ravengard. He's described as being conflict-averse, so it makes sense that he'd go along with Gortash's coronation, even though he's clearly unhappy about it. Also, the current leader of the Fists is also a Portyr, likely still Liara Portyr, the Duke's niece and Ravengard's second-in-command.

Thalamra Vanthampur is an interesting character, too. She's the head of the Vanthampur family, and part of the Descent into Avernus story. Apparently, she's the one who got Ravengard to go to Elturel before it sank to the Hells, intending to take his place as Grand Duke. From what I read, she also conspired with the Dead Three's cults to murder people in a bid to discredit the Flaming Fist. (The murdery bits were undoubtedly left to Bhaal's cult.) We never do find out anything about Thalamra Vanthampur in this game (I assume that's probably cut content). (Edited: She is mentioned in one of the in-game texts as having been killed, which was one of the possible outcomes of Descent into Avernus. Larian chose that as their canon, just like the fate of Elturel and Zariel.)

The only Vanthampur we do meet is Carnelia Vanthampur, who is in the Guildhall and describes herself as "a peer of the Parliament". She's willing to work with either the Guild or the Zhentarim. Nervously of course. Also interesting is that, on the Bloodstained Parchment hit list, is a Varri Vanthampur, whose gravestone you can find in Candulhallow's Tombstones shop, reading: "Varri Vanthampur. Unwanted in life, welcomed in death."

Interesting, hm?

Also on that hit list is Fridrik Hhune. The Hhunes apparently have links to the Knights of the Shield, from what I looked up--the same group the Emperor led with Stelmane. The only Hhunes we meet in-game are Blaise and Gheris Hhune, two of the werewolves in Cazador's ballroom who are brothers according to the dev notes. With them is another werewolf of a different patriar family, Duver Rillyn. This suggests Cazador has been going after members of patriar families, which sort of fits with what we know about his plans. We really don't find anything else out about them except that they consider Cazador to be their master and Astarion says they're new.

We also can talk to a Flaming Fist who mentions that Hurlbut Hhune is the father of Henrietta Hhune, who used to be secretly engaged to the Fist in question, only for her father to decide to arrange her to marry fellow patriar Derque Rillyn, who the Fist describes as "a major arsehole."

That conversation is interesting for a few reasons. For one, it tells you that arranged marriages within the patriar are a thing. Also, this Fist is a Manip (essentially a Sergeant) who can't ask the other Fists for help because "the Fists don't mess with wealthy patriars, they've got the Watch to back them up." That's aligned with what Devella can also tell you: "There are patriars on the murder target list. I'm oathbound to secure them first, so I'll be heading to the Upper City next." If you say that the Fist should protect everyone: "Not from around here, are you? We're in Baldur's Gate - this is just how things work."

This brings me back to my original issue: what is a Baldurian noble? The patriars are canonically nobles, of course, and they're undoubtedly seen as the "most important" of the nobility. From there, it's not much of a stretch to say that anyone who has earned the title of Duke is now a noble, even if they aren't patriars. I'd go so far as to say anyone on the Parliament of Peers (and their family by association) is a noble^, given that non-patriars Petric Amber and Haeril Birch are considered Lord and Lady. The information I found about that is that there are approximately twelve non-patriar members. If Amber and Birch are two of them, that leaves another unnamed 10.

^Edited: Looking at the dates, I realized that the Parliament of Peers is a very recent change to Baldurian governance. Duke Portyr originally created it after the three other Dukes on the Council of Four were assassinated. It was clearly meant as a temporary measure, but my guess is that the patriars liked having more official say. Not to mention the non-patriars who managed to get a seat. This has all happened within even the youngest of Tav/Urges' lifetimes.

Personally, I'd also assume that branch families of the patriars probably also count as nobility. By branch family, I mean those that marry out of the main line but whose ancestry stems from a patriar family. From what I've seen by naming conventions, Baldur's Gate seems to use patronmyic lineage--ancestry is generally passed to the sons, and wives take their husband's surname. So, if a daughter marries out of the family, she'd no longer be a part of her father's family lineage, but still would be considered nobility. These branch families likely still maintain powerful influence and connections from marrying into wealth, which would make them a good political/financial choice of marriage alliance, despite no longer having the main branch patriar family name. These families are also probably the ones most likely to find a place on the Parliament, too, but likely have to jockey for position if their "representative" dies (or otherwise leaves) and a new opening in the Parliament is created.

If you've read this far, as a treat you can have some crappy close-up portraits of the nobles at Gortash's coronation, grouped together in their respective boxes. 😚

* For what it's worth, I'd count myself as a casual DnD player. I have some knowledge of DnD--I've played BG1 and 2, Planescape: Torment, along with some general cultural osmosis. I've had friends who played the tabletop version, but for one reason or another, I've never played it myself.

[lesfir]

The "tragedy" of the ascension. No, another word beginning with "T".

Triumph of Evil. confide a secret This is Great.

I rate this story as a Triumph of Evil, which however does not mean tragedy for the evil character. Such an assessment requires a basis within the canon.

Original Astarion, describes his story to the Bosk bear Act 1: Astarion: Tell him your tale - wealth, power, vampires, crypt...

He remembers what he once had and what was taken from him. He has several goals depending on how much strength he has and how successfully he plays the cards of fate: defense, free, revenge, power. \get the hedonistic pleasures debauchery but that's another topic.\ A little analysis of Astarion's path of evil to triumph.

I'm more interested in the latter (Power), as it's where the complex moral begins. These are not all examples, but these are the ones I liked this time.

Astarion: What's not to enjoy? I can walk in sunlight, trespass upon any home, manipulate minds - I'm the most powerful vampire in the Realms! Astarion suspects that the parasite may have negated some of the downsides of being a vampire spawn. Perhaps his master has no power over him anymore. I can only add 10 audios :[

Astarion: No, I'll be safe when I'm powerful enough to grind Cazador into the dust. Powerful enough to do whatever the hell I want.

Astarion: But I'd have to climb so many stairs. Anyway, I already have my eye on a palace in Baldur's Gate. devote. NodeContext: 'palace in baldur's gate' Cazador's palace.

Astarion: Now that's what I like to see an elf at the head of an army. Even a Sharran one.

This shows the dialog over cult control very well. 33 Phrase only when the player hesitates. In other cases 31, he says: it sounds fun (it's useful to have and fun) It is well crafted depending on the player's play style. I analyzed that structure here. Astarion: I'm just saying there's an opportunity here. If we can control the tadpoles, we can keep ourselves safe and liberate the world from this evil. devnote. NodeContext: pause be 'liberate' as he considers what would sound good to a goody-two-shoes player. Astarion was thinking less liberate, more dominate

Astarion: I'm just saying there's an opportunity before us. If we can control the tadpoles, we can keep ourselves safe and enjoy a little world domination on the side. Astarion: You can't tell me that doesn't sound fun.

Important to note that Astarion is cunning enough to realize: There's a chance that he won't get any help, a vampire spawn, outcast. Not "Hello, my name is Astarion, give me whatever I want". So he adds logical, understandable, honorable goals. He benefits from emphasizing honorable one, especially for a good player. He also does the "puppy eyes" thing. Goals like his desire for protection and freedom. Power - that he tries (at least a little) to soften. Softening and logic - it will help us, it will protect us and save us. It makes sense. In my opinion he is absolutely right. No one wants to be tentacles, gnomes at duergar or Arabella's parents. Power is a nice thing in Faerun to have. However, his goals are diametrically opposed to the good. Because he tends to have a brutal power style and finds it fun. (this pie wouldn't mind owning the world) depending on the style of play with the evil player, he's more open. And those goals that are half-false - to liberate the world. There is logic in "liberate the world" since mind flayer is a worldwide threat and changing the world as they please. Not Good. Astarion, however, harbors a desire to rule - a city minimum. Which incidentally was his character before slavery, Magistrates do become Magistrates for a reason. Astarion's reason is wealth and power. There are so many moments. Even if you poke at the globe.

Moments aplenty are some of the ones that show his "Evil" by DND traits. Evil in DND is selfishness, doing what I want even if it's harmful, greed. Let's get back to genres. Tragedy implies the death of the hero. This is the meaning of tragedy and the difference from drama. Drama - combines the comic and the tragic. Unlike tragedy, drama can have a positive ending. Since when is a tragedy when a character has everything they've ever dreamed of, enjoys and doesn't give a fuck? This is the arch to the beginning - wealth and power. More greater. Astarion rather doesn't change in his Ascension. It's Astarion who has a Christmas present dropped on him in the first act. And it makes him euphoric, considering "feeling alive" for the undead is quite a thing. It's important to realize that Astarion isn't exactly an ordinary character. He's an evil character. Which for Wyll is hell. For Astarion, it can be considered fun when it's not happening to him. Watching someone fight to the death like on a show, for example. Do I have to include a screenshot here? XD "Astarion Approves It" is the title of a crime book. There's something light, certainly, otherwise it's not interesting. Astarion's dark side is luring. But the book is still on the top shelf, in the "evil" section. Curious how he perceives eternity. Astarion: Immortality is only as good as the life you're living. An eternity of luxury sounds a lot better than an eternity of struggle.

Astarion doesn't like the downsides of vampirism - it's mirror, sun, hunger, and for spawn, lack of power. But the very idea of Immortality, like eternal beauty is tempting.

Ascension - it's a vampire cheat, he feels alive, the vampire depression of the Vampire Lords eternity won't work for Ascension, that's the point of it. A Vampire's dream can't just be the same vampirism.

Here's a great video everything we know about Ascension and how it works. Immortality without the downside. Power, life of luxury. Astarion approves. It's Great. It's a Triumph. And it is the Triumph of Evil. (selfish, hurtful to others, greedy payment) BG3 Epilogue. Original God Gale. Lord Astarion. Astarion: You can't be serious. You miss being weak? Falling ill? Ageing? devnote. NodeContext: Slight stress on 'aging' Astarion: We can be honest with each other, Gale - one immortal being to another: this is great. devnote. NodeContext: "this is great" as if confiding a secret.

[dvilsdesire]

Some in depth character analysis... (:

This is going to get long... as I do a bit of a character analysis on Haarlep with little bits of Raphael as well. I will likely go on tangents if they come to me, so please be aware that there is likely no solid structure as I ramble!

Please note that this is ALL speculation and headcanon as there is no way of analysing a character's full potential when you only see a few moments of them in game, let alone Haarlep's relationship with Raphael when you don't even get to see them interact outside of Haarlep's small comments and end-game letter.

Know that there is also no right and no wrong, and I will be exploring both sides and "what if" scenarios. These are just some things I want to expand upon, and we are all entitled to different opinions and headcanons. That's the beauty of getting to explore and delve into characters that are given no depth to them--you can make them your own!

First and foremost, it should be noted that DnD lore on incubus has flip flopped over the editions. Where they were once strictly demons, they were then turned to devils, and now they are recognised as simply "fiends". Haarlep, in game, is a fiend, and his race is incubus. Again... be your OWN DM... do what makes you happy, that's the beauty of DnD (but also remember that Larian itself have their own set of rules and lore that they made up which may have separated them from DnD lore as well, and that's not a bad thing! The more creativity, the better imo, especially in a world like FR).

I personally write Haarlep as a devil aligned fiend who leans towards more chaotic than lawful evil, but that's just me! Toss in a little demon bloodline, especially with the Queen of Succubus, and play around a little!

Okay, let's get into Haarlep! (potentially triggering content)

I'm going to go through this in order of Haarlep's scene. There was a really neat theory that was shared HERE about how Haarlep starts off with a poem as they are introduced. Is this something that the devs simply used as trickery so we THINK it's Raphael in the bed (even though it clearly says Haarlep)?

Also note how Haarlep uses the term "Mouse", the one that Raphael has been calling the player the whole time. A coincidence? Or is this proof that Haarlep is aware of what is going on with Raphael and his potential client? Is this rhyming corruption simply from being within the HoH or something that Haarlep has picked up from via time spent with Raphael? All of these things fascinate me, because as a devil, and Raphael who is quite literally meant to symbolise the real world devil (there is a lot of symbolism with Raphael and Satan/Lucifer imo but that's not something I'll delve into here), or are they just trying to lead us into a false sense of security that this is just Raphael playing his games (despite the name on the subtitles)?

Maybe it's an outer moment of we know as the player, but our actual PC doesn't know. Which gives us the opportunity to play around a little with them, which is also cool. But the idea that Haarlep also says a little poem and speaks in such a devilish manner, is a nice little touch and a reminder OF Raphael as well.

Then, of course, the player themselves, identifies Haarlep as Raphael, despite the youthful look (I'll delve into this later).

What interests me is Haarlep's response if you actually say this. He seems amused that you'd even THINK he's Raphael, despite his obvious visage. The pride of an incubus, perhaps? Haarlep simply toying with you and making this encounter last longer by the way he speaks so slowly and playfully? Luring you in, one question and curiosity at a time.

Haarlep genuinely seems interested in WHY you are there, yet if we go from line one where they're calling you a thief... it pretty much indicates that he knows you're there when you're not supposed to be (which makes entire sense since the whole HoH has its own riddles and games you need to play to get inside rooms under lock and key). Even to get into the boudoir, you require an invitation (though Raphael clearly forgot that he left his door to the balcony wide open and there's rock formation you can traverse lol--things like this are PURELY game mechanics, and I don't think they should be read into deeply. It's a game, your player NEEDS access, whether it's getting it the hard way, the lawful way, or outright breaking in lol).

If you lie to Haarlep and claim it's a botched teleportation spell, he instantly sees through you, you don't even get the chance for a saving check on this. No matter what, Haarlep knows you're not supposed to be there. However, he wants to know WHY you're there.

Interestingly enough, Haarlep's voice is very aggressive when you lie to him, especially when the first introduction is all sweet and breathy. This comes down to control, imo (which we also learn that Haarlep is the dominant role in the bedroom, or at least a top--more on that as I go). Genuinely, though, it feels like Haarlep is very displeased if someone lies to his face, though being the incubus they are, will also give you a chance to respond truthfully before he decides your fate--this is something I also see Raphael do. Even if you attack him in your first meeting, he gives you a second chance (and a third if I recall? He only tells you the deal is off if you attack him in Sharess' Caress and kicks you out of the Devil's Den--tho correct me if I'm wrong as I'm focusing on Haarlep here).

So is this typical devil behaviour and something we can expect from devils, to give you a second chance so they can get the information they want? I'd say yes. Especially if they DO want to know. Haarlep is more than happy to kill you if you don't give him what he wants, so it seems pretty standard for devil practice, and of course, he returns to being softly spoken again, almost immediately, like it's second nature. Or is this something he has simply learned from being around Raphael for so long?

If Raphael does give you a third chance, guess what? So does Haarlep. You can lie to him (though exposed instantly), and then outright tell him you refuse to tell him why you're there, and he gives you the final chance:

Obviously, fantastic that the player can really choose what they want to do, but there's also been far quicker battles in game. Haarlep really is trying to get that information from you (and your soul no doubt). If we wanted to delve deeper (I did say what ifs!), we could also question if this is just Haarlep being playful or lazy. Does he really care to go to the effort to kill, or would he rather just get some useful information? Is he threatening the player so he can just be done with his game, have sex with the player and let them leave so he can just add their glamour to the collection? Who knows! It's all under speculation.

Haarlep's health in battle, if you choose to fight him, is also 169, whereas DnD monster manual has them at 66HP. Haarlep is a stronger incubus, and at 169HP, it's much greater! Again, is this scaled up just due to game mechanics? Or something else? Makes sense by the time you delve into the HoH, a HP of 66 isn't that challenging anymore. I did do a little hc post about my thoughts HERE. Funnily enough, there was also THIS about Haarlep being titled as a courtesan.

Moving on to if you tell Haarlep the truth about why you're there. I find his response here to be very interesting, especially in the way he seems to drop the sensuality for a moment. The thoughtfulness and pause to Haarlep as he likely recognises who you are now.

The facial expression changes also, to something more concerned looking. Of course, this could all be a facade, especially as we know that Haarlep absolutely gives you the Hammer if you're willing to sleep with them.

Not the usual plucky, jovial Haarlep that is being seen, but a moment of thoughtfulness as the creature no doubt ponders what the next move could be. Perhaps Haarlep is even contemplating what Raphael would do if things were out of his control? If Tav was killed.

I often DO wonder how Raphael would react if the game ended where Haarlep killed the PC. Would he be furious that his means to get the crown is entirely fucked now? Would he just go that's frustrating but I'll get it another way? Haarlep, no doubt, would be in a lot of trouble, but it seems that either Haarlep doesn't actually care (because he knows Raphael can't really resist him anyway), or he might just get the crown another way.

Whatever the case, Haarlep does seem to entirely underestimate the powers of Tav an Co, because he attacks them if you don't comply, and I doubt he thought even if they DID get the Hammer, they weren't going to get through Raphael (Haarlep likely is playing his own game, in where yes, sure you can take the Hammer now that I have gotten what I wanted, but that doesn't mean you'll be able to leave). Once the Hammer is taken, the entire HoH becomes hostile, meaning Haarlep LIKELY knew this, and didn't think you were going to actually kill his master.

IS he outright betraying Raphael, or is he just... shortsighted? All of this is entirely up to speculation of course, but Haarlep would 110% be aware of the fact that Raphael is the son of Mephistopheles, and there is no denying that Raphael is the HARDEST boss battle of the entire game, even if you CAN power shot him with your super builds. There is no denying that Raphael's boss battle is difficult, and he would be considered one of the most powerful fights in the entire game (which is so insane to think about since you can SKIP the entire thing or just outright MISS it). So why WOULDN'T Haarlep think that Tav and co would get fucked by him in a fight, when Haarlep has likely witnessed Raphael's wrath and fury before? When we speak of this betrayal from Haarlep, there's no telling that his actual intentions were.

So... was Haarlep being a typical devil, scheming and getting what he wanted just to win both ways by believing Raphael would have bested Tav and friends (even if it didn't turn out that way in the end)? Or was he betraying Raphael because he just didn't care? OR, a third option, was he making sure Raphael wouldn't get the crown because his true master is Mephistopheles? By stealing the Hammer, there was no deal that Raphael would GET the crown in turn. There's so many things we could assume and guess, but the fact is... we don't know, because Larian never told us, and that's okay! Because that's what fanfiction is for.

As we move the scene along, Haarlep finally introduces himself. We all know that Haarlep is an anagram for Raphael, which in itself is fascinating. Where did Haarlep get the name? WHO named him? Is Raphael so in love with himself that he named his personal incubus after himself? Was it Mephistopheles? As some kind of joke? Was it Haarlep themselves? What does interest me is is how Haarlep explained that he's not just glamoured as Raphael's image, but he's transfigured. I feel like this makes it something more permanent, or even as a base setting.

I love the idea of True Form Haarlep, personally (and it is my general go to with my writing), but I DID say what if's above, and this is one of them. What if Haarlep HAS no true form? What if his form is now FIXED as Raphael as a base form (we know he can still take on other forms since yours and Haarlep says out loud he has a collection), but what IF? What IF? We just don't know...

I wanted to delve into this line next, because someone pointed out something interesting which I actually wanted to delve into deeper with it:

You might be going "no you're not, you don't look like Raphael as he does now". Well, you are correct. However, I do have a theory behind this as well. As we know in canon lore, cambions generally stop ageing in their 20's. Funnily enough... Haarlep looks around that age, which is where I personally headcanon that they first met and first slept together, when Haarlep was gifted to Raphael. That's not to say Haarlep can't change to Raphael's current, more mature, visage (or even his human form). But when Haarlep says he's the PERFECT copy, I do feel like there's some burn to that, that Raphael is reminded that HE has aged and is no longer that perfect resemblance of what he once was.

There's also a fannon theory going around that Raphael's more mature look is actually a farce, and that he uses it to appear more mature to get souls, etc. That's a really interesting take, and I love it (how manipulative of him and that works!), but my personal headcanons? Raphael is no mere cambion. Raphael is the son of Mephistopheles, and we know nothing about his mother (as mother's die at childbirth). She could have been anyone! Mephistopheles is an Archdevil, and Mephisto also looks more middle aged in most of his pics. It makes sense to me that Raphael would age more compared to other cambions simply because of his more potent bloodline and the fact that he is the son of someone so powerful. This could be a symbol of something amongst devilkind even. We know that Antilia (Raphael's half sister and Mephisto's daughter), though pretty no doubt, is described to look a lot like Mephisto.

So, my theory is that Haarlep is the appearance of Raphael when they FIRST had sex, and when he first consumed Raphael's glamour, and he wears it proudly, and no doubt Raphael keeps Haarlep around like that as a reminder of how youthful and beautiful he was. I'm not saying Raphael isn't a silver fox (he is), and Raphael still considers himself attractive, but it's like looking at your younger self when you've lost some of that edge, and you wish you could be there again. It's almost torment, which... just fits with devils, especially Raphael being such a complex character.

Some people have pointed out that there are some different structures within Haarlep and Raphael's face. Yes, there are. These are actually the things that change with age. The most obvious to me, is the ears. Raphael's are larger. This is legitimately something that happens with age. So is the structure and plumpness of cheeks (as someone who works in healthcare, these are things I see every day with patients). Even myself if I look at a pic of me 10 years ago.

(If I could mod, I would get the same screencap to compare, but for now...)

All things that come with age are (within humans):

Larger ears, wrinkles, less fat around the face and skin that becomes less plump and taut, (particularly cheeks, chin and eyes), and the thinning of lips and complexion paling. These are all exactly what Raphael has in comparison to Haarlep.

A little note on Raph's nose is that the distortion COULD be caused by changes in cartilage over the years, OR... it could be someone punched Raph in the face and it permanently got fucked after he'd been with Haarlep (whatever the case, it's still beautiful!). I still like to think someone punched him tho >.> lol.

You're looking at at least... 20 odd years between these two, tho. Raphael is said to look middle aged (in his 50's), and Haarlep, to me, looks about... 26-28 with those small wrinkles at his forehead and crows feet when he smiles?

I can't say the technical details of who designed this in game? But they did a phenomenal job on what they actually aged (or deaged for Haarlep's encounter). I have no idea if they simply used that technology on Raph's original form or what they did for Haarlep, but it's damn good.

I won't go into Raphael's sexuality in this post because it'll add too much to it, but I DO want to in the future. But moving on to Haarlep once you agree to sleep with them. What does interest me is that Haarlep wants to make sure that you're comfortable during the act, which is when the Archduchess comes to play.

Now... this one makes me question a little (and please fill me in as I don't know all DnD lore!). I do understand that incubus/succubus can be seen as interchangeable, and I do understand that once they have a glamour, they can wear it whenever, but I'm not certain about taking on a shape that... doesn't exist? Someone like Orin, who can shift into whoever she pleases on a whim without having lain with them, is that something that incubus share as well, but that brings in the question why bother sleeping with someone to take their glamour if you don't need to (outside of the fact that they are beings of sex ofc)?

Haarlep speaks about how they're adding your glamour to their collection and that's basically what they are getting out of this little transaction of yours. This is provided with the following prompts:

This gives the impression that Haarlep requires you to actually verbally VOW that he can have your body... that he can add it to his glamour...

Is that the case, or is Haarlep simply using you and playing games because they WANT to hear you say it? Is this devilry at its finest? Or does an incubus literally require permission to gain that glamour? Like the victim is literally giving up a part of themselves in some wicked contract?

So, please... let me know how it works with Raphael's Archduchess form, OR was this simply something Larian threw in there so the player could feel more comfortable with a choice of female or male? I would love to delve more into this, because I REALLY am curious about how the hell Haarlep got a female version of Raphael, or was this something the devs just thought "We'll give them an option".

Personally, I just feel like without that knowledge, I can't see it outside of a "let's just chuck that in there so they have another option and say Raph is curious at times". But please, please let me know if you do! Some devils of Baator CAN change sex on a whim, but by disrupting the order of the Hells, they are actually punished if they do it, even tho it's entirely allowed and absolutely a-okay to do! The laws of Baator are just very stringent. Being a creature of sex, maybe it's different for incubus and succubus?

Also just a note here, you can call Haarlep he, she, or they. The Narrator, in game characters, all use he when Haarlep is male, she when Haarlep is the Archduchess, and they during some of the Narrator's comments.

Speaking of glamours, though, it has been deciphered what Haarlep's harness says in Infernal, and it says "1000 lover's in 1 body" (link to reddit).

Some people have theorised that this is part of the secret contract that Haarlep was under. Personally... I think it's for nothing but Haarlep to gloat about in the Hells. I think it's entirely an aesthetic and prideful thing and nothing more. We know the devs have scribbled infernal on contracts and it literally says nothing (looking at Raphael's lol), it's all weird junk and silly things, so it's no surprise that they've written something like this on the harness Haarlep wears. Some little inside joke, but also a boast for Haarlep.

Raphael clearly likes to see himself wearing skimpy clothes, so maybe it's even to please Raphael. Maybe it's Raphael knowing that Haarlep has slept with that many others while wearing his face? Who knows. But personally, I really don't think there is anything significant when it comes to this, it's just a good little bit of humour added into the game.

During the sex scene, you will notice that Haarlep's eyes begin to glow throughout the rest of the encounter. I also find this fascinating, and I think it likely comes down to arousal or the power of the act, which when taking the glamour, would be a form of magic or corruption.

Pre sex:

During / post sex:

They are significantly brighter, and remain that way throughout the rest of the encounter. So, could it be the use of charm? Could it be arousal? Could it be the corruption and taking your body? Either way, it's something that I found interesting and I wanted to put here also.

Once the act is done, we get back down to business. This is where you can ask if Raphael is any good in bed. Of course, this is a whoooole debate amongst the fandom, and honestly, I don't think it needs to be taken so seriously. You've got to remember, Haarlep is an incubus, someone that is forged from lust and sex, and has likely slept with waaaaay more people than Raphael (especially if we take it literally when Haarlep says Raphael only wants to sleep with himself). That's a whole different topic, though, and this is Haarlep not even elaborating, just laughing and saying "no". But you're never going to get as good in the sack as an incubus, that likely knows all the trades. This isn't just a skill, it's INSTINCT for someone like Haarlep. Even if Raphael WAS bad in bed, though... what's the big deal? Who cares? I actually think it's something that makes Raphael more realistic, because he has a flaw and someone else is better at something than him. Good, make him feel vulnerable, let him be reminded, and perhaps that is also why Haarlep is kept around, so Raphael can imagine the incubus' prowess as his OWN whilst he wears his face.

Back to where Haarlep could be seen as potentially betraying Raphael by pointing you into the direction of the Orphic Hammer. Once again, like mentioned above yonder (this is getting long), there's no telling where this is coming from. Is this a betrayal? Is this Haarlep being short sighted and not really thinking Tav and Co could kill Raphael once he came back, knowing that the HoH was rigged to attack the moment the Orphic Hammer was taken? Interesting how Haarlep disappears amidst the chaos as well.

There's no saying what Haarlep was thinking, it's all speculation and guessing games, which fits perfectly with a devil, tbh. He's a scheming little shit, just like everyone else in the Nine Hells. Makes perfect sense to me that we don't know his true intentions. Plus, it's literally a 10 minute interaction. You can't possibly understand someone with a 10 minute interaction, you can only guess and assume.

What I do find a little funny is the following:

So we have Haarlep saying that Raphael hides NOTHING from him, and can't (likely because Haarlep wears his face and potentially uses charm on him to get what he wants), but also...

Haarlep gives you the key. To. The. Safe. The safe that he doesn't know what sits inside it... (bullshit).

He literally pulls it out of his arse and just hands it to you. Flat out. So how did Haarlep get the key? Why does HE have access to it? But doesn't know what's inside the safe? Definitely bullshit. He knows what's inside it, and Raphael, who has every door locked and invitations required and a ritual to get inside his house etc... just... hands his safe key to Haarlep? Or doesn't realise Haarlep has stolen it and keeps a copy?

Either way, this line about Raphael telling him everything indicates that Haarlep and Raphael talk to each other. Which, of course they do. They have been sharing a bed for who knows how long?

The reason why I have come to it being over a thousand years of being with each other goes back to Haarlep having Raphael's much younger glamour. Raphael is 2000+ years, as we know thanks to his comment about Karsus' Folly and how he was there to see it.

Haarlep likely came after, after he raged about the Crown, and when Mephistopheles realised that his son was ambitious and wanted power. 1000+ years is a long time to share your bed with someone and not grow some sense of comfort within that company. Even without realising it or admitting it (or even being in denial), Raphael is still a half human and half devil, those weaker natures, those human natures, he no doubt falls to every now and again, no matter how much he detests and attempts to refuse it. Company is company, and if anything, this is the sort of company that feels like it's there for complacency and self gain (not realising the self loss in the process).

I am not saying Haarlep and Raphael love each other. In fact, whatever they share is likely nothing but a mutual benefit from one another somehow (and of course, Haarlep being contracted there). But love is an extremely complex notion, and it's not that simple. I don't think it's yes, and I don't think it's no. I think it's an exceptionally GREY area that has become complacency, comfort, possessiveness, and selfishness. As for Haarlep? Who is a full fiend, tho an incubus of all fiends (master of lust, sensuality, intimacy...), I think Raphael has a greater chance of falling in love than Haarlep does. And that's saying something.

We know for a fact that Haarlep was sent via Mephistopheles, but there's some conflicting dialogue that can feel like Haarlep is "sworn to" Raphael but he's a gift, so who does he really serve?

Whatever the case, I still think that Haarlep is absolutely capable of manipulating Raphael in ways that others can't. Also, if Raphael didn't really care to have Haarlep around, he could just get another incubus to have his glamour and be done with it. Haarlep can change his face to be Raphael, yes, but he can't change his personality that easily. If Raphael really hated Haarlep, he'd just go "be gone" and throw him out the window.

Obviously, as a GIFT from his father... that might hold a little bit of sentimentality to it, especially for someone like Raphael, who is obsessive and possessive of his possessions. Haarlep would be seen as his, and only his.

Then there's the indication that Haarlep is unhappy and hates Raphael as much as any other devil in Baator. Haarlep is jovial in nature, he makes fun of people, including Raphael, his supposed master. I really don't see his end letter as him hating Raphael.

As above with the quote, Haarlep states Raphael can hide nothing from him, and deny him nothing, which pretty much solidifies that Haarlep has him wrapped around his little finger. If anything, Haarlep is the one in control of whatever relationship that they share (whether that's just sexual or not). Raphael still has power, of course, but it's this dynamic that shifts up and down between them, until they are back to the very same place they always end up.

The letter that you see in the epilogue never states anything on Haarlep's feelings towards Raphael. They state what OTHER devils feel. What the letter says is:

The only indication that one might get from this is the term "timely end" when it comes to Raphael's death. I wouldn't say this is an indication of Haarlep detesting the man. Haarlep isn't known for his love, so why would he mourn to a stranger? Why would he care, really? He's a fiend. The death of Raphael meant he was no longer bound to any contract, so it's absolutely opportunistic for him! But opportunity doesn't mean hate.

The entire atmosphere of Haarlep's letter has a sense of superiority around it, which if course it does. It's Haarlep. He's a fancy little snob that thinks he has better taste when he's actually fucking gelugons on a daily basis... Have you seen those things?

I'm more interested in the contract that was bounding him to secrecy. It's never explained more upon. Was Haarlep bound to secrecy to stay within the HoH? Was he bound to secrecy so no one knew him and Raphael had slept together and that Raphael had a personal incubus? Raphael has invitations for others to come into the boudior, so I highly doubt Haarlep was some little secret shame of his. If anything, Raphael seems the sort to boast about getting to have sex with his handsome self.

The only secrecy I can get from this would be the fact that it was a secret Haarlep was keeping from Raphael that he was a spy for Mephistopheles.

Which... let's talk about this spy as well. We don't know the terms and conditions of the contract between Haarlep and Mephisto, all Haarlep claims was that he was sent to "distract" Mephistopheles' naughty son.

Doesn't really mean spy. It CAN mean spy! Absolutely it could mean spy (and the devil's in the details). But if we think about what Haarlep was potentially sending back to Mephisto... why didn't Mephisto do anything? After all, Raphael can't hide anything from Haarlep or deny him anything, and that gives me the impression that Haarlep knows most of what is going on, and if he told Mephistopheles about all of that, I'm pretty sure Mephisto would have a shit fit over the fact that his son is after the crown that has been stolen from his vault.

This is a crown that Mephistopheles KNOWS pissed Raphael off when he took it and locked it away. Raphael tells us that he raged over it for years after it happened. So when the vault was broken into, I'm pretty sure Mephistopheles would have been onto Raphael about it immediately. If Raphael came up empty handed and literally didn't know a damn thing about it, maybe... MAYBE his father would be willing to go "fine, whatever," but this is a very paranoid Archdevil that has killed his own spawn before to better himself. Raphael is no different. He is expendable. He doesn't even live in Cania anymore (HoH is in Avernus), and as far as I can tell, he's keeping all those souls to himself so he can use them to turn into an ascended form (which makes me wonder if he got the idea from his father and Cazador).

So for being a spy... Haarlep is a pretty damn poor one, if you ask me. Haarlep comes off as more of a sloth than someone who is really interested in doing hard work. He wants pleasure and games, and he is content if he has that, but he's also a fiend, and Haarlep is still as selfish as any other devil.

If you kill Haarlep, you can also speak to his corpse, where he will give you the same information just in a different way. He will tell you where the key is, he will explain that Raphael was never on top during their bedroom games, and he will tell you he was sent to distract Raphael from Mephistopheles.

I am absolutely certain I could keep going with this, but I'm running out of juice, lol. Anyway, this is my little (big apparently) analysis of Haarlep's character, and why I write him the way I do.

There is no right and wrong when it comes to this, remember. We ALL have our unique headcanons and opinions on characters, and we see all but 10 minutes or so with Haarlep in a game that lasts over 100 hours of gameplay. There is always room for character growth and development. Just because you don't agree with someone's personal hc doesn't mean they're wrong or you're right.

I would love to delve further into some more headcanons, especially with Raph, his sexuality, and Haarlep and his relationship a little bit more, but for now, this his already gotten long enough, so some small dot points:

Hope says she has been in the boudoir against her own will (which makes me believe Haarlep and her have likely shared a bed--this is apparently triggered if you save Hope before doing anything else).

Haarlep is a top in the bedroom (as provided by his own words when you speak to his corpse)

Haarlep doesn't know of any weakness Raphael has in battle (this is indicated when you speak to his corpse and ask if Raphael has any weaknesses in battle, to which the corpse remains silent and the Narrator says "the corpse does not know"). A really neat hc post about that HERE.

Incubus eat hearts and meat (Haarlep, if you agree to let him devour your soul and body) stated that he will eat your heart.

If Haarlep devours your soul and takes your mind and soul, you do not die, you become a thrall of his to command, which will obey him and "my master" (which makes me think he speaks of Mephisto more than Raphael).

Haarlep can command imps (he summons them if you decide you want to battle)

If I think of more, I will add, I'm tired now, lol. If anything, can y'all appreciate how long this got? :'D

[ubernatural]

Due to the overwhelming majority of positive votes on my poll, this is a small snip of my as of now unnamed destiel fic. Please please please talk to me about how I can improve or what you liked about it <3

———

Cas was alone. Again. His roommate had fucked off, predictably, and left him to stew alone in their half unpacked room right before his first classes of the year. Normally, he’s fine being by himself. Thrives in it, really. But after the way he left things with his family, he’s craving human contact more than ever.

His parents will tell you he “ran away,” but, really, he just never told them he got accepted into KU. He just packed his bags, and left for the fall semester. He had been working jobs since he was fifteen and had saved every last cent of his pay, so he had some money to help with tuition. He also got one mean scholarship, so all he really needs are the books. But that won't stop his parents from calling him “selfish” and “entitled” when all he really wants is to live his life not being constantly squished into the image of the perfect son that hasn’t fit him in a long ass time.

It also doesn’t help that they are super religious and did not support him coming out as gay. They insisted it was a “phase” and “would pass.” But Cas had known for years that he was into men. He knew it before when he picked a girl in class to “like” just so he would fit in. He knew it in Senior year when Hannah, a girl in his school, invited him over to her house to study, or so he thought. She said she was going to change into something more comfortable and he figured that meant pajamas, but apparently that meant buck ass nude. He was embarrassed and, frankly, grossed out. He made a speedy exit, and avoided her for the rest of the year. His parents, Chuck in particular, kept asking him what ever happened to “that lovely Hannah girl.” Well, now they know why they never saw her again.

Pushing away the thought of his family, he rises from his bed to get ready. He throws on a pair of worn dark wash jeans, a black shirt, and pulls a battered gray zip-up over it all. He grabs the old messenger bag he was able to snatch from his father before he left, and fills it with the books he’s going to need today.

The walk to class was pretty uneventful. It was a nice day, and Cas only got lost once. He quickly asked for directions, and was relieved that he wasn’t even that far off course.

He was still pretty proud of himself when he got to the lecture hall. It was relatively full, but not so that it was hard to find a seat. He ended up picking one close to the middle next to a small redhead with glasses. They shared a polite smile before she reached her hand out for him to shake. “Hey there. I’m Charlie.”

Cas tentatively grasped her hand and gave it a firm shake. “Hello, Charlie. My name is Castiel.”

“Oh, that’s so cool! I might have to steal it for my new DnD character,” she playfully shoots back.

“Yes, well, you would be too late considering it’s already the name of mine.” His lips tick up in a smile as he sees her face brighten.

“Dude, you should totally come over and play sometime! I’ve only got one other friend who plays, and his younger brother who’s usually our DM.” Her eyes widen a fraction before she continues frantically, “I mean, obviously you don’t have to, and this is kinda weird since we know basically nothing about each other and-”

“I would love to join you, Charlie.” He cuts off her rambling before she can talk herself out of his invite.

Her face splits into a wide grin, and she’s beaming again. “Did we just become besties?” she asks.

“Yes, I believe we did,” Cas amusedly answers.

-

The Queen: handmaiden, come quick

emergency dnd meet in my room

now!

and bring the good popcorn

-

Dean gets the text as he’s finishing his last class for today. He’s pretty drained from all of the “introduce yourself” and “get to know you” chats that he was forced into all day. The sun’s setting, and all he really wanted was to curl up in bed and maybe watch Tombstone for the millionth time. But he loves Charlie, and he can’t refuse his queen. He shoots off a text saying he’ll be right there, and heads for his room to get the requested snack.

Ten minutes later, he’s standing outside Charlie’s dorm with the half cheesy, half caramel popcorn that she likes. He knocks once and is utterly unprepared for what he sees when he lets himself in.

“Hey, Charles-”

He stops in his tracks as he takes in the scene. Charlie and some guy are sitting on the floor as Charlie is very animatedly ranting about something or another and the guy is just sitting there, softly but excitedly smiling at her. Upon second glance, the guy is hot. He’s wearing a shirt that hugs his shoulders perfectly and matches his messy black curls. The guy also has a straight nose and full lips. When he looks up at Dean, he’s struck by just how blue his eyes are. Blue enough to drown in. Shut up, brain.

Their impromptu staring contest is interrupted by Charlie springing up from her spot on the floor and practically yanking him all the way inside the room. “Dean,” she says, “this is Castiel. We have English together and he mentioned he plays DnD, so I invited him over to see if we could coerce you and Sam into getting a game started.” He raises a quizzical brow and her responding look says “just go with it.”

“Uh, hey, man,” he says, transferring the nearly forgotten bag of popcorn under his left arm, reaching the other out for the guy to shake.

“Hello, Dean.” And damn, if he hadn't thought this guy was hot before, he definitely thinks so now. His voice is whiskey smooth yet still has a gargling gravel quality to it. His handshake is strong, too. And just as he realizes that fact, he also recognizes that he’s held this guy's hand for a beat too long and was staring again.

He clears his throat and extracts his hand, trying to control the flush he’s feeling. Judging by the small smirk on this Castiel guy’s face, he’s failed miserably.

Turning back to Charlie, resolutely ignoring the self satisfied smile on her smug little face, he extracts the popcorn from under his arm and offers it to her with a small bow. “M’lady,” he recites.

“Why thank you, handmaiden,” she says liltingly, and pats him on the head.

“Anything for you, my queen,” he says as he straightens.

He throws a glance back over at the guy, who is doing a comically adorable squint-tilt of confusion. He sniggers a little to himself. Where did Charlie find this guy? “So, Cas,” he starts, “are you a sweet or salty kind of guy?”

The squint deepens until the whole look smoothes out. “Well, I prefer sweet to salty snacks, if that’s what you’re asking. Although I do believe that opinion is almost entirely based off of my older brother sharing his sugar addiction with me.” His face turned contemplative and almost yearning.

“Well, that’s good since that half and half crap she has me pick up is more 70-30 on carmel to cheese. Now it works out,” he grins, “you two can split the 70 and I’ll get the 30 all to myself.”

“That’s… agreeable.”

His smile widens much more than the comment earned, but he can’t help it. He’s swooning and the man only said two words. “Great, I’ll get Sammy on the phone. Charles, why don’t you and Cas set up the game?”

Sam picks up on the third ring, predictably still awake and not trying to ignore his big brother. “Hey, Dean. How did your first day go?”

“Ah, it was alright, Sammy. Met some people, found some classes, nothing real eventful until now.”

“Until now? What does that mean?” He sounds equal parts concerned and cautious.

“Nothing bad, you can relax. Charlie found herself a new bestie, and we were just wonderin’ if your dungeon master skills could be brought out for a quick game.”

There’s a large sigh on the other end of the phone before he inevitably relents. “Fine. Put me on speaker, I’ll go get my notes.”

“Yes, Sammy!” he shouts excitedly “This is why I love you.” He puts his phone on speaker and flashes a thumbs up at the other two in the room who had looked up at his outburst.

“There’s gotta be more reasons than that, jerk,” Sam replies petulantly.

“Why don’t you come over here and find out, bitch,” he throws back.

There's grumbling and shuffling on the phone, and Dean grins triumphantly, even though the comeback didn't make much sense. “Ok,” Sam pauses, “am I on speaker?”

“Yeah. Hi, Sam!” comes Charlie’s reply.

“Hi, Char. And, uh, hi, Charlie’s new bestie?”

“Hello, Sam. My name is Castiel. It is good to speak with you.” Dean could listen to Castiel read an organic chemistry textbook and never get bored.

“Hello, Castiel. It’s nice to meet a fellow nerd,” Sam jokes.

Cas laughs and if Dean likes his voice, he loves his laugh. He could bottle it up and get drunk on it each night. God, when did he turn into such a sap?

They stay on the phone with Sam through a two hour adventure that he found lying in his notes. Afterwards, it’s pretty late, but they stick around and chat for a bit. They find out some random things about Cas, like, he’s 20 (just a year younger than Dean), his favorite animal is a bee (”But that’s not an animal, Cas, It’s an insect.” “And insects are a type of animal, Dean.”), he has one older brother, and apparently is in a band.

“No way, dude! That’s so cool! What do you play?” Charlie practically bounces off of her perch on the edge of her bed in excitement.

“Well, I play guitar, but I also sing, sometimes.” He shrugs, “We’re very flexible with who takes the lead, though. It usually comes down to who wrote the song and what they want to do with it.” He then smiles shyly, “Then again, most of the songs are mine as well, with more than a few written by my friend, Meg.”

Charlie nearly chokes on her own spit. “Wait, Meg, as in Meg Masters?”

The squint-tilt is back. “Yes. Megara Masters. Do you know her?”

Charlie scoffs, “Know her? No. Know of her? Hell yes. What kind of lesbian would I be if I didn't know the hottest gay in school?”

“Hey,” Dean protests, “the hottest gay is obviously that Aaron guy.”

She reached over and gently laid her hand on his cheek, “Oh, sweetie,” she said pleasantly, “you keep telling yourself that.” She pats his cheek lightly before she withdraws her hand. The whole exchange leaves Cas more than a little confused.

The topics ebb and flow however it wants, and soon they’re debating the merits of each Hogwarts house.

“I don’t care what either of you buffoons have to say, I gotta back my girl Harmionie,” Charlie yells.

“We’re not talking about characters, Char, We’re talking about the house itself!” Dean yells back.

“But if we were talking about characters,” Cas chimes, “That would give Hufflepuff a point because of Sedric.”

“Oh, yea?” Charlie snaps. “And where’s Sedric now, Cas? That's right, he’s dead,”

Dea narrows his eyes, “That was a low blow, Char.” No one disrespects Sedric and gets away with it.

Cas is about to speak, presumably to come to Dean’s aid, when his phone chimes. “Oh dear,” he says.

“What is it, Cas?” Dean asks as nonchalantly as he can, but if the look Charlie shot at him is anything to go by, it didn't work very well.

He laughs breathily at his phone and begins tapping away, speaking distractedly as he goes. “It looks like it’s much later than I thought, and Gabriel seems to have been trying to contact me for quite some time now.” He bites his lip thoughtfully before he starts typing again. Dean tries not to let his gaze snag on the gesture.

“If you gotta go, man, that’s cool,” Dean relents.

“Yeah,” Charlie chimes, “we should all probably get some sleep, anyways.”

“Yes I think I might do just that,” Cas answers. Just then his phone starts buzzing in his hand. “I have to take this, but it was lovely meeting both of you, and I hope we can possibly do this again sometime?”

“Of course, dude,” Charlie answers and goes in for a hug. Cas is a bit awkward, but he’s smiling, so it can’t be too bad. “We nerds gotta stick together!” she declares.

Dean sticks his hand out for Cas to shake. It’s firm and strong and lasts a little bit longer than a normal handshake, but Dean’s probably just imagining that. He also probably imagined when Cas’ eyes seemed to flick down to his lips. He had to have imagined it. No way would this guy be interested in a sack like Dean.

Cas seems to come back to himself abruptly when his forgotten phone starts buzzing again. He answers swiftly with a sort of fond and annoyed look that belongs to most younger brothers. “Gabriel, ya kak raz sobiralsya pozvonit'. Chto vam nuzhno?” He casually shoots them a wave, and closes the door on his way out.

Dean and Charlie are left staring after him in shock. Was that Russian?

[walmarttrashbag]

Hurt - Mike Wheeler Pt.2 TW: bitchy, annoyed Mike. hurt-part-one Suggested by: Https-Lola It was finally over! You finally had gotten over the stupid fucking dumbass Mike Wheeler crush of a lifetime, and you have never felt any better! You've turned your life around for the better. You feel so much healthier and happier after the loss of feelings for Mike. Mike, however, couldn't help but stare from afar with a frown. Why did you become so beautiful? Why was your smile so sparkling and outrageously perfect? Who let you go outside and look like a miracle from beyond the stars? Mike had a little over too many questions just about your pretty face. That night while the party was playing DnD, Mike just couldn't shake the thought of you out of his head, and it was like a bad song.

"Mike, are you okay? You're not raging at the fire-breathing dragon coming your way," Dustin pointed out, but Mike was still in a trance. Lucas rolled his eyes and walked over, giving Mike a forceful shake, "Wake up, Lover boy, the dragon awaits!" Lucas said in a jokingly wizard-like voice. Mike flinched, "Lucas, don't do that!" He said, getting defensive over nothing.

Lucas scoffed, "Sorry, sleeping beauty, I didn't know you were dreaming of your princess charming. Just get over Y/n already, I heard she was dating someone anyway!" Lucas said, not realizing all hell broke loose for Mike.

"SHE WHAT?!" Mike screamed out, standing up as he banged his fists on the table, making the characters and dice jump slightly.

"Michael!" Karen yelled from upstairs, "Quiet down!"

But this was no time for being quiet, and Mike quickly jumped to questions, "Who is he? What does he do to her? Why is he with her? What did he do to earn her?! TELL ME!" Mike yelled at his friends. Will spoke out, "I don't know much about him but I heard he's from Maine or Maryland or Missouri or one of the M states," He shrugged. "Yeah, and someone told me he's got a thing for Hawaiian shirts, and being the class clown," Dustin continued from Will's statement, "He honestly sounds really cool," Mike scoffed, "Yeah, who's this bozo's name anyways?" Mike asked, looking at the 3 expectantly for a clear answer. "It was like Rory Turner or something," Will replied. "No, it was something like Remi Taylor," Dustin told Will. Lucas rolled his eyes, "No, dumbasses! It was Richie Tozier! His name is Richie! And Mike, he looks exactly like you!" Lucas pointed the finger at Mike. Mike gasped, "Me? So you're saying I still had a shot with Y/n if she's bagging this Richie guy?!" "Guess so," Will replied, making Mike's blood boil. "That's it. Tomorrow I'm gonna find Richie and give him a piece of my mind," Mike promised himself. "Great, now can we please get back to defeating the dragon?" Dustin asked the party since so much time had been wasted on this dumb conversation.

The next day, Mike got up to school and saw a new bike on the racks. Mike had heard that Richie always biked to school as well. It was like Richie was a big stupid copycat! Mike had a note of description. Hawaiian shirt, shorts, converse, and giant stupid thick-framed glasses.

Mike skittered through the hallway like a cockroach and found a guy who matched the description perfectly, just without a Hawaiian shirt. Mike tapped the guys shoulder, "Hey, are you Richie?" Mike asked the guy.

The kid turned over and it was scary how much he looked like Mike, "Yeah, why?" Richie asked Mike, nudging up his glasses. Mike now knew this was the guy he should be shitting on. "Just know, your girlfriend, Y/n, liked me way before you did. You're just my rehash. The only reason why she's with you is because you're just me in a reskin," Mike told Richie, spitting out venom at the guy.

Richie's face scrunched up before he made a big obnoxious laugh in Mike's face, "Oh that's rich! That's really rich! I know who you are, Mike! And Y/n has told me all the things she's done to try to get you to like her back, and from what I've heard, you're a selfish prick who didn't take the chance when you got it! I've got the prettiest girl on earth, and you're kicking rocks! Go blow your dad before you spit out shit that's not real," Richie gave a condescending smirk to Mike, whose face went beat red in not only embarrassment but anger too.

Mike threw the first punch, and the hallway went from school to hell. Michael Wheeler and Richard Tozier fought things out. Some people get on Mike, and others get on Richie making the school out to 50/50, but before things could be settled out for the last time, you ran to the both of them. "Stop it! Stop fighting! Mike what the hell is wrong with you!" You lashed out at Mike, making him shocked. "Y/n! Come on you still have the chance for me! Why not ride the Wheeler train?" Mike said heartbreakingly as held his left eye.

You were grossed out by Mike as you helped Richie up, "Oh, Richie... Your nose..." You said, wiping the blood from under Richie's nose, before turning to Mike, "Mike, you're just a prick! You avoided me like the plague and you beat up my boyfriend because you're a petty jerk!" You went off at Mike, making his heart hurt on the inside. You walked Richie to the nurse's office, and Richie looked back at Mike, giving him an evil smile signaling that he had won your side once again, which was deserved.

Mike slowly but surely got up, "I'll win her back one day, you're stupid rehash!" Mike yelled out to Richie as the hallway crowd fanned out with no conclusion to the win. Mike was determined to get you back, one way or another, no matter what. He was gonna see Richie fail, and he was gonna King up to the Jester of all jokes.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Aita for bailing mid session when the GM clearly wanted it to focus on my character?

I have a lot of mental health issues, and one of the ways this manifests interacts *fantastically* with fibromyalgia. Essentially I get frequent migraines, anxiety attacks, pain everywhere etc etc. Usually this just means I lie down in the dark for the rest of the day. I've gotten to the point where I can kind of tell when it's coming, and I knew I was going to have an episode soon as I had been having minor symptoms for the past two days.

Well, DND was coming up and I still wanted to play, but I really wasn't feeling mentally capable at the time. A little bit before the session started (immediately after I came to the conclusion) I asked my fellow players and the GM to please not interact with my character heavily, at least for a little while, so that I could test the waters and allow my brain to sink in to ttrpg mode. This isn't an unusual request from me, and all of the other players have experienced me asking this before. I haven't been friends with the GM as long though, and I realize that she probably isn't fully aware of the condition I'm in on bad days. I also wasn't aware that the GM had planned for my character to be kind of the center of attention for the first part of the session, but it's not like I can schedule my episodes.

Well the session opens with my characters family trying to come along on the journey in order to 'protect' my character (despite the fact that they're severely injured, one of the two are literally missing a leg now). In character and out of character, I wouldn't want them to come with, and I said so when the GM asked through roleplay. I thought it would be as simple as that, but she kept pushing. The GM kept advocating for the family to tag along and kind of arguing with my character. I was really annoyed at this point because I had JUST asked to not be engaged with heavily. I tried to shirk off the debate to my fellow players, but the GM kept asking for my opinion specifically. I could feel my brain shutting down, so despite not wanting the family to come along I just rolled with it, not being up to a debate and not wanting to start an argument mid session.

We move on, stuff happens, and we enter combat. For some reason the GM was using minutes to measure distance instead of feet. As in, it would take you 10 minutes to reach this destination. Your enemies are 15 minutes away, etc. Except, we had rolled initiative. Meaning every turn was 6 seconds, so 10 minutes is like 600 rounds or something. Plus, the measurements she was giving us were inconsistent. They'd be in range of my 30ft spell, but they were also 10 minutes away? Point is, I was super confused, and trying to convert the measurements and figuring out what the hell was happening started triggering a breakdown. My head was pounding my heart was beating out of my chest everything was spinning and so I said I needed to leave. I ended up just going to lie on the floor for a long while and let them finish the session without me.

But I feel really bad about it. I feel like I should have warned the GM sooner, or maybe been more clear about what I deal with? She made a comment later that day about how "the session was supposed to go a specific way, but (I) wasn't up to anything and completely changed it." It really made me feel like she was blaming me for feeling unwell, like I just ruined her session. But I also feel like I wouldn't have had an episode had she just respected my wishes in the first place and not pushed me on something I wasn't up to engage in. Idk

What are these acronyms?

[readyandnot]

hot boi summer ‘23 ready rambles :)

buckle in everyone~

ALRIGHT I HAVE A LOT SO WE’LL START FROM THE BEGINNING:

david: a very nice and simple introduction to hot boi summer 23! he makes working out sound hot- ANYWAY angel being a menace as always and david being so soft with them like :,) and angel going to find him i’m crying

the spiciness was good! i just imagine the guy on camera was like “yeah i’m gonna leave them be” lmao

overall a great audio and a nice intro to the lineup :)

vincent: a very good vincent audio in general and i loveee the story for this one! the fact that these two are so comfortable with just doing their own thing and just going to a 7/11 dressed up is amazing. i love their relationship so much. VINCENTS SLURPEEEE I LOVE HIM. the spiciness was so good. I JUST WISH WE GOT A GLIMPSE OF WHAT VINCENT WAS SAYING UGHHHH

overall i love this audio and it’s very cute with a hint of spice :)

avior: AVIORRRRR

this was the one i looked forward to the most (and anton) BECAUSE SPICY WITH AVIOR YES PLEASE. this one is definitely my favorite on so many levels. THE FACT HE MADE STARLIGHT AN OASIS WITH THE OTHER LEVELS AND THE GOLD??? this dude is such a romantic he’s giving gavin and vincent a run for their money. AND THE ENDING??? so good. (lowkey think avior’s a switch) the spiciness was so good, it was simple but that’s what i think the best part about it is, and it was very romantic with the skinny dipping like omg.

i’m so sad this one didn’t win, but the livestream gave me hope that it might be continued like p l e a s e .

overall, the best one imo and i hope it gets continued eventually :)

gavin: a very good hot boi summer addition especially for gavin! seeing the other bois pop in as well in the beginning was amazing :) AND THE REFERENCE TO THE APRON MADE ME FREAK OUT

freelancer and gavin are such menaces and i love them for it, so horny for each other and it’s great. (flashbacks to huxley’s grilling audio anyone?) and the thought of gavin being submissive o m g. i love that idea so much because we have literally never seen that side of him so i am curious about that (maybe in the future?) the spiciness was amazing and i’m very sure they had a great time back at fl’s place lol

overall a solid great audio and definitely in my top five for this lineup :)

lasko: lasko lasko lasko. this one was great!!! i love seeing their relationship continue to grow and seeing how much lasko has changed since we first saw him! especially in the aspect that he’s used to taking things further but the fact that this is different to him :,) do you hear me crying. i love how easy the listener seems to be with lasko and how much of a calming presence they are for him, i know this relationship is going to be a great one! i hope soon we get an audio of the listener meeting the damn gang and fl! (and hopefully a nickname i’m begging) the spiciness is simple and i’m glad we’re seeing this change of pace!

overall, a nice change of things and i like this audio a lot!

elliott: I LOVE THIS ONE A LOT (this is probably my second favorite) it’s so good!! and it’s nice/bittersweet to see elliott and sunshine happy (like please can they be together again i’m crying) THE DRAGON. don’t even get me started-

the role play i cant- now i know these two definitely play dnd. elliott breaking out of character was hilarious and sunshine actually having some powers was a great idea!! the ending- (i’m crying). this relationship is so good they need to be with each other and i miss them being happy :( the spiciness is great in this one and so so so romantic ughhh

overall, i love this audio and it’s a solid addition to the lineup (i also love the irony of the coolness)

asher: one of the more tame ones and that’s not a bad thing! it’s definitely one of the sweetest audios in the whole channel because omg. asher is so emotionally intelligent and i’m so proud of him for how much he’s grown since the inversion!!! he knows who he is and how life can change so he’s using it to his advantage and i love that for him and babe :) their dynamic is great as always and the spiciness was good! (hopefully they were fine in the car lmao)

the horn part was hilarious and so on point lol

overall, a nice audio! very sweet with a little spice :)

guy: very tame for a guy audio which surprised me! i feel like this one was more focused on guy struggling to make it up to honey which i love because guy is such a menace lol

honey is such a saint but i love seeing how soft they can be with guy while still being a little grumpy (it is cute in guys defense) and i love their relationship and how it’s come to be so far!

the ending was great which added to the spiciness and it was hilarious at the same time, only guy can do that lmao

overall, a very simple but good audio! :)

anton: this one. (do you hear me sobbing.) the story and the dynamic was just in point and the references to the work AND THE PLANT I AM C R Y I N G. as soon as he said gift i knew it would be the plant :,(

seeing how devoted the listener and anton are to each other is beautiful. and how sweet they are with each other even if they seem like complete opposites. AND ANTONS WORDS WERE BEAUTIFUL (even if he said he’s not a man of many words i don’t care) the spiciness was so good too and very natural! it was soooo nice to see that side of anton and i wouldn’t mind if this one was continued :)

overall a lovely audio and probably my third favorite of the lineup :)

damien and huxley: THIS ONE WAS AMAZING. the ba was phenomenal and i’m honestly not mad that they got it, they deserved it and lived up to my expectations!!! the beginning was awesome and i loveee their convos so much more than i should. (the fact that gavin and fl burned the food doesn’t surprise me lol) AND THE SWITCH WITH THEM I CANTTT

the spiciness was great, it felt so natural and they are so great together.

overall (because i’m not gonna spoil the ba) i love this audio. i love them. and it would be unfair for me to put them in the ranking because it’s so good.

sam: this was a great audio!! i love the idea of sam being in the club and just being so awkward lol so i’m glad it’s now canon. THE WHOLE GROUP AS WELL LIKE YES THANK YOU REDACTED. (and the fact that david’s on the dance floor i’m deceased)

their dynamic is so good as always. and the visuals you get from this are great! seeing how they are finally letting loose after dealing with quinn is a great thing and i’m so happy for them. (also the vibes with this one were so good i was dancing the entire time.) the spiciness was so good, just imagining darlin “dancing” with sam like sheeesh

overall a great addition to to the lineup and to sam in general :)

milo: LAST BUT NOT LEAST. this one was so sweet and so relatable. (like i relate to sweetheart so much it’s not even funny.) the fact that they are so comfortable with each other and how sweetheart is stressed over vacation being over is a mood and i love how milo comforts them over it. HE KNOWS EXACTLY THE RIGHT THING TO SAY/DO AND I LOVE HIM. the spiciness was great and i love seeing them together like that because they are always so needy for each other it’s crazy. (and not a bad thing either-)

overall a great audio and i love milo so much. :)

(i am not including nick you better believe that)

now for my ranking: (not counting huxley/damien)

avior

elliott

anton

sam

gavin

milo

vincent

asher

lasko

david

NOW- i’m gonna be a little controversial but i don’t think sam deserved the ba. for a couple reasons: one, he already had one last month. and it was a good one too! i understand that his hbs was good but there are other boys who deserved it. which goes into my second reason, other boys who either haven’t gotten one (anton/avior) or who haven’t had one for a long time (elliott/gavin) i feel deserved to get the ba. putting favoritism aside it makes sense! lastly, (after listening to sams ba) i feel sam’s ba was underwhelming to be honest. there were moments that were amazing but the rest just felt like a normal ba. i was hoping there would be more to it but unfortunately not (for me at least). AND i understand that avior won the poll for an update (i don’t think it should have won btw) but i don’t think that should matter if it was something in the past if that makes sense.

overall, this years was great and i’m very happy in general! new people and the theme was awesome as well with the rewind! (here’s hoping one more is continued at least)

i cant wait for next year’s :)

what’s next: hush happened…. that shit was crazy.

i think avior is next? i’m so excited to get an update eeeee

if you made it this far, thanks for reading this rant and i hope you have a great morning/day/night

HAPPY HOT BOI SUMMER YALL

[zombie-the-derg]

HEY!

Do you wanna join a DnD campaign, but don't have any friends? Or maybe do you want to meet and maybe make some by joining one? Want to feel the thrill of death being close at hand? Well, I've got a proposition then! I'm starting a new series, podcast, whatever you want to call it, known as DEATH SAVE, and I want YOU to join it!

Death Save is all about flipping expectations, whether it be the theme of a campaign using a certain system, the system itself, the parties expectations, or the viewers! The best part? ANYONE can apply and join the campaigns on the show, which will be streamed, and subsequently uploaded for all to see!

The main twist of the whole show being that death is PERMANENT! Mechanics to revive characters will be limited or even outright REMOVED from any system we use! Meaning you'll have to hinge on every Death Save if you want to make it out alive. For our first season, we'll be playing a campaign I've dubbed The Realm of Tertia, a Steampunk, treasuring hunting campaign where your group of adventurers is looking for something known as The Last Spark, the last known piece of tamed electricity in all of the realm, in hopes of finding it to be rewarded, and to progress technology further. Or not. Who knows! (Guns will be a thing in this campaign) If this sounds up your alley and you want to meet new people, then you can apply for Season 1's campaign NOW!!! Apply in the form below! (Be warned its kinda long, as I'd like motivated players!) Applications will stay open until a couple of promising candidates for parties have been found.

(Please also join the Discord linked at the end of the application, as that's where I'll be conducting party interviews. You'll be interviewed with 3-4 other applications to determine whether you work well together or not. I may grab you for multiple interviews if I think you might work better with another party. Its all trial and error from here baby lol.)

[ryhmus]

MARIQUEST 1

MARI hosts a DnD session...

[MARI is busily setting up a board game on the living room table of the Kel and Hero's house, the others are sat around writing on character sheets.]

HERO; "Hey MARI? Uh, what's up with the wizard hat?"

MARI; "It's for our Spires and Seekers session tonight! Gotta look the part if I'm gonna be a good SM."

HERO; "SM? what's that mean?"

"MARI; "Spire master. It's the person who guides everyone through the game and tells the story. I've been spending weeks with other Hero setting up the narrative so we can play!"

[She proudly shows him a small portion of the script and who was playing]

HERO; "So we got, AUBREY, KEL, OMORI, you, me and..."

STRANGER; "Hello..."

[They turn around to see the shadow standing there in the doorway]

MARI; "Ah STRANGER! you're here...how long have you been standing there?"

STRANGER; "I've just arrived, I apologize for my lateness, Basil and his other counterpart required my assistance in the garden."

AUBREY; "At night?"

STRANGER; "It was a very long day, none of us are built for strength like you or the others are."

MARI; "I see...Well then since you took my invitation, take a seat in the living room and we'll get started soon."

...

One set up later

...

[the dream friends are all sat around the table]

MARI; "Did everyone fill out their character sheets?"

KEL; "Yep! here ya go! I'm gonna be the strongest wizard ever! With my laser beams and missiles this is gonna be a blast!"

AUBREY; "You can't do that! there were no missiles or laser beams back then!"

KEL; "Shows what you know AUBREY! They're magic. You're just jealous your character isn't as cool as mine!"

HERO; "Guys! please don't fight, we haven't even started yet..."

MARI; "STRANGER...this is blank, are you sure you don't want to make a character?"

STRANGER; "I see no reason to pretend to be someone I'm not."

[everyone just stares at him in awkward silence until MARI audibly clears her throat.]

MARI; "We...we can work with this. Okay everybody, are you all ready for a night of adventure?"

KEL; "Aw yeah! let's go!"

AUBREY; "I'm so excited about this! What about you OMORI?"

OMORI; "Mhmm..."

{}{}{}{}{}{}[(START!)]{}{}{}{{}{{{}{

OUR TALE BEGINS IN A SMALL VILLAGE CALLED NOWHERE LAND, FIVE BRAVE ADVENTURERS SET OUT TO DEFEAT AN EVIL SORCERESS WHO THREATENS TO ENSLAVE THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD WITH HER VILE MAGICS...THE FATE OF THE WORLD RESTS ON THESE BRAVE SOULS...

AUBREY, THE FEARLESS BARBARIAN WARRIOR OF THE NORTHERN BUNNY FOLK!

HERO, THE VALIANT KNIGHT-PALADIN OF A FAR AWAY KINGDOM.

STRANGER...THE MYSTERIOUS FAMILIAR OF AN UNKNOWN REALM...

KEL THE WIZARD...A MASTER WIZARD...OF BASKETBALL? OKAY WE'LL JUST GO WITH THAT FOR NOW...

AND OMORI, THE SHADE, SHADOWY AND SILENT ROUGE, QUIET AS THE NIGHT...

THEIR JOURNEY WILL BE LONG AND PERILOUS BUT TOGETHER THEY WILL-

KEL; "Hey hey! er, Sorry to interrupt this early but I really gotta use the bathroom, be right back!"

[KEL sits up and bolts off towards the upstairs.]

AUBREY; "Dang it KEL! couldn't you have gone before we started? Did you have to chug two gallons of soda beforehand?!"

MARI; "Calm down AUBREY it's alright, no need to get worked up over a game. Besides, we just started, so we can wait until he gets back and then continue."

HERO; "In that case, I'll go check on the snacks in the kitchen..."

MARI; "You too HERO? that's fine."

MARI; "So I guess that leaves just us, what do you think little brother?"

OMORI; "Hmm..."

MARI; "Cliff faced as usual, huh? That's okay, I'm just happy that you're here with us tonight instead of sticking to your room."

(One minute of waiting followed by another spent of marching KEL back upstairs to wash his hands)

HERO; "I'm back, the cookies should take a hour or two to bake in the oven. I forgot to ask earlier, how do we play this game again?"

[MARI looked uncertain for a moment]

MARI; "Well...first we've already made characters. You follow the story and when you want to do something in game, all you need to do is roll a dice. You can look at your sheets to see what your skills are if you need to."

...

Now let's begin...

Our adventure begins in the little town of Nowhere where our brave adventurers are resting at the local bar, the bar-maiden comes over and asks-

AUBREY; "I punch KEL in the face."

HERO; "AUBREY..."

MARI; "Are you sure you want to do that?"

AUBREY; "I wanna punch him in his dumb face."

MARI; "...Roll for initiative then."

KEL; "Good luck, you'd have to be really lucky to roll a-

AUBREY "Ooh! a 20...~"

MARI; "AUBREY socks KEL in the face for no reason and sends him flying through a wall. The other taverngoers are visibly upset that their night has just been interrupted."

KEL; "What?! no fair! Well then I hit her back with one of my magic missiles!"

HERO; "Roll the dice bro..."

KEL; "I got a...a 3!? WHAT!?"

MARI; "KEL'S magic missile attack misses completely and blows a hole in the wall, the owner is furious and demands payment for his the property damage.

HERO; "I offer to pay the man the appropriate amount of money to fix his tavern and for our drinks."

MARI; "Roll the dice HERO."

HERO; "Wait, I have to roll the dice to pay for the damages? How is that luck based?"

[MARI scratches her head and looks through the Spires and Seekers guide]

MARI; "According to the playbook, that's the rules...Your luck determines how well it will go."

HERO; "Uh...an 8?"

MARI; "HERO pays the owner of the bar for all the damages but at the cost of all the money you had saved up from your previous adventure.

KEL; "Nice going HERO, you blew all our money!"

AUBREY; "No thanks to you KEL, you're the one who blew a hole in the wall with your dumb missiles!"

KEL; "Y-You hit me first!!"

OMORI; "..."

STRANGER;"That is a very unfortunate start...i hope this gets better soon."

...

Without money the adventurers set out west to seek treasure and fortune elsewhere...Eventually, they come across a warband of orcs escorting a wagon full of plundered treasures but also have several hostages with them as well, what will everyone do?"

KEL; "Shoot a magic missile at them!"

AUBREY; "For once I agree with you, let's fight them!"

HERO; "Why can't we just try and negotiate with the orcs and see if we can talk it with them or lure them away? What if the hostages get hurt?"

STRANGER; "Roll the dice."

KEL; "A 1?...aw nuts."

MARI; "The missile plonks off of the orcs armor and makes them angry, they charge!"

HERO; "I-I uh, er...charm them with my good looks?"

AUBREY; "Roll it."

HERO; "4...Just my luck, of course...Why would I have thought it would work differently this time?"

MARI; The orcs become even more enraged and set their sights on HERO...

STRANGER; "I unleash the shadows to protect my allies!"

[STRANGER rolls the dice, it spins in place before landing]

MARI; "You got a 17..."

MARI; "STRANGER casts a shadow ward around the party and blocks the assault, but it cannot hold for long. What will you do before the ward breaks?"

[OMORI tugs on his sister's sleeve to get her attention]

MARI; "OMORI? you want to tell me something?"

OMORI; (Whispers something into MARI'S ear)

MARI; "Uh, I'm not sure that's even allowed...but okay, just roll the dice little brother, see what you get."

[The monochrome boy picks up the die and drops it on the table. Everyone's eyes going wide as lollipops.]

MARI; "A natural 20...OMORI...slashes through the orcs and utterly and completely decimates them...okay...so, there's a bunch of treasure and the hostages are free, what will you do now?"

KEL; "Magic miss-"

OMORI; "No..."

KEL; "Er...we, take the loot, move on to a safe distance...then I magic missile them."

Everyone; "NO."

KEL; "You're no fun..."

The session goes on through the night with brave adventurers travel through swamps brimming with bandits, to mountain caves filled with ravenous spiders and a haunted castle with a dark curse, The adventurers cleared each encounter with ease and claimed treasures to be shared with all. With KEL the wizard using magic missile every time they came across even the smallest threat, AUBREY picking to fight everything, STRANGER having no clue how anything worked and HERO never being able to do anything in game because of his poor rolls. OMORI always seemed to get perfect twenties every turn by dropping the dice on the table but if something was amiss, no one paid much attention to it for the sake of the game. But soon it came time to bring the game to a temporary close...

MARI; "Oh my goodness! look at the time! it's past midnight! we should really get some sleep for tomorrow!"

KEL; "But...But I just got a cool new sword...Can we keep going just a little longer?"

AUBREY; " Please? I was just about to get my barbarian a new skill too!"

MARI; "Sorry guys, I know you all are really enjoying this, but we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow...Don't want to miss out on the fourth of July celebrations would we?

HERO; "MARI'S right we should all go to bed for the big day."

AUBREY; "Okay MARI good night. KEL, I'm going home."

KEL; "Race you to see who gets to my house first!~"

AUBREY; "You already live here, idiot."

MARI; "Well that was super fun wasn't it? I hope you enjoyed that as much as I did."

HERO; "Heh, even though I never got lucky enough to do anything other than distract things and soak up damage, I had a blast and I'd like to play again sometime."

MARI; "Well I thought you made a pretty good distraction, who could resist such a handsome knight in shining armor?~"

[She winks at him, causing HERO to blush deeply]

HERO; {Blushes deeply} "M-MARI!"

MARI;"Haha! I'm joking! I'm joking! well, how did you like it, STRANGER? OMORI?"

OMORI; (Thumbs up)

STRANGER; "A fulfilling experience...when will we have another one of these 'D and D' sessions?"

MARI; "Maybe next week same time?"

[A burning smell fills the air and a smoke alarm goes off in the kitchen. Upstairs, the sounds of Kel and Hero stirring and a baby crying could be heard]

HERO; "Wait a minute...past midnight?! (*gasp*) Oh no! MY COOKIES ARE BURNING!"

[HERO immediately rushes into the kitchen]

MARI; "Uh oh...Little brother? Why don't you and STRANGER head on back home. HERO and I have to check on the kitchen real quick before it burns down."

HERO; "THE COOKIES ARE ON FIRE!"

MARI; "See you tomorrow!~"

I've never played DnD before don't hurt me...