#and by THAT i mean im currently trying to design bard a more times and stars design and loop a more genshinnn design

[lanternlightss]

sometimes i remember that i can doodle and write and by that i mean sometimes i remember that i can put my thoughts about nameless bard and loop being friends to paper

[trifrost17]

YGO Advent Day 18: Adventure

Summary:  The gang plays the new Monster World VR game that Yugi created and things are going great until Atem and Yugi fall down a hole. Yugi doesn't take Atem being unconscious very well at all.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16811635/chapters/40398353

18: Adventure

“Ryou just messaged me. He’s on his way over now to our meeting spot here.”

“And Kaiba? Is he coming?” Yugi shrugged, sighing.

“I’m not sure. I texted him our party’s code so he could join the quests with us, and Mokuba, too, but I’m not sure if they’re going to join or not. He never responded back.”

Joey sighed, sitting on the ground and dragging the tip of his sword back and forth on the dirt. “I was hoping the whole gang could be here. Since Téa is supposed to come and all.”

Atem looked like he was going to say something but thought better of it, shifting back to stand in Yugi’s arms. Yugi instantly wrapped an arm around his husband, enjoying the feel of the costume that clung so nicely to all of Atem’s assets. He was very glad that Atem’s avatar looked identical to him. It would be so much harder to fawn over his avatar in the VR world if it didn't look like Atem.

“Hey guys, I made it! And look who I found on the way over!” Ryou grinned and pushed Téa in front of him. She laughed and waved, accepting all the cheers and hugs with relish from the group.

When they finally stopped, she turned to Ryou and Yugi. “This is amazing, guys. I almost feel like I’m here with you even though I’m halfway around the world right now. You guys did incredible on this game.”

“That’s all Yugi!” Ryou responded cheerfully. “I may have been the lead designer and story writer, but Yugi was the one who really put this to life with Kaiba. He’s a mad wizard at this VR stuff.” Yugi blushed, trying to wave off their compliments, but he did feel secretly pleased that they liked his game.

Monster World had been his grandest project yet, even when comparing it to Spherium II. It had taken him two years to program the game fully, even though the code had been something he had been working on since he began his programming classes in college. But it had always been one of his dreams to translate the tabletop Monster World RPG into a VR RPG. Kaiba had been fully on board with the idea and had helped him immensely with creating the game, making it compatible with the KaibaCorp VR Duel Disk-Headset.

He had asked Ryou to help him design the game and the story mode, too. In that way, it did make it less taxing than Spherium II since Yugi wasn’t responsible for everything. But after all their hard work, the game had finally been released.

And if the reviews, pre-orders, and first weekend sales were anything to go by, Monster World VR was turning out to be a big hit.

“All right, so I figured since we’re all different levels, we could start on a mid-level quest to encompass all of us. Téa, Tristan, and Duke are all low leveled, so you guys can get the boss kills and level up like crazy. Joey, Atem, Ryou, and I have all been playing in our downtime so we’re a little higher leveled." That was an understatement. They were actually rather high leveled, he and Atem especially. "We won’t take any kills, though. We’re just there for back-up.”

“No way!” Tristan exclaimed, pouting. “Let’s go on a hard quest! If we have you guys, we got this in the bag!” Yugi hesitated, looking around his group. Ryou and Téa shared his apprehension while Atem, Joey, and even Duke looked amped for a more dangerous mission.

Finally Téa sighed and shrugged. “Whatever. Let’s do this and make it epic. The hardest one that you have—that you know we’ll actually win!” Yugi nodded, pulling up his quest menu. He scrolled through it until he found the mission he was looking for. With a smirk, he nudged Ryou, who hissed when he saw it.

“Yugi, no!”

“Yugi, yes,” he responded with a grin. “They wanted hard. Let’s give them hard.” Ryou groaned while Joey and Tristan cheered. Even Atem looked excited.

Of course, considering it was rare for their entire group to get together and play games like this, no wonder everyone was excited. A more intense quest would make them play together longer and bring an extra level of thrill to the game. Yugi was okay with that, even if it would be more challenging and definitely way too much for the lower-leveled characters to fight on their own.

He clicked on the quest and the world melted around them, reforming into the new lands that applied to their new adventure.  

“So, this is called the Signer quest. We have to defeat six dragons to make the seventh and most powerful dragon appear. But after we defeat them, they’ll join our sides. Actually, whoever KOs the dragon gets the Signer mark permanently after that and can summon the dragon from here on out in the game.” Yugi grinned, shifting to the balls of his feet excitedly. “Then, if we beat this quest, it’ll unlock the Dark Signer quest. That’s when we use the seven dragons to defeat the seven Earthbound Immortals and the evil Crimson Devil. It’ll be fun!”

Duke was the one that opted to respond. “Sounds like it. After what you've made, if you're saying it's fun, it will be. Let’s go, then. Lead the way, Yugi.”

“Wait, wait, what is everyone?” Tristan asked, pointing at Atem for an example. “I'm a Magic Gunman. White Wizard for Ryou; Warrior for Joey; Téa is a... ?”

“Magician,” Téa supplied.

“Thief,” Duke said, pointing to himself.

“I’m a Beast Tamer!” Yugi told him. At Tristan’s blank look, Yugi elaborated, “It means I can convert enemies to our side. I already have a few from previous quests; I can only have six on me at one time.”

“And I’m an Illusionist,” Atem finished. “I can create images and mental traps to attack enemies with. I also got an ability to summon different magician friends, so I have four magicians I can summon to help me, too.”

Tristan nodded, seemingly pleased with the explanation. He gestured for them to continue moving, so Joey took the lead, loudly proclaiming he knew where to take them.

He didn’t. They wandered in circles, fighting enemy spawn after enemy spawn. After the third circle around a forest, Yugi waved his Marshmallon and Winged Kuriboh back to his side and reached out, halting Joey from going further.

“This way, Joey.” He pointed towards the left. “Kuriboh saw the pathway from over the treetops.”

“I knew that! I was just lettin Tristan and Téa level up and stuff.” Yugi gave him a patronizing grin and nodded. “Ah, hush up!” He gave Yugi a noogie before walking off in the direction Kuriboh was leading them.

They found their first dragon almost immediately once they were on the right path. It was sleeping on the ground, surrounded by plants. As soon as the party stepped into the pathway, the black dragon poked its head up, glaring at them. It flared its beautiful wings, covered in large rose petals, and stood, roaring. It’s spiked, thorned tail thrashed against the ground in warning.

“Yeah, this is what I’m talking about! Hiyaaa!” Joey let out a war cry and rushed forward, his sword held over his head. Tristan was hot on his heels, shooting magical laser shots from behind Joey.

Everyone grimaced as the dragon’s tail lashed out, catching Joey and Tristan in one fell swoop and sent them flying. “Yikes. Maybe we should be a bit more coordinated,” Ryou suggested. Yugi and Téa nodded.

“Téa and Ryou, you two should provide back-up since you’re both long-range. Atem can summon his spirits and provide extra coverage. Duke, you can dart in and out when the dragon is distracted and cut down its health points. We’ll let Joey and Tristan continue to be the distraction. And I’ll bring one of my own friends out to help defeat this.” With the plan set, the group spread out.

“Timaeus, come forth!” A miniature version of the green dragon rose from the ground. It nuzzled Yugi’s hand, wanting to be pet, before it turned to Atem and waddled over to him, nudging the magic user. He smiled and ran his hand up and down Timaeus’s neck.

Téa raised an eyebrow. Yugi laughed at the picture Atem and Timaeus made. “Atem and I sometimes just come in here to play with the pets instead of questing. Timaeus really likes him.” After the dragon had gotten his fair share of petting, he turned towards the Black Rose Dragon and zoomed off, shooting blasts of water.

Atem was next, summoning the Dark Magician Girl and the Dark Magician to his side. They were tiny, toon versions of the characters, both spirits that were missing legs and having ghostly tails instead. The two began to circle around the dragon, attacking, while Atem stood back and began shooting spells to disorient the dragon.

Joey and Tristan continued to get smacked around (keeping Ryou rather busy with constantly healing them) while Duke weaved in and out between people to slice at the dragon with his dagger. However, it was Téa that shot the killing blast. The Black Rose Dragon gave a cry and then exploded into a red light that shot down onto Téa’s hand, leaving a mark behind.

The group as a whole felt themselves level up, some gaining more levels than others. They collected the monster drops and loot, finishing up their first battle.

“Whoop! One down, six more to go! Let’s do this guys!”

Dragon number three was when Mokuba and Kaiba dropped into their team. Mokuba was a Bard while Kaiba was an Enchanter. While Mokuba played songs on a flute to up their stats, Kaiba used surrounding objects to throw at the current dragon—the Ancient Fairy Dragon—to weaken it.

Duke had defeated their second dragon, the Life Stream Dragon, and gained its power. As for this third dragon, Mokuba stole the kill right at the end from Joey, taking the Ancient Fairy Dragon as his new summon, too.

Their next dragon, the Black-Winged Dragon, was a tougher opponent that had Yugi summoning a second dragon. It was the Red Eyes Black Dragon and Joey nearly had a fit when he saw his favorite dragon at Yugi’s side.

“It was a new summon I found a few nights ago,” Yugi explained sheepishly. Joey continued to glare at him throughout the entire fight. At least until the dragon was defeated and Joey had a new target he could direct his pouting to. In this case, Tristan took the kill and Joey's whining.

Dragons five and six appeared together much to the group’s horror (besides Yugi, Ryou, and Kaiba who all knew what the quest entailed). They were the strongest dragons and Joey and Kaiba both fought over trying to get the final kill. It was a difficult battle, though; enough so that Ryou had to revive Joey twice and Tristan three times.

Atem had to summon his final two magician spirits: the Magician of Black Chaos and the Silent Magician. Yugi was also forced to summon his final two dragon companions, the Blue Eyes White Dragon (which had Kaiba apoplectic when he saw it) and Gandora, the Dragon of Destruction.

Atem nearly had the final kill but was nice enough to freeze the Stardust Dragon for Kaiba to take the kill. Ryou also had the final killshot on the Red Dragon Archfiend but Joey swooped in right at the last second and stole the kill.

“You’re lucky there is no friendly fire. If there was, I would roast you alive,” Ryou grumped out, pouting as the dragon’s mark appeared on Joey’s hand. “I wanted a dragon.”

Yugi nudged him and smiled. “Don’t worry. You can get the next one. Think of how cool that’ll look, too! Summoning that flaming beast will make you legendary.” Ryou gave a laugh, nodding.

“You’re right. I’ll be the most badass White Wizard in all of Monster World. Come on, let’s go get that Crimson Dragon!”

When they made it to the sacred summoning ground, the six members of their party who had the Signer marks had to lift up their arms to draw forth the dragon.

If Yugi was being honest, the Crimson Dragon was one of his and Ryou’s most beautiful creations. It was slender, like a snake, but it had flaming stick-like wings, almost skeletal in appearance. It was nothing but pure flame, though. No body, no actual wings, no teeth or claws; nothing but pure molten energy. They could feel the heat radiating from its body.

“Amazing…” Téa breathed, staring up at the creature in awe. Tristan and Duke both made similar sounds.

“Let’s take it down!!” Joey was the one to charge in first, again, like always. But this time, the creature was too strong.

“Joey, no!” Yugi reached out to stop him but was too slow. His best friend was slashed across the chest by the dragon’s claws, sending him to his knees.

“Joey!!” Their entire team rushed to his aid but everything happened in a blur after that. Yugi wasn’t sure what happened, exactly. He was reaching towards Joey, there was screaming, Téa went flying backwards beside him, Atem was yelling, Kaiba grabbed him and threw him backwards, and then there was a lot of earth shaking and rocks.

And then… and then the ground was cracking open and a huge fissure split the earth. Yugi was sitting up enough to see what happened and it was like a movie playing in slow motion. Atem was shoving Ryou out of the way from the hole but he didn’t move fast enough, and then he was the one falling down the crevice. Yugi watched Atem’s body disappear into the blackness and it felt like his heart stopped.

He knew, deep down, it was only a game and that no true harm would come to his husband. But in that moment, it was like his world stopped. He couldn’t hear anything around him, couldn’t see anything except Atem’s falling body, couldn’t think about anything except saving his husband. His heart thudded in his chest and Yugi simply moved on pure instinct. He dived after Atem, ignoring Ryou and Kaiba’s shouts for him to stop.

He managed to grab Atem around the waist, holding him to his chest, as they plunged into icy waters below them. Before he lost consciousness, he was horrified to feel his hands slip from Atem’s body.

Yugi blinked his eyes open slowly, feeling like his mind was in a fog. How he hadn’t died from the fall was beyond him. He should really be waking up back home, in the real world, after being booted from the game. But he wasn’t.

The rush of memories came back and Yugi sat up, panicked. “Atem? Atem! Atem! Where are you?” He stumbled over himself to stand, wincing as his leg nearly gave way instantly. Yugi groaned as he fell back on his ass. He pulled up his status menu, taking inventory of his wounds. It looked like his ankle was sprained, so until he found a healer, his walking ability would be limited. Luckily, that was the only real damage. Everything else was just bruises and cuts.

As well as the fact he was freezing. That was delightful.

He groaned, chanting a few spells to summon his dragons back to his side. All four appeared in front of him, as well as Marshmallon and Winged Kuriboh. “Timaeus, Blue Eyes, go search the surrounding area for Atem. I need to find him. Red Eyes, I need your flames to warm me up, but then I want you to go find our team and let them know where I am.” Timaeus and the Blue Eyes White Dragon took off at Yugi’s command, while the Red Eyes Black Dragon lit a small fire to let Yugi warm up.

Once he was dry and his body temperature back up to normal, the Red Eyes took off up the cliff to find the rest of their friends.

“Gandora, help me walk. I have to find Atem.” Gandora let out a whine, clearly wishing Yugi to remain sitting, but Yugi was stubborn. He stood, wobbling on his good leg, but began to hobble off, following the river he had washed up from. Gandora trotted along beside him, steadying him slightly. Kuriboh flitted around his head nervously, clearly worried about Yugi’s health.

Thankfully, Timaeus let out a cry that had Yugi stumbling towards him in a rush. The Blue Eyes found Yugi and steadied his other side, helping him get to Atem’s side faster.

And there was his husband, lying prone on the ground. He wasn’t moving.

It’s just a game. It’s just a game. It’s just a game. This isn’t real. Atem is fine. Atem is fine. This isn’t real.

Yet no matter how many times he repeated it, Yugi couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down his cheeks or the panicked breathing. This was his husband and he was hurt and just lying there and Yugi didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t lose Atem again.

He made it to Atem’s side and scooped him up into his arms, shaking and doing his best to hold back sobs. “A-Atem, darling, please wake up. C’mon, babe, wake up. Please get up.” He gently tapped his cheek but Atem didn't stir in the slightest.

It was just a game but at the same time, it was way too real. Yugi felt this strike something deep inside him and felt as his innermost fears began to bubble up to the surface. He couldn’t breathe.

“Please, Atem, please. Please wake up. Please.”

It was like a nightmare. Yugi felt himself slipping into his darkest memories; he was back there, kneeling on the ground in a dark temple, watching the love of his life walk away. Feeling like he had killed him, forced him to leave. Watching the doors slide close behind his king, forcing a smile on his face as his heart shattered.

Yugi’s breath hitched and he let out a sob. “Atem! Please, Atem, please… Please!” He wasn’t even sure what he was begging for. He wasn’t sure why this was destroying him inside so much, but it was. Yugi couldn’t handle it. He couldn’t handle Atem unconscious like this, slipping away from him just like before.

He couldn’t have him walk out of his life again. Yugi wouldn’t let it happen. He’d die before he let Atem leave him again. This time, if he wanted to walk through those doors to the Other Side, Yugi was going to follow him no matter what Atem said.

“Yu… Yugi?” The voice was hoarse but it snapped Yugi out of his spiraling sobs, making him open his eyes and give a relieved whimper. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re okay,” Yugi told him, trying to steady his breathing. He was still hiccuping from his tears. “Gods, y-you’re o-o-okay.”

Atem looked perplexed for a few seconds but he seemed to realize that Yugi’s tears were not normal. And that was why he loved his husband because instead of probing and asking why Yugi was overreacting from a video game, he simply reached up and hugged him. “I’m here, Yugi. I’m not going to leave you. Ever.”

Yugi let out a sob, unable to hold it back. “I-I-I’m sor-sorry. I don’t—I don’t mean to b-b-be like this but… but… you were—-”

“Shh, shh, it’s okay. Don’t apologize; I understand. But I’m here, my love. I’m right here, solid, in your arms. I’m not going to go anywhere. I’m not going to leave your side for all eternity. Remember? We promised that.” Yugi nodded, unable to say anything.

“Do you want to breathe together? Or do you just want me to talk?” Atem asked him, stroking Yugi’s hair.

“J-just talk. I want to hear your voice.”

“Okay. I thought your dragon was beautiful. You and Ryou have done so amazing on this game. Even the pain reception. It’s not too much but enough to feel sore; to make it real. That heat, though, from the dragon! It was incredible, partner. I’m so proud of what you’ve made. And all of our friends are enjoying it, too. Even Kaiba is playing, so you know it’s a great game.”

Yugi felt his heart begin to fall into its normal rhythm. Everything was okay. Atem was there. Atem was real. Atem was alive.

“I love you,” Yugi whispered. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too, Yugi.” Atem seemed to feel him calming. “Do you want to talk about it? What triggered that reaction?”

Yugi took a few more deep breaths before he trusted himself to speak. “I saw you… just lying there. And all I could think was that you were… you were dead again. And then I remembered the last time I saw you die and leave me and I… I don’t want you to go away again. If you want to go back to the Field of Reeds, I’m going with you this time. I won’t let you leave me.”

Atem cupped Yugi’s cheeks, tilting his face down so he could reach up and kiss him. He kissed him long, gently, and deeply. He kissed him until Yugi felt like he was seeing stars; all he could think about was Atem. He could taste Atem, smell Atem, feel Atem, see Atem, hear Atem—Atem had his every sense and it was perfect.

He broke away and wiped the tear residue remaining on Yugi’s cheeks. “I will never leave your side. Anything we do, we do together. Until the end of time.” He didn’t wait for Yugi to respond, leaning back up and kissing him again.

Yugi wasn’t sure how long they sat there kissing, but it was long enough that all the traces of panic and anxiety eased from his chest. It was long enough that he could breathe normally and think logically again. He knew Atem was there and it grounded him to the present.

“Wow, seriously?” The annoyed tone of Joey had Yugi and Atem pulling apart with embarrassed grins. “Here we are, worried sick about finding you two, and it just turns out that you’ve run off to go canoodle! What the hell, guys?”

“It’s… not what it looks like?” Atem tried with a cringe. No one in the group believed it.

However, ever the perceptive one, Téa seemed to notice Yugi’s red-rimmed eyes and his death grip on Atem’s back and seemed to process that there was something underlying going on. She waved Joey’s rants away, rolling her eyes at him. “They’re the married ones; let them do what they want. After all, this is Yugi’s game. If he programmed spots to go be alone with his husband, well, he deserves to use them!”

Yugi gave a sheepish laugh, not feeling like correcting Téa’s assumption that this was a spot that he could do, ahem, other things with his husband. He technically couldn’t. Those spots had been programmed into the game, of course, though they were very difficult to find for other users. But this particular place wasn’t one of those spots.

Which was probably a good thing. Yugi wouldn’t have liked getting caught by all his friends doing his husband.

“So did we defeat the dragon?” Atem opted to ask, working on redirecting the conversation away from them. “Or after Ryou heals us, are we going back up there to give it another go?”

“We killed him!” Joey declared proudly, puffing out his chest. “It was hard. And Ryou had to revive almost everyone. But we finally did it!”

Yugi scanned their arms, trying to see who won. Ryou held up his arm, the crimson mark glowing all the way down the front of his hand to his elbow. It was in the shape of a dragon. “I did,” Ryou said proudly.

“So, we up for doing the next quest?” Duke asked the group as Ryou healed Yugi and Atem. “Or are we calling it a night?”

Yugi caught Téa glancing over at them worriedly; she could definitely sense there had been something else going on when the group wasn’t there. Giving an exaggerated yawn, she said, “I think we should call it a night. I’m beat. Remember, it is like 14 hours difference over here. So I know it’s like 5:00 over there, but it’s like 3 in the morning here. So call it a night?”

“Oh shit, yeah. Sorry, Téa. We’ll have to time this out better next time.”

“Meh, it’s Friday. No biggie. Anyways, don’t do the next quest without me! I want to use my dragon, too. I’ll see you guys later?” There were choruses of agreement all around her, making Téa smile. “Awesome. Later, guys.” Before she logged out, though, she flashed Yugi a look that asked, Are you okay?

He gave her a grateful smile, nodding, and mouthing, “Thank you.” She nodded and smiled back before logging out. From there, everyone else said their farewells and logged out after her.

Back in the real world, Yugi pulled off his microphone piece and headset. He took a deep breath, leaning back against the couch.

Only to open his eyes, startled, when a weight settled on his lap. “I thought I would show you how real and alive I am. Just in case you needed more convincing,” Atem told him, smirking flirtatiously. The look sent fire flooding Yugi’s veins.

“I think I’d like that,” he admitted.

“Good. I’ll make us both come alive.” And his husband proceeded to do just that.

[transfemininomenon]

hey alice I've seen you mention then before and they seem really interesting and I was wondering if you could tell us more about your dnd characters! (Whichever your favorite is or who you feel like talking about) or even a tag you have where I could read up more!

:O i would LOVE to talk about some of my dnd characters

my three main ones are my half-elf raven queen warlock gwyndolin (aka gwyn), my human swashbuckler rogue gertrude, and my life cleric alicia 

gwyn was the character i played when @speechjam was DMing who is a half-moon elf with Parental Baggage (because what’s a half-elf who doesnt have an iffy relationship with their parents) who is very gay and very trans and canonically Really Hot because she has a literally goddess gifted body. her parents raised her in an elf city where she experienced a lifetime of racism for being a half-elf, and that combined with not having a great relationship with her parents as well as dealing with dysphoria eventually led to her attempting suicide. however when this happened, she suddenly found herself before the raven queen, who told her it was not yet her time, and offered her a deal - a new body and some of her power in exchange for making a pact with her. she readily agreed, and was reborn as gwyndolin

since then she’s spent a few years acting as a servant of the raven queen, acting as a sort of soul bounty hunter tracking down people who had unnaturally escaped death and dealing with necromancers/undead infestations. eventually she happened to take a job that led to her meeting the party, including happening to bump into her elf druid cousin solira played by @lyssatbqh

she’s also a total Disaster Lesbian and cant talk to women to save her life which is a problem when Lots of women want to talk to her on account of being Really Hot. she has a thing for knives and has like 8 of them on her. she also has a spirit familiar in the form of a raven named crawford who she always makes keep watch for her at night instead of doing it herself

THEN gertrude is the character i play in @lyssatbqh‘s campaign, which is a homebrew campaign set in the dark souls world. gertrude’s whole life was spent believing that humanity didnt matter and only existed to serve the gods - lessons instilled in her from birth by her parents. often being left alone while her parents were off doing whatever religious things they were off doing, she grew used to wondering the city of anor londo by herself, exploring every alley and climbing every roof top, having just a dagger given to her by her parents as a form of protection 

as she grew older her parents tried getting her more involved in the way of white (the religious organization they were a part of), and gertrude never really quite got the whole “sit and study and pray” part of it, but she found ways to use her natural charisma and dexterity to instead serve the gods by acting as a spy against people who might speak out against the gods. this is how she met the party initially, being sent by one of the gods to spy on a book club founded by @speechjam‘s character brillin. long story short the party ended up encountering some of the witches of izalith, went to izalith right as the witch of izalith was trying to recreate the first flame, and they all fucking DIED 

some long period of time later the party all mysteriously came back to life, and have since came back to life any time they have died, always returning to whatever fire they’d rested at. the whole experience of dying and coming back forced gertrude to, for the first time in her life, have to think about being a human and what humanity meant and what her place in the world was, and she proceeded to go into a several week long existential crisis. during this time the party investigated some mysterious happenings around the city of new londo involving other people coming back to life, fought some demons, and eventually made their way back to anor londo

the whole time gertrude was hoping returning to anor londo would get her some answers from the god she had been working for by the name of flame god flann. however, upon returning he offered no real help, and seemingly didnt even remember that she had worked for him. this furthered her growing crisis and fear and doubt, and eventually the party confronted her about her sneakiness and dodging questions, and she confessed the nature by which she’d originally joined the group, and asked for their forgiveness and explained that she’d suddenly had a Lot to think about and that a lot of things she thought she’d known had been thrown out the window. the party was initially hurt, especially brillin, and gertrude suddenly found herself for the first time Caring about other people and how her actions had effected them, but they eventually forgave her and they continued to all work together to maybe figure out a little more on what was happening

encountering two strange people known as skin man and skeleton man, the party worked with them and eventually learned that skin man also was coming back from the dead, but also seemed to be fading away more and more each time he came back - becoming less of himself and more just a blank husk. eventually skin man went missing, and the party found him by a mysterious machine that could answer questions for them - in exchange for memories

gertrude used it to ask two questions, choosing first between the memories of her time working for flann, her time with the way of white, and her memories of brillin, who she had grown increasingly close with throughout their travels (because gertrude is a Fool and JUST kept jokingly flirting until she fooled around and caught real feelings), eventually choosing the way of white. she then had the option of flann, brillin, or her forgetting the memories and associations that her daggers had with her, eventually choosing daggers

her questions were if the gods cared about her, about people, and then the second was if she, too, was gonna steadily fade away the more she died. she received a simple answer for both - no, and yes 

initially going into another crisis, she soon shock that feeling off and decided on a new course of action, a flame suddenly lighting in her as she realized that she couldn’t rely on the gods anymore, and that it was people, and her new found friends, that she had to rely on. the gods were seemingly uncaring about their current plight, and she would find answers on her own. no longer being shackled by the gods, she would suddenly live as she was meant to - as a person, as a human 

the party eventually fought a couple more demons and, with the help of skeleton man, defeated them. in the aftermath, gertrude and brillin FINALLY smooched and it was RAD, and they later had a roof top discussion about everything and about Them. they came to the conclusion that neither of them really knew what was happening, or what their place in the universe was, and the weight of the inevitably of them both hollowing was ever present, but they wouldn’t focus on that - they would focus on the now, on living as best they could in the moment, and deciding that they would eventually figure things out, and they would do that Together 

dang i didn’t mean to do just a plot summary of that whole campaign so far but i got TOO into talking about gertrude i just……………….. love her so much guys she has learned and grown so much she literally started off as half a joke character i literally threw her concept together 10 minutes before the first session started and she became so!!!!! much more than i could’ve ever expected

anyway my other character is alicia aka the Divine Lady who i cant talk about TOO much because i just started playing her and friends in that campaign follow me and there’s #spoilers but she’s a life cleric who was once a shy awkward little boy named joey who has grown in to a slightly less awkward but no less shy but STRONG woman. she’s a life cleric and JUST wants to help people she’s really caring and is always worried about someone and i love her she’s such a change of pace from my usual edgy characters she is TOO good for this world and has two beautiful lesbian blacksmith moms and a million adopted “cousins” who she all loves dearly 

she’s surprisingly Buff, enjoys blacksmithing (she made all of her armor and weapons), is a big fan of beauty in all forms, is an avid reader, and is constantly writing letters home to her family and keeping a diary of her adventures. she worships lethandar (aka god of birth & renewal) as well as sune (aka goddess of beauty), with the symbol of sune crafted into her shield and her mace designed to have a sun motive for lethandar, and she has big dorky glasses because she’s blind as a bat

some other side characters include primrose my college of swords bard who is JUST primrose from octopath traveler, ailce my water genasi druid that i usually play in one shots who in the most recent one shot i played her in adopted a wonderful child who has bat ears and was NOT appreciated by their parents and she loves them with all her heart, and ari “the banshee” who is a city cleric in a modern space based campaign who is an anarchist and part of a punk rock band 

oh! also i have a tag for gwyn (which is just #gwyn tag) and TWO for gertrude (#former gertrude tag and #gertrude tag, former being for dagger related things since she lost her love of them) and im sure i’ll get an alicia one going! its all just like aesthetic stuff or things i relate to them but you can get a good sense of those characters through those 

[rhuemis]

13

13. Introduce your current party.

hoo boy so we got: 

-Scales

-Rhys

-Jeckyl

-Isiah

imma put the lengthy descriptions under a read more aha

Scales ((I dont think Scales even has a surname lmfao)):

-Warlock but insists that hes the party medic

-A white dragonborn that was born without scales due to a birth defect who has more than a few screws lose, calls himself a ‘doctor’ and we cant quite tell whether thats the truth or not

-Grew up in a brothel and now travels with the party to gain ‘medical knowledge’ whatever that means

-Has dissected the corpse of a literal god, harvests organs from whatever we kill and puts them all into bottles and then offers to transplant them into you if you get even remotely injured 

-Is already mildly possessed but then ate some of the tentacles from a weird squid god for fun and then got DOUBLE possessed and tentacles shot out of his mouth and we had to drag him to a temple 

-Something burst out of his chest one morning and now its his familiar. We were all stood at the door to his room like ‘This is Scales, this could just be part of his morning routine for all we know.’

- Speaks with a heavy German accent which makes anything Scales does like 4000 times better

-Isiah has literally promised his corpse to Scales

- Despite his quirks is protective of his party and deserves a pat on the snoot every so often

 Rhys Lignius

- Half-elf sorcerer that currently has more levels in warlock than sorcerer

- hes the mom friend of the group and is a pretty serious guy, hes the one who gets shit done but not before he monologues so hard that the rest of us party members say ‘oh fuck no im not listening to Rhys’ spiel again’

-Came from a very important family and is very proud of his Latian heritage, doesnt let you forget that hes a big fuckin deal lmao hes on a mission to do something in relation to his father but hes not quite spilled on exactly what yet, hes just trying to get to some ancient ruins

- Is so much of an actual loser that whenever he casts Prestidigitation he clicks his fingers and the whole party has started doing it back at him jokingly

-Despite being a square we all love him and hes probably the most reliable in the group. Lawful Good™.

-Flavours my bacon.

-Is the metaphorical designated driver of the party, cleans up after us shit monkeys.

-Is physically around 22 years old but might as well be 55 years old.

Jeckyl Corvus:

- Newest party member, a half-elf rogue that keeps getting cockblocked from actually stealing anything

-Wrote a really intense anonymous love letter to my character and slid it under his room door at a tavern a few years before the campaign started after watching him perform and recognises Isiah but Isiah doesnt realise it was him who wrote the letter yet

-Spent some time in gay baby jail for being part of a group of thieves that got bamboozled by a rich and powerful family and was abandoned by the people he thought of as family.

-Wanted to be a tailor in the years before his taste for adventuring kicked him in the nards. He ended leaving his family to go and explore but this decision ultimately ended up with his family being stripped of everything they had so now hes plagued by The Guilt™. Wants to eventually save/steal enough money to get his family back on it’s feet again.

-Rugged and handsome but the most important thing you need to know about Jeckyl is that he keeps a pet mouse in his pocket named Rupert and that one day Jeckyl wants to fucking transmute him into an owl or some shit because he just cannot be satisfied huh. ‘Oh Rupert was my only friend whilst I was living on the streets blah blah blah’ yeah sure tell that to his face whilst you go fuckin Fullmetal Alchemist on his ass. Love Rupert for the contents of his character, not his form smh.

-Acts suave and cool but loses all of that composure when it comes to Isiah. Would probably commit sepukku if Isiah died. 

-Has a lot of knives, which Scales finds ‘respectable’. 

-First combat fuckin crits the fish plant man that had Isiah grappled 15ft underwater out of sheer gay panic. RIP Shape of Water fish man, you’ll be sorely missed.

Isiah Vakalyn:

-My character so you know hes....really something. Half-elf bard.

-Comes from a weirdly strict family who were actually fucking cultists and were ((and probably still are)) planning on sacrificing him to a demon or some shit but Isiah didnt even notice this shit and still has no idea. He thought everybody was taught Infernal and that families were just like that. His family told him to become a bard and he obeyed. They told him study and he obeyed. They limited his interaction to the outside world and he only really started thinking for himself after he made his first proper friend who then also later fucked him over real bad.

-Ran away from home after being cucked by his “only friend” into maybe murdering her dad we dunno if he died or not but I sure did stab him a lot. She lied and told him she was being abused by her dad and Isiah saw red and agreed to her murder plot only to be abandoned midway through. He also pickpocketed for her for like a year beforehand bc she said she was poor. She was very not poor. Bring on the subsequent trust issues.

-Is a bard but hates getting attention so he wears a black rabbit mask when he performs in front anything that isnt a small crowd. He found that mask in his house so you know thats gonna be some spooky cult shit.

- Is only 5′4 and is very conscious of it. Luckily the party is very understanding and calls him ‘the halfling’ or ‘the midget’ lovingly to watch him implode.

-Once accidentally stole a dwarven baby. Named it Isiah jr.

-Has a pet eel named Illius who is the most fuckin talented eel you’ll ever find. He glows! He talks! He beats your ass at card games! Translates languages! We found him behind a door that was sealed by magic and was only opened after Isiah played the music notes on the map we found. Those notes were an exert of a song by the most famous of all bards, Rickus Astelyus. Lo and behold behind the door was a huge tanks with a heckin good boy inside and Isiah adopted him IMMEDIATELY. Loves bacon bits and scritches.

-Received an anonymous love letter a few years back that gives him major anxiety and literally avoids the city he got it from. RIP Jeckyl youre gonna have to talk to him about that, Isiah is oblivious and has no idea lmao.

- Loves to eat bacon and recently bought out the bacon from the local tavern. Feeds some to Illius because its what he deserves. He’s also currently carrying a fuckton of bread, cheese, jam, and flour. Food is practically his way of diplomacy as he gives some to whoever he meets. It’s almost like his way of nervous self-defence. When tentacles shot out of Scale’s mouth Isiah just started shovelling bread into the tentacles and Scales woke up feeling incredibly full lmao.

-Has also in his inventory: a gay erotica book, a romance novel in a language he cant read, a rainbow slinkie, a magic mood ring that gives him poison resistance, 6 wolf teeth, a wolf leg bone, some gems, 4 days worth of rations on top of all the food he already has, a violin, a flute, and a fancy lute that he found in Illius’ chamber.

-Hes just nervous but loud mouthed and contradicts himself a lot. Anxious and eccentric. Says that hes just a bard and wasnt meant for any kind of greater scheme but the universe has other plans.

-Was once dabbed at by the god of entertainment, Apollon. ((Apollon is the only god Isiah really cares about lmao)).

and despite him not being in the party anymore im gonna give honorary mention to my favourite skyrim-glitch-of-a-barbarian, Florys:

-Was the character of a guy who played with us for one session. At the beginning of the next session he was on webcam with us all and we were about to start playing when suddenly his camera cut out and he went offline and weve literally not seen from him since. He’s not been online in over a month now. Some common theories in our group is that hes off fighting ISIS or got arrested for weed right there and then.

-Due to this weird player disappearance our DM, Benjamin, had to take control of Florys whilst we looked for a new party member. In the session that the player disappeared from we didnt know if he was gonna come back or not so Benjamin had Florys suddenly contract a horrific stomach bug and was just in the tavern toilet presumably making a fuckin hole in the floor with the noise it apparently made lmfao Isiah actually had to try and play music over the top of Florys’ shitfest at one point and only just managed to drown the sound out. But as time went by days were eventually passing in the campaign and the player still hadnt come back so poor Florys was not having a great time in the bathroom for several DAYS.

-Eventually the DM realised that this player was not gonna come back and that the party was short on a tank so he started piloting Florys for a while to accompany us on our quest ((and miraculously recovering from his terrifying stomach illness)) but hed forgotten how the player said Florys was so just was making shit up on the fly. I specifically remember the original player of Florys saying ‘Oh Florys isn’t like those stereotypical dumb barbarians’ which is why I lost my shit when the Florys being piloted by the DM turned around and said ‘What the fuck is a triangle?’ ... Florys is practically brain-damaged at this point, I think it might be the DMs retribution for the player disappearing lmao

-Threw all of his hand axes into a river during one fight and then into a cieling the next, which provoked Isiah to jokingly call out: ‘Oh, Florys! You’re so handsome and cool!’ which Florys with his last 2 braincells took seriously. The handsome and cool line became an on-running meme and gets used whenever any of us fucks up lmao

-For some reason grew rlly attached to a piano he found in Illius’ chamber and carried it around with him out of two parts stubborness two parts piano LUST.

-We ended up using him as a mule to carry all of our heavy shit bc he’d just do it and he literally wouldn’t think anything of it.

-We found a giant birds nest and Florys for some reason picked it up and carried it away and got fucking kidnapped by a giant bird so now hes literally just in fucking sky somewhere sat in a birds nest and being flown around which is wild bc we expected the DM to just kill Florys but instead hes just in the fucking sky where he belongs. Like legit hes just sat in there. Hes just in the sky. Godspeed.

HEAVES I could write so much more but this is already incredibly lengthy so here take it

also @redthebattler idk if any of this would be interesting to you lmao