#ayen morwraek

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

20, 27, 35, 40, 50, 59, 67, 88 for All Eight Characters (one each but if you wanna go Hog Fucking Wild feel free)

Alright so. I’m not going hog wild but! I decided to do two guys per question, one who was my first gut instinct for that question, and then one random character to spice things up! Do some character building in a direction I might not have thought to go, you know? 

Also bro this got so long so just. Putting it. Under a read more because I do respect your time and dashboard.

20. How would your character define love? Caspian: Love is when people stop to listen to you. When they smile when they see you, and sneak you an extra dessert when no one is looking. Love is being willing to bend the rules to make you happy, teaching you to hold your head up high even when you’re getting in trouble, and telling you to always look the world right in the eye when it wants you to back down. Love is giving up whatever you have to without a second thought for the other person’s sake, and knowing they would do the same for you. Love is taking the lessons they taught you, carrying them in your heart, swallowing your fear and setting out to bring them home. Ryker: Love is fleeting, and fickle, and fragile. Love is at best a luxury and more realistically a bargaining chip. It’s real, sure, but its primary use is to blind people to what’s hidden behind it. Some people may get lucky, but only a fool would bet on those odds. ...if you are lucky enough to find it, though, hold on tight. Real love, genuine, honest, reciprocated love, is worth doing anything for. The people you care about should know how you feel by what you do, not by what you say. Show love with discretion, but show it fiercely. 

27. How much have they given up to get to where they are in life, willingly or unwillingly? How much do they think they would give up to get to where they want to be, in the future? Raini: Raini I think is super interesting because I think she’s given up a fair bit, and she’s completely fine with the sacrifices she did make because she decided the benefits outweighed whatever she had to give up to get it. But on the other hand, giving something up unwillingly? Having something taken from her? Absolutely a cause for retribution at any cost. idk if I’m explaining the difference in a way that makes sense, but that distinction means the world to Raini because, even if the sacrifice is hard to swallow, at least she was in control of it. And like, the whole premise of the campaign is giving up shit! Giving up everything! And was it willing at the time? Yes! But coming out on the other side of it and not remembering making the decision and, quite frankly, not agreeing with the decision you made is rough! You’re yourself, you know because you’re you, but you’re also not yourself because that’s the whole point of what you did, so did you really do this? Was it someone else in a body you now inhabit? What happens to this new you when you regain your old memories, because there’s no way in hell you don’t at least try to get them back? It’s a lot to think about!! And that, and the core of this question, is why Raini doesn’t let this end without a Wish to restore the memory of whoever wants it. I don’t think she sees erasing them the first time as a decision “she” necessarily made -although whether that’s a philosophical issue or one of diverting guilt is open for debate- so she wants to reclaim what she sees as having been taken from her unwillingly. Pip: Tbh, the plot and premise of Strahd aside, Pip has lived a pretty charmed life. He fucked up plenty, but he always seemed to manage to stumble his way into where he needed to be when he needed to be there. Honestly, even within the module things didn’t go too badly for him! He lost a good friend at one point, and nearly died in that same fight, but other than that he fared pretty well. The biggest thing he’s given up in his life was his place in his home village, but honestly it’s like 50/50 on whether that was willingly or unwillingly. Like, he feels bad about the accidental arson? But also. It kinda kicks ass that he did then just like. Leave and it was fine. With his campaign over, I don’t really have much in the way of future goals for him! He’s just. He’s just fucking vibing. You know? So! Seems like he’s getting out of giving up anything in the future.

35. What is their most prized possession? If they have one that is. Ryker: For sure have talked about this before: it’s his hammers. He has two enormous hammers that he fights with, named Last Chance and Misery’s End. They’re sturdy orc made weapons with their names hammered into the side of each head in orc, that have been passed down from clan leader to clan leader for generations. They hit well, they don’t do much else, but when you’re regularly shattering knees, ribs, and skulls, what else do you need them to do? They’re sturdy, practical weapons. Reliable, and they remind him of home. He’s more comfortable putting his life in their hands than anything -or anyone- else’s. Brilliance: Her armor! For several reasons: 1. She paid extra to have it enchanted so that it repels dirt and blood and grime. After crawling through cult sewers to clear out some nasty boys, Brilliance decided that never again was she going to spend her short rest having to wipe blood or shit off her nice armor. When she upgraded to splint mail, she absolutely forked out that Armor of Gleaming enchantment. 2. Her shield specifically was decorated by her fiancee! Sienna likes to paint, and when Brilliance first got her shield for guard duty at the church Sienna took it upon herself to get out her paints and paint on a wreaths of vines and roses and birds and other lovely things, so that her love could always have a piece of her with her 💖

40. Do people expect a lot from your character or look up to them for something? Why or why not? Ayen: Unfortunately, Ayen is baybe. And even though she hasn’t outright told anyone how old she is, it’s becoming rapidly apparent that. Hey? They might have figured it out. It’s literally inconceivable how they could have pieced it together though?? I mean, how does anything about her not read as completely mature and put together elf woman thank you I’m an elf??  So, no. I don’t think anyone looks up to her. And that’s okay!! Yes she is a young adult with her own set of skills and her own value to add to the world and the people around her, but she would not thrive in a position of leadership like she thinks she would. She needs time to mellow out and settle down, and to learn how to make decisions quickly and responsibly. I think, one day, she’ll be able to show a lot of people how to do a lot of good. For now, though, she’s happy trotting along after Dad and rowing her and her new friend around in circles in a row boat, just because it’s fun to mess around sometimes. Auriga: Interesting question! Interesting question. I think in the collective sense, as part of the Court of Stars, definitely yes. They’re the rulers! They guide their people through the knowledge and wisdom accumulated over the course of millennia! I think Auriga specifically even is seen as having a closer connection to this wealth of knowledge, being a cleric and all. But I am toying with the thought that outside of the context of the council and the court, the people that make it up don’t have as much weight? There’s still respect of course! But while one star shining on its own is all well and good, without the context of those around it how are you meant to learn from what it has to say to you? Auriga understands this, it’s just part of their culture, and he’s in no way troubled by it. It’s the way things are meant to be, and so they will continue to be until it is clear that something needs to change! 

50. What’s their earliest memory? Auriga: Now full warning this is going to be a lot less detailed than Cog’s is just because I know him less, but I think Auriga earliest memory is something sweet and warm like. Sitting in one of his older sibling’s laps (while he’s the Baby of the family!) and just. Dozing against their chest while the rest of them sit in front of a roaring fire and just talk. He doesn’t remember a word of what was said, he just remembers being little and held and loved. Their family mostly interacts in the council room, I think, because when things get busy with ruling it’s so easy to just fall into work and let family time fall by the wayside. But when things get stressful, when he realizes he hasn’t interacted with his brothers or sisters outside their meetings in a while, I think this is one of the memories that comes to mind and encourages him to set aside whatever he’s reading and go off to be intentional about spending time with his brothers and sisters :) Cog: One of her earliest memories was when her magic first manifested! She was maybe six or seven, and Mama was busy at church and Daddy had gone out to check on some of the folks that lived a bit further out from town, and baby Cog was bored to tears. She knew she wasn’t supposed to leave home alone!! But there were some Cool Older Kids she wanted to impress, and they were going to sneak out and explore the swamp. They were big kids! They were like thirteen! Surely, nothing bad could happen if there were big kids with her! So she followed them out of town, and by the time they noticed their tag-along it would have been Way too much work to take her back home. Whatever. It’s fine. They start poking around the edge of the swamp, looking at weird fish and bugs and poking at mushrooms or whatever kind of shit grows in swamps. Probably getting eaten alive by mosquitos.  Well! Cog is having a grand old time playing with frogs and cattails, and she’d wandered off from the teenagers she was supposed to be staying with. She was up to her calves in the brackish water trying to recapture a frog that escaped her when she looked up to see a long, thin shape darting through the water straight for her. It was a cottonmouth, mutated by the Wasteland and nearly as big as she is. It hissed as it closed the distance between them, mouth open wide as it readied itself to lunge and sink its fangs into her. Cog screamed and threw her arms up to protect herself-  And then there was a burn of something wild and unfamiliar in her chest, a warm hand on her shoulder, and a flash of light so blinding that people swore later they could see it from town. Cog stood there for a moment, frozen and trembling, but when she gathered the courage to open her eyes everything within five feet of her was scorched clean, and the corpse of the snake that had charged her was bobbing, almost completely unrecognizable, in the water in front of her. Mama was furious with her when they made it back home, of course, but after hearing what happened? After hearing that Cog had finally managed to channel a spell, some rudimentary form of Word of Radiance? Well, there were much, much more pressing things to worry about, all of a sudden.

59. Have they ever had an encounter with someone that changed their whole life? Cog: HA Morgan opened up a can of “Talk About Ace” SOUP and folks it’s fucking lunchtime. Drink up assholes!!! I know I’ve talked about this a hundred times but I’ll never be sick of it: they’re JUST such good friends and they’ve been so so good for each other. Before they met, Cog was in a place in her life where she felt trapped and perpetually anxious, and Ace was restless and angry at the world. Neither of them felt like they could measure up to the expectations other people had for them, and Cog had turned that worry self-destructively inward while Ace had turned it outward. Ace’s straining at his leash brought him to Lafaroh, and Cog’s -at the time, Charlotte’s- soft heart had her defying direct orders to slip up to this stranger and warn him that he needed to leave before he got hurt. And Ace looked at Charlotte, at the genuine worry on her face for someone she’d only just met. And he looked at the town around them, at the way the people who passed by looked at him and how that look shifted from suspicion to shock and outrage when they saw Charlotte with him. And he did some math, and he realized whatever the hell was going on in this podunk town was a thousand times more interesting than anything that would ever happen back in New Alexandria proper. So of course, he settles in to pry. Charlotte, bless her, has many, many strengths; reading into people’s intent is not one of them. So when Ace starts asking questions, she’s happy to answer to impress upon him how important it is that he goes home! And the more she talks, the easier it is to just... keep talking? This man, this stranger from the Academy, is talking to her, listening to her like nobody ever has. And more than that, he actually seems to care! He has no reason to care that she’s worried she won’t be able to step up the way she knows her mom wants her to, but he’s clearly concerned and invested in her story. And even though she’s trying to keep things vague, she’s never been very good at deceiving people. Pieces start to fall in place, Charlotte lets more slip than she means to, and by the time they’ve been talking for an hour or so Ace has a pretty good picture of what’s going on here. It’s not safe here, not for him and certainly not for her, so he doesn’t even stop to consider whether it’s an offer he can make when he holds out his hand, both literally and figuratively, and tells her he can take her back to the Academy with him. And to Charlotte, who less than an hour ago had been weighing her odds of surviving the Wasteland alone if she ran away on her own, the door this man just opened to her? The way he’s reaching back through it to offer her a hand, to pull her through to a better, safer life? How can she say no?  They fought their way out of Lafaroh that day. Charlotte almost certainly wanted to try to slip out unnoticed, but they’d already attracted too much attention by letting townspeople see them talking. Charlotte goes home to quickly pack, and she doesn’t come back out of the house. Ace waits, and the sun starts to set, and she still hasn’t come back out. Something isn’t right. He knocks on the door: there’s no answer. He knocks again, louder. Then again. Finally, an angry looking man opens the door and starts to tell Ace to get lost, but there’s clear sounds of arguing inside coming from just out of view of the doorway. The man is big, but Ace is fast enough to duck inside and around the corner in time to see Charlotte struggling to get around a woman who looks strikingly like her in order to make a break down the stairs and toward the door. The next several seconds are messy and disjointed; no one expects someone in high level caster robes to take the staff off their back and start attacking with it, but the next thing Charlotte knows Ace has her hastily packed bag slung over one shoulder, has planted her firmly behind himself, and is holding her hand with one of his own while he levels his staff at her parents with the other. His voice is calm but hard as he explains that they’re leaving, because Charlotte made it clear that she isn’t safe or happy here. If they try to stop them, Ace can and will bring the full force of New Alexandria’s wrath down on their tiny, shitty town. He’s going to take Charlotte away, find her a place in the Academy, and they’re not going to say a word. And so they leave! With all of Lafaroh absolutely seething behind them, with Charlotte gripping Ace’s hand as tight as she can and willing her own not to shake, they set out together into the Wasteland and, ultimately, to New Alexandria.  I have Such a vivid mental image of the two of them camping out in the Wasteland the night before they made it back to New Alexandria, with the lights of the city just peeking over the horizon in front of them. They’re eating dinner over a fire Ace made Such a show of lighting with magic instead of the tinderbox one of them definitely had, and they’re talking about names Charlotte could use in New Alexandria because she’d quietly admitted earlier that day that the name “Charlotte” has so much baggage that she doesn’t want to carry anymore. And Ace, while he is trying to help, is also a dork. He’s throwing out every name that pops into his head, good or not, trying to see if he can get her to laugh at one of them. They spend a few minutes talking, Ace muses aloud over “Charlotte Olivia Grace” a few times, looking for some cute nickname he can pull out of a name like that. And then he pauses, and sits up, and looks at Charlotte, and nods. The suggestion that she go by “Cog” makes her laugh, but that’s a good thing. Ace is grinning too because some dumb shit he said finally got a smile of out Charlotte for the first time since they left her shithole town. She’s sort of laughing in spite of herself, and it eases some of the heaviness that’s been hanging over them the last few days, but after considering it for a moment? She loves it. Taking the name she was given, and making it her own in a way she knows her parents would hate? It feels good! She’s grinning ear to ear when she turns to Ace and nods in agreement. “Cog” it is. “Charlotte” dies in the Wasteland that night; Cog enrolls in the Academy the next day. In Cog’s eyes, Ace’s intervention literally saved her life. She went from being a scared little girl in the middle of nowhere with no future beyond the ramshackle walls of her small town, to an incredibly promising up and coming student of the Academy. She went from being told that the only use her magic had was what it could do for the Church, to blowing away professors who expected her to barely be able to manage a cantrip and being praised for her intuitive understanding of magic. And for Ace! Cog was the first person his actions truly, directly helped. He saw a problem, he stepped in, he fixed in. In a slow moving, insular city like New Alexandria, that wasn’t something he’d been able to do before. He saw how the good he’d done in helping Cog reflected and redoubled in the way she treated the people around her, and saw her making the choice to be kind not in spite of but because of everything she’d been through growing up. Bro like Ace’s character bio says “self-appointed big bro to Cog” and “he sent a letter to Cog thanking her for being a positive influence in his life”. This question got SO out of control as I wrote my Cog and Ace fanfic but! They deserve it! AND the party is going back to New Alexandria next session, so!! More Ace content soon folks stay tuned! Raini: Did you think I ran out of soup?? Did you think lunchtime was over? FUCK you! This is MY blog and I’ll wax poetic about my dnd characters and their friendships for as LONG as I want to! And there’s nothing you can do to stop me!!!!! Now this one in fairness probably won’t be as long as Cog’s was, just because I know that all the people who follow me are like. Actively in the campaign and various group chats where we discuss how important our characters are to each other. But do NOT make the mistake of assuming it’s because I love you any less. I love you so much. Yes homo. Where do we start? At the beginning, with our lizard. Y’all ever uh. Y’all ever met a dipshit lizard who you’re pretty sure you can trick into taking you adventuring but plan to ditch the second they become deadweight (i.e. whenever they go down for the first time, probably), except then you became like best friends and siblings by all but blood and you realize you’d rip the world in half for them without them even asking and you can’t even begin to imagine how you’d reconcile the hole they’d leave in your life if they left it? Have you ever slowly realized that you’re adding “except for him” at the end of every generally grumpy statement you make about the world? And then realized even more slowly after years of friendship that somehow the bastard managed to extend “except for him” to “except for them”, and you’re so much less disengaged from and disinterested in the world around you? Y’all ever had that happen to you?? Shit’s wild. And then. Y’all ever met a fucking cop who clearly has, like. An actual metric ton of baggage she’s refusing to even glance in the direction of? And at first, it’s a pain to have to circumvent her “morals” in order to get shit done. Honestly, it’s kind of always a pain. But even your crotchety ass has to admit there’s something about sticking so firmly to your guns regardless of the situation you’re put in that’s admirable, that the world would be a much better place if more people had that same iron will and a refusal to be moved. Even if they’re standing up for stupid shit, at least they’re standing up for something. And maybe you take some of that resolve and tuck it away in your chest, to give you something to grip onto when you need to dig in your heels and refuse to let the world knock you around. And then. Y’all ever met a druid who burns with an anger you, honestly, kind of understand? Who wants to be more than the world wants her to be so badly, in a way that you definitely understand? Have you ever gotten to watch over the course of weeks and months as she time and again made the choice to take that anger and that drive and point it at things that would hurt the people she cares about? By god, she’s leaving her mark on the world, and she’s doing that by burning the shit out of it. But, without fail, there’s always a circle of uncharred, untouched ground around each and every party member. And when you notice this pattern, you can’t stop yourself from noticing it again, and again. And you learn: sometimes, you’re angry at the world. Sometimes! You’re angry at your party members! But that anger points outward. Always, and unequivocally. You have your friends’ backs, even if you’re furious with them. And then you meet a fish and you learn that sometimes things just need to be hit a lot of time in a row, really hard, with a big fucking hammer.  Okay but you meet this fish who, somehow, despite being monotone and weird and a fish and clearly an outsider to like. Land culture? Which you guess is a thing, apparently. Despite all of that, they have an emotional intelligence that’s off the fucking charts. And quite frankly! For a long time, it makes you really, really uncomfortable! If you don’t tell somebody how you’re feeling, and you don’t, then they shouldn’t be able to figure it out. But, slowly, you start to see the value of it. Your lizard is upset about something, and they won’t tell you what, but you’re able to squint at them and slowly figure it out so you can fix it. A few days later a joke a party member makes rubs you the wrong way, and you swallow your pride enough to admit it and they just. Apologize? Just like that? They promise not to say it again? And fish expressions are so hard to read, but you can just Tell that they’re over there looking smug, the bastard. But while you’re definitely not ready to commit to this being a daily thing you can, begrudgingly, admit that you can see the benefits of “communicating” with the people around you. 

67. What was the most acidic remark your character’s ever given to someone? And their reaction? Brilliance: In like our third session, our warlock had disguised himself as a “beautiful woman” in order to flirt with the guy we were there to talk to to get information out of him (Note: They did not ask Brilliance, at any point, if she was willing to flirt with him instead. She would not have been, but they could have at least asked). So Brilliance was hanging out at the bar near this dude’s private booth while the warlock chatted him up, and when the warlock got up to leave the dude reached out to try and grab her arm. He missed, but Brilliance was on his ass in a second with her sword out like “If you had grabbed her hand, you would have lost your own. She’s not interested in you; let her leave.” He thought it was funny and kept calling Brilliance “sweetheart”, but I did get to put my sword through his gut before the end of the night SO. Who’s the real winner? Ayen: I rolled Ayen for this one and I want to respect that and not cop out, but I don’t think it’s super in her nature to snark at people. She’s just gonna tell you like straight up that you’re a dickhead, and that’s that. I think the only time we might get to snarking is if someone (Dad, a party member, etc.) said “leave it alone” and Ayen is Not Done. She might send some parting shots over her shoulder then, like a “You’re lucky I like this guy so much, or we wouldn’t be done here” or “Show your face again when my dad’s not around, if you’ve got the balls.”

88. Assuming they aren’t one already would your character prefer to be a Vampire, a Werewolf, or a Demon? Pip: Potentially a cop out! However. A little..... vampire frog? Hello Mr. Strahd. Are we friends now? Could be a vampire! We have seen that vampires are cool and hot and powerful if perhaps a little amoral but that’s okay, because they’re cool and powerful.  Caspian: I literally spent fucking forever looking at this because. She literally worships and derives her Sun Soul monk shit from Pelor, the god of the sun. So like! How the fuck you gonna be a vampire or a werewolf with that going on. Dude hates the undead too, so vampire struck out twice. Demon’s iffy too, because it very much goes against the whole “good aligned” thing she has going on. So I guess?? Werewolf is the least offensive?? She’ll just pray and hope Pelor is like. Cool. With it. Haha? Also objectively, a werewolf that worships the god of the sun is VERY funny so there is that.

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

Boogie!!!!! Rights!!!!!!

boogie rights

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

IT’S GAYBOY TIME. 👫 for zize and raini AND ayen and vinny.

Ahahah!!! Gayboy friendboy!!! Protip: If you and your friends make your dnd characters also be friends, that’s TWO layers of friendship!!!!  (Send a 👫and I’ll write four headcanons I have about our muse’s relationship)

Zize and Raini

1. Raini takes food off of Zize’s plate constantly. It’s not because she’s hungry and didn’t get enough for herself, it’s not because she didn’t like what she ordered and wanted something else, it’s because she’s an asshole. Zize addressed this issue by leaning Really heavily into snacking on bugs for a solid two weeks. There’s only so many times you can steal a bite of food, hear a crunch, and spit out bug parts before you stop taking food without permission. 2. Kirsi likes Zize almost as much as she likes Raini. She will, especially as a dog, sprawl out across Zize almost as often as she sprawls across Raini.  It’s genuinely like 50/50, and goes up to like 70/30 if they are Mad At Each Other. Don’t you dare acknowledge it, or you’ll ruin the whole thing.  3. Zize’s room was the first room Raini designed for the mansion. There’s more than one sketchy prototype on a folded piece of paper stuffed between pages of Raini’s journal, and her designs varied Wildly before she committed to the final design. When your love language is gifts, and your present is a magic house, everything has to be Perfect.   The one thing that was present in all the designs, though, was the little door in the back of the room, and the matching one in Raini’s. 4. Raini knows the exact moment she decided she would, privately, admit Zize was her “friend”. It was stupid late at night after an Exhausting day, and they’d just spent the last like hour of it stumbling through a pitch black forest to try and avoid a group of mercenaries they just didn’t have the energy to deal with that late in the day. Raini can see pretty well in the dark, but Zize was having a Much harder time getting by. And he was trying to lead, because he knew Raini hated being in front, but-- Fuck, it was hard to watch! So Raini had made a show of huffing and muttering something under her breath, and pushed past Zize to take the lead. When she felt a hand brush against her elbow a few minutes later, she’d sighed again but reached back to take the hand in hers “just because I know you can’t see, alright? Don’t make it weird.” She didn’t look back, but she just knew Zize was grinning behind her in the dark. Fucker. She didn’t let go though, like she might have a few weeks ago. Because they were “friends”, or whatever. Because apparently, sometimes, you have to have your friends’ backs. 

Ayen and Vinny

1. Ayen! Thinks! Vinny’s! Outfit! Slaps. It’s fine. Why the side eye from other people? There’s nothing wrong with someone dressing the way that makes them happy. Fuck you.  2. Ayen also thinks Vinny likes her terrible jokes. Does she? Impossible to say. That does not change the fact that Ayen thinks she does, which means that while she’s never the target of them (because it won’t get Ayen the groan she wants as a reaction) she is always the recipient of the “huh? uh huh?��� grin that follows terrible puns.  3. Vinny! Is very strong. Very broad shouldered. And do you know what broad shoulders are good for! Getting on up there! Rides! If Vinny is into it Ayen is 10000% down to scramble on up there to ““keep lookout”“ and be rowdy and tall. Fuck yeah. Roona was right having tall friends S L A P S!  4. Vinny has not let Ayen live down that one time she bit her for no reason. It’s not malicious, especially because it didn’t really hurt, but she thinks it’s funny as shit. Ayen is, for maybe the first time in her life, a little embarrassed about some impulsive thing she did. It’s a pretty good trump card in any inconsequential debate, and it’s pretty funny to watch Ayen get a little flustered for once.  

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

Started to write prose, this came out instead. idk what happened. is this anything??

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

ask Two for the angst ones this time: 13 for raini, 5 (possibly will be pertinent come the end of this minicampaign) & 29 (she literally has Any Weapon w/ her pact so it's fititng) for ayen, 7 & 10 (hehe I know there's trauma in this one) for cog, and then mix and match 4, 17, 18 between Caspian, Ryker, and Brilliance bc I don't know them as well and I would Like To

My life is just below readmores now, I guess. Will I ever learn to shut the fuck up? No! And that is a promise 

Raini

13. What does it take to make your character cry? Oh boy. Raini definitely isn’t a big crier, because she a) doesn’t really let herself get to that point and b) hard pivots into “angry” over “upset” and she isn’t an angry crier. She’s cried twice in game so far, and probably not many times before that. In both in game cases -and likely the always alluded to but never seen “before times”- the catalyst for her crying was being overwhelmed. In a good way, bad way, whatever, but that’s the trigger. Just- Looking at something, not knowing what else to do but let yourself cry about it, and not seeing any reason to stop yourself.  (shfjsdjkfh the funny answer is: during sex. But can you IMAGINE jskdfskjdf)

Ayen

5. Would they ever turn on someone they just met in order to save themselves? Oh for sure. Without question. Not without guilt, in fairness, but without question. She’s pretty well adjusted, pretty “go with the flow”, but she did grow up in a pretty cutthroat world. She was spared from having to make those kinds of brutal decisions from a super young age by Shadow Mom, but she definitely saw the fallout of those choices and learned that, while it’s all well and good to do the “right” thing, it’s much more important to do the right thing for you. If that means condemning some stranger to die so you and yours don’t have to? So be it. Better people have done worse, because that’s sometimes just how things go.  I’ll be honest! This character decision was a completely on the fly one when we were having that debate in the library about what we should do with the information we learned in the library. But I stand by it. In character, Ayen 1000% sees whatever’s going on as Not Her Business. It’s fucked up, sure! But, you know. Not her monkeys, not her circus.  29. What is their weapon of choice, and what weapon do they dislike using the most? Bro I love that Ayen doesn’t have A Specific Weapon SO much. Especially because Pact of the Blade specifically makes it so that, whatever weapon she summons, she’s proficient in while wielding it. So she sees somebody using a weapon, goes “oh! cool!” and summons it herself, and then just. Intuitively knows how to use is. How fucking funny is that conceptually??  Her go to if things are serious or she doesn’t have time to pick something obscure is a longsword. Dad uses a greatsword, and a longsword is pretty close to that! Image how cool they looked fighting off assholes, back to back, with two bigass swords? Is that the only reason it’s her favorite? No of course not!!!! That would- that would be silly. And childish. Swords are just cool is all.  She hasn’t used any in game, but I think she honestly just doesn’t like any kind of polearm. It’s like, is it technically safer to be a little further from your enemy? Sure. Does it give you a small tactical advantage? Maybe so. But they’re so uglyyyy and they look weird and you have to use both hands and the balance is weird and >:( Spears can stay because you can throw them but you’re on thin fucking ice.

Cog

7. If your character was allowed to murder one person without any consequences, who would it be and why? Thank GOD Alex I wanted this one for Cog SO bad!!! Valentine WastelandGame! If you can read this! You’re a dead motherfucker!! This is for a variety of reasons including but not limited to: - Is responsible for the deaths of at least 3 separate world leaders! Uh oh!  - Asked for my blood one time! To do Science on! Not cool! - Ace doesn’t like him. Enough said.  - Called Ace “hotheaded” and “brutish” keep his NAME out of your MOUTH - Is fucking Maelo’s ex I think? Honestly I lost that plot on that one a little bit - Keeps taking Sunny on dates! We’re protective and Jealous?? Hard to say! We don’t have time to unpack this one let’s keep moving - Is convinced aliens exist? And are coming to attack the world? OKAY  - Talks in fucking circles about philosophy and the greater meaning of “good” and “evil” in the context of the world. Like, no sir! Good is when you help people and evil is when you kill them! Except unless it’s me killing you which is going to happen because I can cast Finger of Death now and you better believe that spell has your fucking name on it. Freak boy. - Just like. Eats straight raw steak. Not Evil but really weird and probably not great for you? - Overall just a very bad slimy manipulative and stinky dude. 0/10 I’m gonna put an arcane bullet in his skull. Like. Everything Valentine does, everything she learns about him, convinces Cog more and more that the world would be a better, safer place if he wasn’t allowed to exist in it anymore. She was kinda neutral on the guy until he gave his grand speech in Cormir about how the only way to save the world is to ‘conquer and subdue it’ and tried to talk her in circles enough that she had to agree with him or seem like a hypocrite. Since then, it’s been a slow creep from “I don’t trust this man and don’t want to work with him again, even if it makes our lives harder” to “he’s dangerous and needs to be stopped” to “...if given the opportunity, I would kill him myself”. And now that she has our new friend the Shadow Demon whispering in her ear, telling her that “the world will tremble and change before her” and that she should “stride boldly, and fear not the consequences that may follow” honestly? The next time we see Valentine, he might be in trouble!  10. What were the character’s parents like? What was the affect the parents had on the character? Oh, is there trauma in this one? Is there? Alex? Is there? Maybe so!! We’re gonna talk about Cog’s dad first, because he’s a) still alive and b) I KNOW you’re fishing for more mom angst. Cog’s dad name is Conrad Grace! He’s the head of Lafaroh’s town guard, whatever that means for a town of maybe a hundred people. I feel like his day to day really consists more of making rounds to check on people than dealing with criminals, although he likely has to break up the occasional disagreement or toss somebody in the drunk tank for the night. He’s also in charge of making sure the Guardians -the gods that live deep in the swamp outside Lafaroh and protect the town in exchange for food, building supplies, the occasional corpse, and other resources- get their offerings (This is Important, because he does Stop doing that soon). He married into he Grace family (that’s RIGHT he took his wife’s last name because it’s 2021 and he’s Woke not because her family like runs the town okay moving on), initially because I genuinely believe he fell in love! They were probably pretty young, because Lafaroh is very much a Deep South Swamp Town Analogue, but I don’t think it was just a social power move. The most important Conrad fact? He told Cog that he became disillusioned with the Church when she left home, because he couldn’t imagine continuing to support something he could now see had so clearly been hurting her. And I, Rebekah, a homosexual who has had Words with my Christian parents about the way their religion has hurt me? OH buddy we were a little bit of a mess about it. DM Ryan! Don’t you know I’m projecting!! Please be more careful! (Editor’s Note: This is the moment that made me realize I was projecting. Whoopso!!) Cog’s mom name is Charlotte Grace Sr. because, I guess, we’re freaks. I hate that this makes Cog technically a junior because the thought of anyone calling her Charlotte Jr. makes me break out in hives, but it is, technically, correct. The distinction while Cog was growing up was, instead, “Charlotte” and “Charlotte Olivia” because, again, we’re southern as hell. Charlotte Sr. is, unsurprisingly, the head of Lafaroh’s church, which means she very much has more actual power than her husband does. She did love Cog, I think, but in a way that very much more felt like someone guarding an investment than raising a child, especially when Cog became a teenager. She had high, exacting expectations, and grew more distant from Cog the older she got. Whether this was an unintentional side-effect of Charlotte Sr. becoming more engrossed in the preparations necessary to allow Cog to become the “Conduit”, or whether it was a purposeful decision because she knew she would lose her daughter and wanted the sacrifice to hurt less is unclear. Cog’s dad is kinda just a dude, but we KNOW this bitch has mommy issues. I also think an important distinction to draw between the two is that while I’m willing to give Conrad the benefit of the doubt and say that he may have just wanted Cog to stay in Lafaroh when they party returned because he was worried about his daughter and wanted her home, Charlotte Sr. wanted Cog there because it was Where She Was Supposed To Be, because she had a destiny to fulfill. More than that, when Charlotte Sr. found out that Conrad had stopped sending supplies to the Guardians when Cog left and had instead been selling them to Bandits to get money to rebuild the town, she was not nearly so understanding. She accused him of heresy, and ordered for him to be, uh. Flayed alive. Which wasn’t great. It’s what got her killed ultimately; Cog had to choose between her parents, and after watching her Mama summon a shadow demon that very nearly choked the life out of Sunny? It was a choice with only one possible outcome. 

Caspian

18. Would society call your character a good guy or a bad guy? What would they say they are? Caspian is. Caspian is Just a person. Like she is just out here doing her best, trying not to get killed by, idk. Pirates or ghosts or w/e. This is an endeavor that, statistically, could be going a lot better.  I think the more interesting angle to look at this question from is the fact that she’s a monk from a well known monastery, and that there’s Expectations on how she conducts herself in the world as a result of that. She is Just A Person, but that’s not good enough. Not when she’s running around wearing Pelor’s holy symbol, representing his monastery, reflecting on him. For a long time, I think Caspian resented the expectation that put on her! Why can’t she just be a kid? Just a person? She didn’t ask to be raised by these monks in this kind of life. But when she left home and realized how suddenly lonely she was, there were quiet, sad moments it was easy to soften with prayer. Rekindling her relationship with her god was her way of staying connected to home, and I think it also made her want to go from being Just a Person to actually wanting to take pride in being a Good Person.  And then her campaign lasted for two fucking seconds lmao so it didn’t even matter hahah! :)

Ryker

4. Has your character ever been hurt or betrayed by someone they thought they could depend on? What happened? YEAH BOY rye-bread got his SHIT handed to him lmaoooo His whole “why are you adventuring?” deal is that he fell in love with the noblewoman he was hired to escort across the country to her betrothed’s estate, and she played him like a fucking fiddle and convinced him -after her wedding, after she was pregnant with her husband’s first child and therefore heir- that she was in love with him too. But of course, because she was married, her husband would never let them be happy together. She talked Ryker into killing her husband, and promised to meet him the night he did it with horses and supplies for both of them. Anyone reading along at home with even a shred of common sense probably just said, “uh oh!” And uh oh indeed; she fully sold his ass out. There’s something emotionally devastating about slipping out of the bedroom of the man you just killed, his blood still on your hands, to find the woman you love standing between two enormous guards, but I can’t quite put my finger on what.  Ryker figured out her plan in the following days he spent in a cell, awaiting execution. She didn’t love her husband, but by playing the role of grieving widow and anxious mother-to-be she could ingratiate herself with his family enough to be allowed to take control of the estate while her son, the true heir, grew up to run it. It was cruel, and clean, and if Ryker hadn’t managed to escape it would have gone off without a hitch.

Brilliance 

17. Is your character afraid of death? Why/why not? Brilliance isn’t afraid of death, she’s afraid for what she’d leave behind. One of the songs on her playlist really leans into this (and I’m very excited to be posting her playlist soon! Stay tuned!), because she is terrified of what her death might do to Sienna. She never planned to become an adventurer, much less travel to the Hells to try and save an entire city. She was content, more than content, to guard Sune’s church, to help the people that came seeking her goddess’ blessing and guidance. When her city faced a sudden influx of refugees from Elturel after its destruction, she was even happy to volunteer to help the Flaming Fist keep order and root out would-be troublemakers. She never meant to get caught up in a job that would take her out of her home city, much less out of her home plane entirely. Every fight she got into in Hell, every time it seemed like she may be staring down something that might kill her, Brilliance had to swallow down the overwhelming guilt of knowing that if she died here Sienna would never know what happened to her. The image of Sienna, worried and pacing, looking toward the door to their apartment every time there was so much as a whisper in the hallway, desperate for any sign that Brilliance had come home-- It wasn’t delusions of self-importance or self-preservation that had Brilliance taking Glasya’s deal to save her from the narzugon’s clutches; it was the image of Sienna collapsing onto their bed and sobbing because she finally admitted to herself that Brilliance was never coming home. Still. Sienna needs her, but her party needs her too. They’re counting on her to be there for them, to take the big hits that they can’t handle. First one in, last one out; she doesn’t leave until everyone else is safe. She wants to survive, she wants to go home and marry the woman she loves, but she couldn’t live with herself if she did it at the cost of the life of someone who was depending on her. Brilliance isn’t afraid of death; she would die for her party members, even the ones she doesn’t particularly like. She just knows exactly what the cost of her death would be. 

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

for the nonverbal emotions meme.... anxiety for pip (he seems like an anxious lad), excitement for cog (she is cute and deserves it), boredom for raini (I think this one will be funny), and mischief for ayen (perhaps her and roona will get into some shit)

Pip

Anxiety: Surprisingly, Pip isn’t really an anxious dude! Is it because his head is too full of fluff for him to realize shit is Out To Get Him? Should he be a little more anxious given that he’s rumbling around in Barovia? Maybe so. The only times he really got Anxious was when his dumbass party insisted on splitting up in dungeons. The solution? Friends can’t leave if you’re Touching them! So! Pip gets clingy when he’s anxious. Hold your elf friend’s hand. Ride on your barbarian’s shoulders. Stick close to your ranger so that your shoulders brush but don’t acknowledge it or he’ll be Weird about it. I think also, being a Frog and a Climby Boy, there is a “get Up High or Into Water” instinct that he mostly has under control? But sometimes. But sometimes, you just want to submerge yourself in a river and chill the fuck out for an hour or two. Is that so much to ask?? 

Cog

Excitement: Now this! This is Cog’s general state of being. She’s already a pretty tactile person (hug your friends! hold their hands! kiss their cheek!) but when she’s excited, it gets turned up to eleven. Big eyes, big smile, patting the person next to her on the arm repeatedly and looking between them and whatever she’s excited about. I think it very easily gets to the point where she couldn’t stop smiling even if she wanted to. Also! If it’s someone exciting her instead of something, I think she defaults to like. Bursts of very quick hugs? Dart over, hug around the waist, back away again, dart in for another quick hug, etc. Is Cog the cutest? Science says yes!

Raini

Boredom: Already answered! Great minds, etc. etc. 

Ayen

Mischief: She and Roona will get into some shit, because their blossoming friendship demands it. Friendship beginning? Ayen egging Roona on into climbing the tree. Friendship continues? Boat shenanigans. Who knows what Sepia Man’s Sepia Land has in store for us! Unlike most of my other characters, I think Ayen does have the capacity to be slick. She is a good accomplice, I think, with her charisma. And she grew up an only child! She’s dying to have a partner in crime with which to cause Mischief and Mayhem. She’s the queen of eyebrow based communication, the behind the back hand signals, the carefully timed pointed looks. And I think while she’s distracting, she’s just a little too invested in what she’s doing. Smiling bigger than normal, hands clasped behind her back, head tilted to the side, you can almost see the actual halo over her head. She is :3 but actually she is >:3 and you’ll NEVER know! 

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

OCtober Day 3: Youth

Ayen wonders, sometimes, how everyone she meets seems to realize how young she is. She knows it isn’t her appearance; she’s only seen a handful of elves since she arrived on the material plane, but barring those who were old enough that they looked like they should really already be dead Ayen didn’t think they looked much different from her, especially when she remembered to pin her ears back so they didn’t perk up quite so much. That could be a giveaway, she was willing to admit, but she’d gotten a lot better about remembering to keep them in check. 

Was it because she called Sarril “Dad”? That was clearly a joke. People got that it was a joke, right? She’s pretty sure she’s technically older than him, although admittedly she’s never actually asked. He carries a weight, a weariness, that makes him look years older than he actually is, but Ayen can’t imagine he’s older than forty at most. He’s a good man, letting her tag along with him like he does, but it’s also obvious to anyone who looks for more than a handful of seconds that he isn’t actually related to her. (Ayen notes with pride, though, that without that godforsaken beard he looks much better. Much younger. The world is welcome for the heroic service she’d provided by getting rid of it.)

Was it because she somehow held the group back? Of course not! She can handle herself in a fight -more than handle herself- and she keeps pace when traveling. She never complains about walking or having to eat rations, she takes more than her share of watches at night and, hell. After that talk with Vinny, she even makes sure to wake everyone up when something approaches their camp! She was the one who solved the puzzle to get into the underwater city, who found the book explaining how the crystals work and who Michael is, and, not to be an asshole, but she was the only one who didn’t have some sort of breakdown about the memory that fucked up chair in the tower showed them. She pulls her weight! She has her magic, and her sword, and she knows how to use both to shut up anyone who might imply she doesn’t. 

So what is it? What was it about her that had Sarill begrudgingly agreeing to let her shadow him? That had Vinny sitting her down to give her advice and offer support? That had Roona agreeing to help her cause untold mischief? It’s not-- It’s not a problem, per say. It’s not like they coddle her or cut her out of discussions because they think she’s too young to have anything to add. The worst thing she could accuse them of is watching her back, which. She does that for them too, she guesses. She wants to know what gave her away, but asking would only confirm what she knows they already suspect. 

And really, she gradually starts to think, it might not matter. Lying about her age, letting people assume she’s older than she is, it had been a ploy to keep herself safe. People wouldn’t try to take advantage of her if they thought she was too experienced to fall for it, right? But these people, this group of weirdos, somehow figured it out and don’t seem to have any plans to do anything with that information. So...so maybe it’s alright that they know, that she gets to be young. Maybe it’s not the end of the world that her ears still go a little lopsided when she’s tired, or that she shows open, unrepentant joy at the prospect of being able to push herself and discover her limits. Maybe it’s okay that she’s still experiencing the world for the first time, and maybe this group is the best people she could be doing it with. Maybe, not for the first time, she got scooped up by just the right people right when she needed it most. And maybe that’s going to make all the difference.

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

2, 21, 28 (I'd like this one for Cog),76, 88, the others for anyone!

2. What is your character’s happiest memory? Ayen: Y’all I really do want to drive home that. Ayen fucking loved it in the Shadowfell! It wasn’t like years and years of trauma, it wasn’t like she was trapped by some evil entity and tortured, she just had a genuinely normal(ish) childhood running around and raising hell on shadow demons. That being said!! Other than general memories of being the Shadowfell’s cutest hellion, I honestly think she has such a strong, positive memory of those first few hours she spent alone on the material plane. Mom’s portal dropped her off somewhere in the woods on a warm summer night, fireflies flickering and bobbing in between trees, a new moon overhead and stars doing their best to shine through the dense canopy, but Ayen did not Care because there was so much life here! So much to see and do and smell and oh Look there’s lights in the distance! A town! Stumbling out of the trees with like sticks tangled in her hair and the Biggest smile in the world on her face because she can hear music coming from the buildings ahead and there’s people moving between them and :)!!

21. How does your character decide if a person is mature or not? Brilliance: Vibe check. Brilliance looks at you, turns up her nose, and pronounces judgement. You can try to hide it, but she will Know. She can Smell the immaturity on you, and she will make a note of it accordingly.  But tbh idk who the fuck she is thinking she gets to judge people for shit like that when she was getting fantasy crossfaded in dirty alleys in Baulder’s Gate like less than two years ago. Let he who is without sin cast the first stone, etc. etc. 

28. When your character was younger, how did they picture themselves growing up? Does it differ from how they really turned out? Cog: We KNOW Cog has trauma surrounding this. This is known. To answer the second part of the question first, because I’m just Messy like that, her childhood expectations absolutely differs from how she turned out. Right now, she’s a student at a prestigious academy with several powerful friends who has begun to make a name for herself in the world at large. She’s seen other places besides Lafaroh! She’s seen an actual fucking city! This is incredible!  Growing up, I honestly don’t think she had too many plans for herself. Everything was kind of laid out? You’ll learn magic from your mother and grandmother, when you’re old enough you’ll join and help in the church, you’ll learn how to channel Mystra and then? Something with happen that you’re going to be at the center of. Cog is a people pleaser, this is known as well, so for a long time I think she was for sure content to just. Go with that flow. Make people happy! Until she got to the point where she had to come to terms with the fact that the people around her cared more about what she was than who she was. (Except for Ace who came to Lafaroh pretty much on a whim and treated her as a human person for the first time in her LIFE this isn’t relevant to the question in any way this is just my daily ‘I love and would die for Ace Jaeger’ post 😭)

76. Which one of the five senses is most important to them? Raini: This is going to sound like a joke on her build and I guess maybe it is like 20% BUT the answer is sight. Like yes divination blah blah blah but also. The reliance on other people required by having and then losing your sight? The admission that you’re gonna need a hot second or minute or year to learn how to do life again? For Sure it would be different if she had been blind from birth, but to lose it now she would struggle Heavily because her independence is so important to her, and she would lose that at least in the short term while she had to adjust. 

88. Assuming they aren’t one already would your character prefer to be a Vampire, a Werewolf, or a Demon? Ayen, Again: Werewolf! Just like dad!! Sarril rages and Ayen “Oh me too!!!” and turns into a puffball who very clearly still has their baby teeth and a tail that’s wagging a mile a minute :)

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

3 (getting rainis ass right back), 19, 29 for characters with partners or if you have any specific Thots on crushes or whatever for characters without them, 2 for characters without current partners? for the Loveboy Ask to make up for my Big Homophobia.

3. Tell us about a time they were rejected. Raini: Have you ever uh. Okay so the thing is!! Sometimes you meet one sexy asshole who’s flirting is about 70% banter, 20% being Evil and Tall, and 10% “physical intimidation” as an excuse to Touch. And that sets maybe an unfair precedent! You’re not a vain creature, but you are a proud one. And, quite frankly, you know you’re pretty! Why should you have to avoid acknowledging that? So maybe, you’re scoping out a tavern, looking for a way to waste your night and maybe get your mind off you know who okay shut up. And you see someone! Who’s checking a lot of boxes! Tall, yes! Asshole, for sure! Sexy, absolutely! Banter, yes!! The problem, of course, is that sometimes “asshole mercenary types” really are just. Asshole mercenary types. And you risk brushing a hand against their arm and suggesting you go upstairs? And they laugh, loudly, in your face? And shrug you off? And you can feel your face absolutely burning because you know your party members are pretending they didn’t notice from their table across the room, but they for sure did and oh God this is mortifying. No one look at you. No one say shit. Oh god. This is the worst.

19. What was their first impression about their partner/person they are courting? Raini: “Oh my god she’s the worst! She’s cocky and rude and smug and sexy and irritating and--” “Sorry, what was that one toward the end there?” “...irritating?” Sometimes! Your first encounter with the person you’re now in l*ve with is them leveling a weapon at you and making it clear that they won’t hesitate to use it if you and your party don’t play nice for the next couple of minutes. She got the upper hand on you, and that’s infuriating. You spend the next several days ranting about how much you Hate that pirate, but like. You are still talking about her? We get it, Raini. She’s the worst, you hate her, etc. etc. Can we talk about something else now? No? Oh, okay. Alright then.  Brilliance: Not to sound like a total lesbian, but the first time Brilliance saw Sienna she was picking up an order for her boss from Brilliance’s dad’s store. She was definitely just wearing a super plain dress that’s easy to work in and she doesn’t mind getting dirty, hair tied back for practicality’s sake, a smudge of dirt on her cheek... And she’s the most beautiful person Brilliance has ever seen. She very nearly glows in Brilliance’s eyes, and seeing her smile? Hearing her laugh? It takes Brilliance’s breath away. Brilliance is not the type of person to be at a loss for words; she was lucky to string together three sentences that day. She was, quite frankly, very very lucky that Sienna needed help getting the crates of supplies back to the upper city, and that Brilliance’s dad wasn’t in the front of the shop just then to send one of their shophands instead. And the rest! Is history!!! 

29. How do they express their love to their partner? Raini: Can I talk about love languages?? I want to talk about love languages!! Raini’s primary love language is: quality time. What’s better than sitting silently in the same room as someone for hours on end while you both work on some independent project? Fucking nothing, that’s what. That’s how you tell someone you love them. A close second: gifts! Hey, we found this weird dagger in a dungeon last week. None of us want to use it, and it’s probably cursed, but it looks pretty cool and you can have it if you want. Or just, leaving a fantasy snow globe from The City of Brass on your girlfriend’s desk when you leave after visiting when you come back. No one needs to acknowledge it, but. You both know, and that’s fine.  Brilliance: Brilliance! Runs! On! Acts! Of! Service!! Is it because she’s a paladin? Yes! Is it because there’s nothing sexier than planting yourself in between the people you love and anything that would hurt them? Yes! Giving your girlfriend your cloak because she’s cold, despite her insistence that she’s fine? Insisting on walking her home because the city is dangerous at night, even though it means you’re walking home alone after? Of course you kiss her every chance you get, and tell her you love her every day, because how could you justify not doing so? But more than that, you show her you love her by making her life better and easier in every way you can. Being in love has made you a better person, and you owe her more than you could ever repay for that. 

2. When they have a crush on someone, how do they let them know? Cog: You knew better than to think you were getting a Cog free ask, didn’t you? Cog doesn’t have a crush on anyone rn (outside of the obligatory “I’m a little bit in love with all of my party members because they’re the best” type way) but if she did, she’s very much the kind of person where it would take a third party sitting her down and saying, “Cog. You have a crush on this person. That’s why you’re acting like this.” for her to put those pieces together. She doesn’t just want to be their friend very badly! It’s more than that! Holy shit! (This post brought to you by the Baby Lesbian Experience)  But then! On the flip side! Once she knows, she sees no reason why the other person shouldn’t! She’ll march right up and tell them! Because, honestly? Either a) they feel the same way so there’s no point in waiting, or b) they don’t feel the same way so there’s no point in waiting! And sure, it’ll hurt if they don’t feel the same way. But at the end of the day, this person is still important to her even if they don’t want to pursue a different kind of relationship, and Cog is woke and knows that platonic relationships are just as fulfilling as romantic ones!  Ayen: Listen. It’s teasing. It’s pigtail pulling. It’s SO high school, but at least she comes by it naturally. I mean, her mom did a great job raising her. But she was a single mom! Ayen didn’t really see any examples of long term, healthy romantic relationships! Didn’t really learn how to use her Words to express her Feelings! She’ll get there, probably, but for now it’s shit like. Stealing something small from the other person’s bag and waiting like :33 until they notice to laugh and toss it back to them. Or just poking at them with little jokes and barbs to get Attention. Is it mildly annoying? Yes. Will she grow out of it? More likely than not, also yes!! 

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

cog! indifference because I feel like that’s not a very cog thing she tends to feel. also: disgust! enthusiasm! raini: panic! mischief! ............ lust??? for auriga: frustration... excitement... boredom! ayen: anxiety, confusion!

Already answered disgust and enthusiasm for Cog, and mischief for Raini! Great minds, great minds, the group chat shares one braincell, etc. etc. 

Cog

Indifference: I think Cog struggles to process and express a lot of negative emotions, because she’s made such a conscious choice to repress put them out of her mind in pursuit of positivity. But she can get angry! She can get snippy because she’s stressed and hasn’t slept enough! But even then, even though the emotion is negative, at least she’s feeling and doing something. She’s taking a stand! She’s acting in defense of something she believes in! Indifference, though? It’s passive, it’s an inaction, it’s giving up. She has a bleeding heart, she isn’t capable of just turning that off and deciding she doesn’t care. If Cog gets to the point of indifference, it’s because she’s physically and emotionally exhausted. There’s too many morally gray choices she’s being forced to make, and there’s never a “right” answer, and everything she does hurts someone who doesn’t deserve it. Cog’s indifference is head down, shoulders hunched, tired eyes and still, folded hands. It’s pulling back from the conversation around her and letting the rest of the party decide the right course of action instead of weighing in and trying to steer them toward a more morally upstanding decision. She’s tired, and there’s no time to rest, and there’s no objective “good” to push toward. What does it matter what decision they make in the face of that? 

Raini

Panic: Flighty! If I had to pick one word- which I do not because as yesterday’s ask proved I have never in my life heard of “brevity”- panicked Raini is flighty. Whether that just means skittish in the moment, moving quickly from spot to spot as things Spook her, or if that means leaving the situation entirely with a Dimension Door or Teleport, she is not going to stay in one place very long at all. Her movements when she talks get a lot more jerky and abrupt, and she loses most of her intentionally cultivated air of aloofness evaporates. I don’t think it comes to this very often! I think it takes a lot to rattle Raini to the point of panic. But, you know, again. Sometimes you kill the goddess of magic, or whatever. Sometimes you’re staring down the barrel of an attack you know you won’t survive, and you have enough time to whip around to face your party with wide eyes before the blade of a sword that’s nearly as long as you are tall sinks home in your stomach, and you have just a second to panic because. What if this is the end? Are the others going to try to help you? Why would they? They don’t have to! I think, of just about every emotion, panic is the one Raini hates the most. You’re helpless, it means you’ve lost your head, and you’re just grossly out of control of the situation. Pass! Hard fucking pass!!! Lust: You just want to know how she acts when Ecstasy is visiting and that’s Fair but you have to own it.  Raini who’s trying to Get some is honestly like. Essentially unrecognizable. Y’all know that “oh, with the horns!! you’re so funny!” text post? But like, for real. And maybe 40% sarcastic? She’s SO more touchy than she usually is, especially on the bicep or upper thigh if they’re sitting down. Lots of lip biting, lots of stolen glances through eyelashes, and honestly? I think she’s very much the type of person to just circle while she flirts. We’re playing coy a little, but we’re also moving a little closer on each pass, so read into that what you will. Also! It’s definitely a competition to her, in a weird way? Like she’s super pale, so any amount of blushing shows up super clearly, but she will Not acknowledge it because that is losing. Somehow. Even though we all know how the night ends anyway. And while there are no losers when it comes to having sex with someone who is very hot very sensual very sexy, Raini does Not generally get to maintain her pride to the extent she would like to those nights. Is that too much information? Maybe so! But you asked, So! (Also again I Know this is non-verbal BUT such a big part of Raini flirting is banter. What’s the point of spending time on someone who already can’t keep up with you outside the bedroom?)

Auriga

Frustration: I think, in an incredibly ambitious and unprecedented move, I have finally created a character who is a wellspring of patience. He’s an elf, a cleric, a ruler, and a middle child. Technically. He has a fuse, because everybody does, but it’s probably literally about a mile long. But like, as a result? When it’s done, he’s done. He finally gets fed up trying to explain something to someone? Well, that’s it. His expression is still placid and pleasant, because he was Raised Well, but he’s written them off entirely. Too stupid to make understand, to slow to bother with. He’s had too much of a frustrating situation? It’s hopeless. There’s nothing to be done about it. Someone else is going to have to take care of it. He pulls back entirely behind manners and decorum, smiles politely but coldly, and excuses himself from the situation as soon as is respectable. Excitement: Aww this was so sweet to think about. Generally, Auriga is a pretty reserved person! The centuries of High Expectations (and a seven charisma) will do that to you! Can’t put your foot in your mouth if you don’t open it in the first place! But when he’s excited, he lights up. You get a real, not practiced smile, and soft touches on your forearm or shoulder. Still respectable!! But small, fleeting moments of intimacy, urging the other person to be as excited as he is about what is, in fairness, probably some pretty lame shit. I think he’s also very likely to default to drawing pictures to explain whatever he’s talking about so that the other person can see exactly what he means. Someone who engages and asks the right questions can absolutely get him to talk for hours about a given topic, when before that they may have heard barely a handful of words from him. Boredom: I’m making this character choice now and I may come to regret it when we start to actually play but I don’t care: Auriga’s default when he’s bored is to start to doze off. Like, has he had a lot of practice sitting in council meetings for long hours, debating circles around the same topic without making much, if any, progress? Sure! But that’s, bless him, something he finds interesting. Somehow. If it’s something he has absolutely zero interest in though (like, for example, a stuffy, boring play he’s obligated to attend out of professional courtesy? hypothetically) I think he’ll try to focus for a while? Because he was raised right, he has manners. But eventually his chin finds its way to his palm, and his eyes start to droop, and idk if mechanically elves can sleep and just don’t or if he’s just trancing in the middle of a public place (which I guess would be less conspicuous, technically?) but our boy is No Longer Paying Attention. 

Ayen

Anxiety: Anxious Ayen is fidgety. Bounce the leg! Continually summon and dismiss various small hexblade weapons! Open your hand, close it around the handle of a dagger. Open it agin and let the dagger disappear in a puff of smoke, close it again around a weird crooked sickle. Open your hand and let the sickle disappear, close it again around-- And so on, and so forth. I think she gets worked up really easily when she’s anxious, gets kinda jumpy, and is definitely ready to shoot off at a moment’s notice to go do whatever there is to do that will get rid of or distract from her anxiety.  (Also I know the original prompt was ‘non-verbal’ but it’s important to me that you know that she for sure talks to herself when she’s anxious, like. “Okay Ayen, you got this. We have no clue what the Fuck is going on, but we’re gonna pull it together and take it the fuck out. Alright? Alright.”) Confusion: Ayen is that classmate you sit next to in like some fuckoff high level math class, and the professor is talking and you realize you have No idea what they’re talking about? And you look over at Ayen to see if she can clarify anything, and she’s already writing “bro idfk” on the corner of her notes for you to read. If Ayen’s confused she’s gonna default to thinking it’s funny, because like. Can’t look stupid if you’ve decided the stuff you don’t understand is stupid first! So she’ll laugh, and shrug real big, and make a show of not caring what’s going on, because that saves face. That’s dumbshit nerd stuff, she is Way too cool for that.

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

anxiety boredom and mischief for raini, excitement sorrow panic and fright for ayen, impatience confusion disgust for cog!!

Raini

Anxiety: Anxious Raini is an irritated Raini, because like I’ve said before it is So much easier to be angry than to feel any other negative emotion. I also think an anxious Raini is a Raini who’s looking at a problem she can’t directly fix, because otherwise she’s not going to bother getting anxious when she can instead focus on getting results. Anxious Raini is fussing with the tassels on her robe, pacing, tugging at the end of her braid, glaring at people with 80% more heat than normal, just generally a ball of nervous energy. Times Raini has been anxious! Meeting Ecstasy’s parents and figuring out what that means! When we killed the goddess of magic and Raini realized she was suddenly a defenseless sack of hit points! End of list.  Boredom: Bored Raini is a Problem. Like, Raini is generally a problem? But bored Raini is a problem (With a capital P and that rhymes with T and that stands for Trouble, I guess?). She gets huffy. Arms crossed, head falling back or to the side to show her Displeasure, rolled eyes, the whole nine yards. Bored because there’s nothing to do? Solution: find something to do! Probably, unfortunately, get off. Because she’s Nasty. Bored because someone is boring her? Make sure they Know that they are Boring, and trust that with enough sighing and raised, unimpressed eyebrows, they’ll fuck off. Mischief: Raini doesn’t get mischievous very often! Which means when she’s in a Mood, it’s an Event. I think there’s a lot of biting the inside of her cheek to hide a grin, a lot of glancing at any co-conspirator she may have, a lot of acting too casual, just to attract a little bit of suspicion and keep things fun. Did she and Yocheved fantasy spray paint a statue to Amaunator last night even though Lent told them not to? Of course not. Did she use a 9th level spell to Polymorph Zize to be about four inches taller, so she would bump her head on things every so often? Preposterous! That certainly doesn’t sound like something Raini would do. You can’t prove shit. 

Ayen

Excitement: Excited Ayen is a bouncy Ayen! She’s walking alongside and then in front of whoever she’s with, hands clasped behind her back, ponytail swishing behind her, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she grins and looks back with wide, bright eyes! The world is in front of them! It’s here and it’s alive and their’s to explore! Why waste time dragging your feet? She’s already pretty energetic as is, but when she gets herself worked up like this? It’s best to just let her tire herself out and try to keep up in the meantime.  Sorrow: For Ayen, the most concrete experience she has with sorrow is the subtle, aching thing that is her grief for a family she never got to know. It’s not the same as knowing and losing them, of course, but sometimes she feels like she grieves them in the same way. And she’s going to find them! Of course she is! It’s just...it might take a while. And what if she doesn’t? And what if they don’t want her when she does? It isn’t often, but I think Ayen gets wrapped up in that spiral every so often, especially when she’s taking watches alone and just has time to Think. I think her sorrow looks like droopy ears, chin on her knees, eyes cast downward. Managing a small smile for anyone who looks over at her, because that’s what they’re expecting, but letting it slip away again when they turn around. She’s quiet, for a while, until she gathers herself enough to shake off the funk and remind herself who the fuck she is.  Panic: While short lived, panic is definitely something Ayen has experienced. See: when she went to fight those spiders in the middle of the night, missed, and then saw like three more pop up. Uh oh! I think there’s a fair amount of wordless yelling (along with swearing, but the question did specify ‘nonverbal’ so), fumbling with whatever she’s holding (a weapon, a glass bottle she wasn’t supposed to touch, etc.), and tripping over herself to put distance between herself and whatever’s scared her. Basically, I think she loses any semblance of grace she may have had, and turns into the living embodiment of “Oh shit FUCK ass BALLS uh shit fuck TITS” Fright: I’m going to differentiate “fright” from “panic” by approaching this one as a longer term sort of thing. I think growing up in the Shadowfell, it takes a lot to rattle Ayen in regards to traditional horror. Like, when you spent most of your life looking out your window to see the sentient shadow goop that makes up your backyard eating unlucky mortal travelers on the reg, anything else is kinda....eh? I think she also suffers from “haha this is an Adventure everything is fun and games!” disease, also called “not having the life experience to realize sometimes things are just actually fucked up and it’s not gonna turn out okay by default”. None of which answers the question, but is still true. I think if something really, deeply scared her, she would just shake. Her hands, her voice, everything. Ears pinned back against her head, eyes wide and darting around for something she can claim as “safe” to recenter herself, slow, careful steps away from the source of her fear as opposed to the scrambling from the previous question. But, of course, I’m sure it won’t ever come to this in game!! 

Cog

Impatience: Not a very common Cog mood! She’s no saint, but if anything she’s usually the one slowing people down. And honestly, even if she’s not, she’s not generally in enough of a rush ever that it matters. I can think of a handful of times where she’s been impatient with someone, and both of those times were pretty different. As a rule, though, she defaults to this sort of tight lipped, tense, closed mouth smile, with varying degrees of warmth depending on how Frustrated she is. She crosses her arms, raises her eyebrows, looks between the person she’s waiting on and where they need to go or the door (but in a way she thinks is subtle, and probably isn’t), but generally just. Resigns herself to wait it out until the other person is done rambling or taking their sweet time doing whatever it is they’re doing. The only exception? When the party thought Ace might be double crossing them, and had spent So long dithering about whether to go back to New Alexandria to confront him. Cog had enough; she put her foot down and said she was going with or without the party so that she could prove his innocence. If they wanted to keep her alive, they could come too.  Confusion: While the other two may be things that Cog has little to no experience with, she’s got confusion in the bag. Not to flex on anybody? But we’re confused twenty! four! seven!! Absolutely nothing sexier than a woman who’s always just a little bit out of it!!! Confused Cog is smiling politely, but she’s very obviously lost. She’s fidgeting with her hands somewhere low around her stomach, looking up at the people around her and kinda. Half reaching out every so often? Looking for a place to cut in to ask for clarification? Oh you’re still talking? No worries! I’ll wait. :) I hate to be mean to Cog, because I do love her, but also once she’s figured out she’s not getting caught up, it’s just elevator music up there. Someone -probably Wol- will get her caught up later, she’s sure! :)) Disgust: Cog has been outright disgusted once in her LIFE and it was when the party went to meet the Guardians -a group of gods that protect Lafaroh in exchange for occasional offerings- in the swamp outside the town. On their way to the Guardian’s meeting place, the party was attacked by some fucked up, homophobic scorpions which poisoned the Fuck out of Ace. The Guardians could fix him, but they did this by producing this alien? Bug? Thing?? That went inside Ace to clean the poison out. Nasty. Disgusting. Vile I hate it. Cog very nearly threw up I think, and dropped her first (and for a long time, only!) f-bomb of the campaign. It was a eyes wide, face pale, hand pressed to mouth, too horrified to look away kind of disgust. I think it was mostly luck that she didn’t actually throw up, because she has a weak enough stomach (read: low enough con) that it’s probably about 50/50. Similarly, in like the next session, Cog was the one to find the body of the headmaster of the Academy, and all she could manage was to tear her eyes away long enough to nod silently at the party, fighting rising bile the whole time.

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

Oh god bro we gonna get you some memes!!! 1, 14, 21, 30 for whoever you think is interesting!!!

Four questions......four characters in active campaigns.....we let the Fates Decide (except I rerolled the first one because I already did Raini for that one haha)

1. What position does your character sleep in? ( i.e; stomach, side, back, etc. ) Describe why they do this – optional. Brilliance: Brilliance is a side sleeper. In a perfect world? Soft mattress, queen sized bed, silk sheets, etc. etc. Her hair is fanned out Beautifully on the pillow beside her, flawless and completely tangle free. She wakes up and it’s just as gorgeous and wavy as it was when she went to sleep. How does she do it? We just don’t know.  Her dad is a merchant who did pretty well for himself acting as the middle man between the “ruffians” of the lower districts and the bougie upper districts, so I feel like she definitely grew up sleeping on pretty good quality beds. She’s accustomed to a certain lifestyle! And she’s gay, so she deserves it.  (But in a perfect perfect world? She sleeps on her side....because she is spooning her fiancee because they are cuddled up together for the night.....😭💖)

14. Are they a team player or do they prefer to be solo? Cog: Cog! Is! The! Definition! Of! A! Team! Player!!! She is 100% built as a support caster, with such spells as: Slow, Bless, Healing Word, Death Ward, and Wall of Stone. Her other spells are out of combat “Help my friends!!!” Spells such as: Guidance, Seeming, Telekinesis. She has one (1) attack spell that isn’t a cantrip: It is Scorching Ray, and she hasn’t cast it in weeks since she accidentally killed someone with it. Whoopso! (Not directly related to the question but I have more than Once said on Cog’s turn in combat that she brings her hands up like she’s about to punch out some Scorching Rays (because she copies Ace’s monk punches for the spell isn’t that cute as SHIT) but she catches herself at the last second, shakes out the fire, and goes for Toll the Dead or Frostbite instead and I am Waiting for someone to call her on it 👀) Even mechanics aside, she always puts the team’s wellbeing before her own. Everyone else gets patched up first after fights, she doesn’t like to let people go off on their own, she’s Big on holding hands as a sign of love and support, idk if she’d know what to do with herself if she got sent on a solo mission. She loves her friends! And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. 

21. Your character has been granted 3 wishes; what would they wish for and why? Ayen: Easy! Fucking! Peasy! We’ve never not gone with our gut before in our life let’s GO 1. I wish to get me and my friends the Fuck out of this weird ass demiplane thanks! It’s weird and bad and Sepia Man is kinda funny but you know what else is kinda funny? Like, normal shit on not evil planes. Thank you. Idk what he’s planning but it can’t be good, and I will feel a little bad if we like. Help him take over the world or w/e 2. I wish to find and be reunited with my family! That’s what she was working on checking off before some rude ass dude basically kidnapped her. She figures she can find them on her own.....eventually. But she doesn’t have much to go on besides “Hey, did you or any of your elf friends lose a baby mumble mumble years ago? Probably at night?” Which, while it’s not nothing, isn’t great. How much easier would it to be to just Wish herself back to her family!  3. Oh fuck, she forgot she has a third one. She uh...she kinda has everything she needs taken care of? Like, home, check. Family, check. Pretty good there.... Which means, there’s really only one thing left to wish for. I wish for Sarril to find his family alive, healthy, and safe the next time he goes home. Thanks for keeping me in one piece, Dad. 

30. If your character was forced to eat one thing for the rest of their life, what would they choose and why? Raini: Apparently, fucking smushed granola bars from the bottom of Lent’s purse. Honest to god might have a snack buying montage before we head out again if I’m gonna keep having to stick my nose in the Abeast.  Idk though! I feel like, Abeast feeding frenzies aside, she isn’t a super big eater. Like, she eats at meals and puts enough food in her body that she’s comfortable and healthy, but she’s a light eater. ....could be gay here though and say one specific roast her dads made when she was growing up, and with that realization that’s exactly what I’m gonna say. It was for Special Occasions Only, like a birthday or an important religious holiday or “Raini Did Very Well in Class Today” SO. You can imagine the decadence of having it every day. She’ll be spoiled rotten. 

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

from the 30 unusual asks, 9 (do they dream) for ayen. shadowfell gets Funko sometimes I wanna know if it fucks with her dreams

9. Does your character dream, or are their nights filled with an empty blackness? Describe a dream they’ve had or a night they couldn’t sleep and what they did to preoccupy their time.

So Ayen is an elf (a fact which I honestly quite regularly forget) which means that she doesn’t technically sleep? BUT I am a big fan of trance dreams, and specifically of trance dreams being just a little bit skewed from sleep dreams. More autonomy because you’re more aware that you’re dreaming, maybe more realistic/a variation on a memory, reliving it and getting to do things the “right” way, and so on. All that to say! I think she does dream, and she dreams pretty vividly. 

Honestly, of the things about Ayen that the Shadowfell fucked with, her dreams weren’t one of them! All things considered, she had a pretty decent time in the Shadowfell -courtesy of Mom- so we’re not really struggling with Trauma Dreams, and from what I read on the wiki it doesn’t seem like the Energy of the plane attacks dreams specifically. I think a lot of the time her dreams are her reliving notable moments from the day in a stream of consciousness type way, which may turn into reliving older memories if her brain makes a connection to something that’s happened in the past, which might connect to something else, and so on. This is in no way official WoTC Elf Lore I am just running my mouth and letting words come out. 

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

Reminder :: How are they at remembering daily needs? What falls through the cracks? Fluff :: What hits their soft spot? Does anything them into emotional goo? you better answer first for ayen and second for raini but anyone additional is fair game

Reminder: How are they at remembering daily needs? What falls through the cracks? I think Ayen is about as good as you could expect a teenager to be at managing their daily needs. I think there’s the occasional, “Ayen, dinner.” “Oh yeah!” or “Ayen, you still need to trance.” “Oh yeah!” because usually there’s more exciting stuff to do than eat and sleep, but she definitely is competent enough to keep herself alive. She’s nearly 100! She’s basically an adult.  I also think she’s probably not Great at trancing, because all she has to go on is instinct. Like I think a human raised by something that doesn’t need sleep would figure it out when they kept getting Tired, but they may not know all the tricks to get the best sleep you know? I think she’s got the “close eyes and relax” thing down, but the fact that she hasn’t ever really been guided with it means she’s essentially a “light sleeper” and doesn’t get as much out of it as she maybe should.

Fluff: What hits their soft spot? Does anything them into emotional goo? Raini! Wants! To be! Wanted!! She wants someone to look at her and say “I see you. I understand you. And I’m choosing you anyway.” Is that too much to ask?? No! If only she had the words to actually ask for it... Not directly related to the question but I think the thing is that pre-wipe, she did have the words for it. The party had been through way too much together for their still being together to not be intentional, and at some point you have to accept that. I think her two biggest hurdles in asking for anything, let alone something this personal, are: “Can you imagine asking?” followed by “...can you imagine if they said no?” and there’s only so many times someone can save your life before you get the idea that, hey? They probably won’t say no. So, circling back to the question, I don’t think there’s anything that would turn her into “emotional goo” because that’s really not who she is, but there’s definitely things that Get to her more than they should. Someone watching her pitch a fit clearly designed to push them away, and shrugging and saying “...okay” and sitting down to wait it out. Someone being genuinely Happy to see her, or caring more that she’s okay than that part of the plan went wrong. Not acknowledging pushing moment of genuine intimacy that do crop up. Just! Things that are quiet but intentional, and probably unspoken. It took a while the first time, but she got used to it and learned how to voice that that was what she wanted. We’ll get there again this time, too.

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

😤 - something about your muse that makes mine angry, raini about zize. 🥃- how many shots of strong liquor my muse thinks yours can take before passing out, ayen about vinny.

😤: The picking!! The incessant nitpicking!! The poking and the prodding and the teasing and the goofs and the-- What are you, my big brother?? Some kind of friendly person in my life who has a right to rib me about whether or not I’m getting laid on this pirate ship? Who gets to tease that it “sure seemed like” I was made of spellslots! You will receive a withering glare and no more for your trouble, thank you for playing!  It’s very fun and 10000% leans into the sibling dynamic in the way they bicker, but every time Zize smarts off all I can picture is Raini pursing her lips, steepling her fingers, and fixing them with a Look. How could you do this, you big doofy lizard. You incessantly irritating overgrown kobold. I have half a mind to feed you to the Abeast. Also, in a mostly related tangent, throwback to that time where Raini did the most damage in the session by whacking Zize with her spellbook four or five times in a row. Good times! 

🥃: Ayen, squinting at Vinny offering to carry that big barrel of ale from the Hell Town: “........hm” Vinny’s a big ol’ bard! That’s gotta count for something, right? Good constitution? Plenty of body for the alcohol to disperse through? I Rebekah also don’t know how shots work, so. Ten......? More.....? How do orcs work.......? But in my defense, I think Ayen would also have a very hard time guessing, so. The obvious solution? Let’s use science to figure it out! And by science, I do mean ‘let’s get some booze and see what happens’. 

[bekahdoesnerdshit]

A new challenger appears.....its Ayen!! She’s a warlock who trips and falls between fucked up planes like it’s her job

I make picrew of two of my dnd characters.........it’s Raini and Cog......and I lóve them......

https://picrew.me/image_maker/137904