gabriele-rancan

[laugtherhyena]

The funniest thing to me about the new adventure time cartoon is that in the Fiona and Cake show the characters i liked the least where Fiona and Cake themselves 😭

[remi-demi94]

2, 8, and 28 for the apprentice questions?

Ooooooo I like those questions lol!! Well... here we go!

#2. How does your apprentice feel when they are called a witch? (Offended? Shrugs it off? Likes it?)

Ahh... yikes... Sooo.... Remy usually doesn't like altercations, but you can bet one will be started if you call her a witch. If it's some random stranger and they come outta nowhere and call her a witch a derogatory type of way, she's gonna do this... hands down:

Honestly if Nadia wasn't there when Valerius called her one when they first met, Valerius would've caught Remy's hands...

On the other hand, if it's someone she knows (any of the main six is included) and they're just teasing her or she's in the mood to humor them, she's gonna freak 'em out a little bit with some good old smirking and eyes-glowing, maybe even a little magic trick to startle them some more lmaooooo:

#8. Describe their daily routine (wake up, chores, tasks, visiting who, etc)

Hmmm.... Remy's daily routine? I feel like that depends on who she's with again lol but I'll break that down.When she's by herself, she's pretty independent. She wakes up, does a nice stretch, washes up and gets dressed, gets a bite a eat (preferably something sweet for breakfast), and opens the shop. If she keeps the shop closed for a day, then she's gonna go around Vesuvia and visit her friends (main six and many other folks in Vesuvia). Sometimes she'll just bring them gifts just because she wants to. That usually happens if she's out in the marketplace and sees something that just reminds her of them. She's not the type to expect anything in return either. Sometimes she'll bake cupcakes for her everybody too.

If she's with Asra, she's probably going to go with their flow for everything. Snooze in bed a little longer? Yes please! Take a trip to bread shop? Of course!! Bond with Asra's parents? She'd love to! Visit Muriel? Absolutely!! Go on magical adventures with Asra? You better believe it! With Asra, Remy's motto is, "I go where you go".

If she's with Nadia, she's absolutely going to follow her lead, especially since her wifey is THE COUNTESS. I feel like Remy would have to go through a little bit a "princess diaries tutoring" to know how to properly present herself as Countess Nadia's wife. So I think her days would start by pretty much observing and shadowing Nadia lol. Nadia would find this super cute of course because Remy's gonna give it her all. She wants to appear elegant and royal like the countess herself, so she's not going to disappoint. You'd probably catch her practicing walks, greetings, and gestures in the mirror too. She'll also probably go around Vesuvia and help her fellow citizens secretly because she loves doing it. "Remy, darling, you've done an amazing job learning about our etiquette here in the palace, now it's time for your reward", hums Nadia right into Remy's ear.

If she's with Julian, she's gonna have a lot on her plate everyday but she'd love every minute of it. Since he moved in next door to her magic shop, she's probably gonna pop in every few hours or so to see if he needs any help and to make sure he's not overworking himself. She's always gonna bring him lunch, and/or dinner if he has to work late. Sometimes she'll just work in his clinic with him if her magic shop is slow for business that day. Besides, all of her customers know that she's with Julian lol, so if she's not at her shop, she's probably at Julian's clinic. Soooo we all know that Julian sometimes doesn't take good care of himself, right? Well guess what, Remy's gonna be there to help him with that. "Julian... you've been treating patients all day nonstop, c'mere, you need a break, boo".

If she's with Muriel, hmm.... his route isn't finished yet but from what learned so far, he raises chickens, wittels, goes fishing, makes flower crowns, and has horrible nightmares. I feel like Remy and Asra would take turns running the shop, but she'd really want to spend time with Muriel lol. If she doesn't have to run to shop, she'd love to stay with Muriel and join him in his daily routine. She loves animals so you can bet she's willing to help him with the chickens. Look that fishing scene in his new book got Remy shook so she's definitely gonna wanna go that again with him lmaooooo. And Muriel clearly needs some love, so she's definitely gonna have a designated cuddle time with him because he deserves it. If he has nightmares, she's absolutely going to help soothe him because she has nightmares too.

If she's with Portia, I feel like their relationship will be very domesticated. Portia's a busy bee, always working hard, so Remy is gonna be her little cheerleader lol. She's gonna want them to eat breakfast together before they both go to work, even if it's something quick like a pastry. They're gonna go their separate ways to work, but you better believe that their gonna meet back up again for lunch or just to check in on each other. It's a big ole party after work is over with though. Hugs and kisses galore. "How was your day Portia? I heard you had to teach a lesson to few new recruits in the kitchen!". Just picture these two curvy girls cuddling and relaxing with each other after a hard days work, that's Remy and Portia for you lol. I'm sure they'd do a ton of visits to Julian and Mazelinka too because why not.

If she's with Lucio, hmm.... his route is still pretty early to say too because he wouldn't be the Count anymore... right? Like idk what they'd be doing if he's not the Count... if he ends up staying as the count, I'm assuming it'll be very similar to Nadia's daily routine. I guess if he doesn't become the count... Maybe he'd just be apart of Nadia's court or something... idk but I feel like Remy would still be working at the magic shop, being there by his side whenever she can. I think he'd have a lot of pain and guilt at the end of his route, so Remy would definitely be there to comfort him through that.

#28. Describe what their magical realm gateway would be like?

Remy's magical realm gateway would be similar to Asra's in the sense of it favoring water, but it'll be more like a underwater cove oasis. I think there's some real life ones in Brazil or some spots in South America,right? The roof/ceiling of the cave/cove would be littered with the brightest stars of the night. Butterflies of all shapes and sizes fluttering all over the place. There's a mini waterfall in her cove if you go deep enough, and the water glows wherever you move in it. The whole place actually looks like you're under a black light at night, but during the day it looks more like a never ending sunrise. Some of the strangest and most beautiful plants and flowers wildly grow in some spots of her realm too. ... I should really draw it someday lol.

[itsbenedict]

No Driver’s License: Session 3

[adventure log]

Last time on No Driver’s License, we’d just finished up the tutorial battle, accidentally(?) killed the boss, and contracted our fifth party member. Makoto- the shy cult survivor who was contracted by said boss, noticed that its Incubator corpse only had two eyes, instead of the three it had while alive. Weird!

(oh here’s Takamine Seina:)

So, now we’ve got to deal with the fallout of that battle.

Just a little mechanical housekeeping first- Makoto, Sakura, and Ibara all took Personal Consequences from the battle for dropping below half health- which means they all scored points of Trauma. If you remember the character creation stuff, Trauma is sort of like EXP in my tweaked version of Magical Burst- when their Trauma Tracks fill, they level up- which entails some things we’ve yet to see. Let me paste the current Trauma stats from the character sheets for you.

KOTONO YUKARI:

[X][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]- I should have done something- everything that happened was my fault.

[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]- My purpose here is to gather power, and this cannot become my home. I must return and fix things.

[ ][ ][ ][ ]- I am alone, a stranger in a strange land.

[ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]- I no longer fear death, nor wish to live. I persist because my job is not done, and nothing more.

KAZAMA IBARA:

Lifestyle of a burnout; 4 boxes [√][ ][ ][ ]

Disdain for “victims”; 5 boxes [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]

Can’t admit to being wrong; 5 boxes [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]

Feeling unnecessary and unloved; 7 boxes [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]

GOMU SAKURA:

Fear of Female Failure XOOOO (5)

Isolation from Peers OOOOOOO (7)

Escaping into Books OOOOOOOOO (9)

TAKAMINE SEINA:

"I tried to help, but I hurt someone instead." ⭕ ⭕ ⭕ ⭕ ⭕ ⭕ ⭕

"No-one will help me." ⭕ ⭕ ⭕ ⭕ ⭕

"I don't care anymore." ⭕ ⭕ ⭕ ⭕ ⭕ ⭕ ⭕ ⭕ ⭕

TSUTSUI MAKOTO:

[x] [ ] [ ] [ ] Feeling alienated from “normal” people

[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Lacks basic knowledge most people would have

[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Can’t handle the spotlight

[x] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Has a sense of inadequacy

So everyone except our new recruit’s picked up some Trauma from their first life-or-death battle, overexerting themselves to survive. Par for the course!

Ibara on taking Trauma:

Let's call it... lifestyle of a burnout; she threw herself into violence, doesn't take care of herself or her body ...And she won! So naturally, she can just keep doing that. Forever.

alright- so she's hit with a sudden sense of unease with herself- maybe she feels like she has an emotional justification for that in the moment, or maybe she notices how weird it is that it suddenly came on either way, tell us how that goes for her

Hmm. Ibara's in a place of giddy ecstasy after getting to mulch Nishi-chan -- which makes the sudden realization of unease, of actual physical pain, kind of a shocker. She tamps down on it with her brain. Still functional, of course, but she's suddenly a little uneasy, woozy...

It doesn't go away- she can't keep from dwelling on it, in whatever way that is

Can I keep this up? Of course I can keep this up. I'm not even bleeding. It'd be pathetic to let this get to me.

Now, fun fact about this session: exceedinglight, our player for Makoto, had some sort of unspecified medical emergency and was unable to play. I had to contrive a reason on the spot to keep her out of the proceedings while keeping her situation relevant.

So on taking Trauma to her soul gem, she had a problem, and when I say problem I mean she suddenly fell unconscious- her Soul Gem started going nuts in response to the Trauma. Tama-chan did some Incubator magic to her soul to freeze it, immobilizing her but protecting her from the effects of whatever was happening- which she wasn’t sure about.

And oh, yeah, the party learned about Soul Gems from Yukari and Tama-chan. Yukari, for whatever reason, is playing along with Tama-chan’s attempts to conceal the darker side of their existence as magical girls- and she explained Soul Gems as a link to the soul rather than a physical manifestation of it, deftly communicating the benefits and risks of having one without precipitating a freakout.

With that exposition out of the way, the team rallies to help Makoto, who’s still out cold. Sakura offers to take care of her at her aunt’s apartment, where she’s currently living. The party agrees, and- after some disagreement between Sakura and Ibara about how to safely carry Makoto’s unconscious body- they head straight there.

On the way...

This is what I’m doing for Spot checks, essentially. The entire party fails this check, because all their Real stats are in the toilet. Heart and Fury and Magic are so much more exciting than having a basic grasp of the world around you! So, whatever it is they might have noticed on the way there... they don’t!

Also, Yukari carries around the dead incubator body, because, uh, sure. Sure, Yukari. No reason why not. Makes sense.

So they arrive at the aunt’s house! Gomu Olivia (okay, Olivia Gumm, she’s an immigrant) is a fairly successful mangaka with a spacious apartment- and she’s also much too busy pumping out pages to pay much attention to anything (apart from the sudden news report on the unexplained destruction of a religious group’s campus on the outskirts of town, hmmmm.) Still, she’s surprised when her friendless niece shows up with four girls in tow, one of them unconscious.

Sakura passes it off as a slumber party, and their exhaustion and unconscious teammate as a consequence of her joining a running club at school, or something! It’s fine! Don’t worry about it! Olivia, glad for any excuse to not worry about it and get back to work, doesn’t worry about it and gets back to work.

Then Ibara tries to get Makoto a glass of water, and everything goes to shit.

Remember how I mentioned that every single character’s Real stat is ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｔｏｉｌｅｔ? See if you can guess how well this bit of basic domestic maintenance goes for them!

Yukari is NO FOOL, and knows how to load a dishwasher properly! She explodes at Ibara, insisting that she help and show how to do it right.

Yukari overzealously loads the dishwasher and accidentally breaks a plate on the floor. GREAT WORK

Sakura to the rescue! She grabs a broom! She tries to sweep up the mess! She can DO THIS!

A triple play! Congratulations! You all win super hard! Great job!

Sakura eventually fixes the mess by rolling our first Change the World roll, using her magic to fix the plate. Because, you know, that’s what magic powers are for.

Then the temperature in the room suddenly drops. The air conditioner is not on the fritz. Olivia Gumm doesn’t own an air conditioner.

It gets colder, Tama-chan starts trying to sense magic- and senses something. 

Everyone takes this fairly seriously, and they begin scrambling to evacuate.

Ibara likewise keeps her telepathic trap shut, and the voice doesn’t get a bead on their location. Yukari decides that the time for kayfabe is over, and immediately transforms and teleports Olivia to safety, straining her Soul Gem and taking a point of Trauma in the process.

The rest deal with transporting Makoto’s unconscious body. Ibara’s plan is to jump out the window- the fifth-story window. Sakura takes umbrage to this plan- she was being safety-conscious about carefully carrying Makoto earlier, and jumping out a window with her struck her as a Bad Idea.

There’s a moment of tension there, and Ibara lashes out, taking a point of Trauma on “can’t admit she’s wrong”. They eventually compromise on Sakura jumping out the window with Makoto, making sure to keep her safe. The rest follow.

Meanwhile, Yukari has Olivia to contend with.

Olivia is not disbelieving of this, which would be the normal reaction.

Turns out, sometimes the truth is really scary and telling it to people freaks them out! Whoops!

Tama-chan runs off to distract the... whoever it is, and the rest head to Yukari’s position to try and rendezvous. They do so, but on the way, Tama-chan’s telepathic voice disappears. She’s presumed (temporarily) dead, at the hands of whoever it is that was coming for them.

When they meet up- after explaining a lot of things to Olivia- Yukari has something to say to the group.

This is the point where Tama-chan would ordinarily step in and try to cover things up and run damage control. 

But Tama-chan isn’t here.

Yukari blasts a bunch of concentrated grimdark into everyone’s heads- while dancing around the subject of witches.

Oh, fuck, it’s Nishi-chan. The boss of the tutorial fight. What’s she doing here?

Nishi-chan claims to be there to help, which is for obvious reasons not immediately believed by everyone. Sakura locates her with her Gumdrop Goggles ability, but all this does is make a tense situation tenser. Sakura tries to play peacemaker, Ibara is characteristically standoffish, Seina is suspicious- and eventually Yukari speaks up when Nishi-chan tries to explain that she doesn’t kill anyone, and that this is all a big misunderstanding.

Nishi-chan’s immediate goal- to get Yukari talking again and not draw attention to herself- is achieved.

Nishi-chan objects to this. She claims that Yukari is wrong, and that the whole witch thing has been “fixed”.

As that argument winds down, Nishi-chan tells the party that there’s a safe place they can hide from... whoever it was, that attacked them at Olivia’s apartment building. There’s yet further argument over whether that can be trusted- Yukari uses her prophecy ability to determine that if they trust her, they’ll end up in a battle- but one that has worthwhile spoils at the end.

Eventually, Nishi-chan notices the unconscious Makoto- the only one of the five present who Nishi-chan contracted, instead of Tama-chan.

There’s a whole lot of standoff and argument and so on about whether to allow this- and they eventually settle on “okay, but if anything weird happens, Ibara gets to bash Nishi-chan’s skull in again”.

That’s where we left off- hopefully, next session we’ll have exceedinglight back, and Makoto will be revived. If not... well, things aren’t going to go great for Nishi-chan. There’s more discussion to be had about whether Nishi-chan can be trusted, where they should go, what to do about the person chasing them... we’ll see what happens!

[magmasliveblogs]

interlude

aaaaaaaaand im back with the 13th chapter! nothing much to say this time so to the recap: last chapter pisces and the guards met once again! this time erin saved pisces from execution by withdrawing her testimony. 

ooo a new chapter title! i assume since its an interlude we shall not be following erin the [innkeeper]

It took her a long time to clean up all the broken wood. It was just as well she needed fuel for the fire in the kitchen, but it was still a pain to pick up all the splinters. Especially when one got stuck in her hands. But she’d done it, and now it is late.

The night is cool. In her inn, Erin Solstice sleeps.

It’s been a rough day. She dreams about disappearing skeletons and obnoxious mages. She dreams about dragons that breathe fire and Goblins, and about giant lizards eating pasta. She sleeps.

However, countless miles away something else is happening.

ooooooo something else is happening! i wonder what? 

It is at the brink of dawn in this part of the world. Still, many remain awake. They have not slept for hours. And some remain standing despite their exhaustion. Their places are set. Their energies are necessary for the countless glowing diagrams burning bright on the floor.

The onlookers wait in silence as the man in the center continues to chant. His voice is wavering; cracked from the strain of talking for so long. But his faltering words are imbued with a deeper echo that speaks of magic and power beyond mortality. He is exhausted, but his task is nearly done.

The spell is completed.

It’s not a clap of thunder. It’s not the boom of space time being rent. Rather, it is a whisper. And in the same way, light does not flash, but an invisible breeze blows and they are suddenly there.

Humans.

Young men and women. They appear in mid-motion, some sitting, some lying down. Many more appear mid-step or looking up from their smartphones in bewilderment. And as bewilderment fades, surprise remains.

wait, smartphones? smartphones? SMARTPHONES? these are more earthlings! i guess we know they are being summoned 

“What?”

“Where am I?”

“What’s happening?”

Some of the summoned humans cry out in fear. Others try to run in their panic, but find their legs won’t cooperate with them. A few stare around the room, noting the magic runes by their feet, the robed men and mages clustered together, and the watching aristocracy. They observe in silence.

The leader in robes raised his arms and fell upon his knees. He raised his tear-stained face to the heavens as he cried out.

“The Great Heroes of Prophecy are here! We are saved!”

The other robed men around him raise their voices in cries of relief as the mages sag, exhausted, to the floor. Meanwhile the nobility murmur and regard the summoned with calculating eyes.

The humans draw together in fear. But there is no escape for them, and no threat towards them. For now, anyways. They are confused, chosen, summoned, trapped. And they are not the only ones.

i think these mages got their ancient tomes mixed up, modern day earth is not a good place to gather heroes! 

The night is old, and dawn is only an hour away. The countryside is full of chirping crickets, owls, the sounds of insects buzzing, and so on. Or at least, on a normal night it would be. Right now all is silent. Unnaturally silent.

An old man stands outside his home, sword drawn. The night is dark, and by all rights he should be in his home enjoying his dinner. But he’s heard something outside, and he’s gone to investigate. This far out in the countryside he can’t rely on militia patrols to keep him safe.

If it’s a monster of course he’ll run. On the other hand, if it’s a lone Goblin or a sneak thief trying to steal from him he’ll run them off. The old man’s levels in the [Swordsman] class aren’t high, but he’s more than strong enough to defend himself. Still, he’s no fool. If there’s any real danger he’ll hide in his sturdy home and report it to the adventurer’s guild the next day.

“Who’s there?”

He calls into the night and hopes for no reply. But he can sense it…them. Something is standing just out of his sight. His hand is tight on his sword.

And slowly, they approach.

Children. That’s the first thing the old man thinks. They are children.

But then, he is old. They are young, true, but still grown. Still, he cannot  help but think they are children because of how they look. Lost, afraid, and terribly alone despite their numbers.

Still, they are human and clearly no threat, so he relaxes and calls out to them.

“Oh, are you young’uns lost? Come in, come in. The weather’s far too terrible to be out at a time like this.”

The old man sheathes his sword and opens his door invitingly. But none of the children move. They just stare at him. And slowly, he realizes something is wrong as well.

Their clothes are strange. In all his years the old man has never seen such odd attire. But more than that, they seem…different.  He regrets sheathing his sword. Are they some unnatural creatures masquerading as humans? But no, they are human. He senses that instinctively. But why don’t they move?

Their expressions are so terrified the old man knows something is wrong. The hair on his neck tries to stand up. Is it demons? Monsters? But they are staring at him. Is there something wrong with him?

One points a trembling finger at the old man. No; at his belt.

“Is that a sword?”

well it seems the ritual isnt all that good, as its summoning across the world. though this does mean erins teleportation spell gone wrong cover story is technically correct 

And a few, a few simply wander in carelessly.

—-

A young woman pauses mid-step. Her hair is matted with sweat, and bound in a ponytail. An ipod is in her hand, but she pauses the blasting music and stares around. Fifteen armed men and a demon wreathed in fire stop their battle and stare back.

uh hold on, wait, demon? why is a demon just being casually mentioned here?! 

Two twins laugh and turn the corner. The boy tosses his smartphone up as his twin sister scolds him in case he drops it. His hand freezes. The phone shatters on the smooth marble floor of the throne room. A king looks up. Frowns. The royal guards stationed around the room draw their swords at once and charge at the bewildered duo.

this king is about to have a wild day, or these two earthlings are about to die a very sudden and confusing death 

A girl laughs as they drag her from her cell. She is shoved forwards, and trips into something hard and flat. She looks up and sees the adventurer staring down at her. He moves his armor-covered body and helps her up. A woman leans over the counter in the adventurer’s guild and others look around. Some are heroes, some are those who seek heroes. Her wardens are gone. She is free.

this girl? she is never mentioned again, though there is a short fanfic about her! here is a link 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19IxTw4XxDlbVaj8U9ZF0loTrDGcQ7L32HLRuQZ9CelQ/edit?usp=

Rain falls upon the world. Just for a brief moment. A passing shower of souls. But where they land ripples spread. They are not legends, and nor do they have any special powers save for those all humans have. But they are living. They are alive. And with their arrival, the world shifts.

The night is late. Erin sleeps. She rests her head on a smooth wooden table in an inn sitting on a hill in a plain full of grass. Around her is silence. In her dreams she drools a bit and mumbles about pasta.

She is lonely. But she is no longer alone.

well erin  is no longer our only earthling obviously, though i wonder how long it will take her to meet another? 

this is the end of the interlude! will erin meet any of these people? will the twins survive? will anyone read the fanfic? will we learn more about the demon? find out more as the story develops! 

see you tomorrow peoples, if i havent posted anything within 48 hours ive been teleported to another world, bereft of believers and slowing dying of unbelief.

[shewpthewewp]

State of the Shewp

Haven’t done one of these for a while.  But I’m up late and feeling ramble-y, so here we go!  We’re gonna get weird. Maybe.  Depending on what you consider weird.

Starting off easy with some reading recs.

Oathbringer, the third book in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive dropped earlier this month.  It’s the usual Sanderson experience, which means I loved every word of it.  I won’t talk too much about it because we’re already nearly 3,000 pages into the series BEFORE this book and it adds another ~1400, so I can’t really do it justice in a few paragraphs.  If you want to get into Brandon’s works (specifically, the books in the Cosmere setting) I would start with Warbreaker.  

The other thing I wanted to mention regarding Cosmere stuff is that reading this  has left me very hungry for a Cosmere-setting tabletop game.  I played in a Mistborn game in college and I’d be all over something set on Roshar (or Scadrial, or Sel, or... anywhere really).  Also really wanting to cosplay something Cosmere-related.  Anastasia suggested Vin & Elend, which I think we could pull off.  I’ll toss it into the ‘I will probably never do this because it would take effort’ pile, but you never know!

The sequel to WORM is out!  It’s titled WARD.  I haven’t started it yet because I am waiting for a larger backlog to be written (also Oathbringer devoured my reading time.  As a friend told me, she THICC).  I talked a bit about WORM in a previous post, so check that out if you want to know more.

I also discovered the genre of LitRPG recently.  It’s an umbrella term for any fiction that features RPG-like elements - i.e. classes, levels, etc.  It also frequently features isekai-like themes, like modern-world protagonists dropped into a fantasy setting.  Unfortunately, these things also mean that it has an overly-large share of garbage tropes like stupidly overpowered protagonists and blatant wish-fulfillment, but not to a significant degree more than most other types of fiction or fanfiction.  Three pieces of fiction in this genre that I enjoyed the most:

The Wandering Inn (summary from the website) -  An inn is a place to rest, a place to talk and share stories, or a place to find adventures, a starting ground for quests and legends.  In this world, at least. To Erin Solstice, an inn seems like a medieval relic from the past. But here she is, running from Goblins and trying to survive in a world full of monsters and magic. She’d be more excited about all of this if everything wasn’t trying to kill her.  But an inn is what she found, and so that’s what she becomes. An innkeeper who serves drinks to heroes and monsters – Actually, mostly monsters. But it’s a living, right?  This is the story of the Wandering Inn.

This story seems to have been written specifically to go against the grain of some of the negative tropes I mentioned before.  A world full of classes and levels, and our protagonist ends up as an Innkeeper. The first couple chapters are a bit rough, but I think the author finds their stride pretty quickly after that and things pick up across book 1.  Yes, book ONE.  There are two full-length, complete books in this series and a third is well underway.  Check it out!

Worth the Candle (summary from the website) -  From the age of nine, Juniper Smith began filling notebooks with his worlds, at first places of fantastical imagination, but later with each as an expression of some theme or idea that momentarily grabbed his interest. Over the course of eight years, he shared these worlds with his friends through twice-weekly sessions of tabletop gaming. Now at the age of seventeen, he finds himself in Aerb, a world that appears to be an amalgam of those many notebooks, stuck trying to find the answers to why he's there and what this world is trying to say. The most terrifying answer might be that this world is an expression of the person he was back on Earth.

I have absolutely loved this so far.  The story is frequently intermixed with flashbacks to the protagonists tabletop sessions (where he GM’d) and it talks a lot about what makes a good character and how to run a game.  The only negative for me is that it’s incomplete and the author updates sporadically (but when they do update, they tend to post quite a bit).  It is broken up into several ‘books’ that are mostly completed plot arcs, but unlike the Wandering Inn I think this is still very, VERY early on in its overall length (if I had to guess).

Finally, I’m a Spider, So What? is a translated web serial or light novel (I’m honestly not 100% sure which).  It’s also slowly being converted into a manga, I think?  Either way, the premise is that a class of students gets murder-blasted into another dimension by an evil demon lord.  Most of the class ends up as humans with bright futures and mysterious powers, but one ends up as a spider in the depths of one of the most dangerous dungeons on the planet.  Funny and very engaging, though the translation threw me for a loop sometimes.  It’s also not fully translated and it seems like a bunch of different people are all translating it and are are different parts.  A less serious suggestion than my previous two, but enjoyable nonetheless.  

Moving on to slightly more personal stuff!  Ooooooo weird ooooooo!

Still engaged to Anastasia!  Current plan is to get married in Hell, Michigan in late 2018.  They have cute little invitations that say “A marriage that starts in Hell can only go up!” (or something like that).  It will be a very small event, I think - the ‘chapel’ there can hold maybe 15 people, counting us and the officiant, so that’s pretty much going to be only family.  We’re planning to have a larger reception/party afterwards instead.

Getting close to finishing the second RPG I am GM’ing.  It’s an original superhero setting run in the FATE system.  I lost steam for a while pretty close to the end and started it back up recently, and it’s a relief to do honestly. I missed the characters, the story, the players.  Overall I have really enjoyed my time GMing but I do find it much more stressful than playing.  I think part of the reason I got a bit burnt out at first was because I was trying to run two games and play in at least two others.  I think a good rule of thumb (for me at least) is that running one game takes about the same mental effort/time/etc. as playing in 2-3 others, but maybe it’s just because I’m still (relatively) inexperienced at it.

Still working at the same place (the lava factory).  I asked for a raise recently and was very embarrassed to find out that I had actually gotten a pretty good one a few months ago and never noticed.  In my defense, HR never told me either, but I still should have seen it on my bank statements... Also, starting in January I’ll get THREE WHOLE WEEKS of vacation.  Not sure what to do with that much!

Still seeing a therapist.  Not entirely sure it’s helping me, but I think being open about that is helpful not only to me personally but also just in general to help de-stigmatize therapy and mental health in general (something I’ve always kind of struggled with).

Got a vasectomy.  I kind of want to be a bit more open about it - it would be a big deal if Anastasia and I were going to have a kid and we’d be totally ok with sharing that, so making a permanent decision to NOT have kids should be just as important, right? - but on the other hand it feels like it’s not their business and I feel like most people probably don’t want to hear about my balls.  Not that I’m keeping it a secret or anything either.  Also, after being told many, MANY times that “I’ll change my mind and want kids some day” I kind of want to be able to shoot them down.  Fortunately that didn’t come up at all during Thanksgiving and I wouldn’t have actually been rude like that anyway, but the temptation is there...

Actually taking some decently strong painkillers right now (sorry if I’m  a bit incoherent), since I started getting super sore this evening (and it’s only kind of Anastasia’s fault ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) .  All the external sutures have healed, but the internal stuff still has a way to go.  They cut, cauterize, tie-off and then stitch together the internal bits, so those will take longer to heal.  

If you’re a guy interested in permanent birth control or a lady who’s just plain curious, I’d be more than happy to answer any questions you have!

Not much else going on.  I move from thing to thing and binge - FFXIV for a while, then DOOM, then Overwatch, currently WoW, maybe XCOM next, with books and writing and tabletop gaming sprinkled in between.

That’s all the important stuff for now, I think.  I’m honestly kind of boring.