#complicated feelings about dnd right now

[biterflies]

stages of creating my dnd character for this mini campaign

oh I'll play a dark elf monk that'll be fun!! and I'll make them bright bubbly and a little naive since you don't normally see dark elves portrayed that way !!! and I'll be a noble since I never play nobles!!!! new things!!

oh we're playing in xorhaus!! okay well I've never really done anything in wildmount before but hey new things!! and the dm knows the lore so I can double check for stuff I dont know. itll be fineee

I'll just look up cities in xorhaus and be noble in one of those!! this cant go wrong

oh okay this is promising!! the guy in charge of this city is a drow I'll be related to him!! oh yeah DM his name is *checks wiki* verin Thelyss!! :D

What Do You Mean This Is A Major Plot Thing

Who Is Essek Thelyss DM

okay well apparently the guy I stumbled into at random is the brother of a major plot npc who is really important but like. the DM seems excited about it. he likes this Essek guy and having plot stuff pre set up is cool so I guess we're going with it!!!

okay so my character will be the younger sibling of these guys, sure cool!! I'll look into them a bit and try to think of what our family relationships are like and characters dynamics and such :)

aw man I made it angsty damnit

[occamstfs]

Conjuration: The Call

Ozzie begrudgingly plays a thinly disguised trading card game and finds some fun teaching his meathead friend a lesson.

Something between a role reversal and devolution! Jock -> Twink and Nerd -> Brute! Hope you enjoy this tale of a wishful role-player growing to dominate a try hard, Best! -Occam

Ozzie absolutely hated trading card games, he missed the boat and loathed being made to feel stupid like they always end up doing. Perhaps some self-reflection could see him giving Conjuration: the Call a fair shake, when a game of CTC was thrust on him instead of the DND session he was coming to play, the man was in not so charitable a mood.

Prepped to play his Druid all night, Ozzie is sulking in the kitchen when his friend Lily, patient zero of getting their group playing CTC again, brings over a proxy deck she made for him. “Heyyy babe~ Sorry about the bait and switch, I thought we were going to play DND too but apparently Mark’s sick and Alex thought this would be a great chance for you to learn how to play!”

His scowl quickly shifts between Lily, her half-hearted olive branch, and their friend group’s surly Adonis, Alex, who winks before returning to set up the table for their game. Ozzie sighs, not wanting to make a scene, he reaches out to inspect the printed deck in her hands. She perks up, “perfect! You’re gonna love it I swear!

The hitherto hater sighs, “ughh. You guys are just going to steamroll me like always! Is the deck too complicated to learn on the fly?” Her eyes glimmer as she slyly makes sure Alex can’t hear, “Not at all! I’ll be right there if you need any help and-“ 

Before she can explain, the man at the table interrupts, “you ladies done yet?” In their running campaign the impatient Alex plays a barbarian which mimics both his stature and nature out of game quite well, in Conjuration however he’s emerged as quite the rival to Lucy. Which Ozzie knows as she begins to explain, now at a whisper, “okay so it’s actually a deck to counter Alex’s.”

She immediately goes to defend her ulterior motives as Ozzie’s scowl returns with a vengeance, “oh c’mooon Ozz, I made this whole deck for you! I found the commander in the bulk bin and thought it sounded like your thing!” Shuffling through the box he checks it out, Loggan the Brain, nice and holographic. He pauses to appreciate how it feels in his hands, heavier than expected and almost warm to the touch. After a moment he looks up to find Lily has already gone to join the rest of the party at the table.

Finishing up his huffing, Ozzie sits opposite Alex who performatively flexes as he shuffles his deck, “Ready to get schooled by the man?” They’re friends at the end of the day so Ozzie doesn’t try to hide his irritation as he responds, “oh I’m sure there’s nothing you love more than beating newbies huh”

Alex takes a few seconds trying to think of some clever reply but after a few playful jibes from Lily and Tim, their fourth player, he decides to save any further taunts for the game. It’s not Ozzie’s first time playing Conjuration, how else would he hold it in such blatant disregard. Resolutely he refuses a tutorial from Alex and Lily. The pair make eye contact as they try to push down the urge to take candy from the new player and instead scheme how they can both use his inexperience to their advantage.

The first couple rounds go by in a flash, the other three begin setting up decks they are clearly incredibly familiar with while Ozzie races to read the little cheat sheet Lily made for the deck before performing a decent opening few rounds himself. Ozzie figures Alex must be running some kind of counterspell deck as Lily’s notes make it very clear that this proxy is a counter-counterspell deck, as it were. 

Lily would never be able to play this deck as it relies on someone counterspelling the Loggan the Brain without checking the specifics, and Alex would never do so to someone with as firm a grasp as her. When Ozzie goes to summon his commander though there's a glimmer in the jock’s eyes as his fingers go to counter the summon before Ozzie even announces, and in doing so he falls into the trap of the deck. 

Alex reaches over to push Loggan back off the board only to be stopped by Lily, almost shaking from excitement as she bursts out into laughter and explains the situation. She points to the ability text Drain: Start of the round gains one “Devolution” spell card. When “Devolution” is used to counter an offensive spell on yourself, put a token on Loggan the Brain. After ten tokens are placed on Loggan the Brain, replace him with Ogg the Brawn.

Hearing his opponent groan from an easily averted own goal he finishes his turn to see Alex scratching his chest and complaining, “I’ve never seen these stupid cards before, are you sure these are legal?” His eyes narrow at Lily who shrugs and tries to taunt him into casting a spell at Ozzie, “Who knows man, maybe it’s not even that good? You should cast a spell at him to see what it does!” With a wry grin she meets Alex’s scowl. For now he stills his hand as they prepare to deal with the quiet Tim as he quickly becomes the biggest threat on the board.

When it comes back to Ozzie’s turn the fun begins at last, launching a spell at Alex who has no choice but to counter, which is of course met with the new player’s own “Devolution” counter. Ozzie and Alex both open their mouths to complain, about the game being convoluted and unfair respectively. Before they can lash out however both men see a token appear on Loggan the Brain without anyone reaching to put it there. 

Only Alex and Ozzie seem to notice the board changing without any human aid, before they can react however they are both filled with an alien warmth. Alex’s hands shoot to his crotch and his face flares with embarrassment. All eyes fall to him as he almost squeaks as his meaty hands struggle to hide the fact that he’s getting obscenely hard at the CTC table, “GrheEEK! AH- hEM” the macho man tries to hide the voice crack from the table, failing to do so they all incredulously stare.

“Psh jeez- can’t a dude sneeze? Fuck!” Knowing they have most of a game still ahead of them no one goes in too hard on Alex, even as his complaints sound decidedly whinier to their ears. Were they to look even a smidge closer at the sscowling man’s face they’d surely see its hard edges begin to soften as his scratchy perma-stubble starts thinning. Alex flips through his bulky hand wondering how he’s going to overcome the pair of opponents, ignorant as his arms are slowly drained of the strength he has honed for over a decade at the gym.

oes Ozzie fail to see how he too begins to shift over the next round. When all hands go to counter a spell cast once more the situation ends once more with Alex being rebuffed by a Devolution card Ozzie drew. Thin fingers go to cover his mouth as he tries to quiet his laughter at Alex’s lips pulling into a pout, looking plumper than usual. Ozzie ignores the flitter at finding that exciting to instead taunt the man looking mousier but is distracted as he scratches his cheek, “Ah c’mon there Aluh- hm.” 

Ozzie pauses as he hears his fingers scratching at, well it sounds like stubble? After a few more strokes he speaks up again, “Uhh guys did I need to shave when I came in?” The party is focussed on his question so they take no heed of his voice sagging deeper with every word. Instead they narrow their eyes at his jawline. It takes him quite a while to grow any kind of facial hair so it’s not like it just sprouted up all of a sudden? Right? Alex laughs and rubs his own face, “Ah Hah! Followin’ the lead of your favorite role model huh! Heehee! Er-”

All laugh as Alex giggles uncharacteristically, cuing him up to go all out and defend his fragile masculinity. Ozzie sits back and watches as him and Lily tag team their fourth player into an early knock-out. All the while though he begins to feel odd? His palms are sweaty, upon closer inspection he realizes his whole form is sweaty. 

Eyes off him he airs out his chest and yelps as he accidentally grabs a tuft of chest hair. He looks down his shirt, slightly obscured by a stubbly little mustache poking out of his upper lip and barely quiets a gasp from shock as he sees a few curls sticking out the center of his bony chest. His inspection then falls onto the hand still grasping at his tee, almost imperceptible blond hairs that have humbly decorated his wrist have lengthened, darkened, and spread into a truly thick jungle on his forearms.

Needing to draw a few more cards to get his target out, Alex can’t help but shoot a couple more spells out at Lily who then redirects them to Ozz. Returning his focus to the board he grunts and prepares to take the hit before checking his hand to find two more copies of Devolution in his hand. He tosses them clumsily on the table and guffaws and shouts in his gruffer voice, “Hah! When’re you gonna learn to not target the man, fucker!” Ozzie reclines once more as Alex ignores his taunts and continues to take his turn.

Half-way to switching out his commander for a card he hasn’t read yet he tugs down his shirt as he feels a breeze on his exposed midriff. There seems to be a volley of new curls stretching above his waistline, briefly making sure no one’s watching he scratches at the pubes slowly inching into a dense treasure trail and almost moans at the distracting pleasure. With each quivering new sensation the blonde curls he has long been proud of darken and recede to something choppy and brown, shrinking back as from every inch of his form curls of the same pervasive brown race to assert his primal masculinity.

With each drag into the growing garden of hair on his waist the urge to vocalize his pleasure grows more difficult to ignore. The stubble on his face continues to thicken, growing into something more than five o’clock shadow that would put Alex’s to shame at its best. Speaking of, as his usual ungroomed stubble continues to fade and shrink into a face shifting as smooth as porcelain he can’t help but stare at Ozzie’s face with jealousy, his cock pulsing once more in his gym shorts and he grits his teeth, forcing himself to focus on the game and not on how Ozzie’s sleeves almost seem to be hugging his arms.

Ozzie similarly doesn’t see as his eyes are closed to be almost obscenely lost in the fulfillment of scratching his itch. Though he feels it. His arms slowly edging larger, straining his sleeves almost to tearing with each meagre movement. He feels stubble slowly growing up past his neckline, giving him a few stray curls that would need a turtleneck to hide as his chest begins to amass new weight and muscle itself.

In his death throes Tim follows Lily’s lead and forces Alex to toss a few more spells that will hopefully be blocked at Ozzie. Still lost in the reverie of his changing form, Ozzie doesn’t even check his cards as his hand quickly shoots up from his crotch and tosses two cards onto the table. Without looking two more tokens appear on Loggan the Brain and both Alex and Ozz clench the table as they are struck with another wave of changes. 

The other two players at the table are suddenly engrossed in checking their hands, as if compelled to not notice as Alex is suddenly swimming in clothes that he chose explicitly to highlight how built he was looking today, his neckline droops low enough that it should expose his burly-hair covered chest. The only thing it shows now however are two spray-tanned pecs that seem to be shrinking.

Alex doesn’t notice as his shoes almost fall off of his feet as they drop a few sizes, no instead he bites his lip and stares hungrily at the man who was supposed to be his quarry. His cock feels wanting his balls blue, more than that though for the first time in his life his ass almost feels empty, in need of something- or someone. He doesn’t put two and two together as he continues to stare at Ozzie growing hairier. 

The once mousy man finally fills his nerdy tee enough that it begins to fray and tear. Similarly do the slacks he threw on for game day find themselves more than filled with meaty thighs and a package that has blossomed into an absolute veiny beast. His eyes widen in wonder as he takes it in for the first time. His thicker, rougher hands reach downward and with the slightest touch his hips buck and his zipper blows out as his cock strains it to the breaking point. Barely contained in his briefs Ozzie has to ignore the wet patch of pre staining through them and put all his energy towards not cumming then and there in front of his friends as the game remains ongoing.

While the two were distracted by their changing tastes and bodies, Tim was officially knocked out of the game leaving everyone worse for wear. Though after another couple rounds it becomes clear that Alex is very much off his game. His white teeth continue to chew at his plumper lips as he’s lost in thought. 

Ozzie similarly chews his lip, champing at the bit as he stares at the shrinking man. Fuuuck, he’s real cute when he works himself up. His inner monologue sinks deeper in tone to match his new voice as his thoughts grow rougher, simpler. Under the table his hand can’t help but go to his crotch as images of some massive beast of a man dominating the twink push to the front of his mind. Drool dripping from teeth bared onto Alex’s back as he arches up into heavy pecs, as if he were made to be under the man, if he were made to be under Ozz- Fuck.

Alex shivers as the table shakes from Ozzie rutting into it, gasping as his own ass fills out. He’d never really spent dedicated time crafting the perfect butt, or no- is that true? His phone suddenly fills with nudes taken of his sculpted, smooth butt and sent to- Ozzie’s bearded face forces itself to the front of his mind. Alex can almost feel his sweaty muscular chest against his own, his fingers curling around hair that inches up from his ass and down from his shoulders. He can almost feel the phantom cock he’s bouncing on before across the table the only player not lost to their lusts clears her throat.

“What is up with you guys?” There’s forced confidence but something is clearly throwing her off her game. Something’s not right. Is it? Oggie- Er, Ozzie? He’s always been a tank, it’s why he’s been so against playing right? And Alex, well shoot that twink is obsessed with Conjuration since it’s the only game or sport that he can beat his- She clenches at her head as she’s seized by a migraine. Perhaps that’s how she falls into the trap that Alex has been setting since turn one.

“Ah HA! Finally biitch! You played right into my hands!” His voice cracks higher, something in the back of her mind swears she’d never let Alex call her a bitch but as she looks at the twink she can’t imagine why. The cocky sneer remains on Alex's face as his hair lengthens into a floppy garden of dirty blonde curls, after looking at the board it fades a little as he struggles to recall how exactly he’s supposed to finish her, “Uhm?”

He scratches at his head and the sleeve hanging on his thin bicep slides back, revealing his pit as the last few hairs remaining of his once proud tuft fall away, leaving behind a fruity scent that will never quite fade instead of the heady musk that could never be quenched. Ozzie didn’t realize he was staring at the twinks pits as they finished smoothing. Looking to his own pit stains on a shirt that seems moments from bursting off his form, he grins toothily and figures he produces well enough stink for the both of them. His canines almost feel larger in his mouth.

 After the song and dance of Lily walking Alex through her own defeat, accompanied by a fair share of giggles from a man who wouldn’t be caught dead speaking even vaguely ‘like a chick’ before the game, Lily heads off with Tim to go grab pizza before the next game. Leaving behind Alex and Ozzie as the game nears its close. Both men struggle to decide on their next moves, or rather if they care enough to even make them, as the other players depart. Ozzie scratches the back of his head like an ape, apathetic to his arm finally bursting free from its sleeve and exposing a hairy pit that Alex eyes hungrily. 

Drooling and wanting to be done with the game as soon as possible the once jock eyes his hand filled with spells and wonders why he has so many? Was there a reason he wasn’t using them? He hesitantly throws one down and is immediately met by a counter. Ozzie grunts as his form bulges larger, brow jutting slightly over blue eyes that don’t quite look so bright any more. He tears off his shirt with one meaty fist before moving to scratch at the carpet of hair covering his torso as if it were a shirt itself.

Ozzie’s own eyes glaze over as he drops his cards on the table, he want game over. His underwear is filled to breaking and he grimaces before going to tear them off just like his shirt. Grunting he punches the table in shock as the elastic band snaps back against him. Veins bulge everywhere across his form as rage fills him enough to rival his hunger for the twink sitting across from him. Struggling to control his breathing as he sits stewing in lust and anger he speaks in a gravely town as his stomach begins to bloat, “Your turn,”

Alex similarly is lacking the focus to continue the game, tossing his hand down his eyes flash as the remaining tokens stack onto Ozzie’s card. Neither man notices as a final line of text appears at the end of the dense paragraph, “If you lack a copy of Ogg the Brawn in your deck, become one.” He doesn’t read the card of course, nor will he chase the urge to read much of anything anymore, but as the ability is activated OzzOgg obeys the instructions to a tee.

Spit drips between gnashing teeth as Ogg stands to his new height. Waist filling out as he pounds onto the table and he grows into a true brute. The elastic band digging into his waist acts like a flank belt as he glowers at Alex and bucks into the table, making a mess of the organized decks as he feels his mind unable to focus on any pursuit other than chasing his hunger.

Alex stands and his pants fall to the floor, unable to remain on his thinned waist, “O-Ogg?” he squeaks out, what was was a tight muscle tee now hangs off a shoulder, perfectly framing a hard nipple and hiding the noticeably smaller bulge where his dick must be. Ogg knocks the table over and tackles the twink with power he never imagined or desired to have. 

Grunting, Ogg can’t control his hips as they continue to rock and thrust as he struggles to position his twitching cock over Alex who endeavors to roll over and present his perky ass. Ogg forces his face down into the nape of Alex’s neck, breathing in his scent, magically alluring and the diametric opposed to the bestial musk that steams off the man whose eyes dull to a dark brown as his stomach bulges into a massive muscle gut.

Underneath, the twink’s mental faculties grow similarly vacant as he feels the hairy stomach scratching against his back, as Ogg’s massive cock finds purchase and fills him with far more powerful pleasure than what Alex has inflicted on many a partner throughout the years. His moans fill the air, rivalling Ogg’s grunts as the pair leave sweat and cum stains on the cold tile. 

The air of the apartment is filled with Ogg’s primal, almost proto-human musk which only makes Alex hungrier for the man he is evermore to be obsessed with. When his face is shoved into Ogg’s jungle of pit hair he wonders how he lived before now as his cock is pressed up against Ogg’s bulky, curl-covered torso.

Eventually their preternatural lusts absolve themselves and in a brief refractory period Alex rushes to clean up the worst of their mess before the other two return with pizza. Ogg of course is no help as he throws on a pair of boxers Alex would’ve sworn were his own and goes to sit on the couch, arm behind his head to air out his steaming pit and continue to rile Alex up. After righting the table and wiping away all the stains he could see the twink indeed goes to nestle up alongside the man on the couch as he throws on some nature documentary.

Alex doesn’t notice as his head finds itself almost immediately in the man’s crotch as his cock starts to poke out the leg of his boxers. Well, when in Rome- Before they can get up to too much fun, they hear the door being jostled. Alex jolts up and swallows the pool of pre-cum filling his mouth before doing a poor job of hiding the rock hard rod in Ogg’s boxers. The brute grunts in irritation and grasps at his needy balls, apathetic to the return of the other platers.

Setting down the pizzas Tim looks over at the clearly worked up pair and rolls his eyes as if this is normal, “Well are you two horndogs up for another game?” Eying both Alex and Tim something besides the Id in Ogg rears up, still seems like there’s a lot left he can drain from the two men. Bulge already inching larger, he stands and goes to pick up Loggan from the floor. Time for round two-

[opossumprints]

I'm Your Guy part 1

Mike Wheeler and Steve Harrington have a complicated relationship. Most people assume that they only barely tolerate each other because of Steve’s past relationship with Nancy. Most of the party assume they reluctantly get along because of the Upsidedown; trauma bonds forged in Hell and a need to survive. 

The truth runs deeper than that. 

Steve knew Mike long before any Demogorgon sunk its claws into Hawkins. Before Steve was Nancy’s boyfriend, he was Mike's babysitter. 

At first, Mike really did hate Steve. He hated Steve for being there instead of his parents, or even Nancy. He hated Steve for the rumors he had heard about the older boy. But mostly he hated Steve for needing Steve. 

The Wheeler parents spent very little time in their own house, leaving several hours when their children would be home by themselves. For a while, it wasn't a problem because Nancy was there but Nancy joined as many after-school clubs as she could on the literal first day of her freshman year.  That meant Mike needed a babysitter. 

He tried to argue that he could take care of himself even though he knew that wasn't true. Even if it was, there was still one problem. Mike couldn't take care of Holly. 

So Ted Wheeler grabbed the first decently responsible-looking high schooler he could find and that was that. 

Mike couldn't hate Steve for long though. Not when Steve would actually play with Mike and Holly, not when he would cook on nights when Mike's parents would be out late and Nancy couldn't bother to be home, especially not when Steve bought Mike The Dungeon Masters guide despite knowing nothing about the game just because mike wanted it and was 4 bucks short. 

So it's complicated.

He gets really annoyed with Steve, like all the time, and sure it pisses him off that his babysitter started dating his sister only to dump her and be a complete asshole. But he hasn't hated Steve for a long time. 

On the other hand, they're not friends. 

Mike isn't really nice to Steve and Steve doesn't really hang out with Mike one on one anymore. Mike doesn't treat Steve like one of his friends either.

Mike cares about his friends, there is nothing he wouldn't do for the people he cares about and there is a lot he wouldn't do for Steve. 

Mike knows he gets jealous pretty easily (and deep down he knows he's a bit too possessive of his friends) but he's working on it.

It's been forever since he snapped at one of The Party for doing something without him. He didn't even complain when Holly, El, and Max had a sleepover and he wasn't allowed in his own damn basement. 

But right now even he can tell all his progress has flown out the window.

Because right now he's glaring daggers across the room where Steve and Eddie are sitting cross-legged hunched over the Wheelers' coffee table, Eddie is Teaching Steve how to play DnD...that's supposed to be Mike's job. 

For the first hour, he rationalized it as having always been the guy to teach people how to play DnD. But if he’s honest, for the first time since he’s met the guy, Mike feels possessive about Steve, Mike's jealous That Eddie and Steve are doing this without him, He is angry that this is happening.

Because it's not just about Eddie Stealing Mike's job--It's not just about Mike.

You see, Steve asks a lot of questions about a lot of stuff and everyone in the party is Steve’s guy for something or other; Dustin is the science guy, Lucas is the comics guy, Will and El are the Upsidedown guys, Max is the movie/videogames guy.

And Mike? Mike is the fantasy guy.  

Mike has always been Steve’s fantasy guy, he's always the one Steve asks about how magic works or what Moradoor is.

Mike should have been the guy Steve asked to teach him how to play. 

It's not fair that after everything they've been through together, Eddie gets to swoop in and be Steve’s new go-to fantasy guy just like that.

What if it doesn't stop there? Now that the Party is officially in Highschool Steve does have much reason to hang out with any of the party just by themselves besides them being Steve’s guys. What if Eddie becomes Steve’s guy for everything? 

Mike can't let that happen.

[meanbossart]

Oh boy, VaM is kind of a trial and error experience LOL I couldn't really show you how to use the interface and stuff without a whole video or something, but it's not THAT difficult to get a hang of if you just give yourself a day or two to play around, not to mention the number of tutorials you find out there. Luckily, if you only want to use it as a reference software that makes the process far easier (to this day I have no idea how to animate on that thing, since that's not what I use it for)

As for how I use it, it's pretty self explanatory - if there's a complicated pose I want to draw but I'm either having trouble with it, or just want to double-check angles/anatomy, I will use it as a resource! I use for most of my "proper" pieces (y'know, the nicer looking ones) and every once in a while for my silly comics if I'm having trouble with a pose.

Lets use this drawing for example (the character on top of DU drow belongs to @namespara )

I don't draw a lot of mud-wrestling (shocking, I know) but I had an idea of the kind of pose I wanted them to be in. So the very first thing I did was make a rough sketch of what I was envisioning:

I often do a rough sketch first, even If I know I'm going to be pulling the program up because A) It's less tedious than adjusting the models over and over again until I pick a pose and B) because sometimes I'll decide I don't need the reference, after all, and so that's 30 minutes I'll have spared myself of playing around on the software.

Now, this is a pretty complicated pose! It's in a weird angle and the bodies are making contact in ways I'm not used to depicting, so I did choose to whip out VaM for this one. I went into the program and after some messing around, I flopped my little dolls together like this:

Now something really cool about VaM is that you can completely customize your models, and if you have the patience, I would definitely encourage you to do so! Obviously, you don't have to make picture perfect replicas of every single character you have, but as you can see here I have made a DU drow "decoy" to help me better understand some of his features when I draw him: he has a strong brow, a short nose, a square jawline - these are all going to look a very specific way from certain angles, and I might not always be sure of how to draw it right! So it's useful to have models that bear SOME semblance to the character so you can better understand how different viewpoints will affect their bone structure and mass.

Also thank fucking god for the elf-ear slider. Figuring out how to draw those shits from certain angles was a huge pain in the ass when I started drawing DnD races.

So, with the reference in hand, I go over the sketch again:

Now you may notice that I don't stick to the reference 100%. There's three reasons for this:

posing on VaM is tedious as hell. You can get something incredibly natural looking and picture-perfect to reference from if you wish, but it's going to take you hours to do. So, for the most part I just slap guys together until the results are "close enough" and use that.

In my opinion, you should always aim to ENHANCE your reference material, not replicate it exactly!

While VaM is a PRETTY DANG GOOD source of anatomical reference, it isn't perfect, I often supplement it with further reference from real life resources or make tweaks based on my own knowledge where I catch it falling short (and, antithetical to what I just said, I sometimes fuck the anatomy up further on purpose if I think it looks better that way LOL it's all jazz baby).

Then lines, color, yada yada. I don't have a tutorial on that and I don't think I could make one, because my process is chaotic as hell, but I do at times use Virt-a-mate as loose reference for lighting too when coloring - waaaaayyyy less so however, because that process is even more tedious and I feel like I often get better results by just winging it. It is a feature of the program though, and I'm sure it would be helpful for someone who has a difficult time visualizing lights and shadows. I only started using this program a few months ago, so I happened to already have a pretty good understanding of that kind of thing and just don't personally feel like I get much out of that particular mechanic.

Here's a few other examples of pieces that I made reference for (WARNING: Suggestive)

Now, for the question many of you may want to ask:

"Can I trace this junk?"

And to that, I say: Buddy, you can do whatever the hell you want with the reference material you created.

However,

If your goal is to learn and improve your art, and to recreate realistic proportions and anatomy from memory, tracing won't help you.

Developing your own style, your muscle memory, and personal technique will all be hindered by choosing to trace instead of drawing from observation, so I would encourage against it. Hell - even when tracing is employed as a technique, it's usually by high-skill realism & concept artists who are looking to either cut some corners, save time, or just double-check their own proportions in order to improve further - if you try tracing as a beginner, you will most definitely find the result to still look stiff and "off".

So trust me, there is so much more to be gained from drawing from observation. Make note of tangents, compare proportions, use all the elements of the picture to dictate where and how things should go - it will be a far more rewarding experience.

Hopefully this has been helpful! VaM is a really cheap program (you get it on the guys' patreon for I think 8 dollars, just google it!) and it's definitely been worth my money as an artist since I found it. Learning to use it can be a little intimidating at first glance, but as I said above you only really need a day plus one or two tutorials to get a hang of the interface.

A fair warning though, IT IS A SOFTWARE MADE FOR VIRTUAL SEX/ADULT ANIMATION So when looking it up expect to see a some spicy content.

[once-upon-an-imagine]

Hiii❤️, how are you?

I wonder if you can do a gareth x "cheerleader" reader, and they are dating in secret and the reader has a younger brother who plays dnd, but he has nobody to play with except reader and the brother is too shy ask them or eny one to play.

(the little brother is around Erica's age)

(Sorry, my English is not so good, and sorry if the request is too complicated or you are not able to right it. I hope you have a good day and night, sorry again if you can't make it)

this is such a sweet request, love! it's a bit short, since I'm only doing dialogues right now (although it turned into a drabble), so I hope that's okay 😊 your English was really good, love don't worry 😁 thanks for being the first one to request Gareth 🥰 Warnings: none Disclaimer:  I don’t own Stranger Things 😊 gif isn’t mine 😊

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

New Player

"There you are, sweetheart" Gareth smiled and stopped playing his drums as soon as you appeared in his garage. "I was starting to think you'd forgotten about me" he pouted, making you smile and give him a peck on the lips.

"I could never do that" you argued as he kissed you again, a little deeper this time. "Sorry, love. Practice ran late" you explained while he led you to the sofa in his garage. When you sat down he pulled your legs to rest on top of his and placed his arm on the back of the sofa.

"It's okay, love" he smiled. "How was practice?"

"It was fine" you said, resting your head on his arm. "How was your campaign?"

"It was fun" he said, smiling.

"Yeah?" you asked, tiredly and he kissed your head. "Do you have band practice today?"

"Nope, not today" he shook his head. "Today I'm all yours" he smiled, kissing you again.

"Lucky me" you smiled.

"You wanna watch a movie?" he asked as he started to get off the couch but you quickly pulled him back.

"Um... can I ask you something?" you asked, looking at his hand between yours. "You can say no if you want to" you muttered, making him frown. It wasn't usual for you to be shy around him.

"I hardly think that will be the case. It's pretty impossible for me to say no to you" he said, pulling you closer and making you smile shyly at him. "What's going on sweetheart?"

"Well, remember when you told me that Eddie asked Mike and Dustin to look for someone to join Hellfire because Lucas wasn't showing up?"

"Yeah, it was a few days ago" he mentioned.

"And they got Erica, right?" you asked and he nodded. "Well, I just wanted to ask um... because I kind of thought that Hellfire was only for people in high school but um... well, since Erica joined I thought um..." you said, playing with his hand. "I was wondering if... maybe Charlie could join you sometime?"

"Charlie?" he frowned. "Your brother Charlie?"

"Well, he's friends with Erica and she told him about Hellfire and I thought-"

"He plays?" he interrupted you and you understood why he was so confused.

"Yeah, he does" you nodded.

"How come I didn't know this?"

"Well, I don't know, I guess it hasn't come up. Like I said, I thought Hellfire was a high school thing and-"

"You still could have told me he played" he chuckled.

"Well, it's just... he's really shy and he doesn't have many friends, and he doesn't think he's really good at it but I think he is" you explained. "Or... maybe he's regular and he's just good because I'm horrible at it-"

"Hold on!" he said, now completely shocked. "You play?"

"I uh- w-well, not really. I just play with Charlie because he has nobody to play with but I have died several times" you explained.

"Really?" he chuckled.

"Don't laugh at me!" you pouted. "There are a lot of rules and, I am really bad at it and-"

Gareth cut you off by pulling you closer and placing a sweet kiss on your lips.

"I'm sorry, love. I didn't mean to laugh" he assured you. "It's really sweet that you play D&D with Charlie" he said. "I sometimes get invited when my sisters throw tea parties" he confessed.

"You do?" you asked, smiling sweetly at him and he nodded, feeling his cheeks blush a little. "That's adorable" you said, kissing his cheek and moving closer to him.

"Well, if you want, and if you don't mind telling your brother about me, then maybe we can get together to play D&D, and if he likes, I can talk to Eddie about him joining Helfire" he suggested. "If Charlie wants" he added.

"Really?" you asked, excitedly, moving closer to him and wrapping your arms around his shoulders. "You would do that?"

"I told you it's pretty much impossible for me to say no to you" he said before you leaned in to kiss him again. "You can tell him we're friends if you prefer" he suggested.

"I think he would like to meet my boyfriend" you smiled. "If you're okay with that" you said.

"I'd like that" he smiled before he kissed you again. "And if you're okay with it... maybe... I can tell the guys in Hellfire?" he asked, hopeful. "Or just Eddie, if you prefer, he can keep a secret-"

"Do you he's gonna freak out?" you asked, nervously.

"Oh, yes, definitely" he chuckled, kissing you again. "I can't wait!"

The End

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

A/N: hope you loves liked it!

[altades]

Vashwood rant

I can't sleep so why not analyze vashwood in the middle of the night

Now, this analysis is mostly of the manga, with maybe small takes from 98 and tristamp

To start let's look at the boys from their respective beginnings

Vash is so cruelly mischaracterized as a child, and it might be a little bit of trismaps fault, even though i do love it, or maybe people are just putting characters into boxes without really thinking about it but Vash is so not soft-shy-nice little baby brother. The whole thing with him being younger is so insane to me, i get why if Nai was born like 10 minutes earlier he would make it his whole personality (very sibling thing to do) but it's just so stupid. No, they have 0 age difference and it doesn't affect their dynamic cuz the are literally twins for the love of god. And, really, when you look at the manga as kids Nai was the emotional one! And he still is!

Nai is plagued by fear and anger and resentment and those emotions are what drive his every decision. Vash, on the other hand, is much more in control of his feelings and doesn't show them as much. That is to say that pre-tesla nai is the one worried about their relationship with humans, about their future, he's the one crying after talking to Conrad (what a sweet child he was) while Vash seemes much less scared.

And when they find out about Tesla Nai is the one who faints - he’s the more reactive one, the emotional one. And that small difference is what sets their paths so differently. Because Vash actually gets a chance to talk to Rem and figure things out.And that talk is so very important because it makes Rem, who already was everything to Vash, even more important. 

Now, I want us all to think about how terrified Vash was after seeing Tesla cuz he probably thought his own mother was going to dissect him and his brother. But then she saves him when he tries to end his own life, proving that no she’s not gonna kill him, because she, as every human, has the capability to learn from her mistakes and make better choices. (too bad Nai didn’t get that lesson lol)

And then we get to the big bad things. (it’s genocide) But the important part from that whole ordeal is Rem’s sacrifice. Because, listen, I love stories where humanity is shown to be capable of change and forgiveness is a virtue and love and pussy and all that but oh man can it be so so unrealistic and a little bit insane to watch (su im looking at u (i love su but oh boy that is not how the world works unfortunately)) but Trimax manages to make it work so well. I believe that’s cuz Vash is a very kind and loving man but is also completely out of his mind and has horrendous mommy issues. At least half the reason he doesn’t kill people is because Rem has died to save them, and killing them would make it all be for nothing. If he kills these people or if he lets them die would that mean that Rem died for nothing? Did she sacrifice her life to save these people only for her own son to end their lives? AND you know I’m right cuz he literally says it in the manga but also BECAUSE HE DOES THE SAME FOR WOLFWOOD (also he did kill Nai when he had the chance but we don’t have time to unpack that)

All of that is A LOT and very complicated (i love Vash he’s so well written he’s my perfect little meow meow) now let's talk about Wolfwoooooooooood /twirls hair/

WW is much easier to understand and analyze cuz he is, just a guy,, WW is just a normal person who gets insanely unlucky and gets in THE WORST possible situations (If he ever played DND he would roll straight 1s). That is to say that his story is sort of a way to show how much life in the badlands sucks, but also that there are good things even in the worst places (the orphanage) And WW reacts to situations in the most rational way possible way - he kills to survive. he doesn’t want to but he doesn’t get a say in it. If he could chose he would just live with his family and friend and do whatever. And that, him being so normal in such a violent and bloody world is what makes him suffer all the time. His inner moral compass is screaming at him what a terrible person he is and he promptly ignores it.

That is until that moral compass manifests itself in the form of a tall, blond and handsome stranger that he’s supposed to lead to his death. The stranger who turns out to be the most compassionate and kind man WW’s has ever seen. Who he’s supposed to kill. It’s like finding an oasis in the desert and being forced to burn it to the ground. And WW doesn’t want to do that, and he refuses to believe that the oasis is not a mirage so he tries to get Vash to kill someone, even if it’s WW himself. (It doesn’t work.)

As we all know WW changes his mind because of Vash’s influence. And he dies for it. Because even though Vash’s beliefs are born of human virtues, no man is made to walk his path, for he is not human and any mortal who tries to follow an angel to the skies is doomed to crash. WHAT YOU DON’T EXPECT IS THAT THAT MAN WILL BRING THE ANGEL DOWN WITH HIM

There is this line I wrote for an art i’m planning to make and if you’ve read this far you deserve a lil spoiler - “have you found absolution in bringing an angel to his knees?” and it captures perfectly what i'm thinking. And also Vash spends so much time trying to be closer to people but I think him killing Legato might’ve been the most human thing he’s ever done. Cuz it’s is so beautiful in the way he does it for the memory of the person he loved and yet so ugly in it’s cruelty.

I’ve said this before but most of the time when there is a human/ some immortal powerful creature relationship I don’t think the human is that special but WW HE SO IS. Maybe it’s the way that he’s just as deep in the nuclear bombs with personality business as Vash is, being one of said nuclear bombs, but still remains a normal person with relatively good morals that he can anchor Vash to a sort of normality that he doesn’t get often. Like what other guy would get hunted by all sorts of freaks with you, get in trouble all the time, get shot and etc and etc and then go for a drink with you like it’s a normal wednesday? Wolfwood. Or maybe it's that WW learns of every worst part of Vash, he sees him be on the brink of losing himself, he knows Vash has actually caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and ALMOST did it again after Julai, and still stays with him? He sees Vash become something that is not human at all and still stay? Idk MAYBE IT’S ALL OF THAT but WW is just so important and so down bad but we all know that already so i’m not gonna add to that

Anyways, I got this all out of my system gn

[aemiron-main]

Who Is Edward Creel? If You’re Confused About Him, Read This Post

So, I’ve been seeing a lot of people asking about Edward Creel and who he is and what the hell people are talking about with him, so I figured I’d make a big general post about Edward. You can skip to the end for a bulletpoint TLDR summary.

Where Did Edward Come From?

I originally noticed him here, in the Indianapolis Gazette article about the Creel murders, and made an initial post about his name just being a reference to the idea of Vecna using Eddie/Edward Munson as a corpse puppet.

However, as I went through more of the Indianapolis Gazette, I realized that this goes WAY, WAY beyond “corpse puppet Eddie,” references, and rather than “Edward Creel being a reference to Edward Munson,” it’s actually the other way around, and Edward Munson is a reference to Edward Creel and has multiple lines that reinforce the idea of Edward being Vecna rather than Henry.

Here is a large post about some of the timeline differences, and it’s a post that’s been sitting in my drafts for a LONG time and is what initially prompted me to look further into the multiple timeline stuff/the concrete differences between Edward’s timeline and Henry’s timeline.

As far as “where did Edward come from in-universe?” goes though, THAT is a much more complicated question, one that I’m still trying to answer.

Who Is Edward Creel?

So, who IS Edward? Well, I very much think that Edward is Vecna, and here’s why:

1.) I talked in this post about the parallels between ST and Jekyll and Hyde, specifically regarding Henry Creel and Edward Creel versus Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde, and how Jekyll and Hyde and ST tie into Carl Jung’s theory of the shadow. I would recommend reading that post for a solid intro into the idea that Edward is Vecna and the relationship between Edward and Henry and Edward being Henry’s “shadow self”.

2.) Eddie/Edward Munson is literally Vecna in the DND game- just like how Edward Creel is actually Vecna, they’re meant to parallel eachother.

3.) All of the name weirdness where there’s that whole scene with Robin and the Hawkins gang being uncle to figure out what to call Vecna (Vecna or Henry or 001), and how even though the supposed plot twist was that Henry was Vecna, it’s actually that 001 was Vecna, and we don’t know for sure if Henry is 001 due to the Edward weirdness, and all of the continued debate about names after the supposed plot twist/reveal tells me that we still aren’t done learning about who Vecna actually is. Especially since at the end of S4, Will just talks about “him,” and how he can still feel him, and doesn’t name him. You’d think if Vecna was Henry, they’d throw in a reference to Henry there, and that in general, they’d draw a stronger link between Henry and Vecna rather than drawing that link between 001 and Vecna, which is what they’ve done.

4.) There's some other reasons too, but I'm still finishing up the analysis posts for those.

How Is Edward Creel Connected To Henry Creel?

So, this is a question that ties into the question of “where did Edward Creel come from in-universe?”, and as such, is also a difficult question to answer. However, right now, these are the main theories about where Edward came from and how he’s connected to Henry (none of these are in any particular order, like 1.) isn’t the top theory or anything):

1.) Edward was split off or cloned from Henry in Hawkins Lab as part of Brenner’s attempts to recreate Henry, and then something happened with timeline and time travel weirdness, and Edward ended up with his whole own timeline where he grew up in the Creel house instead of being cloned/born in a lab.

2.) Edward and Henry are eachother’s naturally-occurring equivalents from different timelines, and one or both of them and/or the lab were messing with time and ended up swapping timelines/temporal displacement stuff.

3.) Henry and Edward were born as actual brothers in the same timeline but something happened with timelines splitting and they ended up in different timelines.

How Is Edward Connected To Timeline and Time Travel Weirdness?

So, I already talked about this post where I compare Edward’s timeline with Henry’s timeline and all of the drastic differences, but it goes beyond just different timelines, because we have all that imagery of Henry/Edward turning back a clock with his mind, and all of the general timeline weirdness/time travel imagery in ST, in addition to Vecna’s clock imagery.

I’m still figuring out exactly what happened and how he’s connected to Henry and timeline weirdness, but there’s definitely a big connection there, especially considering birthdaygate and the fact that in Edward’s timeline, the Creel murders happened on Will’s birthday.

Transcription of The Indianapolis Gazette Article Involving Edward

So, this is just a transcription of the article relating to the Creels, not all of the articles in the page (although I AM finishing up analysis posts of those articles).

Paper Title: Indianapolis Gazette

Publication Date: Thursday, March 26th, 1959. (MIGHT say 1958, but most likely 1959)

Article Title: 3 Dead as Police Probe Grisly Scene

Subtitle: Bodies Left Mutilated, Eyeless, Creel Defiant

Column 1:

Bulletin

"Local family man, Victor Creel, murdered his wife and two small children Saturday night.

The bodies were discovered early Sunday morning after Creel was found wandering aimlessly along the side of Highway 49, South of Hawkins.

Deputy John Snow from Hawkins Police Department intercepted Creel and made the discovery upon returning him home. The bodies of three persons have been found inside the home of a 35-year-old Town of Hawkins Roane County family man. Law enforcement officers searching Sundary Morning for signs of foul play found the bodies of Virginia Creel, Edward Creel, and Alice Creel strewn about the foyer of the house, six miles from downtown Hawkins.

Sherif fJack Kaulfield of Roane County and Director Larry Peacefield of the State of Indiana Crime Laboratory kept newsmen from the site Sunday.

Roane County Dist. Atty. ParkerJones said today that Creel had broken his silence that he "might of" killed the victims and admitted to being present when the victims died. Shortly after 11 o'clock, this morning, Creel was taken from the jails at Hawkins by Jack-" (article cuts off)

Column 2

"Officers who had been at the scene said these things were among those found at the Creels' home: The eyeless, mutilated body of Mrs Creel, "butchered, like you would clean a deer," according to one law enforcement officer. The mangled and eyeless bodies of the two young children- Virginia and Edward- laid deflated and bent on the floor of the foyer. Creel at first told authorities he knew nothing about the things that occurred at his house. He is decribed as 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighing about 158 (?) pounds, with light skin, light brown hair, and "appearing slight and unable to perform basic motor functions"- a condition likely brought on as a result of the psychological consequences of committing the murders, said head psychiatrist at Pennhurst Asylum, Alexis McMurry. Creel was known around town for his generosity and the Creel Family was regularly seen at Sunday Mass at St. Phillip's Catholic Church on Sundays. Which has led many locals to wonder what led Creel to commit such ghastly acts. A veteran from the second world war, VIctor Creel served two tours of duty in Europe and returned home a hero. After moving to-" (article cuts off)

Caption Under Photo

House of Horror

Here is the house in which the Creels lived for the last two years where authorities found the remains of Alice, Edward, and Virginia Creel- Victor Creel's wife, son, and daugther- Early SUnday in what police are calling "the most grisly set of murders the town of Hawkins has ever seen"

What Is Edward’s Timeline/Thw Indianapolis Gazette Timeline?

Here’s the key events and info that you should know if you’re interested in Edward’s timeline/the Indianapolis Gazette timeline:

Edward moved to Hawkins in 1957 and lived there for two years.

Edward’s father is Victor Creel, and his Victor is 35 years old as of 1958.

Edward’s mother is Alice Creel, and her age is not listed.

Edward’s sister is Virginia Creel, and her age is not listed.

The Creel Murders happened on March 21st, 1959 in Edward’s timeline.

How are Connie Frazier and Alice Creel and Mike Wheeler and Eleven Connected To The Edward Timeline?

Remember how I mentioned that Edward’s mother is named Alice, NOT Virginia (unlike Henry, whose mother is Virginia)? Well, that’s who “Mother Alice,” is (if you’ve seen me using that name on my blog), and I also think that she’s Connie Frazier.

I originally posted here about Connie being Henry’s sister, Alice, prior to the realization of how she connected to the Edward timeline, but then that turned into the realization that Connie is more likely Edward’s mother, Alice, rather than Henry’s sister, Alice. I’d recommend reading that post, so I’m not going to retype it all here, but the name “Alice,” plays repeatedly in the song “White Rabbit,” when Connie is on screen. I’ve got more Connie posts here and here. Mother Alice’s death in the Hawkins Middle School hallway in S1 even parallels Daughter/Sister Alice’s death at the Creel house in 1959.

In this post, I talk further about Connie being Mother Alice, but I also talk about something/someone else in that post- Karen Wheeler.

I think that Karen Wheeler is Sister Virginia/Virginia Creel from another timeline (the Edward timeline). I’ve got more posts about Karen being Daughter Virginia and Virginia-Karen parallels here, here, here, and here.

As well, @henrysglock has a bunch of great posts about how Eleven ties into this, as Eleven is likely Edward’s daughter in one timeline (daughter in the sense that he’s her biological father due to Brenner trying to recreate Henry/Edward).

However, if Eleven is Edward’s daughter in the Edward timeline, and Karen Wheeler is Edward’s sister in the Edward timeline, then doesn’t that make Mike and Eleven blood cousins? Yes.

I posted here, here, here, and here, about Edward Timeline Victor being Karen/Daughter Virginia’s father and therefore being Nancy, Holly, and Mike’s grandfather.

Summary

So, here’s the current main thoughts to know about Edward Creel:

He was originally found here, in the Indianapolis Gazette.

He is very, very likely Vecna, rather than Henry Creel being Vecna.

He has a timeline that is different from Henry Creel’s timeline.

Even in the definition of a timeline as “a series of dates,” and setting time travel/multiple timeline weirdness aside (even though he IS very much involved with that) his series of dates is canonically, indisputably, different from Henry’s, thus, literally different timelines even in the most basic sense.

His mother is Alice Creel and his sister is Virginia Creel, the opposite of Henry’s mother and sister.

The Indianapolis Gazette DOES NOT mention Henry Creel at ALL. ONLY Edward and mentions him repeatedly as being Victor Creel’s son.

Edward’s father is still Victor Creel, but his Victor is younger than Henry’s Victor, as Edward’s Victor was 35 in 1959 and Henry’s Victor was 40 in 1959.

Edward Creel lived in Hawkins for two years, and moved there in 1957.

In Edward’s timeline, the Creel murders happened on the night of March 21st and were discovered on the morning of the 22nd (Will’s birthday), whereas the murders happened on the night of March 25th in Henry’s timeline.

Edward Creel’s body was supposedly found with his eyes gouged out (whereas Henry slipped into a coma after 7 days and did not lose his eyes), however, in both Henry and Edward’s case, there is ALWAYS the possibility of the lab creating fake bodies, which is what I think happened, especially since we see the same State Troopers involved with Will’s fake body arresting Victor.

Edward’s sister and mother also likely survived, which is where we get into more speculation, because I have the initial post here about Connie Frazier being Alice Creel and then a post here about Connie Frazier being Edward’s Mother/Mother Alice/Alice Creel from another timeline and about Karen Wheeler being Edward’s sisters/Sister Virginia/Virginia Creel from another timeline.

I’m still figuring out exactly how Edward and Henry are related, if they’re a.) just eachother from naturally-occurring alternate timelines, if they’re b.) twin brothers from the same timeline but separated into different timelines scientifically or supernaturally or c.) Edward being Henry’s clone as a result of Brenner trying to recreate Henry in a lab or split off from Henry, or vice versa, and then Edward getting to live at the Creel house/experience the Creel murders via timeline weirdness even though he was “born” in the lab.

There’s also a solid chance that there’s multiple Henries (possibly even three or four, for example) and one Edward, or multiple Edwards and multiple Henries etc etc, because there seems to be multiple timelines happening, and also there’s multiple different Henries/Edwards during NINA, all with different blood splatters on their jumpsuits, and all with completely different, changing child corpses during their massacre sequences.

There is a “Richard Brenner”, listed in the S1 final episode article about Will’s vanishing, and Edward and his timeline is likely connected to Richard Brenner rather than Martin Brenner, or Henry is connected to Richard and Edward to Martin, I’m still figuring that out.

Some of the S1 scenes, specifically the ones involving Connie Frazier, seem to be occurring in the Edward Timeline (or one of the Edward timelines/the Indianapolis Gazette timeline), because if Connie Frazier is Mother Alice Creel, then she exists in the Edward timeline, so when we see her, we’re seeing Edward’s timeline. Unless, of course, she got mixed up into another timeline, which is always an option.

I’m suspicious that Edward was watching the Creel family from the void or from another timeline (see: Will’s “True Sight”/however he was able to see the alphabet on the Byers’ wall from the UD in s1 and was “trapped in the walls”/in the Byers’ house) and that Edward is what Victor was “sensing,” in the attic, much like Billy sensing/seeing El in the void in s3 and Mike seemingly sensing El in the void in s2. Will being “trapped in the walls,” of the Byers’ house is likely going to come back with Edward and Henry in S5 and Edward being “in the walls,”/watching the Creels from the void or from another timeline.

One of the “Henries” monologuing to El during the massacre is very very likely Edward

Regarding what I said about Mother Alice being Connie Frazier and Daughter Virginia being Karen Wheeler in the Edward timeline, that would make Victor Creel the grandfather of Mike, Holly, and Nancy, and would make Connie Frazier their grandmother.

And if El is Edward’s daughter from the lab and Brenner trying to recreate him, then that would mean that Mike and El are blood cousins in the Edward timeline.

List of My Posts About Edward

Here’s a current list of my posts about Edward, and I’m finish up a new pinned post/directory that’ll have a continuously updating list of links to my posts about him! (here is the link to the edward pinned post section)

Who The Fuck Is Edward Creel? Original Discovery of Edward Creel Post (x)

Edward Creel is Vecna and Henry Creel is Innocent: The First Shadow, Edward Creel, Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde, and Carl Jung’s Theory of the Shadow (x)

Initial Post About The Creel Murders Happening On Will’s Birthday In The Edward Timeline (x)

NOTE: I use “Henry” in this post because this was before I connected it to Edward being a separate person, so just swap “Henry” for Vecna, but the Indianapolis Gazette IS the Edward timeline.

Confirming That The Creel Murders Happened On Will’s Birthday In The Edward Timeline (x)

NOTE: Same as the other post, use “Henry” in this post because this was before I connected it to Edward being a separate person, so just swap “Henry” for Vecna, but the Indianapolis Gazette IS the Edward timeline.

The Creels’ Disappearing Door and Magic, Colour-Changing Wallpaper (x)

Birthdaygate and When Did The Henry-Edward Split Happen And Was Edward Watching The Creel Family From The Void Or Via True Sight From Another Timeline? (x)

Edward Creel and the Lost Brother (x)

Edward Creel is Totally Vecna- Eddie’s DND Scene (x)

Edward Munson and Henry Creel and Being Blamed For Murder (x)

Revisiting The “If We Just Go Based On Henry’s Monologue, We Would Have No Clue Alice Even Existed Until The End And He Never Mentions Her By Name” Post With The Context Of Edward (x)

The First Shadow: Shadow(s) of The Past and LOTR (x)

The Shadows of The Past Have a Very Long Reach (x)

The First Shadow: Demons In Your Past (x)

Edward Being Bolded On The S4 Movie Board (x)

You’re Not A Child vs I’m Not A Dog And Henry Or Edward Being “Not A Child” (x)

Edward and Henry and 001 vs 000 (x)

Henry’s Colour-Changing Socks (x)

I Don’t Know What That Thing Is But It’s Not My Son- Victor, Henry, Edward, and Vecna (x)

Why Are We Seeing Through The Eyes of Someone The Same Height As Henry So Often? And Why Did Henry Look Up At The Camera? (x)

How Does Timeline Theory Stuff Tie Into Other Events In ST and How Does It Tie Into The Themes of ST and How Are The Duffers Going To Pull It Off Without Blindsiding the GA? (x)

Something Was Wrong With Me Vs What Is Wrong With My Boy (x)

Lost In The Darkness vs Hiding In The Darkness vs Hiding In The Shadows vs Good At Hiding (x)

Is Sam Owens Edward’s Father/Victor Creel From Another Timeline? (x)

“Well, my hair was buzzed and i didnt have these sweet old tatties yet”- Another Eddie Munson vs Edward Creel Parallel (x)

Just Move Your Date This One Time: Edward and Moving Dates (x)

All Your Theories About It Are Wrong, Because I’ve Seen One and Fought One: Edward Creel is Vecna/001 (ft Which One Is It?) (x)

The Lab IDs That Kali Dumped Out Vs Edward and Henry (x)

Edward Creel and the Criticism of Eddie Munson Being a Pointless Character (x)

Henward’s Plinko Reflection (x)

Henward Standing Like Alice Vs Standing Like Young Henward (x)

That’s The One: Will and 001 and Edward Creel (x)

I’m Eleven, You Long Haired Freak (x)

Edward, Eddie, and Straitjackets (x)

Joseph Quinn and Jamie Bower Doing Press Together, ST5, and Edward Creel/Vecna Using Eddie Munson as a Flesh Puppet So That Jamie Is Freed Up To Play Henry Creel (x)

Reblog of Stav’s Post Regarding Edward Creel, Eddie Munson, Reefer Rick, Richard Brenner, and Will’s Vanishing vs Eddie Hiding Parallels and Eddie Being Mistaken For Rick (x)

Eddie The Banished vs Edward Creel and Eddie’s Death Scene vs Edward Creel/001 Getting Sent To Superhell (x)

[utilitycaster]

Would LOVE that essay on combat in dnd because full agree. But not even just for people watching live play, like, combat is an essential feature of dnd as a game system and it endlessly frustrates me when i see dms be like “yeah combat is just too complicated and no fun so i dont do it in my game :)!” Like i guess thats your right, but any non-caster class is gonna be miserable in your game. I saw a video recently talking about how dnd has kind of become the default ttrpg and is marketed as the perfect system for everyone and any style of play which is just. So not true. Combat in dnd is equally as integral as roleplay is and theres really no argument otherwise. Very valid if you hate dnd combat, it sure isnt for everyone, but in that case maybe play a different ttrpg where the characters arent constructed around combat abilities, i promise you’ll have more fun.

So this is one of those things that touches on maybe 99% of my feelings on Experiencing Fiction in general and actual play in particular; I apologize in advance for the length and digressions within this response.

Here are the reasons I have seen or I surmise why people don’t like D&D combat, either in actual play or in home games:

It can get crunchy and involves a lot of rules

There are long stretches in which individuals do not necessarily act (not exclusive to combat but I think this is a factor)

It contains violence

There is a potential for character death

Now, it’s fine if you aren’t interested in D&D-style combat, for whatever reason, when you play ttrpgs. It’s just that this is a core feature of D&D. As you say, this is what the martial classes are structured around - and, frankly, no small number of casting classes/subclasses as well. By avoiding it when you play D&D, you’re avoiding the bulk of the game, and there are plenty of ttrpgs that permit open RP that aren’t combat focused that would probably fit your needs better (eg: PbtA and Savage Worlds are both generic systems that can support a heroic fantasy like D&D without the emphasis on combat skills). I happen to love and prefer D&D, but that is specifically because I love combat, and yeah, there are other games and people should seek out those games if they don’t like combat.

When it comes to D&D actual play though…skipping combat is just straight-up stupid. And to be clear I mean fully skipping it and not watching it at all; while this is piggybacking off my post about spoilers, it’s fine if you are the sort of person who needs to know how combat ends in order to enjoy it! That’s just a personal preference that I respect even if I don’t share it.

D&D combat isn’t just an inherent part of the game; it’s an inherent part of the story. The idea of D&D being split into combat and RP is a false dichotomy. There is RP and crucial story within combat scenes, and you simply do not achieve the same effects by reading an after-the-fact summary. To use examples from Critical Role, consider one of the most famous RP moments from Campaign 1, when Scanlan uses his 9th level counterspell in the Vecna fight. The weight of that moment derives from mechanics and from the fact that it is in the midst of combat and well into a climatic final battle. Or for lighter examples, there’s a ton of Beau/Yasha and Fjord/Jester mid-combat flirting running through much of Campaign 2 that informs those relationships. Molly’s death? Caleb going into a fugue state when he kills humanoids with fire? Yasha destroying Obann? Fjord dying mid-deep scion fight? Those are all moments that have deep character weight and meaning that are within the context of combat, and you cannot divorce them from that context and hope to retain the same effect.

This is what dovetails into a larger discussion of Experiencing Fiction which is a (in my opinion) worrying tendency among some people to truly believe that you can cut up media into the palatable bits and pieces and push all of what you see as icky vegetables to the side of your plate. I fucking hate this. I think it’s what drives a lot of things including a distaste for combat. This is how you get, for example, people who dislike combat because Violence And Death Bad, which, do I think that in the real world violence is most often a thing to be avoided? Do I think that in the real world death is heartbreaking? Yes, but this is fiction. There’s that great Brennan Lee Mulligan quote about how TTRPGs like D&D allow people who usually must be conflict-avoidant in real life to let out their anger and frustration in a place where it is safe and harmless, and I believe that whole-heartedly. I want stories about death because I want to know I'm not alone in how I feel about death. I want stories in which people can express their rage in ways both healthy and unhealthy, because big same. (I also think it’s absolutely not coincidental that people who believe they are ‘protecting’ people by circumscribing what is acceptable in fiction tend to be strongly associated with either bigoted, violent policies in real life, or harassment and doxxing online; maybe enjoy a fucked up movie, as John Waters once said, and you'll calm down.)

This idea that you can cut up media and only consume what you like is also what I think is behind some of the really ill-considered and overly granular timestamped content warnings I’ve mentioned previously. It is fine if there are things you don’t want to watch or which will be upsetting or even triggering to watch! It’s fine if you as an individual don’t like violence! But I think there’s a problem when people believe they are entitled to be able to watch whatever they want and have it mold to their exact wants and needs (and that it’s a failing if it doesn’t), rather than taking on the responsibility of seeking out media that already fits the bill. Actual Play D&D will nearly always have violent encounters. If this will be an issue this is not for you. It is not gatekeeping to say “you can come through this gate, but the gate is in fact here for your specifically requested protection"; and yet people think that instead, gates should be placed around everything else. So (to give an example) this is why the warnings for D20’s Neverafter strike me as a symptom of this larger problem - if you have discomfort with violence towards animals and children, that’s fine, but you are watching a D&D horror series in which over half the player characters are either animals or children. This is not something where you can skip a few seconds of a flashing gif that might be a migraine or seizure trigger, or a case where an exceptionally rough scene of gaslighting can be read instead of watched; this is inherent to the show, and if this is not for you, you need to go elsewhere.

To give one last example, I was looking for fanart for Worlds Beyond Number, and came across a picture of Suvi with a caption of “Suvi but without the imperialism” and like…Aabria has said in interviews that this engagement with the empire is extremely deliberate; that Suvi is intended to be tied into the political structures of this world as an intentional contrast with Eursulon’s status as an outsider and Ame’s role at the smaller, community level. Suvi without imperialism is not identifiable as the same character and it throws the entire story off-kilter; she is of this empire and that is the fucking point. Any story worth telling is not just items thrown haphazardly into a bowl; they are combined and mixed. Someone is giving you a plate of brownies and you are acting like it’s physically possible to take out the cocoa powder without fucking the end result, and buddy, it’s not.

(Truly, I was not joking when I said this is like, the load-bearing pillar of most of my complaints about fiction consumption patterns in general. This is about how people will deny the flaws in characters even though any reasonably intelligent ten-year-old, and I know because I fucking was one once, understands that person vs. themself is one of the core conflicts and overcoming one’s flaws is in many cases the entire story and if you start out perfect there is nothing to be said. Like…I think a lot of people genuinely just want to watch a nonstop Monterey Bay Otter Cam of their sufficiently sanitized, focus-group-tested blorbos baking cookies together, and are affronted when people with the tiniest sliver of empathy and/or curiosity want a story with plot and character growth, which in turn require conflict.)

Anyway. I think the takeaways here are that there’s this awful entitlement people have in which they think that they can simply consume anything and it is the failure of that media if it doesn’t cater specifically to them, rather than a failure of them to seek out that which they would enjoy (and I could go on this rant indefinitely; it is truly the most constant theme among Takes I Think Are Dumb); and also I really want to bake something right now, given my choices of metaphor. Combat is part of D&D as a game and as a storytelling medium, and it is incumbent upon people who do not like combat to find something that doesn’t have D&D combat, rather than try to pull out the vital organs of the story.

[leasstories]

Nothing else matters (part 1)

Eddie Munson x fem!reader

TW : Eating disorder

You and Eddie have been dating for two months now, you met thanks to your little brother Dustin Henderson, who asked you to replace Lucas at a DnD game. You've been part of the Hellfire ever since then and Eddie and you slowly grew closer, until one day he confessed his feelings towards you, afraid that you would laugh to his face or friendzone him. But everything worked out perfectly as you were feeling the same way, and the two of you started dating. You've been planning your road trip for a month now. You're really excited but also really nervous, Eddie doesn't know that you struggle a lot with food. You always find an excuse not to eat with him or not to eat at all, but now you're going to spend an entire week with him and hiding your eating disorder will be really complicated. Deep down, you know that you could tell Eddie, that he wouldn't judge you, but you still fear that he won't want to be with someone like you, someone "broken", well that's what you think of yourself at least. You think you're broken. You also know that this will sadden him and even maybe hurt him.

You're in your room packing when you hear Eddie's van pull over in your driveway. You finish packing quickly before heading downstairs. When you arrive you can hear Eddie and Dustin having an heated conversation about DnD, you smile at the sight of your brother and your boyfriend getting along so well, it's like a dream for you. When he sees you, Eddie walk towards you and kiss you on the lips. As soon as his lips touch yours you hear your brother mutter "gross".

After saying goodbye to your brother and mom, you take Eddie's hand and walk towards the van. He opens the passenger door for you, before heading to the driver's seat. He pulls out of your driveway and the holidays can finally start. You're going to a city named Shipshewana, it is 4 hours away from Hawkins. When you arrive on the highway, Eddie takes your hand, you spend the ride listening to the new mixtape you've made for him.

After 2 hours of the van ride, Eddie stops for lunch, he stops next to a forest, you take out a blanket and lay it on the floor, while Eddie takes out a basket full of food. Only looking at it makes you sick, but you don't know how to tell Eddie and you know he probably spent hours making this, so instead you sit on the blanket, hoping that Eddie won't notice that you're not eating. Eddie starts eating before noticing that you didn't take any food.

"Don't you like anything I've made" Eddie says with his mouth full

"It's not that..." you say, trying to put your thoughts into words "You know I never ate in front of you."

"And ?" Eddie asks, clueless of where you are getting at

"And... I... I have eating disorders" you say hesitantly but also ashamed, you don't even dare to look at Eddie.

Eddie takes your hand in his and look at you "I don't know what to say YN, but I wanna help you, help you eat properly. We can start with a small thing, what do you think about a cherry tomato ?"

You nod and Eddie hands you a cherry tomato, you stare at it for agonizing minutes.

"You can do it YN, I know it" Eddie says, trying to encourage you. At his words, you end up eating the cherry tomato, but right after you feel guilty and Eddie can sense it.

"You know, tomatoes are basically almost only water, and they don’t have a lot of calories, I don't know if it helps you to know that but I wanted to let you know" he says reassuringly while lightning up his cigarette.

"Thank you" you say "Thank you for taking it so well, I had never opened myself this way, to anyone."

"Did you think I'd run away for something that's out of your control" Eddie says amused.

You shyly look at the ground before answering "You deserve better than someone as broken as me"

"You're not broken YN, you're going through something tough, yes, but I'm here, I'm always here, by your side, no matter what. I'll be here every steps of the way and we'll go through this, together. It doesn't matter how long it takes. I love you and nothing else matters"

You smile at Eddie's words before kissing him, a tear roll down from your cheek and fall on Eddie's, he pull away and wipes your tears. "Don't cry Angel"

"It's... it's just what you said... It's so beautiful Eddie, thank you, thank you so much"

Eddie pulls you in a hug before putting the food back in the basket. You both go back to the van and Eddie drives again, he think about the fact that he booked a restaurant for tonight. What should he do, cancel ? Ask you if you're okay with it ? Keep the surprise and pray that it won't trigger you ? Eddie ends up telling you "I had made a reservation in a restaurant for us tonight, do you want me to cancel given..." he looks for the right words, knowing it is a sensitive topic. "Your relationship with food" You wince at how he put it which makes Eddie apologize right away "I'm so sorry I didn't know how to put it into words"

"It's okay" you answer, you then take a deep shaky breathe before saying "Don't cancel the reservation, I wanna try. Thank you so much for the kind gesture"

"Are you sure baby ? I can cancel, it's no big deal" he answers

"I'm sure" you answer

You spend the rest of the ride listening to first the mixtape you made him for your two months anniversary and then the mixtape he made for you before you even got together. The mixtape you made was mostly filled with songs from The Rolling Stones, The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bon Jovi while the one he made was mostly Dio, Black Sabbath and Metallica.

After 2 more hours of driving, you finally arrive at Shipshewana, Eddie parks the van at the edge of a forest.

You head out of the van and go for a little hike in the forest, at some point you start feeling dizzy and being pale, Eddie can see it. "You want me to piggyback you ?"

You smile at the gesture "Are you sure you can? Am I not too heavy ?"

"You're far from heavy, and I can, I promise" Eddie piggybacks you and you head back to the van.

You put the blanket in the back of the van and you lay in the back, cuddling.

"At what time is the reservation?" you ask

"9 pm, in 3 hours" Eddie answers

"Oh my God !" You say

"What ? Do you have second thoughts ?" Eddie asks, concerned

"No, not at all, I just didn't bring an outfit to go to the restaurant, or even to go out at all !" you answer

"That's fine angel, don't worry about it. You can just wear your jean and that black Metallica crop top I made for you" he answers

"But it's not fancy enough to go to a restaurant" you say

"It is for me" Eddie says grinning

You go through your stuff in your bag and pull out the Metallica crop top, you take off your shirt and put the Metallica t-shirt on, you then look down at yourself, self conscious of your curves and start being anxious. Eddie can tell you are anxious and looks at you concerned before saying "What's wrong baby?"

"Don't I look fat in this, I mean we can see my tummy and-" you're cut off by Eddie

"You look beautiful. Life is ours, we live it our way, nothing else matters. Please never care for what they do or think, you are beautiful to me. Besides, I really love your tummy" Eddie says while kissing it. You giggle at his touch.

"Stop it" you say in between laughs. Eddie stops after five good minutes and says "Do you wanna do your makeup ?"

"Yes please" you answer out of breathe from all the laughing.

"I'll be right outside if you need me"

You do a nude makeup before heading out of the van, Eddie stare at you in awe before kissing you on the lips. "I love you" he says

"I love you too" you answer.

Eddie goes to the passenger side and open your door for you, before heading in the driver's seat, the drive to the restaurant last 10 minutes. Eddie parks and you get out of the car. Eddie insist on putting his bandana as a blindfold on your eyes so you don't see the restaurant before arriving inside, after complaining for 5 good minutes you finally give up. Eddie leads you to the restaurant, the walk lasts about 5 minutes, he then sit you down on a chair before removing the blindfold, you look at your surrondings and see that it's a fancy restaurant.

"Eddie you shouldn't have..." you say

"I wanted to surprise you, and looking at your facial expression it worked" he answers playfully.

A waiter hands you the menu before heading back to the kitchen.

"You can eat anything you want sweetheart" Eddie says

"Eddie this is too much... You can't afford this" you say

"I've been saving money for it, don't worry Sweetheart, take whatever you want."

You go for the caesar salad while Eddie orders a Beef bourguignon. While waiting for the dishes to arrive you can't help but bounce your leg, stressed about the idea of eating a whole plate, and Eddie can tell what's bothering you because he says "You don't have to finish your plate Sweetheart, besides, you got this, I believe in you"

"What if I disappoint you" you ask, self conscious

"It doesn't matter if you eat one fork or the entire plate, either ways I'll be proud of you" he answers honestly.

The waiter brings you the plates. Since your plate has been in front of you, you've been looking at it with a frown.

"Would it help you if we share your plate" Eddie asks

You nod before saying "Yes please, I think it would help me"

Eddie grab a fork and start eating in your plate, you imitate him but once the fork is in front of your mouth you stop, with teary eyes "I'm sorry Eddie, I can't do it"

"Of course you can sweetheart, this is delicious, please give it a taste. Let's do it together" Eddie offers

Eddie takes a fork of your salad before saying "One, two, three" he then puts the fork in his mouth and you imitate him. You take your sweet time chewing before swallowing. You're on the verge of crying but you hold it back. Eddie put his hand on yours before saying "I'm so proud of you, you did amazing baby"

He finishes his dishes and offer you a dessert even though he already knows the answer is no. Instead he then asks if you want a coffee to which you say yes. Eddie orders your coffee and some chocolate cake for himself. When the dessert arrive you ask "Can I taste your dessert"

Eddie look at you proudly before feeding you a bit of his dessert "I'm so proud of you" he says once you swallow. Then Eddie goes to the counter to pay and you both head back to the van.

"My tummy aches" you say

"It's gonna be find angel, I promise" Eddie says reassuringly. He knows how hard it is for you and is as supportive as he can, without pressuring you too much, and he is so proud of you for tonight.

Eddie parks back to your spot before getting out of the van and opening the passenger door for you, you both head to the back of the van and cuddle, Eddie whispers sweet nothings as well and expresses how proud of you he is for tonight in your ear and you fall asleep in the arms of your beloved.

The next morning when you wake up Eddie isn't next to you, you start worrying until you hear him cursing, you get out of the van to see what's happening and you see Eddie struggling to make some fire.

"I'm sorry I woke you up" he says, mad at himself

"You didn't wake me up" you answer while stirring.

You sit next to Eddie before asking "What are you up to?"

"I was trying to start a fire, 'cause I don't want you to freeze, it's a little bit cold this morning"

You smile at the gesture. "You don't have to baby"

"Of course I do" he answers

"Okay so let me help". You help him starting the fire and after 20 minutes of struggling it's finally done.

Eddie clears his throat before saying "I know it's a sensitive topic, and you don't have to accept but do you want to go grab some breakfast at a diner ?"

You know that if you answer no Eddie won't eat this morning and you don't want him to starve so you nod before saying "Sure, I'll just grab a coffee though"

"As you wish" Eddie says before climbing on the driver's seat. You climb on the passenger seat and head to a diner.

You go sit on a booth while Eddie orders two coffee and a French Toast. When the order is ready, Eddie come back with it. You look at Eddie's French Toast debating in your head if you should taste it or no, you know it would make Eddie proud, and he didn't even force you to eat this morning, he is so understanding about this whole situation. After several minutes of huge thinking Eddie cuts your train of thought "I saw you looking at my French Toast, if you want we can share it" he offers

You look at it hesitantly before answering "I would love that", Eddie looks at you proudly and put his plate in the middle of the table so both of you can reach it. You start eating a little piece of the toast, it tastes good but as soon as you swallow it you imagine how much calories there is in there and start panicking, as if Eddie understood he grabs your hand for emotional support before saying "I'm so so proud of you baby, you don't have to care about the number of calories, I know how hard it must be but your body actually needs food in order to function correctly"

You smile at his word before sipping some of your coffee.

After breakfast, you start visiting the city of Shipshewana before stopping in a small restaurant. You order a salad while Eddie order an hamburger with fries. You manage to eat half of your salad. When you head out of the restaurant Eddie kisses the back of your hand before saying "I'm so beyond proud of you for this lunch baby, you did amazing". You then visit the city hand in hand. At some point of the walk, your tummy starts aching, you try to hide it from Eddie, not wanting to ruin the walk but Eddie knows you all too well and knows that something's up.

"Are you okay baby ?" He asks concerned

You force a smile before answering "Yes, sure"

"I can tell something's up baby" Eddie says, even more concerned

"My tummy aches from all the eating earlier. I'm sorry for ruining our vacation week..." you say feeling really self-conscious and sorry.

"You're not ruining anything, besides your health is the most important thing so please don't feel sorry" Eddie says while putting his hands around your shoulders and holding you close to him. You smile at him.

"Do you want to sit down somewhere so you can rest a bit" Eddie asks

"Only if it doesn't bother you, I want you to have a great time, not to have to deal with my crap you know..." you answer

"First of all it doesn't bother me at all, as long as I'm with you, nothing else matters, second of all your crap is my crap too now, I won't let you struggle alone, we're in this together, I'm here for you and I'll always be"

You smile at him with teary eyes while going towards a bench in a beautiful small park, you sit down next to one another and Eddie takes your hand in his after having kissed your forehead. You put your head on Eddie's shoulder and both look at the kids playing in the park, an old couple holding hands. Seeing this couple both you and Eddie are convinced that you wanna grow old together, you wanna experience life together and nothing else matters.

Part 2 here

[total-serene560]

Summary: A movie night, a DnD campaign, a Halloween party, an unhappy compromise, a rejection, and a letter. Mike and Will spend senior year falling together, apart, and in love while trying to navigate growing up and the complicated reality of wanting another man in a world where almost nothing could be worse.

Snippet:

All he can think about is how comfortable he feels, how warm Will’s leg feels where it’s pressed up against his, the hairs tickling his thigh where his shorts have ridden up. About how glad he is that he gets to quit tomorrow and that his friends like him and that Will likes him and- okay. Okay, yeah. Mike is definitely feeling it. And okay, maybe Mike is a bit of a lightweight, but he’ll never admit that to Dustin.  Will shifts, leaning a little closer, his hair tickling Mike’s ear as he whispers, “Mike?” Mike nods before responding, “Yeah?” “Are you drunk?” “A little,” Mike admits, glancing up at Will, “You?” Will shakes his head, lips tilting at the corner, “No.” “Oh,” Mike responds, he watches the way Will’s lips purse together as he swallows, bits of chapped skin wrinkling.  Will leans away suddenly, focusing back on the movie, but now Mike finds himself just looking at him. At the way his shaggy hair almost falls into his eyes, at the stubble on his cheeks where he missed a spot while shaving, the slant of his nose, his chin, his adam’s apple where it bobs up and down as he takes another swig of his one and only beer. At his broad shoulders and his hairy arms and the veins in his right hand where it rests on his own thigh, right next to Mike’s where they have their legs pressed together.  And Mike wants… he wants…

tagging: @foodiewithdahoodie @sparks-olivarpente (if you want to be added to the tag list for this fic, lmk!)

[adamantineheart]

rambling a bit about my OCs because they occupy too much of brain (lol)

i've been posting 548937598 picrews of them over on bluesky but i've talked about them very little. idk some of it is because they're still forming in my brain and some of it is fear someone is going to steal them which i now think is silly because it's very easy to come up with OCs honestly. it's writing out a whole story for them that's the hard part (ask me how i know). so anyway i am bursting with the need to talk about them.

mainly right now i've been thinking about how they relate to religion in their world. i've always loved polytheistic religions i think from reading greek mythology at a young age but DND and other things have cemented that (lol) and that's what i've done with this story too (even my oldest OCs from middle school WHO WERE IN A SCI-FI SETTING had a polytheistic religion).

tho it's a polytheistic pantheon (note: like in DND the gods are real in a way that's hard to deny) there's one goddess that's relevant to all four characters. she's the dominant goddess in the country they're from, her religious sect is the one the royal family follows, etc. if i'm talking about a goddess, it's her.

my main girl!!! who i tend to just call blondie but is really named tatiana, is deeply devoted to her goddess to the point that some people might consider her a zealot. there are other gods she respects but i think where she gets a little wacky is because of Things That Happen she feels very frustrated with the political impotence of her religious order. the laws and institutions of mortals shouldn't be above the will of the goddess, which is easy for her to say because she feels very much like she and her goddess are mentally aligned and want the same things. she's a fairly pure-hearted person even if she prays for horrible things to befall the people she hates (lol) but when i think of her i think of a character that's dangerously close to being too righteous. her goddess has very specific domains so to me it's not like the righteousness of a monotheistic religion like christianity but it's still concerning and a little frightening.

tatiana's girlfriend izzy!!!! izzy is her nickname and mainly used by tatiana. also i say "girlfriend" but that's complicated lmao. she's a love interest, she's a childhood friend, she's an ex, she's an enemy, she's the person tatiana is still in love with, etc.

izzy is the second princess of their kingdom and was thus given the "freedom" to be educated at the same temple tatiana was. unlike tatiana, however, she's not meant to join that religious order once her education is complete because she's still a princess and has other obligations. she has no particular love or affinity for the goddess when she's first sent to the temple as a child, but it's something that grows in her with time. because of Reasons her faith in the goddess ends up strong but her faith in religious institutions ends up ruined. tatiana sees these institutions and is frustrated that they're held back by mortal laws and comes to the conclusion they shouldn't be held to them. izzy, who is not zealot and more politically inclined, would think that's an insane idea. what she feels about religious institutions is more like... bitterness. dissapointment. but it's with a certain level of understanding that tatiana lacks.

i'm honestly still deciding how the two will reconcile their issues with their religious order...

izzy's older sister gwen (also a nickname) is the heir to their kingdom and the only character out of the four that has not been "blessed" by the goddess. that isn't unusual. most people aren't "blessed" by the gods. gwen considers this a good thing because it gives her the freedom to do the morally questionable things a person blessed by this particular goddess aren't supposed to do. i can't talk too much about it because it just really is tied up to the story, but with her i wanted someone who is faithful in a somewhat blasphemous way. the goddess has certain priorities but to achieve them sometimes you have to break the lesser tenants of her religion. for someone like tatiana, that type of logic is unacceptable. basically, if you gave the trolley problem to tatiana she'd go "i'd simply stop the trolley" and if you insisted that wasn't possible her eyes would start glowing gold and wings would sprout from her back and you would just piss yourself in fear and decide she's right - she'd stop the trolley.

gwen would very easily make the choice to kill one person with the trolley.

vladimira!!!! the best way to describe her faith is that she's basically a paladin who broke her oath and lost her "blessing." so. you know. she's got some fucking beef with this goddess. at the same time, it's kind of questionable if it's the goddess who is punishing her or if she's doing it to herself.

i've decided that she broke her oath through inaction that got people killed, which i think is very different from like, committing some great act of evil. izzy and vladimira are secondary characters in the story i'm writing and MAYBE will get their own story but that's going to be a while... as such they're the most in limbo, especially vladimira. i'm not sure yet if her faith will be restored but i do know she's angry at her goddess and feels... abandoned but at the same time she's a good person so it's not like she's really straying from the morals she already has. i think that's kind of the point with her. very "i'm not doing this because the goddess wills it, i'm doing it because it's the right thing to do." but unfortunately there's still a lot of self-loathing underneath that undermining her...

oh and she's also tatiana's ex-girlfriend 🙈 they got together during the time tatiana and izzy were apart. she may or may not catch gwen's eye later on but their story is but a twinkle in my eye... (meanwhile i've written around 60k for tatiana and izzy tho none of it is usable!! okay some of it is but i need to do a lot of rewriting.)

[moonlightink7]

dnd ask meme post:

What is your PC’s idle animation?

What weather does your PC prefer? Why?

So if your PC had a car what kind of car would it be

If your PC had to set up a date, what would they plan for it?

What’s your PCs favorite color

How does your PC feel about white lies?

How does your PC feel about marriage?

Where would your PCs fall on the futch scale?

What tarot would your PC be?

How would your PC answer the trolley problem?

When your PCs hit rock bottom, what do they do?

What’s your favorite part of playing your PC?

When your PCs make decisions, who or what are they making those decisions on behalf of?

Is your PC an effective communicator? What is their communication style?

If your PC was a dating option in a farming simulator (a la harvest moon or stardew valley), what kind of items would they like?

apologies for the many in each ask but each was individually chosen yes :)

Holy shit okay. Alright. Deep breath.

So if your PC had a car what kind of car would it be

Sigh. Tesla model Y. He did not get to choose the brand but he did get to choose the model. He never uses it for its full speed capacity but he loves using the cargo space he has for like. So much random shit.

If your PC had to set up a date, what would they plan for it?

Great question! He does not set up the dates and if he does they're never in public. Type of guy to say okay candlelight dinner at home. I cook. Bon appetit.

What’s your PCs favorite color

Blood, next question

How does your PC feel about white lies?

Oh that shit is like glitter to him. What's a harmless lie? He'll sprinkle it on for seasoning. For effects. If it helps him get away with something or cover something else? Lie.

How does your PC feel about marriage?

Cursed. He's not sure if he wants to marry again after what happened to his last marriage. He's still kinda hung up on their death right now.

Where would your PCs fall on the futch scale?

(The what. Google help. Okay I mean. He's. Not a lesbian so I don't think this applies. Also drow gender complicates this question a lot. He's a feminine man if left to his own devices.)

What tarot would your PC be?

(sigh) Gotta open the app. Okay so The Hermit. Regular or inverted. Which is kinda funny because his ass IS a hermit.

How would your PC answer the trolley problem?

In the values of Àn, his god, and their aspect of Life, he'd switch the tracks. Killing one person to save five is just the logical choice. From there on it HIGHLY depends what variables you introduce.

When your PCs hit rock bottom, what do they do?

Side eyes the coffee shop AU oneshot. Try and relive his happiest moment for eternity, apparently. Granted, that's if he has the power to do so. At the current moment? Hitting rock bottom would be losing his father and being stuck with his family for the rest of his life. In that case? Slaughter. He's painting that whole manor red. The only people he's sparing are the servants. Is it against his values to end lives? Yep. Does he have enough of an anchor to keep himself focused on values if he hits rock bottom? Haha. Haha! No!

What’s your favorite part of playing your PC?

Tormenting him <3 Putting him in situations <333

When your PCs make decisions, who or what are they making those decisions on behalf of?

Himself, mainly. If absolutely necessary it may also be on behalf of his family if he's acting in the public eye, but usually they control that sort of thing. He wants so badly to be free though. He hates being tied to them.

Is your PC an effective communicator? What is their communication style?

If he wants to be! Unfortunately he generally does not want to be. Most people he just does not trust enough to want to communicate with. The only time he communicates is if it's important or he needs to set a boundary. If his trust is earned he'll start opening up more but he's prone to lying both outright and by omission.

If your PC was a dating option in a farming simulator (a la harvest moon or stardew valley), what kind of items would they like?

Sigh. Books. Like. Any book he doesn't already have that has some sort of worthwhile information. Rocks are also cool but only the good and shiny ones. High rarity type rocks. You're safer with books.

[freetobeeyouandme]

secret snowflake here :)

yet another seemingly random question:

if our main trojans were to play dnd, what classes would they main?

OR

what classes do you think they are 👀

(i promise there’s somewhat of a method to my madness)

❄️❄️

I'm very, very excited to see what that method will be asdfg.

This is a very fun question tho. I love dnd and i love thinking about what characters I love playing dnd/living in a dnd world would be like. So a lot of ramble-y thoughts ahead

Jeremy - I feel like he's the easiest one to categorize because he is and would play a Paladin. It feels kind of obvious but it makes the most sense to me. It's a tank-y kinda class, offering some pretty hefty damage options while also coming with some support features + I think the noble knight type is something Jer would go for and be if he was in the dnd world. Specifically Oath of Devotion I think (although Glory might also be a good fit...but I think he'd value friendship more than heroism)(The alternative answer would be Bard, methinks, but only for play. If we're talking be then it's Paladin all the way)

Cat - I'm not a 100% sure with her but thinking about her interest in motorcycles I thought of Artificer (edit: looking up some stuff I found out she's majoring in Comp Sci and also reupholstered the living room couch so like. further points towards Artificer?) and then the anger issues she talked about in regards to video games made me think of Barbarian. She also seems to be fond of flowers/nature tho (tattoos and the daffodil she sprayed on the fence) so maybe one of the more nature-y classes is also possible. I think when playing DnD she might go for something that does a lot of damage since she at the very least likes violent video games. I can also see her play most other classes though and I think she'd be the one to make a really intricate build and come up with a detailed backstory and stuff? Maybe? But I think if I had to make a choice I would say be: Artificer, play: Barbarian?

Laila - She's the most difficult because I feel like we don't know all that much about her? At least I can't think of any interests of hers right now, nor much of a characterization? So it's a little hard. I feel like she's more calm and reserved and very altruistic + being a goalkeeper i think her's would be a very defensive and supportive class. I think I can see her most as a Druid or a Cleric but I'm honestly not sure whether I'd see her more in touch with nature or religion. Another thought I had was that if we talk about playing DnD someone has to run the game, and I feel like she's the prime suspect for DM? I feel like Cat would be more interested in playing and so would Jer (although Jer would be my 2nd choice as DM), and Jean doesn't know enough about the game so for Laila I guess I'd go with be: Druid/Cleric; play: DM?

Jean - I think Jean is also a little difficult but moreso because he imo has very little idea of the game. I think maybe the first time they play the others make a Fighter character for him because that's pretty straightforward, especially on lower levels, but what he'd pick himself I'm not sure. I feel like he'd try to round out the party a little (no matter how much the others encourage him to play around and do what he wants) so between the Paladin and the Barbarian that I just assigned he'd probably try something ranged and/or spellcaster, but then again go for something simple? I think Jer would try to convince him to be a Ranger because animal companions and this is how Jer could cheat getting a fictional dog in game and maybe during one campaign Jean does do that. But otherwise I'd say either Wizard (There's certain spells you can cast and all the extra stuff is not that complicated) or a Walock (don't even have to worry about different spell levels with this one, but incantations might seems complicated). Another option I see is him just staying with Fighter and refusing to branch out.

And then who Jean would be is also a little difficult because I feel like it kinda depends on the context of like the larger story and other characters because a lot of who Jean is has been shaped by Riko? Like one thought that I'd had previous to this ask was of like a fantasy AU where Riko would be a mage and use Jean kind of as a human shield, this Barbarian whose rages he could control and send him forward into battle while he stayed behind and spell sniped from a distance. But now thinking about it again I feel like with the whole mafia family thing something like Sorcerer would probably work better? Like maybe Riko is still influencing the spells and the way he uses those spells (area effects and support type spells that give Riko an advantage without letting Jean take the glory) but Jean's family is magic and that innate magical talent is what attracts the Moriyamas in the first place (Side Note: the perfect court would either be all Sorcerers in this case, I think, or Riko and Kevin are Wizards and Riko is sooo jealous that a) Kevin is better at magic than him and b) that Jean is naturally magical and doesn't have to study). So that's what I think I would go with: Be: Sorcerer, play: actually the more I think about it it's either Fighter or Ranger just because I feel like any type of spellcaster would be too fancy in Jean's eyes (espcially at first). I kinda wanna go with Ranger because it's the middle ground between wanting to round out the party and playing something relatively simple? And maybe Hunter or Monster Slayer as a subclass, driving Jer mad by NOT picking Beastmaster

...actually now thinking about it a good party combination could also be Bard!Jer, Barbarian!Cat, Ranger!Jean with Laila DMing? I think how it goes is like: First (mini) campaign to get Jean into the game Jer is a Paladin, Jean the Fighter that the others made for him and Cat either decides to be a spellcaster so they have one or goes the Rogue route. Then next time they try to round the party out more so it's Jer as a Bard, Jean as a Ranger and Cat as a Barbarian and then maybe some time in the future Jean will play a spellcaster and allow his character to be a little flashy <3 (and Jer will play a Beastmaster Ranger so he can have a dog. Trust)

Also please feel free to disregard anything I just said. There were a lot of thoughts here and if anything inspired you to come to a different conclusion than the ones I've come to please go with those instead. I'm not fully sure on any of this and I think it also all depends on the context so like...yeah those are the options I see lol

[what-the-fluxxation]

THE pinned post with info

Hello there, it is I, the Fluxxation. It’s like 1 AM and I really need to make this before I fall asleep so here goes nothing.

Me (Basics)

- He/Him

- Technically an adult (18) but no NSFW stuff please

- Exclusively an English speaker

My Interests

Above everything and always I will be a robot enjoyer. I love violent robots, funny robots, detailed robots, cute robots, anything but sexualized robots, please don’t do that.

As for current games, I’m very very big into my Nine Sols brainrot era, somewhat moderately playing Honkai Star Rail and Zenless Zone Zero whenever they get content updates, and will always be a Souls and Armored Core fan. I know of Rain World, I wish I could get into it more, but I know of it. Oneshot holds an eternal grip on my heart as well. OH AND ULTRAKILL I FORGOT TO MENTION ULTRAKILL EARTHMOVER AND GUTTERTANK MY BELOVED I NEED MORE GUTTERTANK PLEASE. Also the entire risk of rain franchise im just adding games when i think of them now tbh.

As my previous games show, my interest is generally in difficult souls/souls-likes and narratively strong games, though I’ll play just about anything if it has a lot of robots in it or just outright looks appealing.

My music taste is horrible, I listen to VGM, Djent Metal, lofi, anything electronic, and everything in-between. I will always take song suggestions if you want to offer them. I would say I have a music addiction if 160k minutes on Spotify Wrapped says anything.

Creatively, I’ve always been best at writing. I’ve tried my hand at music, am beginning to finally learn art, but words have always been my forte. I’ve used this passion for writing to do quite a lot of online Roleplaying, generally in style of typical DnD, but also in more narrative-driven formats. I’ve made OCs for a good chunk of years of my life, having made short stories for my favorites and such, some of which I may share here someday. I wouldn’t even begin to say my writing is anything special, but I like to do it, and the people I’ve shared it with seem to think it’s alright.

Outside of my online degeneracy, I enjoy tennis and pickleball. I’m pretty active, loving to hike and climb/clamber. I greatly enjoy primitive camping and the outdoors regardless of weather, almost finding it more fun if I’m with the right people when the conditions are less than optimal.

Why I’m on Tumblr

I’m almost ashamed to say the reason I found Tumblr was the glorious Nine Sols Shitpost tag. I finished the game and my hyperfixation was so bad that I just started scouring the internet for any ounce of content I could get my hands on. Given my background with roleplaying stuff and shitposting, coupled with my new obsession of a game interest and a desire to start digital art, it was a perfect storm to get me to both join Tumblr and start drawing.

Now I’m here to keep up with those goals. I wanna keep providing comedic content on shitpost blogs, working on general art skills so that at the very least I can make decent-enough references for my often complicated roleplay-centric projects, and most of all, looking at content for games I enjoy, hopefully making some new pals in the process.

Oh, and reblogging cool robots / horrible shitposts

Current Projects / Goals

- Work on my Nine Sols AU (Ancient War Machine)

- Continue to practice drawing

- Befriend a few people on here (yippeee)

Asks / Contacting me

Feel free to ask for art requests or whatever else, I can’t guarantee anything close to speedy or good, as my art quality and time management skills are both as far from the word “good” as you can get, but I need the practice so..

I don’t have any other socials really aside from Discord. If you’re a mutual, or think you might as well be, then by all means hit me up and I’ll give you my user (even if it’s close enough to this account that you can probably guess it in a reasonable number of tries). FAIR WARNING, I am very socially awkward and will talk to you like we’ve just bumped into each other at random without any knowledge of who the other person is.

Thanks for reading allat, here’s a star for your efforts!

🌟

[evish-rambles]

So I decided just to make a new blog aksfjkaghkslfaf. n e way this is a spot for me to basically just turn my voices time (technical term for talking to yourself in/about character) into something i can actually look back on. I expect my posts could range anywhere from single sentence concepts all the way to like,, paragraphs upon paragraphs of nonsense. Horray!!

My tagging system may evolve overtime but as of right now; "oc: [name]" is used for my characters, "foc: [name]" is for my friends characters, and "npc: [name]" will be used for npcs of any campaign. "character into" is for if i actually decide to write up intros for my losers (I may do some quick synopses? if so they'll be under the cut <3), "fic ideas" is pretty self explanatory, and any aus will be tagged, ex. "band au" "evil au" etc. If i come up with anything else i'll probably add it here!! I fully expect this blog to be more well tagged than my main aklsfgaslkhf

alright! settle in for chaos >:)

Basic Character Intros!! Wahoo!! I'm gonna list em in chronological order of when I made them. Race, Class and Subclass, age, a song i feel fits them best, and a brief backstory rundown will all be given.

DnD PC's

Zezrina Frear (She/Her)

Drow, College of Spirits Bard

227 (equivalent of 25)

The Mariners Revenge Song by The Decemberists

Has a power where she can talk to ghosts who tell her the future, inherited from her mother who was driven insane by visions of Zez's death. Her mother then died under mysterious circumstances and Zez ran from her family to try and figure out what actually happened.

Imagine if you fused the Madrigal family from Encanto with Luke and May Castellan from Percy Jackson.

Vildanna Cadieux (She/Her)

Half-Elf/Hexblood, Shadow Sorcerer

19

What The World Needs from Ride The Cyclone

Orphaned daughter of an attempted coup, Vildanna believes she alone knows right from wrong. She believes truly that good people (her) do only good things, and bad people (anyone who opposes her) do only bad things. This is complicated somewhat by the fact that shes the character I play for Curse of Strahd :)

She also has a litte rat dog named Syvestre, have you ever seen the "nightime pee artist" meme? that.

Kezarel Riverseeker (She/Her)

Human, Necromancy Wizard

16

High (Keep Up) by Bo Baskoro

As the middle of 7 in a prominent Waterdhavian noble house, Kez knows that unless she can prove herself she'll be forced into a political marriage. Her chosen path is to become a Court Mage for her family, an educator and protector. She protects her self by mimicking the behavior of her mother, who is... not a great person.

General Nizira Votsky (He/Him)

Reborn Half-Orc, Vengeance Paladin

46

Just A Man from EPIC: The Musical

After a long life in the military Nizira settled down with his adopted son Alexi. This was interrupted when people broke into his home, killed him, and kidnapped Alexi. With his dying breath Nizira swore vengeance and was reborn as basically a wraith, his hunger for violence is the only thing keeping him alive.

Arda Pendragon (He/Him)

Aasimar, Mutant Bloodhunter

25

Reaper Man by Mother Mother

An ex-noble who got kicked out for being too gay!! Arda fell in love with a man who lived in the woods outside his town who was executed for "crimes against the throne". Now he drifts through life seeking any carnal pleasure to distract himself from the loss.

His father is an Angel and also his angelic guide, which makes for some interesting conversations.

Weary aka Lavender Farmane (She/It)

Teifling, Gunslinger Fighter

22

Mr. Capgras Encounters a Second Hand Vanity... by Will Wood and the Tapeworms

Oh the TMA hyperfixation hit me hard here. A simple kid from a farming village comes home one day to find her sister June replaced by someone else, even worse; shes the only one who seems to notice. Over the next 3 years Weary is slowly driven to the brink of madness, eventually leading to her using her inventive mind to create a firearm and "kill" the thing that isn't June. Naturally she's sent to a psych ward which she manages to escape from. Now shes on the run from the law, ever vigilant to anyone else who seems to change.

Ivy "Venus" Allium (She/Her)

Firbolg, Knowledge Cleric

26 (19)

Dear Wormwood by The Oh Hellos

Valas Diril Hylinn (He/Him)

Drow, Battlemaster Fighter

412 (41)

Layin' Pipe by David Wilcox

Amze Sankrat (She/They/It)

Shifter, Gloomstalker Ranger

17

Fire by Kimya Dawson

Wyvern Maradil aka Lucien Clement Hargreaves (He/They)

Dhampir, Hexblade Warlock

257 (25)

I Am by Foot Ox

Azalea Ito (She/Her)

Water Genasi, Mercy Monk

20

My Smile is Extinct by Kane Strang

Casimir Belladonna (She/He)

Aasimar, Zealot Barbarian

21

Soap by Penelope Scott

Aria Novri (She/Her)

Changeling, Aberrant Mind Sorcerer

22

Mary by Alex G

Maximillian Fabron (They/He)

Goliath, Drake Warden Ranger

25

Liar by Queen

Dogma aka Ephraim Olach (They/Them)

Reborn Teifling, Undead Warlock Crown Paladin

29

The Weight by Amigo The Devil

Wisteria Bancroft (She/Her)

Warforged, Bladesinger Wizard

18

Marie Douceur Marie Colère by Marie Lafôret

Pollux Verrum-Sinclair (She/They)

Air Genasi, Armorer Artificer

37

Chip On My Shoulder from Legally Blonde The Musical

Verity Goodheart (She/Her)

Satyr, Eloquence Bard

19

Bugbear by Chloe Moriondo

Oscar Larke aka Valentine (He/Him)

Dhampir, Glamour Bard Soulknife Rogue

26

Remember My Name by Mitski

Michaelangelo Yelquinal (He/Him)

High Elf, Spores Druid

204 (20)

Freedom! '90 by George Michael

Muse Lavesque (She/Her)

Teifling, Profane Soul Bloodhunter

39

Looking Forward from Steven Universe: Future

Wickland Thorpe (He/Him)

Fire Genasi, Whispers Bard Swashbuckler Rogue

24

Truth Or Dare by Ricky Montgomery

Prudence (She/Her)

Warforged, Conquest Paladin

(unknown)

SPIT IN MY FACE! by ThxSoMch

Lance Mahoney aka Violet (He/Him)

Yuan-Ti, Feywanderer Ranger

14

Keep You Safe by The Crane Wives

Non-DnD Characters

Phoebe Lane (She/Her) - Monsterhearts 2

The Fey

15

Not Your Seed from The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals

Calithe aka Nightwave (She/Her) - Masks

The Outsider

17

Dare To Be Stupid by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Selene Duskrith (She/They) - BG3

Drow, Moon Druid

267 (26)

Sylvia by Autoheart

Calliope Schaefer (She/They) - Kids on Brooms

Charismatic Slacker

20

What Was I Made For by Billie Eilish

DnD NPC's

Kazius Absinthe Valcod (He/Any Pronouns)

Teifling, Wizard

~1100 (28)

Lavender by Two Door Cinema Club

Cecilia (She/Her)

Reborn, Gunslinger Fighter

27

Bury Me Face Down by Grandson

Ovid (He/Him)

Disgraced God

(unknown)

Sonne by Rammestein

[eldritchamy]

I’m like 77% sure that Ash is the protagonist of Uneiverse so I’m here to ask — why her? What makes her a good protagonist? Like why does the story follow her instead of someone else?

This is an EXCELLENT question. Thank you so much for asking it.

One of these days I'm gonna have to think of a working title for the first book set IN the Uneiverse so it's easier to talk about. I've had a few working titles but one of them might actually get used so I can't really drop those. For now let's call it Story Mode.

Story Mode, in the strictest sense, has a bit of an ensemble cast. There are four characters in sort of a Major Protagonist role, and around 3-4 other Supporting Protagonists, depending on how you define them based on the amount of influence they have on wherever the finalized version of the plot ends up. I have strong ideas in terms of narrative structure and general Major Events, but there's a lot of connecting tissue yet to be decided.

You're not wrong to think of Ash as the most central protagonist, though. The narrative does basically frame her as such.

There are several ways I could answer why.

She's based on my first (and by far favorite and most heavily emotionally invested) DND character. The entire concept of the story sprawled out from basically alternate versions of her story as I imagined it without the limitations of tabletop rules. The story exists because Ash is the character I imagined the story for.

Ash has some ... complicated connections to the plot that are hard to explain without saying more than I want to. The tl;dr is that there are things happening in the Uneiverse, and Ash has the most reason of all of the characters to be drawn into those events, based on both her personality and her personal connections to the world around her.

If the story WASN'T following her, it wouldn't be the same story.

Whether she's a "good" protagonist is really more up to reader interpretation. I think she is, and I want her to be, but there's whatever work I put into the story, and there's how any potential readers will respond to it.

I think she's got potential because of how deep the brainworms have been digging for the last two plus years. I think about her CONSTANTLY. Different situations she could find herself in, how she might react to them based on changing circumstances, different ways SPECIFIC CONVERSATIONS could go based on how she relates to other characters and information, etc.

I've never had a more complete sense of who a character is than I have with Ash. I know her whole brain. How she sees and interacts with the world is just innate to me at this point.

That helps a lot with figuring out how a character moves through a story. She's easy to write because I know exactly how she'll behave.

Additionally, she's COMPLICATED. She has two things she wants very much, and those things are contradictory, which is good for driving character growth and conflict.

about 15 years ago, her mother (an extraordinarily powerful angel who was a very devoted and loving parent that Ash had a good relationship with) just didn't come home one day. And Ash is desperate to know both HOW and WHY. Her mother wouldn't have just left. And the thought of what could have KEPT her from coming home is a point of both intense curiosity, and fear.

Ash wants, more than ALMOST anything else, to just have a quiet and peaceful life with her wife. And other partners.

That ALMOST does a lot of heavy lifting. But there is a straw for this camel's back, and that straw is curiosity. She can be drawn OUT of her safe zone if you dangle the right thread in front of her. And that is critical to ... basically everything that happens.

Why does Ash have such an intense need to feel safe and stay out of danger? She spent her whole life with people she thinks are more capable and powerful than her (honestly, she's not wrong). First with her mother, then with Aria, an enormously powerful witch (specifically nature-based magic, so functionally similar to a high level druid) who became her girlfriend and eventually wife. Her most significant partner OTHER than her wife is their mutual girlfriend Cass, who is a very powerful vampire assassin that used to be in a bit of an adventuring party with Aria a few years ago. Lailah, Aria, and Cass are three people that NOBODY fucks with.

And therein lies the problem.

Ash has always felt PROTECTED. And that had the consequence of making her feel exposed without it. She feels like she NEEDS protection, because she never learned how to be the strong one. She has a lot more going on with her magic than she really acknowledges, but she's never felt like she was capable of protecting herself. There's always been someone there for her. One of her most important traumas/personality flaws wasn't formed by BAD relationships, it was formed because of GOOD ones. She does have some pretty rare and potent magical abilities, but because her social circle consists of ridiculously overpowered women, she doesn't really notice as much how she compares to the average person, especially given how she uses those talents.

She has this weird, almost paradoxical thing where she definitely feels like she's cleverer than most people (she is), so trying to call her out for being more capable than she thinks (she is) doesn't really WORK because she partly DOES feel that way, but she has a blind spot that's really hard to point out to her, and she just insists that she's not as powerful as other people she knows (which is hard to correct her on because she's not really WRONG, she's just comparing herself to the wrong people, because her wife is Superpowers Georg and her girlfriend is the most powerful vampire in the world, and her mom was a LOT more powerful than any angels she's ever heard of or been able to find books about).

There are reasons Aria is that powerful. Secret reasons.

(It's trauma.)

Cass is another DEEP point of interest for me (and may get her own book that's a much lower stakes young adult vampire romance novel, set in her backstory, nearly 130 years ago).

Her tl;dr is that she got super duper murdered by noble/mob family drama (basically, her dad sucked), and someone close to her who found out about the plot not-soon-enough had a naughty naughty ancestor who dabbled in some naughty naughty magic, and that person used a spell she didn't fully understand to "not let Cassandra die". What was meant to be a protection spell ended up being a LOT more powerful than she knew (for several reasons), and it created a kind of loophole in the universe that protected Cass from death, and raised her as an unusually powerful vampire.

Basic elevator pitch lore? She died. Her body no longer has life energy of its own, but she can survive by feeding off the energy of others. That energy is best transferred to her through blood, which is basically a magical substance that binds a soul to a body. The spell used to save Cass basically FUSED her soul to her body, (trapping that body in a state of immortality) and separating the two would be EXTRAORDINARILY difficult. The spell requires energy to maintain the link, which is why she needs blood. If she takes in more energy than she needs, she can basically store a reserve of magic energy that will be used as needed to fuel various powers she has. If she keeps well ahead of her needs (she does), hunger isn't an issue unless she REALLY pushes herself and spends a ton of energy.

Her body is more or less unchanged from the day she turned, including the basic needs of a human body. She still eats and sleeps and breathes like everyone else. If she forces herself to go without those things, she can do it, but that causes her to burn through energy a lot faster, which would make her need to feed a lot more. There are limits to how much she can feed AT ONCE, because there's only so much blood you can put in a human stomach before you're gonna throw up, so burning through way too much energy too fast is not a good idea. In practice all it means is she can hold her breath for a really long time if someone tries to, like, use a gas grenade on her.

There are other things about the kind of magic used that influence the exact mechanics of it, but that's the basics. She also doesn't burn in the sun, there's no holy water or crucifixes in this world but if there were they'd have no effect, a stake to the heart is just a stab wound that itches a bit longer (and only because of splinters), etc. If there's a hard limit to what her body can't survive, she hasn't found it yet. Decapitation would probably do it, but she hasn't been eager to try that. The biggest threat to her so far has been starvation, and she only got close once, under very unusual circumstances.

After 5 paragraphs of Cass you'd probably assume she was one of the Major Protagonists, but she's actually one of the minor ones.

Central cast:

Ash

Aria

"Maze" [pending finalization]

"Nat" [pending finalization]

Ash is really the first to get pulled into the Main Quest. Aria gets involved by association, then gets pulled into the Main Quest a lot harder around what you'd probably think of as Act 2. Maze and Nat get a similar invitation to the Intro Quest Sequence soon after Ash (Ash and Aria are probably chapters 1 & 2, chapter 3 & 4 are most likely Nat and Maze).

Cass is kind of a recurring support character who shows up to help at a few critical moments.

Ally, same thing.

Ella, a character tied to Cass' backstory, will likely make the fewest appearances as a supporting character.

There's more going on that I cannot be specific about.

Structurally, I expect chapter 1 should be an introduction to Ash as a person and her place in the world, as well as some insight into what kind of story this might be. Chapter 2 connects her to the world and establishes her conflicting interests (comfortable home life vs. curiosity and pulling threads). Chapter 3 introduces Nat and some interesting bits about the setting, which hopefully drives reader curiosity. Chapter 4 should be an introduction to Maze and the relationship between these two characters. I expect chapter 5 will probably be the four coming together for the first time and getting the plot moving more significantly. Cass might be introduced around chapter 6 or 7, and then some real interesting shit is gonna start happening, and everyone is gonna realize how much Bigger the Main Quest really is. The introduction to the first "god" character (a vast understatement) is likely what really kicks off act 2, and suddenly the stakes are a LOT crazier.

You will NOT be hearing much, if anything, about Act 3. The last quarter of the story lives in my head rent free. I'm very excited about the central ANtagonists.

Thank you so much for this question!

Please ask me more.