#gm really cooked

[onesoong]

[viiridiangreen]

*TAPS MIC* for fans of a game where the player character’s faction’s main characteristic is the ability to eat shit and come back to life for more (nearly) every time........... there is woefully little self-reflection evident in memetic reactions to enemies living and fighting and failing and dying and getting rezzed only to fail again then try again and-

Fig. 1: Taniks, The Scarred

Fig. 2: Kelgorath, Risen from Bones

one could mayhaps even argue the writing team is trying to tell us something

[aromanticasterisms]

furina in this quest is killing me she is so cute oh my god

[aethelwyneleigh27]

Comfort Headcanons And Scenarios Of Cod Men With Your Kid

Basically CoD characters comforting your kid. (Single parent Reader)

Synopsis: He has a romantic relationship/connection with you (Singleparent!Reader) and he comforts your little one, making you further realize how much he loves and cares about you and your little one.

Characters Included: John Price, Simon "Ghost" Riley, John "Soap" MacTavish, Kyle "Gaz" Garrick, Alejandro Vargas, Rodolfo "Rudy" Parra.

Taglist: @puff0o0 @wishesforyou @simping4konig @blingblong55 @azereus @rustic-guitar-notes @shadofireshinobi @09maruchan @anonymuslydumb @skeletalgoats @icarustypicalfall @ghosts-cyphera @cutenote @connorsui @capuccino192 @miss-gms-and-the-rotten-womb @celestialhole @trepaika @starryylies

This is short but I'm back lovelies! This was originally posted on January 7 however I posted it too early :)) AND YES I KNOW I'VE USED THE PIC IN THE MIDDLE SO MANY TIMES NOW, CAN'T HELP IT IT'S TOO DAD!COD CODED.

That 1k special really took it's time didn't it? Sorry you guys, it needs to cook a little more. I do want to thank you all for how far I've made it despite going through a lot. The messages I've been receiving regarding puff definitely have not gone unappreciated and I hope things take a good turn from here. @blingblong55 has been craving some Dad!Ghost content and even though this doesn't really count for now, this should at least be like a little snack for y'all and her.

Simon "Ghost" Riley

❥ Simon never really considered himself a family man, but damn did that all change when you and your little one made your way into his lives and worm yourselves in his heart.

❥ Whether Simon likes it or not, it breaks him to see your child upset. It could be something small like they're craving a certain kind of food or a scratch on their knees from taking off the training wheels on their bike but Simon was always and I mean always there.

❥ So much so that your little one started calling him something that you didn't even know about till later. Overhearing them as Simon took the initiative to feed her while you finished off some chores. You put the mop down only to hear them talking, you peek into your kitchen..

"Daddy!" Your eyes widened as you heard your little one squeal.

Simon tried his best to deny and dodge your kid calling him their dad, trying to correct them and pass it off as a mistake.

It was taken as an offense and their lips started quivering, their cheeks becoming even more chubby as their lips steadied to a pout. Simon sighed in defeat, patting their little back, trying his best to take back what he said.

Only to have them squeal then call him "dada", "daddy", and "dad" repeatedly while they squish Simon's face between their little hands.

"I love you, dada" It was almost inaudible with how butchered it was but you and Simon knew your little one the most, it was easier for both of you to know what they're trying to communicate even with the words and letters they had difficulty pronouncing.

You saw how Simon teared up, he refuses to cry but no matter what he did, his body was saying otherwise.

He couldn't help himself, he held the little one closer to his chest seemingly hugging them tighter. He kissed the top of their head over and over having his eyes closed, you could've sworn you heard a sniffle if it wasn't for the giggle of your child.

Little thing has him wrapped around their little chubby fingers.

John Price

❥ John was always protective of those put in his care, that being said, when you walked into his life with the little munchkin trailing behind, he became far more of a father figure than he was before.

❥ The more he interacted with the both of you, the more he toyed on the possibility of being with you, being there for them. Something he never thought of having due to risk, a family to call his own.

❥ The aggressive pats on his men = tight hugs from him to your little one after they said they missed him. It wasn't really a surprise to you when your kid starting confiding more to John, being more attach to the man as another parental figure.

John decided for the first time ever to take your kid with him to work, though sure it was just a short visit due to him wanting to finish up something however your child seem to think otherwise.

It was intimidating, huge ceilings, long hallways dreaded to be in no color. Overstimulated to say the least, it was difficult being in a new environment for your child.

Especially all the new people they get to see, "I don't like it here.. it's dark and scary.." It wasn't really dark however it was quite dim. John took initiative and picked them up in his arms, telling them short stories of what they used to do on base.

Slowly, they came to the realization that they were safe there and no one would harm them. Being a shy kid now open to meet their dad's co-workers and second family. (Might as well be their brothers)

John "Soap" MacTavish

❥ Honoring everyone's headcanon of Johnny having a big family, I'd like to think he does, few brothers and sisters and a ton of cousins.

❥ Surely Johnny knows his way around kids, though not liking those ones in family gatherings as much.

❥ Meeting you, Johnny was a little too ecstatic finding out you have a little one of your own. More often the two spent a ridiculous amount of time together, he was living for it, one of his ways to show his love your you and your kid.

Johnny held the bike up, guiding to help your kid as they've been asking him over and over again to teach them ride a bike without training wheels.

After a while he lets go of the bike and it manages to go smoothly until they got distracted and hit a nearby tree. Johnny quickly rushed to them hoping they weren't hurt too bad, he was met with a teary eyed child covering their knee.

"It's alright, it's a wee wound. Nothing on my big strong kiddo right?" To Johnny's surprise, it worked. They wiped their tears away, putting their arms in the air, signaling Johnny to carry them.

You got them patched up in a bandaid and a kiss on their knee from you then back it was spending time with Johnny instead indoors this time around. (Little thing made Johnny kiss the boo-boo too, how could he deny such a sweet request <3)

Kyle "Gaz" Garrick

❥ We've established this before but Kyle is extremely good with kids without even trying, so having this man in your life makes it feel like it's easy most times.

❥ Even if Kyle didn't come from a big family or have any experience with children except for the ones he rescued a while back, he's a natural. Giving the kid space to explore their little curiosities if it's safe enough.

❥ Seeing your child having a panic attack was a lot harder for him than it was back when he had to comfort kids he rescued from being hostages..

Kyle woke up to the sounds of heavy and shaky breathing, not to mention something or rather someone pulling on his clothes. He opened his eyes to find his little light teary eyed.

"Shhh, it's going to be alright.. you're safe here with me" Kyle whispered, after immediately pulling the kid to his chest for a snug embrace.

Still with the hyperventilating, the only solution Kyle found was to distract them and to help regulate their breathing back to normal, slowly turning their attention to something else.

"Thank you, dad" was whispered with a yawn. Kyle's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets, before he could talk to them again, he looked at the child who was fast asleep in his arms.

Alejandro Vargas

❥ Alejandro seemed fine around kids, finds them entertaining for the most part since children were never really something he planned on having but he was open for when the opportunity presented itself.

❥ He only ever was learning along the way and was it such a pleasure to do so along with loving you, having said that he's been doing better lately.

❥ Safe to say your sick toddler was in good hands..

Soft cooing with coughs is all Alejandro heard all day, he felt bad about the little one suffering even though it was something small, it's difficult for them to even crawl or move on their own.

You found yourself not being able to comfort your baby, no matter how much you tried to, they won't stop crying.

Luckily, Alejandro was willing to lend a helping hand. He managed to calm their little temper down and rocked them to sleep.

You walked in on him cradling them to sleep, muttering and whispering Spanish to the little one, laughing quietly to himself while he admires their peaceful state.

Rodolfo "Rudy" Parra

❥ Rudy has always wanted children, he used to watch while the children in Las Almas played together in the streets. One of the things he wished to protect about the city.

❥ Then he was given the opportunity to have that kind of family by you. It's almost like his prayers were answered, at any given moment he could lose you and your kid, whether that'd be through danger or an end to you relationship.

❥ What this sweet man wasn't aware of was that he wasn't the only one terrified of losing his family..

Rudy walked into your home hoping to find your kid somewhere in the living room, he thought it was alarming seeing that they weren't in their usual spot playing.

He was about to knock in their bedroom door when the door creaked, giving him a small peek. Soft sniffles, hiccups and hands in their eyes.

"Mija/Mijo, what's wrong?" he asked, he thought it might've been a quarrel between friends or some mean person at school.

"Are you really leaving.. forever..?" They asked, it tugged on Rudy's heart, although some part of him feels so amazing, it was an accomplishment to be cared for by his child.

"Of course not, I promise I'll come back home just for you. And when I do, we'll get to spend even more time together than we have before" The way your little one's eye's light up made Rudy forever sealed to you, he wants this, nothing more and he'll never ask for anything else.

Everything is worth the risk if it was with you if he gets to make you and them happy, anything it'll take..

Honestly, same..

[flowerfreya]

Chef , I-

This is the third part to Yes, Chef

Pairing- Simon "Ghost" Reilly x Reader

Content: Simon is a dick but we already knew that

Simon is being meaner than usual to you. You haven’t messed up any order per say but the restaurant did get new front house people that have been confusing the tables and sending back food , which is causing the kitchen to back up. 

“What the fuck is going on out there”, he barks at you. 

“I’m sorry,Chef”, you want to say more. To defend yourself but you know it would just make his temper worse. 

Another new waiter comes in carrying an entree that the line cooks just fired. He looks scared but he walks over to Simon,”Chef,this table said that they already have their food”, Simon looks ready to blow a gasket.

“They already have their food” , he mutters under his breath.

You have been working for Simon for enough time that you know someone is about to get screamed at. You try to duck away but his gaze catches you and has you frozen. “Chef, I-”,

“Are you stupid?”, he interjects. 

You look from side to side in the kitchen hoping for anyone to help you but everyone is very interested in chopping the mise en place. 

“Don’t look at them”, he moves closer, craning his neck down trying to catch your eyes again, “look at me”. 

“No chef”, you whisper. 

“I didn’t think so, I don’t think the GM would hire stupid people”, he opens his arms wide,”yet here we are”, he points to the doors where people are still entering and exiting. 

“Get out”

You look at him, he can’t be serious. He just hooked up with you before dinner service and now he’s kicking you out. For fucks sake you sucked him off just forty minutes ago. 

“What?”

“I said GET OUT”, he shouts, pointing at the door. 

You're in disbelief. This can’t be happening, it wasn’t even in your section. You were doing perfect tonight. The tips,amazing. All your customers were nice. He wasn’t being fair. Your pissed but honestly a little embarrassed.Why you thought that Simon would treat you different, you should have known. 

You rush to the back to get your purse and jacket and go out the employees only exit, which is really the back of the restaurant where the trash and oil bin is. You have tears in your eyes. Your not clocking out, fuck that. He wants to send you away before your shift is over , then he can pay for it. 

You are still getting your life together, when someone steps out from the shadows and scares the shit out of you. 

“You alright, honey”

Masterlist

[msfcatlover]

It’s so hard to brag about your RPG friends to other people (especially your GMs) because nobody gets it when you try to explain that they make the best characters.

“Oh, they’re so creative!”

“They’re an amazing actor!”

“We get along great!”

No. You don’t get it.

I have not stopped thinking about this NPC he cooked up on the fly for me to interact with over 6 years ago. I want to plan 5 different heists with them, but actually I want it to all be the same heist & for us to do it as 10 different characters because I want to see all the different ways their ideas bounce off mine. She’s completely willing to play along with any & all bits, even if she herself thinks it’s really stupid or boring, if it’s what her character would do. Every single time they introduce a new character, I am on the edge of my seat, vibrating with excitement to see what they’ve come up with. Every time we meet a new NPC, I hold my breath, praying that they become a recurring character.

I am a rabid fan of my friends’ characters, and it’s impossible to explain.

[arsene-inc]

TTRPG projects

Now that I have published Cooking in Dungeon, let's check my games' ideas document....

Oh there's a lot of them

Started projects that I shoud restart working on :

A game where, instead of dices, the group use sound effects, for rolls and for character stats ( and my Nagademon 2021 idea)

A Rumor of Crows, my Nagademon 2022 idea. The basic idea is you play ravens from Sandman.

Where the magic never ends ? , Nagademon 2023. In a world where theme park really are magic, where does the magic go when the park is abandonned ? As Coaster Mages, whose powers come from different attractions, it is your role to explore these parks and bring their Spark back. For this one, the rules are mostly written, they were based on HUNT by GilaRPGs. It is playable. I need to write the gm section and I already got some illustrations made for this. Also a setting I want to explore with other SRDs

A series of games based on the Four elements, with water started. Poetic and fantastical adventures in the dream realms kinda vibes

Game ideas I want to make but haven't started writing :

Yandere Battle Simulator

A ttrpg that uses tcg cards, Magic, Yugioh and the likes.

A gacha ttrpg

A Ruin exploration games with a mechanic that destroy the ruin if the players damage it too much

A business card ttrpg to give to strangers

A system based on the Gods Favor

An achievements based system

Alien incognito on earth

Every room in the world can suddenly become an Escape room

Playlist warriors where a character's playlist is their stats/powers

A game in which, to succeed at something, you must always give something in exchange.

A Vtuber ttrpg

Revenge of the bassists, they're tired of being underappreciated.

[whiskey-tango-matcha]

Then & Now (M, cold)

Hiii, hope you like A LOT of hurt followed by 2-3 sentences of comfort lmao. This is Greyson fic - Grey is sick on a day he and Reed are supposed to have a date, and he's sure Reed is going to be angry with him because Trauma(TM). It's told in a flashback sort of format which I really enjoyed because I love writing blurbs of colds at different times in life lol. I hope you guys like it, please let me know what ya think, good, bad, or otherwise :)

CW: Male snz, cold, pneumonia mention, coughing, contagion mention, lots and lots of whump lmao. A little over 4K words under the cut.

Then & Now

Now

“Morning, Chef.”

“Huh-! HhITSZHH-ue!”

Elijah turned towards Greyson, who was doubled over into his hoodie sleeve, and gave him a sympathetic grimace. “Cooks finally pulled you under, hmm?”

“Ugh, like way fuckin’ under,” Greyson muttered, rubbing his eye and sucking in through his nose. “I feel like ass.”

“Sorry, dude,” Elijah said, tossing his counterpart a box of tissues. “Sucks.”

Greyson caught the box and pulled out a few just in time. “HITSZHZH-uhh!” This one, he managed to catch in the handful of tissues. He wiped his nose and shrugged. “Yeah,” he said, tossing the used tissues. “Mbostly because I was supposed to have a date tonight.”

Elijah smirked at his friend, who was pushing past the GM into their shared office. The two of them sat in unison. “Do you guys still call them dates? You’ve been official for, like, six months.”

“It’s our six-month anniversary,” Greyson said, his voice flattened by congestion. “We were going to do EMP.”

“Awww, now I’m depressed,” Elijah said. “Also, why didn’t you tell me earlier you were going to Eleven Madison? I still know people there.”

“So does Reed,” Greyson said, massaging his temple. “That’s why we were goigg. Fuck, mby fuckin’ head is pounding. Do we have any -?”

Elijah placed the ibuprofen in front of the chef before he could ask, along with a bottle of cough syrup and a decongestant. “You know we have it all,” he said, pushing an old cup of water across the desk for Greyson to swallow his arsenal of pills. “And fair enough. Well that fuckin’ sucks, dude, I’m sorry. Hey, at least you can leave early, right? Matt’s closing?”

“Yeah,” Greyson said, unwrapping a cough drop and popping it in his mouth. “I’ll head out once the rush is over. I still have to text Reee – hh...hhNTSHH-ue! HGTSHH-uhh!” Greyson doubled over, sneezed into his arm, and groaned. “I’mb gonna kill the guys when they get in,” he said, mostly to himself.

“Don’t do that,” Elijah said, placing a hand on Greyson’s shoulder on his way out of the office. “Then you’ll have to stay all night.”

Greyson huffed out a laugh and pulled out his phone. He clicked on his conversation with Reed, sighing. He did not want to have this conversation.

Greyson

9:31AM

hey babe. gonna have to cancel tonight, the cooks infected me w their plague :( im rly sorry.

The chef set his phone on the desk, prepared to either be ghosted or gaslit – two of Collin’s favorite pastimes whenever Greyson had had to cancel their plans during their relationship – and was shocked when the phone buzzed with a text almost immediately. He was almost afraid to look at his boyfriend’s response.

Reed

9:32AM

Oh, baby don’t be sorry!! what time are you off? I’ll pick you up and take you home :) we can do a sick day little date night instead!

Greyson stared at the phone, stunned. He couldn’t help it; he read the message again, then out loud said, “What the fuck?”

Then – Ten Years Ago

“Chef?”

The Executive Chef looked up from his paperwork at Greyson and sighed. “What is it, Abbott?”

“I, um – hh! HTSHH-uh! HGXTSH-ue! Snf. Umb, I just wanted to see if it was okay if I… left a little early today?” Greyson asked, his voice barely above a whisper. His chef raised his eyebrows and put his clipboard down. Oh, no, Greyson thought.

“Leave...early? And leave your clean up and prep to whom, exactly? Me?” The Executive Chef huffed out a laugh. “That’s rich, Abbott. Why the fuck would you need to leave early?”

“I…” Greyson started, but his voice gave out on the single syllable. He attempted to clear his throat. “I just… I really feel like shit? I was hoping I could, like… sleep it off, I guess. I mbean, I wouldn’t want to get anyone else sigck.” Greyson felt a cough bubbling to the surface; he tried to quell it, to no avail. The younger man collapsed into a coughing fit that felt like it lasted a lifetime.

The Chef remained unmoved. “My guys,” he said, placing a hand on his chest as Greyson attempted to compose himself, “don’t get sick, Abbott. And if they do, I don’t fucking hear about it. Understand? Because I really don’t give a shit. If you’re here, you’re here. If you decide to leave early,” he shrugged, uncaring, “then you leave for good. And Abbott, if you try to get a job after walking out of my kitchen, I promise you I will make it impossible. I know you’ve only been here a couple months, but here’s what you need to learn: put your head down and do your fucking job, and you can work anywhere in the world after this. Be a whiny piece of shit who tries to walk out on his shift, and you’ll be working at McDonald’s for the rest of you life. Got it?”

Greyson, too shocked to rebut, just bobbed his head up and down.

“Let me hear you say it,” the Chef said. Greyson cleared his throat.

“Yes, Chef,” he said. The Chef nodded.

“Now get the fuck out of my office.”

Now

“Elijah. Look at this text.”

The GM looked up slowly from the iPad where he was going over reservations for the evening. “...Why?” he asked, taking the phone from Greyson’s hand.

“Just look. Tell mbe that’s ndot weird,” Greyson said, crossing his arms over his chest. Elijah looked down, confused, and read the text. He pinched his eyebrows together just a little, and read it again. “See? Isn’t that weird?”

“Greyson…” Elijah said, handing the phone back. “That’s not weird.”

“Seriously?” Greyson asked, reading the text yet again. “It’s bizarre. He’s ndot even a little mad? C’mon. That’s weird.”

“He’s being sweet,” Elijah explained, slowly, as though he were talking to a toddler. “Did you want him to be mad? Because that’s bizarre.”

“Ndo I don’t want him to be mad. I jus – HTSZHH-ue! HRRSHH!” Greyson wrenched to the side to sneeze, which sent him into a fit of hacking coughs. “I just figured he’d want to, like, yell at mbe or something. For canceling,” Greyson finished, his voice strained against another cough. Elijah didn’t respond, not at first, and instead pressed a hand onto the chef’s forehead.

“I think you’re sicker than we thought, because you’re acting fucking delusional,” he said as Greyson slapped his hand away. “Greyson, normal people don’t yell at each other for getting sick, or having to cancel a plan. That’s, like, really twisted.”

Greyson rolled his eyes. “It’s ndot twisted, Lij you fuckin’ drama queen,” he said, then held up a finger. “Onesec – hh! Hh...hnn.” Greyson sniffled, a let out a little irritated cough. “Lost it.”

“Go back to the kitchen,” Elijah said, pointing towards the swinging doors. “Sit down. Rest. Let your medicine kick in. I don’t want people seeing this -” he gestured to Greyson, as if to allude to his entire being – “when they walk past the restaurant. Alright? Text your boyfriend something nice. Not something unhinged.”

“Oh, fuck you,” Greyson muttered, turning toward the kitchen, his phone still open to the conversation with Reed. He turned towards Elijah again before pushing through the kitchen doors. “I still say that this is the unhinged thing.”

“Go to therapy, Greyson,” Elijah said, not looking up from the iPad. Greyson rolled his eyes, pushed into the kitchen, and regarded his phone once again.

Greyson

10:07AM

thanks, babe. it’s ok, I can take care of myself. it wont be a long day, ill just grab some nyquil omw home and sleep it off. ill reschedule our rezo too, don’t worry about that. im really sorry again for canceling. if I could taste the food id still go lol.

Figuring that sounded at least relatively normal, Greyson hit send. He sat down at his desk once again and placed his head in his hands. No way he’s not pissed, Greyson thought, and he really believed it. In all his years of dating, he’d never met anyone who would respond that way; they’d at least have a snippy remark about the last-minute nature of the cancellation.

Greyson’s phone pinged once again, and he couldn’t help but grab it right away to assess the damage.

Reed

10:08AM

honey, please don’t apologize, seriously. youre sick, it happens, its no biggie :) I already moved the reservation to next week but if we need to ill move it again. james at emp said to tell you feel better btw.

Greyson blinked, dumbstruck. He started typing without thinking.

Greyson

10:10AM

you REALLY arent mad? seriously?

Reed

10:10AM

im really not mad. who gets mad at someone for being sick…? is someone at work mad at you? am I supposed to be mad..? lol

Greyson

10:11AM

I mean its a last minute cancellation. id understand if u were mad.

Reed

10:11AM

welllll….im not. is that ok? haha

Reed

10:15AM

grey…? you believe me, right?

Reed

10:21AM

greyson..?

Then – Seven Years Ago

He was moving through molasses.

Greyson placed a sluggish hand to his own forehead – you can’t check yourself for a fever, dumbass – and blinked painfully. He’d made it to work, he’d made it through the day, and he’d made it back home, against all odds. Now, he was stuck on his couch, unable to even crawl to the bathroom for a thermometer.

It had all compounded on him, was his guess. The endless fourteen hour days for the better part of two years at his thankless sous chef job. The shitty Chicago-suburbs apartment with no heat, where he froze for the few hours a week he slept. The near-constant drinking. Sure, he was only twenty-five, but what was it they said about this industry? It ages you in dog years. Yeah, that was it.

“Hh-! Hh...ITSZHH-ue! HTSHHH-ue!” Greyson sneezed helplessly into the blanket he’d wrapped around himself, and groaned. This was not what he’d imagined when he moved here from Minnesota. He’d thought it would be glamorous, working as a sous chef at a high-end hotel in a big city. He thought he’d have friends, or a girlfriend, or something. Instead, he was trapped on his couch, benched by a sinus infection and seasonal depression that seemed to last the whole year round. Fuck this, Greyson thought. He couldn’t get off the couch, but he could reach his phone; Greyson pulled up Indeed and changed his search parameters.

Actively searching for work. Location: Any.

Now

“Um… Chef? What’s, uh… what’s going on?”

Greyson paused for a moment, a crate of spoiled food held on his shoulder. He turned towards Matt, keen to answer, but instead held the crate tighter and wrenched to the side. “HRTTSHH-uh!”

“Bless you,” Matt said, an automatic reaction. Greyson nodded, turned towards the dumpster, and dumped the food in before beginning the cycle anew: pick up crate. Turn to sneeze. Dump old food. Matt wasn’t sure if he should help his boss, or go inside for backup.

He chose the former, picking a crate filled to the brim with rotten tomatoes off the ground and hoisting it into the trash. “You gonna tell me what’s up?” he asked as the two of them continued gathering and tossing.

Greyson sighed, pulled a hand down his face, and shook his head. “I thingk Reed and I are over,” he said, voice soft and throaty. Matt’s eyebrows shot up.

“What? Seriously? What did you do?” Matt asked, prompting a stuffy laugh from his boss.

“I just don’t thingk it’s going to work,” Greyson said, shrugging. “I… I don’t want to, like, play gambes. I can’t do that again, ndot after Collin.”

“Chef,” Matt said as he gathered and tossed the last milk crate, “what are you talking about? Reed is, like, the most straight-shooting guy I’ve ever met. How is he playing games?”

Greyson, left without anything to occupy his hands, just shrugged and pulled out his phone. He handed it to Matt without explanation, and the sous quickly read through the text conversation Greyson and Reed had going. Matt furrowed his brow.

“I don’t get it,” he said, handing the phone back. “He wants to take care of you, what’s the problem with that?”

“He doesn’t want to take care of me, he wants to have the upper hand,” Greyson explained, pulling out a pack of cigarettes and sitting on the step just outside the back door. “Want one?”

“Sure,” Matt said, sitting beside his boss. “I mean, you shouldn’t be smoking if you’re -”

“HTSHH! Hh-! ITZSHH-ue!” Greyson turned into his elbow, taking a long moment to gather himself before handing Matt his cigarette.

“-sick,” Matt finished. The older man shrugged, and Matt plucked the lighter out of Greyson’s hand to light both of them up, not daring to push his boss any closer to the edge. For a moment, they smoked in silence, only Greyson’s sniffles and coughs interrupting the quiet.

“Boss,” Matt said, finally, “I think you need to talk to Reed.”

“I did,” Greyson said, stubbing out his cigarette. “You saw.”

“No, I mean actually talk to him,” Matt said. The two of them stood, looking at each other – a face-off without the malice. Matt continued. “Not ignore his texts and clean out the walk-in.”

Greyson scoffed. “Matt, just because you have sombe fairy-tale love story doesn’t mbean everyone else does, too. Okay? If it’s over between me and Reed, it’s fine. I’mb better off alone, anywaa – hh! Hh… Hhhii-!” Greyson stood with his elbow poised at his face, stuck in pre-sneeze agony for what seemed like an eternity. While he was incapacitated, Matt took his phone and typed out a message that his boss couldn’t see. Finally, Greyson lowered his arm and sucked in, fruitlessly, through his nose. “The fugck are you doigg?” he asked, snatching his phone back from his sous.

“If you’re not going to talk to Reed,” Matt shrugged, unapologetic, “I will.”

Greyson looked down at his phone, which buzzed twice in his hand. Reed’s face popped up on the screen. Call from: reed <3

Then – Three Years Ago

“HTSHH! Huh! ETZSHH-ue! HRTTSHH-ue!”

“Bless, bless, bless you. Allergies?” Collin asked, not looking up from his phone. Greyson sniffled in vain, and coughed painfully.

“Ndot exactly,” he croaked from the doorway to Collin’s living room. “Baby, do you thingk you could drive mbe to urdent care, actually?”

Collin looked up and slowly raised an eyebrow. “For what?” he asked, obviously annoyed. Greyson swallowed as best he could and placed a hand on his throat.

“I thingk… I mbight have strep. Or bronchitis, or sombething. I, uh… I’ve had a fever for like. A week.” Greyson had to stop to close his eyes and grab onto the door frame, a sordid attempt to keep from hitting the floor like a rotten sack of potatoes. Collin rolled his eyes.

“You’re such a drama queen. You seemed fine when you came over last night.”

“You were asleep whend I came over,” Greyson said, his eyes still closed. “Did you ndot notice that I haven’t been over in like five days?”

Collin shrugged. “I mean, yeah, but I figured you were busy with work. You’re always busy with work,” he said, the venom in his voice making clear that he wanted to fight.

Greyson, physically incapable of fighting at that moment, just slid slowly to the ground and nodded. “Yeah. You’re right,” he said. “Ndow I’m paying the price. Please, baby. Can you please just take me? I… I really don’t feel well.”

It was pathetic. He knew it, but he couldn’t stop himself; he was fairly sure he was moments from passing out. Collin turned and made himself comfier on the couch.

“I’ll call you an uber,” he said, pressing some buttons on his phone. “You barely make time for me, and now you’re asking me to be your chauffeur? Please, Greyson.” He showed his ailing boyfriend the phone. “He’ll be out front in five minutes. Better make your way down.”

“Okay,” Greyson said, pulling himself slowly to his feet. “Thangk you.”

Collin didn’t say a word as Greyson let himself out of the apartment. He made it downstairs, and into the uber, and into the waiting room at urgent care. He made it out by himself, too, with a laundry list of prognoses – strep, sinus infection, walking pneumonia – and a handful of prescriptions. When he texted Collin later to fill him in, his boyfriend didn’t text back.

Greyson fell asleep on his shower floor and awoke to freezing water pounding on him, and a courier pounding on his door. When he toweled off and answered it, chicken soup from the local bodega and a note that read feel better -c sat at his feet. Greyson breathed a sigh of relief; at least he had been forgiven.

Now

Reed had dated plenty of men is his thirty-five years of life, and had found that there were two general categories when it came to sick men: there was the Baby, and there was the Don’t Look at Me.

Greyson though, an enigma since the moment they met, seemed to fall into a third category, a category that was, to Reed, yet undiscovered: the You Hate Me.

Reed was good with the first two categories; the Don’t Look at Me, you left medicine outside their room and texted them funny memes. The Baby, you laid in bed with them and spoon-fed them soup. Easy. Understandable. Truthfully, this was one of his favorite things about men: they were easy to crack. He figured Greyson would likely fall into the Baby category, which was fine by him – there was nothing he’d like more than to look after an ailing Greyson, to be honest. This third category he seemed to embody, though, was not something Reed knew what to do with.

“He didn’t answer when I called him,” Reed said into the phone receiver. “I just want to know what’s going on, I mean, did I say something wrong?”

On the other end of the line, Elijah sighed. “No, you didn’t do anything wrong. This is just… it’s just Greyson being Greyson.”

Reed wasn’t about to take this lying down. “Hey, are you guys super busy tonight? I mean, I don’t want to be that boyfriend, but, like, can I come get him? We really need to talk, and if what Matt said is true he probably shouldn’t be, like, working anyway, right?”

While Elijah paused, Reed pulled the phone away from his ear and once again re-read the text Matt had sent from Greyson’s phone: hey reed, it’s matt. grey is sick as hell, so DO NOT take any of the crazy weird shit he says seriously, k? his temperature needs to lower by like 5 degrees before you do this, but u guys need to actually talk. he’s being stupid.

“Please,” Reed heard Elijah’s tinny voice on the other end and put the phone back to his ear. “Please, come and collect him. I’m begging.”

Reed stood from the couch and grabbed his keys. “Give me twenty minutes. I’m on my way.”

Then – Two Years Ago

“Heyyy, baby, cand I buy you a dringk?”

The girl leaned back, her face marked by disgust. “No, thanks. Save your money and get yourself some NyQuil,” she said, disappearing into the crowd. Greyson huffed out a sigh and coughed into his hand – a long, crackling sound that made the other bar patrons inch their chairs away.

“She’s right, you know,” the bartender – Skip, Greyson had learned his name was a few weeks back when he had started coming in every night – said, filling Greyson’s shot glass yet again. “You need to go home.”

“And yet you pour mbe another drink,” Greyson said, knocking back the shot. “The duality of mban. NGTXSH! HTSHH! Huh-! HRRSHH-ue!” Greyson covered his mouth lazily with one hand, wiped it on his pants, hand held the glass up to indicate ‘another’.

“Bless you,” Skip said, not pouring the shot. “Greyson, seriously: go home. You sound fucking awful.”

“Are you cutting mbe off?” Greyson asked, his rheumy eyes meeting Skip’s over the bartop. “Because unless you are, I’mb staying.” He coughed again, into his elbow; the cough was quickly becoming a problem. He’d had a cold two weeks ago; the symptoms had been mild, but the cough had hung around. When he caught whatever-the-fuck this was two days ago, the cough had turned from an annoyance to a pressing issue; he should go home. He should go to the doctor, he should take a day off, he should, he should, he should.

But he wouldn’t. He would stay, and he would drink until he was kicked out, then he’d pass out on the train and not make it home to sleep. He’d go to work at seven AM and stay until midnight and do it all again.

“I’m not kicking you out,” Skip sighed. “I’m just saying… you should take care of yourself.”

Greyson blinked slowly. He could feel his lungs, heavy with fluid, gearing up to cough again; his head, pounding in spite or because of the alcohol; his heart crushed into a million, Collin-sized pieces. Take care of yourself. It felt impossible, when you’d never been shown how.

“This is mbe taking care of myself,” he said, clearing his throat. “I’ll have another.”

Now

Greyson rested his head on a case of lettuce in the corner of the walk-in. He knew he should be continuing his madness of cleaning, but he’d accidentally sat down on his fifth trip into the refrigerator, and now he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get up again.

Fucking Reed, Greyson thought as he allowed the cold salad box to sate the fever he had burning in his brain. Why can’t he just be up front with me? If you’re mad just say it, don’t fucking torture me.

Perhaps deep down, he knew he was being ridiculous; Matt and Elijah were most likely correct. The simplest answer – that Reed truly was just a good guy – was probably the right one. But he just couldn’t get out of his mind all the times he’d reached out, needed help and asked for it, and been shot down. He certainly couldn’t allow himself to believe that the person he was dating was truly good; he knew he’d never deserve that.

“Greyson?”

Speaking of Reed, that sounded a lot like him – was Greyson hearing things? Had he, in his fever-addled state, conjured a hallucination of his boyfriend to have a fight with? Bizarre, Grey, he thought to himself. That’s really fucking bizarre.

“Grey? Elijah said you were in here but I don’t – oh!”

Either this was a really crazy hallucination, or that really was Reed standing over him, in the walk-in. Greyson blinked hard, then blinked again, and suddenly Reed was on the ground next to him.

“Babe...it’s really cold in here. Do you think we can, um, leave?”

Greyson furrowed his eyebrows together. “Leave… and go where?” he asked, his voice cracking. “I have to… work. What are you doigg heeee...HRTSHH-ue! Huh -! HTSHH! NTSHH! IGXTSH!” Greyson attempted to stifle over and over, until Reed gently took his hand and pulled it away from his face.

“That has to hurt,” Reed said, his voice quiet and calm. “You can just… sneeze, you know. Like, regular.”

“Tryigg ndot to get you,” Greyson croaked, his eyes glazing over once again. “Youbettermov – HRRETSZCHH-ue! ITSZZHH-ue! Fuck – NGTSHHZ-ue!” Greyson sneezed into his lap, then coughed until his lungs felt sore. Reed didn’t move; he came closer and rubbed Greyson’s back.

“Bless you, baby,” Reed said, eventually.

“Thangks. Sorry,” Greyson murmured, pushing his hair out of his face and turning to look at Reed. “Why are you here?” he asked, levity out the window.

Reed let out a little laugh. “Umm, why do you think?” he asked. “You’ve been ignoring me since this morning. I got worried, since Matt said you were super sick – no lie detected, by the way, you sound truly awful –”

“Sorry,” Greyson said again, wiping under his nose. “I kndow, it’s gross.”

“Please, Grey,” Reed said, taking both sides of his boyfriend’s face in his hands and looking him in the eye. “Please. Stop apologizing. It’s okay to be sick. I don’t understand why you think I’m angry at you. I’m not.”

Greyson swallowed, painfully, and gave a little nod. “Okay,” he said, finally.

“Okay,” Reed repeated. “Anyway. I called Elijah. He said to come and collect you.”

At this, Greyson couldn’t help but cough out a laugh. “Collect mbe?” he asked. Reed smiled a little.

“Yeah,” he said. “His words, not mine.”

They both laughed, softly at first, then ramping up to near-hysteria. They only stopped when Greyson started coughing again and couldn’t seem to stop.

“Let’s go get you some water,” Reed said, helping his boyfriend to his shaky feet. Greyson allowed himself to be pulled out of the walk-in, and given a bottle of water that was sitting on his prep station. Greyson drank until the fit subsided, then regarded Reed once again.

“So… you really aren’t mbad?” he asked, rubbing his goosebumped arms up and down. Reed shook his head and shrugged off his windbreaker. He draped it over Greyson’s shoulders.

“I’m really not mad,” he insisted. Greyson nodded, seemingly satiated. Reed sighed through his nose and slipped his arms around the chef.

“Life’s done a number on you, huh?” he asked, quietly enough that it could’ve just been to himself. Greyson huffed out a sad little laugh.

“Like you wouldn’t believe, baby,” he murmured, pressing his hot head into Reed’s hair. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

[hugheses]

10-6-20: Teams, agents and players: How the first-overall pick changes everything

In the spring of 2019, U.S. netminder Cory Schneider and teenaged star Jack Hughes were at the world championships in Slovakia when a big plan began as a joke.

Schneider, who was 33 at the time, teased that Hughes had better prepare for life in the Schneider basement in Short Hills, New Jersey. Schneider’s wife, Jill, joined in the fun, suggesting that Hughes start calling her “mom.”

A few weeks later, the New Jersey Devils selected Hughes with the first-overall pick in the 2019 draft — setting the stage for a text message from Schneider to GM Ray Shero at training camp in September.

“Pretty sure this kid’s making the team. We’re ready if you want.”

And so Hughes, closer in age to Schneider’s 4-year-old son Wyatt than to the veteran NHL netminder, found his way to the Schneider basement where he and Wyatt would sometimes engage in some spirited knee hockey.

Hughes soaked up knowledge from living with an experienced NHLer. But it was also an educational experience for Schneider, who learned about a thing called TikTok and another thing called Instagram. Hughes, it turns out, is a star on both.

[...]

The Devils communication staff, for instance, was in contact with Hughes’ representatives about outside demands on the young player’s time. There are staff whose responsibility is to maintain communication with players’ families to help with things like tickets, travel and merchandise requests.

Immediately after the 2017 draft, the Devils’ No. 1 pick, Nico Hischier, and his family came to New Jersey and were shown the lay of the land.

Schneider and his wife had actually discussed at the time whether Hischier should live with them, but Jill was eight-months pregnant with the couple’s second child, so it wasn’t the best solution.

“I don’t think one size fits all,” Shero noted.

Defenseman Mirco Mueller had been acquired by the Devils that summer and was living, along with a number of other younger Devils, in a complex near Jersey City.

Hischier and his family, with input from the Devils, decided that he would live on his own near those players.

“That first year having Mirco around was huge for me,” Hischier said. “He’d been around. He knew what was going on.”

The fact the two were countrymen and had a familial connection involving Hischier’s older brother was also a natural gateway to feeling comfortable.

Quickly, Hischier found a rhythm with the help of Mueller, Jesper Bratt and Blake Coleman, among others, sharing rides to and from the rink and learning what an E-ZPass was.

“I wasn’t worried about anything,” Hischier said. “I felt really comfortable with New Jersey. I felt really welcome there. They took really good care of me and really good care of my whole family.”

Hischier said his mother was especially impressed with how the Devils handled things and helped get Hischier settled in. On the other side of the equation, the fact the Hischier family often made visits to New Jersey with generous supplies of Swiss chocolates for the staff was a welcome bonus to the relationship between player and team.

Hischier also had help with other things that can affect any young person living on their own for the first time: doubt, worries about bills, shopping and cooking.

Hischier settled into the NHL life almost seamlessly, scoring 20 times as a rookie.

“There was a 100 percent focus on hockey,” he said.

“The whole organization stood behind me and helped me in any aspect off the ice — and obviously on the ice, too — but off the ice more importantly. So I have less stuff to worry about.”

It is a sign of how young the NHL has become that, in an almost impossibly short period, Hischier has gone from the rookie to a veteran voice that was able to help guide Hughes through a similar landscape.

“I obviously could feel exactly what he is feeling,” Hischier said. “It’s not easy to come to the big show at that age, handle all that stuff, what’s going on outside.”

Support is key. Even after Hughes moved into his own place near Jersey City, part of the plan mapped out before the season, Jill Schneider would sometimes order a cleaning service for Hughes or drop by and fill his fridge with food.

It was all the more important in a year of tumult in New Jersey

By the end of Hughes’ first NHL season, he had seen former Hart Trophy winner Taylor Hall dealt to Arizona and his first NHL coach, John Hynes, fired. Then the man who selected him with the first pick, Shero, was also fired. Even his landlord, Schneider, was at one point sent to the American Hockey League.

“You couldn’t have scripted it any more chaotically for an 18-year-old kid in his first year in the league,” Schneider said. “It was one thing after another.”

Hughes struggled to find a groove, scoring just seven times and finishing with 21 points.

There were times when it was clear that losing and his lack of production were weighing on him.

“Look, he’s used to being the best player on the ice and scoring three points a night,” Schneider said. “He’s done it his whole career.”

“I would be like, ‘hey man, it’s your twelfth game in the league. It’s going to come.’ I think he understands that.”

The point? A career is not a straight line, no matter how talented you are.

Great advice for any No. 1 pick.

[nadg-ttrpg]

Controversial opinion (?)

The magnus archive role playing game (TMARPG) is a good TTRPG. But it's not a good Magnus Archive TTRPG, it's a good TTRPG that happens to be set in a Magnus Archive universe. Hear me out. It's published by Monte Cook Games, using their Cypher System. The Cypher is a good system, used in hits like Numenera or The strange, but it's not adapted to play a Magnus Archive game. They tried really hard to make it work, and they made very interesting changes to the base system. From the health tracking making you more fragile to the eponymous Cyphers being more like abilities than magic objects like in other games. And honestly, yeah, it works! It's a great investigation game, cthulhu style, allowing you to play a crew of archival assistants or a similar group, trying to survive unspeakable horrors and maybe stop rituals. But. BUT.

Magnus Archives, the podcast, isn't just about the investigation. It's an office comedy, and a tragedy, and - most important to me - a reflection on morality, mortality and humanity. It's a podcast that, to quote a tumblr post I saw once, "spend the first 100 episodes showing you irredeemable inhuman monsters... and the 100 next asking you to change your mind on them by showing the protagonist is becoming one". It's a story talking of powers beyond human understanding, but mostly of the humans stuck with them. Asking how far you'll go for a taste of power, how far you'll go to survive, how far you'll go to protect the ones you love. Showing times and times again that getting the power you crave will divorce you from humanity, and that this pull is hard to resist. And that to stay somewhat human, you need anchors, friends, connections. And frankly, there is nothing in the TMARPG to encourage this kind of story. I agree, this is mostly a me problem. My standard is that when I play a licensed RPG I want the original story to be possible with the rules as written. Maybe this is too much to ask. I genuinely don't know. But it's the rule by which I judge a game. When I play an Alien TTRPG, I want the monster horror and the PC betrayals to be encouraged by the rules. When I play a Lord of the Ring TTRPG I want mechanics for travel, honor and temptation. When I play a My Little Pony TTRPG, I want the game to help me with the magic and the friendship. And when I play TMARPG, I'd like the rules to encourage the same themes as the podcast. I could do this freestyle with the rules as is, GM my way out of this, request the help of the players with their backstory and character arcs. Or I could turn to an other TTRPG. Enter Unknown Armies (UA), an occult game about broken people conspiring to fix a broken world - sounds familiar? It wasn't made with TMA in mind, it was published before the podcast even existed. It also have it's flaws, I heard it described as "taking itself too seriously" many times. But despite this, UA drinks at the same source than TMA.

They both embrace a Jungian philosophy gosh that sounds so pedantic, the idea that the collective unconscious of the humanity create archetypes, powers, Fears. They both feature relationships as both something that needs to be cared for and link to humanity. They both have heavy use of trauma and mental breakdown, depicted as realistically as possible. Actually, UA link them directly to your stats. Witnessed violence? You can react either by being hardened and unfazed by it, or traumatised and deeply troubled by it. This will make it either easier for you to fight, or to dodge. I love it. They both have a supernatural system where you can only get those powers by acting in ways that make you an outcast, be it by being an arsonist, someone living their life through a camera lens tape recorder anyone?, or even someone fascinated by the flesh and blood. They both have weird artifacts. They both have ways to become avatars. And you can actually have a power imbalance betwen the PCs! You can have an avatar and an "antechrist's plus one" is the same party. They are made for each other. TLDR: Unknown Armies is a better Magnus Archive TTRPG than The Magnus Archives Role Playing Game. TMARPG is a good TTRPG, but not a game that actually uses the themes of the podcast. If you want to play an investigation team cthulhu-style, by all mean, play TMARPG. If you want to play a tragedy about inhumanity and power, play Unknown Armies. The Magnus Archives is a podcast written by Jonathan Sims and distributed under a CC NC-SA-BY 4.0 license. Thanks for listening.

[forgottenroisin]

OOC | Astairan Science & Witchcraft

sooo ya girl has had a thought anD now you gotta hear abt it ;DDDD tbh i feel like this isn't really even my thought it think its smth we've all lowkey been driving at but never fully addressed so i thought id do that!

ok so @forgottenarias mentioned in a post abt the stafford observatory (and i 10000% agree! they totally have that!!!!), and yeah it sent me down this train of thought and, surprisingly, while i def think it applies to astaira over all, i feel like it feeds in v nicely to a lot of the other world building we've been doing and all esp re: the malconaires...and their future predicament!

ok so basically? my thesis here is...astaira is stated to be the largest country in the world, and we know it has a system based on merit etc so top minds're gonna really go places ++ they've got the largest variety ~of minds etc and basically thesis statement: i think maybe astaira has some of the best educated ppl, top to bottom, and more advanced science than most anywhere else in the world, perhaps???? and, bc of that, when roderick looks at them...he sees a bunch of witches! bc he sees ppl out there doing what are (to him!) unexplainable/impossible things w ease, but its just that they have more knowledge etc.

so, obv there are ~literal seers here too and that's def just throwing fuel on the fire (heh), but i lowkey think that there's a lot of things that roderick (and his countrymen etc) just see and...don't get and they go witch!!!!!! that's witchcraft!!!!! kinda like how amira has a reputation of witchcraft bc (well, ok her gm who raised her was a seer but also!!) she has this intense knowledge of medicines and poisons and she can heal and she can harm w a touch and????? witch!!!! but ofc she isn't a seer! and aleksander royce has a v similar backstory, himself, except he was able to fashion into his divine miracles rather than sorcery, but its that same kinda thing!

so!! a lot of our houses and things are tied in w precisely elements and such: perhaps not simply the house (as we've established), but the ~ppl of stafford, specialize in astronomy and astrology and so forth; the callearies/cultures who also hail from not!atlantis (minus cormac lbr ;D) are probs up on all sorts of oceanic and marine sciences of the day w advanced knowledge of tides and of fish etc alike; the kolcheans are students of heat and how it interacts w other materials and so forth (i always hc'd that kolchean fire aka greek fire was a thing... ;D); and the ppl of malconaire understand plants and the earth

now, @forgotteneithne gave us the hc that sorcha and bran always made sure their daughters weren't just wealthy and pretty and refined, but that they also had practical skills, and esp if either of them knew/suspected @forgottenbrigit 's gifts (but even if they didn't!), i can see where they may have also put emphasis on learning all abt plants from anyone who could teach them, wherether grand or humble of origin (esp if we go go the idea of actual seers having ~specialties or whatever too -- ex. perhaps brigit is more earth based in her powers as a malconaire, and aria more air based, but again even if not its just good stuff to know!)

so maybe, amongst their practical talents of cleaning and cooking and such, the girls also learned herbology and like hemlock can relax you or even help staunch a wound to keep you from bleeding out, but too much can kill you, bc it slows your organs etc -- that sort of thing. and maybe, amongst the other things they do when they go to the village, they help cure the sick, and that sort of thing, and perhaps this is another way they also helped out during the battle of malconaire, etc?

and yeah! maybe, given that (most of ;D) the malconaire girls aren't ~actually witches, maybe this (and the whole romancing ~all of roderick's sons! egregious! roderick is SHOOKETH) is another 'proof' of their witchcraft, but also smth they can fall back on while they're on the run?

regardless of this, rosie, i think, (as ive said before) will be leaning into her showmanship to try to spook the o.v.n.-ians and save ppl (ig all those pranks came in handy in the revolution, after all! ;D #weaponizewonder) but yeah i also like the idea that she might be out there helping ppl in other ways than just distracting ppl so others (rebels, refugees, etc!) can make a get away and such (whether or not she's hooked up w the rebels or is just helping other accused witches escape or...what idk!! but yeah this is the direction i see her going in) -- actively in there brewing up teas and sewing up cuts and making healing elixirs and such!

idk!! anyway!! we don't need to do anything w any of this but yeah!! just thought id throw this out there and see what everyone thinks?

[lakemojave]

Hey everyone! Hope you're having a wonderful October and an above average friday!

I come bearing news about things related to twitch! I've been really enjoying my hiatus this month, been catching up on horror movies and playing Persona 3 Reload, and though my mental and physical health have waxed and waned this month I think this break has been really positive! However, over the last couple of days I've had a nearly ceaseless twitch in my left eye. I will not lie, it's kind of driving me crazy. I don't really know what it's about, but my intent is to rest up, eat well, and get a good night's sleep the next few days so this goes away.

That's all, have a good evening guys!

OH you wanted to know about streams. Right. That makes more sense.

I'm coming back soon! Tomorrow we're gonna be going back to Star Wars: Tales of the Rambler, our RP series with Dot, Jordan, Heather and Jill, lead by our GM and proud imperial gooner, Bill! We were gonna have another one of these this month, but unfortunately Jordan got trapped in the trash compactor last week so we had to reschedule a bit.

Anyone got Halloween plans? I do! Because I haven't done any kind of horror games this month I'm planning on doing a marathon of one of my OTHER favorite horror games, one that I've talked about many times but never actually finished on the channel: the blood-soaked space horror classic, SIGNALIS!!! I've played this game a few times and it has never failed to scare the fuck outta me, so if you're around this 31st of October, don't miss it!

HADES 2 GOT A PATCH!!! I haven't played any of it yet! On Friday, November 1st, I'ma sit down and return to Supergiant's latest game with my drink in hand, just like the Olympians of old. I would be a fool not to return to stream with a drunk hades night. This one might also run a little long, expect a night of merriment and unhinged horny chaos!

Hey US folks, I know that every election year really sucks lately, and this one is pretty spicy. Election day can be a huge source of anxiety, so to help provide some honest and entertaining coverage for y'all, me and the gang are gonna do a stream that day too! Not only will we have our ears to the ground for results as they come in on Tuesday the 5th, but Dot, Jordan, newcomer Brett, (and maybe some surprise guests too!) will be conducting a few delightful minigames and segments! We've got tier lists, the campaign trail, a fun hot or not game Dot cooked up, and more!

That's all the upcoming streams I believe! Stay tuned for more announcements for my return in November, including a modified schedule! Very excited to return to you all, see y'all then!

[thydungeongal]

for the tarot ask game -

The Emperor — Do you have a process you follow with your design work? OR How important is mechanical complexity to you?

The Star — Talk about a game you’re working on and what excites you about it.

You can actually get a glimpse of my process in this post I made recently outlining how I'm currently approaching design:

Basically, I first got a huge stew of ingredients together and then threw them in and then started thinking about the game in terms of what types of scenes I want it to produce, what I want the characters to be like, and what type of progress the game will generally follow. I've also been helped in this process by my friend @ashweather who's been extremely helpful in forcing me to think how the various ingredients I've chosen interlock and intersect! For an example, she forced me to think about how the idea of Keys from The Shadow of Yesterday could intersect with Lifepaths and, folks, we're cooking. Also, yeah, this has very much turned into a collaboration between me and ash, and I'm really thankful for all the ideas and insights she's provided.

And that also, in part, answers the second question. I'm really excited about this project of ours, this untitled dark fantasy role-playing game. Heavily inspired by Berserk, Dark Souls, and Darkest Dungeon, the core gameplay is largely going to follow adventurers in a dark fantasy world where something has happened which has made the world Fucked Up and the simple act of traveling between cities and in the wilderness has become dangerous. We are leaning very heavily on Keys as a core mechanic to help create powerfully driven characters to make for largely character driven play in a sandbox/powderkeg style setting.

And yeah, part of what excited me about it is getting to think about systems and how they interact, but I'm also extremely excited about seeing how I can pull off my design goal of making GM prep actually gamified and enjoyable, but also I'm just excited about this stew of ingredients that is equal parts trad and indie.

[geminison]

modern-ish things I would like to show dishonored characters

I got inspired by this lovely post by @dogg-teethh and kinda made my own thing but with dishonored protagonists and some side characters so, low and behold

Daud

blues music in general, he would enjoy brooding while listening, and Fleetwood Mac

thriller movies, can't abide the mysteries so would be glued to the screen until the very end. would get mad if it ends on unexplainable cliffhanger

radio dramas, something to fill the silence while doing paperwork

antidepressants, no comments

rope bondage, but not in a sexual way (yeah, I've seen it in ff and thought, yep, seems like his thing)

Corvo

90s fashion, a bit awkward but appealing somehow?

David Bowie, that's so specific? complex and diverse but funky

takeout food, he doesn't really cook, has terrible eating behavior and just plainly starvs when there no food around, so that would be helpful

absurdism, whole "acceptance without humility" thing? i dunno

Lord of the Rings, a small hero with a great burden and greater stakes, it would resonate

Emily

punk rock, 80s pop, industrial and Corvo would also show her "Rebel Rebel", she would vibe with it

Satoshi Kon's movies, great female characters and a bit of insanity

comics, variety of styles and stories to tell! she did enjoy drawing while she was younger, maybe it would inspire her to pick a pencil again

asian cuisine, a lot of different flavours, I wonder how she would like it

marine biology, so much info about whales and other weird ocean creatures, again little Emily would be so happy

headphones, she would feel even cooler while jumping from one roof to another and kicking asses

Billie

airplanes, speed, freedom and views! you are already a captain of the ship, time to tame the sky!

anarchism, yeah, fuck the government!

family therapy, grab your old man by the hand and fucking go, you need it, it wouldn't be easy but please

Killing Eve

heavy metal music and jazz, Emily and Corvo approve. Daud, well, tolerates, it's a bit too much for him

Outsider

video games, all kinds of it!

DnD, especially GM role, you don't have to be a god to feel a little bit like one, and he also has this dramatic side it would def suite him

sci-fi and horror genres

techno, ambient and modern classical music

programming and hacking, he's a nosy young man, he'd like to know all your secrets, and it's just fun ehehe

Delilah

big fashion shows for stylish and powerful lady

therapy, again, no comments

expensive cars that people own and don't drive

Florence + the Machine and MARINA

iPad, Apple pencil and some software for drawing digitally

social media

[fuck-customers]

hey gang! me again (from /post/741038774641983488, bitching about the two coworkers and the filthy deli slicer), and i guess we couldn’t go three days/two shifts without more bullshit from J1! as i write this it’s currently the morning after the shift described below. thankfully, i have the day off today, due to a prior appointment, so i might be able to wind down again before going in again tomorrow afternoon.

so before Chef C left on the hell shift prior, he asked me to be there at noon, when the first folks are showing up for their prep. good thing, too, because shortly after i arrive, before i even clock in, the head line cook (M) that showed up the same time i did informs me that he’s just gotten a text from C saying that both the sous chef S and the pantry cook J1 have called out for the day, leaving me as (currently) the only person available with any experience on pantry.

before i switched mostly to dish, this was fine, because i could rest assured that the old pantry lead (name irrelevant; no longer works there) would have as much as possible done and prepped for the next shift, even with the one day off we had between. the only time she wouldn’t is if the store was going to be closed for 3-4+ days straight and we needed to be concerned about spoilage. thus i would be left with minimal prep actually needed to be done and could just focus on the essentials.

considering this prior prep cook is the one who trained me and J1, it’d be safe to assume that she’d follow the same practices, right? well, clearly, that’s giving her too much credit, because again, i never got trained to any degree on how to make the vast majority of what gets “cooked” for pantry, and apparently she’s incapable of planning ahead even if for no other reason than to simply make her own job easier.

to make matters worse, we had just gotten a shipment, so the walk-in was packed full without any room to get around; i’d have put it away myself, but i don’t know where the vast majority of the shit goes, and i don’t want to fuck up the already tenuous inventory log situation that C constantly grouses about. i’m resultantly unable to get counts for anything we already have, so for the time being i focus on what i am able to easily access to get done, which is mostly plating desserts.

after a couple hours, a temp (E) comes in to help. there is a language barrier and she has never worked pantry before, only line, so i have to train her (through translation apps and my own rudimentary kitchen spanish) while also trying to figure out what the hell i’m doing myself. chef doesn’t get around to teaching me how to make two of the items we need until about half an hour before service starts, meaning i once again did not get a break and had to rush through making them myself, while i also try to get E set up with making sure everything she could put together was ready for service.

as you can probably imagine, this doesn’t go particularly well! E does great with the actual prep stuff, with dressing the cold cured meat dish and this that and the other, but as soon as we get to service it becomes an absolute shitshow. apparently nobody taught E on line that you need to send dishes out in the order the tickets come in, so we’re 15 tickets deep with more printing, and she’s ignoring things i specifically showed her how to make while we were slow to, instead, pull from the end of the queue to make salads that i keep having to drop what i’m doing to coach her on how to make correctly when they have a special request applied.

ultimately this results in me getting scolded by the GM/service lead to send tickets out in order, to which i just respond that “i’m trying,” and M comes to my defense when i can’t hear it to point out that i really wasn’t set up for success today, and folks kind of back off. thankfully we only end up with one extra dish (to my knowledge? something was said about extra carrot cakes but they were never brought back) and it’s just like. a half salad that E didn’t prep right so we couldn’t send it out.

insult to injury is that there were actually others present who had worked pantry before. one of the expo cooks (D) actually comes back to help J1 all the time, but because of S being absent he had to focus on expo—and he ended up leaving before dinner service without raising a finger or even pausing to ask to make sure i was going to be okay with just me and the temp. D’s got a problem habit of leaving without doing everything that needs done, anyway, which ended up resulting in J2 getting forced into overtime to pick up his and J1’s slack on that front, which is why he wasn’t there for this shift. probably ultimately for the better but i really would have appreciated the extra pair of hands.

due to the string of buffoonery that resulted in us missing no less than 3 kitchen staff and damn near everyone who knew how to do anything of substance on pantry, i wasn’t really given an opportunity to call for help. thankfully M had my back and nobody seems to have any hard feelings now that it was made clear to them that i wasn’t given room to do anything but struggle, and the GM and service staff took it pretty well when i apologized for how much of a shitshow pantry became, but i really should not have been left drowning like that in the first place.

Posted by admin Rodney.

[goodwriterwithbadhabits]

Seventeen As Hotel Jobs

Hello, I'm back after a ridiculously long time.

The following are jobs I think Seventeen would have if they worked at a hotel. Keep in mind that I literally work in a hotel, so I promise I know what I'm talking about. Additionally, there are no specific brands in mind, but I do use a few terms associated with Marriotts. (Cause that's who I work for.)

Anyway, enjoy! (Oh, here's the Master List)

~~

Back Office/ Breakfast

Seungcheol: GM/ Owner

Comes from a very well off family, but had always been encouraged to work. 

Found this hotel that was run down and in desperate need of repairs and bought it as a project

Now he’s got a Masters in Business Administration, and in Hospitality. 

The hotel is his baby, and he’s poured thousands of his own dollars into turning it into a place people want to stay. 

As GM, he spends a lot of time in his office working on the administration side of things,

Like payroll, budgets, and renovation projects

He’s constantly thinking of ways to improve the hotel so they’re are always contractors in and out of the building

He always makes a point to come help the front desk if a guest is being testy. 

Most people don’t even realize he’s the owner until they threaten to call the owner on him

He likes watching their faces fall when he hands them a business card. 

He takes any slight against the hotel or staff as a slight against himself

He also doesn’t accept any guest that insults or is rude to his staff, and isn’t afraid to kick rude people out. 

He understands that people have bad days, and that sometimes things break, but he won’t just stand there and let his staff be punching bags. 

~~

Jeonghan: AGM

Most of the staff have no idea how Jeonghan got the position. 

He doesn’t seem like he’s ever worked in Housekeeping, or the Front Desk

There were rumors that he’d just slept his way to the top

Truth is, Jeonghan has always worked there. 

It was his first job back in highschool, as a parttime housekeeper on the weekends. 

When everything was going to shit, he refused to leave

Instead just stepped in where needed. 

Hes worked front desk, sales, housekeeping, even engineering

He knows the hotel inside and out and can do just about everything.

It was actually his dedication to the hotel that made Seungcheol want to buy it

He’s currently on his last year of a Masters in Hospitality

Mind you, he loves the fact that he doesn’t have to do much manual labor

As AGM he mostly does the supply ordering, hiring, scheduling, and assisting with guests when Seungcheol is busy. 

He also tends to be the one to run meetings, as Cheol is surprisingly awful at actually bossing people around. 

Despite his teasing nature, he adores his staff, and hand picked them himself

Will verbally destroy anyone who so much as looks at his staff wrong

~~

Mingyu: Director of Sales

Mingyu hadn’t really anticipated getting into sales, let alone hotel sales. 

But here he is. 

Coming from money means that his parents expected him to study business

He picked Sales and Marketing cause he thought it would be an easy A

Then he fell in love with it, and was crazy good. 

He loves making people happy, and selling them part of their vacation is awesome to him

He loves seeing clients with looks of wonder in their eyes or big smiles as they leave. 

Every time someone posts a good review or emails him to thank him, he prints it out and puts it on his office wall. 

He came to Scoups hotel after getting sick of sports teams at his old hotel. 

They were super mean, and he wasn’t getting paid enough to sell a sub par hotel to a bunch of dickweeds. 

Now he gets to chat with super chill people, and he loves the hotel. 

The hotel really sells itself, but he’s in charge of daily rates, groups, anyone renting the meeting rooms, or people just looking to do a walk through.

He could probably sell a fox its own fur, but trips over his own shoes

The rest of the staff tease him relentlessly, but also loves that he’ll cook for any staff meeting or party. 

~~

Chan: Breakfast Attendant

Honestly, Chan needed a job, and he was going to off himself if he had to stay at the restaurant he was at. 

He’d bumped into Cheol, Jeonghan, and Mingyu while the three were out to lunch and discussing their recently departed breakfast attendant. 

He’d given them great service, despite the manager that was constantly belittling him

And let slip that he was interested in leaving his current server job. 

So Jeonghan had left him a business card, along with a hefty tip.

Chan’s taken it upon himself to upgrade the hell out of the breakfast menu

He’s the reason they offer Kosher, and Vegan options.

He’s currently researching other religious diets, so he can make sure everyone can eat. 

Usually he only works 5a to about 10 or 11a, depending on the day

But once a week, the day they get their truck, he stays later and deep cleans the kitchen

Don’t even think about going in there without his permission

He’s known for delivering scathing threats with a sweetest of smiles

Speaking of sweet smiles

He’s great with guests, often letting the desk know if a certain guest had a problem with their stay

He’s even managed to get Jeonghan and Cheol to do table touch service on busier mornings so they can interact with guests more. 

On slow mornings, he’ll dance along with the music playing on the speakers, mostly to entertain small children

He always has a smile on his face and a few moments to chat with guests, even on busy mornings

The hotels reviews went up significantly when he was brought on board. 

Desk Staff: 

Seokmin: 1st shift, Market Champion

The Hotel’s happy virus. 

Which is important to have at 7 in the morning

Seokmin makes it his mission to get every guest to smile before they leave

He’s always liked customer service jobs but usually people are mean and managers just expect him to take the abuse with a smile

But he’s taken to the hotel like a fish to water. 

His work computer always has tabs open with the weather, local events, traffic conditions, and an extra for whatever someone might ask him for

He doesn’t drink coffee at work, but almost always remains super upbeat and energetic

Some of the other staff members think he does drugs

But he’s just a morning person (freak)

Always, and I mean always, has a smile on his face

Even if guests are being literal demons.

Keeps a treasure box of small toys for little kids at the desk

Always singing along to the lobby music when he’s not helping a guest. 

As Market champion he’s in charge of making sure the Market is stocked and orderly. 

Does all the Market ordering, and has a really good rapport with the delivery drivers and sales people

Love the moments when the lobby is quiet and he can just focus on stocking the market and organizing the storage room

Everyone else loves those moments cause he’s singing along to the lobby music

~~

Joshua: Second Shift, Desk Supervisor

Josh prefers working in the afternoon

You couldn’t pay him to wake up before 10a most days

He’s been in hotels since he graduated highschool

He’d even worked at the hotel briefly back when it was awful

Jeonghan had recommended bringing him back when Cheol was replacing the staff

Shua initially just wanted to check and see how everything was going

Was super impressed with Cheol’s work and decided to stay

He’s been at the hotel the longest besides Cheol and Jeonghan

As supervisor, he trains all the new desk staff, and covers for them if they call in 

His temper is pretty short, so he won’t let guests just yell at him for no reason

He’s also a stickler for the rules so expect him to be kicking people out of the pool at exactly 10pm

He does really enjoy his job

He gets to meet new people every day and hear their cool travel stories. 

And the staff are all friendly, especially to one another

Plus he’s getting paid really well with some really good perks. 

~~

Jun: Night Audit

In all honesty, he got the job cause he was desperate and wanted something with minimal responsibilities. 

He’s basically getting paid to watch dramas and occasionally help fold some towels

Yeah, he also had to check in late night guests and handle any complaints that arise

It’s also his responsibility to make sure no one who isn’t supposed to be on the property is there. 

But for the most part, its quiet

So he spends all night catching up on Dramas, reading, or playing games

He’s got a total of about 30 minutes worth of actual work to do, since the Audit process is mostly automated

He does live on coffee and energy drinks

Solely because he’s determined to stay awake all night

No one knows anything about him cause he’s rarely ever seen during the day

Most people just assume he’s a vampire or something

He does snag breakfast every morning before he leaves though

Engineering Team:

Jihoon: Chief Engineer

Despite his stature and his age, Jihoon is a veritable genius in terms of Hotel Engineering

He can fix just about everything in the building, from PTACs to door locks, toilets to tiles

His dad was the engineer at another hotel so he got dragged around them alot

Mostly just bounced between local hotels after highschool

Jeonghan hired him after schmoozing with a few other GMs he had worked for and found out how good he was

Now Seungcheol is helping pay for him to get a degree in electrical engineering

Incredibly kind and helpful to any guest he may run into

But prefers to leave the guest interaction to the rest of staff 

He just doesn’t have the personality not the patience for stupidity

He isn’t afraid to climb up the 20 foot ladder to fix lights on the lobby ceiling

He is however, terrified of walking into a guest room and finding a guest. 

Will check 20 times with the desk to make sure the room is empty

He’s walked into too many rooms with naked people

If you can’t find him, check the roof

He has an ongoing feud with the solar panels 

~~

Wonwoo: Information Technologies

Computer whiz Wonu has arrived

If its on a computer, he can fix it

Most of the staff are convinced Jeonghan recruited him out of federal prison

He doesn’t care enough to correct them

Also its kind of embarrassing to admit that he had no friends and taught himself everything there is to know about computers because he had too much time to do so

He was just a child prodigy and graduated college super young

Jeonghan literally got him off of Indeed

Is never seen without a coffee or energy drink

He used to drink so many that Cheol and Woozi had to limit him to two drinks, and a max of 8 shots of espresso a day.

Tends not to interact with guests

Partly because he always looks ready to kill a man and Cheol doesn’t want to hear people complain about that

Partly because he’s super shy 

He’s another person the rest of the staff know nothing about cause they never see him outside of work

Seungkwan swears he saw him at an internet cafe once

But Wonu refuses to acknowledge that

~~

Vernon: Second Shift Engineer

As a college student, Nonnie can’t work a regular 9 to 5. 

So he works 9p to 5a instead

Jeonghan hired him at Cheol’s request

He wanted someone on property during the late nights, when problems tend to arise. 

Usually all he has to do is fix PTACs, the occasional door lock, and help people get connected to the internet. 

Mostly just hangs out with Jun or in the Engineering office watching sitcoms

Cheol hates it, but Vernon’s unofficial uniform involves a tie dye hoodie and a pair of headphones

He also usually has a coffee, but that's more because he’s an eternally tired college student

His degree is actually in Mechanical Engineering,

Which tends to shock everyone when they remember

Cause he’s a bit of a space case. 

Housekeeping: 

Soonyoung: Housekeeping Manager

If we are being honest, He’s only the manager cause he’s been here the longest

He mostly just handles the housekeepers boards, inventory control and day end inspections

He’s also incredible at removing stains from carpets and couches

He’s worked as a housekeeper for about a year straight out of highschool, but let for greener pastures

He’s been in housekeeping for years, and even worked as an Ops manager at one point

Jeonghan tracked him down at the hotel he was at and convinced him to join the crew as manager. 

When he gets serious, he’s a force to be reckoned with

But usually he’s a full on goofball

Cheol keeps having to shoot down his idea of tiger themed rooms.

He’s another person who always has a big smile

Probably because he just tunes out the people yelling at him 

~~

Minghao: Housekeeping Supervisor

The man who really runs the housekeeping department

He keeps everyone in line, maintains the storage closets, lets Jeonghan know what they need to order, and trains new housekeepers

He was working at a totally different hotel when he met Jeonghan

Jeonghan was supposed to be on vacation, and staying at Minghao’s hotel. 

The two happened to meet in the hall after Jeonghan overheard Minghao’s supervisor yelling at him for no reason

He offered Minghao a position then and there, which Minghao accepted. 

Hao literally packed up everything and moved to their town. 

Lived in the hotel for a while and everything

He didn’t want to be manager, specifically because he doesn’t want to have to attend the management meetings every week. 

He can clean a room spotless in 30 minutes, and is very proud of this fact. 

Don’t call his Housekeepers “maids” or “Cleaners”

He will not hesitate to correct at a guest about it

The amount of times Hoshi has had to physically restrain him in the laundry room so that he didn’t attack a guest is innumerable. 

~~

Seungkwan: Second Shift Housekeeper

Seungkwan only works this shift because he’s still in school, and because Cheol thought it made sense to have someone on property around check in time. 

He’d gone to the colleges job board and found Jeonghan’s flier

He figured they wouldn’t be able to work around his class schedule

Jeonghan, however, thought he was adorable and decided he needed him on the staff

Cheol agreed that a second shift of housekeeping made sense, 

Partly because Jeonghan wasn’t really giving him a choice

Thus, Seungkwan was hired 4pm to midnight 

He only sometimes has to clean rooms, 

Mostly he just runs people things like towels or fresh sheets

And keeps the common areas clean. 

If you can’t see him, you can almost always hear him,

His voice is always ringing through the halls to the point where Mingyu has debated advertising it. 

On the chance that Housekeeping does have to stay later, he basically spends the whole time taking shit with Minghao until he leaves for the day.

He always brings extra food for Vernon and Jun, cause he knows they don’t feed themselves properly. 

Were it not for him, those two would live on granola bars and take out. 

Thoughts? Let me know in the comments. If you're interested in requesting something, whether for this universe or another, feel free to send me an ask. My inbox is always open.