#i DMed and it was fun

[smilesrobotlover]

If I had a nickel for everytime I named a Zelda oc a name that already exists for another Zelda character I’d have 2 nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice

[tunastime]

Stars Realigning

what's GOOD! happy mcyt au fest day(s)! this is my contribution to 2024's mcyt au fest, based on the art of my fantastic artist in crime @eyesandbees. super shoutout to tetris (GO LOOK AT THE ART RN), this au really did something fantastic for my brain :3 and kudos to all the @mcytblraufest mods, contributors, and my mutuals new and old who joined in. mwah!

Xisuma and Exonia were explorers by nature��and how could they not be, when the world rested right outside their fingertips. When Xisuma pulls himself and their brother into an unfamiliar End dimension, their only chance of escape is with a player they've hardly met, to a space station they've never even heard of. Built on the foundations of exploration and discovery, HC might be all the opportunity the siblings need to start a new life—or ruin their only shots at understanding themselves.

(12,765 words) (Read the whole fic here!)

Every player knows two facts about the End: one of those is that it is very large. The other is that it is very dangerous. The islands stretch onwards as far as they eye can see, tipping over a black horizon line invisible to the naked eye. The static particles of void—ink black and speckled grey—fill the spaces that stone and cities and blocky fruit trees do not. No players make their home here—none dare to spend more time than they must. The End is a utility, more than it is a dimension of its own. Hostile conditions make it unlivable to those other than the ones that know it best: endernians, endermen, the dragon, and her egg. 

The third, most often overlooked fact, that meshes with the others in vastness and hostility, is that the End is no place for strangers to combat. 

Xisuma is one of those strangers—was one of those strangers. World hopping was dangerous, unpredictable, dimension hopping even more so, especially for them—for the untrained. He hadn’t meant for either of them to tumble into the End dimension, prepared or otherwise, with its thin air and itchy end dust and large, very large, very angry dragon. It's the first thing his eyes catch—the movement of large wings and a massive, black snout as the world tilts and settles around them. 

Xisuma gasps as they finish settling into the world and Exonia follows suit, shoving them both behind the pillar beside them. The air feels charged with energy, thick with the beat of air from the dragon’s wings. Xisuma swallows as the two of them drop behind the pillar, and as they manage to catch their breath from the initial shock, he stirs up the courage in his chest to peek out behind the pillar. He steps out into the ring around him, eyes searching for the dragon above him. He can hear her cry even from on the ground. The crystals that bolster her strength glow brightly as she passes. It only takes a moment for her to swoop down as she circles, and it’s in this moment that Xisuma realizes he’s been seen. 

They freeze.

The dragon crashes to the ground, the heavy footfalls of her landing shaking the dirt around them. 

Xisuma stares into the creature’s face, purple eyes unblinking.

Something grabs his hand. It takes him a startlingly long moment to realize it’s Exonia, their eyes wide behind their tinted glasses. He’s still too busy staring up into the maw of the black dragon, her eyes trained on his every movement, the betraying flick of their tail. His heart beats fast in the base of their throat. A voice jumps to life in his mind—surely if he stays put, if he doesn’t move, the great dragon will turn her head away from him, and spare him, and spare his twin, and the world will be right again. Xisuma shuts their eyes. The beat between his first and second breath feels like a millenia.

The dragon snuffs a great breath that catches into a screech, its heavy head whipping back and around as Ex tugs on his arm. His eyes snap open. 

He’s not dead.

The dragon roars.

If he squints, Xisuma thinks he can see a shape, blurred by the scent and fog of the dragon’s breath, barely visible against the dark black obsidian pillars. It draws back its glittering weapon and fires, arrows flying high above the dragon’s head and to the peak of the pillars above. The peak explodes; obsidian chips and dust rain down from the blast.

He jerks his head to look at Ex. Their face is pulled tight in confusion and fear, a mask of anger flickering over it instead as they tug his hand again. He stumbles forward, feet catching pocks in the stone before he regains his footing. The dragon’s focus stays trained on the newcomer. She slashes with her claws, jaws chomping on thin air as the figure darts around with the effort of someone trained to deal with monsters her size.

An adventurer. Another player.

He turns back to look at Exonia—the back of their head, the tip of a pointed ear they can see. They’re practically pulling him along into further darkness toward something he can’t yet see, weaving between obsidian pillars as the island stretches out in front of them, all the way to a noticeable drop into void. As they cut through a section of chorus trees, a craft makes itself known on the next ridge.

A way out.

Xisuma pales, the oxygen in his lungs suddenly feeling very thin.

“What is that thing?” he manages as they start to slow. Ex shoots him a look over their shoulder, eyebrows tightly furrowed.

“A ship!” they say. “Don’t be foolish!”

“We don’t even—” X starts, but Exonia pulls them further forward. They dip their head, avoiding the endermen that roam around them, sinking in on themselves to appear smaller. They scramble up the next hill. In the short distance they’ve put between the dragon and themselves, they can still hear the screech of her anger and the beat of her wings. X’s heart still slams away in his throat.

“D’you want to be eaten, you derp?” Ex hisses, dropping into a crouch as they shimmy over the crest of the hill. X scrambles after them, finding their footing on the steep slope and up onto the ridge.

“No!” They blanch at the thought of the dragon finding them again, with her huge, yellow-white teeth and debilitating breath. “Why would I want that?”

Ex shoots them a pointed glance, taking a few quick steps around the edge of the “ship”—if it was a ship at all—as they do.

“Then start lookin’ for a way in!” they bark. Xisuma sets his jaw. Sighing through his nose, he picks himself up from his crouch, and follows suit. The ship is bright white and grey-black, hidden carefully by the dark sky around them and by shimmering enchantments that Xisuma can only guess at as he travels around its side and toward the back. It’s not a large craft—certainly different than anything he’d ever seen. 

Ex investigates with the unshakable confidence of someone who’s read far too much about this exact situation, or craft, or biome, or what have you. Xisuma tries to siphon that energy for himself, watching as they track the side of the metal with eyes partially obscured. They reach the back together, the ship’s large bay door shut against the End and void around them. X watches Ex’s face, their tail flicking agitatedly. Their hands find a depression near the fins of the ship. As they press into it, the door hisses, starts to lower onto the dusty stone below. Exonia scrambles back, catching Xisuma as they do, their hands clasping together again. Xisuma watches as the dark inside floods with the End’s pale glow, illuminating the sparse space within. 

It’s a holding bay—a handful of boxes are scattered around, their heavy plastic lids strapped tight. Bolted storage units line one wall, and a short staircase leads upward, into the space Xisuma can only assume is the main cabin of whoever that figure was.

Xisuma blinks. 

Exonia enters.

Enters is a loose term, because as his foot steps onto the metal-ribbed platform, Xisuma feels something crawl it’s way up his spine and turns, much too fast, Ex’s name already jumping from his throat.

There’s a crackle, like the sound of fireworks in the distance, as the sky fills with soft purple light. Xisuma alone watches the figure turn, a large, dark object cradled in their arms, and feels them stare back. Distance and the helm obscuring most of their face doesn’t do their features justice—it looks like a man, a human, staring back at him, eyes wide and bright, expression unreadable from here. All Xisuma knows is that the chill starts at the base of his neck and pulls through him, catching his lungs and heart and spine all the way down, hooking him in place. 

“Xisuma—” Exonia starts, tone bordering on impatient, but as they turn, they see exactly what they did. And they say again, their voice taking a fine, fearful edge:

“Xisuma.”

The figure starts toward them, and X can feel the immediate betrayal of all his senses, all at once, as his hackles raise, body recoiling until his feet hit the cold metal of the ship behind him. Exonia grabs his arm as he stumbles from the platform, tugging him away from the ship as the figure starts to close the distance between them. The man is carrying the dragon egg, much too large for his arms as he calls out to them.

“Hey! Wait! Wait!” The man calls. Xisuma stutters as he tries to scramble away, skittering to a stop at the man’s plea. As he turns to look over his shoulder, against all better judgment, he realizes the man has crouched by the entry door, egg still in his arms. The beat between the man stopping, dropping to a crouch to make himself small, and his next words is a rift Xisuma considers just jumping into. He wills a small, shaky breath into his lungs. The man sets the egg at his feet, hands spread.

“Are you okay?” he asks, breath evening as he stills for a moment. “I didn’t mean to scare you away. The dragon looked pretty dangerous!”

Xisuma blinks, breathing hard. Exonia manages to summon the courage he can’t seem to even taste, voice coming small from beside him.

“Who are you?” they muster. The man dips his head.

“I’m sorry for scaring you,” he says slowly. “I’m Keralis. Are you two from here?” 

Xisuma shakes his head. The man, Keralis, nods.

“Are you lost? Do you need help going home?” 

Xisuma offers a nod this time.

“Do you… know where home is?”

There’s a beat. The silence stretches on in the absence of anyone’s voice or actions, until Ex finally says:

“Not anymore. ‘S too far.”

Keralis doesn’t say anything for a moment. He stares instead down at the egg in his arms, the only expression on his face evident by his eyes through his visor. Xisuma watches him, trying to read that expression and coming up blank. It doesn’t look malicious, though. He’s begun to settle from the razor’s edge of nervousness and back down into a sense of normalcy. 

“I don’t want to leave you here. I…” Keralis hums. “I can take you back with me. And then maybe there will be someone who can help you get home, how about that?”

“Where’re you from?” Exonia asks. Keralis smiles—Xisuma can tell by the squint of his eyes.

“I’m from a ship. A spaceship in the sky.”

[dare-to-dm]

sometimes i feel like the people who are constantly yelling at people to play ttrpgs that aren't d&d are like the vegans of the ttrpg world. it feels like they're on a soapbox sermonizing at me. i am interested in other systems, but it definitely puts a damper on actively looking for people to play with, cause that's really the only type of person i've personally encountered; even in regards to pathfinder.

i don't wanna play with people who feel like they're gonna breath down my neck every time i so much as mention the system i love! yeah, we get it. wotc sucks. they suck. the game is still great. yes it has weaknesses. that's literally fine because nothing is perfect! other ttrpgs aren't perfect either!

anyway sorry for ranting a little in your inbox. i hope you're having a lovely day.

I agree! Although I will say, with both vegans and indie gamers, most I've encountered in real life are far more charming and reasonable then their online counterparts.

I've had many a delicious meal prepared for me by vegans, and it's definitely opened my mind and made me more inclined to intentionally reduce the amount of meat I eat.

Similarly, I've had some very lovely people offer to run other TTRPGs for me, and even though I didn't click with all of them, I enjoyed the experience and would be open to more new gaming experiences. Those are the kind of people that make good ambassadors for their hobby/lifestyle.

[hawkfuller]

interview with the vampire (2022) deserves better promotion

another corn on the plate situation: amc's marketing strategy, if it even exists, sucks.

we've known this since season 1. personally, i was lucky enough to get on-board with the series early enough back while it was airing in 2022 because my algorithm knows me, knows i like (queer) dramatic pieces of media that will fuck me up emotionally for the rest of my life because i got too attached to the unstable character(s). i then convinced my equally insane friend to watch it with me (didn't take much convincing, honestly) and we've been hooked ever since, annoying people enough to tune in too.

and i know i'm not the only one. most of this show's marketing relies on its passionate fanbase, which amc is lucky to have, but mouth-to-ear promotion becomes frustrating when it seems to be the primary, and almost only, marketing tool (i say “almost” here because outlets like tvtime – thank you – have been doing the most to feed us interviews).

as of now, we've mostly gotten 2-pixel quality interviews over zoom. while i appreciate watching them because it's “better than nothing” and i love getting more content of them, whose interest does it pique other than people already invested in the fandom? we need more mainstream media news outlets to interview the cast – amc headquarters should consider themselves lucky to have cast members who love each other so much, why not use that to their advantage? give them a buzzfeed puppy interview! a gq agree to disagree interview! jacob anderson is your main actor, get him an elle song association interview! ladbible's food battle – uk vs australia vs america? get them to guess parisian vs new orleans slang? best friends test?

what will it take for amc to invest in a show that clearly deserves its already-received praise to gain a wider audience?

not only such exposure would gather more fans, but it would attract award critics attention – which the crew & cast deserve in masses. and if they wanna talk money, well, they should know the show's potential would bring a lot more capital. (it's already keeping them afloat...)

marketing investment goes a long way.

[frogndtoad]

,

[ciderjacks]

Sharelle and Abbey as “Two Women” by William Andrew Loomis

[stinkrascal]

i stayed up til 4am making pinterest boards for my ocs and i get why you guys do this now its pretty fun. anyways check out page if u want here !

[okthatsgreat]

OC-TOBER DAY 13: doomed to die too pretty to be killed

[qtubbo]

Btw if your righteous anger gets tons of people harassed, and a teenager blackmailed with doxxing maybe it wasn’t so righteous. Hope you had fun just like you said you would.

[cheekydogs]

3. Favorite Plush

If you follow me, or have seen my posts before tangentially, the answer to this prompt is probably no surprise—Sunny, my webkinz signature chow chow! My partner got him for me as a gift, and something about him made him so special to me. This was only increased after I got in an accident last summer, and now he’s my best little guy ever! I can’t imagine living life without him :)

[mydollsaregay]

As part of a project I recently started working on, I needed some images to decorate a webpage for truly me dolls. I immediately thought of this classic ad!

(image snagged from a post by @desertdollranch​, who nagged it from an ebay seller)

The line “She’s just like you. You’re a part of history, too!” has always been really fun to me, as it brings to light my favorite way of looking at modern AG dolls - the historical characters show kids that they were an important part of history, and through modern ag dolls, kids also are reminded that they are an important part of the history being made every day!

However, there’s no really great images of this spread that I could use. (And even if they were great, since this was only in print, I’d be bumping up against the copyright of person who took the photo of the catalog, as well as that of AG. That’s fine for a tumblr post, but not for the project I’m working on!)

So... I made my own version of the banner, and I figured I’d share it!

It was a bit tricky trying to figure out the fonts, but I got there! There’s a version with a white background as well as a transparent one (though there’s a bit of a “halo” around the black lettering, as a result of the hoops i had to jump through to use that font lol). Feel free to use it yourself, no credit required :)

[girlboysupreme]

interesting that Astarion mentions all of Strahd's abilities when he talks about what he can do as an Ascended Vampire!! maybe I'm reading into it, but turning to mist, calling wolves, spider climb, I can remember reading exactly in the source book when I played Strahd as a DM

dnd as fuck

[spirking-and-sparkling]

it's so hard being out here liking all genders and using the lable bi

[royalreef]

(( Good to know I'm as good at keeping tension in DMing as I am in keeping tension in writing.

[copper-dragon-in-disguise]

What's this, a new d&d character?

hi. I have a DND character. his name is Oliver (oli). I may or may not be projecting onto him, a lot, but that is not the problem today. I made a character playlist for him and I want to talk about how it pertains to his (planned?) character arc. Ergo, this

The important thing to begin with is the basic gist of his backstory. Oli is a satyr paladin, oath of the ancients. Early to mid twenties or so. Gay (and ace), which is relevant, because he has a Tragic Backstory!!!!

Basically, he grew up in and out of the feywild, either there or in this one elven town that just so happens to have a portal to faerie very close by (and also might have been the childhood home of the other character in the campaign, quinn, who belongs to @ineffeblygay (hi mars. hope you don't mind the tag!! feel free to ignore this if you want /not sarcastic /not passive agressive), but neither of them remember that all too well (see their Tragic Backstory™))

He, as many gays are wont to do, had a boyfriend!!! I have not figured out said partner's name yet but that is okay. However, there was An Accident, that Oli thinks he would have been able to prevent if he had been there, and his partner died. Oli blames himself for it. He made his oath because of them, and so he holds to it, both because he believes in it, and because he feels like it's the least he can do. (Notably, for semi-related reasons, he avoids using the magic that comes with the oath if at all possible (I'm thinking it's cause he tried to help them with it, and he failed, and he thinks that it's cause he did something wrong and it was his fault (hi. remember what I said about projecting--)

song #1

she's in love with the boy by trisha yearwood

This is about the childhood romance type thing. It's like the, oh, hey, they're in love, and it's sweet, and they're going to spend the rest of their lives together, and no one can stop that-- until, hey, whoops, dead (hence song #2)

song #2

if i should fall behind by bruce springsteen, specifically the live in dublin version

this is the part that functions as the section about his partner's death. ''if I should fall behind / wait for me'' Ahhhhhhh. so, in this case falling behind is them dying. which. oh hey that's fun, metaphors!!

it's them promising the wait for each other, to remember each other, and it's also about Oliver refusing to move on

song #3

ophelia by the lumineers

listen. ophelia dies, thats gotta be something. is their partner the ophelia in this situation? honestly, hell if I know. maybe? probably, even, but possibly not. cause the thing with ophelia is, she either killed herself or it was an accident, twist of fate. and that's what his partner's death was, and like ophelia, no one can know for certain.

song #4

all that heaven will allow by bruce spingsteen

the thing with this song is, I first heard it when my dad was trying to prove to me that bruce springsteen does have at least a couple happy songs. my immediate response was that the narrator was dead, this definitely isn't a happy song. (On an unrealted note, my dad thinks he was trying to get into heaven, and I think he was trying to get out. I have many opinions on this song) I stand by that opinion.

This is the part from what would be, if it was a book, Oliver's partner's pov. he wants more time, he wishes he could have had more time, and he's coming to terms with that, that he's dead. which in theory would take place while his soul is traveling from the material plane to the shadowfell

Song #5

achellies come down by gang of youths

this is the bit where Oliver's depression gets REAL bad, he tries to kill himself, but he doesn't do it, which is uh. both kinda important because I need him to be alive for the campaign and also, you remember what I said about the projection bit? yeah that. but the thing is, he doesn't admit it to himself (again, projection). the year and a half to two years after his partner died were the worst years of his life, and then one day he woke up and just. shoved all his emotions in a closet and ignored them (which is extremely not healthy)

and he stays like that for a year to a year and a half, and sometime in that time period is where the campaign picks up with him.

song #6

welcome to the black parade by my chemical romance

this one doesn't fit as obviously as the other ones do, but "though you're dead and gone believe me / your memory will carry on" cause one day he just decides to pretend that he's perfectly okay (he's not) and isn't traumatized at all (he is) and he is perfectly capable of being a functional human being person

cause carrying on. he has to pretend he's okay because if he's not what the hells does he do then?

song #7

i'm not okay (i promise) by my chemical romance

hey look, he's admitting it now. he's beginning to heal!!!! (tbh this probably comes after a pivotal and highly emotional time in the campaign, probably after one of them comes super close to death and they're above like, level 5, idk, I haven't worked out all the details yet (gods I love being dm))

song #8

take me home, country roads by john denver

to be honest, there's something missing between song #7 and #8, but I don't know quite what it is. but, at the very end of the campaign, he's gonna go home. he's going to go back to where he came from for the first time in three or four years and he's going to see his family and his friends because he's finally at a point in his life where he feels like he can face them without blaming himself.

so, that was it!!!! if you have questions please ask me I love talking about oli--

[intertexts]

also this is entirely unrelated but i really do wanna see everyone else gm.... i looove seeing folks rotate gming for different games its so fun i love hearing other people's styles.. :]]]