#i have a lot of regrets about it but it was my first real campaign and im proud of it at the same time

[owlsarereallyfuckinggreat]

The excitement of writing the finale of a multi-year campaign vs not wanting it to end because that's your emotional support story

[utilitycaster]

I think of this tweet when I think of the Mighty Nein:

If you are not familiar with Everything Everywhere All At Once, it's...quite a lot to describe, but in the real world, these two people are married, with a modest and at times frustrating life, and Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh) in particular feels she's something of a failure, and is often frustrated with her optimistic husband, Waymond (Ke Huy Quan). The movie explores alternate universes, and these images are from one in which they never married and emigrated to the United States and opened up a laundromat, but instead, she became a martial arts action movie star, and he became a wealthy businessman. They reconnect at her film premier and discuss their regrets, but when she turns him down again, he tells her "So, even though you have broken my heart yet again, I wanted to say, in another life, I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you."

In other words, that tweet misses the point to an extent that is almost difficult to believe...and so to I feel does the belief that the Mighty Nein should have become more famous, or that their story now isn't a happy one.

The Mighty Nein are unique among the parties in that they are all, relatively speaking, young, and profoundly mortal. There's no Keyleth, or Laudna, or Fearne, or FCG here. Of the PCs, Caduceus is the only one who will see past 200, and he's by design steeped in the concept of mortality. They get this life and that's it.

So yes, Beau is having some bumps in the road adjusting to her first real job. Veth is anxious about starting a new business venture, and much of her late campaign arc was about her worries about the drastic changes she'd led her family into. Fjord and Jester don't know how to react to having a home of their own, even a tiny one. Caleb is dealing with the achingly slow bureaucracies of academia. And Fjord, Jester, and Caleb (and, offscreen, Essek) are all tentatively navigating their first or one of their first romantic relationships as an adult. And it's rocky, and weird, and full of banalities and nosy neighbors and smart-mouthed crew members and irritated tenured professors and demanding librarians.

And laundry, and taxes.

It's real in a way the glittery fame isn't, and despite it all, they're happier for it.

[dokidokitsuna]

So I was on Twitter a lot during the recent Big Run, and I saw a lot of talk about the 'Save Our Salmons' image and whether that + the giant massacre we just carried out might lead to some kind of consequence down the line. ^^; Like, it feels like the Salmonids kinda want us to stop...and we are clearly not listening...

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it-- Grizzco is obviously an unethical institution in-universe. As in, even if Mr. Grizz/Li'l Judd wasn't a shady bastard and the company was safe and well-run, the thing that it exists to do-- steal resources from sentient beings-- would still be wrong. To the point where it kinda made me uncomfortable to hear Deep Cut collabing with Grizzco's lobby music...like...although the remix is a banger, this feels like a step too far. ^^;; First the Anarchy Splatcast shilling and now this...when Grizzco as a company is inevitably turned into a direct antagonist, is Deep Cut going to regret being so involved with it? Are any of the idols gonna discuss this...? I feel like the type of harm that Grizzco does isn't the kind you can just brush aside with camp-- we're either gonna have to employ some dark humor or just go the sincere route and admit that the cute mascots did a bad...

Anyway, speaking of antagonists: I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone express this idea yet, but I think we're pretty clearly gearing up for a Salmonid villain at this rate. ^^; The Octarians are already getting stale (+ Octavio's basically our friend now~), and the Salmonids are the only established 'evil army'-type force left. I'm calling it now, eventually some Salmonid warlord is gonna decide enough is enough and invade, to take back all the golden eggs that were stolen from them.

And if you think I have brain-worms about Mr. Grizz, you won't wanna be around me when we get an edgy Salmonid dude threatening to blow up the city with a giant Stinger or whatever. (◕ヮ◕)*:･ﾟ✧ Also, I would commit unspeakable acts for a single-player campaign soundtrack by ω-3: despite their relatively miniscule discography, they are far and away my favorite band in the series. Everything they do is always fresh and unique; I really REALLY want more songs in their style. ^^ If anyone can replace Turquoise October/Octoplush, they can.

But wait, there's more to this idea: if we do get a Salmonid villain, they won't be the final boss. ;) I think they'll just oppose us for most of the campaign, before we finally reach an understanding and Li'l Judd, Grizzco's new CEO, emerges as the true big bad, so we can team up and take him down...kinda similar in structure to RotM. And y'know, if that rumor I heard a while back about a Splatoon series spinoff game turns out to be real, I hope ^this is it. Close out the original formula and the story arc of the first three games with a nice sendoff like this, and then emerge with something totally new and different for Splatoon 4.

[prikarin]

Regarding Killer Trait Updates

Hello, everyone!

It's been a good minute since my last Killer Trait update, hasn't it?

A lot of people have been asking me about Killer Trait updates and when the full-game will be released so, after a lot of thought, I decided to make this post.

Here's the thing: my Patreon hasn't been doing well. It hasn't been doing well for several months now. While the decline started after Where Winter Crows Go's release in November of last year, it's gotten progressively worse from February 2024 onwards. And because of this I'm going to have to pause my billing for my current patrons from August onwards—at least until I have something new to post.

It'd be a lie if I said this didn't affect me, I'm only human after all, but I'm also well aware that Patreon is a tough thing to maintain in a way that's consistent and interesting.

Unfortunately, since I live in Argentina, my only real way to get funds for my games is through Patreon, donations on Ko-Fi and sales and donations on Itchio. While it definitely helps that I hire some people from Argentina for certain art related things (so I pay them in Argentine Pesos), most of the people I commission are from overseas, so it's always a must to be able to pay them in USD.

And that's the issue: since I don't have that much money anymore and I can't commission people as often... this inevitably delays my progress on both Killer Trait and Potion Pleasing (DEMO out now!) indefinitely. It's sucks for me too, but it's the reality: making games costs money.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Killer Trait will have re-designs for most of the characters (not counting Carl because his design was originally my own) since the ones in the DEMO were stock sprites I bought from an artist, not my own designs. And I want these characters to be 100% my own, which is why I decided to have them re-designed. I've talked about this in the past in more detail when I decided to have Crowe re-designed, you can find that post HERE.

Of course, for these new character sheets (with the exception of Oz's, which has already been finished) and the new sprites, I need game funds in order to commission the artist. Even after the sprites are done, there are a couple of backgrounds—the characters' rooms—that I'd like to have originally made (especially since the ones I bought from Minikle are very limiting and don't really fit with the characters' personalities). And this doesn't even account for CGs, which I'll probably have to postpone for a while because the sprites and the backgrounds are way more important.

Some might be thinking "What about Where Winter Crows Go?". While I was lucky that WWCG's first demo was so well received, I still spent a whole lot of money from my own pocket to make it. I bought a lot of assets and, when I got a few donations, I commissioned a few artists to help me. WWCG was NEVER a game made with only free resources.

Making the art book for WWCG was a way I found to get a little of that investment back, but I'm well aware that I'll never get all the money that I spent back. And that's okay! To this day, I don't regret having invested my money to make WWCG because it gave me a lot of experience, perspective and made me learn a lot.

Be that as it may, however, I can't realistically make the rest of my games free. As I mentioned before, game development is expensive in both money AND time. Without funds, it's a given that things are going to be delayed.

So... where does that leave things?

Well, after pondering on it for a while, I came to the conclusion that I'm not really ready for a crowdfunding campaign right now. Those are extremely hard and ALSO cost money to advertise well and make sure everything's in order. So... the temporary solution I arrived at is setting goals on Ko-Fi! 

How would this work? Basically, I would set a monetary goal of the amount of money needed for a certain asset in a certain game that needs to be made. For example: sprites & character sheets in Killer Trait. Once that goal is met, I'll commission the person in question so they can start working on it! After that, I'll set the next goal and so on 💪

I'm thinking of setting the first Ko-Fi goal once August starts. And from there... I'll see how it goes! If things don't go well, I'm also considering making Where Winter Crows Go paid for a while—don't worry, I would make an announcement first—because I honestly have no more ways of getting game funds for Killer Trait and Potion Pleasing and, as mentioned before, making games is really expensive (and I'm only one person).

Thank you so much for reading until the end and I hope you have an amazing day!

[egg-emperor]

I don't reflect on it much now but it's times like these where I get harsh reminders of how bad of a year 2022 was and realize how far I've come

Becoming the target of harassment and slander due to a combination of my Eggman creations and then being blamed for my abuse after learning the reasons behind it was really hard. I almost died months before that campaign even happened because I was in a terrible place anyway and some knew and still hurt me and made it worse. They made me regret surviving for a while. And if I expressed how hurt I was by it all, I was called manipulative

I lost so much in so many ways and had vile things said about me and my abuse and if it wasn't for the real friends and the lovely followers and anons who stuck by and supported me, I don't think I'd still be here. I was still acting out in terrible ways online for a while after because I was in an absolute awful place mentally due to irl and online struggles. There's a lot of deleted posts and DMs I regret but I genuinely wasn't thinking right for months, my mind was genuinely fucked

I developed some bad habits that I haven't fully recovered from and fluctuate between how bad they are but I'm glad it's one of the only things left to work on. The stress, anxiety, and depression of 2022 worsened my health issues a lot as last year I started experiencing increased fainting and other physical health issues. At that point I realized I needed a change for my safety and health. For a while I didn't even feel like I deserved to be helped so it was hard but I finally did it

Now I'm getting support with bills, going to doctor and hospital appointments to look into my disability for diagnosis and hopefully to be helped, I have a therapist I just started with. I'm personally not an SSRI meds kind of guy so I've been doing every other method to recover instead. I've also made a ton of progress mentally on my own with my mindset, it's far less of a negative and angry place than it was then. I manage how I deal with setbacks better, I don't feel like I'm back at square one when things get bad now

I spend far less time thinking about what happened or letting their negativity consume me. There's been a few times since where parts of it have come back up and it's been challenging at times but I can handle them more rationally and be the sensible level-headed one and assure that I don't go back to that place. It's okay for me to be hurt by it and realize what happened to me was wrong but I don't let it haunt me every moment anymore. It's no longer the first thing I think of when I wake and last when I go to sleep

And I've realized what really matters and what's really important to me. The passion and joyful expression of the things I love and all the great people that are still here that I have the delight of getting to know and talk to. There's still a lot of challenges coming up in the future but I'm happy that it has nothing to do with everything back then. I want to express myself and my passion and never feel the shame they wanted me to. I want to get better. I finally want to live. I have hope and believe better times are ahead

And I'm very grateful for everyone who is warm, kind and supportive of me along the way. I appreciate everyone who is accepting of me and make me feel like I finally belong somewhere. Thank you 💜

[tanoraqui]

☔ for the ask game? (idea you're not sure you'll write, if the emoji doesn't come through)

☔Is there a fic concept you have that you'd like to just explain and share because you're not sure you'll ever write it? If so, what is it?

I kind of dropped out of the MDZS fandom like a rock after finishing my novel-length longfic, and the fic I most regret leaving unwritten is a bullet-point au in which Jiang Fengmian just cannot find his friends' lost son, he gives up, so Wei Wuxian grows up entirely on the streets, scrounging his way to enough cultivation education to invent demonic cultivation (because that's still the kind of person he is), and JFM assuages his conscience a little by inviting a different random clever basically-an-urchin - Meng Yao - into Jiang Sect.

Highlights include:

Meng Yao: wow the obvious fault lines in this family make everyone so easy to manipulate- wait, am I being offered real affection and trust? That's...fine.

Meng Yao trying desperately to hide his background, but he goes to visit his mother when she's ill. Jiang Cheng follows him, because Meng Yao is his best (only) friend, and Jiang Yanli follows Jiang Cheng to make sure he doesn't get in trouble, and then (JYL steps on JC's foot to stop him from saying the first thing that comes to mind) they both react with compassion and sympathy rather than scorn to Meng Shi and her profession. Meng Yao experiences several more Real Emotions.

Teen rogue cultivator Wei Wuxian just kinda. invites himself. to Lan Summer School, on the strength of Cangse Sanren's name. JFM is delighted when he hears, encourages JC to befriend him (Meng Yao: [jealous cat hisses]) and would have invited him home at the end of the summer...if WWX didn't get himself expelled halfway through for punching Jin Zixuan's smug face.

He also crashes Terrible Wen Summer Camp. Gets stuck in a cave with Lan Wangji, etc.

Wei Wuxian has kinda been a Batman-esque vigilante in Yiling (moody, dramatic, clad in black, fights ghosts and also bad guys). When the Wens move in, he shifts to being a more actively anti-authoritarian Batman-esque vigilante. Wen Qing is annoyed. Wen Ning is enamored.

The Wens attack Lotus Pier, because they were always going to attack Lotus Pier next. Jiang Cheng does get his golden core torn out. Wen Ning rescues him, because Wen Ning is always a hero even if Wei Wuxian isn't immediately present. Meng Yao decides it's time to do what he does best...so he promised Jiang Cheng that he'll be back, then goes to the Nightless City and says, "oh golly gee, I, second disciple of Jiang Sect, am so defeated and humbled by the mighty Wen! Can I please join, oh magnificent masters?"

Meanwhile, Wei Wuxian has rescued Lan Xichen (this is gonna get him so many bonus points with his sexy law-abiding nemesis LWJ) , and then gotten himself thrown into the Burial Mounds for snarking at Wen Chao...which is a lot like throwing Brer Rabbit into the briar patch

Sunshot Campaign! With no golden core, JC can't really rebuild Jiang Sect, but he gets reliable intel from a man on the inside and he humbles himself enough to ask Wei Wuxian for tutelage in talismans, and of course you'd literally need to tie him up to keep him from going out and kicking ass.

Wei Wuxian is peak Yiling Patriarch because it's the right thing to do. (LWJ: Come back to Gusu with me (so I can aggressive cleanse your spirit, then maybe dick you down so hard that neither of us can movie for a week))

AFTER THE WAR: Jin Guangshan dramatically recognizes war hero/Wen Ruohan-slayer Meng Yao as Jin Guangyao, his son and new sect member... and Meng Yao, having grown up with the absolute Ride Or Die nature of Jiang Sect, and with more intimate knowledge (via JYL's engagement and YZY's friendship with Madame Jin) of how much JGS sucks, says, "Thanks but no thanks, I will be staying with my sworn brother and sect leader Jiang Wanyin to rebuild Jiang Sect."

It's just about his ambitions, okay! He'll FUNCTIONALLY be Sect Leader; Jiang Cheng literally doesn't have a golden core! (Though he's still absolutely first-rate in swordwork and his talismans are fucking superb. The thing about Jiang Cheng is that he will rise to the occasion, always.) Also, that 'sworn brother' thing was not agreed upon in advance; Meng Yao totally publicly backed him into that corner - in which he didn't mind being. Jiang Cheng is pretty damn sure he's getting the better of this deal, and he's kinda right.

Between JC's prestigious name and insane levels of personal dedication, MY's people skills and equally insane (but slightly more calculated) levels of personal dedication, and JYL securing a very favorable loan from Madame Jin, they hella get Jiang Sect back on its feet.

Meanwhile, WWX has again refused to go with LWJ to learn "proper" cultivation or anything else...and JGS is seeking power, and abusing Wen prisoners of war...

Wen Qing comes to Lotus Pier, finds Meng Yao, and says, "Please help save my brother. We helped save yours. You owe us this much." Meng Yao, being Meng Yao, thinks, I do rather owe here, but this is politically delicate... Who can I foist this off on whom I don't mind seeing torn apart by every righteous sect... and forwards her to Wei Wuxian.

Who does his righteous Wei Wuxian thing

There's a big dramatic meeting of sect leaders & etc about this, in which JGS beats his war drums, etc. etc. Meng Yao feels slightly bad but not, like, that bad. Wei Wuxian tried to steal his brother when they were teenagers, and again while MY was away during the Sunshot Campaign, so he probably deserves to die.

Afterwards, JYL with her unerring Older Sister senses pulls MY (and JC) aside and hisses, "A-Yao, what did you do?"

Do they end up saving the day? Is Wei Wuxian just destined to doom himself with his particular combination of pride, self-neglect, and blithe refusal to play by everyone else's rules? I never actually decided!

[flabotanum]

Critical Role - Live Show - 25/10/2023

I wasn’t sure if I was going to make a post about this but here we are.

I still can’t really believe that I went to the CR live show.

(Somewhat personal) ramble under the cut:

I started watching Critical Role after the first season of the legend of vox machina came out.

I didn’t actually get that far into campaign one before tapping out, but then season 2 of tlovm was released and, after watching and loving it, I decided to give the campaign(s) another go.

This was earlier this year (around Jan/Feb - which is insane because it feels like CR has been a part of my life for so much longer than that), so it’s fair to say I’m a fairly new fan (at least in comparison to a lot of others).

But despite the daunting amount of content, I binged and managed to catch up (I watched all three campaigns as well as most of their other content in time to watch C3E64 live) and the show has become one of the greatest and most reliable sources of joy in my life (which I honestly did not expect but I am so thankful for).

I love this show. I love all three campaigns; all the different characters, the stories they’ve told, the journeys they’ve taken us on. I love this group of people, both on camera and off, who have done such an incredible thing with this show, that I truly did not understand the appeal of or effect of until I gave it a real chance.

Which brings me to the 25th of October. Just over a week before the date, I bought a resale ticket to the CR live show in wembley (for probably far too much money - but no regrets) on a bit of a whim.

It was in a location that worked for me, it was their first international live show, their first live show in so long, and it was at such an interesting and important time in the story for this whole main campaign universe. So everything was telling me to go for it despite never having done anything like this before (which is why I hadn’t even considered it when the tickets first came out).

And it was genuinely one of the best nights of my life. It still feels so surreal that I was there, and got to see them play live, and I got to feel the energy in that arena, because it was all absolutely incredible.

I don’t really know what the point of this post is; I just kinda wanted to get these thoughts and emotions out a little because I’m still thinking about it almost a week later. I am so grateful for this show, these people, these stories, these characters, everything. And I’m so glad I got to experience this at a point in my life when it really does mean so much to me.

[ruby-red-inky-blue]

I (almost) finished my first-ever campaign of DnD! Here's some things I noticed and lessons I've learned. Probably nothing revolutionary, but maybe someone might find it helpful!

Notes on the module:

we ran an adventure loosely based on Lost Mines of Phandelver, but I changed the backstory significantly to tie into one of my players' backstory and that became a large focus of the story, so I can't necessarily speak to the story of the module. I personally felt it was a little lacklustre, with a lot of plot points feeling very skin-deep or like a last minute add-on (*cough* Venomfang). But

the NPC names are very classic fantasy, but they didn't feel very organic to me - everyone at the table had huge trouble remembering most of them, except for Gundren, Agatha and Reidoth (again, grain of salt, neither me nor my players are native English speakers)

the locations are great, they're very evocative and fun! The dungeons were often way too big for us, I retconned almost half the final dungeon just to give us a hope in hell to finish it in three (very long) sessions. But if your party moves more quickly or you plan on running this campaign for a good bit, there's a lot to do.

since LMoP is (or was) advertised as the ideal intro to the game, I was a little surprised at how challenging I found it to run some of the combat. Especially the ones that contained a bazillion goblins or bugbears etc. to keep track of... but a friend with much more experience pointed out to me that LMoP is a great intro to the game for players. Which is an excellent point! I'm not saying it's necessarily super hard to run, either, I'm sure it's not! But for someone like me who struggles with visual orientation on a good day and yet decided to run combat in theatre of mind, it got pretty confusing a few times.

it has a really annoying little plot hole right at the end of the first encounter, which I caught, hoped I could ignore, and then it came up immediately: The PCs start out defending a wagon on the way through the woods, which then gets attacked. Once they defeat the attackers, the module expects the PCs to abandon the cart they just risked their lives for to pursue the attackers into the woods. Make your peace with the fact that they're probably not gonna do that.

Mistakes I made:

maybe my main regret is Sildar Halwinter, the main friendly NPC. I gave him a backstory and personality that I thought made sense and that I hoped fit the vibe and hinted at a larger world. And it did! I really liked what I did with him. But he was also a terrible NPC to give to my party. I brought a real fiction-/tv-writer sensibility to the character design and gave him a very matter-of-fact and relatively quiet personality... and discovered that my party does not ask NPCs personal questions unless HEAVILY prompted. At all. Not even after the DM repeatedly helplessly says stuff like "well, you've never asked them" lol. I literally only managed to give them some of his backstory by having him proclaim "wow, my wife would have liked this place!!" in a kinda unsubtle way in the final session. Meanwhile, characters with more proactive character traits - like the shepherd who was a real dragon-fanboy and talked about them whenever he could - were immediate hits with my players. So it's not a lack of interest in the NPCs, I just need to work on signalling that there's something there for them to ask about, I guess.

I didn't like the main villain of the campaign, so I made my own and statted her like I would a PC, but I didn't give her nearly enough class levels. She was lvl 6 against a party of three lvl 5 characters, so once they'd dealt with her handful of minions, she was pretty much toast. She could have been at least lvl 10 and still be a doable fight, and would have felt much more like a final boss.

I did not guess correctly how long their "brief" final encounter with the local dragon would take (they were somehow WAY too trusting and would not get scared and run away, so the dragon actually had to slap them around before they got the memo - I refuse to take the blame for this, they refused two separate opportunities to do research on dragons and our wizard did so terribly on the social encounter that a way nicer creature would have probably tried to eat her for it). The encounter was fun, but it happened under a huge time-crunch and we had to end what was the last real session of the campaign on a "and you excape from the dragon's lair and are safe, cool bye go catch your bus!" and had to table our epilogue for a ten-minute window at the start of next session. With is both annoying because it really butchers the flow of the narrative for the players and also because it will cut into the time for a one-shot one of the players is running next session. Idk what the lesson here is, timing is hard.

I should have used some rudimentary maps to keep track of the fights that had a ton of enemies in them tbh. I didn't like that because it seemed like a lot of work, but constantly going "wait fuck, which of the 15 goblins is the one I'm standing next to and is that the one that just took damage?" was no fun for anyone.

I came up with a cool regional effect inside the mine, but I wasn't fastidious about enforcing it so we all forgot about it, which is a shame.

I haven't been nearly as attentive to attacks of opportunity as I should have been and neither have my players, and they're not using Help, Disengage or Dodge actions nearly as much as they could yet

Notes for next campaign/ Stuff that was really popular with my party:

they loved all characters that I gave voices to, even though my voices are objectively BAD (no, really, I can do 1.5 accents outside of "generic British" and I really struggle to keep them consistent)

again, NPCs with obvious, proactive interests or character traits, no matter how irrelevant or borderline annoying were always a hit

my group will constantly volunteer to roll for stuff. Our youngest has firmly established that they roll initiative after every long rest to see who wakes up first, and has been 100 percent consistent about this.

our wizard player is really interested in her character's personality and backstory and is clearly prepared to antagonise a green dragon in service of it. She loved fun magical items, but I haven't sussed out if that was a character trait of the character or the player

our artificer is a little mechanics nerd and would pour so much love and care into her homunculus and golem and their design and abilities

our druid player picks a main theme for her character and zone in on that above everything else. Her character was extremely nature- and animal-loving so I had one of the NPCs teach him Find Familiar (yes, that's not a druid spell, but the player isn't exactly a power gamer so it didn't overpower anything) and I honestly think the chicken familiar was the high point of the campaign for the player (Clover the chicken acquired a bandana from the local tailor and is very fashionable)

she is also much more ready to kill her character than the other two

they like nuance, but they won't accept an impasse situation as conclusion of an arc, even if that's the most realistic

[sycamorre]

Can I please get the whole girl gang with Ori, Mela, Vaela, and Riven!

[send me a character]

Oh boy you're making me do my homework over here!

Oriana —

Favorite thing about them: I'm going to be incredibly non-specific and say that her growth as a character was my favorite part of playing her. She started out as this uptight, dutiful monk who was scared to show her own face too much for fear of making people mildly uncomfortable (and honestly to avoid invasive questions) to someone who was finally getting comfortable with who they were was such a blast. I love her newly-acquired confidence and the dynamic it brings to her post-campaign. She's far from perfect, and never will be, but she's maturing and making a new purpose for herself other than being someone's errand girl.

Least favorite thing about them: She is the worst pessimist in the world and sometimes her logic is so quick to jump to the worst conclusions that she literally puts her foot in her mouth. And it hurts for me to write that every single time due to secondhand embarrassment but I have to commit.

Favorite line: "She loved you! She still loves you!" at the Prince during the final fight while she's trying to distract him (or something like that). Or Ori's first jab at Damak "Maybe you would see more of it if you stepped out of the shadows" since it still makes me chuckle.

brOTP: Even though the Ori/Damak ship didn't sail, I still think they probably stay pretty close and end up working together on jobs in the future. They absolutely still push each other's buttons, but that's just how they are and they don't question it.

OTP: I am so mad at myself retroactively for not giving into the OriRanna feels by the conclusion of the campaign but I do not regret bringing it up afterwards and getting to enjoy it now at least.

nOTP: Ori and Cobalt are forever divorced and they barely know each other, this is just canon.

Random Headcanon: Ori has a hard time accepting the fact that Sharaea is basically keeping her distance after the Prince's defeat. In part because she does feel that connection still and worries that Sharaea is hurting, and partially because it is such a strange sensation to her to be without the dreams for so long after such a major revelation. It takes her a long time to get used to it, but she still wishes that there was more she could do.

Unpopular Opinion: I don't know if it's an unpopular opinion among our little group, but I never had intentions of making Oriana some kind of fated hero. I never had thoughts of making her tied to a major NPC or giving her any kind of serious destiny, I just wanted to play a radiant energy bomb with the aasimar/monk combo because I thought it would be funny once I pitched the idea to Sam and he told me about Damak who was basically her foil. But I do adore how her story developed and how well it ended up narratively.

Song I associate with them: So many... "Like the Dawn" by The Oh Hellos, "Warrior" by AURORA, and "Drumming Song" by Florence + The Machine to name a few.

Favorite picture of them: I like a lot but honestly one of my favs is the one I made of Chibs trying to hit on her, partly because it's Chibs and partly because I did really like how Ori's outfit came out in this one.

Mela —

Favorite thing about them: Literally the most wholesome member of the group. Not a bad bone or crystal in her body. I am so sorry for all that we put her though.

Least favorite thing about them: Only that I didn't get enough time to learn more about her and her backstory. Sigh.

Favorite line: "Real neighbors. Real family. Not just people that make you feel like you can pretend it doesn't exist."

brOTP: Mela and Halion. Druid buddies that deserve the world.

OTP: Mela is an independent Genasi who don't need no one... though I could be swayed about a certain fae...

nOTP: Literally anyone who would try to be mean to her in a relationship will meet a swift end by my hand.

Random Headcanon: 100% think that Mela's magic is flavored to look like the crystals on her body. If she wildshapes and doesn't specifically want to look a certain way, the animal she changes into will have things like crystal horns/claws, the flame sword she summons has the appearance of a crystal blade, etc.

Unpopular Opinion: I do wish she had gotten a chance to use wild shape more. I think Mela being a cute little critter sneaking around would have been amazing.

Song I associate with them: "Come Out and Play" by Billie Eilish

Favorite picture of them: That dang sketch I never colored, rip

Vaela —

Favorite thing about them: Drinking game QUEEN. Also just the fact that she doesn't take any shit while still having a lot of heart and empathy to those who earn it. Something about that balance between the two just made her all the more lovable.

Least favorite thing about them: she can out-drink my high constituion monk I do think I missed out on really getting to know her during the campaign, and I regret that a lot.

Favorite line: Not a specific line but I think back to Vaela's talks with Erosen when he was ready and willing to be her stand-in dad before Vaela was ready to reach back out to her family and i can't help but smile.

brOTP: Vaela, Riven, and Mela is the real brot3 and nothing can change my mine

OTP: I mean... I definitely have a certain paladin that turns a lovely shade of pink when someone talks about her because she sure is pretty and really cool to boot~

nOTP: Zaresh and his memory is not allowed to ever hurt Vaela again. If Damak didn't do it, Ori would have definitely put him out of his misery.

Random Headcanon: Very little thing, but I could see her gathering small, light trinkets that remind her of her friends and tie them to her bow, possibly for good luck, and possibly as a way to to tell which direction the wind is blowing when she's aiming.

Unpopular Opinion: I still think it would have been cool for her to pull an Erosen and punch Zaresh in the face. Just once.

Song I associate with them: "Dear Fellow Traveler" by Sea Wolf

Favorite picture of them: So fun fact: I never finished them but I started making emojis of the party members for kicks and here's the one I started of Vaela:

Riven —

Favorite thing about them: Riven's sassiness and perfect comedic timing always leaves me in stitches. She really felt like the heart of the party in that way.

Least favorite thing about them: This is the hardest thing and most of my "least favorite" things are mostly the things Oriana keeps fretting about when she thinks about Riven being in such a high position so I'm gonna go with not much at this time to be honest.

Favorite line: Not a line again, but specifically the scene between Ori and Riven where Riv dressed her up while Ori reassured her that she didn't think any less of Riven after they all found out about her half-drow heritage. That always felt like a major point in their friendship and I hold onto it fondly.

brOTP: I wanna say Riven and Halion just because I think their friendship was so neat, and it hurts a bit when I think about their falling out post-campaign. But there's also Riv and Damak's sibling-ish dynamic that I love a lot, too.

OTP: As much as he pushes Ori's nerves, I do think Riv and Delethil are on the same wavelength as each other and fit very well together, even with Eravin in the mix.

nOTP: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Random Headcanon: On the occasions where Oriana comes up to Aerenth on business (either with Ranna for her research or at the request of various Tyados officials who think she's got some kind of in with them because she's friends with Riven), Ori always makes a point to find Riven and any of the other girls that might be there with them after all the formalities are done and run off into the woods to find a clearing to just hang out in like they did before.

Unpopular Opinion: As much as I understand the reason why she and Del made the choice to execute Vasion, I still disagree that it was the best decision.

Song I associate with them: "Savage Daughter" by Sarah Hester mostly because of the rebellious vibes

Favorite picture of them: I mean... I think it's obvious (also bonus Vaela).

[elle-thereafter]

For the fic writer asks: 12, 14, 29? :D

12: A trope you’re really into right now

I don't know the succinct way to describe this trope, but I'm really enjoying stories that delve into the ideas around regretting life choices and/or grieving the life you once had or could have had with different choices. Maybe it's just because I'm getting older and gaining perspective on my own life, but I'm really enjoying stories about complicated grief and regret, like super complicated. In CR especially, Ashton reframing his perception of his life and the life he thought he should have had is fascinating. All the recent stuff with Liliana, how she slid down a slippery slope into what is effectively a cult, and both regrets and rationalises those choices. I suspect also we'll get some flavours of this with Astrid's appearance too. There is something really interesting about the grey area where victims can also become perpetrators, and neither negates the reality or validity of the other. It's messy, and I really like messy, complex characters. I particularly like them when they are just becoming aware of and seriously start to reckon with their own messiness. Which way will they slide? Will they follow a path of redemption? Or will they double-down and pursue a darker path? Both options fascinate me so the whole trope and all its sub-tropes are just very tasty.

14: Where do you get your inspiration?

A ton of it comes from gaps and open questions in canon. I can't help but wonder about gaps, and that gets my brain going with "what if" and possible ways to fill in that gap, and eventually all that speculation and guessing sometimes leads to a story.

I also like prompts. Give me a single scenario or "what if" or a "what would it take to make character X do thing Y when thing Y seems wildly out of character". I also love subtle breadcrumbs that hint at hidden complexity: in the most recent episode revealing Essek in C3, there is some subtle stuff in how Matt has Essek react to the idea of Astrid, and later actually interact with Astrid: both before Astrid knows who he is and after. It immediately sent my brain off into analysis/speculation mode, and if I was the sort of person who could work on more than one writing project at once I'd already be writing a speculative one shot about it.

I'm also finding more and more I get struck by inspiration when I'm less strict about the particulars of my plot and am willing to let the characters lead more. Since starting to DM a long-running campaign with friends 5 years ago, my whole idea of how to plan and plot a story has changed a lot because when I'm DMing I have to leave a huge amount of space and flex for my players to make choices. I've adopted a lot of that flex into my narrative writing, and am way more aware of the choices the characters want to make and less rigid about forcing them to make choices I think I need them to make.

Before DMing I spent a lot of time worrying about getting the plot details just right before I started writing anything, and often would get stuck somewhere in the middle when the characters started to feel less like real people and more like soulless puppets, which led me to abandon most of my projects. Now I have only a very loose idea of the plot - just some preferred goals and themes in mind - and I'm more trusting that the plot will sort itself out as I go. It's been really freeing, and I'm finding all kinds of inspiration in the characters being allowed to do things and say things I didn't expect or plan for, and finding all kinds of interesting ways to use bits of set dressing from previous chapters so in retrospect they look like breadcrumbs and foreshadowing but actually, when I first wrote that little thing I had no longer-term plans for it. Two of the three major NPCs in Gate Building started as narrative conveniences and then became really integral to the story: I ended up with some really great narrative foils I didn't plan for, and to me that's just super cool!

29: How easy is it for you to come up with titles?

The answer is "it depends". Mostly it depends on when I need to come up with the title.

If I'm coming up with the title of something like a short fic or a chapter after it's written, I don't find it too difficult. I usually have a little note doc with various bits and pieces relevant to the project, and in there somewhere will be a place where misc title ideas start to organically collect. During the writing some get added, some get removed, some get tinkered with in the margins as I get a clearer and clearer picture of what it is I'm writing and how it's turning out. The closer I get to being done with the fic or chapter, the more the title ideas get refined, and almost always a clear winner pops out during the first editing phase when I'm tightening up the themes and sculpting things to better serve those themes.

If I have to come up with a title that has to stick before I finish something, that's way, way harder. When I decided to publish Gate Building as a WIP that title was a real challenge because I didn't really know yet how things were going to go, all I had was the first 5 chapters and some vague goals, themes and intentions. At the time I thought it was going to be more light-hearted than it's turned out to be, and the title definitely reflects that assumption; it's possible at some point I'll drop the overly complicated tagline and just leave it as "Gate Building".

WIP titles are hard if there's pressure on them to stick around because I don't yet have complete understanding of the shape of the thing, but if it's just temporary much like anyone else I'll call it any old thing. Like, my current WIP Gate Building chapter is just called "Percy" because that's the POV I'm in. Sometimes my WIP title is just the goal of the chapter if it can be stated in a concise way, mostly as a reminder of what the primary goal is.

I do like my titles to be little breadcrumbs about the chapter or the story, and they often refer to more than one thing. Sometimes I'll get stuck for a while trying to be too clever, and my rule is if I can't find a clever title by the time my editing passes are just about typos and grammar, then probably one doesn't exist so I should stop searching for it. But I do like titles that become little riddles, and can be appreciated differently after the chapter's been read. Probably this is mostly for me. :D 

---

Want to ask me more things? Here are the questions!

[realmadridfamily]

Mishel Gerzig says that if she had the power to stop time, she would do it on her wedding day because she didn't want it to end. And no one can be surprised. The model became the wife of Thibaut Courtois, Real Madrid's goalkeeper, at the beginning of July last year in a fabulous wedding worthy of a fairy tale.

In fact, it took place at the Château de la Croix des Gardes in Cannes. Their wedding was full of emotions and magical moments, after the romantic proposal they made last year in Positano. While on vacation on the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Belgian athlete got down on one knee and gave his girlfriend a gorgeous engagement ring. But the real diamond in Courtois' life is Mishel, a stunning blonde beauty.

Fight for your dreams.

The model has been traveling around the world since the age of thirteen, appearing in campaigns and on the covers of prestigious fashion magazines. Intelligent and determined, at the age of 26, she knows what it means to fight to realize her dreams, because everything was not always rosy. “My mother received many offers to pose for me, but she was afraid to introduce me to this world, especially at such a young age. Finally, we decided together that we would try," Mishel recalls her beginnings in fashion, when, as a teenager, her parents took her to castings and photo sessions that lasted up to five hours.

“When I turned 16, I signed with modeling agencies in Miami and Milan, and my mother decided to quit her job to accompany me. My parents supported me very much and I will always be grateful to them," said Mishel, who realizes that, especially at this age, it is difficult to combine studies with her developing modeling career: "It was not easy at all. But my friends and teachers helped me so that I could continue my studies. I missed a lot of school trips and a lot of events, but I knew it was a necessary sacrifice to progress in my career, and I don't regret it.”

When she reached adulthood, she had to fight the monster of anxiety: “I wanted to give back to my parents everything they had given me. I started working hard, flying around the world, and something was wrong. One day, on the plane going to work, I started to feel short of breath, my vision was blurry, my heart was beating very fast and I couldn't feel my body. I thought I was having a heart attack, but actually I was having a panic attack. It was a very dark year in my life. With the support of family and friends, I was able to fight it and work on my mental health. I read and studied about panic attacks and learned to practice breathing and meditation. So every time I get one, I know how to recognize it, how to breathe deeply, and how to talk to myself: I remind myself that I am strong, that I am healthy, and that it will pass in time”.

"Physically and emotionally"

The strength and temperance she gained after seeing all things black served her well, especially in supporting her husband. Thibaut Courtois, considered one of the pillars of Real Madrid and one of the best athletes in the world - last year at the Ballon d'Or gala he was awarded the Yashin Trophy as the best goalkeeper of the 2021-22 season - was injured in training a few days before the start of La Liga. After the surgery, he is back in full shape, but his return to the pitch is still a long way off.

HOLA: Mishel, it will be difficult for Thibaut to be unable to play for so long. How are you supporting him emotionally?

MISHEL: The first month was very difficult, but I stayed positive and supported Thibaut physically and emotionally.

H: Four months have passed since your wedding, what is the most special memory you have from that day?

M: The ceremony and the “Yes, I Do” with Thibaut.

H: What funny or unforgettable anecdote would you share with our readers from your wedding?

M: The harmony that existed between everyone, between friends and family, and how much fun everyone was having. Happiness on this special day.

H: How is married life treating you? Have you noticed any changes since you became Courtois' wife?

M: In general, we feel the same. But we are both very happy and excited about this new chapter.

H: In this reportage you pose with Cartier pieces. Do you like to wear jewelry regularly?

M: Yes, I like to wear jewelry, but minimalist.

“An unforgettable look”

H: What are your favorites, the ones you usually wear the most?

M: Two necklaces I have, my wedding ring and sometimes a bracelet.

H: And when it comes to dazzling at a party, what are your favorite elements?

M: I think jewelry is very important to complete a memorable and iconic look. So I choose jewelry that matches my dress. But overall, I love special earrings and wearing multiple rings.

H: What is the most special piece of jewelry in your jewelry box that has the most sentimental value to you?

M: First of all, my wedding ring and engagement ring, as well as earrings and a bracelet that my mother gave me a few years ago.

H: What would you say is the jewel of your life?

M: The people in my life. My family and friends. The most valuable things in life are not the ones you can buy with money.

“My family lives far away”

H: Which of you, Thibaut or you, is more romantic?

M: I would say it's me. But Thibaut also has very romantic moments and loves to surprise me.

H: How do you surprise him?

M: With small things, daily, some romantic, others fun.

H: If you could stop time, at what point would you like to stop it?

M: On my wedding day, because we didn't want that day to ever end.

H: What if you had more time, how would you use it?

M: Seeing my friends and family more, because they live far away.

[dojae-huh]

That's not the first time she opened donations for ilichil's comeback, even during the fact check era she had opened donations

https://x.com/127CENTRAL/status/1695619570160054759

But the donation has not reached the target and finally helped by Indonesian fans because the target of 127fund has been reached

https://x.com/zellaoxo/status/1708295708514951539

In this comeback there is little support, even in 127fund it has not reached 10%, unlike the fact check era h-7 comeback has reached about 90%

https://x.com/127Fund/status/1721545110238982151https://x.com/127Fund/status/1810957386301198381

And I see many solo stans only support their biased projects / solo jobs

Link, Link2, Link3

Wow, 15k is a lot. What where those money spent on? Ads are costly, but not Spotify accs. Hm..

I see the plans, but were the results published last year? Receipts, names of people who received i-tune giftcards and all?

Well. I agree that the NCT-fandom is very divided. Solo-stanning culture is one of the reasons, the other one is the lack of a strong group-oriented platform ran in English. Managing a group fanclub is a big task. Reposting official twits between comebacks is not a real fandom activity/generating of original content that brings fans together. To collect money the collector needs authority. There won't be much trust in NCT 127 Central if fans hear about it once a year (wasn't it the account that asked fans if they want to boycott Golden Age, or smth?). X stops to show posts from the accounts you are subscribed but don't engage with as well. Which results in lower reach.

Fans can buy i-tunes and more albums themselves, without a middleman. The same goes for streaming on Spotify. Chinese bars offer additional merch for those who purchase albums with them. Indonesian, Thai clubs are very organised, they easily collect money for charities and support projects for concerts. There needs to be a connection with the organiser, and some return of investment in the form of positive feelings.

Look at Lin. Despite her popularity and dedication to her account, the fundriser for Melon for Doyoung wasn't very successful. Maybe in part because Lin didn't have time, so the campaign wasn't very advertised.

I was a part of organisation comitee of anime-festivals. I know first-hand how difficult it is to make people be involved in something made for them for free, let alone when they need to pay, how ungrateful fans are to orgs' efforts, how forgetful about deadlines, staying in contact, etc.

Making one post with a huge sum as the goal and hoping that everyone will commit rarely works. The crowd needs to be warmed up, hyped, unified. A big campaign is needed for people to regret they are nto part of the fun.

Back to NCTzens being divided. These whining posts that further antagonize solo-fans, constant squabbles, fans looking for the worst in each other, "my bias is great yours is a dozen" is part of what led to this reality. And anyone who participates in producing/distributing these fanwar/shipwar/stanwar inducing twits is to blame as well. You reap what you saw.

I heard today that attention is the main coin in the world. Attention lies in the base of the political life, economy, processes of human mental activity, etc. And people who think they are powerless and are not responsible for the changes and status quo in the world around them forget that it is them who decide to what people (politicians, fans) and to what topics (policies, fan content) they give their attention. Attention is power.

Anyhow! Don't be discouraged by the mood in the part of the fandom you see (which is just a fraction of it). Enjoy the comeback and the content we are given. Buy albums, stream, vote - do whatever you can on whatever scale you have time and money for.

Remember that neos love their group, invested half of their lives into it, that the group is the main source of income and solo opportunities for all of them. Not even Taeyong is bigger than the brand.

Both Haechan and Doyoung talked about how they are afraid of not being able to perform on big stages anymore in the future. And very very few solo-artists k-pop are able to get themselves domes.

[missing-a-place-ive-never-been]

so i just finished campaign 2

in 6 months pretty much to the fucking day. and what a half a year it was. i don't know how to write down how much i love these characters, just... watching them evolve from the very beginning of the journey was just so special. i started campaign 1 in the briarwood arc (and i honestly should probably rewatch that just bc i was so confused about what was happening still at that point) and i loved seeing these characters from their first meeting as a group and how their experiences and relationships formed them into the people they were a year(-ish??) later.

Although c3 is the one that got me hooked and will always be special bc of that, and c1 felt more of a idk how to say it a story because of the separation and a more clear path (going from the briarwoods to the dragons to vecna just felt more natural to me instead of what mostly felt like side quests next to the war storyline and the lucien storyline), i feel the most connection as a group with m9. their individual development but also their group dynamic in which each of them felt like an integral part to the story and all were important to each other and had special moments together... idk something so very compelling and i will be thinking about them for a long fucking time.

As for the numbers, this means that on average i spend over two and a half hours a day for the past half a year watching critical role and i honestly cannot say i regret it. i don't know if i will ever play d&d myself as i think cr has set such a high bar of expectations and i don't really know the right people for it (at this moment) but i have grown to see the value in role playing games. though the stories might be fantasy, the emotions these people bring to the table each week is are just raw and real and have made me work through some of my own issues, i can't even imagine the impact on their own lives throughout all of it.

in the end, i would have loved to see more of essek and caleb interacting. liam and matt's interactions in the final part of 141 broke me and made me yearn for more. i haven't seen the wrap up of the reunion eps yet but at least for the reunion i don't think we see essek until the last few moments, which is bittersweet; while we don't see it directly play out, we get a good glimpse into their combined futures and i think that open ending does leave for a lot of own interpretation (and def a lot of great fan art!). overall, the characters i enjoyed most were caleb (i adore liam and his faithful representation of a bisexual disaster) and jester (do i need to explain? wonderfully chaotic and the kind of enjoyment of just life and its beauty i admire and aspire to), but even the characters i had less of a personal connection with (for me ford) i really loved for their interactions and relationships with the others.

i laughed and cried so much while experiencing this campaign, and i am just feeling full with love for the cast and crew and their incredible work and play. this is just a rambling of my thoughts at the moment and kind of a time capsule for myself, but if you are a critter and read all of it, thank you to you as well <3 the community (i mostly only interact with the one on tumblr) makes the experience def more valuable and i'm happy we're on the same journeys together!

[iasmelaion]

as I get ever closer to finishing the campal fic which is taking me too long because frequent breaks for Having Emotions about campal, i find i need some motivation to spur myself on via my tried and true carrot and stick method of fic writing, but the problem is none of my other wips are the specific carrot i want right now. so instead i've been thinking of the fic idea/vibe I've been rotating in my head for literal weeks now, which consists of the following:

at first, I simply wanted to write something dumb about Bucky's dumb hair, because I am as always feeling the equivalent of cute aggression about sebstan's stupid beautiful hair, and all the photos from Cannes did NOT help. for this idea, i had: one (1) joke about bucky being his own inadvertent hair care product ad campaign (something something 'because you're worth it,' i was gonna figure out the punchline later), and one (1) barebones scene where steve says "actually, i used you as a model for a pomade ad i was hired to illustrate, so you've kind of already been a hair model" and i thought "hmm what if this scene was not funny but was instead fraught with sexual and emotional tension"

anyway, this didn't pan out, because i kept rotating it in my head and shaking it all "is this anything??? is this anything? like, is there a character arc here, some development--" and the answer was just more lustenvyrage re sebstan's hair. so this idea was set aside.

next i remembered that i've always been interested in writing SOMETHING about the way Steve and Bucky fight with each other with frankly preternatural seamlessness in CACW. I've referenced this in a couple fics, but I kind of want to write a fic that's ABOUT it, y'know?? like, the way their bodies are legible to each other even after so many changes. the way they know each other's bodies so well, the way their bodies talk to each other, in contrast to the ways they themselves don't actually manage to talk about the important shit. obvsly in a fic, this would go fighting together > fucking.

i am also thinking about this vis-a-vis "stop writing characters who talk like they're trying to get a good grade in therapy". like. maybe i don't want them to TALK. maybe i want them to be insane weirdos about it. maybe they should sublimate all their emotions into fucking and weird OTT devoted gestures.

however, i am not actually interested in writing post-cacw pre-infinity war fic. so i did a lot of rotating in my head re canon setting, AU-ness, etc.

my other desire here is to, for the love of god, write something that isn't CUTE. listen, I know my fic writing lane. I appreciate all comments. I in fact have a great deal of fun writing things that are sweet and cute and hopefully also poignant and funny. but sometimes a girl gets real tired of having most things she writes classified as cute.

here is the additional thought i had today re this hypothetical fic: haunted house. not a literal haunted house, but a metaphorical one. (but also an actual house that is not actually haunted) (the metaphor is the house = the relationship, ofc) the house is being haunted by grief, the house is being haunted by regret, the house is being haunted by guilt.

so now i am here trying to fit all these disparate parts together into something coherent. like, if i write this, what is the resolution. what is the arc. i may not want to write something cute but i am still committed to reasonably happy endings. so the house is unhaunted? the house is still haunted but they live with the ghosts? they move to a new house???? (not sure how this works with the metaphor?? wait. maybe. hmm.) could this fic please god be under 10k????

anyway now i can't let it go until i solve it and i have written this whole thing in an attempt to figure it out/exorcise the idea. annoying.

this, fyi, is how my fic planning process goes when I can't/don't start with either: a) a punchline, b) a wouldn't-it-be-funny-if, or c) an actual trope or prompt. so great. so efficient and useful and fun ;___;

[steampunkcdplayer]

kicks my feet. g rose can we hear about the dnd ocs who are non canonically in love -kai

Okay so let me set the background

We have Copper (or as he refers to himself "The Great and Mighty Copper!!"): 4ft orange kobold (human years like 32). He's an ex assassin from the planet 3310 in the capital city. He retired from assassin work after an identity crisis and lived in a literal hole in the wall in the abandoned district. That is where he met Nephira, an unlikely acquaintance turned friend (Copper wouldn't admit that). Coppers personality is that of like cursing people out, being intimidating and grumpy, liking knives and other weapons. He's crochety earnest and quirky. When serious he's very dangerous (his assassin name was The Silent Sleeper). He currently lives in retirement and is a technology/hacking expert. Beneath the exterior he's a very sweet and caring guy but it takes forever to get there only Nephiras gotten really close.

So Nephira Quest! He is a tiefling (human years 35). On 3310 he was a well known fighter in the planetary competitions until he lost a major round with a large injury to his face which resulted in his agent dropping him. He turned to selling drugs (he calls the Good Stuff) and other things with the goal of becoming the centralized merchant in the black market sector. On the exterior his personality comes off very dramatic, eccentric, charming, and a little emotional and cowardly. Though he's very calculating and strong beneath that, always trying to gain power (for safety reasons) in being someone with the most knowledge (that he sells as a Fun Fact). Copper was his first merchant connection and they were acquainted before. Over time, Nephira really trusts him implicitly.

Both lore wise: they both escaped this planet together by hijacking a ship (+ with nephiras canon bf/situationship/ex/its complicated af) to go to a planet untouched by their corrupt government system where they lived out until my players current campaign screwed up that good deal. (That's not really relevant to this post).

In my mind thr romance: in my mind after Nephira and the third person I mentioned broke up on the new planet nephira and his ex (who at this time did canonical havr a very business only mutual pining regret toxic yaoi situation) started to spend more time with Copper and their teasing arguing bantering led Nephira to be like umm holy shit wait .....and Copper responded by being like ummm yeah im.happy alone lol die and explode !(but really he was scared of letting someone in). They then started hanging out more and Nephira took him out on a pseudo date where Copper spent a lot of it perched on his shoulders and he realized how ummm safe he felt and sooo they kindaaa yeahh dating begins ! And I imagine Coppers walls fall over time and he jokingly complains constantly how he's lost his edge and he's a sap and he can't be mean anymore and all he does is spend time being sweet to Nephira. Though Nephira does feel charmed when he's a total chaotic asshole to everyone else, usually Nephiras shoulders are used to perch so copper can better yell at people for being stupid and awful. And Nephira himself drops the charm and politeness to being real and down to earth. They are soo they are just sooo fuckingggg ahhhhhhhhhh

[worrywrite]

Apparently my vampire media journey was normal? I mean... I *am* a product of very controlled mass media marketing and for-profit media/storytelling.

Let's see... Sesame Street's The Count, I feel like that's everyone first vampire character. Then there was that Disney channel movie... What was it. All I remember is vampire cows. And that one villain from the Buzz Lightyear animated series (okay, so weird stuff does stick to my brain and I have a weird range of media I absorbed as a child... And I absorbed a significant amount of media). I don't think there was a vampire in Halloween Town, but around the time that became a thing I started getting really into Halloween (I was probably six or seven) and I do recall there being vampire characters in the Scary Godmother animated movies and that reinforced it. Around the same time I happened across Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which I acknowledge I was far too young for) and I was... Entranced with vampires. Parents didn't like that, didn't really catch much Buffy because of it. But my interest in the occult in general got *piqued* and from there on out, it was witches and vampires and werewolves and demons and djinni (burned through the original Bartimaeus books before 6th grade). So when I hit puberty proper... Okay, yeah, I was into monsters which explains why I was functionally asexual until I was 17; because monsters aren't real and are therefore inaccessible characters of desire.

ANYWAY.

By the time I was 11, my mother had started reading the Twilight books. And because she is incapable of not talking about everything she's obsessed with to literally everyone she talks to, she talked about the books to me a lot. Because I liked books. And this backfired for her. A lot. Because she liked the intensity of it and lack of general swearing (this woman is a hyper-conservative Christian, which also explains the oversharing interests things because proselytizing). It backfired because I went "oh, my parents are okay with this now" and I went deep into vampire/werewolf lore on the internet (not exactly fiction or media proper, but I became part of my early social media interactions with message boards and forums and RPGs and such).

I also saw Underworld, Van Helsing, and Hellboy around that time (13-14). Those movies are all over the place, but yeah. You know what, I'll throw The Matrix in there too. I'm gonna call this my leather and spandex phase of vampire experiences. Good times. This led to the writing of my first vampire and werewolf novels (two different novels, both hot garbage). And then I saw the twilight movie (which I liked because of the soundtrack and general attractiveness of all the actors portraying vampires) and read the books and got really into Supernatural which I regret because it didn't have enough vampires and werewolves to be honest. And then the Vampire Diaries on CW happened. And then Teen Wolf.

And then I kind of burned out on most media, went to college, learned and played d&d, and now I'm back on my vampire bs. I run a 5e campaign where my players have a vampire frienemy who they accidentally unleashed on the setting; she is one of my favorite NPCs to portray. And now I am getting into Discworld and the vampires there are refreshingly silly.

Anyway, I feel like this is pretty normal? Maybe not. I went all in on pretty much everything occult (partially because of my own experiences which I haven't really talked about) when I was young. It never scared me; probably because I was taught from a young age that the only things I had to be afraid of were the devil and minorities--because, again, hyper-conservative household. I find this very funny now because now I know that that is basically what spurred the creation of these mythical sexy creatures that I love so much.