#it's so cool being able to return to rp and just have fun surrounded by talented people.

[tragedia]

everyone i follow

[its-the-val-pal]

This is long and entirely OOC, so I don't expect anyone to read! It's fairly personal, but I need to get thoughts out and all that. So feel free to bail <3 thanks for clicking either way and ily, whoever you are.

I am a very private person, normally. I keep to myself, my one or two contacts, and just sort of go about my business. But lately I've been told that, due to my overactive mind, it would probably help to toss my thoughts out somewhere and get things on paper. A confession, if you will. And I was also told that I don't have to send it; that people often write letters and burn them up and.. whatever.

But that doesn't suit me, because I don't like wasting time and I don't like doing things that--at least to me--don't have a purpose. And I can argue with myself that writing things down and out certainly has a purpose, but it doesn't feel like it unless it's actually thrown out somewhere.

That being said, I don't expect to do these often. Or maybe I'll post the rest privately or something. I'm not sure. I'll probably figure that out as I go. But this is, for now, a confession of something I've realized about myself.

I really, really started to think a lot of things I enjoyed were dumb. I hid myself away in work in the desire for progress and betterment and.. that's fine. All things in moderation. But I don't do moderation so well. And in that, in being surrounded by people that often thought my favorite hobbies were ignorant, I started to feel the same way about them. And so I did a lot of it less and less. And that, in turn, hurt a lot of people I really care about. People that I've alienated for one reason or another and lost sight of that close bond and friendship.

And.. lately, I think I've come to realize how much I miss those things. It's a big part of why I've returned. I had only unsubbed for about three months, but the truth is I've really been gone much longer than that. And that was disrespectful to a lot of people, chief of those being my RP partner at the time who for some reason stuck around far longer than they should have. And I'll never be able to apologize to them enough for it. Or probably get that back.

I've really enjoyed exploring my characters and writing again. And how much the use of mods, which I once abhorred, really helped breathe life back into characters in a game that the aesthetic just never seemed to match. Val never had cool jackets and pants like he should have. Melfice barely got dark clothing to wear. The rest were.. okay, but those two were always my main characters and not having something to fit them felt very limiting.

So yeah. All things in moderation, and I keep telling myself that, and I'm not entirely sure where Val's current story will take him or where he'll end up, but I am definitely looking forward to it. There are certainly places I'd like for it to go, but whether he ends up there or not is out of my hands. And if I'm being honest? I hate that, too. Lack of control is something I've always struggled with. I don't do well when I can't manage things myself. And while this arc has been great, I've found myself missing Miqo'te Val and all the RP and fun I used to have on him.

Will he ever get that back? Sure. I'll bring him back to a Miqo'te once this plot has ran its course, assuming he lives through it. I've always had a big "if my character dies, they die" thing and.. I'm not going to shy away from it. I don't mind. It's part of the fun for me, really. Will he ever find another? Or get over his lost love? Or even be able to move on? Or, gods willing, reunite with his one true love?

I suppose time will tell.

[obsoletesystem]

D&D Ask Meme

@wisdom-fangs​ asked me to do all the questions of this D&D ask post. So I did. 1. A favorite character you have played. I really like playing monstrous characters. Currently in Adventurers League, I play Frattek Venvaris, bugbear rogue/barbarian, who is a delightfully goofy character. But I also miss playing Bajur Mashoir, a very charismatic lizardfolk "voodoo" shaman, whose catchphrase was: "As you can see, I am an alligator, sir..." spoken in a thick southern brawl. 2. Your favorite character that someone else has played. During a one shot the guy that played an evil halfling warlock sacrificed himself to blow up the big bad with a block of dynamite. The true MVP. 3. Your favorite side quest. Idk. 4. Your current campaign. I DM a homebrew campaign, in which the party is stuck between sides in a war between the local Jarl and a fey duchess who has taken over a part of the woods. I also participate as a player in a slight homebrewed Salt Marsh campaign, in which I play a tiefling cleric of Pelor. She's got a Sad Backstory. 5. Favorite NPC. The Loathesome Gribble, an NPC in the game I DM, who is a very small tiefling sorcerer with an immense knife collection and a four-armed aasimar monk girlfriend. He is found in the most of unlikely places and his signature spell is "Gribble's Hand of Sand", which may or may be not magical, as it blinds a creature with sand, but the material component is just a handfull of coarse sand. 6. Favorite death (monster, player character, NPC, etc). The druid in our home game charged into giant stag form at a huge burning construct (The Burning Man from Burning Man, but moving), missed his attack, upon which the Burning Man rolled nat 20's on BOTH ITS ATTACKS. No advantage, no nothing, just two straight 20's. He grabbed the stag by its antlers, turned its head 360 degrees, and dropped a flaming, mutilated dwarf to the ground. 7. Your favorite downtime activity. I always like to do something that tells a little bit about the culture of the creature I play. When I was on haitus because of school, I described how Frattek had spend some time with his little bugbear niece, and had just returned from a fun little war (seeing as bugbears love to fight). 8. Your favorite fight/encounter. We had to fight a vampire spawn in a dank, dark basement, but it was light outside, and Frattek is incredibly good at grappling creatures, so we dragged the vampire out from his basement into the sunlit street, and then made a run for it as we had broken into a house. 9. Your favorite thing about D&D. Coming together with friends and not drinking (a lot) or smoking weed. I like doing those things too, but it is also fun to just hang out and play games where heavy drinking is not really handy. 10. Your favorite enemy and the enemy you hate the most. Dragons are the best, spellcasters are the worst. Spellcasting Dragons are the bees knees. My players, however, are going to hate a certain spellcaster very much. Once they find out... 11. How often do you play and how often would you ideally like to play? Usually once a week, but I'd love to be able to balance twice a week. One day as player, one day as DM. 12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from. "Name and occupation, please" comes from when we played Pathfinder, and one of the characters died, but I didn't want to get rid of him yet or he was set up to be reincarnated or some shit idk. Anyway, his soul arrives in purgatory, which turns out to be this bureaucratic office, where he has to stand in line for a long, long time, before arriving at a booth/desk type situation, in which an Ophanim angel (one of them burning wheels full of eyes) floats that asks with a bored sigh "Name and occupation, please". The player answered, and was set up for reincarnation, which involved shooting his soul from a cannon/drop tube into the unborn baby of a local woman. The child grows up unnaturally quickly, and because it has the soul of a mature orc barbarian, it is more than a little trouble. Nephertheless, the "Name and occupation, please" gag remained forever. 13. Introduce your current party. My Homeboys, the Lords of Okab Volal, are Nazreen, a wood elf ranger who missed her wolf, played by @tabula-wasa​, Tophr Thanestone, the previously mentioned dwarf druid who was murdered by a giant flaming effigy and subsequently reincarnated/put into the body of a frost elf woman (something he hasn't come to terms with) played by our bearded friend Glenn, and Adelon Vrena, half-elf bard/cleric/divine soul sorcerer a.k.a. Healer Supreme, who is really righteous but not above torturing a captive githyanki, and played by Arnaud. The Schadestenen (meaning "Damage Stones", as in dice), which is the OG Adventurers League group in the Spellenhoorn in Hoorn, consist of Aiden Rainbowscale (Albino orphan wood-elf monk/barbarian), Fjorgyn (dwarven cleric of Moradin, who died last week and still suffered from the Death Curse. RIP.), Frattek Venvaris (Bugbear barbarian/arcane trickster and gladiator/luchador, played by me), Gideon Thornton (cowardly Half-Orc Hexblade), Grommash Hellscream (Stereotypical Half-Orc Barbarian. Great guy.), Ruldra (disgraced Hobgoblin undead-hunting Ranger), Cadence (Powerful but stupid Half-elf Grave Cleric/Divine Soul Sorcerer who never learned how to read), Ullr (Arnaud's Gloom Stalker and Human Machine Gun), and Darin (half-elf ranger and Master Of Backflip). The Peeps from Salt Marsh, DMed by the guy that plays Darin, in which Arnaud plays William Wisenose, The Awfully Lucky Halfling Build (halfling wizard/bard/whatever), Cadence's player plays Sylver Ravenstar (half-elf bard/hexblade/run away princess), her friend plays Samm Enoch (Aasimar Bard and Very Handsome Man), Aiden's player plays Ankis (Aasimar Celestial Warlock and very secretive about both these facts because Back Story), and his friend plays Vena Malum (Human Bloodhunter, who is really buff and does that swirly thing with her falchions, and oh my...), Grommash's player plays Morgain of Astora (human paladin of Pelor, and companion/boyfriend/substitute son to my character), and I play Paytsarra Avèry (winged tiefling cleric of Pelor). Praise the sun. 14. Introduce any other parties you have played in or DM-ed. We had one party consisting of a drider, a very evil dwarf, a fire genasi, a gnome psychic, and a kenku ninja at one point. When the evil dwarf died, and I introduced the guy's new drow "medic", I knew I lost all cohesion of the group. 15. Do you have snacks during game times? My players do. I don't like snacks that much. 16. Do you play online or in person? Which do you prefer? In person. I tried playing online, and I think I would do again, but only if I'd have a really good headset. 17. What are some house rules that your group has? In the Salt Marsh campaign you double the value of the dice on a crit, which I think is disappointing. I just wanna roll a lot of dice :( 18. Does your party keep any pets? @tabula-wasa​'s ranger has a dire wolf...somewhere...

19. Do you or your party have any dice superstitions? Not that I know of. I do know some of my dice seem to roll better than others. 20. How did you get into D&D? How long have you been playing? I found a d&d character creation app on the web ages ago, and that sparked my interest. Later I joined a warhammer fantasy role play group with a friend I had been rp-ing online with a lot, but this was the real deal, at Arnaud's house. He dmed number of campaigns for us, and later he joined my pathfinder group which turned into a D&D 5th edition group. 21. Have you ever regretted something your character has done? Yeah. Frattek decided to be a hero and tried to assassinate an ogre torturer. He failed his shot. We had to fucking run. 22. What color was your first dragon? The first dragon I fought as a character was a young Red Dragon. Even at 5th level, we whooped its ass. He found himself in a cave, surrounded by fools, and we beat him to pulp. The first dragon I put in front of my players was a young White Dragon. It kicked their asses. 23. Do you use premade modules or original campaigns? I usually homebrew my own campaigns, but I have dmed some AL sessions. 24. How much planning/preparation do you do for a game? Not an incredible amount, but for my home game I prepare ideas months, even years, in advance. For DMs 25. What have your players done that you never could have planned for? A lot. The most notable was casting Dispel Magic on the demiplane-item the cultists were in... and then opening the demiplane underwater. 26. What was your favorite scene to write and show your characters. I had these zombies that always repeated the last thing they said before they died, which was cool and creepy. But the thing I really wrote out was the description of how an Astral Ship warps space around itself, and what that looks like from the people on the deck of the ship. 27. Do you allow homebrew content? If it's well written, absolutely, but there is a lot of shit out there. 28. How often do you use NPCs in a party? When it makes sense, but I try not to do that too often. 29. Do you prefer RP heavy sessions or combat sessions? I prefer RP sessions, but I am leaning more toward combat. On the other hand, I don't think it completely excludes each other nor should it. I am of the opinion that 30. Are your players diplomatic or murder hobos? Rather diplomatic, but they can definitely kick ass. For Players 31. What is your favorite class? Favorite race? I like casters, and I will always have an affinity for wizards, but arcane tricksters and eldritch knights are cool too. I like elves, and I like monstrous races; goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears. I like things that are pretty and scary, or creepy and goofy. 32. What role do you like to play the most? (Tank/healer/etc?) I usually mix a bit of tank and dps. I don't like being very frail, but I do enjoy doing a lot of damage in one shot. 33. How do you write your backstory, or do you even write a backstory? I tend to write a character from a concept, and then build out the backstory. How did this person become the person they are today? Even if you have something of a bugbear, or a hobgoblin, or a yuan-ti. They have had a childhood, they have role models, they have culture. But what is that? What defines a character? What makes them they way they are? I don't like playing monstrous races that have been adopted by a "better, nobler race" like humans and elves and dwarves. I get the appeal, but I also think it is a little trite, and a little condenscending, almost. I think a lot about what defines a monstrous identity, and being a Cultural Anthropologist, I think a lot about the way culture shapes the values and morality and thus also behaviour of a creature. Do hobgoblins tell their children bedtime stories? What are they about? How will a bugbear struggle in regular humanoid society, where his violent urges -natural to him- are equally, or even more excessively violently repressed and punished? Is this just for bugbears? Will they then look for each other, and find each other in their shared cultural/natural tendencies? Are there goblinoid lawyers or activist groups, that seek to protect other goblinoids from unjust treatment under laws that aren't theirs? How will your life be if you are a second or third or even fourth generation inhuman creature in a human society? Do they dream of returning to a society that is 'theirs'? And is there even such a thing? And if there is, will they actually fit in, or forever be an outcast, neither hob nor man? I tend to poke at such questions with my character backstories. 34. Do you tend pick weapons/spells for being useful or for flavor? Everything is useful, since everything is always situational. If you plan only for situations in which you are going to kill every living thing, then you shouldn't pick something like Rope Trick, or Magic Circle. But you do you. I very much dislike decoupling "flavour" from functionality. This is a game of make-belief, so everything you do is flavour. The mechanics are an abstraction of a fantastic reality, and though inherently important to the working of the game (without rules, it would merely be improvisation, which is also a kind of game, but schwa), it is all flavour. People that brag about how much average damage they can do with this or that specific build tire me. 35. How much roleplay do you like to do? All of the roleplay! But please let me punt goblins into the garbage sometimes!

[ooey-and-gooey]

Here is Ran’s bio!

Name: Ran Minamoto

Gender: female

Age: depends on what point in the story, usually 16 in RP

Ssxuality: Bisexual

Occupation: student

Height: 5'4

“Hair” color: cool purple

Eye color: inverted black eyes with yellow pupils

Narionality: Japanese

School: UA

Hero Stuff- Hero/Villain Name: Ran (undecided)

Costume:(none yet)

Quirk: Goo

Weapons: a whip

Personality- Personality: Ran is a very passionate person, the kind of passionate that only pages and pages of essays and debates could help with. She has strong ideals of being a hero and sticks by them closely. She is observant and quick thinking. She knows what she can handle and is the type of person so try almost anything once. The girl is friendly to everyone except those who have- in her eyes - skewed morals/ideals. Ran gives off a very chill vibe most of the time except when it comes to her academics and career, as well as her ideals, any other time she will go with the flow. She’s an extrovert and acts very cool though when she is alone, can be very obsessive. Ran is very very paranoid. She spends most of her time researching things about her parents and such and barely get much sleep. Her calm and collected facade is brought on with people surrounding her - That is when she is the most relaxed. If it were not for her baggage, Ran would probably act this way always. She is easy going and a risk taker around people, but a mess when not.

Likes: pro heroes, social media, winning debates, writing, being listened to, talking, supporting her friends, passionate people, people on journeys, cats, researching, breakthroughs

Dislikes: her parents, people who follow the ideals of stain, stains ideals, villains, people with weak ideals, people easily swayed or persuaded, the crowd mentality

Interests: writing, reading, presenting speeches, sparring Fears: Society changing for the worst, being vulnerable, failure

Goals: - Ran would very much like to confront her parents and try to argue with them -She would like to be the one to capture her parents -She wants to be an influencer, weather that means being a big role model as a hero or trying to become a teacher, she’s all for it - Ran wants to make sure she is known. She makes it a point to make good first impressions so that she is never forgotten thus her ideals are never forgotten.

Family- Parents: Haruhi and Kazuhiko

Siblings: none Relationships-

Friends: Maki Aiko, Maki Harumi, Hitoshi Shinsou

Crush: hmmm

Enemies: her parentsahaha ~~~Quirk~~~ Quirk name: slime Description: 80% of her body is made of the goo like texture you see. She has basic organs and can function like a normal human being however most of her fat, muscle, and other parts are made of the substance. She can transfer her mass but is limited to a simple human body shape. The only removable part of her body is her hair, which she can rip parts of and stick places.

Strengths: most projectiles will not affect her, mostly just getting stuck in her. She can change her appearance. She is a quick thinker and knows what bite would be too much for her to chew. Has a high pain tolerance as some attacks (with blunt objects) can bounce off of her. She can become slippery?

Weaknesses: She lacks in one on one combat and full frontal attacks. She can get carried away with emotion in some cases which causes her wits to become faulty. She can be affected by projectile attacks if they go all the way through her. She does not do well in intense heat, can melt without being about to control it.

Costume description: she wears a tough material (usual hard to rip, water resistant and fire resistant fabric) as a leotard. Her shoes/ankles, bracelets, belt, and rubber band are actually hidden whips - each rectangular shape being a handle. (In her shoes’ case, the handles are built into the sole of the shoe). Her whips are gold in color. Her leotard extends in a drippy pattern to her legs. In the chest area of her leotard, there is a teardrop shaped keyhole though it is placed above her neck and is only there for decoration. (Its not there to show her breasts, That’s why it’s places a litter higher)

Character summary: Ran was raised by her parents for a short amount of time. Because they had seemed so busy with their “work” - some undescribed business they run- Ran was mostly watched after by her grandmother. The family lived in her grandmother’s house, all seeming to get along somewhat. Her parents raised her with a specific set of ideals, telling her to think for herself, to always question authority and question what the general public thought was right. Though she didn’t have much say, this was suspicious to Ran’s grandmother. Years of week long business trips and the occasional conflict between the parents and Ran’s grandmother flew by. This would lead to Ran being a sort of mature child, that tried to keep as in-the-know as possible whenever her parents were leaving and weren’t leaving - that way if she had needed them to be somewhere, she would or wouldn’t get her hopes up. Suspicion began to grow as the windows in which her parents were absent began to grow. This tense curiosity would breech it’s breaking point for Ran’s grandmother when an event was exposed on the news. Some sort of group, terrorizing the city and trying to spread their message- down with hero society. When the leaders of this group were identified, it was Ran’s house that was searched endlessly and the two were questioned. Of course both Ran and her grandmother had no idea what had happened, nor did they even know that both these people had the capability to do such an act. Though the event did not kill anyone, it did injure some with the use of firework-like bombs and some thick smoke that flooded the area. After this horrendous event, Ran’s grandmother was left to care for Ran. At this point, Ran had some vague idea of what was happening, though never asked her grandma about it- feeling she would receive no answer. Ran grew up very loving with her grandma. She was very close to the woman and acted as good as any kid could, though had always been mature for her age. Ran’s parents were on the run, though would most likely never return. As time went on, Ran became more and more interested in the ideas of justice and what it meant to be a hero. At first she was not fascinated by the glamor of heroes, their desire to help people, or the fame, but by the concepts behind it. She had become deeply interested in philosophies of what it meant to be a hero and though she had some mincsule problems about the hero industry, she decided what better way to change it for the better, than to become a hero herself. She also took interest in past crimes and organizations, wanting to be knowledgeable on all potential threats. This was when she had found out about her parents, leaders of some dangerous cult, once that had caused harm then vanished. This wasn’t the biggest effect on Ran, only taking her a couple months to get completely over. They had probably fled the country or something, and she wasn’t even particularly attached to them. With her interest in heroes now becoming a full on blossom, Ran found some interest in the genuine ideals of a hero- helping people and making people feel safe. And so, she had applied for U.A, general studies of course. Though she was excited to become a U.A. student, she hasn’t felt like she could transfer into the hero courses just yet. She hasn’t had much time to train and by entrance exams, the gooey girl wasn’t ready. After being accepted into the general studies, Ran worked extra extra hard to make sure she would be able to at least make an impression at the sports festival. In general studies, the girl found a friend in Hitoshi, who seemed to be one of the most, in her opinion, genuine people she’d ever known. The two hold a tight companionship. Around the time of her first getting in, Ran received a letter on her doorstep. This was one of the few letters that was ever addressed to her. Too early to be an entrance exam result, Ran was confused by its presence. Upon opening this mysterious note, she found it was sent from none other than her parents. A sort of “Good luck! :) We’re keeping an eye on you and Gramma!” Letter, which caused Ran to spiral into a paranoid state. Research and research and connecting the dots online led her to hints that the group might still be active. Rather than going to her grandma for help, Ran decided to take matters into her own hands. Apart from training, Ran protects her property as best she can, swearing that she will always take care of her grandmother and if her parents decide to somehow do harm to her, she’ll be ready for it. Though, the way that her grandma acted had made Ran feel she knew what was going on.

Fun fact #1: Ran must keep her PH from becoming too acidic. If she comes in contact with something too acidic, she may involuntarily melting. She may use this to her advantage though! Ran had a certain party trick where she will get everyone to gather around her. She demonstrates how her mouth looks, sticks out her tongue, takes a gulp of the freshest soda she can found, swirl it around in her mouth and swallow. She will then show everyone the damage it does on her mouth (mainly her tongue) which becomes a slimey and dripping mess. People usually react in disgust to this or think it’s really cool.

Also I’m always always always open to RP! I love OCs and I do literate RP so :^) RP also helps my characters develop more soo Thank you for reading!! Have an amazing day!!