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criticalrolo · 2 years ago

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level one, prep, and tpk; secret and heart for sigrun

Level One: What was your first experience with D&D? How did you hear about it? What was your first game like?

My first experience was DMing a one shot LOL

I had just gotten really into critical role in 2016, and was nearly caught up, when some of my friends (who didn't know I was currently Hyperfixating On DnD) actually casually brought up that they'd never played dnd before but it sounded like fun. They just needed someone to run the game since no one there really knew the rules. Cue me jumping into the conversation being like, "HAHAHAH HeyyyYyy you guys wanna play some dnd and need someone to run it? as it JUST SO HAPPENS, I know the rules and would LOOOVE to try running a game hahahaha..."

So I prepped more for that one shot than I ever did for any session ever, it was a level 1 4 hour game where I made everyone character sheets, bought dice sets for everyone, and had them clear out a wizard's basement filled with giant rats. It was REALLY fun, no one seemed to catch on that i ALSO had no idea what i was doing, and afterwards I asked if they would be interested in a Longer Campaign. I had a couple takers, and that first campaign ran for probably about five sessions before the school year ended, so nothing too wild happened, but after that I got some real games set up and ... here we are several years later :)

Prep: How much prep work do you do? How far out do you prep?

I do like... 1-3 hours of prep work before each individual session. And even then, it's mostly like... finding maps and stat blocks for NPCs. I go into each Arc that I run with a general outline in mind for what big beats I want to have happen, but otherwise I let each session progress based on what the PCs decide to do. It's definitely a combination of laying down tracks vs improv on the fly, but so far it's worked out for me! Having a really loose style has definitely helped make the story feel organic and player choice-oriented while still keeping things moving in the direction I'm hoping it'll go. And it gives flexibility for when players do things WILDLY unexpected!

TPK: Have you ever had a game go completely off the rails? TPK? How did you adjust?

I've come CLOSE to some TPKs but the players juuuust managed to squeak by, which is always my favorite kind of vibe. It's way harder to plan for that than you'd think when you've been DMing for 7 PCs for so long LOL

Honestly I don't think I've had anything go completely off the rails, or even really come Close to being that out of control? I've definitely had players make WILD choices that altered the course of FUTURE sessions, but my DMing style allows for a lot of flexibility I think, so I've never really been. THROWN by anything if that makes sense. I always LOVE it when the players make choices that Alter The Narrative Entirely.

My favorite example is when a friend of mine playing a cleric who was devoted (by accident) to Chaos, decided at the last second, in game, to NOT accept the help of their Chaos God and decided to just DIE instead. We had worked out a plan for her corruption arc!! It was going to be sick!! But apparently in the moment, during a big fight against a really difficult Boss, she looked around at her friends and decided her character would actually rather die than become corrupted and potentially break the world/hurt her friends. it was INSANE and COMPLETELY changed the next arc of the campaign since Ethros. DIED and couldn't be revived. And I loved it and we worked out a whole new arc for Ethros later :)

Secret: Is there anything that you know about your character but your character doesn’t know? What is it? How did you come up with this secret?

AUGH YES -- this was actually something that happened in game. From her backstory, Sigrun's village was attacked by raiders and she nearly died in the assault. She was healed by a strange figure she didn't recognize, swore an oath to what she Believed To Be the old gods to get revenge for them, and then this figure gave her Daisy and sent her off to safety.

NOW SIGRUN DOESN'T KNOW THIS... but that figure was actually her dad Osvald. who was sent forward in time by the Old God of Negentropy. to fulfill his wish to protect her. So I was playing Osvald at the time in a mini campaign, got this wish, and wished to Protect Sigrun. Then the DM narrated Osvald getting sent into the future, and I realized it was a scene from SIGRUN'S backstory, and I promptly lost my mind casting cure wounds on her and find familiar to give her Daisy. it was SOOOO GOOD

Heart: What drives your character? Do they have a theme, question, mission, etc. that they’re holding onto? How did you pick it for them?

Sigrun's character absolutely revolves around the theme of Family, in all its messiness and love. What do you do when the people who raised you tried their best but couldn't give you what you needed? How do you feel about them? How do you deal with people leaving, with being alone, with them going off without you? What do you owe family, if anything?

She has this mission to rescue her family members (yes I do this backstory in different variations for like. all of my PCs. dont worry about it) who have all been taken by this interdimensional raiding group, but something she doesn't admit to herself is that she's somehow trying to rescue her Dead Father too. And maybe she's trying to rescue herself? She's got insane abandonment issues from the various family members Leaving (by choice or by force), and I think there's a part of her subconscious that desperately wishes someone had come back for her when she was little, so now she's trying to act out that wish by Rescuing Everyone Else.

#sigrun #dnd #GREAT questions im gonna go cry over my viking girl

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k--havok · 2 years ago

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Rane and Korzan's Fantastical Update 4

Date: March 13th, 2023

| One | Two | Three | Four |

R&FKA Tag List: @ceph-the-ghost-writer @authoralexharvey @dogmomwrites @saintedseraph @little-mouse-gardens @lola-theshowgrl

· ─── ❖︎· · ─────── ·❖︎· ─────── · ·❖︎❖︎❖︎· · ─────── ·❖︎· ─────── · ·❖︎ ─── ·

It's been a while!

I've been super tired and busy the past few weeks. I'm working OT basically all March, which is def. odd for my career, which means it was too good to pass up. Also I've been trying to learn how to ride a bike (yes I am 25 lol) and working on my mental health. All of that together has left me with basically no will to write.

But! I did manage to finish Chapter 6 of Rane and Korzan and I hope to start on Chapter 7 this week as well. Mayhaps even finish if I can find the time to! We shall see.

Working on Rane and Korzan has really made me feel better about my first drafts. I find that it's been a lot easier to kinda let go and not worry about the things I am writing. I also think its been easier since Rane and Korzan have a pretty external conflict, while a lot of my other works tend to be more internal, which is a lot more difficult for me to write. But I am getting there.

When it comes to planning vs pantsing, I've always struggled with all of the above. When I pants, I lose steam in the middle. When I outline I ALSO lose steam in the middle, but because the story tends to start doing its own thing and going off the rails, leaving my outline in the dust.

I know there is a middle ground, but I've never really found footing on it till now. Even tho there are things popping up in the story I didn't expect, it's not making me go off the rails or even freak out. In fact, it's helped me build out some of the side plots, which help fill in the story and bring some interesting character interaction along with it!

Anyways! Excerpt from Chapter 6 under the cut! · ─── ❖︎· · ─────── ·❖︎· ─────── · ·❖︎❖︎❖︎· · ─────── ·❖︎· ─────── · ·❖︎ ─── ·

As soon as the two left the temple, Rane released her grip on Korzan’s wrist. “You know, antagonizing those who just healed me isn’t the best course of action to win the trust of these townsfolk.”

“As if they would trust me anyways,” Korzan said with a grumble. “Besides, what cleric allows local bureaucracy stop her from tending to those in need?”

Rane pinched the bridge of her nose. “Well, it sounds like we have more people to talk to now. We should find this captain. He may know more.”

Korzan grunted.

As the two began their return to the town, a slow and wry smile crept up upon Rane’s lips. She couldn’t quite bite down on her small, amused chortle. She eyed the tiefling from the corner of her hazel eyes, shaking her head.

“What?” Korzan asked when her glances became too much.

“And you said that we should leave these people to their own problems. And now you are arguing with clerics regarding their sense of duty to help others. I suppose it is a bit hypocritical, is it not?”

“Not at all. I am no cleric and don’t live here. I have no duty to these townsfolk.”

“Of course.” Still, Rane’s amused smile refused to fall.

#Rane and Korzan's Fantastical Adventure #writeblr #d&d #dungeons and dragons #am writing #R&KFA #writers on tumblr #snippet #lanx writes #my writing

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100dayproductivity · 2 years ago

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Day 13/100.

Well, I started this post yesterday, hoping it would motivate me to accomplish something before the end of the day, but it did not. Here's as far as I got:

Still so tired but I'll try to at least get started on the next project.

So my kitchen cabinets have been trimmed with crown moulding. I've never been a fan of it (the house came with this kitchen when I moved into it, the cabinets were not my choice). I've always wondered whether I'd like the cabinets better without the moulding or if it would look worse (I really don't care for the cabinets generally). The cabinets are really not the right style to go with crown moulding.

I wasn't sure how difficult it would be to remove the moulding. Turns out, not that difficult at all. I started removing them a few weeks ago, before I started this Tumblog.

The most time-consuming part of the process is cleaning the tops of the cabinets. It's really difficult/impossible to clean behind the moulding and you can't even see anything unless you get a ladder and practically crawl up there. With the moulding removed, I can see everything. A couple of decades worth of dust and sticky cooking grease residue. Disgusting.

The blue arrow is pointing to the section of cabinet that has had the moulding removed. The tops are now cleeean 😊

The red arrows are pointing to the crown moulding. This is what I plan to continue on with removing.

Alright. So new day, new me. Here's a closer look at the section of cabinet I want to work on next.

First, I'll need to take everything down from there, and while I'm at it, I want to do a purge.

For instance, there's this bottle of moonshine.

It's a type of Hungarian-style liquor called pálinka. It's normally made with orchard fruit, such as peaches, plums, cherries, apples or pears. This one was made with caraway seeds. Different.

Anyway, long story short, it's not good. But I feel bad just throwing it down the drain. I'm not sure what proof it is, or was, but it was pretty strong. Like, 40% alcohol content at least, but hard to say since it was homemade. (Not by me; I won it at a community fundraising silent auction. And for the record, it tasted nice when I first opened it, but after a week the essence was gone and it just tasted like diluted rubbing alcohol.) Pálinka can be anywhere from 40-70% ABV (alcohol by volume). Can it be used as a disinfectant?

Which brings me to one of my covid lockdown projects. Homemade pine cleaner. (Lol. Remember when we had all kinds of time on our hands?)

So... way back in 2020, during the Christmas holidays, I came into the possession of a real Christmas tree. I am firmly in camp Real Trees Are Bad, so I never buy one. But a neighbour ended up with two because of a clerical error. It got passed to another neighbour, who then offered it to me. It was an enormous tree!

Now, because I'm in camp Real Trees Are Bad, I was determined to make the most of this tree's ultimate sacrifice. I used the branches I trimmed off to decorate my front porch railings. After fresh snow fell, it was just lovely.

I kept the tree up for a few weeks, past Orthodox Christmas on January 7th (I am not an Orthodox Christian, I celebrate Christmas on December 25th).

After I finally took the tree down, I cut it up and made a decorative winter planter out of the trunk (cut into three pieces) and most of the branches.

I was left with some smaller sprigs and loose needles. I put those in a large pickle jar, poured vinegar over it, and stuck it in the back of the fridge. Later I added some grapefruit peel to it. And then I let it do its thing. And sort of forgot about it.

Occasionally when the fridge was nearly empty, I'd see the pine needle jar sitting there at the back and consider doing something about it, but I wasn't really sure what the next step was. So I just left it. That's what I usually do when I'm not sure about what to do with something.

In the meantime, I would also look at the bottle of moonshine pálinka and consider what to do with it, and I thought, "Should I add the moonshine to the pine cleaner?" I would feel better about that than just dumping it out.

And so now here we are today. I'm finally going to do something about the pine cleaner.

It smells VERY strong. I put on an N95 mask and a cloth mask over top of that. I wore gloves (is this stuff toxic??) And I used tools that will not be used for food in the future: a plastic container from the recycling bin, an old mug with a broken handle, disposable wooden chopsticks, old rags, a small piece of screen door/window mesh.

I used the chopsticks to take the grapefruit peel and sprigs out of the jar, and the mesh to strain out the rest. I put the mesh over the plastic container and scooped mugfuls out of the jar. Then put the mesh over the mouth of the jar and poured it all back in for a second pass.

And voilà!

Now I'm going to put it back in the fridge and let it sit for another two years while I think about what the next step is. 😂🤣

#100 days of productivity #homemade #cleaner #pine needles #recycling #reuseandrecycle #upcycle #cleaning with vinegar #grapefruit #pomelo #vinegar #moonshine #pálinka

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c-is-for-circinate · 3 years ago

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Episode! One! Reaction!

Oh wow I am not used to the 1 AM thing any more, I got so used to actually sleeping, wow.

Okay just rattling some thoughts off, here we go:

I love all four of our new characters so much? Like, so much that I almost regret the returning characters we also have, not because I don't also love them but because what if we had more of this. (But soon they'll all be this together, whatever this turns out to be.)

I am so serious about class as a major theme of this campaign. Like, obviously it's only episode one! who knows! But I'm feeling something-something-solidarity-something out of our new characters, and Bertrand Bell intersects with that in some really interesting ways, and I think I really want it?

Because right, you could tell from episode one of the last campaign that this was an outsider narrative! This overarching, constant theme that we carried through for a hundred and twenty-odd episodes was that this was a motley group of people who don't fit anywhere. The goblin in the mask, the cleric of a forbidden god, the traveling carnival that nobody trusts which can only stay so long and not longer -- it was about social isolation, about being alone, and having the chance to find a handful of other people to be weird outsiders with. (And yes, of course the final big bad at the end of the campaign was assimilation. Of course it was.)

And the thing is: that's not what we have, here.

(oh no, episode one meta got long, Read More after the cut)

Our characters starting out here -- and I'm leaving the EXU trio to the side for a moment, I'll get to them later -- are poor. And they're poor in a different way than newbie adventurers often are. They're not just temporarily strapped for cash until they take the next easy-to-come-by job that will set them up for life. They are poor in lifestyle, in resources, in connections, in socioeconomic power, and in a way that suggests this is and has been and, were it not for today's events, would continue to be a long-term thing.

And also: They are not wealthy, they are not important, they are not respected. But they are also, even outside their own party, not alone.

I love Imogen and Laudna so fucking much, already. Everything about their vibe speaks to long comfortable companionship, not of the 'we rely on each other for codependent survival' way (which, face it, is as much pre-game Vax and Vex as it is pre-game Nott and Caleb), but in a 'we know and share each other's problems' sort of way, a comfortable sort of way. They're not busy trying to caretake one another or step in front of each other's bullets, they're just on the same page about goals and steps to reach them.

They're not set up in opposition to the world. They're very much part of the world. They buy groceries for their landlady, they do her dishes, she knits them socks! They try so hard to go through official channels for these university resources. And yes, they're different, they're not from around here, they're a little weird, Imogen hears thoughts and Laudna looks like death, but. "We've done well for ourselves here," they say, and they mean it. And what that means to them is, we have a warm and comfortable place to call home, and a person who welcomes us there and doesn't charge more for rent than we can afford. We have enough to live on and we haven't been chased out of town on a rail.

And like, just that, just with that, we're already making class statements. We're already setting up a situation where these two ladies, who don't have money, who don't have influence or relations, who aren't important, can't get access to a resource they need (for whatever reason). (Which--it sure seems like the resource they're looking for is knowledge about their own magical powers, which, y'know, fun magic bonuses aside, sure seem to work a lot like disabilities for them in at least a couple of ways. Socioeconomic gatekeeping access to disability resources? In my fantasy fiction? It's more likely than you think.)

And then we get Ashton and FCG, and the fucking queer punk group house that is inhabited by too many people with not quite enough money to pay the cheap-ass rent that doesn't quite cover repair work for the holes in the walls, not really enough of anything to go around, but also someone found a half-broken robot in a pile of dead bodies and brought it home and now we have one more roommate because sure, why not, right? Ashton's all surface cynicism and sour bite, but they know people. They network! They live gig-economy style, one payday to the next, and they know who to talk to for the possibility of work, dozens of people know Ashton by name and general skill set. Ashton knows them all by name right back. And for all their cynicism and pretense of not caring, they've adopted FCG entirely: here, this is my new robot friend, this is the new guy, this is what they can do, this is what they're looking for. Here, let me show you around town, let me tell you what to expect, you're cool, I like you. (And right, part of this is Taliesin, who is literally incapable of creating a character that doesn't have a place and a community, family or otherwise, broken or otherwise, to belong to. But Percy's family was dead and Caduceus's family was gone, and Molly's circus broke and shattered and left him. Ashton's community is an entire neighborhood, is businesses and individuals and fundamental socioeconomics. He may have to leave it for a while, but it's going to still be there, unless the entire neighborhood burns. In which case we really are looking at total class warfare.)

And ok, let's talk about class warfare for a minute. Let's talk Bertrand Bell.

I am so fucking fascinated by the choice to revive Bertrand Bell, of all characters, for this campaign. And I love the role he's playing here.

Bertrand Bell is a con man. He's a charlatan. He once got dragged through literal Pandemonium and back because he bragged too much and got called out on it. He has always pretended to know more than he really knows, to be able to do more than he really can, getting by on bluff and swagger and a very impressive sword. But now? Well, he's older, now. He's not level 18 any more. He's a level 5 fighter. He's got to work to stay up with the lifestyle to which he's accustomed, let alone grind towards the lifestyle to which he's always aspired to become accustomed.

So he drops names, he makes deals, he tries so damn hard to ingratiate himself to the upper class, the people he wants to be with. And they don't respect him at all, because of course they don't, because they're elderly in secure luxury and he's elderly but still on that hustle, because he doesn't have the resources to put it down. And his solution to his dilemma, very pertinently, is to prey on people with even fewer resources than himself.

I absolutely believe the aspersions cast on 'did Bertrand Bell set up the whole animated-objects debacle to try and lure some promising adventurers'. One hundred percent, I believe it. He jumped on them the instant the fight was over. He was obviously desperate, given his reception at Lord E's manor. It is painfully transparent how much he thinks he needs this, and it doesn't even seem to be a case of blackmail or gambling debts or threats hanging over him or any of that. Lord E would've been happy enough to never see him again. The only bad thing that happens to Bertrand Bell if he doesn't summon up this group of baby adventurers to sacrifice on the altar of upward mobility is that...he doesn't get what he wants. Doesn't get the resources he thinks he needs, the money, the clout, the status, the attention.

And that's an interesting story! That's a really interesting force to be putting up alongside a team of people who, for the most part, largely just seem to be trying to get by. I can't wait to see where they go with it.

I did promise to come back around to our EXU trio, too, so let's get into that. They've got a lot of interesting potential here, maybe especially Dorian, though we'll see how long he's sticking around for. (He's a born-and-raised very rich kid, from this general region of the globe, who left his family for Complicated Reasons and clearly has unresolved feelings about the wealth he came from. Interesting.) Mostly, though, what we see from Fearne and Orym is an outsider perspective on the entire system. Fearne and Orym aren't part of the class structure of this city. They're tourists. Foreigners. Adventurers, and if we've seen anything over on Tal'dorei, it's that "adventurer" is its own socioeconomic class entirely. (The details of which I think are due when it's not two in the morning.)

Adventurers don't worry about the day-to-day basic economics of survival -- there's always another monster to kill if you need cash, or a wealthy patron to spot you an airship or an inn, or a vault to loot, or something. Fearne steals a man's earring for fun and shinies, not money. An adventurer doesn't have to rely on the goodwill of one city's community just to live in, because they can travel anywhere. They bring their own community in the form of their party, and never leave home without it.

Orym and Fearne especially don't come from socioeconomic backgrounds that look anything like this city even before they became adventurers. Druid communes or feywild villages don't have a lot in common with urban class stratification! Which means that they're going to be learning a lot of this stuff for the very first time, seeing some of it reflecting on their fellow party members, and building their relationships with it anew. How do tourists fit in with a local socioeconomic system? Either they fund it from the outside with their presence, or they assimilate.

Anyway. Maybe I'm wrong! Maybe none of these themes or ideas will ever come back again. But I'm feeling very 2021 right now, with all that entails, and it's making me think that maybe-just-maybe this story's feeling it too. Why not tell a story about eating the rich before the rich can devour the poor? I'd be up for that. I'd be up for watching CR do that.

(Of course, given that it's a quarter after two in the morning and I still care enough to finish this post, I'd be up for watching CR do a lot of things. Still. The point stands.)

#C watches critical role #cr spoilers #driveby meta attack #critrole #fuck how the hell did I tag these

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words-writ-in-starlight · 3 years ago

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day 1: "bound"

Essek cannot, in honesty, say that he is paying attentiong to anything being said right now. He should be—this is his trial, after all, his death sentence, the axe finally starting to fall—but he isn’t. He’s made his confession, did all he could to exonerate anyone who might be caught in the crossfire, offered the names of his co-conspirators. There is no defense to offer that the Bright Queen would consider worth hearing.

Indeed, laying it all out again has reminded Essek that I am a selfish and overcurious man, and thought nothing of it is not exactly an exculpatory defense, even if she did hear it.

So, Essek feels that his involvement here is complete, is the truth. All he has left to do at this trial is still be sitting bound and compliant in the accused’s seat when they sentence him to die, and he can do that without listening.

On a strictly professional level, he finds that he’s impressed with the efficiency of his arrest. He estimates that it’s probably no later than five hours past noon. He was called to an emergency meeting at the palace perhaps six hours ago. In that time, he has been accused of treason, thoroughly countered in an escape attempt, stripped of all spell components or possible weapons, and brought to the throne room to face the Bright Queen’s justice. Quana Kryn, the Dusk Captain of so many lifetimes, is no fool—she did all her work in secret, and only arranged for his arrest when she was sure that her case was beyond reproach.

She did her work well, Essek is obliged to admit, if only in the privacy of his own thoughts. And anything that she didn’t already know, he told them himself, under the strongest truth magic the clerics of the Luxon could muster. He had worked alone, after all. His confession meant that Verin, that the Nein, could walk free, and he freely admitted as much when his willingness to talk became the subject of question.

The Bright Queen had given him a look of cool, weary disappointment, and remarked that it was a shame he had come to loyalty so late. He had said frankly that he agreed, and that was the last they had asked of him.

And since then, he hasn’t been listening.

Instead, he is thinking. Not about magic, nor even really about saving himself. Essek has been living on borrowed time since the moment he walked out with a Beacon in hand, and he’s known it. He wants to live, but this feels—inevitable. This feels like it’s already over, and Essek is only dreaming this trial, these chains, and this sentence. So his mind wanders, and he’s surprised to find that there are more fond places in his memory than others, these days.

He’s thinking about the new cat that Caleb recently adopted, a scrawny gray-and-black kitten that Caleb coaxed with scraps for a week until it trusted him enough to be touched and taken inside off the street.

He’s thinking about how Caleb promised Luc that he could name it, next time the Brenattos visited Rexxentrum.

He’s thinking about Fjord and Jester making port in Nicodranas in a month, and Beau breaking into their study to sit on Caleb’s desk with Urana, the dainty black cat Essek brought Caleb two years ago, in her lap, just to tell them that they were going to teleport everyone to the Chateau for dinner.

He’s thinking about sunlight, strangely, and the way it glows on Caleb’s hair, makes the freckles on his eternally windburned cheeks bright on his skin, turns his blue eyes piercing and warm. Sunlight speaks with a Zemnian accent, in Essek’s life, and he might be the first drow in a long time to wish he was going to see it again before he dies.

Essek is so absorbed in his own thoughts, in refusing to listen to the voices deciding on the method of his death in favor of the memories of other voices, full of joy and exasperation and playful outrage and affection, that at first he assumes he’s imagining the words in his ear.

“Heeeeeeey, Essek, it’s me,” Jester chirps, and he can picture her sitting on the rail of the ship, kicking her feet and making Fjord count for her. “Just wanted to say hi, ummmm, we saw a whale yesterday that could have swallowed us whole! Let me know how—”

Essek almost curses himself aloud for not having thought of this.

Jester doesn’t Send to him every day, not all the time. Maybe one in three, on average. Sometimes she’ll go a week without Sending at all, and other times—usually when they’re becalmed somewhere and she’s bored—he’ll get three messages a day. She’s charmingly blasé about relative times, between the Lucidian and their landbound homes, or at least, Essek reminds himself that it’s charming when she wakes him up from a deep sleep. He had no way of knowing that she would Send to him here, now, and now she has, and he has no idea what to do.

Essek needs to answer her, though.

The reality of his situation—it doesn’t set in, all at once, abruptly. He’s been well aware of the reality of his situation for some time now. But the reality of this aspect, this unforeseen complication, comes home immediately.

If Essek doesn’t answer her, Jester will assume something is wrong. If she assumes something is wrong, she will either hammer him with Sendings until he responds, or, more likely, go directly to Caleb and demand his help in reaching Essek. He loves his friends desperately, but they have never encountered the idea of a half-measure, and he doubts the feeble protection offered by his confession will keep them from being apprehended as traitors if they actually come and try to rescue him.

If Essek had more time to think, he might take a moment to bask in the warmth of being a person whose friends might try to rescue him. But he doesn’t have time, and he doesn’t have the luxury of letting this slide.

He can’t risk them.

Essek raises both his bound hands and scratches at his brow, hiding his mouth.

“I’m sorry, Jester, I’m in a meeting,” he murmurs, so quietly he can barely hear himself. He keeps his voice as calm and matter-of-fact as possible, just like the times when she really has interrupted a council meeting or the like. “I may be quite busy for a week or so. I will Send to you when I can.”

There’s a pause, and then her voice comes back, dramatically forlorn.

“But Essek, we miss youuuuu,” she whines, and then bursts into giggles. “We really do! Send when you have time, and stay out of trouble! Love you!” She pauses again, and then hums tunelessly until the spell runs out.

“Essek Thelyss,” the Bright Queen says, her voice ringing across the throne room like struck crystal. “Rise, and receive your judgement.”

“I will,” Essek whispers, and then lowers his hands, and stands to face his sentence.

#whumptober 2021 #no. 1 #bound #critical role #mighty nein #fic #essek thelyss #this one has multiple parts!#stay tuned for later updates further into october!#i am trying to like...not think myself into a corner too much about these #please do not worry about my handwaved plot it is there exclusively for my convenience #anyway i like this because the bindings in question are both literal and figurative and i love that for essek #anyway i don't understand how whumptober works so i'm just straight up not titling them except with 'day 1' etc #and the with the prompt i used #they will get titles later when i collate them into an ao3 collection after the event #i do NOT anticipate getting to every single one of these by the way. so reserve your expectations to a healthful level.

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sweetdanibear · 4 years ago

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~How the Haikyuu boys would react to you accidentally hurting them during sexy time~ fem reader

Warnings: Smut: Daddy kink, choking, edging, over stimulation, squirting,dacryphilia(crying), breeding, praising, degrading, hierophilia(fetish of being sexually attracted to religious and sacred objects or figure) God Complex. Usage of the words “Pastor(name” In a sexual manner, and “You’re my god (name)” also “Father(name)”

Word count: 2458

Request: Open!

Side note: If you want me to make a longer version involving any of the kinks used with the characters don’t be afraid to ask!

Side side note: For hierophilia(fetish of being sexually attracted religious and sacred objects) I used it with Tsukishima. The reader got him into the religious kink. What gave me this idea, was a fan fiction. Where Tsukishima dressed as a clergyman, and forced his sub to recite bible versus, as he destroyed their cunt. I do not know Tsukishima’s religion, but I did base it around Catholicism

Side side side note: The Oikawa one is a bit crunchy I’m so sorry

I absolutely loved that idea, and wanted to try it out. Please don’t hate too much lol! I’m not trying to mock anyone's religion at all!

I also lack the knowledge of religion, so I tried my best with research!

Also I’m so sorry, I don’t know how to do the “keep reading thing, I’m so sorry😭”

Ushijima Wakatoshi

He’s just drilling your pussy.

He hasn’t even really talked to much, his dick does all the talking anyways

He had been edging you for about two hours now, and you were currently begging to cum.

Finally he allows you.

Your legs are on his shoulder, and his back is straight, he’s gripping your hips with his large left hand, and rubbing your swollen clit with his right, to help push you over the edge.

Things are going good.

Your back arches, you cry out in pleasure, and finally cum all over his throbbing cock, and squirt on his hand.

But he didn’t stop, he just kept rubbing your clit

You tried to beg him to stop because your body couldn’t take much more, but poor boy didn’t listen

Wakatoshi had a slight smirk plastered on his face. He has been edging you for over two hours, every time you were about to cum, he denied you the satisfaction of releasing all over his throbbing cock.

“That’s it princess..Take it. Take this cock..” Wakatoshi gently bit his lip, and sent another thrust into your aching cunt. He looked down at your beat red face. Tears staining your cheeks, some hair attached to your cheeks, and forehead due to all the sweat.

“Please! Please Daddy! Please! Let me cum! I’m begging you! Oh god please Daddy!” You tried your hardest to cry out loudly but your voice was so strained from the beginning, and moaning you’ve been doing for the past two hours.

Wakatoshi looked down at you, and finally gave in. “Since you’ve been such a good, good, girl. Cum. Cum for your daddy.” Wakatoshi moved his right hand to your clit pressing down on the sensitive bud, he rubbed his fingers in a circular motion then sped up his pace. “Don’t be shy now princess.” Wakatoshi whispered in a rugged voice right next to your ear before fixing his posture again so he could look down on you.

The pleasure shot through your body. Your spongy walls tightening around his thick warm cock trying to keep him from moving out. Your eyes roll to the back of your head letting out a loud cry of pleasure. “Daddy!!~” You slur the name for your boyfriend, and start to pant heavily. Seconds after you cum around his cock, you start to squirt all over his hand.

Wakatoshi quickly moves his hand away from your clit, watching your juices coat his pelvis, his cock, and even the lower part of his abs.

Watching you get so messy, he goes feral and rubs your clit again. He doesn’t even understand how much he’s abused your pretty little cunt.

“Daddy! Daddy stop! Gah!~” You let out a strained moan at the end, and your body naturally tries to get away from the over stimulation. Your leg unintentionally jerks, and that’s when it happens.

Your leg jerks, smacking your heel under his jaw.

You could feel your heart absolutely stop. “Toshi!” You quickly sit up, and notice he hasn’t even moved. “T-Toshi...? Baby?” Your heart still feels like it hasn’t even started beating again.

Wakatoshi slowly pulls out from your aching cunt, and just stares off. Finally he reacts. He rubs under his chin, then presses a finger to his tongue. He pulled the finger from his mouth, and it had a bit of blood. In seconds his tongue swells up. “D-da, weally hurt-” Wakatoshi quickly stopped talking after hearing how ridiculous he sounded.

Wakatoshi narrowed his eyes, shooting daggers at you seeing you try to hold back a laugh.

You quickly cover your mouth after hearing him speak. “Awe baby! Don’t worry I’ll take care of you!” You slowly stand up, and wince slightly at the pain but you simply ignore it, and grab your robe.

You wrap your robe on, then help Wakatoshi lay down. “Let me go get you some ice..I’m assuming you’re done for tonight?” You ask while walking out of the room.

You grab a zip lock bag filling it with crushed ice then sealing it up. You wrap a thin towel over the bag, then grab four bottles of water. You walk back into the bedroom seeing Wakatoshi still glaring.

“Baby~~ I said I was sorry!“ You let out a soft huff then hand him the ice. You place down the water, then get between his legs.

“Calm down baby~ I’ll take care of you..” You give your boyfriend a devious smirk, and bring your head down to his still erected member taking it into your mouth, and sucking on the head of his member, giving him some special treatment, considering you did just kick him in the face.

Tsukishima Kei

Your face was being smothered in the navy blue silk pillow. Your ass was high in the air, and Kei was absolutely railing you.

Kei was wearing a black button up, with a clerical collar on. All the buttons on his shirt were undone except for the top one that was holding together the clerical collar.

Kei grabbed a fist full of your hair, and grabbed the gold chalice from the night stand. He finally stopped his brutal thrusting bringing the gold chalice to your plump swollen lips. “I think you deserve your reward now.” Inside the gold chalice was Kei’s thick warm cum.

“Th-Thank you Father Tsukishima...” You gently take the rim of the chalice between your lips, as he forces your head back. You take all of the cum into your mouth, drinking it all like a good saint.

Kei, pleased with you, decides to finally give you what you’ve been praying for all night.

Kei places the chalice back, and goes back to railing you but this time he’s rubbing your clit.

Kei rubs your clit at an uncomfortably fast pace, while resting his chin on your shoulder. “That’s it~ cum. Cum like a good little saint.”

Finally you cum all over his cock, squirting right after, all over the sheets, and his hand. You’re begging for him to stop but just like Wakatoshi he doesn’t. He just keeps it going.

Out of reaction, your leg kicks back. You smash your foot against his thigh, knocking him on top of you. His weight crushing you causes you to just collapse.

Kei had a nice tight grip on your shoulder with his left hand, while his right was smothering your face into the silk navy blue pillow. “That’s it! God you little sinner! Taking your pastor’s cock like such a slut.” Kei rutted deep inside you. His tip kissing your cervix, not long enough to touch it completely.

Kei ran his hand up the back of your head, then grabbed a fist full of your soft hair. Carefully pulling your head back. He snatched the gold chalice from the nightstand, and looked down at your exposed neck. “I think you deserve your reward now.”

“Th-Thank you Father Tsukishima..” You talk in a soft voice, trained to be a gentle talker, when in bed. Exception being your groans, and moans.

Kei brought the gold chalice to your lips, tipping the chalice. He watched as you quickly gulped up his warm thick cum, not wasting a single drop.

Pleased with you he decides to let you cum. “Good little saint. Now..You can cum.” Kei placed the chalice back, and grabbed a hold of your hips.

Kei pulled his cock from your aching cunt, watching it carefully. He did miss the warmth but that wasn’t going to stop him from teasing you. “Look at you..You’re so greedy, your little cunt, is pulsing around nothing. Desperate for something to fill it up. Oh well. I guess I should give in. You little sinner.”

Kei gripped your hips harder slamming his cock deep inside you, receiving a loud moan from you. Kei reached his hand down rubbing your clit at an uncomfortably fast pace.

“That’s it~ cum. Cum like a good little saint.” Kei rubs a bit faster then moving his fingers in a circular motion. Kei’s cock throbbed inside of you getting closer to cumming. He refused to cum first though.

You let out a loud cry of pleasure, throwing your head back, as your legs instinctively spread to get more of him. The veins on his cock rubbing against your walls perfectly. His tip pressing gentle kisses to your cervix despite the rough thrust. “Oh god!~ Pastor Tsukishima! Please! Please cum in me! Please I’ve been such a good saint!” You grip the silk pillow, releasing your cum all over his cock causing Kei to follow right behind.

Kei slowed down his fingers, letting out a long groan of pleasure. “F-Fuck! God I’ll fill you to the fucking brim bitch!” Kei tilted his head back feeling your cum drip down his member to his balls. Much to his surprise he then felt you squirt all over his fingers. He relaxed, as he came deep inside of you, filling you up with his thick hot cum. No doubt the sheets underneath you two were absolutely ruined.

Kei kept moving his fingers though, ignoring your pleas for him to stop. Kei was getting pretty cocky until your body twitches.

You just couldn’t control yourself, you needed to get away from the over stimulation. Your body naturally spasms, causing your leg to kick out as you cry out in pleasure.

Kei bit his lip pushing his glasses up with his left hand. The sudden kick threw him off causing him to fall forward, and on top of you.

You felt crushed underneath your boyfriend's weight. “O-Ow! Baby get off!” you let out a distressed sound.

Kei groaned in pain, at the way his body laid on you, and how his dick was situated in you. “Stop squirming! God damn it..” Kei carefully pulled his cock from your cunt, and watched as your mixed cum attached his cock to your aching cunt.

Kei took off his clerical collar then took off his shirt. “Are you alright baby?” Kei asked nervously, and watched as you nodded. “Good.” Kei flipped you over carefully then slid off his glasses putting them on the nightstand.

It didn’t even seem like that little disaster, even nicked his pride. “Now~ Where were we?” Kei let out a soft chuckle leaning down leaving open mouthed sloppy kisses on your neck. Listening to your cute little giggles, and your fingers running through his hair, that was a bit dirty from the sweat.

Oikawa Tōru

He was taking it slow. He was being all soft, telling you how precious you are. How beautiful, and perfect you are.

He was slowly fucking your warm, wet cunt.

It was heavenly, he was making you feel so special!

Until.

You fucked it all up by clawing at his pale back, and moaning out.

“A-Ah~ oh Tōru you’re a god~”

Instantly you regretted it.

Tōru had a mischievous shit eating grin right as those words left your mouth.

“A god huh? Well let your god show you how one would really fuck.”

That’s how it all started. He practically pressed your knees to your shoulders, and was using you like some cock sleeve.

You were being edged for a solid thirty minutes, until after begging, and begging, he allowed you to cum.

His pelvis was grinding against your swollen clit adding the friction you needed.

You didn’t even get a chance to cum, the way he grinded against your clit caused you to squirt all over his toned stomach, and over yourself, getting your juices on his cock as well.

He took that as your way of begging for more! So that’s just what he did.

Finally you couldn’t take it anymore.

Your eyes were squeezed tight, and you reached for his back but you were way off, and knocked him right in the nose, your nail cutting his cheek on accident.

Your head threw back, as you let out a loud cry of pleasure. “ Tōru!~ Ah!~ Slow down! Please! Please!“ Your pleading wasn’t being tolerated though by Tōru.

“Shush now my beautiful flower, just relax, and let your god take care of you.” Tōru pinned your arms down to the bed, and leaned down. He forced his thumb into your mouth, prying it open. Once getting your mouth open, he spit in your mouth having you swallow it. “That’s it baby..~ you dirty little whore.” Tōru gives you a mischievous smirk, and goes back to thrusting deeply inside you. Tōru made a grinding motion, his pelvis rubbing against your aching clit.

Your legs started to shake a little, and waves of pleasure were crashing over you. “You’re my God!” You cry out just to boost his ego.

You love how cocky Tōru can be, he’s happy and that’s all that matters but right now your little cunt was aching. “ Tōru~ slow down~ Please~” You find a way to finally quiet down a little. But the pleasure is so overwhelming.

Tōru looked down at you with a mischievous smirk. “Quit your bellyaching.” Tōru rolled his eyes then moved your legs so they were wrapped around his waist. Tōru rolled his hips rubbing against your slick walls, your heat was so inviting it had his eyes rolling into the back of his head. “F-Fuck y/n~ god your pussy feels so good!”

Tōru pulled his upper body back a bit, and continued to roll his hips deep inside your wet cunt. “Do you like that baby girl?” Tōru ask, rolling his hips faster again, watching your back arch.

“Y-Yes! Oh god yes!” Your back lifted from the cotton sheets, and you quickly reached for hair, while your eyes were squeezed tight.

That’s when it happened....

SMACK! Right in the nose. Next thing you knew Tōru was wailing in pain. Your eyes snapped open seeing Tōru holding his nose.

Tōru covered his nose then hesitantly uncovered it. “I-Is it bad?” He asked you curiously, blood pouring from his nose.

“Oh god Tōru! Quick pinch your nose!” You held back a moan as Tōru pulled from your cunt. He pinched his nose, and tilted his head back. “Oh god I’m so sorry! Hold on! Hold on!” You quickly stood from the bed, and scrambled to get tissues for your boyfriend.

After an hour of trying to get his nose to stop bleeding you finally did. You were apologizing a numerous number of times hoping he’ll forgive you for nearly breaking his nose.

“Baby, baby! It’s fine! I promise, it hurts, but it‘s fine!” Tōru let out a soft chuckle, and slid on his light blue briefs.

He pulled you close to him holding you in his arms. You both just held on tight to each other, lazily kissing each other's lips.

#ushijima #haikyu x reader #haikyuu!!#tsukishima #ushijima wakatoshi #x reader #one shot #oikawa #hq x reader #tsukishima kei #oikawa tōru #haikyu smut #oikawa smut

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homebrew-a-la-traumaverse · 2 years ago

Note

1, 10, and 30 for the D&D asks!

1. What do you think your d&d race would be?

High Elf.

10. What is your favorite class to play?

Answered in a previous ask, but Clair the evil Cleric made a very fun oneshot. Though I always do miss being able to really make use of action economy when I'm not playing Monk, to the point that I forgot my Paladin didn't have BA dash.

30. Homebrew or prewritten?

This is a homebrew blog. Call me biased, but at this point I can't imagine using something fully prewritten. Not without it going off the rails, at least.

#not homebrew #ask game #response

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whoree321 · 3 years ago

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the bad batch + unhinged episodes of law and order svu

Hunter: Granting Immunity (season 16 ep 19)

episode begins with rich prep school teens having a blowjob party while Good Girls Go Bad plays, leads to the squad uncovering an anti-vaxxer conspiracy among the mothers at the prep school. benson and barba prosecute the ring leader mom (trudy) for reckless endangerment after benson’s son noah gets the measles bc of trudy’s dirty child

this one gives hunter bc it’s very “perhaps i only care about this crime bc of my child, perhaps not” which really is one of his main personality traits

he def has the same aggressive maternal energy as miss olivia benson and that’s really showcased here

also i think hunter would enjoy the song Good Girls Go Bad like he would respect the flavor of tasteful misogyny

Crosshair: The Undiscovered Country (season 19 ep 13)

in this one barba succumbs to his deep rooted daddy issues and unplugs a baby on life support (i don’t remember the baby’s exact diagnosis but it was basically like dead as a doornail and only in excruciating pain and one parent wanted it alive and the other wanted to pull the plug). he gets tried for murder and is acquitted but still resigns as an ADA to take some time to unpack his trauma

crosshair would definitely kill a baby and somehow convince us it was the morally correct thing to do

barba and crosshair are also very sexy in a very similar way (arrogant bastard who masks his early life trauma and deep insecurities with cockiness and snark)

seriously tho i really think crosshair would kill a baby and not a brain dead one

like i’m sure the baby would deserve it but crosshair would take its life without hesitation

Tech: Zebras (season 10 ep 22)

basically this really irritating loud mouth lab tech named stucky makes a super boneheaded clerical error that gets an entire case against a murderer thrown out. he absolutely loses his fucking mind and stages several other murders to frame on the dude bc he can’t cope with his failure and then he kills the other lab tech and tries to kill stabler when they discover evidence linking him to the murders

i feel tech in this episode bc i think one day he will go off the rails like this

like chatty geek who everyone is annoyed by gets pushed over the edge by his mean coworkers and commits several heinous murders that are almost perfectly framed on someone else?

mary that’s what filoni is actually gearing up to for season 2. the devolution of tech after years of psychological warfare.

the only difference is that when tech finally becomes a serial killer he will never be caught

Wrecker: Wildlife (season 10 ep 7)

a woman is mauled by a tiger, the detectives discover an animal smuggling ring run by the Russian mob. stabler goes undercover and the mob guns him down in the street when they figure out he’s a big fat faker. at one point a rapper is eaten by hyenas and they eventually catch the mob in the act when they smuggle a monkey inside of a basketball

i think that wrecker really likes animals and he would enjoy both seeing exotic animals and also brutalizing people that hurt them

just like elliot stabler, wrecker would be a dreadful undercover agent and would likely get whacked instantly by any sort of organized crime syndicate

the absurdity of a whole entire gibbon monkey inside of a basketball is something he would be greatly amused by

i also think that wrecker could beat 1 (one) wild cat in hand to hand combat and i would love to bear witness (edit: i forgot about that one time when wrecker WWE smackdowned muchi the rancor so i will amend this statement and say he could beat 2 (two) wild cats in hand to hand combat)

Echo: Bang (season 12 ep 22)

baby is found in a dumpster, they figure out it’s the adopted baby of a girlboss named dede. she is dating john stamos, who we know is not playing a good character bc he has untrustworthy sideburns. she gets pregnant and he’s super gross about it like way too happy, they come to find out that he’s a sicko who loves to impregnate women and he’s fathered like literally 47 kids. at the end the domestic violence counselor the squad worked with murders john with a scuba diving knife that has a ton of pressurized CO2 in it and makes him explode

i feel that echo has a long-standing feud with john stamos and this episode would validate him

he would appreciate the theatricality of a pressurized exploding knife as well as the scene when like 20 of the mothers confront him at the precinct and are like “you’re a fucking terrible deadbeat father please choke”

there’s a lot of strong female energy in this episode and i can tell echo respects women who murder

overall he would really enjoy the unionization of single mothers to defeat his one true nemesis (johnathan stamos)

Omega: Gone Baby Gone (season 19 ep 9)

basically brooke shields kidnaps benson’s adopted son noah bc he’s her biological grandson and there’s like a whole manhunt for them. liv goes through some of the most crippling anxiety and despair of her life and then they find noah and he’s literally just like “that was a great trip we saw a deer and ate mcdonald’s i can’t wait to do it again sometime!”

omega gets kidnapped literally all the time bc just like noah porter-benson, she’s a little cutie

she also sometimes exhibits a very similar “teehee oops” energy in the face of extreme peril

i think if brooke shields could get her grubby paws on her she would snatch omega right up and sell her to the highest bidder

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tavernlightsart · 3 years ago

Note

Okay okay okay ur baby and then MINE HEHE

🍁☁️ Ponytrot

🌠☘Maplesweet (from what little you know tbf), 🌸🍃 Railspur, 🌈☘ Mossgaze!

Oooh!! These are good 👀

Ponytrot

🍁 Favorite RP moment: Roleplaying her going absolutely fucking FERAL for the first time in her life at the gathering was so much fun- other than that, I got to do one Mule & Pony rp before he was murdered and it was just,,, sweet.

☁️ Alt Clan AU: CanyonClan Ponytrot. Fuckin imagine it. I think she, being as loyal as she is, would've had trouble seeing Sandstar for what he was sorta like Coyotejaw did, but when she finally did see it she was mortified and die everything she could to help get him out of power... and honestly? She probably wouldn't have hated Dusk. Certainly was the fondest of him... but still an ally of his in the big picture. Shit that'd be really interesting.

Also I think she should get to be half horse cat. Tall long ponytrot. Imagine it-

Maplesweet

✨️ initial impressions: Bean, my dear friend, you're going to hate me. Maple feels like an e-boy and I will never not think that's the funniest shit. Plus the thing we joked about with the Russetlings making bets on whether or not he was just blind- like Squallspirit- or if he didn't have eyes at all. Dawn totally would've tried to lift his cat bangs when he thought Maple was sleeping to see and they sit up and he BOLTS because kittens are menaces

☘️ relationships with potential: ....I have never seen Mr. E-boy in action... I don't really know enough to have much of an opinion here

Railspur

🌸 fav dynamics: First off, Tawny & Rail. I love them as a mentor/apprentice duo. You can tell Tawny gets that stuffy awkwardness we saw between him and Honey from Rail lmao. What a lad. Also loved that scene when Rail & Pidge talked and tldr she's a socialist now /hj

🍃 alt rank au: Imagine Railspur.... as a cleric. Fuckin- Jayfeather acting motherfucker. Personality- exactly the same. But now you have to hear him ride your ass about being a dumbass whenever you get hurt- but of course, he's good at it because as much of an ass as he tends to be- he cares about his clanmates so much. If you can't tell I love this edition of CanyonClan: sad old veteran.

Mossgaze

🌈 what I want to see: first off, unrelated.

👁_👁 is moss constantly and I love it so much

Now to answer the question- I would love to see Moss just... COMMIT so hard to some insane goal. Like trying to see "what StarClan really looks like without dying" she's a crazy swamp witch and I think she deserves to be able to (drugs TW for the rest of this) get high as hell and become Jeff Blim in Trail to Oregon. (Tried to find the "honey! I can see what dogs can hear" line as a gif but no luck so have this instead.)

#cots #cotm #wc ask meme #ponytrot #railspur #maplesweet #mossgaze

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itsbenedict · 4 years ago

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Two-Faced Jewel: Session 4

A half-elf conwoman (and the moth tasked with keeping her out of trouble) travel the Jewel in search of, uh, whatever a fashionable accessory is pointing them at. [Campaign log]

Saelhen and Looseleaf, following their recent dance conquest, get back on the road to Thunderbrush- and get themselves wrapped up in a blood feud between rival farming villages. Before that, though... something goes bump in the night.

It's the night after the wedding reception, and the party has free rooms, courtesy of Carrid Bronzebloom. Looseleaf and Oyobi remain roomies, Vayen shares a room with Orluthe, and Saelhen insists on a room of her own, as a proper noblewoman.

Also as a proper noblewoman, she searches the room for any and all places of entry or exit, and places some ball bearings in front of them. It's just the window and the one door, so... two spots.

In the night...

A pair of crit fails, on the part of whoever's sneaking into her room at night, and on Saelhen's part to notice them! Saelhen, it seems, meant to sleep with one eye open, but the eyes disagreed on which one it should be, and she dozed off something fierce.

Which means that Oyobi, trancing in the adjacent room (elves don't sleep!) is the only one to hear Vayen bang his shin on something and go "ow!" in the middle of the night. Oyobi, however, has a -1 to int, and fails to recall exactly which rooms her other party members were in.

The next morning, Saelhen notices... that the ball bearings by the door have been disturbed. Even though the door was locked, and remained locked the whole time, someone was able to get into her room and pass the DC 10 dex check to not get knocked over by the ball bearings. Apart from that, though, nothing in her room is out of place or missing. Hm...

On the road, while Looseleaf is distracted buying a quarterstaff from a traveling merchant, Saelhen and Oyobi touch base on the situation in Thieves' Cant.

They're not taking action on this just yet, so they proceed onwards. The tall grass starts to thin out and get shorter- turning to prairie, and then almost scrubland as the climate gets more arid. It's here, as day turns to evening, that they approach a two-story building at a crossroads.

Benedict I. (GM): There's small buildings in the distance on either end of this road- and further up the highway, past the two-story building is a tall black stone tower that seems to be standing in a field, completely alone. As you approach the crossroads, you can see the sign- Wheatley General. And as you approach closer, you can see the vandalism. Some sort of yellowish-white paint has been used to write "EAT SHIT, TRAITOR" across the left half of the building's exterior, and the glass windows have holes in them. Across the right side is similar vandalism, in a more brownish-yellow paint, reading "SWINDLER INSIDE". To the left of the store is a sign pointing off to the left, northwest, reading "<- Barley". And to the right of the store is a sign pointing off to the right, southeast, reading "Wheat ->".

Inside, the place is cleaner than the outside, and fairly well-stocked for a general store in the boonies. At the counter is a very tall and very tired-looking person- either an especially tall human or a very lanky goliath.

(Most of the session is interrogating this dude.)

He tells them that they have rooms for rent, and that they're open 24 hours. Also, he warns them not to visit Wheat or Barley- apparently, they've got some kind of blood feud going on, and there's a lot of hate directed his way for trying to be neutral in the conflict.

Looseleaf: "What... are they paranoid about?" Benedict I. (GM): "Each other, mostly." Looseleaf: "And wwwwwwhy are they paranoid about each other," Benedict I. (GM): "If you go down there, they're gonna interrogate you to make sure you're not sent by the other guys to kill people." "Oh, uh, the killing people." "The murders and stuff." Looseleaf: "OKAY you could have LED with that," Looseleaf says, flipping her antennae forward and backwards. Benedict I. (GM): "They keep, I don't know, killing each other, over pointless stuff." "And getting angrier and angrier about it." "S'why I left and set up here. Tired of it." "Didn't... really help, though." "As you can probably see." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Ah. One of the sad affairs where each death is the next death's cause." Saelhen lowers her eyes. "In my country, we call such things ばかげたナンセンス."

Looseleaf's not sure this adds up. She wants to know why he set up shop in a place he hates, rather than just pack up and leave. His excuse is that his little sister is still in Barley, and he needs to stay here so that she has someplace to go if things get worse for her.

Looseleaf: "Wh- why are you letting your little sister stay in a place where people are apparently regularly dying- you're painting this place up to be a warzone, that's how you're making it sound?" "Seriously, why not just, I don't know, book it for Blacksky. It's not that far a travel from here." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "You assume he can compel her to leave, Madam Looseleaf." Looseleaf: "Or, even the port town upwards the road from here. That's where we're going too; if it's inability to leave keeping you here, we could take you with us?" Benedict I. (GM):"It's... ugh. It's not that bad. Just like... I don't know, they all act like it's not happening, until it does." "Nobody will admit to killing anyone, even if they'll talk all day about how the other side deserves to die." "Too polite for it."

Saelhen declares that she'll confer with her companions on what to do about all this- but the shopkeep insists that he didn't ask them to do anything. It's not their problem, and it's better to not get involved.

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Ah, of course. I forget myself in this exotic lands. No one has asked anyone to do anything. Yes, Oyobi? Vayen?" Benedict I. (GM): Vayen has no response. "It... sounds like something should be done, though," Oyobi says. "If it's a monster, I can kill it dead!" The tall guy sighs. "You're Deathseekers, aren't you?" "You're looking for a quest." "But I can't pay, so... just forget it."

Looseleaf is entirely on board with this guy's pitch- why should they get involved?

While they're deliberating, there's a mysterious thump from the back of the store. Thalath asks them to please wait while he deals with the situation- so of course they peek at what he's doing.

Thalath piles up a few armfuls of groceries, and brings them to the backdoor, where, waiting for him, sits... a wheelbarrow. Which wiggles expectantly.

Thalath, unsurprised by this ("...Still the usual."), exchanges the groceries for a sack of coin left in the wheelbarrow, which trundles away, satisfied.

Anyway, this is unremarkable, so the party continues deliberating on what to do. Looseleaf theorizes that the murders are being committed by some unknown monster preying on both towns, which would be far too dangerou-

Oyobi is super down for night-monster hunting, and votes that they interfere. Orluthe volunteers because he just wants to help people (and not because he wants to fight monsters, surely), and Saelhen wants to get involved because getting tangled up in a clan war might provide an opportunity to get rid of Vayen somehow.

Vayen votes to get involved, too.

That... doesn't bode well. But, uh, the votes are the votes! Looseleaf is determined to do this right, if they're doing it.

Looseleaf: Get a sheet of parchment out, start taking notes. "We're investigating apparently now!" is what Looseleaf says. "Now, tell me everything you know about these mysterious deaths." "The great detective Looseleaf is on the case." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "Cultural studies," adds Saelhen. "This will make fascinating material for a thesis on standing intergenerational grudges." Benedict I. (GM): "Wh- oh, god. That's- studies? Don't tell me you're from the University..." Saelhen du Fishercrown: Better than deathseekers! Benedict I. (GM): "I should've known when you said "run to Blacksky" and not "run to Oyashio"..." "I mean... I guess they'll know you're out-of-towners for sure." "So you probably won't get run out on a rail." "But... you really don't want to get involved. It's just heartbreak no matter where you look."

They put the screws I mean persuasion rolls to Thalath, and manage to get some information out of him:

His sister's name is Kensa, but if they go around asking about her, they'll know it was him who put them up to it, so please don't

There've been honor killings on and off for a while, but there's been a sudden and severe uptick in killings in Barley over the past year.

Barley's victims are all found in their fields, with four evenly-spaced holes in their chests, in a diamond pattern- and sometimes the bodies go missing.

He doesn't know much about Wheat's murders ("you'd have to ask Sass", but he heard dogs were involved.

There's a new killing around once a week now- usually on the outskirts, not in the town center.

The local authority in Barley is one Malath Kanthalga, cleric of Diamode, who's huge and has four fingers on her right hand.

Looseleaf: "What are the local authority forces like? Who would usually be responsible for handling deaths like this? Is there an Ecumene in charge of this town?" Benedict I. (GM): He nods, and grimaces. "Malath Kanthalga. Cleric of Family, in Barley. You'll be able to recognize her because she's gigantic and only has four fingers on her right hand." "If it's not three, by now." "She's the one in charge of witchhunts and telling people how to live their lives."

Looseleaf puts two and two and a DC 15 Religion check together to come to a conclusion. To the Ecumene of Diamode, which puts family first, losing a child is like losing a finger from your hand. Consequently, under Diamode law: to disown a child, you legally have to cut off one of your fingers. Given that, and what Thalath said about emphatically not being a Kanthalga, it's likely he was disowned.

On their way out, they notice the wheelbarrow trundling towards that weird black tower down the road- and Looseleaf pops back in to ask Thalath about it.

Looseleaf: "What's with the ominous black tower looming over everything in the distance like an evil villain's lair in a storybook," Looseleaf belts out rapidly. Benedict I. (GM):"Wh- oh, that?" "That's just- don't go over there, either." "That's just- there's some crazy torture wizard, stay the hell away if you can help it." Looseleaf: "There's a crazy torture wizard, and he buys groceries from you?" "And... nobody's thought to pin all the mysterious deaths on the ominous crazy torture wizard with an evil tower?"

Thalath seems convinced there's no way it could be the crazy torture wizard in the spooky tower. Reasons being:

you can't torture people if they're dead

he doesn't bother anyone anymore, since people got mad at him kidnapping people and then got mad at him trying to trick people into volunteering

he hasn't been seen in at least a year

he's totally senile and couldn't possibly get away with dozens of murders without being caught

Looseleaf suggests that maybe this guy is dead, killed by one of his own creations, and that monster is responsible for the murders. Thalath doesn't think that's possible either- he's clearly still alive, right? Someone's doing magical lightshows up in that tower every night, and someone's putting sacks of coin in the wheelbarrow in exchange for groceries.

Looseleaf... makes an arcana check to remember something about arcane magic, which I mentioned in our Discord chat:

Benedict: things about the world you would know as common background knowledge: arcane magic- that is, magic built into the world by the gods as part of the system, available to anyone with sufficient training or talent- strains the body somewhat it feels tiring, like physical exertion Farn: is it exercise? Benedict not quite, is the thing unlike physical exercise, which builds up the body's muscles so that you can do things easier over time magical exercise just gives you more of a feel for magic, so that you can do more difficult things with it. the easy stuff never gets any easier- you just have more endurance magic practice is known to shorten lifespans a bit and make the body frailer- a mage needs to work out more and eat better than a non-mage to maintain the same physical fitness it's why wizards are typically squishier- it's not a game balance thing, it's a literal effect of putting in the amount of practice to be a good wizard Farn: and arcanists tend to be nerds so that's often not gonna be a thing i imagine not enough time in the day! Benedict: yep furthermore, the image of a wizard as an old man with a long white beard isn't really a thing in the popular imagination- because physical aging makes you less able to cast magic that strain magic puts on the body can cause actual damage when your body's deteriorated enough and can't handle that strain this is why Dean Variable Velocity is in a wheelchair. she was one of the most accomplished wizards in the world, with raw power that whole cities feared- but she's no longer capable of more than the simplest cantrips due to her advanced age casting big magic would literally tear her apart and has done so in the past, costing her the use of her legs that's why she's an academic administrator, now- she means to pass on her knowledge to the younger generation, who can actually make use of it

What Looseleaf realizes is: if the old man is as senile as Thalath says he is, it's pretty weird that he'd be doing big magic lightshows every night. Maybe impossible! Maybe whatever's happening up there isn't an alive old wizard doing magic!

They report back to their team about their findings.

Saelhen du Fishercrown: "There appears to be a torture wizard in the tower," she remarks. Orluthe Chokorov: "A... torture wizard?!" Looseleaf: "Okay, here's my deductions, courtesy of the great detective Looseleaf's ultimate thinking brain," Looseleaf says. "According to Thalath, there's an evil torture wizard in the tower, yes. Like, an actual, comedically evil torture wizard, which- that makes no sense?" Saelhen du Fishercrown: "A torture wizard whom Sir Thalath regards as not at all a viable culprit for these incidents, no less." Looseleaf: "How has nobody come around and dealt with the torture wizard? There's a cleric of Diamode here for crying out loud, and I know that Diamode isn't exactly super big on conquering evil and saving the helpless, but surely having a torture wizard around interferes with family values in some way at least." "I bet Thalath's the real wizard or something. Thalath's a great name for an evil wizard." "And at the end, he's gonna be like, muahahaha, I fooled you all, it was me behind the whole situation, my machinations laid undetected for YEARS." "Guy really doesn't want us going to the evil wizard tower or any of the towns." Saelhen du Fishercrown: "The point Madam Looseleaf is driving at, whilst also recklessly speculating, is that we would like you to keep an eye out for anything..." "Torturous, or wizardly, while we investigate." Looseleaf: "Look, you're the one who wanted us to get into this situation involving people getting killed, and now apparently on top we also have to worry about becoming tortured by torture wizards."

So, to investigate further, they head into Barley to gather information. On the way, they noticed, by the roadside... some old rotted wood and blackened soil that indicates a building burned down there some time ago. Looseleaf reads the spirits of those burned-out foundations and finds that- while it was too long ago to get details- they burned down from a fire that burned hotter than normal fire should've, and... those burnt timbers witnesses, and sometimes caused, death. It seems like there used to be a town at this crossroads, before it split.

They arrive in Barley, and they're directed by a local farmer to the Temple of Diamode, in response to which Orluthe takes off his cap and stole- he doesn't seem to want to be recognized as a cleric of Diamode by actual Diamode clergy. There, they meet...

Malath Kanthalga, clearly a goliath, is handing out pieces of newly-forged plate armor to a queue of farmers. (That's expensive! They wouldn't be buying that stuff if they didn't need it, out here!)

She rounds on the party and gets a very good roll to intimidate them, demanding to know who they are and what they're doing there.

Looseleaf comes up with a clever angle- she wants to offer her services as an animist, to inspect the bodies of the victims and determine how they died- ostensibly proving once and for all that their hated enemy was responsible, is the angle.

Malath isn't opposed to her doing some magical forensics- she seems convinced that it was in fact the town of Wheat that's been killing the people of Barley, and expects the investigation to confirm what she already knows. She refuses to let up on the guard thing, though- safety first.

So, next time... it's time for some fantasy CSI! I've never written a murder mystery in a setting where magic is real before, so this'll be a fun challenge.

#twofaced jewel #tfj log #d&d 5e

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mercuryislove · 3 years ago

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Which of your characters did you create first? Is that character significantly different now compared to when you first created them?

okay i wrote this at like 3am last night when i couldn't sleep and it makes absolutely no sense but i figured if there was anyone on this earth that would appreciate it, it might be you lol

It's kind of funny you should ask this because the last few days I've been reading the stuff I was writing when I first picked it back up this time last year and like. shit's changed a lot lol

Of like. the stuff I'm writing now uh TECHNICALLY Yixing came first because when I was first toying with the idea of running a dnd campaign of my own, I started coming up with some npcs just to like. get some inspiration I guess? (I'm pretty sure I've talked about this before...) So I didn't really have any ideas about a setting or a plot or anything but I had two very specific characters, and one of them was like. a classic drifter/outlaw type character. And his two defining features were that he had really long black hair and was covered head to toe in tattoos. And uh. Only one of those stuck lol (though in my dnd campaign he still does have the tats! And they are plot relevant lol) OH also it stands to say that in my campaign Yixing is a MONK WITH A GUN because he was originally a gunslinger but I didn't really like any of the way the gunslinger homebrew options worked, and a lot of them were basically monk adjacent so I turned him into a monk and made his fucking monastic weapon a GUN.

Also the other npc I made was a really bonkers woman that lives in the woods and thinks the world is about to end at any moment and is extremely magically adept and eats a whole lot of shrooms lmao. idk if she'll actually show up in the campaign but she has a character sheet ready just in case

anyway. Yes Yixing is WAY different. He still has the yeehaw flair but he was originally intended to be shady and self-serving and standoffish and the kind of person who will play all sides but still find a way to come out on top. (he is still like that in my campaign..... he's like a quadruple agent lmao SPOILER for my dnd campaign that nobody cares about: he CLAIMS to be working for Anwei but he's actually working for Ciaran who knows he's also working for Anwei but he's actually double-crossing them both AND someone else that he's working for because he has his own side hustle and honestly he may or may not end up being the actual Big Bad of the campaign. I don't know yet. I hope my sister isn't reading this lol) anyway again, in the context of my novel he's now only a little bit self-serving and he will probably complain if he's super inconvenienced by helping out other people but he's still going to do it. He's a GOOD PERSON and even though I still have an extremely detailed outline of the idea I had where the plot is basically the same but he's a real shithead instead, I can't bring myself to really entertain the idea because I like him being nice. :( the whole point is that he's been through hell and back and has had a really shitty life but still finds a way to be kind and to see the good in people in spite of it all!!!! I get like. really passionate about this. Like truly agonizing about it to no one but myself. I'm the one writing the damn thing I can do whatever I want so why do I care so much about an alternate reality where Yixing is a real bastard??? I do not know.

ANYWAY AGAIN. (now here is where we really lose the thread of the original question lol) This all goes back to dnd lol because as someone that is a hard atheist, it's like. tough for me to get into the whole uhhh god thing in fantasy settings (but in this case I'm talking dnd). Like they EXIST FOR REAL in the context of the game so when your cleric or paladin prays, someone is really listening. And I was like... hm. What if I want to write a campaign where they just aren't there? (and some of my friends said I couldn't because that's breaking the rules which is stupid.. I do what I want!!!) Or that they had otherwise abandoned humanity? So then because I played final fantasy x too much in my formative years, I had the idea of “what if the gods got really fucking mad about people forsaking religion and punished them?” which turned into “what if the gods just DIED suddenly and the world fell apart in the wake?” which turned into “what if the gods realized they sucked at their jobs and that humanity was unintentionally destroying itself so they made a pact to start over but when they tried to do just that, they accidentally killed themselves?” and that is........... mostly the so-called lore now (but there is definitely more but I can't say at this time because spoilers lol) uh. I forgot where I was going with this. OH. How the characters changed. WELL. Anwei has probably changed the least lol. She is still kind of mean and weird and thinks of herself and the others like her as Far Superior to everyone else, but she's no longer downright evil. At one point she was intended to be the villain!!! but I changed my mind because I love fellow mean lesbians so much. Also it was kind of uhh. low stakes with her as a villain/antagonist. She's a little shady and definitely still very manipulative and she gets mean when jealous but not like in her first iterations.... she does still sort of try to get yixing killed though lmao

Oh also Ciaran was the last of the three that I came up with lol which is funny considering he's like. such a big deal. The only reason he exists at all is because I wanted to come up with a real Corruption Arc kind of Guy because I am a big fan of those. Also I wanted the Big Bad in my campaign to be related somehow to the Big Good. And like. what better way to do that than siblings! And then I needed a way to make my Very Cool New npc connected to both of them somehow to make the whole uhhh revolver ocelot style mind games work so I sat down and was like. well. time to tell a tragic love story lol. soooooooooo uh Thank you dnd for inspiring me to write a trilogy of novels because I wanted to do a SINGLE basic worldbuilding exercise for my dnd campaign (that even now has only had uh. four sessions ever) while I was sad and lonely last summer.

I totally went off the rails with this question and I am sorry for that :( also I could write a thousand essays about how much I love Yixing and also how many versions of him there are in my mind lol he's like that one oc that everyone has that they find a way to put in everything always. he is my alternate universe oc. very versatile

#oc talk #really really really really went off the rails here #me at 3am: uhhhh what was the question again?#as i'm sitting there READING the question #i had a tough night sleeping last night lol #ALSO the thing about him being a bastard in an alternate reality is true yes but there's way more to it than just him being rude #which is why i cant bring myself to abandon that concept altogether but it's hard to make it work ._. i can't just mesh the two concepts #i mean. i guess i could but it would require a LOT of work and a huge conspiracy theory style corkboard. lots of red string

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titanias-stolen-shoes · 5 years ago

Text

i’m on a fic kick don’t @ me

summary: fig leaves to hell to escape the terror of mortality and riz pays her a visit

read on ao3!

When Fig left Elmville, she never planned on going back.

The first of her friends to go was Riz. He lived a life of danger and they all knew that one day when he left, he wouldn’t come back. He was in Fallinel working with Adaine to figure out which official had a target on their back. They were together for months, working tirelessly only to realize too late it was Adaine who was in danger.

And Riz, ever noble, gave everything to protect her.

Kristen went a little later in life, but there was still so much she could have done. She led young adventurers on expeditions to wherever their heart desired. She was sought after by every student who wanted to be a hero and every parent who wanted their kid to try something new. She was supposed to have been the safest—the cleric, the healer. She was meant to be safe.

But things go wrong and nothing was more important to her than the safety of the kids. They escaped mostly unharmed, but alone. Tracker tore the forest apart looking for her, only to come back with Kristen’s body. Her face tear stained and body dirt streaked, no one bothered her as she mourned.

After that, it became all too clear that while her friends would age and get hurt and die, she would stay. She would stagnate and watch as everyone but Adaine slowly left her. The revelation sent her into a spiral of fear and panic that even Ayda couldn’t fix.

Fig left at night, kissing Ayda goodbye and disappearing hopefully for good. She wouldn’t bear witness to the deterioration and death of the people she loved most.

And so, she sat on her throne, Baby as her constant companion as the years ticked by. She filled her days, or what constituted as days, with her archdevil duties—constantly keeping herself busy so her mind wouldn’t wander.

She was fine. It would be fine. All fine and she would never have to witness her friends die.

That was the plan.

---

When Fig got home from witnessing a trial for Vraz the Mean, the only thing she wanted to do was send Baby out to steal something from her and maybe watch the firefalls from her balcony while she smoked. Honestly, she was closer to just crawling into bed and falling asleep. There was nothing more exhausting than Vraz when she didn’t feel like anyone was listening. Which, honestly, was most of the time.

“What can I steal?” Baby grinned, fluttering after her.

Fig shrugged. “Something she won’t realize she needs until she really needs it.”

Baby laughed and flew off out the closing door and Fig shuffled off to the balcony. She expected the usual heat and shouts to greet her when she swung the doors open. Instead, Riz was sitting on the railing, hand resting on the brief case next to him as he took in the sights, a gentle glow surrounding him. For a moment Fig thought she was hallucinating again. There was just no way Riz could be there. He died forty years ago and went to heaven to work with his dad. He had to be an illusion—but who would do that?

His ears twitched and when he turned, Fig knew it was no illusion. He smiled, hair still stuff under his ratty hat, and gun at his side. Her legs moved her before she realized and was hugging him so tight she knew it hurt, but she just couldn’t let go. Tears fell heavy from her eyes as she cried, his arms wrapped around her. He was here! Her friend was here!

“Fig,” he groaned. “Fig, I can’t breathe.”

“Oh!” She let go and he fixed his tie that had gotten crooked. “My bad. I don’t mean to sound rude, but why are you here?”

“I’m on a mission and needed a place to stay for a bit. I didn’t think you’d mind.”

She leaned against the railing, wiping her eyes. “Oh, no, of course not. Make yourself at home for however long you need to be here.”

“Thanks, I—” He paused, looking down and looking back at her, then sighed. “I also came to check on you.”

“Check on me?” she laughed. “What for, I’m doing fine.”

“Now, maybe, but… I can hear when people talk to my grave. It’s something all of us are able to do and when I first died, you were always there. Every week I looked forward to hearing from you. Then it stopped it stopped and I didn’t know why until Gorgug.”

“Him?” she muttered, crossing her arms. “Of everyone, it was him.”

“Fig, he’s just worried. They’re all worried. You just left without telling anyone—”

“I didn’t leave just so I could be lectured by some angel—”

“I’m telling you as your friend!” He hopped off the rail to follow as she started to walk away. “Everyone is worried about you. They spent years looking before realizing you were here and everyone was just too hurt to come after you. Don’t you think Ayda would have—”

“Don’t!” Fig rounded on him, making his feet slide on the smooth floors. Tears were started to well in her eyes again and her glyph burned with angry fire. “Don’t throw Ayda in my face like that, you know… You know how much I love her.” She turned, storming off, Riz rushing to keep up with her again.

“Then why did you leave her? Why did you leave everyone else?”

“Why did you leave!” She stopped again, her voice shaking as she said, “Why did you have to leave us, Riz?”

“What? I-I—”

She had given up and stopping her tears and let them stain her face. “You left the rest of us behind, Riz. Nothing was the same after that and then Kristen died and I realized that I was going to outlive all of my friends and there was nothing I could do to stop it.”

Fig squatted down, wrapping her arms around her knees, head down. Riz gently placed his hand on her back and said, “So, you left before you could see everyone else die. Fig…”

“I know it doesn’t solve the problem and it doesn’t stop them from dying, but if I don’t know then it doesn’t hurt.”

“It has to hurt more to be separated from them now.” He sat down in front of her, crossing his legs. “Every day you’re here is another day you’re missing with them. When they’re gone, you probably won’t be able to see them anymore. That really hit me when I died, but for you they’re still here. Right now, they’re alive and they miss you.”

Her glyph stopped glowing as she calmed down, looking to Riz. He was smiling again, taking off his hat. She would never understand what it was, but he was kinda hot without the hat. She sniffed, shifting into the same cross-legged position. “They hate me.”

“Maybe, but you won’t know that unless you go find out.” He scooted over until he was next to her, laying his head on her arm. “Until you do, I’ll be here. My mission is supposed to last a long time.”

They sat in the hallway as she thought about what he had said. It was true, just not the truth that she wanted. Part of her wanted to ignore it, but there was another part of her, the part that had been aching to see her friends and wife, that wanted to consider it. She sighed and fell back onto the floor.

When Fig left Elmville, she never planned on going back… but maybe it was time to give it a shot.

tagging @allsevenmaidens bc i like to bother you

#not tagging anyone else unless they ask #fantasy high #fantasy high live #fig faeth #i wrote something!

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