#we started a new modern au dnd and he's....

[cicide76536]

Every day I wake up and think about Zevran Arainai from the video game Dragon Age: Origins (2009)

[sabbathbloodysabbeth]

Ok so like I’m exhausted- and I just really need to get this idea off my chest.

But a streamer au. Obviously modern, where Steve can’t hear anything because he accidentally dropped his hearing aids in the toilet. (Something real goofy and stupid) and he’s friends with popular streamer Dustin Henderson (who plays all sorts of games) not only is Steve friends with him but he’s friends with a few other streamers. Though they all want to include Steve in on their Minecraft server, because they know that when he has his hearing back he’ll be on there all the time talking to them. That and he also enjoys building things with Robin and just wander around the world. So they all get this server set up and start streaming. Some newer streamers join as well that Steve doesn’t know but the others know, and Steve has quickly become a fan favorite.

They are roleplaying a DnD campaign in Minecraft, when Steve’s character just pops out of no where doing the randomest things, at this point he even has lore. He’s a mute character who can only talk through messages. Everyone just loves Steve. He’s made numerous friends, and has helped build a lot of things. And no one in chat as ever seen or heard him. Though he is always in Eddie Munson’s streams constantly. Eddie is a older streamer, but wasn’t in on the fact that Steve can hear he just needs hearing aids. So when Steve explains he’s mostly deaf he just goes on about his day like normal. Though now typing book length messages to Steve. (Every streamer can see these messages, Eddie enjoys talking there so his chat can see what Steve’s saying and it’s easier to read off the same screen instead of having to constantly switch to discord) at this point Steve and Eddie are thick as thief’s.

Eddie’s the chaotic one and Steve is the tame one, and their videos together are hilarious. Though when Steve finally gets his hearing aids he’s excited to finally be able to talk to his new friend. He clicks in and joins the voice chat where you can only hear each other when you are actually close to each other in game. (Proximity) so when Eddie comes on and finds Steve he’s talking to his chat, not really caring about muting his mic because Steve can’t hear it. And he doesn’t stream.

And Steve his beaming and happy because he can finally hear Eddie’s voice. His hearing aids are a lot better then the last ones and he isn’t as muffled anymore. He stays silent, because he’s shy. And he tags along with Eddie. Who’s now changing his skin back and forth and talking to chat still. Steve hasn’t said anything. He’s waiting.

“Alright fine fine, I’ll ask Steve if he likes the maid out fit or the bunny suit.” Is heard right before aggressive typing begins.

Steve answers without thinking, and sounds really soft. “Maid Outfit.”

And his first words spoken to Eddie are maid outfit. And the timing is hilarious because he’s pretty sure Eddie has flat lined.

“Also, meant to ask why are our beds pushed together?” Steve asks.

Just I want a really cute au like this. And not weird.

Or instead of the maid outfit, chat is telling Eddie to give Steve his daily kiss. (It’s not he just moves forward and hits Steve’s Minecraft character) which has always confused steve until he hears. “Fine daily smooch for the Stevie boo” (Eddie has given him nicknames?) and just smacks Steve’s character making him loose a heart.

“Ow. That’s why you keep hitting me? For kisses? Eddie I gave you cake, we share a house together and you decided smacking my character upside the head was the equivalent to kissing? You could have just given me flowers dude!”

(Like all of the possibilities are endless)

[obsessedelusional]

Ruin My Life

Eddie Munson x fem! Reader

summary ✦ You’re a new student at Hawkins Highschool. Over the summer you befriend Chrissy Cunningham not knowing she’s the queen of Hawkins. You don’t fit in with her friends at all, start wondering if you made a mistake sitting with them. You take notice of Eddie Munson and he doesn’t notice you, annoying you. What happens when you’re finally fed up? (Modern AU)

word count ✦ 1,700 ish

authors note ✦ y’all I’ve been struggling writing smut for whatever reason so I haven’t been producing much Eddie content so hopefully y’all like this too, appreciate all of you

masterlist

Feedback & Reblogs are helpful and extremely appreciated ♡

⊹ ꙳ ✦ ⁺ ‧ ⨯. ⁺ ✦ ⊹

Starting at a new school is hard enough. To start at a new school your senior year is even harder. Your parent’s divorce had you and your mother moving to her home town, Hawkins Indiana. You felt guilty protesting against the move considering what lead to it. Your father cheating twenty something years into the marriage is not at all what you could ever imagine happening. To make matters worse you were the one to find him cheating. You had no choice but to tell your mother.

As an attempt to escape your new home you found a job in the mall working at a trendy clothing store. That’s where you met your first friend, Chrissy Cunningham. Little did you know that you befriended Hawkin Highs queen. When you showed up to your first day of school Chrissy’s friend group welcomed you with not so welcome arms. It was apparent they wanted nothing to do with you.

During lunch you sat nearly entirely in silence. Only speaking when spoken to. Wondering if you had made a mistake sitting with Chrissy’s crew. Would this be how you spend the rest of your senior year?

Your picking at your lunch with no intention of eating it. Your arm bent supporting your head as you try to listen to the cheerleaders and jocks surrounding you. They’re blabbing on and on about basketball or maybe football you weren’t sure. Someone’s loud laughter gains your attention.

Your busy admiring the man whose mouth emitted that sound. He has long brown curls, the most beautiful smile that features dimples, and covered in tattoos. Your first thought is you would gladly let this random person ruin your life. Thinking about how you’d let him do whatever he wanted. You don’t realize how hard your staring until he stops laughing. Must of felt your gaze because his eyes meet yours.

You’re embarrassed but you refuse to show it, sending a small wave his way. He has to glance around him just to verify you weren’t waving at someone else. Even when he doesn’t see anyone else you could possibly be waving to he doesn’t believe it. Going back to his conversation, ignoring you. Your face falls, saddened but more annoyed this man ignored you.

“Who’s that?” You ask, interrupting Chrissy conversation.

“Who?” She asks following your finger that points at him.

“The freak?”

“What?” You ask taken aback by her nickname for the beautiful boy.

“Eddie “the freak” Munson. That’s what we call him.” She laughs, you only nod in respond unsure of how to respond. Not sure if your ready to loose Chrissy’s trust quiet yet.

“If you smoke though he sells the best shit in town.”

“I don’t.” You respond, suddenly reconsidering your stance on weed. Maybe you would try it if it meant you could get closer to this mysterious man.

Your first week of school is spent by Chrissy’s side. It’s fine. Your gaining popularity points but at what cost? Her friends are about as interesting as watching paint dry. Every interaction with them feels so forced. It’s Friday and your sat at the same spot you’ve sat at all week for lunch. Contemplating whether or not it’s truly worth it.

Thankful that this seat gives you perfect view of Eddie Munson. In this short week you were able to learn tidbits about him. Apparently he’s the leader of a DND club which explains the matching shirts with his friends. Jason claims it was some devil worshiping shit. A quick google search shows it’s just an innocent fantasy game. You research it thinking maybe it’d be a way to befriend Eddie. Quickly realizing it’s a lot bigger thing to tackle than you thought it would be. Giving up just as fast but for Eddie you’d consider it.

Since the unreciprocated wave you both catch each other stealing glances. Eddie is confused why Chrissy’s latest follower was often looking his way. Truth be told you found Eddie very attractive, forming a crush quickly. Another part of you jealous of how much fun his friends would be having while your sat wishing you could join. At the same still stuck on the fact that he didn’t wave back.

One point you had mustered up the courage to talk to him. You had excused yourself from class to use the restroom. When you out of the classroom expecting an empty hallway you found Eddie bent over rummaging through his locker. He looked up from what he was doing from the sound of the door opening. It was now or never, you thought.

You start to say hello but stop talking when Eddie stands up, shutting his locker. Walking straight towards you and then right passed you. Not looking at you once while your eyes follow him.

“Never mind.” You mutter to yourself, more annoyed than before.

—

Against your better judgment you agreed to come to a party this weekend. Apparently a tradition to have one every year, the first weekend of the school year.

When you arrive Friday night the party is in full swing. Chrissy is no where to be found. After asking around some one finally says they last saw her going up stairs with Jason. Which tells you all you need to know, you will be riding solo. You find your own way to the kitchen finding a drink you can pretend to sip on for the rest of the night.

You walk into the dining room area, the table had been turned into a beer pong setup. You watch for a few moments before looking around hoping to see a familiar face only to be greeted by Chance. One of Jason’s bone head friends.

“Hey sexy.” He purrs, breath heavy with the smell of alcohol.

“Hi,” you politely smile before trying to squeeze past him.

“What’re you doing here all alone?” He asks, standing in you way to leave.

“I’m not alone. Here with Chrissy.”

“Me and you should hook up. Ya know considering your Chrissy best friend and I’m Jason’s best friend. It just makes sense, ya know?” He laughs closing in on you.

“No thank you.” You respond as his mouth has already found its way to your lips. It takes all the force you can muster up but you push him off. He stumbles backwards calling you a slur of profanities before walking off.

You take one look at the empty back yard before your headed outside through the sliding glass door. Your quiet when you shut the door hoping no one noticed you slipping out. Thinking you’ll find an escape route so you can leave.

“Fucking disgusting.” You mutter, throwing your drink down. Using your sleeve to wipe away at your mouth. You’re looking for a gate that would lead you to the front yard so you can go home.

You walk around the house finding the gate, groaning out load when you see it’s locked. You fiddle with the lock hoping it’s unlocked, it’s not. You give up and head for the door that brought you outside. Before you can reach it you are startled by someone else’s presence. It’s Eddie.

“Sorry I didn’t mean to startle you.” His laugh let’s you know he’s not that sorry.

“What’re you doing out here?”

“What’re you doing out here?” He repeats your question.

“Trying to leave.”

“Aww but you just go here.” His voice heavy with sarcasm.

“Did I do something to you? Am I missing something? Cause I’m having a really shit time and you being a prick isn’t helping.” He doesn’t say anything just grins at you with his stupidly handsome face.

“Fuck you.” You add.

“Fuck me?” His smile falls and turns into confusion, stood there with his arms across his chest.

“Yeah you. I saw you that first day and my first thought was I would let that boy ruin my life. Tried to be all cute and wave to which you ignored. Then all week long every time you catch me looking at you, you look at me like I’m the crazy one. Even when I tried to talk to you, you walked right passed me like I didn’t even exist.” Your pent up anger slipping out and crashing onto Eddie who doesn’t deserve it.

Doesn’t matter though because suddenly Eddie is moving closer until there’s only a few inches between you two. When he catches you looking at his lips, he takes the hint. Resting his hand at the nape of your neck, pressing his lips to yours pulling you in closer. Eddie’s gentleness melts your anger into butterflies as you kiss him back. He’s the first to pull away.

“Why’d you come out here?” You ask.

“I saw what happened with Chance. Wanted to make sure you were okay but then I actually saw you and froze. I didn’t know what to say so naturally I was a dickhead, my usual route.” He explains.

“Do you want to leave?” Is your response. He nods his head yes in response. You grab his hand, heading into the party. He goes to pull away, you look back.

“If you go in there holding my hand you can say goodbye to your royal status.” He says. You just grab his hand and continue with your plans to leave. You’re almost half way through the house, Eddie close behind. All eyes are on you.

“What’re you doing?” Chrissy speaks up when she sees you.

“Leaving.” You respond stoping to face her.

“With him?” She asks, energy full of judgement.

“Yeah. Full offense Chrissy, you kinda suck and you’re friends really fucking suck. I don’t want to be your friend anymore if it means sitting by while y’all are a bunch of assholes.” You respond, the room now silence. Eddie smiling in shock but at the same time so pleased with your words.

“Whatever.” She mumbles, going back to Jason who makes some nasty comment you don’t care enough to entertain. Eddie waves goodbye with a laugh as you drag him out of the party.

“That was badass.” He says when you two are finally alone outside.

“It felt so good. I’ve been absolutely miserable this last week.” You smile, now excited for what the rest of the school year brings.

[baba-the-yagaa]

"#The dynamic between two paladins would be INSANE#and so fun" Hello , I saw your tags, tell me more about your Ideas about the TTRPG Amis -slash-Les Mis?:D

dear god im sorry i let your ask marinate its been a Time man anyway

(im a mathematician) so we gotta look at two cases: Les Amis play a ttrpg like dnd together, or we make ttrpg based on Les mis/and Les Amis

case 1: oh my god dont get me started (well you did, so here we go) we all know how dramatic ttrpgs can get, so maybe a modern au where the barricade is ttrpg and everyone is playing various characters, except for marius who is new and very obviously playing himself. which is why he like that. anyway!! this can also give rise to the two paladins dynamic i was yapping about, so lemme yap some more. The tension would be unparalleled. Courf and Enj arguing about who serves whos god better and being the same kind of divine but different would be bonkers. Grantaire would try to roll so many times to seduce Enjs character and fail and Enjolras is oblivious so its Courf who confronts him about it and is like 'yo. whats up with all that' and R is just like 'wouldnt you like to know, weatherboy' etc the other half of the table (Combeferre, Joly, Lesgle, Jehan, Feuilly) (Bahorel is more partial to the above mentioned drama) is on about something more sciency and shit (except for the occasional glances and giggling about the rest) which all begs the question, who dms? and the answer is simple. Gavroche. he would be a very, very good dm i feel like. kid's got crazy ass ideas they're perfect (also dm candidates are: Valjean) this au is generally very on point to the book i feel like because of how most characters are symbolic and extraordinary but also its just fun

case 2: again, right after i got the ask i started ruminating on this. came up with stats even! so regular dnd 5e has 5: strength, dex, int, wis, and charisma. Les Mis ttrpg: decided to merge strength and dex into one, but maybe we split em up, dunno. Charisma we obviously keep, and add two more stats: religion and revolution. religion works kinda like wisdom/int, bc les mis is heavily influenced by religion and its fairly self explanatory revolution is a scale of 0-20, with 10 being 'i dont give a shit', 20 is Enjolras and 0 is Javert. other than that, mechanically i have no idea lol but it should be also very fun

thanks for coming to my TED talk lmao hope this wasnt too long

[mindflayerapologist]

In a modern AU I think the ST kids would get really into homestuck because it’s extremely convoluted and the classpects would appeal to their DND side of creating a character type (cleric, paladin, etc.) and their alignment…

Dustin gets on the rest about never skipping through anything. I think Lucas is either really into every aspect or skips some of the intermissions. Mike hasn’t skipped through anything because he tends to hyperfixate in stuff but he doesn’t remember hardly anything aside from some major plot points such as Ascend or the jokes that are plastered around the internet. Idk where Will lies in that spectrum

Will likes Dave because he also has daddy issues but more importantly because Dave’s apartment being a place where he never feels safe due to his brother potentially hiding cameras everywhere plus Lil Cal always watching is relatable as Will felt/feels like hes always being watched, first through the upside down and later through the mindflayer. Depending on the circumstance I think he finds Cal’s and thus Lord English’s influence on Bro to be really interesting and something he wants to explore more or offputting because it reminds him of being possessed, especially given how many people he perceives himself to have hurt as a result of that. Also into karkat because his whole arc of accepting that he’s not going to perfectly fill his quadrants the way troll society wants to is pretty much a metaphor for human sexuality and obviously Will is gay soooo… I also think he could possibly be into Mituna to some extent given Mituna was literally doomed by the narrative by being in a doomed timeline and Will probably feels like he is as well sometimes.

I think Dustin likes John and Rose, John because he’s kind of a smart ass and rose because she puts on an air of sarcastic and cynical nonchalance (although he is aware that in the text that’s largely a façade to mask larger issues). Probably also likes Roxy for her hacker skills and gets mad when people reduce her to an alcy.

I think Mike also likes John but as he gets older and he and Will start to butt heads more and more he gets attached to Dirk as a character because dirk thinks of himself as a villain and mike feels like Will often vilifies him (and to an extent he is right- a phone call goes both ways) and considering he’s “the leader” of the party but they’re constantly splitting off or finding new people to attach themselves to I think he’d be sympathetic to Dirk’s constant need for control that he can never get because his friends are always at each others throats and can’t work together the way the beta kids can. I also think he’s either a full vriska hater or a vriska apologist, perhaps even going through a metamorphosis of the two.

Lucas is harder for me to pin down. My gut says that he’d like rose for her sardonic view as well, and I think maybe he relates to her on a base level but also doesn’t like later renditions of her as she becomes an alcoholic like Roxy (who I don’t think he would like). He would also probably like Karkat and maybe even Equius because both of them have (although based on different life experiences from their place on the caste system) have a struggle that is based around fitting into their society, and especially in season 4 we see his struggle with wanting to finally not be picked on vs the way the basketball team actually is. I also could see Lucas as being into the other mspa comics and thus having an attachment to like, spades slick. I think he likes the entire midnight crew, just because it would be fun for him to like them.

I don’t see max or El being into homestuck really, max probably tried to get into it only be put off by the weird pacing and plot, and El because she doesn’t really understand the world and is shown to have a hard time with studying/reading (and still doesn’t know so many words) so a webcomic that involves giant walls of text that also happen to use terminology that is either made up or not typically used (such as the characters “absconding”) would not be her thing. Nevertheless I think the boys would probably try to point to characters they could relate to.

Mike tries to point El to vriska and sollux originally because of their psionics but I don’t believe el would be into them because she thinks they’re both kind of dishonest assholes. When that doesn’t work I think he’d point he towards Jade and she’d like her much better, also having powers with her space aspect but being an overall more friendly character that also based on her dreams seems to be way more entrenched in the plot itself (not just the comic but you know actually being a device or part of the game in and of herself) would be relatable to El because El feels kind of attached/entrenched with the Upside down.

Max would probably also like characters like Dave because she too feels like she needs to put up walls to be safe and she has a shitty older brother that she has way too many complicated feelings about. After the show ends and she’s blind (a headcanon I’m very fond of) Lucas makes jokes about her being similar to Terezi which she’s not super opposed to because Terezi is generally seen as a pretty badass character, although she still likes to fuck with him and pretend to be offended.

I will come back to this later probably and fill in which classpects they would have and other stuff like that. I’d really like to do an analysis on how SBaHJ would be perceived by the party but I’d have to think more on that

[sparklecryptid]

Right now I am arguing uselessly with my OC. The Isakai'd one, not the Thranduilion one. That's Colfileg (tentative name, trying to find the best way to name him 'little golden bird' could also be Glorfileg maybe? There are a bunch of words that mean Gold in Sindarin. *grumbles* No canon word for 'purple' but there's like six sindarin words that mean gold/golden? Really Tolkien?), he's older than Legolas and has been in the Trauma and Trouble long enough he's presumed dead when isekai'd OC and Celeg get dropped in. (Also Celeg is trans bc I have yet to read a trans!Celegorm story. And bc he said so.)

Me: Okay we are NOT doing HP, that route is closed off. No vampires, and I haven't touched any Shadowrun books in years. Same for the Percy Jackson novels. As cool as a Nephil OC might be, no Supernatural. I'd have to watch it again.

OC: *nods*

Me: Naruto? That could be neat, but like, too OP once things start moving...

OC: Oh yeah, no, not Naruto.

Me: and I don't know enough about One Piece really, also I don't think I feel like the worlds are a bit too oil and water, at least for me.

Me: MDZS maybe? A modern cultivation AU so you could have read Tolkien? Also, possibility of immortality to match lovely new elves you are definitely going to end up in SOME kind of relationship with? *squints* But I don't think you're central asian, so... If it's a modern cultivation AU, there could be multicultural Cultivators? Maybe?

OC: *tugs on red hair the ONLY feature we've agreed on* I mean- there ARE central asian people with red hair. But YOU don't know anything about them culturally. And I'm probably gonna be american just bc that's what you know best, right? *pauses* I guess I don't HAVE to have red hair-

Me: No, no we both agreed that having Celeg and Thranduils son fall in love with a redhead is funny. How about Star Wars? You could be a jedi and wouldn't have to have any earth race really?

OC: A jedi could be fun! But then I wouldn't get to know anything about Tolkien.

Me: Ah, heck. I forgot. Might be worth it tho. We could cook up a Modern dnd AU maybe? Cup of Shadowrun, cup of modern cultivation, double handful of all the neat DnD character races there are now?

OC: could be neat, I'd still have to look mostly human tho or elven? I don't think an aasimar or a tiefling would do well in Arda. Also, do you want to worldbuild that much for a world I'm not gonna be in again?

Hahaha I’m afraid I’m going to be no help here because all the worlds my ocs come from have a More Backstory than is Needed. Usually I take a world like ours and adjust a Few Things to make things sad for OC dearest before yeeting them into someplace.

ALSO TRANS CELEGORM MY BELOVED. I have never seen a trans!celeg story before but I’m just !!!! About it.

Us: okay there’s a bunch of words for gold but like. Can we have a purple?

Tolkien: no.

Us: but purple is nice!

Tolkien: -dumps a bunch of words for gold and silver on us-

Us: ok :(

[aquadestinyswriting]

OK, so replying to these tags. Popping everything under a readmore because this is gonna get long.

#re that first one: that's fair :') titles are hard tbh and also lbr#looking forward to seeing what the AU is going to be titled! 8)

Thank you. Yeah titles are usually the hardest part about this writing thing for me. I think I'll likely have a working one by the time I get to around chapter 8 or 9 (which will totally end up as the actual title in the end because I'll get attached ^_^;).

#but also oooh so she's *not* a dwarf#ngl the beard is totally what made me wonder! but I'm fascinated by the fact that it's a genetic thing#I wonder if that means she counts as intersex which would be a cool thing to think about

I thought it might be and the intersex idea is a fascinating one, but I'll need to go do a lot more research into it to make sure that it's handled well. We covered the topic a little in my degree, but not in any great depth, it was more of a passing topic kind of related to something else we were learning.

#also tysm for the geographical context! I had a feeling it was someplace northward#but now I have something to look up specifically to get better mental images 8) 8) 8)

You're very welcome. The area around Fort William and Ben Nevis is gorgeous and I swear I saw a hill that looked like the perfect place for a dwarven hold on the way up there last year. I'll need to get my dad to stop so I can get a decent picture if we end up that way again this year. We zoomed past so fast I couldn't get my phone out in time. I swear, the highlands look like something right out of a fantasy novel.

#also I'll be real it sounds like you've managed to adapt a lot of the DnD politics to a 90s backdrop rather smoothly#(though I'll also be real in saying Toreguarde's partial destruction hits differently knowing what I know about UK politics in the 90s :')#but in any case I'm definitely looking forward to those plot things haha

Thank you very much. Having watched all of Due South by now and living in the UK has helped a lot. I obviously picked up a lot more about the political climate here in the late 80s through to mid 90s than I thought, but that's not too hard given the best satire shows we've ever made are from that time. Yes, Prime Minister is probably going to a major source of inspiration for some other background characters later on. Glad you're looking forward to the plot

#and also? I'm fascinated by the fact that so many of your characters wound up in politics or police or military#like I totally understand given the nature of what writing an AU of a political fantasy would need to entail#but still I gotta admit sniper was not a thing I was expecting haha#and totally okay to nothing set in stone—you are after all just getting started!

It is a bit weird, especially since the first campaign I took part in was your standard High Fantasy shenanigans. I think my husband just wanted to explore the fallout of some of the major catastrophic events that happened. To be honest, he was also on a major UK history documentary kick at the time, and he loves incorporating things from the media he's watching and reading into his plots. There were still plenty of high fantasy shenanigans in the Destiny's New Servants campaign, but there was also a lot of quite gritty, political shades of grey stuff thrown in.

As far as my characters getting into politics or the police/military, part of that is the political fantasy and transplanting that into a more realistic setting. It's also partly because this whole thing was inspired by that Due South marathon, and also partly by the fantasy that good cops will win and actual justice will prevail in the end. Also, Elowyn started out as a watchperson, so partially blame Dru as well, I guess :P.

This is a massive tangent, but I guess it helps that there's a class I took throughout secondary school called Modern Studies*. It's a class that goes over things like recent history (basically everything from the start of the Cold War onwards, because history ended when WWII did, duh! *insert eyerolling emoji here*), the political structure of various countries and world powers, starting with our own, and major current events and news**. It sparked a love of political intrigue and working out how different kinds of government, military and police forces would function in fictional societies.

*This was a mandatory class for the first two years, then was one of the social sciences choices for Standard Grade and onwards (the other two being history and geography). I took both the Standard Grade and Higher classes, so I took it from 1st year through to the end of 5th year.

**I was in 4th year in 2001-2002, so I was in the second year of my Standard Grade courses. Needless to say, we spent a good few weeks on a certain event that occurred a month after we started that academic year. And at least one class a week going over the major events that were going on afterwards at least once every few weeks for the rest of the academic year.

Ayyyy, Aqua! :D Happy STS! So I'm making my way through Titan Modern AU, and . . . actually, take two questions on it. 8)

I have legitimately looked everywhere, and I am severely curious. :') Have you thought of a title for this one, or is its title literally just Titan Modern AU?

More importantly, tho, how much did you have to change to make the world of Fangthane's Folly fit the modern day? (And what did you end up keeping? I notice there's magic and dwarves, but how different are these bits compared to their DnD roots?)

Hope this ask finds you well! :D o/

Hi Jax, this is technically a day late, but not really because time zones are a thing :P. I am very well, thank you. I am enjoying the fact that the words seem to be flowing quite easily for the time being and taking advantage of that to write a lot for all my ongoing series and creating new ones. Thanks very much for the questions, I have a lot to talk about with this AU :D. Answers are under a cut because the second one is going to get quite long.

Question 1

I don't currently have an actual title for this one yet. I have a tendency to title WIPs towards the end of writing them and this one is no exception. I have some vague ideas, but I'm not too concerned about it just yet. Especially since there's a high possibility that this one is going to throw some major curveballs my way once I get into the thick of the plot that might well change the kind of title I want to give it.

Question 2

Ah, the dwarves are technically not a thing for this one. Everyone is more or less human, unless it's directly stated otherwise. The reason Fangthanian women can have beards at all is down to a slight genetic quirk which means they are pre-disposed to much higher testosterone levels than average. The Throffite community, in particular, is very insular and tend to inter-marry within themselves due to a history of discrimination against them.

As to how I changed the setting to fit with the modern aesthetic:

I've modelled Fangthane city a little bit after towns like Fort William, since the location of Fangthane in Allansia has a relatively similar geography to that of the Scottish Highlands. So Fangthane city is no longer built into the mountain, but is a city that was built very close to the mountain (which is now called Ben Oir). Extrapolating from there, and taking into account the maps that exist of Allansia, it was a a matter of figuring out how and why there would be outposts for the kingdom that are so far away from the capital. In that case, an old empire made a lot of sense, and taking into account the relative time period this AU is set in (roughly the 90s to early 2000s), it also made sense that said empire had been disbanded, but that communities deriving from it still exist (hence why Stonebridge and Firetop are still mainly natively Fangthanian). So, yeah, culturally speaking Fangthane is basically the UK transplanted into Allansia at this point.

I wanted some of the history of Toreguarde to remain intact because there are plot things related to that that will pop up later in the story. The city was almost destroyed, officially, by what is considered to have been a terrorist organisation that was working on behalf of another state and/or one of the ruling council of Toreguarde of the time who went just teeny bit mad with power (Greydown was an absolute ass in canon, and is in this AU too).

As the setting, rather purposefully, appears to be lacking in magic, no mentions are made of demons, portals or the breaking of reality, even by those who were present at the time. The remaining Heroes still exist, but I'm working out what their exact roles in all that were. Egrim is still a priest, so that's him covered. Alexis, upon talking to Dru about it, was probably a sniper that was a part of the military forces of Toreguarde at the time, while Selene was probably some sort of science-y nerd person brought in to help explain some of the weirder stuff that went on that was kind of acknowledged and then later given plausible and sensible scientific explanations. She just happened to be somewhat decent at this diplomacy lark when communication with the reinforcements from Fangthane started going south, hence her current role in the story. She probably worked quite closely with Ivan, who I have yet to figure out the details of, with regards to that. I also need to figure out what Fai did and what happened to him...

I am doing a lot of this worldbuilding and adjusting Fantasy canon on the fly, to be quite honest, so not a lot of it is set in stone just yet. However, I have given some thought to the Throffite community both in Fangthane and in Toreguarde and some of their history and culture, drawing a lot on what I established about Throffism in the fantasy canon and doing some major research into the irl history of such things to make sure that anything I write about it is handled as sensitively as possible. I have also written copious notes on the hows and whys of the fractious relationship between Fangthane and Toreguarde that would fit in with more modern (Western, as that is what I'm familiar with) political norms.

[corrodedcoughin]

So I saw your tags and I need to know what what songs you think Corroded Coffin would cover (both in universe and if you feel like it, modern au too)

ohhhhhh my friend you do not know what you are about to unleash but for your sake I will limit myself.

First off though!!! I've said it before but i'll say it again, I firmly believe in my blood and bones that corroded coffin have a stack of off the wall covers. they only do one per set and its not every set they do them in so people try to make it to every show because the alternative covers become iconic.

conventional covers though, I'd love to see them tearing up

no one like you - scorpions or any scorpions song i'm not fussy. it would be jeff's suggestion because he just thinks its a really hot song and the band can't disagree so it gets added

immigrant song - led zepplin there is NO WAY that as a dnd based friend group that they dont absolutely lose it when they play this, the shouting at the start? the riffs? they have it down to an ART

20th century boy - t.rex listen LISTEN I feel very VERY strongly about this being a steddie song and i wont be told otherwise

ballroom blitz - sweet yes this is more pop rock but you cannot tell me that they wouldn't love doing the intro of 'are you ready gareth? yeah eddie. jeff? yeah eddie. grant you ready? sure eddie. well alright fellas. LETS GO!' and they TEAR.IT.UP.

honrable mentions to bonzo goes to bitburg by ramones, new york groove by ace frehley, sweet leaf by black sabbath and talking in your sleep by the romantics.

NOW!!! the OTHER covers oh I am so sorry I get so unhinged about this but

baby i'm burning by dolly parton. i NEED to hear this, I KNOW they'd kill it and the crowd would go wild and god I can feel my insides shaking because I know how good it would be

i think we're alone now - tiffany. no words, they'd change the world with this cover and we all know it

i just want to make love to you - etta james. okay so go listen to the version of this by frog hat and you will know EXACTLY what I'm talking about

timewarp from the rocky horror picture show but hey okay go listen to the tenacious d cover and that's corroded coffin. ITS THEM!!! they'd all play differnt parts and i can see it in my mind!!!

I'm so sorry this has gotten out of hand but honorable mentions to

milf song - the puddleducks, kissing toads again - jan two-sleeves, danny nedelko - IDLES, blood by mcr (i lose it thinking about this one) and let 'em talk by kesha and the eagles of death metal

I have so many more but I honestly can't put you through more than this incoherent ramble i'm so sorry

[vulpeskorsak]

Day 25 of Whumptober 2022: Twitching tail

Day 25 of Whumptober 2022!

No. 25 SILENCE IS GOLDEN

Lost Voice | Duct Tape | “You better start talking.”

Timeline-wise my current shorts go: Day 2 -> Day 15 -> Day 5 -> Day 16 -> Day 25 -> Day 1 -> Day 18 -> Day 22 -> Day 13 - > (Day 4 -> Day 9*) -> Day 3 -> Day 7 -> Day 8 -> Day 21 - > Day 19 -> Day 6 -> Day 11 -> Day 12 -> Day 23 -> Day 14 -> Day 17 -> Day 24 -> Day 20

*Day 4 and 9 do not happen in the same AU where Ludwig exists.

Day 10 is a modern AU.

Victor is my human fleshsmith inventor (KibblesTasty Homebrew class) from a long-running DnD adventure.

Lady Lourencia “Caiman” Doe was his lover, a noble woman secretly running the biggest gang in the sea-side city they live in, who is able to transform into a large anthropomorphic caiman.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/42626646 (AO3 link)

Twitching tail

“You better start talking as soon as you are able to… The Doctor has been asking me for a new test subject for a while now. And I’m pretty sure he has never gotten a chance to work on a tabaxi before.” Caiman grins, showing off her razor-sharp teeth. “And you know, that man will be veeery grateful if I let him keep you… Not even sure that I need you to talk right away, now that I’m thinking about it. Maybe, I should let him have his fun… I know a guy who can speak with the dead, so we can get the information we want even if my boy… breaks you too early.”

A large half-human half-caiman woman is leaning over the table, where the tabaxi thief lies paralyzed by a potent drug. She is very well-built, can probably snap her neck with one hand, and is taller than even the Doctor in this form, though the thief has not seen what she looks like normally.

She had no idea what she was getting into when she sneaked into this clinic. Certainly, no clue that it is protected by Caiman herself. The leader of the Emerald Tigers, the biggest gang in the city. She has heard rumors about her. They say she broke the wall of the gang’s den with its previous leader when taking over the leadership role. They say she is ruthless and violent but can show mercy if you submit.

Should she just submit and tell them the whole story?

The tabaxi has begun feeling the tip of her tail, so she wiggles it nervously. She still cannot talk but after whatever the Doctor injected into her some control is beginning to return to her.

The Doctor is sitting at his alchemical table, that she can see now that she can turn her head. He is looking at Caiman in excitement, like a child who has just been promised a brand-new toy.

“That sounds… like a great idea, my dear.” He purrs before getting up with a different syringe in hand. “Shall I knock her completely out now? Oh, I have so many things that I wanted to try out!”

“Oh?” Caiman perks up. “Do tell, my good doctor.”

“I’ve been wanting to test my new late-stage White Plague cure…”

Fuck! She submits! She submits!

She has seen people sick with it and what it left of them by the end… She has no desire to live to a late stage and survive.

“Though it will take her a couple months to get there… but I have plenty more stuff I wanted to do. Like, I’ve been thinking if you can do a blood transfusion between two drastically different species such as us humans and tabaxi. And I’m also lacking a tabaxi tail in my tail collection… though if I could eventually get the whole skeleton preserved, that would be even more fun. But bones can get severely damage over the course of the Plague, so maybe I should just-“

“No!” The tabaxi suddenly cries out.

She herself is not sure when exactly her ability to speak came back, but she sure is grateful it did now.

Caiman turns to her with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. The Doctor looks at her with a tinge of disappointment.

“I… I will…” She coughs. “I will talk…”

“Ah… It’s almost a shame… It seems the good doctor will have to search for a new subject. Unless, you lie to us, of course.”

[sw4tch]

u should info dump about smth, anything

(ali my friend my beloved my good time gamer and bestie HIIII!!!! 💕💕💕)

it's not like i don't have topics to infodump about, but the truth is that i feel like you've handed me a mic in the middle of karaoke and now it's my turn (oh god it's my TURN)

also 👉👈 um um i'm not sure if the info i'd be dumping would be NEW or interesting to anyone. why am i overthinking this. "I have no mouth but I must Rant" kinda situation over here.

Like I'd LOVE to infodump about my very, very personal deltarunesona au shenanigans I've been working on for like, a YEAR now- but that feels too PERSONAL to TALK about on my PERSONAL blog, gods forbid I show any kind of Intense Passion i have which might be deemed """""weird"""""

Same goes for my 4 DnD characters (DID U KNOW I RECENTLY FINISHED A WHOLE CAMPAIGN?!?!?! MY FIRST CAMPAIGN and my tiefling paladin got the happiest most lesbian ending possible, hell yeah) bcus i have LOTS of lore for them but i always end up. Not sharing it? Not even with my fellow players on the table bcus man i know they don't really care lol. Like, did u know i have Powerpoints of various lengths talking about them?!?!?!? For at least 2 of them. Eshuu (my most favorite warlock, my goat boy whomst i love deeply) got the 5 star treatment and his powerpoint has 40 slides of content. I JUST LOVE ALL OF MY CHARACTERS and i have been CURSED, cursed I TELL YA to play on tables that don't really. Have that same passion for roleplaying characters (acting wise, u know) or creating OCs. Like cmon guys i thought we all agreed dnd was for repressed theater kids (JOKE)

hmm hmm I MEAN my on rotation rants currently are:

Moon Knight (and why i love it, and why it's one of the best things the mcu has done lately, and WHY I NEVER WANT IT TO CROSS OVER WITH THE REST OF THE MCU with ONE one ONE TINY EXCEPTION. BONUS: THE 2021 RUN RANT BCUS MY GODDDDD!!!! MR JED MACKAY HAS ME ON A FUCKING TIGHT GRIP!!!!!! THAT MAN TRULY IS FEEDING US WITH HIS RUN WHICH IS MARVELOUS AND SO GOOD AND AAAAA IM SO GLAD HE IS WRITING MOON KNIGHT)

Deltarune (just. listen this is MY BEHEMOTH talk about deltarune with me and i will just not shut up. mostly i like to talk about speculation of what will happen on the next chapters and my god. my god, toby fox when will ur brainworms end (never apparently)).

Star wars (THIS IS A SPECIAL ONE. OKAY??? BCUS I BECOME A FUCKING HATER WHEN SOMEONE EVEN BRINGS IT UP. Not because I don't like star wars per se, BUT I HAVE FUCKING BEEF WITH IT AS A FRANCHISE. This all started on the day i was born ON THE DAY they released that last trilogy movie and my life fucking ended. "somehow palpatine returned" I WILL NEVER LET THAT GO, THEY MADE MY BEAUTIFUL MAN OSCAR ISAAC SAY THAT LINE AND NOW HE'S THE FACE OF STAR WARS' SECOND GREATEST NARRATIVE SIN- HOW COULD THEY DO THAT!!!!! WHO WROTE THAT!!!!! FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I MEAN. I MEAN. I'm always ready to list all of the reasons why i fuckin love Mob Psycho 100 but i don't think that's revolutionary. Everyone is doing it these days. Anyway I am in love with Reigen Arataka and my hot take is that HOW could you not love him. Also the Reigen spinoff is GENIUS bcus it's not even ABOUT him.

This is also a special case but it's not a rant im always ready to make but. Homestuck 2. The epilogues. Krusty from the Simpsons going "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT".gif As I'm sure you'd suspect I have STRONG emotions and OPINIONS about All that mess. What a trainwreck. They did ONE thing right but it did not justify the Clown Show it all was. My god. my god.

The legion of super heroes (and by extension, the CW and Michael fuckin' Bendis): Do you wanna know my complicated relationship with DC comics, my love-hate relationship with it, my love for supergirl, my love for the supergirl series which ENDED UP BADLY and also my deep deep love for one of the most BEATEN AND BRUISED hero teams in modern runs???? My god this rant is for YOU. But all u have to know is that I love Brainiac 5, he's my beloved, and i think my love cursed him to be the most DONE DIRTY character of all time. It is my cross, my burden to bear.

I'd add the magnus archives to that list BUT admittedly I still haven't finished the podcast and I have still a very loose grasp on the concepts they just introduced on s3. BUT. B U T. JUST KNOW. I love Elias Bouchard he's evil and he sucks and he made me listen to the brutal pipe murder of a man and i went "wow :) what the hell is his deal <3"

Well. Well I think that's my infodump about MY possible infodumps. Now that I think about it, i'm not sure if this is the answer u wanted. As in, was ur ask made in response to something else? Literally i dont know why i am once more overthinking about it. ANYWAY ALI ILU AND I'M ALWAYS GLAD TO HEAR FROM U!!!!!!! SORRY I DONT TEXT MORE LIFE IS HECTIC AND WHEN TOO MUCH TIME PASSES I START TO THINK I MIGHT BE BOTHERING PEOPLE, BUT ILU FRIEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fanartfunart]

My art progression as showcased through dragons as I avoid doing schoolwork:

2014: I had recently received a digital tablet. Promptly made drawings of long-haired people from behind because I hated drawing humans, and also loved backgrounds and animals more. I do everything on one layer because I’m a child who just transferred over from paper. Probably didn’t even know what a layer was. I exclusively drew dragons (and most everything) in profile. 8/10: I actually had awesome style as a teenager and these are definitely dragons. Storytelling also on point. Everything is a little stiff though.

(cont. under cut)

2014 (part 2): A gigantic leap as I figure out how the heck to color digitally in a way that’s not purely airbrushing everything in. Bright colors show up. I still draw humans flat and as minor details. Animals are still my best friends. Everything becomes absurdly long and angular for far too long starting from here. 5/10: Awkward and lanky. And my mountains got worse, lost all sense of texture and style. There’s no emotion.

2015: Everything is fuzzy. I am obsessed with trying to capture texture but I’m also a teenager and do not know how to capture texture. I also discovered the beauty of making OCs that have weird weird colors and designs. Background creatures remain to be weird sketchy things because I still don’t use base sketches for backgrounds. 3/10: proportions got weird again and the wings are a gigantic downgrade from 2014 me.

2015 (part 2): I continue to be a teenager obsessed with texture and playing with weird settings in digital art. I learn what layers are and why they’re helpful. I exclusively use this knowledge for separating background from foreground.  1/10: He has no legs and no personality and I didn’t know what I was doing. The initial paper drawing was better.

2016: This is for a biology project where we made up our own creatures.... I personally am not sure if I count this as a dragon. I get into My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and everything becomes cute and fluffy, what can I say. I also learned I’m allowed to not use the default canvas and change it. IDK I start drawing After the Fall‘s early concept art and superhero ocs. There’s a distinct lack of normal dragons. 5/10: It feels more like Modern Me and the personality has returned, but also it’s also unsure if this counts as a dragon or a weird bat creature.

2017: I am still obsessed with my superhero ocs, but I’ve given some of them a dragon friend. I also draw almost exclusively in character-only style and the once prominent backgrounds dwindle to nothingness. dragons gain actual scale texture and I still do everything on only 2 layers. My humans are prominent but long, unusual beanpoles. 10/10: I still love this dragon baby and this is an excellent showcase of personal artistic growth. Look at his innocent little face. He’s got personality and is 100% a dragon.

2018: I begin to use layers more thoughtfully, and even tried making a “lighting” layer. I decide this is a bad idea. This marks the start of the Ombre Wings which remains present in the Daydream AU. People remain lanky and perspective is also wonky. This also marks the end of an era, as I abandon all my superheros due to my co-creator/partner dumping me. 5/10: The lighting got worse from every version before. Also all definition in my backgrounds disappeared... why.

2018 (part 2): I get a tumblr and get into Sanders Sides. I make the Daydream au. Virgil is the first non-furry dragon I make with ears??? I abandon trying to draw scale textures for working on perspective and lighting. Shading gets a little flatter again, but I’m also more mindful of actual lighting sources, so it’s forgivable. Dragons return to being Very Big in comparison to people. 8/10: Good memories. The start of an era. Most consistently I’d drawn dragons in a while at this point in time.

2019: Cartoon big eyes become the Standard.  Things have started to become very flowy and soft. I draw a lot of babies which translates to everyone becoming a bit stockier in adult versions too. (This is good because everyone stopped being weirdly long). I add sprinkles of scale-shading back in. Looking back, claws begin to be more paw-like than actual claws in comparison to 2017′s lizard-y claws. 9/10: Designs are on Point and expressions are getting real nice. I’ve finally figured out how to lock and shade layers. Also Babies.

2020: I’ve got AtF going again, and I branch back into making non-scaled dragons. Texture is a Thing, and I make a lot of digital brushes for textures I use a lot. I start using my new coloring technique more regularly. 9/10: about the same since 2019 dragons-wise, but the process has gotten smother and faster. The point off is both an attempt at pretending to be humble while also being aware that my art will change no matter what, and I will think that is better so that potential is There (except for 2017. That’s perfection. The most adorable dragon I’ve ever drawn.)

2021: Despite the fact I’ve gotten really into DnD and despite Dragons being in the name, I have not drawn barely any DnD dragons. There are no colored dragon drawings in the first 2 months of 2021 and this is a flaw. -10/10: no dragons.

[missameliep]

WIP Wednesday - 08/12/2020

Hi, everyone!

I'm feeling motivated to write but my process is still very slow and I'm drowning in a sea of unfinished WIPs... However, it didn’t stop me from starting a new one today... 😳 

1. Untitled MoTY AU (Thomas Mendez x MC) - I "blame" my muse and @lorirwritesfanfic​ for giving me this one idea a while ago, that turned into a persistent idea to create an AU focused on how would it be if both MC and Thomas were shy and awkward at flirting. How would they ever get togeter, if ever? So, this probably one-shot will focus on two wallflowers falling in love... it’s just a rough first draft now, but let’s see how it goes.

2. Is This Love? (Desire and Decorum) - the last part of this miniseries shows Elizabeth’s first weeks at Edgewater, the relationships with her father and grandmother, as well as how it feels to become a lady and adjust to a world that is ready to judge her. The climax will be at the garden party. This is the last sneak peek, one more review and I’ll post the chapter.

3. Second Chances (Desire and Decorum Modern AU) - I changed a few things and chapter 16 is finished, just a last review before posting; now I’m working on chapter 17, which is partially done and is dedicated to the girls' night and their conversations - Elizabeth, Briar and Annabelle will have fun, but also discuss some sensitive subjects. And the next ones, will have Elizabeth confronting two of the antagonists.

Sneak peeks for the DnD fics below the cut:

“Do my eyes deceit me or is that a poetry book I see, sir?” His eyes narrow, whilst he probably tries to understand how she deducted it, before he confirmed.

“I did not take you for a man who would enjoy poetry...”

The corners of his lips twitched, and the smile faded. “You are far too hasty in make assumptions about my character.”

Elizabeth was certain the man would leave after her impertinent remark, but instead, he stayed. And she spoke again, before he changed his mind, “Perhaps this is just an attempt to better understand you, sir, and to give us the chance to start a conversation about a topic we both enjoy.”

“Do you enjoy poetry, my lady?”

“Does nursery rhymes count?”

“Do you have a recommendation, or any random quote will do?”

“Try something from chapter two of…” Elizabeth trailed off, and her eyes scanned the table. “Where’s the other book? The one with the weird photo?”

Sighing, Briar retrieved the book and grimaced at the picture before opening it on the aforementioned chapter.

Elizabeth returned the laptop to her side of the table and glanced at the mobile vibrating. A wide smile curled her lips, and she picked the device to answer Hamid’s texts.

“It’s not fair,” Briar sighed, the side of her face resting on one palm. “You keep texting Hamid and I can’t have my mobile. So not fair…”

“My essay is done. You can have yours when you finish too…” Elizabeth said, still typing, “...And you might want to know Arthur will bring the snacks any minute now.”

Briar beamed and put the pen down. “You asked him to come because of me?” A shy smile from her friend was enough to answer her question. “How sweet is that? You’ll make a better wingwoman than Ann…”

If you want to be added to the tag lists, just let me know.

[ficsandcatsandficsandcats]

As inspired by Joey being absolutely fricken precious, how about Jaskier (even modern AU if you feel it fits better) helps reader make a DnD character and theyre both just being generally chaotic cuties? Maybe Jask suggested the game as a distraction from stress? (Like forreal, dnd gives me something to look forward to in these times.) 💕

Fandom: The Witcher Pairing: Modern!Jaskier x Reader Word Count: 1,298 Rating: G Taglist: @heroics-and-heartbreak​ @whatevermonkey​ @mycat-is-mylove @mynamesoundslikesherlock​ @kemmastan​ @magic-multicolored-miracle​ @writingstudent​ @mlleecrivaine​ @coffee-and-stories​ @amirahiddleston​ @ultracolorfulnerdcollection​ @astouract​ @your-not-invisible-to-me @daydreamer-in-training @morelikebyesexual a/n: Modern!Jask helping Reader through quarantine stress by the power of Dungeons and Dragons. Thank you for this amazing prompt, nonny. Hope you enjoy xo

He’d been watching you grow more and more anxious as you watched the news and tried to telework. Jaskier was grateful that you had a job where you could work from home during these dangerous times, but he knew that it meant you never felt you had a break. You were always checking emails or fretting over things long past the work hours you’d set. There was only one thing to do.

You jumped as the books were plopped onto the table but before you could ask what was going on Jaskier had already turned around and was walking back to his office. This time he returned with a wooden chest that you knew contained his dice collection, as well as a couple of binders. He sat next to you front of the supplies and the azure eyes fixed you with a determined and excited look.

“Y/N, the time has come,” he intoned dramatically. You cocked your eyebrow in question but he saw an amused smirk play about your lips and he was encouraged that he was on the right track. “The time has come for you to play Dungeons and Dragons.”

“Oh! But… how?” you asked. You’d been planning on joining the game he hosted once a week, overtaking the dining room table while you usually relaxed in the bedroom or your office, but the quarantine had dashed those plans. Or so you’d thought.

“My group has decided to try out playing online and you will be joining,” he explained. He slowly snuck the laptop away from you and you didn’t stop him, glancing with interest at the books in front of you.

“I’m so excited!” he said with eyes shining with excitement and a giddy smile that was infectious.

“Ok well you know I don’t know basically anything about this so how do we start?” you asked. He pulled the topmost book down and pulled a couple pieces of paper from a binder.

“First we make your character. Now my group has been playing for a bit so they’re at level five now so I think it’s best to make your character the same level. That just means you’re going to get more cool shit, so don’t even worry about that. Let’s look at races,” he handed you the book opened to a page and you skimmed through them, looking at the different races you could be while Jaskier explained where you didn’t understand.

“Ok so halflings are just, like, hobbits, right?” you asked.

“Yep!” Jaskier answered.

“Well I AM a hobbit basically so I’m going with that,” you said decisively.

“Excellent choice! You’ll get halfling’s luck which means if you roll a one, which is usually a critical failure, you get to reroll. Ok now we move onto classes,” he turned the pages, thumbing through them with the ease that can only be gained by rereading something so often you know exactly where to find what you want. He handed the book over to you again and it took longer to consider your options.

“Let’s break it down this way first, do you want to fight or do you want to cast spells?” he asked, noting your confusion.

“I want to be magic,” you replied. From there he took you through the options again.

“Wait – what’s the difference between a sorcerer and a wizard?” you asked.

“Wizards have to study and learn magic whereas sorcerer’s have a sort of innate magic,” he explained.

“Ooh… see I’m torn because in Harry Potter they’re called Wizards but I like the idea of just having magic within me,” you mused.

“Oh love, you most certainly have magic within you,” Jaskier said with a little wink. You rolled your eyes but laughed, the first time he’d seen you laugh in a while.

“Ok you know what actually I’m going to go with Warlock,” you said suddenly.

“Oh? Going for the sketchy class, eh?” he teased.

“As far as I can see there’s nothing sketchy about it. You work for a god, you get some magic. It’s like capitalism. Or having a sugar daddy,” you reasoned. Jaskier laughed but nodded.

“Alright, the good news is you can pick your sugar daddy. There’s Archfey or some Fiendish ones or-”

“Mephistopheles?” you ventured hopefully.

“Oddly specific but yes, that could happen,” he replied.

“Mephistopheles,” you said decisively, a smile that was borderline creepy coming over your face.

“Do we – uh – need to have a little talk about why you’re so horny for Mephistopheles?” he asked.

“Do you want to have that talk?” you asked pointedly.

“Good point. Just – no summoning demons in the apartment, alright? It would make quarantine just a bit too awkward for me,” Jaskier pleaded. You made a big production of sighing dejectedly.

“Fine,” you grumbled, “Ok what’s next?”

He took you through the backgrounds (“I can straight up be a Charlatan? Like that can just be my identity?”) and the alignments (“ok but it would be too cliché to have Mephistopheles as my patron and be evil, right? Like there would be a more satisfying tension if I was good but he was so, so bad… Hey, come back!”) and equipment (“I want a bag of holding but like I want it to look like an Ikea bag”) and before long you had a character.

“What do you want to name your Chaotic Good Charlatan Halfling Warlock who frequents Fantasy Ikea?” Jaskier asked as he helped you finish filling out your stats.

“Ooh I’m not sure. Would it be plagiarism if I named my hobbit Pippin? Like, will the ghost of J.R.R. Tolkien arise from his grave and shake a finger at me sternly if I do that?” you asked.

“I think we’ll be fine. There’s literally a whole musical called Pippin,” he replied. Your eyes widened in excitement. “Different Pippin.”

You looked decidedly less excited but when you turned back to your character sheet you happily wrote PIPPIN BRANDYBUCK” on the paper.

“Brandybuck eh? Just doubling down on the Lord of the Rings references?” Jaskier asked with amusement.

“I am obviously their child, Jaskier,” you said with a little head shake as if he were being silly.

“You’re such a nerd,” he teased with a look of pride on his face.

“Well you’re the Dungeon Master so….,” you countered.

“Yes, which means you’re sleeping with the Dungeon Master. Don’t expect to get any special treatment. My monsters aren’t going to pull any punches,” he insisted.

“Your monsters won’t need to. Pip is a badass and has the power of Demons and Anime on her side,” you retorted, doodling little hearts around your character’s name.

“Oh you’ll also need to write a backstory. Not right this second but just anything you can think of that you want me to know. Family, any relationships, that sort of thing.”

“She has a great love,” you said immediately, “A bard who travels far and wide. She grew tired of his traveling and that he expected her to just be waiting around for him to come back and that’s why she set off on her own, to have her own adventures instead of waiting to hear about his.”

Jaskier scribbled down some notes on a notebook he pulled from another binder and looked at you expectantly after you’d finished talking.

“That’s all I have for now,” you admitted.

“That’s brilliant! That’s a really good start! See, you’re a natural at this!” he exclaimed. You leaned over and kissed him, and then pulled back just far enough to look him in the eyes.

“Thank you,” you said, giving him a meaningful look, “I didn’t realize how much I needed something to focus on that wasn’t just another stressor.”

He smiled, cupping your face with his hands to pull you in for another kiss.

[feylen]

Crimson Clover

Remember this little picture I did of my dnd boi Arcelm? I’m a big sucker for werewolf and vampire aus (*sides eyes to the DA:I succuwolf!au haha) and recently I have some little story excerpts in my head which sets our usual Aesis dnd setting into a supernatural/modern high fantasy!au. And so I sat down and wrote something! Whoop whoop~enjoy! ♥

It was his 21st birthday. He could do anything he wanted to do, right? So just for one day, he wanted to be a different man. Just for one day, he wanted to do things. Different things. Change his usual routine. He heard of the wild parties his friends had on their 21st birthday: Alcohol, Drugs, Sex - yeah that kind of stuff. 

He changed his clothes, made himself presentable and snuck out of his room. Just for tonight. By dawn, he would return and no one would ever know that he finally - and rightfully - had the time of his life!

---

The bright neon signs of the various clubs were glowing in all kind of colours and the streets were full with people of various stages of drunkenness. Arcelm savoured all the different impressions of the night life of Ebrus City. It’s not that his parents wouldn’t let him party and go out with his friends, but - well - how shall he put it … his mother had a very peculiar way of not letting him leave the house on certain nights. Nights like this one. 

Arcelm loved his parents dearly, especially his mother, but sometimes he wished that she was more normal. In a more “down to earth” way. She had the habit of planning their life after a stupid calendar. With various moon cycles and even things like blood moons and eclipses. Arcelm looked up and wrinkled his nose. Heavy clouds were blocking the sky. He saw no stars and especially no full moon. Which apparently was today, at least according to his mother. Come to think of it, she was a bit nervous today and made extra sure that he took his medication on time and - oh shit! What time was it? He needed to take the last one before midnight! Arcelm searched his pockets but wasn’t able to find the familiar little case he always carried around. He must had forgotten it in one of the trousers he tried on and decided to change them for a more skinnier pair of jeans before he snuck out. He sighed and rubbed his nose. It wasn’t the end of the world if he forgot to take one. To be honest, it wasn’t real medication to begin with. Just a “natural supplement” which his mother also took from time to time. This shouldn’t ruin his plans for tonight! He’ll just have some fun for a couple of hours and then return a bit earlier than planned. Yeah, that should do it!

The most known and popular clubs already were too full and Arcelm’s cheerful mood slowly turned sour. With a bottle of alcopop in one hand and the other deep in the pocket of his jeans, he strolled down the street. There were some couples here and there and some of them were already kinda into it and as Arcelm caught himself staring a bit too long, he turned his heavy blushing face away. Maybe all of this wasn’t the best idea after all. Maybe he should go home and bury his face deep into his pillow and drown in self-pity for five minutes. Maybe he -

“Hey there handsome. Your face is way too pretty to be moping around. I’m guessing you’re alone too? My group just ditched me so - wanna hang?”

Arcelm froze. In front of him stood a drop dead gorgeous woman. Red curly shoulder length hair, deep green eyes, a short black dress which highlighted all of her curvy female features perfectly, black high heels and her voice! Arcelm blinked a couple of times and gathered all the courage he could muster in his half tipsy state: “Hi - hey! Wow, I mean, hey. Yeah sure - at least I think you are talking to me?” Arcelm quickly turned around to see if there was someone standing behind him. The woman giggled. “Aren’t you a cute and funny one? I must be so lucky tonight. Listen, I’ll show you the real deal. Those crowded clubs in the front? Only for losers. Come, follow me. Let’s have a good time tonight!” With that, she grabbed Arcelm’s hand and started walking towards the end of the main street. He looked down at their locked hands and felt a slight shiver running down his spine. Maybe he was just too nervous right now, but her hand felt so cold in his own. He cleared his throat : “My name’s Arcelm. Who do I spend the evening with?” The woman smiled and squeezed his hand. Then she took a turn right, leaving the busy main street. “It’s just around the corner. You’ll love it there.” Arcelm cleared his throat again: “O-okay. You got me curious you know. I mean, this is kinda like a mysterious adventure. You still didn’t tell me your name.” She looked over her shoulder and winked: “You’re curious indeed! And I want to stay mysterious for a bit longer. It’s fun!” He chuckled and tried to reply, hiding his rising insecurity: “If you say so!”

Arcelm looked around. While the main street was bright and flashy, this alley certainly had his own charme. He heard the dulled music coming from a few buildings. Mostly heavy metal music mixed with some heavy beats here and there. The woman lead him to a building with red wooden doors. There was no sign with a name above it. At least Arcelm didn’t find one. The man in the front, probably a security guy, just nodded towards Arcelm’s new acquaintance and opened the door. Without hesitation, she pulled Arcelm through and as the doors were closed behind them, it got dark. Really dark. The woman chuckled: “You have an unique name you know. You shouldn’t give it away so freely like that.” She pulled him closer to her and Arcelm could feel her breath on his neck and her knee between his thighs. “I promise you, this will be a night you’ll never forget, Arcelm.” And with that, she opened another door in front of them and suddenly the quietness of the small and dark entry room was replaced by loud music and Arcelm felt his body starting to vibrate to the deep bass in the huge dancing room. A sweet and metallic smell filled his lungs and without even noticing, his body started to move on its own. He looked into the green eyes of his new acquaintance and he suddenly felt so free, careless even. She smiled and they started dancing. He didn’t even know he could dance like that. She put his hands on her hips, encouraging him to explore. He felt her hands doing the same. And after a while, there was another pair of hands and a new face. And then another. Everything started to feel like a blur. Arcelm heard her voice calling his name over and over again. And he followed her through the dancing crowd. He saw her green eyes in front of him. Her beautiful face smiling and everything around him didn’t matter anymore. Because everything was just her. 

He wasn’t sure how much time had past since he entered the club. He wasn’t even sure how many people he had danced with. But he was pretty sure the pain he was feeling right now, was coming from his right arm. Arcelm blinked a couple of times and tried to focus. Where was he? This wasn’t the dance room from before. This room was so bright and it smelled heavily like disinfectant. And why was he lying on his back? Arcelm felt like he was hit by a truck. Slowly he tried to stand up and get on his feet but felt a yank at his right wrist. “What the fuck…?” He looked  down and saw that he was handcuffed to the surface he was lying on. With his free hand, he pulled up his sleeve to look for the source of the pain he felt in his right harm but everything seemed fine by the look of it. He moved his legs and was relieved that they weren’t cuffed either. He took a deep breath and sat up. No need to panic. There was a perfect - maybe not reasonable - but at least a reason, for him being in this … laboratory? He let his eyes wander and shuddered a bit. Surgical equipment, test tubes, white tiles as far as the eye could see and ... a crimson red blood trail leading out of the room. Arcelm felt a sudden pain in his chest. He tried to avert his gaze from the strains on the floor but something compelled him to look. To suck in the air which smelled so sweet. He started to sweat heavily and also started to hear whispers, voices - so many of them: 

Why did you bring him? Look what you did! I didn't’t know! How should I know? I’m sorry, I’m so sorry! Run, we have to run! It’s not too late! He can be killed! We must hurry! He has no power! Don’t be stupid or do you want to end like Allen?

“No, NO - I don’t want to die!” Arcelm started to drag on the handcuff. His right arm already felt sore from the pain, but he pulled with all the strength his body could muster in his moment. He didn’t want to die. He still was so young. Still had so much to see, so much to feed on. With a last tug, he broke the chain on the handcuff and got up. His feet didn’t touch ground though but something different. Something soft. Arcelm looked down and froze in shock. He stood in a pool of blood and shreds of something that cleary was human once. The pain in his chest returned and it was so much harder this time. Arcelm wanted to grab the table he was lying on not long ago for support but stumbled and fell backwards, knocking over some of the tables and racks in his way.

The next following moments happened in a flash. After hearing the loud noise in the room, the door opened and a couple of people entered the lab. Arcelm got on his feet and tried to run away. Someone grabbed him by the arm, but he managed to shake them off. One just backed down and let him run, but another one tackled him to the ground. Arcelm screamed for help while trying to get the hands of his attacker off him. “Let me go you sick fuck!” The man sitting on him started yelling: “Don’t just stand there! Help me you fucking coward or else we can’t finish him off!” Arcelms eyes widened in shock. No, no!

I don’t want to die. Please no! Someone please help me ...

You don’t need help. They are weak. You are superior. They don’t deserve the blood.

The blood? The blood … is mine. All is mine. 

---

This was certainly not what he expected from his 21th birthday. Arcelm opened his eyes and closed them again in an instant. His head hurt so much. He just wanted to have some fun. Did he overdo it yesterday? He tried to remember, but everything was black. He frowned. Why did his room smell like sandalwood and lilies? And was that a velvet bed sheet he was lying on? He made another effort to open his eyes and blinked a couple of times. He groaned.

“So, you finally decided to return to the living?”

Arcelm sat up in a jolt and instantly regretted his sudden movement. Slowly he moved his head to the direction where the unknown deep male voice came from. The room was dimly lit so he had to squint his eyes a bit to find out who was talking to him. The man closed the book in his hands, put it on a side table and got up from the armchair he was sitting on. He was tall, 5’9 or maybe even 6’, slender and his movement was smooth and elegant. He opened the curtains a bit more before heading towards the bed. 

Arcelm blinked a bit and … blushed. He had never seen a more beautiful and graceful man in his life before. His skin was like polished obsidian and his long thick white hair perfectly underlined his aristocratic face, his long nose, the curved brows and the full lips. But the most striking feature for Arcelm were his lilac eyes. Arcelm caught himself staring and his heart started to pound.

“Cat caught your tongue? I’m no healer, but I think I patched you up quite nicely. Do you remember what happened last night?” The stranger sat down on the bed, right next to Arcelm. Without knowing, Arcelm took a deep breath and his face got even redder. The man chuckled. “Okay. Let’s start slowly. My name is Veldarin. Right now, you are lying in my bed in a house near the marketplace of Ebrus. I found you just around the corner of my shop, covered in blood.” With that, all the color of Arcelm’s face faded away and the man put up a hand in defence. “Listen, I - I won’t judge. I just had the feeling that you needed the help and I must admit that I am intrigued. In a certain way. So, you don’t need to be afraid. I won’t call the police if you don’t want to. Would you be willing to share your name and story with me?”

Arcelm fumbled with the velvet blanket and was silent for a couple of minutes, trying to get his thoughts together. What … did happen though? He wet his lips before he started to speak: “I think I did something stupid. At least it wasn’t stupid in the beginning. I wanted to celebrate my birthday. You know, have some fun on the 21st one?” Veldarin nodded in agreement. “Happy belated birthday then.” Arcelm smiled for a second. “Thank you, uhm, anyway, I wasn’t allowed to leave the house and so I sneaked away from home and went down to Ebrus City, to the clubs - but I wasn’t able to enter the regular ones. A woman approached me, red hair, black clothes. She took me with her to a club she knew. Some metal club, I can’t remember anymore. We had some fun but then … everything’s a blur.” Arcelm bit on his lip. And frowned. “I remember a white room. And blood. So much blood.” He started to tremble. “I-I remember being afraid. I ran and something happened. But I can’t remember. I-I’m sorry, I can’t remember!” Arcelm didn’t remember the last time he cried in front of another person but right now, he couldn't stop the tears from forming in his eyes. He quickly wiped them away and looked down on his hands. The nails on his right hand were so much longer than those on his left. And since when could he literally see his blood pulsating in his veins? “My mother always made me take some kind of natural supplement. I always thought that they were just some fake vitamins, but I didn’t take them yesterday. And look what happened.” 

Big blue eyes met lilac ones and Veldarin crossed his arms in front of his chest, raising an eyebrow. “I’m sorry but I think I didn’t catch your name …?” Arcelm blinked a couple of times and looked down apologetically. “Where are my manners. My name’s Arcelm. My full name is kinda long but it’s Arcelm Aseir Emys von Irnamil. Thank you for helping me. I’m sure my family will be able to-” Arcelm couldn’t finish his sentence because Veldarin suddenly grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him slightly. “Y o u are Arcelm? That explains everything! I had my assumptions but I wasn’t sure.” Veldarin’s gaze suddenly changed from relieved to concerned and he let his hands slide down from the shoulders to the hands and took them into his. Arcelm started to blush again and shivered a bit. He felt goosebumps raising on his skin. “But at the same time, you were really careless. Do you even know how much time and energy your mother spends to keep you safe?” Veldarin sighed. “You-you know my mother?” The white haired man nodded and squeezed Arcelm’s hands before letting them go. He stood up again and went to one of the drawers in the far corner of the room. Arcelm already missed  the warmth of the older man’s hands and watched him opening the top drawer, cleary looking for something.

The world was a small place though. Who would have thought that someone his mother knew would help him out in the first place? The young man was getting curious now. She never told him about a man like Veldarin. How did she got to know him? Arcelm wriggled his toes. He occupied the bed long enough! It was time to stand up. He looked around the room again. Where were his clothes though? He slid to the edge of the bed and wrapped the blanket around his waist. A blush creeped into his cheeks again as he stood there. Next to him the king sized bed of an older man. This was certainly not the time to question his sexual interests but he always thought that he liked ... women. But then again, he never met someone like Veldarin in his life before. Arcelm sighed. This was uncalled for. He didn’t have the right to think about his savior like that. And this meeting properly was the last one anyway... 

Arcelm stretched his arms and legs before walking up to Veldarin. “I don’t want to sound rude, but do you know where my clothes are? I think I should head home now. Although I would love to avoid my punishment but it’s not my first time to be grounded for a longer time.” Veldarin finally closed the drawer with a quiet sound of accomplishment and turned around to face the young man. With a smile, he took Arcelm’s hand in his again and placed two red pills in it. “The agent in these two pills should suffice for the week. And don’t worry. I already contacted Taliyah. She’s furious but I think the feeling of relieve will be far greater than her anger.” The white haired man walked to the side table at the window and poured some water into a glas. 

“I’m sorry for asking, but these look exactly like the pills I take at home and ... how could you get in contact with my mother while being in the same room with me the whole time?” Veldarin smiled and handed the glass of water over to Arcelm who simply nodded in thanks and took the pills without further hesitation.

“There are many hidden things in this world which a normal human being doesn’t need to know. And usually it’s safer if they remain hidden. But you - you are not a normal human being. At least, not anymore. Thanks to your recklessness.” Arcelm slightly crooked his head to his side and Veldarin chuckled. Then the older man tipped on his temple with a finger and smiled. “Welcome to the fantastic world of magic.” And with that, a slight breeze went through the room and Veldarin’s features slightly changed. He kept his general appearance but he wasn’t human anymore. Arcelm rubbed his eyes. In front of him now, stood … a smiling drow.

[baronvontribble]

okay. alright. i’m doing it. here’s a list of AUs that i have toyed with for the robot and marshmallow, none of which have solid titles (and i will answer questions about any of them):

the big story: the one for publishing, so far. both the most finished and the oldest original story. Adam is a runaway police robot who comes to a group of sympathetic humans to find a new body and a new life as a free man. Ted is part of that group and ends up helping him. goes HARD into the AI minutiae and modern concepts about robotics in a five-minutes-into-the-future setting. tackles mental illness, disability, and is generally super soft and low-key.

team winions: workshopped but not written. still nailing certain things down. basically Ted’s the main support on an esports team and Adam is his newly traded-in DPS/lane partner/AD carry. over the course of a season they do the cute bonding thing, and they and the rest of their misfit team eventually secure a finals win for an NA region that’s pretty much never won anything before that. oh, and this one has art! i mean it’s an old art from when i was first thinking of having Adam be on another team instead of a new trade to the one Ted’s on, but STILL AN ART.

(the one who gets traded away is Owen; Rani swaps to top lane, and Angie and Malak stay in the same positions.)

post-apocalyptica: this was an idea for a platformer. basically, the world has ended. Ted wakes up from complete stasis in a hospital after a few hundred years - healed of whatever it was that got him into stasis in the first place - to find that no one’s left but robots (not androids, though) and a voice on a headset. the voice guides him through the ruins of the city to find meds and possibly other survivors (a thing the voice doesn’t recommend). but when he finds those survivors, he finds out that they were woken up too. by the same voice. every single one of them rejected it once they found out what it’d done, and now they’re fighting the robots to ‘take back the city’.

the voice expects Ted to join them at that point, but he doesn’t. instead he asks where the voice is broadcasting from. then he goes all the way to the top of a ruined skyscraper, and on the very top floor he finds Adam hooked up to a bank of servers. this is the last android, trapped by the limitations of his own memory-bloat, kept functional by a mess of wires that connect him to his own massive server room of a brain. upon seeing this, Ted sits down, unpacks his lunch and his meds, and settles in to try and make the guy a little less lonely.

space, idea 1: one of two different ideas that i’ve considered the two goobers for in the same universe; at this point i’ve decided that if Ted gets one, then someone else will have to get the other, because I want to reuse my goddamn space universe. barring that, i could use another idea for a framing device, but i’ll talk about that later. for now, we will say Ted is in training to become a human partner for a ship pilot AI. or was. he’s being threatened with getting kicked out.

why? who knows. it’s Ted. that is not the point. the point is that he is given an opportunity to redeem himself by joining an experimental program that will give him telekinetic powers via alien spores, but to harness them he has to have nanotech and an AI implanted into his nervous system to monitor and regulate the bits of his brain that will spontaneously burst into irreparable cancer the moment he starts the treatment. the cancer is the flipside of a radical regenerative ability that the spores also cause.

Adam is the AI, one of many. he doesn’t want to be there. none of them do. it’s a last resort assignment given to AIs that are about to be sent to run remote He3 scoops out in the sticks. Ted is also one of many humans and most of them are pseudo-dropouts for one reason or another just like he is. very few of them are well-adjusted, and the usual anime training school shenanigans ensue.

but then a dark thing happens. a test subject who was thought dead seemingly comes back and starts killing the AIs, which can potentially kill the people who really need them in their brains. panic ensues; the leader of the program tries for as long as he can to cover it up because it’s a skeleton in his closet, specifically, but eventually it comes back to bite him and everyone else on the station. so it’s up to Ted and Adam and their friend-group to save the day and get everyone who’s still alive off the station in one piece.

space, idea 2: Adam is a freshly minted AI who has a problem: he goes through partners like other people go through shoes. technically he has the right to refuse anyone for any reason, but his handlers think it’s getting a little ridiculous that he’s refused so many. it’s also expensive to keep trying to match him up with people again and again, and no algorithm can really predict the personality profiles that’ll end up being compatible with him since so many have proven not to be.

then Ted stumbles into his airlock, and he gets An Idea: the human can’t act in ways that are incompatible if his good word is the only thing keeping them from getting arrested. so, he takes advantage of the opportunity and says he wants this one as his partner. this one that’s an actual criminal.

his handlers give up, and this is how the story begins. i don’t know where it will go from there. maybe i’ll use my conspiracy plot where Zach’s trying to start a galactic civil war and they uncover his machinations together. or maybe i’ll use the Fermi paradox plot where they’re scouting and they find a Pioneer-level probe out in space only to find its planet of origin completely dead except for a lone caretaker AI overseeing the stored memories and personalities of a million long-forgotten souls. it’s the kind of setup that can go anywhere.

the framing device: but then there’s this. this thing i thought of to tie them all together. if i start with the last and write the rest, then this would be the thing that let me keep writing AUs with abandon: the VR idea. set in my space universe, it would be a procedurally generated full-immersion VR experience compatible with both humans and AIs that allowed them to live fully fleshed-out alternate stories for themselves, either alone or with others. the stories would follow narratives, have plots, have stakes; the promise is that you can spend your time in the sim being the storybook version of yourself.

now, there are settings. when you go in you can tweak the realism, set up what tags and genres you feel like going for, how much drama you want, how much violence you’re feeling up to seeing or experiencing. and all of it is safe, controlled, and probably really expensive. but it’s supposedly the best vacation your credits can buy you without having to go offworld, so it’s an immediate sensation in-universe.

this would be how i’d tie it all together. and i could use it for multiple character pairings. i could even reuse characters if i said it stored imprints of previous users or had stock characters. but for Ted and Adam? they’d use it as a way to meet and fall in love and be with each other in a thousand timelines across a thousand different worlds, and they’d never get tired of it.

anyway, yeah. those are just the ORIGINAL ones. i’d write them in WoW or Shadowrun or Divinity: Original Sin or Dragon Age or Mass Effect or Stardew Valley or Slime Rancher or Cyberpunk or DnD or Fallout or Starcraft or Overwatch or ANY universe if i thought i could get away with it. these boys will always jump into any AU i dip my toes into, and be the first to volunteer themselves for any plot i come up with. if i bring one, the other is coming too in one form or another. that’s just how they are.

now you all know why i never get anything done that doesn’t have them in it.

[yourfaveisyanderematic]

2! 6! 10! 13-14; 24; 44-45; and 49!! Please do whatever amount you are comfortable with - but I'm glad you've decided to receive questions from this numbered post too!

Man you just went absolutely nuts with this one, huh  Nice.

THIS GOT LONG; I’m gonna try to put it under a cut but you know how Tumblr.Hell has been to me, lately.  Maybe it’s in protest about all the horny content I’ve been writing.

Things that motivate you.

I’m always super stoked when I read something really good, or see an interesting scene in a film or show!  Whenever I see or hear an idea that goes “wow, that’s such a fresh and intense element of horror”, I get a really strong urge to work.  Sometimes it’s enough to make me throw all priority out the window as I struggle to capture an idea before it gets away from me, which is why y’all still haven’t seen that god damn Narancia fic.  I’m working on it, I swear.

It goes without saying, but knowing that people enjoyed something I wrote--especially if I’m insecure about it--also makes me really happy, and I get another burst of energy to write something for people.  Comment on fics, guys!  Tell authors you like their stuff!  You’ll get more!

How did writing change you?

I consider things more analytically and find myself trying to work out how I’d describe a particular emotion, or sensation or experience.  It’s also given me a better appreciation for the work of others!  I tend to pick up on things I like or dislike about a work and better articulate why I feel that way, and then dissect the author’s approach and their strengths in conveying things.  It’s like an English class, but far more fun!

How do you do your researches?

I get the idea for a fic, sit down and write it, and then as I start describing how a character’s thrown through a wall go “...wait a moment.  Would drywall realistically be used in the construction of a house at this place and time?”, which turns into an hour-long rabbit hole where I learn all about Midwestern architecture instead of writing.  Other times I’m dissatisfied with my own understanding of things and have to spend some time running several iterations of a medical (sometimes suspicious) question to get accounts from people who experienced the injury, or a doctor’s opinion on what’s likely to happen.  FBI Agent-chan, I promise I’m not actually going to feed someone lye!  I just want to know some things about what would happen,  if I theoretically did.  Theoretically.

Hardest character to write?

*Narancia materializes behind my shoulder like the ghost of a murdered Victorian child*

...good characters.  I should say, it’s incredibly difficult for me to write heart-of-gold ultra goodboys like Okuyasu as the antagonist of a horror fic!  There are characters who are generally good-aligned but are more than willing to get their hands dirty to get a job done, and there are characters I just really have a hard time seeing hurt people, so I avoid them if I can’t think of a good angle.  I can’t--maybe won’t, it’s all the same thing with my Hell Fuck Brain--write something if it doesn’t feel in character, and I avoid doing pure/straight fluff on this blog.

Easiest character to write?

KIRA.  I used to be pretty interested in true crime and serial killers (a fact that should surprise absolutely nobody), and of all JJBA’s villains he’s very...human, in the way that we have plenty of real-life people with his motivations and deeds, if not his exploding housecat.  I really enjoy dissecting his psychology, because he exposes a lot about his worldview in only a few interactions with women.  Anyway, writing him comes very easily to me, because I understand him.

Favorite scene you’ve ever written?

Why, Anon, I don’t know what you mean!  I love all my scenes equally!

*later* ...I don’t care much for [you’ll never know]

I actually had to think about this one for a moment, because I actually don’t think about my scenes too much once I’m done with them.  Always looking to the next thing to write, I guess lmao.  If I had to pick a favorite, though, I’d definitely say it’s the Doppio scene.  I’ve got a soft spot for that one because of the research that went into it (that ultimately ended up meaning VERY little lmao) and the muted horror and agony that I think really defined what I wanted to do with this blog.  I think I tended to veer more towards psychological horror than body horror since then....until this month, anyway.  Lmao.

Do you write linear or do you write future scenes if you feel like it?

It’s very difficult for me to start a fic ‘in the middle’.  If I’ve got a good middle bit, I’ll sit on it and sit on it until I think of a good way to get there, and it’s not until I have the beginning that I actually start.  Not because I want to, that’s just how my brain works lmao.  I tend to keep most of my writing in my head (drafts WHO?  Outlines WHAT?  Don’t know her, bitch!), so the future scenes I have just stay there and keep developing until I’ve got the scope of the fic all set.

Share the synopsis of a story you work on that you haven’t published yet.

"Company Man”

Haha, what if I wrote a Modern/Office AU...just kidding...

unless...?  Trouble-prone Reader-Chan is a new hire at Brando and Associates, where they discover a whole new definition of ‘cutthroat’ as they immediately get enmired in brutal office politics of unbelievable scope.  The salary’s great, but the workload is...shall we say, murder.

Writing advice?

Play Dnd.  Specifically, run DnD...or any tabletop storytelling game, really, there are plenty of systems that focus on storytelling and don’t really care about dice.  I understand that this might require you to be a little more social than the advice you were expecting, but doing so is going to really help you with:

Flexibility.  You must adapt to what your players unexpectedly do--there’s no way to prepare for every outcome--and still make a story that’s coherent and interesting.  You have to learn that your characters--not your plot--is the king of your story, and sometimes they’re going to take things in a direction you didn’t plan on.  ‘Yes, and’ or ‘Yes, but’ is going to become your best friends, and this strategy will be a big help when you feel like you’re in a writing roadblock because your characters won’t do this or that!  

Feedback.  A story has to be engaging first, deep and profound or whatever second.  Players will be able to immediately tell you ‘hey, this is fun’ or ‘hey, this isn’t cool’, and by playing with different people you’ll be able to catch weaknesses in your storytelling style sooner, and also get a better feel for what you just enjoy doing.

Also, write.  Even if it’s bad.  There’s a post on tumblr with this example, but it’s better to make a hundred shitty pots and improve each time than it is to wait and make a really good pot that could have been way better with the time you spent waiting to perfect it.