#I really need to figure out a proper design for Seer Void-

[dracl-dragon]

Drawing of Colle and Void i made earlier

I was listening to Annilated Love by Starset and it gave me the idea for this :)

Its a lil bit messy since i didn't use a ref and i haven't used this specific lineless style in like a year-

(Ver without fire and lightning under cut)

@itsgirlcraft

@itisindigos

@chaoticcyprus

[exn0bisstudios]

As a preface: no need to answer if you don’t feel comfortable with it,I know people sometimes don’t like these questions so no pressure if you’re one of them! Who likes kids, who would like to be a parent (if their partner also wanted that of course!), and who is good with kids? Thank you!

Well, firstly, thank you for your concern! I'm okay with these topics so long as it's not about me personally, so don't worry! That said, though, I'll put this under a cut since the topic might be uncomfortable for some people.

CW for: talk involving conception, infertility, pregnancy, miscarriage

Edited 5/16 - Changes to include more inclusive language. My apologies! 

Since we're talking about the ROs and kids, let us talk about MC too for a sec.

It should be noted that it is typically challenging for a Seer to bear children/impregnate someone. The corruption that comes with their Void powers usually renders them infertile, or at least close to. However, it's not unheard of for a Seer to have children. Still, it usually results in a difficult pregnancy and can be dangerous to both the carrier and the child. Additionally, any child born from a Seer (either parent) would be Dream-touched.

That said, as we know, MC is a very special Seer. Canonically, their powers have not rendered them infertile, though their kid would still end up Dream-touched. However, I will be leaving it up to players to decide if their MC can or can't have biological kids for other reasons. And, obviously, adoption is also very much an option!

Now on to the ROs!

Mira

Mira likes kids well enough, and they're usually very good with them. They struggle a bit with dealing with noble children. Still, Mira's kind and empathetic nature tend to have children warming up to them regardless. They used to help take care of the young recruits back at the Order, both daily routine stuff and some training.

They would absolutely love to have a family one day, but it's something they kinda push to the back of their mind and try not to think about. Their lifestyle doesn't lend itself to the stability and safety necessary for raising children, considering they could be killed in action any day. They think it would be grossly irresponsible to have a family, then end up dead somewhere and leave them hanging. Mira was an orphan themself, and they know firsthand how hard life is for kids on their own. They have no desire to contribute to that lifestyle or put their own potential child through that.

If there ever came a time where they could lay down their weapons for good, though, then yes. They'd want to start a family in whatever way they could. Though not opposed to having biological children, both masc & fem Mira would prefer to adopt. Again, being an orphan themself, they would choose to take in a child. Mira would ideally like 2-3 kids so they can have a big family to grow old with, and they'd be a very supportive and doting parent. They'd probably struggle with discipline.

Nova

Children confuse the absolute shit out of Nova, and the way mortals procreate admittedly terrifies them. Nightmares are not born in the same sense that mortals are; they just kinda pop into existence fully formed. When Nova first learned about mortal procreation, they had a minor mental breakdown. The idea of another, smaller living thing growing inside someone strikes them as distinctly horrific. They've done their best to accept the idea at this point in their life, but mainly they cope with it by ignoring its existence. They see a pregnant person and basically go, 'suddenly I have no eyes.' Babies and children continue to confuse them despite their best efforts, and they have no idea how to interact with them. You put a child around Nova, and you're liable to hear them genuinely asking the kid why they are so small and dumb.

Nova's mortal body is also infertile by design. They chose this shortly after they realized they actually enjoyed sex and would do it again. They don't know if it would be possible for them to become pregnant/impregnate someone, considering they're not actually mortal. Still, they didn't want to risk it.

The only time Nova would consider starting a family is if it was something their partner(s) really, really wanted. They'd sit down and have an honest talk about how it's something that they know nothing about, that the process scares them, and that they are absolutely going to need help learning how to handle it all. But, if their partner is willing to accept all that, Nova would be willing to try. Though again, they don't know if they can procreate with a mortal, so they'd probably recommend going for a surrogate or adoption. Eventually, Nova'd grow into a good parent, very supportive, and surprisingly level-headed.

Stella

They don't have too much of an opinion on children, which shows in how they don't really know how to interact with them. Stella feels super awkward around kids, and they're more likely to tell them to shoo. Their own childhood has tainted their views, and being around children brings up things they'd rather not think about. Honestly, the fastest way to make Stella disappear is to put a child nearby.

Deep down, though, they like the idea of starting a family. It would take a lot of encouragement to get them to admit that. It'd take even more to help them process long-ignored family-related trauma and unlearn a whole lot of unhealthy habits. With the proper support from their partner(s), though, they'd really like to give things a try. Fem Stella wouldn't mind carrying a child. Still, both fem & masc Stella generally don't care if their kid is biological or adopted.

Stella would make for a very nervous parent, and they'd be absolutely terrible at discipline. They'd probably helicopter and be overprotective and would have to be reminded by their partner(s) that things will be okay.

Désiré

So a bit of history: Dez is one of the only two ROs who already has child-rearing experience. His best friend and second-in-command, Alix, was born and raised in the brothel with him. While he grew up to be an errand boy and bodyguard, she became one of the courtesans. He took up smuggling and worked his ass off to get them out of there, but unfortunately, Alix became pregnant before they could escape. Alix's son, Dimitri, was born in the cabin of the first ship Dez ever owned.

Alix eventually married Catarina, the crew's healer, who has acted as Dimitri's other mother. Thus, while Dez is 'officially' Dimitri's uncle, he has always been his only father-figure. Dimitri is 14 by the time of the game and is still a very active part of Désiré's life. You'll actually get a chance to meet him in-game since he's got a place on Dez's crew (he's the cabin boy)!

Now that history is managed, it's safe to say that Désiré would love to start a family one day. It doesn't matter to him how, though going the biological route, let it be known he's excellent at tending to pregnancy needs. He's a wonderful parent, generally gentle while supportive and encouraging, and is comfortable being stern when it's called for.

Vittore Simone

Sadly I can't get into the specifics of Vittore Simone's thoughts on kids and family without it becoming a spoiler. However, I can say that he vowed when he was young that he'd never have kids and has never thought of it since. Going forward, it would never be something that crossed his mind unless brought up by his partner and would be something he'd defensively refuse at first. Later, he'd come back with apologies and to have a more open conversation on the matter to express his reservations and fears.

Suffice to say that the idea of being a father absolutely terrifies him, and he has always taken great pains to avoid it ever happening. Even just the thought is enough to send him into panic attacks. His partner will need to be patient with him and accept that this is something he may genuinely never be able to do for the sake of his own health and any future child's. It would take a lot of time, reassurance, work, healing, support, and understanding before Vittore Simone ever agreed to give parenthood a shot. It will not be an easy road for him or his partner. It would likely be a road that never truly ends, and he'd need to be sure that they can both accept that without damaging their own relationship. He would try, though. He would do his damnedest. And, thankfully, there will never be any doubt that he genuinely does love his kid.

As a father, initially, he would constantly be terrified he was hurting his kid somehow. He would struggle with being overly permissive & overprotective at the same time. He's liable to have a panic attack any time the kid cries for the first several years. His partner will have to help him get through 'I'm a terrible father, this was a mistake' breakdowns periodically. Slowly, though, he'll build some confidence and be more comfortable interacting and expressing himself with his kid. He'll always be supportive, and he'll work his hardest to be sure his family knows he loves them unconditionally. His partner will have to accept the role of disciplinarian, though. That's never going to be something he'll be able to do on his own (but of course, he'll be there to support them in those conversations. He doesn't want to make them the 'bad guy' by any means).

Andrai

The other RO with child-rearing experience! Andrai has 15 younger siblings (yes, you heard me correctly) and absolutely adores them all. They're all grown now, but he loved taking care of them when they were little, and he still dotes on them whenever he can, in his own way. In general, he loves kids. He just thinks they're adorable. And, despite appearances, he's excellent with them. Kids love this man, they flock to him, and he has no problem with that. It confuses most onlookers.

The idea of starting his own family turns him to absolute mush. And, he'd love to, so so much. Adoption, biological, and surrogacy are okay with him. It would be up to his partner to limit exactly how many kids they have since Andrai would just say he wants them all. He makes an excellent dad, albeit quiet, and is unwaveringly supportive. He's comfortable with discipline and is the type to encourage self-assessing behavior. He's excellent at giving advice and genuinely just likes spending time with his kids and being involved in their lives.

He's probably not the one you would peg as the 'domestic bliss' type, but he absolutely is.

Vzridmi

She's very comfortable with kids since communal rearing is very common in ork communities, and she'd love to have a family one day. Some kids unused to orks might find her a bit intimidating just because of her size, but in general, children think she's fun to be around. She doesn't necessarily think about it too much, though, at this point in her life. It's not something she sees as being on the table for quite some time - she has research and exploration to be doing, after all.

Whenever she was ready to settle down for a family, she'd be comfortable with carrying a child herself, surrogacy, or adopting. She would really like to have at least one biological child if possible, though. She would make for an entertaining mother, excited about her child's life and ever-supportive of their interests and pursuits. She's comfortable with all the aspects of child-rearing. Still, She would definitely need her partner's advice if they ever discovered their kid was dealing with bullying. She'd need to be reminded by her partner not to be overprotective - she's not above threatening others with her war-hammer if they upset her baby.

[sunevial]

While I will get to the small backlog of writing prompts I have yet to get to eventually, I’m feeling up to telling a different story involving the Followers. Today, you’re getting the origin story.

Not the characters, oh no, this is the story of how this shit show came together into something coherent. Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one.

As some of you may know, the Followers are each loosely based around and upon eight members of patrons on the Internet Remix Patreon server. I happen to only truly ‘own’ Witch; every other character involved belongs to the person that originally came up with them. If you didn’t happen to know this, here’s a quick rundown of everyone involved:

Me (Sunev or Meg): Witch

@hewhowalksbehind (Onyx): Lieutenant

@missvulpix212 (Missfoxx): Old Priestess

@arahul-abyssia (Arahul): Advisor

@archerowl6 (Archer): Huntress

@joy-in-opera (Carl): Bookkeer

@kylethewarrior (Kyle): Part Timer

CollectorOfMyst (Myst): Young Priest 

Now, this was right around when Internet Remix was announcing Camp Streamix and all of us on the Patreon server were choosing teams. A couple of us immediately rallied around Kristen and Team Murder, each for our own reasons (Onyx in solidarity for also living in the void state, Missfoxx given her longstanding friendship with Kristen, me for the storytelling and a long running joke that I was Kristen’s witch, Arahul for the intrigue, and Archer for the horror elements). 

Not long after this, we all got to joking that as the patrons, we were like Kristen’s followers in a way. I was the first one to really create a ‘persona’ as a follower of team murder, someone who vaguely resembled me and was dressed in red (a precursor to Witch’s final design). Given that I was already ‘the witch’ in another long since dead RP thing with some of my friends, I began to take the title of The Witch as a joke. Not long after, those of already committed to Team Murder all began discussing what we would each be if we had to put a role to what each of us were. 

Missfoxx was the older priest of the group, given that she had the longest relationship with Kristen.

Onyx was the right hand, given the two of them were both ‘void denizens’ and he already had jokingly begin to call Kristen ‘captain’ once he declared Team Murder.

Arahul was more of an advising figure, given that most of us consider him especially wise for his age.

Archer, perhaps a bit more on the nose, would obviously be a hunter of sorts given her name, the executioner as you will.

Along the way, we began joking that we needed a younger priest to complement the older, and jokingly said that we could just ‘steal’ Myst away if we really needed to. 

And slowly, we began constructing characters. 

After a little of this brainstorming and realizing that I happened to be really good at putting together something out of sparse details, I made the decision to go everyone and ask “Hey, I have this idea for a story, mind if I piece some things together and try and make this more coherent?” 

One by one, they each said yes, giving me little details on clothing and background, but ultimately leaving a lot of the larger stuff to me. So I took the threads all my friends gave me, thought about what I could do with it, and began to weave.

The Followers were born out of that weaving, a set of demi-gods and ‘angels by any other name’ who loyally serve the Murder God.

As I was writing, I realized with my own character, the Witch, matched perfectly to the witch role within the DMP game, and so that thread was woven into the story thread. 

Lieutenant and Old Priestess became more than their titles; they were now the two werewolves, partners in crime, and influential beyond belief. 

Advisor became the seer, able to peek into people’s minds and into the future. 

Huntress became the gunslinger, searching for justice and agency. 

Young Priest became the gardener, a speck of flavor text and light in a dark world. 

I was never expecting this little fan project to become as popular as it did, but it absolutely exploded among the people who were involved and among others in the Patreon server. People encouraged me to write more, and once I realized just how far this silly little project had reached, I decided to start plan out a small sequel project that would bring in some elements I had hinted in the original introductory work.

During this continual worldbuilding, things slowly began expanding out of that small, initial circle. Not long after, we brought Carl into the mix, as she was jokingly called the ‘bookkeeper’ given that she always fills up the out of context quotes chat and had introduced her own sort of ‘follower’ character not connected to the work I had done. Thus the Bookkeeper was born, representing the minion role and the group’s scribe

Kyle’s character followed soon after, though his was on a technicality. Because he wasn’t officially really any team with his penchant of donating to whichever team he felt like, we said that any character of his would just be there part time. Thus the Part Timer was born, representing the Doctor role and the group’s technology expert and partial spy.

With that, we had eight followers, which was all I could both reasonably write, and perhaps symbolically, represented the eight legs of a spider (given the large theme of webbing and the like). I promised to include these two new characters into the sequel series and give them their own time to shine, along with learning more about the current cast. 

With all these characters finally listed out, there was only one last thing to do. Give them their proper titles and honorifics fitting of the original five and the three that wandered in.

The Black Stars in the sky 

Lieutenant (or the Right Hand): General of the Eldritch

Old Priestess: General of the Tempest

Witch: General of the Arcane

Advisor: General of the Unknown

Huntress: General of the Wilds

The Blazing Comets burning past

Bookkeeper: Admiral of the Scroll

Part Timer (or Doctor): Admiral of the Syringe

Young Priest: Admiral of the Canvas

There was quite a bit more behinds the scenes work involved with this journey, of course, and I could never have done this without the help of all of my friends who helped me build this world, bring it to live, and paint it in beautiful colors. And, of course, it wouldn’t be where it is today without all the people who read it and told me ‘I want to see more of this’.

So, believe me when I give my sincere thanks to you all for helping me to get this far.

And as for when the next update is coming? I can’t promise anything precise.

But something else?

Give me a week or two :3