#Was doing a gift exchange with friends and decided to make their current dnd characters and a Circus cart for them to go in

[speaching]

Band o' Weirdos

A circus cart for the disaster that is my dnd players

[transfemininomenon]

hey alice I've seen you mention then before and they seem really interesting and I was wondering if you could tell us more about your dnd characters! (Whichever your favorite is or who you feel like talking about) or even a tag you have where I could read up more!

:O i would LOVE to talk about some of my dnd characters

my three main ones are my half-elf raven queen warlock gwyndolin (aka gwyn), my human swashbuckler rogue gertrude, and my life cleric alicia 

gwyn was the character i played when @speechjam was DMing who is a half-moon elf with Parental Baggage (because what’s a half-elf who doesnt have an iffy relationship with their parents) who is very gay and very trans and canonically Really Hot because she has a literally goddess gifted body. her parents raised her in an elf city where she experienced a lifetime of racism for being a half-elf, and that combined with not having a great relationship with her parents as well as dealing with dysphoria eventually led to her attempting suicide. however when this happened, she suddenly found herself before the raven queen, who told her it was not yet her time, and offered her a deal - a new body and some of her power in exchange for making a pact with her. she readily agreed, and was reborn as gwyndolin

since then she’s spent a few years acting as a servant of the raven queen, acting as a sort of soul bounty hunter tracking down people who had unnaturally escaped death and dealing with necromancers/undead infestations. eventually she happened to take a job that led to her meeting the party, including happening to bump into her elf druid cousin solira played by @lyssatbqh

she’s also a total Disaster Lesbian and cant talk to women to save her life which is a problem when Lots of women want to talk to her on account of being Really Hot. she has a thing for knives and has like 8 of them on her. she also has a spirit familiar in the form of a raven named crawford who she always makes keep watch for her at night instead of doing it herself

THEN gertrude is the character i play in @lyssatbqh‘s campaign, which is a homebrew campaign set in the dark souls world. gertrude’s whole life was spent believing that humanity didnt matter and only existed to serve the gods - lessons instilled in her from birth by her parents. often being left alone while her parents were off doing whatever religious things they were off doing, she grew used to wondering the city of anor londo by herself, exploring every alley and climbing every roof top, having just a dagger given to her by her parents as a form of protection 

as she grew older her parents tried getting her more involved in the way of white (the religious organization they were a part of), and gertrude never really quite got the whole “sit and study and pray” part of it, but she found ways to use her natural charisma and dexterity to instead serve the gods by acting as a spy against people who might speak out against the gods. this is how she met the party initially, being sent by one of the gods to spy on a book club founded by @speechjam‘s character brillin. long story short the party ended up encountering some of the witches of izalith, went to izalith right as the witch of izalith was trying to recreate the first flame, and they all fucking DIED 

some long period of time later the party all mysteriously came back to life, and have since came back to life any time they have died, always returning to whatever fire they’d rested at. the whole experience of dying and coming back forced gertrude to, for the first time in her life, have to think about being a human and what humanity meant and what her place in the world was, and she proceeded to go into a several week long existential crisis. during this time the party investigated some mysterious happenings around the city of new londo involving other people coming back to life, fought some demons, and eventually made their way back to anor londo

the whole time gertrude was hoping returning to anor londo would get her some answers from the god she had been working for by the name of flame god flann. however, upon returning he offered no real help, and seemingly didnt even remember that she had worked for him. this furthered her growing crisis and fear and doubt, and eventually the party confronted her about her sneakiness and dodging questions, and she confessed the nature by which she’d originally joined the group, and asked for their forgiveness and explained that she’d suddenly had a Lot to think about and that a lot of things she thought she’d known had been thrown out the window. the party was initially hurt, especially brillin, and gertrude suddenly found herself for the first time Caring about other people and how her actions had effected them, but they eventually forgave her and they continued to all work together to maybe figure out a little more on what was happening

encountering two strange people known as skin man and skeleton man, the party worked with them and eventually learned that skin man also was coming back from the dead, but also seemed to be fading away more and more each time he came back - becoming less of himself and more just a blank husk. eventually skin man went missing, and the party found him by a mysterious machine that could answer questions for them - in exchange for memories

gertrude used it to ask two questions, choosing first between the memories of her time working for flann, her time with the way of white, and her memories of brillin, who she had grown increasingly close with throughout their travels (because gertrude is a Fool and JUST kept jokingly flirting until she fooled around and caught real feelings), eventually choosing the way of white. she then had the option of flann, brillin, or her forgetting the memories and associations that her daggers had with her, eventually choosing daggers

her questions were if the gods cared about her, about people, and then the second was if she, too, was gonna steadily fade away the more she died. she received a simple answer for both - no, and yes 

initially going into another crisis, she soon shock that feeling off and decided on a new course of action, a flame suddenly lighting in her as she realized that she couldn’t rely on the gods anymore, and that it was people, and her new found friends, that she had to rely on. the gods were seemingly uncaring about their current plight, and she would find answers on her own. no longer being shackled by the gods, she would suddenly live as she was meant to - as a person, as a human 

the party eventually fought a couple more demons and, with the help of skeleton man, defeated them. in the aftermath, gertrude and brillin FINALLY smooched and it was RAD, and they later had a roof top discussion about everything and about Them. they came to the conclusion that neither of them really knew what was happening, or what their place in the universe was, and the weight of the inevitably of them both hollowing was ever present, but they wouldn’t focus on that - they would focus on the now, on living as best they could in the moment, and deciding that they would eventually figure things out, and they would do that Together 

dang i didn’t mean to do just a plot summary of that whole campaign so far but i got TOO into talking about gertrude i just……………….. love her so much guys she has learned and grown so much she literally started off as half a joke character i literally threw her concept together 10 minutes before the first session started and she became so!!!!! much more than i could’ve ever expected

anyway my other character is alicia aka the Divine Lady who i cant talk about TOO much because i just started playing her and friends in that campaign follow me and there’s #spoilers but she’s a life cleric who was once a shy awkward little boy named joey who has grown in to a slightly less awkward but no less shy but STRONG woman. she’s a life cleric and JUST wants to help people she’s really caring and is always worried about someone and i love her she’s such a change of pace from my usual edgy characters she is TOO good for this world and has two beautiful lesbian blacksmith moms and a million adopted “cousins” who she all loves dearly 

she’s surprisingly Buff, enjoys blacksmithing (she made all of her armor and weapons), is a big fan of beauty in all forms, is an avid reader, and is constantly writing letters home to her family and keeping a diary of her adventures. she worships lethandar (aka god of birth & renewal) as well as sune (aka goddess of beauty), with the symbol of sune crafted into her shield and her mace designed to have a sun motive for lethandar, and she has big dorky glasses because she’s blind as a bat

some other side characters include primrose my college of swords bard who is JUST primrose from octopath traveler, ailce my water genasi druid that i usually play in one shots who in the most recent one shot i played her in adopted a wonderful child who has bat ears and was NOT appreciated by their parents and she loves them with all her heart, and ari “the banshee” who is a city cleric in a modern space based campaign who is an anarchist and part of a punk rock band 

oh! also i have a tag for gwyn (which is just #gwyn tag) and TWO for gertrude (#former gertrude tag and #gertrude tag, former being for dagger related things since she lost her love of them) and im sure i’ll get an alicia one going! its all just like aesthetic stuff or things i relate to them but you can get a good sense of those characters through those 

[khymnal]

10 Writing Questions: Tag Game

My best friend @homesteadhorner has decided to probe into my writing habits - Go check out his blog, it has some incredible works and tips for all you storytellers.

1. What’s your writing “comfort zone”?

I veer mostly towards freestyle poetry, as well as more “big picture” ideas. I’d ideally like to improve my skills of sitting down and writing a detailed exchange of dialogue between two characters, but right now, it’s easier for me to write drafts of scenes or the overall plot line of things. I think I thrive best in pieces that are more charming, endearing, humorous, lighthearted - at least when it comes to comics or characters. But my poetry actually swings on the other end of that, being very serious and personal.

2. What is the oldest WIP that you’re still working on? How has it changed since you first started it?

Oh shoot, mmmmmm there is this one piece that I’ve definitely put on the back burner for quite a while now. I don’t think I ever even had an official name for it, either. I have a handful of well-developed characters for it, though, and the plot has a lot to do with the concept of cheating death. You know how after a while when you haven’t touched a project and you go back to it with fresh eyes, you suddenly get new ideas? The more I think about it, I could probably make this into a comic even though it has darker, more serious undertones than my current project, Nightshade Inc.

3. What’s your go-to way of staying motivated?

Discussions. Not even kidding. I get the BEST ideas when I am talking to people about them - they just suddenly come up. If I don’t talk about what I’m working on or have some creative discourse with others, I’ll likely won’t even touch it. I also like to do a lot of little extra tidbits for my characters, like create playlists inspired by them and whatnot. Music helps a whole stinkin’ lot and has inspired many scenes and images in my head. You give me a vague song, I could write a novel about it.

4. What are your outlining methods? Do you outline at all, and if so, in what format and in how much detail?

My brother Jake helps me SO much with this. Easily maybe the most detail-oriented person I know when it comes to stories. He wrote a character sheet one time long ago that I’ve used/modified for my characters ever since. Right now, my google docs is chock FULL of different character sheets that cover any and all bases - their background, their appearance, their qualities, their relationships, their likes/dislikes... I also have a separate sheet for ideas that are more floaty and freeform without anywhere to land yet. That usually happens with plot/feelings/scene ideas. Outlining helps me put the puzzle pieces together a little bit.

5. What got you started writing? How long ago was it?

It feels like I’ve written forever. I just remember getting comments from teachers over the years despite my lackadaisical pursuits about how different my writing was. I can’t necessarily attest to that, but it made me feel so special and certainly encouraged me even when others have made me feel otherwise. The inspiration has come lately from friends that encourage me to let my ideas run wild. And tabletop games/DnD have helped immensely as well.

6. What book or author has been the greatest inspiration or influence on your life?

Todd LaBerge when it comes to poetry, all the way. Read his posts and his book, “Unwritten Letters to You” - I feel much safer sharing my pieces when I see those examples of sentimental, raw emotions exposed through text. On a completely different end, Lemony Snicket. I ADORE his writing and the creativity he uses in making a point or painting a picture is daring and astounding and I hope to use it in many other means. He’s maybe the most original writer I’ve ever read from.

Book-wise? “You Are Special” by Max Lucado. A children’s book that ruined my whole life and shows the power of analogies/metaphors through the story it paints. I literally wrote a college paper on it. And Francine Rivers and her book, “Redeeming Love”. I just finished this one and holy crap, the story it tells. Looking back, I keep thinking the book is written in first person when it isn’t. She is just that good at stirring up your empathy for how the a person is feeling internally and reacting externally.

P.S. Web-comic inspiration shout-outs to Camp Weedonwantcha and Bad Machinery.

7. What are your future plans for writing?

I would really, really like to eventually publish my comics. I so thoroughly enjoy doing them and I can truly say it’s something I love. But beyond that, just recently, I’ve begun to pursue a larger degree for Creative Writing in hopes that I might become a teacher someday and inspire others.

8. Is writing your main goal in life, or is there something more important to you?

I actually went to college for Theology. Right now, I direct the high school youth ministry at my church and I love it so. At the heart of hearts, that’s what I know I’m going to do throughout my life (not necessarily *youth* ministry, but just ministry in general - loving others, serving and shepherding them...) But if not for ministry, I wouldn’t be inspired to teach, let alone teach writing or encourage young people to use their gifts.

9. Have you ever done NaNoWriMo and would you ever want to (again)?

Hehe, no. Since my writing style is much more choppy and not necessarily something of a manuscript, I haven’t. But I just did my first Inktober this past year... I got maybe half of them done? That’s more than I’ve drawn in YEARS, though. It helps.

10. Do you share your work with anyone? How hesitant are you to share things?

Eheheh.. heh. Poetry? SUPER hesitant. Like I mentioned before, it’s very personal. I’ve shared too many things to the wrong people and it’s closed me off a bit on that end. As of the moment, I’ve only really felt comfortable sharing that stuff with @homesteadhorner because he understands the analogies and pictures I’m painting. That’s also been something I’ve struggled with - if I’m trying to explain something to someone, the idea might sound too vague or the concept might be missed until the finished product. It has hurt sometimes, but it motivates me even more to work on it. And pitching/explaining it has gotten... better. I’ve shared the concept of Nightshade Inc. with some people - a couple think it’s grand, but a few let it fall off their shoulders. I suppose that’s kind of the risk of putting it out there, but I’m incredibly proud of the progress it’s made and am slowly becoming more open and brave.

Tags: Anyone and everyone - tell me about what you’re working on!! I’d love to hear it, you closet creatives. Tag ya girl in it so she can read it and flood you with embarrassing compliments.