#aka that's why i was afk all day

[myqsmptheorydump]

QUESTIONS I STILL HAVE (will add notes to the future if these are resolved and the context) - 5/24/23 start date

Is Luzus computer actually connected to the story? If so, was it planned or did players evolve it to lore themselves with Luzus absence?

Who are the Codes? Is it 1 entity that can change its name or are there multiple?

Is El Quackity the 2nd Q that arrived on the opposite side of the island?

More than 1 cucurucho? Early on, on a roier stream, he saw 2 or 3 cucurucho appearing through his house. He even said "are they multiplying!?"

5/25/23 - today cellbit interacted with 4 (5?) Entities that looked like cucurucho. Only 1 looked like the cucurucho we know. The others were solid white with no face or details. So yes.... there are others or at least "minions".

What is Max hiding? I feel he's not telling us everything.

Why did the code kill max? It still had the same name from when it attacked dapper. It didn't change its name to M like it has done before to identify a target. It even had C for Cellbit....

5/25/23 - Cell showed his complete notes of the ARG along with final notes and remaining questions. (I will do a complete translation on it in the following days). Cellbit also wonders why it attacked max. He knows why it attacked himself but what did max do to deserve an attack?

Who was the man who delivered the blueprint? If the Code can change its name (if there is only one) could it change its skin to appear as the man who spoke to max?

Loose connection: we know admins play many roles. We have been told to only look at the displayed name above a player when considering lore. IGN should be ignored. We also know that player skin glitches have happened. BUT chayannes admin always plays cucurucho. Otherwise chayannes wouldn't have needed to randomly disappear at the same time cell and forever had their meeting with cucurucho. After about 5min a dif admin subbed in (you can tell it wasn't the main admin bc of the movements). Now, the only skin glitches that leaves me on the fence is when phil was attacked while alone with 3 eggs. First it appeared cucurucho was running to them but the skin changed to the Code. Normally a skin glitch fixes within a fraction of a second. But this was longer. And chayanne was there. To my knowledge Chayanne and Cucurucho have never been in the same place together. Bc they are played by the same admin. We know the chayanne that was with Phil was the main admin bc he was digging checkered patterns, something he does often when he gets bored. Sooooo did the Code change its skin so it could trick them to let their guard down at first? If that is true, then it would be possible that the Code was the man delivering the blueprint. I don't like to put too much weight on this bc of what we've been told about IGNs and skin glitches. But worth keeping in the back of the mind.

5/25/23 - addendum: chayanne and cucurucho have been together. The water breaking event. However chayanne just HAPPENED to be busy cooking and baking AKA a possible RP to go AFK. Open another launcher and present as cucurucho. Even so, if it wasn't the chayanne admin, all that cucurucho did was adjust the day cycle and that could have been done by anyone. It needed no prior knowledge of lore. But ALSO. ALSO, cucurucho met with cell and forever while chayanne was at the desert. Again. Easy AFK tactic.

Is there validity in Vegettas idea of finding texts to revive a dead egg? Or is this just an idea and he hopes admins will implement it to lore?

What other true motives does vegetta have? (I am behind on his vods tbf)

Will vegetta use Sophia for bad / only his own benifit?

Foolish has no desire to leave the island or solve any mystery even though he was an OG theory bro. Did something change or is he just an air head? He claims "me and cucurucho are friends" 🤨( I'm thinking the latter rn )

5/25/23 - foolish again stated to Cell that cucurucho is a friend and has no want to leave the island

The day Tallulah lost a life, she said " I have a bad feeling about today " and I feel like another time she said something that came true. This is very far fetched but like... does she have any kind of premonitions? ( richas told forever out of RP that the higher admins don't tell the eggs anything about lore so I'm guessing not. Except for chayanne bc his admin is also cucurucho but obv in RP he can't keep the knowledge of the other)

Is Rubuis (the angel and devil) part of lore? Nothing on the server happens by accident with admins. But rubius has disappeared. Why? Is he simply not playing the server anymore? I need to find the last stream he was on...

[roxanaagriche111]

Hi! Sooo you’ve all probably been wondering where I’ve been and why I have not been updating for some time. These are my reasons and why.

1. I’m working on my small business. Where I’m creating my items, getting the items, and actually putting them together. I’ve also been really busy trying to get all the necessary items for the stuff I’m making while also putting my 100% concentration on trying to make it pretty and well quality made. I want to give everyone the best quality items from my small business.

2. Work has also been causing a lot going on. For those who may not know, I am a waitress at a buffet close to me. We are low on staff even though there is some workers available. The problem is that they are AFK for certain reasons. As one worker has not been coming back to work for almost 2 years now because of a situation with a family member. Another is expecting a child very soon. While the last one is still in school. There is another, but they live somewhere else in another state, and isn’t there all the time. Of course, we do hire people but we’ve been having trouble with people staying as they quit after they didn’t like the job even though they worked 1-2 days. Our workplace isn’t complicated, but a lot doesn’t want to work now a days. Finding new employees is extremely difficult right now, even though we have a indeed ad and a help wanted sign out. (Though the help wanted sign was taken down due to a lot of people quitting or not showing up to work)

3. I’ve actually stopped writing somewhat. Not because I had no choice with my work or my small business on the way. But because I’ve been loosing interest in writing. I do still write and think of many plots in my head. But a lot is going on and I’m not sure when I can update. This doesn’t mean I will give my story up or give it to someone else. It’s just that I am too busy with stuff and that I would like to take my time.

My plans:

So far my plans are to continue working on the stuff for my small business and get through my work job in my daily life. While also going through some stuff in my personal life too. I am actually not sure when I will update, but I will say the next chapters for the current fanfics I already have AKA

“Gods in Twisted!”

And

“Forever Trapped”

Will be on hold for some time. Their next chapters are halfway written before I went on pause. I also need to find a time to work on redoing the links for those stories. However, I don’t know when I can get to that due to my current situation. I’ll try to hurry up, but making stuff for your shop and working at the same time takes a-lot of you’re time.

Anyways, I hope this helps in explaining why the fanfics hasn’t updated and why I’ve not updated much. Hope to see you guys later in another post or another fanfic update. Until then, I will see you next time!

BYE BYE!!

[servingliesarch]

ya girl was doing some refurbishments in her room all day today, and though there’s some cleaning of certain cupboards to be finished, after many years of sleeping on a lumpy, cursed excuse of a bed, i finally have a proper bed with a proper mattress.... my back is getting a treat tonight.

[szftzy]

hey! I've just read you're post about genshin being a escape mechanism and if it's alright if like to request a version with Thoma if not that's chill. btw its really neat to read a take where they are self aware in that way

escaping reality, but literally.

Thoma (AKA malewife) wants you to acknowledge him, [acknowledge him rn or else]

A/N: also thoma might be a little ooc

ever since Thomas leak, you had been hyped for the release of the character, first off; male wife energy and second off; he’s a cool guy and gets too much hate from the NPC’s in game! and also you really liked his design ever since it’s been leaked, and was looking forward to any Thomas updates, let’s just say this started a new found obsession, but unknowingly a self-aware obsession was also made, but from behind the screen

as a student it was stressful to prepare for exams, you often took your mind off of it by playing genshin, infact thoma was probably the whole reason you joined genshin! you were lucky Thomas was a 4 star! that way you could get him more easily, while wishing on hu tao’s his banner, you luckily got him! under a few ten pulls.

after that you immediately started building him with all your savings, excited that you got your favorite character! his playstyle was fun to play, and you really enjoyed using thoma, maybe using him like all the time when your on genshin?? you were just a huge fan, and it’s not like your hyperfixation would impact anybody right? wrong. Meanwhile, suspicious.. things were happening a few days after you got thoma.

when I say that I mean non-existing voice Lines? lines that your friends swore up to heaven until earth that they didn’t exist, but you simply didn’t mind them! it started getting, well.. a bit extreme after that, such as bosses already defeated, (one time you logged in genshin to fight the pyro hypostasis and... it was already defeated?. Is mihoyo playing a trick on you?) getting extra primogems when you swore you didn’t have that many last time you were on..

and the freakiest thing was that, whenever you were AFK and thoma was there.. creepy voice lines such as ‘why did you leave me hanging? please don’t do that again!’ or.. ‘your room looks really nice! did you decorate it yourself?’ its as if he could see you.. after that you didnt dare to open genshin for a few days, a certain person was not quite happy about that.

he would revive himself, when you swore he was dead last second?! you tried contacting mihoyo.. but they said they never heard about this glitch and couldn’t do anything about it, atleast something along the lines of that.. you were starting to get freaked out, which made you consider buying a new phone and starting all over because you didn’t wanna deal with any creepy stalkers you already have one and he’s ready to pounce.

you were hesitant, hesitant to open genshin, but once you have, your fate will be sealed, and you can’t do anything about it, too bad. As they say: curiosity killed the cat

”you want to escape reality? Then please! come with me, it’ll be so much better, dont you think?”

A/N: sorry for leaving y’all hanging! anyways, here’s thoma the male wife edition [take it u simps]

[imagine-a-fictional-boyfriend]

I’ll Take Care of You, Chapter 3: The Bar

HI! I was so afk;sdlj to hear from you lovelies on my last chapter... you don’t even understand:)))

I'm probably taking this in a direction y'all weren't expecting but it's what I felt like in the moment. I hope you stick around to see where this story is going :) aka more smut to come but imma make you wait  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Fic Summary: Reader works in the hospital where Billy Russo keeps his mother. They’ve caught each other’s eye. But she thinks he is the devoted son… little does she know what hides behind a handsome face and expensive suits.

Posted on my ao3 as well :)

Pairing: Billy Russo x Fem!Nurse!Reader

Chapter Summary: The realization of what the reader has just done finally dons on her, and she becomes a bit overwhelmed

Warnings: swearing, am I writing how I, personally, would react??? 🤔🤔🤔

Words: 1.5k

Masterlist ~~ Chapter 2

~

You were exhausted. Despite the mind-blowing romp with Billy at the start of your shift, the rest of your night was a shit-show. There was a code blue and the patient didn’t make it. It wasn’t one of your own, but the loss is still always hard. You had to take on the other nurse’s patients while she dealt with the paperwork and debrief. You felt like you hadn’t sat down all night.

You had sent Billy a flirty response to his text, telling him that he better not stop thinking about you. He had sent a simple ;) but nothing else. That was okay with you. All you wanted to do was take a shower and sleep, and not think about what you had gotten yourself into.

When you got home, you stripped off your scrubs and turned on the water in your shower. You stayed under the warm spray for a few more minutes than you usually would. After you finished your shower, you looked at your body in the mirror. Little bruises from Billy’s hands bloomed on your hips, hickeys were scattered across your neck. You grinned as you traced a bruise by your jaw. You hadn’t had to deal with these suckers since college, and receiving them from a guy like Billy... well, it made your insides burn.

Before you could get too caught up in the memory, you decided it was time to go to bed. You threw on some comfy shorts and a long sleeve cotton shirt. You put on your eye mask to block the remaining light that your curtains couldn’t so you could try to catch some sleep.

***

When you woke up, you checked your phone for the time. It was around 1:30pm. You also had a text. From Billy. You turned your phone face down and stretched your arms over your head, trying to contain the grin that was taking over your face. When your excited heart rate slowed, you picked your phone back up and clicked on the text notification.

12:00pm Let me buy you a drink. You free at 8:30?

You bit your lip as your fingers hovered over the keyboard.

1:34pm Thought you were going to call me?

1:40pm Didn’t want to wake a sleeping beauty. I do know how hospital shifts work, little lady

You blushed. Over a text, you blushed. Why did this man make you feel this way?

1:41pm I told you that you were a nice guy ;)

1:45pm Is that a yes to drinks, then?

1:46pm I’m free. You felt good sending that text.

1:50pm I’ll pick you up. What’s your address?

Normally, you just walked, took a taxi, or the subway. Giving him your address, was that really smart? You were chewing on your lip as you debated your next text. You’d tell him, and you’d also tell your best friend what you were doing tonight. That way if anything went wrong... You doubted that it would, though. Billy seemed like a genuinely nice person.

So, you texted him the address of your apartment building, but not the room number. That was at least a little smart. Then you texted your bestie and let her know that you were going out on a date with a guy you didn’t know well but he seemed really nice. She sent you a bunch of surprised emojis, then said she’d expect to hear from you by midnight and if she didn’t, she’d call the cops, the FBI, homeland security. You shook your head at her drama.

You went through your day with excitement burning in your chest. After finishing with your dinner, you went to your closet to find something to wear. You were so nervous. All he’d seen you in were your scrubs, and those were far from flattering. You know he already found you attractive, and you normally didn’t show yourself off, but you wanted to snaz yourself up. You hadn’t gone out with anyone since college. You picked out your nicest black jeans, a red bodysuit, and your black leather jacket.

You anticipated at least some kissing, so you didn’t bother with more than tinted lip balm. You brushed on some eyeshadow and mascara, then covered the circles under your eyes. You debated covering up the hickeys, but decided against it. You thought it would be hot if he saw his marks on you. You knew he left them for people to see. You ran your fingers through your hair as you looked at yourself in the mirror. You pulled on your black high-heeled ankle boots and grabbed your purse before you left your apartment.

You waited down in the lobby and checked your phone when it buzzed.

8:30pm The car’s out front. Black Escalade. My driver’s name is Jack. He’ll drive you to the bar

You frowned. 8:30pm You’re not with him? :(

8:31pm There was something that came up, but I’ll be waiting for you.

8:31pm Promise.

You sighed. 8:32pm Okay.

You exited your building and saw a man standing beside a black Escalade. He saw you approaching.

“Y/N?” He asked. You nodded. “I’m Jack. Mr. Russo sends his regrets, but he’ll meet you at the bar. Are you ready to go?”

You looked up and down the street before looking back at the young man. “Yes.”

Jack opened the back passenger door for you and you got in.

The drive was silent. You hated it. You felt so weird. This felt... practiced. Wrong. You frowned as you stared out the window. You suddenly became very overwhelmed. What the fuck was even happening right now? What were you doing?

When you got to the bar, you didn’t wait for Jack to open the door. You got out yourself and walked into the bar. You scanned the crowd for Billy. He was sitting at a high table against the wall across from the bar, and smiled and waved you over when he saw you.

You couldn’t seem to return his smile, but made your way over to him.

He stood up when you got to the table and reached for your hip. You let him pull you in to drop a kiss to your cheekbone. “You look absolutely stunning.” He whispered in your ear.

His voice was melting you, but you tried to hold your resolve.

He pulled your chair out for you and you sat down. Well, you’d put it as plunked. You plunked down, and crossed your arms over your chest.

He raised an eyebrow at you as he took his seat opposite you. “What’s the matter?”

Your eyes scanned his before you spoke. You couldn’t hold your tongue. “How many girls have you sent cars for?”

He looked stunned. “Excuse me?”

“How many times have you sent a car to fetch someone for you?” You asked coldly.

His eyes narrowed. “I don’t really think that concerns you.” His voice was dark.

“Doesn’t it? That felt so weird, Billy. Sitting in the back of that car, going to some undisclosed location.” Your voice betrayed you, sounding more hurt than you intended.

His face softened. “I wanted to keep the bar a surprise, Y/N.”

“Yeah, I can see why.” It was probably the fanciest bar you’d ever been in. Your arms tightened across your chest. “I just feel wrong.”

Billy’s eyes searched your face, observed your body language. “What happened to the fiery little lady from last night?” He asked gently.

Your shoulders sagged. “I don’t know. I’m not normally like that.” You rubbed your fingers across your forehead. “I still can’t believe that I did that, last night.”

“So, you regret it.” Billy slouched back in his chair. He looked defeated, and you didn’t like that.

You sat forward and reached across the table to touch his arm gently. “No, I don’t. I just think that I need to figure out what’s going on here before I get myself into trouble.” You said honestly.

“I can respect that,” he nodded.  

“I’m sorry for what I said earlier. Your past relationships or girls you’ve seen is none of my business. It was stupid of me to say anything.” You said sheepishly.

Billy took your hand and squeezed it. “It’s okay. But to answer your question, I’ve never sent a car for anyone. I don't think there are many girls like you, Y/N.” His eyes were so dark, you felt like they were consuming you.

You felt your cheeks flush now. “Oh.” You said absently.

“I won’t do that again, though. I’m sorry.” He said. He let go of your hand and you immediately missed the contact.

You shook your head in dismissal. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not. I never want to make you uncomfortable.”  

You gave him a sheepish smile. “Thank you.”

“You intrigue me, Y/N. I want to get to know you. How about we start there, and see where it goes?” Billy said.

You nodded, smile growing. “I’d like that.”

***

Author’s note: pleaseee let me know what you think :)

Chapter 4

[chaoslordjoe]

RWBY - Do I ship it?

My friend @lewdnepvasilias666​ has recently been receiving Asks about some various RWBY ships. Given my small follower base, and since I’ve got some time to kill before going AFK for Father’s Day I just thought: “Eh. Seems fun.”

No time to waste, so let’s get into a few random ships here, shall we?

Renora

OTP

I SHIP IT

hELL YES

I WOULD DIE FOR IT OKAY

As if there was any doubt! Just to start us off, I feel that there really isn’t much else that can be emphasized about Renora and how it’s one of the few things the FNDM can collectively agree on.

While I understand that the whole “best-friends-to-lovers” trope is cliche -- believe me, I’m not a fan of it either -- I feel that Renora is able to handle it in the least corny way possible with a realistic backstory: Grew up in a village, village was doomed, they ran out and survived and have been together ever since.

Yeah, it’s a clear setup for romance between the two, or at the very least a type of love that’s not necessarily romantic. Not just that, but the deepest friendship imaginable. I’ll admit, I’m not a fan of how they made Renora super angsty in V7, but I feel much more content ever since I dropped the show with how much more fan content there is to explore of these two that RT couldn’t.

Boop, motherfuckers!

BlackSun

the sexiest pair

underrated

we need more of it

reads fics about it

Like morning follows night, eh?

Pretty much every praise that can be said about BlackSun is said before I could say anything about it. I’m not actually gonna shit-talk Bumbleby much as I have a few select words on how that ship has, uh...Basically it’s to avoid the bleeding obvious and just talk about positive stuff here.

Sun Wukong is one of my favorite RWBY characters. And the relationship he had with Blake, even though it remained a friendship in canon really resonated with me as someone who has been through a similar plight with abusive relationships like Blake.

Weiss is my top favorite, don’t get me wrong, but seeing Sun keep up a positive face for Blake and his other friends just really brings me some joy with the goodest of bois.

Also their cuteness. Hee~!

Cool Jazz

we need more of it

CUTENESS OVERLOAD

why not

the sexiest pair

Hey, I like Iceberg. But this is another Weiss ship that’s grown on me faster than how quickly the rate at which players rushed to find the megalodon shark in Battlefield 4.

I’ll admit that Cool Jazz was kinda “eh” to me at first since I didn’t have a set Weiss ship when I first discovered it. Yeah, Iceberg was on the table but I was on the fence with it at the time simply due to since I was one of *those* dipshits who honest-to-god thought that Neptune was a fuckboi (sorry Lewdy, but I like him now homegirl) since I honest-to-Christ didn’t know any better.

Ever since I discovered more art of it, and was surprised to hear how many people shipped it along with my friends who liked Iceberg, I realized with horror that I was into Cool Jazz. Don’t get me wrong, I love the dynamic of it with Weiss dating a commoner (JacquesXEternal suffering forever) just to shy further away from her stigma as a noble. And looking back in Volume 3, I think that more interactions with her and Flynt were in order in V7.

Some good stuff there.

Ironwitch

would read a fic about it

Soulmates

we need more of it

I’m not necessarily crazy about Ironwitch as I am more chill about the idea of it.

There are similar ships with the whole serious character/serious character vibe. Monochrome, for instance. Which is fine, given how many serious character/funny character ships there are. White Rose, BlackSun, Renora, just to name a few. But enough babbling, what do I like about this one?

Well, much as I’m not one to cry out for diversity in many cases, this is one ship where I’m attracted to the respective backgrounds of James and Glynda. I don’t mind them being portrayed as just business partners, but this is another one that quickly grew on me.

Ironwood is a military man whose knowledge lies in warfare and maintaining relations between the public and the armed forces. As a civilian who never served, a lot of military guys I’ve met are the ones you should be asking with just how stressful it is serving in such a position for a senior officer with such a massive reputation.

Glynda, meanwhile, is also a disciplinarian who is basically teaching kids to be like child soldiers in the fight against Grimm. Both have the same jobs, yes, but I really think that whatever past backstories they had would have revealed just how deep their partnership went before the whole shadow war escalated.

Tell you the truth, I’m picturing Ironwitch as a ship with a lot of backstory potential given how close the two are. And minor thing, but, I like the idea of Glynda being playful with James when they’re out of sight. It’s just a really cute image which I can’t help but find amusement out of.

Gemstone

CUTENESS OVERLOAD

why not

would read a fic about it

Yeah, this one right here is kind of a cop out with it being a “foe yay” ship. Doubly so with this being a F/F ship which I know is a point of contention in the FNDM these days. But it’s my list. So let’s talk about it.

Emerald Sustrai is a bit of an oddity in the FNDM. On one hand, there are fans who find her to be sympathetic with how clingy she is with Cinder when Cinder is basically using her as a puppet in her bidding.

I don’t necessarily “hate” Emberald since that’s not the kind of abuse I’m familiar with. But I definietly see why people would hate it and have no patience, knowing how contentious Cinder happens to be.

On the other, there are fans who think that Emerald is just there and wouldn’t be caught dead reading anything about her. Certainly, she’s been part of a lot of interesting ships lately.

Among one of these is Gemstone. AKA Emerald/Ruby. Hear me out for a second, peeps.

I like Gemstone not because I’m big on villain redemption stuff in RWBY fanworks. But because I like the idea of it being seen where Emerald is actually in a happy, healthy relationship with someone who supports her unlike Cinder. Seeing a cinnamon roll like Ruby be a part of that just really made me think about my history with abuse.

Thing is, I’ve been in relationships like that which involve manipulative behavior and promises of this-or-that. While Emerald isn’t one of my S-tier RWBY characters, I still think that she has room for a lot of development as someone who’s not portrayed in an evil light.

There’s also Topaz (Emerald/Jaune) if I can’t find any Gemstone works. Sure, there are other ships like Emercury (which I’m also warming up to a little). But I think that Gemstone is filling that void for now until I can look more into Emercury for the time being.

I also like the red/green color schemes. Just really pleasing to the eyes. Next!

Silent Knight

hELL YES

the sexiest pair

would read a fic about it

I SHIP IT

Another “foe yay” ship that I’ve developed a soft spot for. Let’s face it, this probably wouldn’t be a shipping list without including at least one Jaune ship, wouldn’t it?

The reason I ship Jaune with Neo is because I like the inversion of the “good-girl-meets-bad-boy” trope. Instead, we get a good boy meeting a bad girl who I think really helps bring out the wild side in Jaune.

Not at the level of committing crimes like Neo does, but in a more lax AU or shipping fan work, I’m really enamored with the idea of her letting Jaune not worry about being such a “good boi” or “bean” all the time because, I like Jaune, but that’s not all he has to be in fanon.

Perhaps what I’m trying to say is that Neo would be the right amount of crazy for Jaune to handle given how many ships he’s in with a couple of women and girls on the show who are associated with being a little nutty.

I just like Silent Knight. Simple.

And that is about it. I thought this would be a decent post to put out given my current bout of writer’s block, and I hope whoever comes across this list that you enjoyed reading it as I enjoyed writing about it.

Want me to make another? Lemme know, and I’ll see what I can do.

@laserdog10​ @lewdnepvasilias666​ @darksaiyangoku​ @becauseihaveyou​ @bssaz97​ @ezroar​ @the-blue-quetzalcoatl​ @rozanime​ @nix-nihil​ @kali-tmblr​

[asrisgratitudejournal]

Akhir Pekan

omo terakhir nulis adalah… 20 nov 2021 aka 9 hari yang lalu karena hari ini sudah 29nov… wow time flies indeed apa-apaan ini nov sudah mau habis dan begitu juga 2021… scary.

Sekarang posisi adalah di librarynya Exeter karena sedang tidak mood ke office, but I just remember that Yus is back to Ox so he probably looked for me(?) I hope he didn’t….

Just read my last post and I wrote that on Friday night 2 weeks ago. I was talking about planning to work in the weekend(?), which of course I didn’t. Saturday was busy (online), had 3 back-to-back meeting and did basically nothing after 2pm. I guess I watched Netflix or youtube or something? On Sunday, had a morning class until 11am (took a shower in the middle of the class lol), then left to Windsor to Bu Aqaya (Bu Yani’s friend)’s house. We had a meeting as “PPI Oxford” to better plan the day of ISME on 28th (which was yesterday!). Bu Yani and Nadia picked me up and I went there with Alris and Jordan. I don’t know why I went there actually, but it’s OK it’s fun I gotta eat bakwan and arem2 and lontong sayur + cumi asin!

Most of the time during the meeeting, I actually was AFK/madol though because I also joined this gmeet call with ma gurls (Nabilah, Ner, Yuli, Meyks – harusnya ada Fidhia Iwang Arum dan Sirka juga, tapi belum pada bisa datang sptnya). We talked A LOT, mostly on how each of us defined friendship, and what our preference of friendship style is. Tbh, I never though about it a lot (or at all?), until Nabilah brought it up. For me, berteman ya… berteman aja. I mean… I am REALLY grateful for what I have (re postingan w yang lama2, atau di tumblr flysch yang lama, banyak banget part bersyukur tuh ya kerena sudah dikasih teman yang baik-baik sama Allah). Yasudah kan tu, jadi di gmeet ini, most of the time ya w curhat saja tidak punya banyak teman dan susah mencari teman di Ox (which apparently nggak juga karena pas dihitung-hitung cukup banyak juga teman w di sini), tapi it’s OK I am still happy with what I’ve got back home: Abi, Vannia, Mita, Iqbal, Geng Sampah. I think it’s just more difficult to establish something deep to new people I guess?

I mean, with these people I mentioned above, the basically have known EVERY single thing happened in my life so if there’s something come up they can connect the dots easily without me having to give any context/background story. Kalau sama orang baru tuh ya harus ngejelasin aja, keluarga gw tuh gini, SMA gw di sini, si A tu teman w yang ini, si B dulu kenal pas di sini dst., apa tidak cape??? (refer ke tweet hitsnya Iqballail yang “cant it just be you?” UGH cringe, but true).

Well, anyway… lanjut ke event yang terjadi setelah itu… so yaudah kan beres meeting ISME, I got home at 6pm-ish. Then, relax a bit.

Had a pretty rough week because I should have to return my draft at Tuesday evening, but THANK GOD (Makasih YaAllah betulan) spv w mengirim comment at 4pm Tuesday so I had a reason to return it a day later aka Wed evening. I didn’t though. I sent the draft to T and Yus at Thursday morning (after sleeping at 6 am on Thurs) and had a meeting on Fri at 10. Yus went home back to NL for 2 weeks so we had a zoom meeting instead. Itu juga bodoh banget Jumat si bisnya tu datengnya lama gitu jadi I had to do the meeting at MCR Exeterrr karena ga kekejar kalau ke office dulu.

Tue and Sat had two ISME meeting. Tue di Stapeldon Room (after mengajak anak2 panitia ini beberapa kalau ada yang mau ikut, dinner dulu di Dining hall – the menu is steak btw! and the lunch at that day was baked salmon if I’m not mistaken) and Sat di Fitzhugh Cohen Quad. People who came to CQ were pretty impressed tho “we didn’t know this kind of building exists?!” (I’m such a proud Exeter student).

Sunday! The D-day! Extremely exhausted after the Sat but Alhamdulillah all went well! Injured myself a bit (I cut myself pas ngelakbanin pake cutter, but it’s all good now). Met so many people! Ate and drank a lot! Very happy sih basically. Se..senang itu aja. Ternyata emang saya tu cara rechargenya now lebih ke ketemu orang ya… (kembali ke ENFP kah?....). Ini detailnya sebetulnya banyak banget sih dari drama-drama gapenting sampai yang agak penting, tapi yaudalahya males juga di-recount.

Pulang sampai rumah jam 19-ish, langsung twitteran ngecek konser LA.... lalu tidur.

Alhamdulillah dah gitu dulu aja guys curhatan recap what’s been going on in Asri’s life (which no one asked), tapi lagi-lagi super duper bersyukur YaAllah dikasih kesempatan buat ketemu orang-orang ini di Ox… sesenang itu setelah setahun kemarin rasanya dark banget hidup (thus the birth of this tumblr). Semoga dengan semakin banyak mainnya saya, bekerja pun menjadi ikutan lebih produktif Aamiin!

P.S. lagi pengen nulis juga deh dari kemaren tuh temanya adalah “confidence”. Ngebahas how confidence works. Tapi yaudalahya nanti dipikirin lagi kapan kosongnya. Sekarang mah kerja weh dulu.

Exeter college library 15:17 pm 29/11/2021

[thetradeway]

Session 38 27 Mar 2021: The Flesh Ripper - “We can salvage this!”

The world is a massive bollocking twat this week, so nobody is super happy. Luckily it’s D&D day! Ed reminds us that Melaina did 46 damage in one hit last week, making us all feel inferior. Foul noises are coming from roll20, worrying all of us. Maybe it’s a chest opening noise!

Joe suggests a different noise, one that sounds like a very large beast doing a cross between a belch and a roar, and this one kills Matthew’s sound card. Too much gain on the monster noises.

Matthew heard a news story about a baby shark getting swallowed whole by a crocodile. Tiktok is going to go nuts for that one, they love baby sharks. Ed says he heard about how sometimes baby sharks eat each other in the womb, and it’s the most metal thing he’s ever heard of. There’s a verse for the baby shark song. (We all conspicuously do not sing it, for the sake of Sophie who has never heard it.)

There’s some waffle about the clocks changing while we wait to see if Mina is joining us; she hasn’t been on the group chat today. I send her a message but it doesn’t seem to get delivered. We wait a few minutes to see if she’ll get back to us. Just as Joe gives me control of Kessler, she pops in. lol.

There are some Ever Given memes on the group chat, and then we get started. We are in the Flesh Ripper’s lair…

The arcane casters (except Melaina, who doesn’t have a high enough spell slot yet) all get the Woundbind spell, which they can add to their spell lists.

The doorway on the other side of the canal where we defeated the Black Puddings is blocked with carcasses and bones. Does it look like the flesh has been ripped off them?

DM: “Yeah.”

Ahleqs: “ohhhhh noooooo……”

Kessler rolls Investigation on the pile of... stuff and gets a 15. It’s made of bones and gristle and fat from all manner of creatures from rats to trolls or ogres. The limbs look torn off. (It’s a wookiee - we just need to make sure we let it win.) She can see it will take some strength to shift the bones if we want to get through that tunnel. The roar comes again; we see the back of Ahleqs’ head as he makes a break for it. We could go back and say it wasn’t in…?

We go around the other corner instead and Melaina is immediately attacked by something, finding herself suspended in… something, and her flesh begins to burn.

(Sophie, reading the description of the attack: “‘Engulf’. Bollocks. That sounds awful.”)

She makes a DEX save and escapes. It is a gelatinous cube, AKA, the Dungeon Roomba! (This would explain why the rest of the sewer is so immaculately clean.)

Tarragon Thunderwaves it but it makes the save. She backs up a little. Grease Wizard is up next. He moves closer. “Oh! That thing’s horrendous, look at it.” He throws some acid at it, believing it to be not very dexterous. He is correct - its save is -3, so that is a fail. (Ahleqs, seeing this, warms up a Fireball - forgetting about the gas pockets Shanks warned us about. DM says he can make a Perception check as a free action to see if he smells gas. He rolls a 13; he doesn’t smell anything flammable and is very pleased about this.)

Kessler is up. She is reluctant to punch it, in spite of the potential to make it wobble like a jelly. Ahleqs suggests eating her way out if that happens. She opts for the crossbow instead, and hits it for 5 points of piercing damage. She reloads and fires again for another hit and 10 damage this time. She makes a hide attempt as a bonus action, but she’ll be doing it at disadvantage because she’s trying to hide in nothing. (Cue the Bumblebee gif again.) She rolls two tens and is not hidden. She decides she IS hidden, because she has her hands in front of her eyes. “Close enough.”

Melaina moves and makes a hide attempt, as she is on the other side of the cube now. Nat 20 for a 30 total, she is now in the ethereal plane. She shoots with Sharpshooter, rolling a 21, for 21 plus 13 damage. It wobbles like dropped jelly, and cracks start to form.

Like a blancmange when it goes bad? Well, blancmanges are MADE bad, they don’t GO bad, but yes, like that.

Brother Carl can’t do much. Does he have any paperwork he needs to catch up on? He needs to safeguard both his hit points anyway. He rolls bad on his DEX check to get out of the water and can’t manage it, so he sits down in the water like a toddler having a tantrum in a paddling pool. Not having enough movement to stand back up, his turn is over.

Matthew: “Poor Carl!”

The Cube moves to engulf Ahleqs and Brother Carl - no wait, we’ve missed Ahleqs in the order. Okay, it’s his turn. The cube moves politely back to allow him to go.

The roar comes again and we all immediately panic. Is the ripper approaching?

Ahleqs makes a DEX check to get out of the water on the opposite side to the cube - the same side we found the pile of bones and limbs. He rolls a 21. He scampers up like a gazelle and administers two Eldritch Blasts to the Cube, in short order. “Zap!” A 12 and a 17 for 4 damage total. “Yeah, he better wobble!” Does he sense that it fears him? (Probably not.)

Brother Charity gets a go. Does anyone need any making less poorly?

Us: “You, maybe?”

He slams a potion, regaining 16HP. He holds a healing spell in case something awful happens.

DM: “Okay…. Wheeee!” Oh no. ‘Wheeeeee’ is never a good sound to hear coming from a Dungeon Master.

The cube zooms forward and engulfs Tarragon and Brother Carl, but we both make our DEX saves. It throws a pseudopod at Tarragon but whiffs badly with a nat 1.

Tarragon has had enough; she Rages and hits it with her quarterstaff for 11 damage.

We can see lots of splits in the cube now; it looks in a bad way. Like a chewed Haribo. A sad sight to see stuck to a window in town. Gideon is up - with a little manoeuvring he can throw a Thunderwave at it without hitting Carl or Tarragon. It seems to have a high CON score though so it will likely make its save again… He decides to do an Aganazzar’s Scorcher instead. He stretches out his hands and a big flaming line flies out of them like a flame thrower and burns the shit out of the cube, and Gideon chuckles to himself.

“Engulf this!”

It fails its DEX save and takes 11 fire damage. Woohoo! Does he want to move? No, Gideon is no coward, he’s a stalwart Dwarf dammit.

The small folk are putting the bigjobs to shame today. Kessler gets the how-de-do-dis with her Firebolt. Hey! The bolt penetrates the cube and blows it apart from inside “because I love that kinda shit.”

Melaina is up - wait, what? I thought we did-dis?

There will be a Reason, Duncan is sure. Melaina is AFK so Matthew shouts to the kitchen to ask Sophie what she wants to do. She is cooking ribs. She can’t see what’s going on so she moves forward to attack the cube, not knowing it’s dead. and Joe asks her to show him the path she took. Oh no…

She stumbles into another gelatinous cube. She can make her DEX save, and glides right out of it on the other side to do a backflip and taking no damage. She gives it a stabby with her rapier with a ten, which hits for 7 piercing damage. She yells to let the rest of us know what’s happening around the corner.

Carl stands up and makes another attempt to get out of the water. Really focusing now… a 7. If he goes up to the plank the DM will let him make a STR check to climb up the plank. He rolls a 17! Yeahhhhhh.

It’s the second cube’s turn. Melaina must repeat her DEX save - Matthew will click it for her. a 24!

Brother Carl still gets an attack, so he swings with his mace for a natty 20! Crit table says “Bonk on the noggin. Max damage and roll the damage dice again.” And the mace dissolves…? No, it’s fine. Phew.

DM goes to get more wine, but Ahleqs is up next after that. Would he like to do some spells and shit? He doesn’t want to waste any slots though… Flesh ripper and all…

He will Eldritch Blast again. Zap! Just a hit, with a 20 and a 21 for 13 damage total. Nice.

Charity: “Carl, be careful!” With that, can he scooch past Tarragon? Good luck, she’s raging and all elbows, and will probably do an opportunity attack on him. He slides down the side of the canal instead and goes around her. He clambers back up - well he tries, but rolls a 9 on his DEX check. He goes through all his spells. “That won’t work… Nor that…” He opts in the end for Eldritch Blast and 12 damage total, insisting that it’s ‘divine energy’. Hmmm.

Tarragon rushes forward, still in her red mist, and smacks it with her quarterstaff for 9 more damage; she would move back out of the way to let everyone else get in, but it doesn’t occur to her so she doesn’t.

Gideon does a Chill Touch: “Hyahhh! Ohhhh…” He hits with an 11 for 3 damage. “I’m helping!”

Kessler shoots another Firebolt. 25 to hit and 12 fire damage “to old Blobby.” Kill it with fire!

Melaina backs up and hides, and shoots. She is literally the only competent one among us. 15 hits and 29 damage. Howdy Doody! “It implodes on itself like a nasty custard.”

We beat the dungeon! Yay!

DM: “Nope - not even close.” Aw beans.

Melaina moves forward and finds a loot chest. Too excited to check for traps, she tears it open to find a carved ivory lion with gems for eyes.

Brother Charity scoots around, avoiding Tarragon’s eye line. She growls at him as he goes by, but no-one hears that.

Gideon finds another chest and tries to kick it open but it just rocks back and forth. It doesn’t seem locked upon inspection, so he flips it open to find a blue gem and a sheet of parchment (first level spell scroll). He rolls a D6; a 3. It is a sorcerer spell. He has a bunch of spells so he offers it to Ahleqs.

Gideon rolls a d20 - he gets a 9. It is a scroll of Feather Fall. “Ah! That’s useful!” If he copies it into his book instead of casting it from the scroll, he can learn it. He’ll stuff it into a pocket. He checks on his flumph; it is safe in its pocket-aquarium.

Does Ahleqs want to interact with the chest he’s found? He’s seen others do it; he will try to remember what Melaina does after she says “I’ll check for traps”. He rolls a 17 and doesn’t find any. He can’t find the macro to roll for treasure at first; he gets it together and opens the chest to find 140sp.

Have we looted this part of the dungeon already - oh shit there’s some kind of slurping, gurgling growl. Melaina runs back to hide behind the pillar. We might have to deal with them bones, the ones blocking that pathway... 

Brother Charity sweeps dramatically down the stairs toward Tarragon and attempts an ode - Matthew plays the worst audio I’ve ever heard. It’s a very badly sung song, ending with a marriage proposal.

Tarragon: “Does 23 hit you?”

Charity: “23 hits the fuck out of me.” She does 9 bludgeoning damage with her quarterstaff.

DM: “So you were actually singing that?” Ohhhhh nooooo. This is DM speak for ‘good luck fuckers, the Flesh Ripper heard you.’

We all immediately shit ourselves, but nothing happens straight away. We are all still digging in the bones. Kessler moves forward to Goblin Smash the pile; not the most stealthy tactic. We persuade her to wait a moment before going ham on the bones.

Melaina thinks she could squeeze through the little gap at the top. She and Tarragon make Stealth and Dex checks while Brother Carl helps Brother Charity up; Charity takes a health potion.

Melaina can’t quite get through the hole, but Tarragon scrambles up and through it - not quietly, however.

She finds the Flesh Ripper.

Tarragon presses herself into the wall on the other side - she makes a stealth check with Guidance and manages to keep out of its sight. (Notes are a little spotty from here as I am panicking.)

Tarragon makes a Minor Illusion of the thing on the other side of the pile of bones so the others can see it.

Ed: “Put that away! Put that back in the monster deck!”

Ahleqs casts Mage Hand to cover his eyes, only then realising that its translucent.

Can we fit the armoured goblin through the gnome hole?

Charity asks if he can cast a proprietary spell; Gideon wants to know how many musical numbers are involved. None, his solar plexus has learned his lesson.

He scrambles up and tries to follow his true love through the hole. He’s doing great stealth, but his DEX isn’t going so well so he is struggling to scramble through. He manages eventually, and joins Tarragon on the other side.

Tarragon whisper-apologises for hitting him but says she doesn’t want to marry him. He presses his finger to his own lips, and then to hers; she bites him. He rolls CON to keep from yelping with pain but fails, and we roll initiative.

FUCKkkkkkkkckKKKKCKKkk!

Joe mutes his microphone so he can laugh, and the Flesh Ripper descends upon Charity and Tarragon.

It does something called Whirlwind of Claws which forces a DC19 DEX save. (DC! 19!!!) Tarragon and Charity both fail and take 44 - that’s FORTY FOUR - points of damage. The attack pushes the rest of the bones out of the tunnel, letting the others in behind us thankfully. Charity also does some cold damage to the thing when it hits him.

They all roll initiative and join us.

Joe: I will say one word to you before we start: Primara. (The unicorn!)

Gideon goes first and busts out the big guns. He can cast Fireball at the thing’s head and miss us, because it’s so huge. He also thinks the stonework will take a blast, so he goes for it. It fails its DEX save, ha HA! That means that it takes 27 fire damage and anything flammable in the area also bursts into flame. “Take that, you big monstrosity - die!”

Can it see those of us on the other side of the little tunnel? Yes, because it’s crouching down and looking for us.

Ahleqs also does a Fireball.

Tarragon, panicked, Rages and goes Brown bear.

Melaina shoots with her bow, with a 22 which hits. She does 28 damage. How de do dis??? Please??? She moves back into the water.

Kessler runs at the thing and smashes it with her Thunder Gauntlets. Dirty 20 to hit, for 11 Thunder damage. She uses Fury of the Small to do another 6 damage on top, and goes for another punch. 22 to hit, and ten more Thunder damage. Good opening salvo. As she’s using Guardian armour, she can force disadvantage on the Flesh Ripper if it attacks anyone other than her for the next round. Noice.

Brother Carl is up. He prepares himself for another round of combat in a water trough, as Matthew forgot about him. He makes a DEX check to climb up the side and rolls an 8 which is a failure. He uses the rest of his movement to stand up and look sheepish.

Brother Charity, and the Flesh Ripper is on deck. “I think we may have got off on the wrong foot here…” he casts Magical Glove, aka Shillehglghlbhgllehhlahh. 23 hits, and he does 12 bludgeoning and 2 fire damage. Fire damage? Huh.

The flesh ripper makes a multi attack which gives it FIVE ATTACKS. It misses Kessler with its bite and goes for a slash with its claws, so she reaction-shields. It claws again and misses, and goes for another which also misses.

It does Whirlwind of Claws again. Charity and Kessler go down, and Tarragon is almost re-gnomed.

Gideon calls us back, hoping that those of us still up can hear him. He then does a Ray of Enfeeblement on the Flesh Ripper. He misses. “BALLLLLLLS!”

Kessler, raising her unconscious head for a moment for a spot of sass: “I really dislike that dwarf.”

Gideon: “At least I’ll be alive next round.”

(Savage. lol.)

Ahleqs calls Primara, who rolls initiative to join us.

That was his bonus action. He apologises to Primara for getting her killed, then does another fireball. It makes its save and Ahleqs rolls low on the damage, so it only takes 8 fire. Ahleqs, to himself: “Do I run away?”

Primara moves forward to do a Healing Touch on Brother Charity, who regains consciousness and 11HP. He assumes it was something he did. She then casts Shimmering Shield on Tarragon, which gives her a +2 bonus to her AC.

Bear-Tarragon makes a multi attack and hits twice; the thing is starting to look ‘mildly wounded’. She’ll take it.

Melaina tries Hideous Laughter. “Bazinga.” It fails its save, yay! It falls prone, and incapacitated. We have a choice here - we can cut and run or marmalise it. She rolls to see which way it falls - it collapses on bear-Tarragon, who is trapped underneath it and takes 9 damage.

Kessler makes a death save and rolls a 7 - a fail.

Brother Carl tries to get out of the stuff again. (Maybe he and Popcorn should babysit each other.) He rolls a 4.

Brother Charity is up next. He takes a risk and uses a bonus action to use his healer’s kit. He has to roll 13 or more - and gets a 24. (He injects himself with adrenaline. “I’M ALIVE!!!!”) He Cure Woundses the living shit out of Kessler with a fourteen and shlblgheghldsdllghhs the Flesh Ripper with a Nat 20! Stunning blow - Max damage and the target must make a DC14 Con save or be stunned. (If this fails, it’s back on its feet as it has saved from the Hideous Laughter now.) He lucks out - the Ripper rolls a 7 and is stunned!

It misses its turn as it’s stunned. (It automatically fails saving throws now.) Boom for big fireball damage from Gideon - but no, it only takes 21 fire damage.

Ahleqs is up. “Okay. Um. Do I have to climb out?” (of the bone rubble). Yes, a DC10 DEX check to get out. “It’ll be fine, it’ll be fine, check this out. Yay! Just enough.” He rolls an 11. He stands behind Charity and casts Burning Hands at level 2 for 14 fire damage. It looks a bit bloodied. Huh. Ahleqs gets a nosebleed and takes a few steps back.

Primara is up next. She comes up to Tarragon and does a Healing Touch to give her 11 HP back, and then Shimmering Shield again, and darts back out of range. Me, OOC: “Thank you, I say in Bear.”

Bear-Tarragon does another multi-attack - one hits the other misses, doing ten damage total.

Melaina takes aim with her bow, with encouragement from Goose. 28 damage! (Sophie, OOC: “That’s actually pretty disappointing damage.”)

Kessler is next. She gets up and clicks her neck. She goes right for the groin with her Thunder Gauntlets, 18 to hit and 6 Thunder damage. The second below the belt shot is only a ten so it misses. She dodges around it and disengages as her bonus action.

What does Brother Carl want to do? Splash around in the water? Play with a rubber duck? He decides to try the plank to help himself get out and rolls an 8 STR check. He punches the wall. DM is feeling charitable; he can make a DEX check as well if he likes. Nat 20! He basically levitates out of the water. Ahleqs holds up a little placard with ‘9.5’ on it.

Brother Charity is up. “Ohhhhh balls.” He sighs and does shillebblhlghsfflgjhheh. “Twelvesies?” That’s a miss. “I gently pat him on the shin.” Bonus action - healing potion. Wise. He regains 5HP.

It does the whirlwind again - Tarragon is gnomed and knocked out, and Charity also goes down. The flesh ripper crawls over him to get to the others.

It then hits Brother Carl with a 30 and a 19 - 49 slashing damage total. He goes down, no duh.

Gideon is next, and he casts Haste on Melaina. More speed, AC, DEX and attacks. Woo! He’s basically turned her into a superhero.

Kessler: “Or a super villain.”

Melaina hurriedly: “Shut up…”

Ahleqs is up. He doesn’t need to be in melee with it so that Melaina gets advantage, right? Cool, then he will cast Misty Step and not needlessly throw his life away. For his action he can do a cantrip, so he does Eldritch Blast and uses ToC. “Is that a good idea…?”

Chorus of “Do it do it do it.” Big money, no whammies. Two hits! 7 damage, plus 3. ten total, and he rolls on the old chart. 51: A spectral shield hovers near him for the next minute, granting him +2 to AC and immunity to Magic Missile attacks. He’s protected from Kessler if she goes more rogue than usual, sweet.

Primara moves forward to gently nuzzle Tarragon and brings her back with 11HP. She gives her a quizzical look, and says “teleport?” in her head in Elvish. Tarragon is good in here, but thanks. She politely declines and prepares to do some more battering.

She casts Greater Shilldhbbblhlshggewehh, and hits with a 21 for just 9 damage. “What? This spell is BALLS!” (In addition to the ‘DM win’ button, Joe apparently has an ‘offer false hope’ button.)

Melaina rolls to hide with a 23. “Hidden?” Yes. She shoots twice; thanks Ed. She misses twice. “Sorry, Gideon, I’m wasting my gift.”

Kessler is going to - let’s see… Magic Missile…? Would need to cast it at level 2… That would be four darts… (Ahleqs from the back, sounding pleased: “I’m immune to that.”) No, she thinks her crossbow will do more damage, so she takes aim once at each head. the first misses, as does the second. Bonus action she drinks a GHP.

(Matthew OOC: “Can I just point out that Magic Missile would have hit four times.”)

Brother Carl makes a death save, and passes with a 14. Charity rolls a death save and passes. He gets HP back… It’s a thing he can do. Hmmm.

He is still under the flesh ripper though. He casts Vampiric Touch on it. Can’t miss, as his face is pressed against its undercarriage. Can he have ADV on the roll? Yeah, okay. Oh, apparently he can miss. 

Tarragon and Kessler see, to our horror, the wounds on the hide of the thing start to knit back together.

Tarragon: “Ah, fuck.”

Kessler: “That ain’t right.”

It turns around and does the whirlwind thing again; Tarragon goes down. It crawls over her and attempts to eat Primara. It attacks with a 22 and does 14 slashing damage, then attacks again with a 30 for 19 damage. Then attacks AGAIN with a 22. Then it bites her with a 23 and does 10 piercing and 2 poison damage.

Primara casts Heal Self - phew! Then she teleports herself and Tarragon out of there. Gideon’s turn.

He can see the flesh ripper’s weird grey bits, so he has line of sight. He doesn’t have an awful lot of time for this creature so he burns it again, hoping that the burning prevents the regeneration. DEX save! He is running out of spell slots though. It rolls a 19 - “Ah, that bitch!” It’s still engulfed in flame though. He might have a scroll here somewhere… He has invincib - no, invisibility. (Invincibility would be pretty fuckin’ useful.)

Gideon may cut and run, it depends how the rest of this goes. For the time being, he will hang around. How generous. “Use fire!” he directs us all.  

Ahleqs spends some time calculating distance before casting Eldritch Blast with ToC. He rolls a dirty 20 and a 17 for 8 total Force damage. “That’s a small number!” Creatures have Disadvantage on saves versus his next spell for a minute. That’s good.

Now comes the sad moment where we see the unicorn removed from the turn order, probably. She has a legendary action and uses it to heal herself. So not dead just yet, but she can’t do much else this turn.

Tarragon passes a death save. “Yeah. Winning at life.”

Melaina has been watching the ripper with her beady little peepers. (Ed returns from somewhere. “Is it dead? Did we win?”) Can she hide, on the basis that she can see it but it can’t see her? Yes, so she rolls a 27. She is hidden! She shoots with a 21 for 27 damage, and takes her second attack. She risks using Sharpshooter again, but misses. She has extra movement from the Haste spell, so she uses it to step over Brother Carl’s body and move a little further away from the Flesh Ripper. 

Kessler rolls a death save - an 18.

Brother Carl rolls a death save - a 2, so a fail.

Charity rolls a death save - a 5, so another fail.

The Flesh Ripper takes a turn, and uses it to do whirlwind of claws against Ahleqs and Gideon. Even if he passes, Ahleqs is going down. Oh, also Melaina gets to roll versus this attack as well, Joe says. Gideon, predictably, fails the save. Less predictably, he is still up after the attack. Melaina makes the save so she only takes 22 damage. Only! No wait - she has Evasion. No wait, no she doesn’t, we’re only level 6. She has Uncanny Dodge though, so she takes quarter damage, so 11. “No thank you! Not today!”

It’s still got four attacks. Aw, fuck.

It bites Gideon. “That modifier is monstrous, I hate it.” He goes down. “I should have run away, no!!! Oh, what a horrible place to die!”

Melaina is the last one standing.We could legitimately be looking at a TPK, here...

At least our bones will all lay together.

The only thing Primara can do is resurrect us if we die, and she can only do that once; she darts away and tries to hide so she can emerge and save us if we actually die.

Gideon rolls a death save (ten - pass), as does Ahleqs (also a ten). Then Tarragon (18).

Wait - Gideon’s Haste spell in Concentration. When he goes down it drops. Ed, reading the spell description for the first time - “oh no! Oh fuck! Ohhhh…” In his defence, he wasn’t expecting to get mullered in one round.

Melaina can’t move on her turn now, or take actions until her next turn because the Haste has dropped. Can she go limp and slide into the water like an octopus? The DM - very generously - lets her take a bonus action to hide. “I can feel a natural 1 coming on…” She rolls a 14 total - the thing’s Passive Perception is 12, so she is hidden. Skin of our knickers.

Kessler makes her next death save with a 17. The Brothers also make saves; Carl rolls an 8 and Charity a 19. Ahleqs rolls a death save and gets a 9 - a fail.

Ed, OOC: “We can salvage this!”

Primara has a go at Entangling the flesh ripper; she thinks it’s probably pointless to try, but it rolls a 13 to save versus the spell and is entangled! Yay!

Tarragon fails her next death save. Melaina is up. Can she get past it? She can dash as a bonus action… She shoots at it while hidden first, using her ‘everything-I’ve-got’ button. 18 hits, but she only gets 27 damage. DM tells us not to run - we are SO CLOSE to killing it. Melaina runs to join Primara, whose space she can share because the unicorn is Tiny.

Kessler makes her death save and stabilises. Brother Carl rolls a nat 1 - and dies.

Fuck.

Brother Charity rolls a success on his save with an 11. The Flesh Ripper tries to break free of the Entangle - and fails! Yay! It regenerates some HP though.

Gideon makes a death save - and gets a 19. He’s closer to being alive than dead - but in a death save sense, not a general sense. Ahleqs rolls a ten - another success.

Ed realises he missed a death save, and rolls it now - he succeeds, and Gideon stabilises. Yay! That was a good decision.

Primara is up. Joe checks some spells… She can’t do anything to help so she stays put. Tarragon fails a death save. (Next turn, either way...) 

Melaina sneaks to the door and hides, and shoots - but misses with a ten. She recedes back like a turtle into her cave.

Kessler stabilises.

Brother Carl is dead, so Brother Charity rolls a save and he stabilises too. Phew.

Flesh Ripper goes next, and tries to break free but is still Entangled! Here’s our Hail Mary.

Ahleqs rolls another death save - and succeeds, stabilising. “In a number of hours, I can crawl my horrid carcass…”

Tarragon fails her last death save - and dies.

Fuck.

Melaina rolls a 13 to hide. She shoots with an 18 and hits, for 28 damage - how-de-do-dis!

The arrow goes into one of its’ horrible heads, which looks at the other head and goes “what the fuck!” And it dies. Joe plays some horrible audio. Final Fantasy Fanfare!

Primara comes out and says she has the power to bring one of us back - but only one. They have to choose - Brother Carl, or Tarragon.

Gideon thinks it’s not a hard choice. Melaina doesn’t want to say it too quickly.

They wait an hour while Primara goes about raising Tarragon from the dead, by casting the spell Raise Dead. Some of the others regain consciousness over the course of the hour. There are no more monsters around, so we can take a rest if we want.

We very much do want.

On the plus side, we can level up - yay!

[xellandria]

Well, another February is now (basically) over, which means Love is in the Air season is officially done (or will be in sixteen minutes, which will be long over by the time I’m done typing).

This was the second year I had a full 50 characters eligible to run Crown Chemical Company for a chance at the mount (the first was 2017, which was the year they added the scaling tech to the dungeons but before the changes that happened for the 2018 season that meant only characters eligible for “current content” could get the drop; more on that in my LiitA tag).  The reason I went so hard on making sure my entire account was level 110 before Legion ended and BfA began was because of that 2018 change; it’s also why I don’t have a mag’har yet (the unlock for them being separate from the dark iron unlock; my horde character didn’t hit exalted with Honorbound until too late for me to guarantee a new character would be 110+ in time for the event).

That meant, for a fifteen-day event, with fifty chances per day, that I had 750 chances this year to get the Big Love Rocket to drop.

I’m pretty sure you can guess how well that went. 0/750 for LiitA 2019, 0/2,487 since 2014 (2010-2013′s counts were evidently not something I wrote down anywhere that I could find when I went looking this time last year).

Every year I say at the end that I’m going to keep track of what drops I DO get next year; this year I actually went and did that, plus some other stats!

Vile Fumigator’s Mask (cloth-specific transmog): 36 Toxic Wasteling (pet): 35 Forever-Lovely Rose (holiday-locked transmog): 48 The Heartbreaker (toy): 8

The following stats are probably not 100% accurate (on the low side); I wasn’t always paying attention to whether the people my raid frames said were our tank/healer were in those specs or doing their jobs, and I didn’t track DPS who weren’t dpsing (I thought about it the time that two of the dps were afk on top of the stairs and the third wasn’t even in the instance, but that was like day 7 and at that point it was too late to start)

People who queued as Healers who were not healing: 58 People who queued as Tanks who were not tanking: 41 Wipes or despawns: 4 (one wipe, three despawns) Misqueues: 1 (sorry, random normal HoV group on one of my druids :\) Instance caps: none!  I’ve gotten enough experience with this event and have tailored my servers reasonably well by this point so I know how to “beat the system” on that (aka “only one server had more than ten characters and that server always went first, and also last”)

Time spent was counted from logging into the first character to hitting the loading screen exiting the dungeon on the last, with one exception (I forgot to start my timer until after the first tank queue had finished on day 4).

Average time to queue 50 chars: 3 hours, 24 minutes.  Day 15 is an outlier adn is not counted.

Day 01: 3h 55m Day 02: 3h 13m (Intol helped) Day 03: 3h 25m (Frosty helped) Day 04: 3h 28m (+1 tank queue I forgot to start the stopwatch for) Day 05: 3h 22m (Naha/Eva and Arc helped) Day 06: 3h 11m (Naha/Eva helped) Day 07: 3h 33m  --> DATA POINT: 18 DPS queues took 1h 45m; 32 hybrid queues (22 tank/11 healer) took 1h 48m Day 08: 3h 08m Day 09: 3h 40m (Lu, Kattii, and Jim helped; I was also asleep at the wheel and forgot to queue after logging into an alt for long stretches) Day 10: 3h 19m Day 11: 3h 27m Day 12: 3h 22m Day 13: 3h 22m Day 14: 3h 17m Day 15: 2h 39m (all but 1 DPS queue got help from Naha, Eva, and Lu)

[mister-maiden]

Runescape :  Archaeology. Brief Experience

The ever awaited skill of Archaeology has hit the shelves of RS3 and the scapers are eating it up.

If you are unaware, Runescape, one of my favorite MMORPG’s ever since my childhood, has released a new skill to add alongside their other 27 skills making a grand total of 28. The newest skill behind Archaeology is Invention which was released in January of 2016, so it’s obvious why everyone is so excited. They rarely make new skills and it already takes ages to max a skill to its highest limit (99, or 120 depending on the skill), so we are going to see a lot of users along the Archaeology camps in the following weeks to perhaps months after observing first hand how long this skill is...Or it could be much better exp at higher levels which is what I hope.

Currently I sit at 54 Archaeology chipping away at sites in the Ampitheatre in Morytania. It takes quite a while to receive a single artifact and even then I have to dig more for the materials to fix said artifact. As I said before, the skill cap to these skills are 99/120. Don’t be tricked though, I’m not even half way through. I’m not even 1/12 done with this skill. To gain 99, you need a total of  13,034,431  experience points. To get to 54 requires 150,872 exp, so I am absolutely no expert on the skill yet.

Artifacts can be gathered from any of the excavation sites located around Runescape which can be accessed quickly by speaking to our guild master. From here on out I will presume you play Runescape and will stop the basic explanations. 

My Experience So Far

I went into the skill completely blind so i could experience what the skill had to offer me. I didn’t look at guides on *MAX EXP* rates or making money because I whole heartedly believe trying to get those rates makes Runescape a job instead of fun. No hatred to those of you who go for the max exp and the like to *get the job done* but I just enjoy the skills as they come. So now you know how I think about training.

So far I’ve enjoyed several aspects of the skill.

*LIKES*

I enjoy how self contained it is. In most skills, you can see skills that are paired up with another which helps you get the paired skill to 99 if you have the other. This skill (so far) is entirely based on your own decisions. You can go to a certain digsite to complete a set and get bonuses, or you can just go to the highest level requirement and continue from there. There is no way in getting these artifacts besides excavation and time, so you need to train it head on. 

It’s a long skill. Really, I’ve been putting in hours each day and I only have 150k exp. That’s wild. I mean this skill is around 10k exp per hour at early levels, probably even less. I love this. It allows scapers a chance to climb the leader board alongside friends that already have max stats and get a fair chance. No more being able to just *BUY the skill* (technically you can buy a bit of it, AKA materials). 

Bonuses: The bonuses the skill offers extends to all skills. Though this is a tad..actually it is a bit of a con as well. I enjoy this because it gives me a reason to do it besides *mony* unlike woodcutting, fishing, and other gathering skills. 

Excavation resources around Runescape: I love this because I get to see more places since I have to explore to find these bad babies. Demon hide is in GWD, white oak on white wolf mountain, etc. Really feels good to discover something...Now cons.

*DISLIKES*

I don’t enjoy how the skill gives bonuses to EVERYTHING while having no pre-requisite. I see this skill being the first skill any noob account to level up then go across Runescape with the amazing bonuses. Seems to be too much and was created as a skill to give random bonuses to level 99 skillers in other skills. At least have some form of level caps with this imo, or maybe this opinion was created after dealing with Runescape’s skill connections for so long and it’s just brand new.

No real dislikes besides how long it takes. Maybe it will become Runescape’s longest afk skill SINCE it gives bonuses to everything. 

**************************************************************************

So far it’s a nice skill and I’ve been enjoying completing the artifact collections that collectors want. It’s also been nice to watch the community talking with one another (for better or for worse). I won’t be one of the individuals selling materials and using this brief span of high popularity for the skill as a means to get rich. That isn’t what this is about for me, I just wanna see how cool the skill is. 

Goodluck out there ;o it’s pretty tedious, but the bonuses seem well earned. Hopefully the exp gets better, if not then meh. Less competition from the people complaining of it being too long :D