#also i was gonna make them into npc friends anyway so >:)

[deatheless]

mina's a solo artist before anything (though she does love a good collab, whether it's sharing vocals or writing or both), but she does have a side project with three of her best friends called black cherry. they have an ep out with a few songs and intend to do a couple live shows here and there and maybe write a bit more if they get the chance, but it is entirely just a fun outlet to write with friends and make some silly songs together. none of them consider it their main focus, though it is very special to them, and a lot of her fanbase doesn't even know it exists.

[robotiv]

sims 4 rly hurt my feelings today !!!!! rambling explanation in the tags

[fatale-distraction]

BG3 Companions Social Media Headcanons Part 2

Here’s the rest of the companions! NPCs in Part 3!

~~~

Halsin - animals and nature and more animals and more nature. He probably has several videos of guided yoga and meditation that are accidental thirst traps. Lots of "very beautiful, very powerful" videos. He's basically like Bob Ross and Steve Irwin had a baby. Not a lot of selfies, but if Tav steals his phone and takes some of them, he will post them. He also posts progress and finished pictures of his whittling. All of his followers are constantly asking where they can buy them, but they're not for sale. Once in a while he will gift one to a follower, mostly when Tav complains that their crafting shed is too full to move around in.

Jaheira - seven billion pics of her kids. The youngest ones all have a different assigned emoji covering their faces, and she refers to them by their emoji instead of by name. Total PTA mom but like a motocycle PTA mom. Yeah she brings cookies to the bake sale and they're the best damn cookies there or else, but she will also flip Karen and Donna over a fucking table if they even dare to open their dumb faces about another fucking book ban. Also somehow the chillest gardening videos on the planet. Lots of unwilling selfies with Minsc. If you hate it so much why do you post them Jaheira?????????? Does not understand how hashtags work. Uses all of them. Comments lots of supportive things on other people's posts but also "wash your face. Did you eat? Stop making that stupid expression."

Minsc - Boo. Ten thousand selfies with his best friend Jaheira and Tav. Boo. Muscles. Boo. Emojis. Boo holding funny tiny things. Often features in Karlach's Jack-ass and parkour videos. Boo.

Minthara - I refuse to murder tieflings and haven't tried the new knock-out option yet so I have no idea what she's like, but I'm gonna wing it anyway. BDSM queen. We've all seen her camp clothes, you know she is. Problematic content and comments, constantly suspended for violating TOS. How she hasn't been banned outright yet is unclear. Drow-supremacist, male-exclusionary radfem (not a TERF, though, Minthara says trans-rights and this is a hill I am willing to die on). Flame wars with Kar'niss and Nere.

~~~

Part 1 here!

Part 3 here!

Part 4

[channelinglament]

Hi! I saw your ask as open and I wanted to request something for the Self aware Project Sekai AU you made :)

May I request how the Vocaloids react to the player? Like, how would they become self aware? We’re they self aware to begin with? Thank you :)

How vocaloids react to player ✨️

(Sorry everyone for being gone for so long, I was just emotionally exhausted and had a few angsty teen thoughts)

Platonic/Romantic - tbh idk? Depends on how u take it :^

Let's start off with the fact, that they all know know that they're not exactly their original counterparts

Yes, they are vocaloids, but..different? They're in game, nothing new for Miku- but it seems like it's their first time being alive. They know it's their voice, their songs but it just..feels weird?

- though this mostly applies to Miku, as she's the first one to greet us and has her..original form?

She knows it's her, but different her.

- I wanna say that I see all sekai vocaloids as different people, BECAUSE during April fools, THEY MET EACH OTHER and uhm- I'd recommend watching that video to understand what happened. They kinda became friends, and 25ji Rin liked wxs Kaito's (or what Kaito that was?) head pats. She was waiting for her Kaito to arrive.

SO that means they are ALL different.

Now, that we finally sorted out what was important, we can finally make some content

Hatsune Miku(s)!

The Miku that greets us:

She knows she is Miku, but she doesn't have knowledge of stuff outside the game. She is a sekai keeper, and keeps hopes and dreams of every vocaloid producer. But...She is unsure if this true. Some stuff happened before she even existed! (Games existence)

So she knows she isn't exactly the first Miku. But Miku anyways.

She was staying there all alone, for so long.. (game downloading)

Yes, she loved watching over sekais, but..it's not like she has anyone..

So when she first meets you! She is so excited to make a friend! She says you're a sekai watcher like her, because you two "sang" (aka you playing tutorial)

Whether you played bad or good didn't matter. She liked it.

She didn't wanna lose you, but it's not like you're leaving her. Your presence is always near her when you play and read stories/events.

She doesn't see you often, unless you're pulling for characters or there's an event/sth she needs to explain to you.

She's such a little tease, not giving you card you want if she knows you have more pulls. Don't worry, she will give you it, but just pull one/few more times please.. she doesn't want to be alone anymore.

First though when she met you: I am not alone anymore?

Sekai Mikus

As long as you won't harm others she's fine!

She is very cautious when it comes to [band's name]. They're her 1st priority.

At first she thought you are just there to watch over them, but she noticed you actually help them improve (I hc that by playing their songs, decorating sekai, grooving their cards and kizuna level you can make them better and improve them)

Aww, thank you so much! You are a great help!

.

.

.

.

.

Overtime all vocaloids became kinda obsessive over you? They want you to play their band's songs and care mostly, if not ONLY about them and their band! Yes, they're grateful you helped them improve, but they will bring you into their world, and you will make it real. Not just a game, but a R E A L, LIVING WOLRD. NO NPCS, NO GAME CODE

Until then, everyone is just a piece of cra- I mean, code. Your word also seems so dangerous... that's why they need to protect you from world's harm!

Not gonna lie, EVERY other vocaloid acts this way, so I'll end it here, sorry ^^; (Maybe I will make a part 2?)

But trust me, beware of Niigo and MMJ the most.... both, vocaloids and group

^ them when u interact with other groups

(Also beware of Tenmas, and Shinonomes. You can kinda trust Hinomoris)

[iraprince]

Absolutely love the Infodump on Cookie she's so good. however!! I remember you made a trio of characters for this game and were torn about which one to play, then decided the other two could be his attendants.

How are those two, what are they up to?? Have you done much with them in the game so far? (And even if not, wanna give us some tastey information about 'em?)

💜

oooh yes! those two are sir velvet the unsmiling (it/she), and damned-if-i-do/dandy (he/they). let's pull up their art (esp now that i have crispy clean new scans!!! i think i have only ever posted this art as shitty phone pics prior to this)

ANYWAY. it turns out that even though attendants are a built-in part of the noble sweetheart playbook (cookie's title) and you're SUPPOSED to be using them... for me in practice, when i'm actually playing the game, i just keep totally forgetting lmfao!!!! :') rping with my other party members and chasing quests and stuff is so engaging that my brain is totally booked with just being cookie, let alone two additional npcs, so sadly dandy and velvet have not gotten a ton of screentime in the current campaign

BUT that really just makes me eager to one day play them properly in a different campaign, whether that's them each taking their turn as player characters like was originally intended, or when i'm GMing a campaign of my own (i'm trying to write up something for my friends, but i have no idea when it's actually gonna happen bc i'm so busy rip... but when i do, cookie and her attendants will def be npcs)

i honestly don't have MUCH i can say abt them, bc since i haven't played them much i also havent developed them much... i suppose i can give summaries tho!

in terms of vibes velvet is very much like, "guy who is brooding so hard that it stops being mysterious or having any gravity at all and is mostly just making people wonder if she's like? okay?????" like there is only so long you can spend with your back to the rest of the group clenching your fist and muttering to yourself before people just start kind of glossing over it and being like "oh haha that's CLASSIC sir velvet the unsmiling!!!"... mix this with a heady dose of "[nasal voice] UM, you forgot to collect the homework" and somehow you have created a creature ideal for wrangling cookie's effusive elaborate scatterbrained whims, somehow, most of the time. velvet is really similar to a different Brooding Goth Knight character i have wherein my formula is "make a character who looks extremely fucking sicknasty badass, then never ever ever stop making fun of them ever"

dandy is cookie's quartermaster, and so unlike velvet (who's usually assumed to be traveling around with cookie, even if i am constantly forgetting to roleplay that it's doing that) he mostly chills at chateau gorgeous looking after his liege's affairs and making sure the ppl who live there are fed + sheltered + generally taken care of. they are pretty much velvet's exact opposite in terms of temperament; EVERYTHING gets velvet's hackles up, NOTHING phases dandy. i need to be careful bc i am starting to arbitrarily ship them just from typing this. anyway, dandy is largely non-verbal; they're able to speak if really necessary, but they would just rather not, and if there's really no way around it they'd rather just sidle over to cookie and whisper it to her, and then let her communicate whatever they want to say to the rest of the group on their behalf; if cookie's not around, you're just gonna have to figure out how to communicate w him otherwise. which always works out fine bc dandy is very patient and used to getting along in silence!

that's about all i've got rn... i will def post it here if i come up with or draw anything else that's fun tho :) ty for the ask!

[heybiji]

hi!!! i just wanted to say i really love all of your MASKS stuff. i'm something of a newbie when it comes to the TTRPG community, but MASKS seems to be not very well-known and i think that's a real shame. i'm a huge fan of old-school superhero-adjacent stuff, especially the silver- and bronze-age ones!

by the way, i was wondering if you'd be willing to share some tips for a first-time GM? you don't have to if you'd rather not! i just figured i'd try asking since i was planning on GMing a MASKS campaign for some of my friends later, but despite my decade's worth of roleplaying experience i've never been in a TTRPG campaign nor a GM (or similar) role before

Thank you so much!! I was just lamenting about how I felt bad for the MASKS tag because it is now flooded with all my npc nonsense hahah so this is really nice to hear.

It's awesome you're planning on running a MASKS game for your friends!! There is an indispensable post on twitter I saw that has a LOT of great tips for running MASKS that I recommend checking out. But for my own personal tips that are just me things, here's what I got. Sorry it's gonna be extremely long-winded, it may take a few months to read through it.

(Note: I am also hugely into RP and probably put more into it than what is necessary, especially with MASKS which is meant to be able to be played out of the box. It was definitely not played out of the box in our case because I require a lot out of myself and everyone else to feel good about running something. if anyone else wants to continue seeing me as a normal human being please don't click the Keep Reading)

Since you're running it, make the world interesting to you. If the world runs around themes you're personally interested in then you'll have a much easier time coming up with answers on the fly. For me, themes I'm interested in that lend themselves well to a superhero world: money, power, family, celebrity, media, the 24 hour news cycle and the desensitization of violence. Because I'm interested in this stuff anyway, wrapping a world around them makes it much simpler for me to figure out how the world ticks and thus how the characters fit into it and how the world reacts to them, and I am DESPERATE to find out how the characters react to all the questions and expectations the world is imposing upon them.

Make sure your players have a good grasp of the tone of story so they can make characters that gel well within it. For me the tone is a lil more adult because I'm not personally into younger morality tale stories in tone, it's pretty grounded, and I think comedy and tragedy work hand in hand so I lean into them.

Talk. A lot. Talk about the characters, talk about the world. MASKS is fun because it's a LOT of talking and figuring out the narrative together. It's not a lot of crunchy mechanics, it's all around seeing how the characters react to the world narratively, all hurt and comfort and emotions which (for me) requires people to have a good grasp on their characters and the world. I like to give my players "homework" where I ask them a question involving their characters in some way like "what hero did your character look up to as a child?" so they get to come up with past heroes, or "How does your character feel about _____?" etc etc. The only fans are gonna be your table and fans love to talk so be the biggest fans of the PCs!!

Figure out your framing. I know in MASKS they suggest framing it like a comic book, and basically talking about the frames on screen. For me, because I'm more into movies and tv than comics, I frame it like that. So I have an active "camera" in play during sessions and will ask things like "would anyone like to grab the camera?" to encourage the players to put the character into a scene or "what does the audience see as the camera focuses in on your character in this emotional moment?" There is a LOT of playing up to the camera and framing the sessions as episodes of a show, so it's like, okay, you have several options but what is going to be interesting for the audience to see? I find this encourages the players to have their characters take bigger swings and feel comfortable letting us into how their character is feeling because it all looks GREAT on camera. The camera loves it. The PCs are the story after all.

Because I frame it a show, I also like to play individual ending songs over the "credits" at the end of each episode. So I asked my players to make playlists for their characters so if I feel an episode had a lot of emotional focus on one character in particular, I can play one of their songs at the end of the episode! I also made a general MASKS playlist with a bunch of songs from the era we set it in (2004) to pull from. It's a fun little addition that I really enjoy and that I hope makes it all feel more special.

The Dino Donut Effect: create landmarks in your world. (OK THIS IS GONNA BE LONG BUT WORK WITH ME HERE) They don't have to be locations, more solid landmarks of the story that the characters can refer back to and lean on to make the world feel more "real." I call it the Dino Donut Effect because in our world the thing that made everything click into place was talking out the backstory of one of the PC's figuring out they had the power negation ability. We were talking one night trying to figure it out; we wanted the character to fall out of a building and be caught by a flying superhero and accidentally turn off their powers, so they toss the kid to another flying supe whose powers also get turned off. But we were like... holy shit what is the height of a building needed that can handle this much action in the air without them hitting the ground in 3 seconds. So after a long night of talking about terminal velocity and looking at Splat Calculators we figured out the height of the building, and we needed them to crash into something that wouldn't fuckin kill them. The first suggestion was a truck full of bananas. Nah. We landed on a giant balloon that could take the impact. And the balloon became a giant T-Rex holding a donut that was the mascot of the city's beloved decades old donut shop Dino Donut. And so we decided that one of the two flying supes grabbed onto the kid and the other and flew into the giant balloon to try and keep them all alive, which destroyed the balloon, which was a city institution, and there was a crowd of children there that day that saw their friend Dino Donut die. Killed by a superhero. The balloon deflated loudly so it sounded like Dino Donut was screaming in agony. All the kids were traumatized (screaming crying throwing up), the city was furious because everyone loved Dino Donut, it was constantly in the news cycle, and it ruined the career of the supe that "killed Dino Donut." AND THEN THEY REPLACED THE DINO DONUT BALLOON WITH A LAME "UPDATED DESIGN" DINO DONUT STATUE which everyone hates and people consider to be a memorial to the old Dino Donut. ANYWAY, the Dino Donut effect is that now all the PCs have one single incident to refer back to that they all have feelings about. A couple of them were there that day and heard Dino Donut scream, one is now the protege of the disgraced superhero that killed Dino Donut so she feels uncomfortable talking about it, there's the kid that was saved that day but was sworn to secrecy by the supe so no one would find out about his power negation ability, and then there's the kid that wasn't there because she's an alien that just arrived to earth and now the kids have to explain the incident to her with all their varying opinions. Now the PCs' meeting spot is at a Dino Donut. Having this one solid incident that is both funny and kind of goes into the themes of the world has been an absolute treat. Creating "landmarks" like that in the world has done so much and now I'm like okay I'm gonna try to do this moving forward with any other thing I run.

anyway these are my extremely specific to me tips. my RP standards are kind of high which makes me a bit of a terror but also when the flowers bloom from it it feels GREAT. i'm not sure if this will help but hopefully there is something there that can be useful!

MASKS is fun and simple once you get the hang of it, though, so I'm sure whatever you do you and your players will have a lot of fun! especially if you're someone who is into RP which is the background I'm coming from too; MASKS is extremely narrative! i'll be looking in the tag for your game hehe

(The Day Dino Donut Died art by JD)

[meggannn]

a brief analysis on hades npcs' favorite blood sibling

this is not a popularity contest. this is my attempt at analyzing if certain characters prefer a certain sibling based on the info we have now.

prefers mel:

artemis. she likes zag of course, but this is obvious.

this is sad and ofc horrendously unfair to zag, but as predicted, so far hades does speak to mel with more respect than he did zag for most of hades 1, as evidenced by him already calling her "daughter" not "girl." perhaps hades's relationship with zag has changed significantly post-game, and obviously the circumstances and baggage of zag's upbringing (which hades was responsible for) vs hades meeting mel for the first time as a capable young woman are very different, but. yeah.

this is a guess, but i'm gonna say hermes likes her more as well, although only just. he's eager to get her to olympus and they've just been in contact for longer as he's a friend to the silver sisters. however i do think that there's an argument to be made that zag prioritizes speed over mel, both in character and gameplay, so hermes might relate to that with zag more.

possibly charon. i might have put him in the "no preference" category, because i don't think mel being able to understand him better necessarily means he likes her more, but i do think that he might prefer mel juuuuuuust barely only because he offers her loyalty cards without her needing to beat his ass lmao. there is no shoplifting option for mel yet so if it is added, i might change my mind, but so far i don't think she'd be the type to do it anyway.

possibly aphrodite but if so, it's not by much imo. she definitely likes zag, but says to mel "you look like you can break some hearts even without my aid" which sounds like approval of mel's messy situationships lol. to me her nicknames "little godling" vs "gorgeous" kind of implies the slightest more fondness of mel but again, not by much.

prefers zag:

chaos. outwardly asked "where's your more fun brother :/" and explicitly once told mel to shut up lol. also because i think a being called primordial chaos is understandably more interested in a story of "snarky, rebellious kid runs away from home and shakes up family status quo while blasting his way through the underworld" rather than "perfectionist does what she's told/tries to set the world in order." obviously chaos still supports mel, but definitely finds zag more interesting. chaos had to specifically set up trials for mel to get entertainment out of her lol.

skelly. one of my theories as to what's going on with skelly is that he's cosplaying his living self just for shits and giggles because it's a war, but also like. it's skelly lol so who knows. i think his personality in 1 is more his "natural self" which so far we've only seen come out around zag.

cerberus. :/

no preference:

homer. i know homer describes them differently (zag as a lazy, responsibility-avoiding slob vs mel as a tragic duty-focused, orphan princess), but i think that's not because homer prefers mel, but because he's crafting his diction to the story being told. hades 1 is a story with a twist wherein he reveals a laid-back prince is actually just lonely and misses his mom (imo he describes zag much more sympathetically as time goes on), but hades 2 is a war story and mel has been raised as a soldier all her life, so his tone is just different with mel from the offset. it's not fun to make light of her because the stakes are higher.

demeter: the real answer is persephone, persephone is her favorite lol. imo she seems just glad to have alive grandkids.

poseidon and zeus? haven't seemed to notice a preference so far from either of them. they have a more pressing reason to support mel because war and all, but also artemis mentions they don't really believe she can do it, which makes sense, but it makes me wonder if their support with mel is a bit patronizing, or like "well what have we got to lose." they also don't seem particularly worried about zag missing of course but i think these two have so many nieces and nephews and relatives that any preference they have between mel or zag is miniscule.

theories on returning characters we haven't seen yet:

prefers zag: nyx (just due to her raising him... but a case can be made for mel due to the silver sisters/mel living in shadow/hecate's relationship with nyx), dionysus (party boys), achilles & patroclus (probably), sisyphus & orpheus (power of friendship), thanatos & meg (obvious), asterius (respect for their many battles)

prefers mel: athena (level-headed warrior women), ares (a witch assassin groomed specifically for war? "go ahead and torture my family, but i will still come back to kill you over and over again"? absolutely), eurydice (cooking gal pals), theseus (please god it'd be so funny)

no preference: idk dusa? and hopefully persephone. the kids need a parent who doesn't have a favorite. i do think she will always have a soft spot for zag because he found and brought her home, but also i'm sure persephone will also want to spend a lot of one-on-one time gardening with her daughter.

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

Apparently my brain keeps coming up with cursed things so, SDV townies or SVE/RSV really reacting to farmer calling them babygirl???

And now I am starting to imagine all of them in THAT babygirl pose I'm so sorry if it's stuck in your brain too

Omg babygirl everywhere. This is gonna be one of the most cursed headcanons I've ever write (or not? depends on what people say)

By the way, I found myself in such a situation that I do not fully know the term "babygirl". That is, I knew that women were usually affectionately called that from English, and babygirl as a meme on Twitter and Tumblr referred only to men (I'm not kidding, I was looking for the meaning of babygirl and this is what Google gave me):

"Submissive and breedable", huh.

Sorry anon, but with mods you get a lot of NPCs, so I'll write about some SDVs and SVE/RSVs. I hope you still like it. Enjoy!

--------------------------------------------------

Despite the fact that he blushed a little, Alex believes that he is not just a babygirl, but the best babygirl. Look at his muscles, look at those biceps, he's just made for the perfect babygirl pose! Seriously, he praises it like he won a gridball championship.

Depending on the mood, Magnus will either give the Farmer a suspicious look and inquire about their mental health, or simply teleport them away from his tower. In any case, the wizard has too much to do to waste time on nonsense.

Immediately to the clinic! No, Harvey doesn't want to listen to any protests! Get on the bed right now, and he will bring all the necessary medicines. The Farmer does have sunstroke or a high fever if they're delusional and call Harvey "babygirl". Maru, we have an emergency!

"Perhaps there are new ways of courting among young people in the world, or maybe it was an unusual way to insult my person," Lance thought, not understanding exactly how he should react to this word addressed to him from his farmer friend.

Wh-what? No, Victor is not a babygirl! Yes, he knows what that means, but refuses to believe it. But still at home, in front of the mirror, he stood in one of the babygirl poses from social networks... And blushed because he really looks cute, he is a perfect babygirl. Victor prays that his mom doesn't catch him in this position...

Morris is in a small stupor, trying to understand if they just insulted him or said a compliment. Hm, maybe he'll rethink about that "babygirl" as the new slogan for Joja cola, since the word is so popular with young people!

Please, Farmer, don't. Gus doesn't know the meaning of the word and doesn't want to know. It also worries visitors to the Saloon. They are his friend, but there must be limits to what is permitted!

Well, all people have their quirks. And as long as it's not an insulting and vulgar word to anyone, Gunther doesn't mind. Well, he hopes it's not an insult or vulgarity.

It's because Elliott's long hair makes him look like a girl? Does this word have another meaning as well? Ah, compliment? Why, thank you kindly, Farmer. He's a little confused, but flattered anyway.

Poor Shane will choke on his beer when he hears this word from the Farmer. Now all people in the Saloon is looking at both of them. He just wanted a drink in peace, why....

...Farmer, you know that Kent is married, right?... No, he does NOT want to know the meaning of this word, he already has a headache after Sam's talk about Fortnite and TikTok trending. Give this poor man break.

Yes, he is a baby girl, baby baby baby girl. He is a small child. Come on, insult him ​​again, why not! He's a fucking joke for young assholes like Farmer apparently! (Andy took this word too seriously, like the phrase "confuse your enemy by yelling at them")

Ahh, thanks Farmer. Yes, Sam has seen on social media that some characters in babygirl poses look quite cursed, but he is pleased that the Farmer called him cute, albeit with that word. Hey, take a picture of Sam, he wants send this pic to Sebastian and Abigail and laugh about it!

Still, Jio's instinct didn't let him down. Despite the friendship with the Farmer, the victory over Gabriela's corruption and all other merits, the Farmer is still an idiot. How else to explain the word that they said to the ninja elf?

Erm, thanks? Poor June, he had strange admirers before, but at least the Farmer with "babygirl" turned out to be harmless to him. Right? Isn't that an insult?

It looks like the young adventurer hit their head in the mine a lot harder than Marlon thought. No matter how the Farmer resists, no matter how the old bones of the one-eyed adventurer hurt from the heavy and kicking burden, Marlon is determined to take the Farmer to the clinic for an examination. No, he doesn't know anything about their "Tweeters and smartphones", he'll get them to Dr. Harvey right now.

[ink-splotch]

Hi!!! I just wanted to tell you that seeing your new game reminded me that Stay? exists and that it's soooo good. It's been a while since I played it, so I don't remember the details, but I do remember being amazed at how much variation there was, how every detail was perfectly woven into the story, and how human the characters felt despite us not getting that much time to know them. Plus, I personally love war plots, and yours DID NOT disappoint. I also really loved how the different "career paths" impacted your story, and just how many different details and paths you could get depending on what you did at every step of the way. I don't know, I just remember liking it a lot and feeling really accomplished once I managed to beat it.

Also, out of curiosity, who are all the LIs? In my lifetimes, I remained pretty faithful to Myka (love of my life, she was so great!!!), but I imagine Esteban, Jo, Suzette and Gemma to be romanceable. Did I miss someone else?

Another question I have is: how did you get the idea for the game? And by that I mean, what was the inspiration for the plot and all the different characters + why did you even decide to make a CYOA in the first place?

Because, again, it was incredibly good and I'd like to know which stars do I have to thank for it existing.

Anyways, once I'm really excited to play More a Haunting than a History, and I just know it's gonna be as great as Stay? was!

Thank you so much and have a nice day! ~ 🍪

Hello there! Thanks for writing me. There are five major romanceable characters in Stay?: Myka, Esteban, Jo, Gemma, and Suzette. Technically, there are some minor romanceable NPCs (ex. the different folks you can live your life with in the "fuck off into the hills" ending), but those five are the main gist of it. The main five can also also each be platonic life partners for you, rather than traditional romantic partners, if that's more your style.

Myka is my wife's favorite love interest in Stay? by far, so great taste.

Stay? actually has a very clear origin story for me. My friends and I played Outer Wilds, which I highly highly recommend, and I was so delighted by its balance and structure that I wanted to see if I could make something built on the same bones. I drafted up my @sortinghatchats quiz to get used to the ink system, and then dove into Stay?. It was the most fast/obsessed I've ever put a story on paper (so to speak) and I admit I may still be chasing that high.

I built the basic structure first, and then added on the setting, characters, plot macguffins, details, etc. on top, trying to interweave and connect them. I like how it turned out. The plotline with the southern lands, to be vague for spoilers reasons, was actually a very late addition and I think it, in many ways, is what made the game work for me.

I hope you enjoyed MAHTAH! It's a very different game than Stay?, in some ways; and I'm proud of myself in different ways in terms of what I tried to build there.

[blackstarchanx3new]

Creations AU FNAF 4, But I obnoxiously over explain it 2

Pages 30-59

The sad story of Cody and his miserable life.

I know for a fact some of these pages were lined don't remember if they colored any by @akdrawsandwrites thanks AK. ^w^

More NPC dialogue.

In FNAF 4 game: There's an oddity with the NPC with a green shirt and brown hair, he has a STRIKING appearance to one of the "bullies" older brother's friends. But the one in the green shirt in the game has blonde hair. Idk if they're meant to be the same character and the sprite was just bonked up or what. FNAF color pallets being consistent is NOT something this series is known for lmfao.

I made these two characters brothers and modified his dialogue to suit that he knows Cody by "Josh's brother". Either way this character should know this kid's name lmfao.

The party coming up is apparently Cody's. The last NPC is debated to be the character "Susie" from the games....I color picked and this girl looks black to me. (Susie is white with styled blonde hair) Like they both have bows and wear pink so MAYBE it was meant to be her but idk. This was the design I went with. Retconning design and inconsistent colors in FNAF again: Is not new.

Susie is used as a character in another place in Creations anyway and it wouldn't line up timeline wise. (This makes an animatic with her as the Chica we meet in Mike's story outdated and incorrect but there's LOTS of ideas in the animatics that were abandoned going over all of them would take hours lmfao.)

Exposure therapy, I say as a joke.

You might have noticed an itty bitty detail of Josh getting set off every time Cody starts shouting. Bro does not handle that shit well.

Yeet the child again, damn it Josh you gotta kick that habit.

Josh's main response to dealing with Cody: Lock him somewhere where he doesn't have to deal wit him.

Oh dear. This looks familiar.

Creations readers and FNAF players alike know where this shit is going.

HI MIKE! ❤️ Yes that's Mike without his dyed hair lol.

Reasonably avoiding confrontation but uh, to the determent of others oof.

Dude proceeds to never stop throwing himself in danger later so I guess he decided to slam to the other side of the two extremes lmao.

HAH.

Well that explains Cody's creepy ass stalker crush on Mike.

He didn't really SPECIFY he recognized Mike verbally when talking to him in the main comic but here we get conformation he for sure did.

Again Cody/Golden Freddy doesn't consider himself a 1 to 1 with the original Cody. Rather just a robot with the kid's memories/soul.

They don't feel like his memories.

Lol. Cody and his Para-social relationship with Mike Schmidt.

We can tell this genuinely amuses him as his eyes aren't red.

Hah he says something to the same affect in thee FNAF 1 Arc...with a lot more body horror involved.

"It was just a prank bro"

Daddy's gonna make it all better.

Cody stop that. We've talked about how the faces you make are unsightly.

Also Puppet. She's here.

People didn't really GET Cody's reality bending abilities: So he explains it pretty plainly here.

He's powerful as hell. X'D

Basically the most OP character in Creations much like the cannon Golden Freddy.

So I'll give ya some writing advice: If you're gonna make an OP character, just make them lazy as fuck.

Easiest way to nerf them: Make them just not care about fighting. X'D

Cody's got a mixture of laziness, apathy and fear of daddy to keep him from being helpful much in the plot.

Because if he wasn't he'd clap Afton in 2 seconds and that'd be no fun. So he's a coward lmao.

He was gonna snap that bitches neck while he slept. And not a single one of us would have blamed him. UwU

Casually hides in his brother's closet XDDD

Also I pointed it out before but Josh's room is Michael's room in main story.

Cody's cowardess is on full display: He bent to NOT killing Josh when he realized how badly Josh was coping with his brother's death.

Just like his daddy!~

Jokes aside this is my fave page in FNAF 4. It was lined by AK. I drew the sketch

I like, never draw the nightmares but the ended up so good here. Props to Ak for translating the sketches real well.

This is another instance of what I mean when I say there's no real good "Starting" place for the Creations AU.

This is smth that happens in Sister Location, but I feel Josh's character is more interesting with this context.

Buuuut this scene makes no sense. Aaaaand FNAF 4 shows more chronological events.

Agh.

Honestly whenever I get around to doing "Spring Bonnie's friends" I'd argue that is the best place to start chronologically but we'll see.

Anyway Cody saving his dumbass brother is so funny to me.

It's also really sad to think that he saved Josh because he knew how much Josh HATED the idea of dying in a springlock suit. Cody shows empathy quite often, especially towards Mike but this extends to helping Josh too.

His little "Now who's the cry baby?" is just the icing on the cake. XD

So Josh IS dead...?

Kind of?

His "remnant" is just kinda all over the place.

Will pick up in part 3 since PAGE LIMITS.

[herotome]

Special Informal Devlog

Hi-ho, Wudge here! Aaaa. I missed the update last week... as we crawl closer and closer to release, it's become harder for me to write devlogs. I'm making progress every single day, and that makes me so frustrated that it isn't done yet, you know? 😭 Something something curse of perfectionism...

Anyway.

I thought I'd try something a little different with this post by chronicling a specific screen I've worked very hard on, from start to finish!

(Pictured: a preview of where we're gonna end up)

It all began on... August 2021?! Yowza, two years ago! When I posted a poll on tumblr and on itch about how I should handle flirt indicators. The votes were split 50/50 between two popular options, and I was able to surmise that yall would really, really love an option to toggle between the two.

It didn't take me long to figure out how to implement the toggle itself.

The following year (September 2022), I came up with the idea of putting in an illustrated tutorial on how my flirt indication system works - after all, poll participants had told me that they loved the idea and had never seen it before in other games. I was on a treadmill at the time, so I quickly doodled the idea on my phone. It looks like this:

Then when I got home, I did a rough pen draft to solidify the idea...

I worked on the digital version over the next 2-3 weeks, and asked my friends for help with editing the text to ensure clarity.

.... Then I took a looong break from the infographic to, uh.... write, edit, playtest the game, draw expressions for Griffin CG, draw expressions for the landlord, work on a new Clammy Lady sprite, playtest the game again, make all the characters blink, make the first glowing animation for Jade's powers, code in Griffin's CG expressions, stress about paypal making changes in my country, do concept art for upcoming npcs, write some more, playtest some more, draw a birthday picture for Dart, write devlogs every single week, make sure all my files were safely transferred to my new laptop before my old one completely died... etc.

So it was February 2023 by the time I came back around to try implementing the infographic in code :')

... It was functional, but no matter what I tried, I didn't like how it looked with everything crammed into one page.

... Then I got really sick... but after I recovered and did some more work (drawing, writing, playtesting, etc) I came back to the infographic with the intention to learn how to code pages in renpy.

Still didn't look phenomenal, but there's a whole lot more breathing room! This was in April 2023.

I took another "break" (worked on a million other things) and then... FINALLY... in late August 2023, just a few weeks ago, I had an art breakthrough!

I had garnered a better understanding of color and poses, and as a result my chibis became a LOT cuter! I was able to redraw most of them without too much hassle - whereas when I first started, it would take me all day to draw a single one.

I also drew custom heart icons (a plain heart, a golden heart, and a broken heart), figured out how to make text buttons look more fun and intuitive..

And here's where we're at now!!! I still need to draw eyes for Dart.... but I researched and absorbed a lot about screen compositions, and had a rather late realization that I could re-use backgrounds and assets I already have in the game.

That's it for the special edition. I'll update with more soon!

Stay safe and keep warm,

Wudge.

[theworldvsyoshiko]

One thing I wanted to avoid with Ortiz was stressing out too much about my self-imposed restrictions and goals up front. Since I had no idea how hard Anomaly content was gonna be, I didn't want to try to preemptively guess what would be fun. But, now she's been out there for about a year and a half and she's doing pretty decently. (I think she's benefiting a lot from the fact that I now have hundreds of hours of experience at playing lone teenagers in Rimworld.) So, time to revisit that.

Yoshiko was an ambitious self-important twerp whose heart was still in the right place, so yeah, it worked well for her to both think she could take in zillions of children, and try to do so.

Umeko was a scruffy little thing in a harsh, uncaring world, so her only recruitment limitations were down to the practicalities of how many people she could feed.

(The Dancing Flock, being a commune of hedonist monks rather than a 13-year-old girl, are not a salient comparison.)

Ortiz was a child soldier according to her background, and then ended up being used as a test subject. I don't think she trusts easily, and then not only did she experience some pretty bad betrayal, but she ended up fighting monsters in the freezing wilderness. So:

In order to recruit somebody, they have to be younger than her (she has not had good experiences with adults.)

Any recruits must also have a reasonably high compatibility with her. I play with dev mode on half the time anyway, might as well take advantage of having that visible. I'm not going to set a specific threshold, since I don't know the distribution, but probably at least around 1.0. For the record, Ortiz and Edith have 1.84.

Anybody she recruits is sticking around permanently. No 'eh, this person looks kinda handy right now, I'll take them in for a season or two and kick them out.' My goal here is to make this a cohesive group where I feel bad if anyone dies.

Long-term, this ragtag group of kids has to defeat transhumanist Cthulhu to beat the scenario, so they've gotta develop toward being capable of that kind of thing. Ortiz needs to start working on becoming a Yoshiko-level badass, and will have a strong preference for recruiting friends who can contribute to that. That one isn't a hard limitation, though.

None of these limitations apply to temporary joiners--refugees, quest NPCs, etc. Anybody who shows up intending to only be here for a limited time can be considered on a case-by-case basis.

[thatndginger]

Y’all remember that idea I said I might share a little about yesterday? Well hold on to your butts because I’m about to ramble about the latest project spawned of the Shifter!verse.

I’ve been low-key obsessed with interactive fiction/novels (usually just abbreviated to IF) for a long time. If you don’t know what interactive novels are, this website has both a helpful explanation and a bunch of IF you can play :P Anyway, I like IF. A lot. And pretty much since the moment I started writing Shapeshifter, I’ve had the thought in the back of my head about writing an interactive novel for it. However, because IF tends to be high on wordcount and also I’d have to learn how to code and shit, that thought usually gets shoved waaay back in the brain cave until the next time it claws itself back.

But now, thanks to @touloserlautrec I have not only come up with a basic plot idea, I have the beginnings of the npcs too. And since I was a good gremlin and hit my wordcount goals yesterday, I’m gonna talk about it ^.^ Under the cut, of course, to save y’alls dashes.

Ok. So. Basic plot of what I am now calling Shapeshifter: Shadows - 

Player Character is a tourist who comes to visit Moressau for [unspecified but short amount of time]. PC has no idea what they’re actually getting into chasing magic and mystery, and quickly find themselves over their head when a particularly pushy and unpleasant vampire called Soran takes a shine to them. PC manages to escape Soran - temporarily - with the help of a shifter named Aurora who happened to be nearby. Aurora introduces PC to her small cadre of friends who help PC explore Moressau and have a good time - while also protecting them from Soran when it becomes clear Soran is not going to leave PC alone. I’m thinking different branches based on which characters the player chooses to hang out with most. The throughline plot won’t change, but certain scenes could change based on who the player has been favoriting. Obviously there’d be the option to romance certain characters, and that will affect which ending the player gets. The ‘basic’ endings would obviously be either PC escapes Soran and returns to their normal life with some wild stories OR Soran finally makes good on their threat of turning PC into a snack. More endings could include Soran being taken care of and PC deciding to stay in Moressau long-term, being turned into a vampire *without* getting eaten, or deciding to become a witch if they have an affinity with magic. Also, obviously, romantic partner endings.

I thought about making PC a supernatural from the start, but I think it’s more fun - and also easier - to make them a regular human being thrown into the world of the supernatural. I don’t want to make them a shifter because there’d only be a limited number of options for which animal they could turn into and depending on the kind I’d have to completely alter certain scenes and…. It’s just a lot of work. So. No. And turning them into a vampire would defeat the whole point of the plot. A witch might work, but it's more fun to have them discover a magical affinity over the course of the game, I think.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, here are the basic sketches for the major characters I’ve figured out so far:

Soran - he/him - a vampire and a complete asshole. Doesn’t take no for an answer because he thinks that being a vampire and having a vampire’s powers lets him do - or have - whatever he wants.  Aurora - she/her - a shifter with no clear allegiances who helps PC escape Soran’s initial advances, then takes it upon herself to show PC around Moressau and introduce them to new people, sights, and experiences. Short, sweet, and utterly terrifying when she wants to be; she refuses to let the bad experiences turn her into just another jaded resident of the smuggler city. David - he/him - a shifter who has a massive chip on his shoulder and a very simple color scheme: black. Jaded and prickly, he doesn’t want to get mixed up with *anyone*, let alone a clueless tourist. But he can’t just let PC stumble blindly into death either. Secretly a bit of a softie beneath all the black and leather and broodiness. Rune - they/them - a witch and friend of Aurora’s. More than happy to help show PC the hidden corners of Moressau and kick some vampire ass. Fairly relaxed and laid back but with a mischievous streak hidden just below the surface. Intelligent but a little clueless emotionally. Celia - she/her - a vampire and acquaintance of Rune’s. Keeps her cards close to her chest and it’s rather unclear why she agrees to help PC with their Soran problem. Playful and teasing, a bit of a thrillseeker, has some *great* stories. Dress style spans like 3 different centuries and you never know what she’ll show up in next.

So... yeah. It’s a thing. I’m gonna shove it back to the far corners of the mind cave now, since my goal is to finish Into the Storm before I start anything else. But I am now significantly more inclined to learn how to code and write IF now than I was.

[riddlerosehearts]

Okay now EYE must ask you - how are you liking BG3??? How far are you?? Tell me about your Tav!!!! (Please and thank you <3)

hi!! 💖 i only started the game a few days ago and it was an impulse decision i made after having previously told a friend of mine that i definitely wanted to play it but that it'd probably take me a while to get around to it (and, because i thought i wouldn't play anytime soon i hadn't really been trying to avoid spoilers). but, i have the PC version and while it generally runs just fine, my computer is kind of slow and the game is so big that it took hours to download and install. so i kind of went ahead and started to come up with a whole character idea during that time LOL. sorry if my explanations of things get a bit too rambly/disorganized. i'm actually not very far in the game at all yet, i've been spending a ton of time doing stuff in the druids grove and i'm supposed to go find halsin but i haven't even gotten karlach in my party yet! i've recruited all the main companions except for her but i am excited to meet her. gonna put the rest of this under a cut for length.

my only background with DND is that i listened to the first campaign of the adventure zone and i've watched the legends of vox machina show. i also have a friend who's super into her own DND campaign and another friend who's told me a lot about dimension 20, specifically fantasy high--and i've considered trying it out for her but haven't gotten around to it yet! i think she actually told me the same thing about the episode lengths making it easier to get into than critical role, because i had tried critical role and it was just so long that i couldn't stick with it. but, yeah, i've also looked at the forgotten realms wiki a bit but i've never actually played DND. i have played skyrim and final fantasy 14 and some other similar RPGs with customizable blank-slate protagonists, and in those types of games i always have to make OCs to roleplay as--usually i'll think up a basic idea to start with and then flesh the character out as i get into the game. they're never really self-inserts but i do often project onto them a little.

so, in games like these my first character is usually an elf that specializes in elemental/destructive magic. idk why, that's just what i've always liked. in ff14 i started out as a black mage without knowing it was the hardest class to play LMAO. soooo i went into this planning to create a high elf sorcerer, but as i started writing out ideas and thinking about what to do, i ended up creating a half-high elf bard. they're transmasc/nonbinary and in my head they use he/they pronouns, but i picked the nb option in the character creator and that causes npcs to actually use they/them in dialogue which i think is so cool. i love that the character creator is so inclusive in regards to gender.

anyway, i named them elenion, which is something i took from the lord of the rings universe because i'm a huge nerd. in LOTR it's an elvish word that basically means "of the stars". here's a couple screenshots i took when i first started. let's just ignore the fact that this hairstyle clips into elf ears (and also that the face preset is from a mod i downloaded).

i didn't really give him a tragic backstory or even the most interesting story haha--i'm wanting to do something bigger and angstier with another character on a second playthrough when i'm more familiar with the lore and world of the game. and i'll probably also end up changing or expanding on some things about this character later, but for now i just kind of made a normal guy with normal problems. i had this idea that his father, a human who attracted the attention of a beautiful elf woman, was also a bard and was a very successful musician in his youth. so elenion has always shared his father's passion and dreamed of being like him, being able to effortlessly tell incredible tales and inspire crowds of people through song, but no matter how much he studies and practices he never feels good enough. if he seems confident it's usually just because he's gotten really good at faking it. he's also pretty reserved and often avoids having to talk about himself by asking a lot of questions. see, i kind of wanted to specifically find a way to not roleplay the usual sort of loud, flirty, goofy bard, lol. not that i dislike those kinds of characters or anything though!

however, bards are meant to be super charismatic, witty, and persuasive and of course the game strongly encourages that with the dialogue options and skill bonuses you get. so my way of explaining this is to have elenion be a bit like raine from the owl house, in that they may be shy, but they're very firm in their ideals and are no pushover when it comes to protecting themself or their allies. they're clever and have a snarky side to them, and they're genuinely friendly and caring in a way that gives them a sense of quiet charisma. which reminds me that one of the spells i gave them at the start was sleep, and it's made me imagine that when they were a kid they tried calming a crying baby by playing a lullaby on their lute and accidentally ended up casting their first spell.

oh, and, i also wasn't really sure at first where in the world i wanted elenion to come from but i decided on something pretty quickly after getting multiple of those dialogue options suggesting that the protagonist is baldurian! i pictured them growing up in a somewhat small town with their family but moving to baldur's gate as an adult, hoping that if they left the comfort of their home and started to journey out into the world a little they'd eventually find their spark and become the bard they wanted to be. unfortunately they've had little luck so far because even after all this time they can't see that maybe their whole fixation on trying to be just like their father and achieve the exact same kind of success that he had is holding them back. the fact that their father died the year after they moved away hasn't helped either. and now, in the middle of traveling to a historical site that they'd wanted to see in person and use as inspiration for a song, they've been abducted by mindflayers and are struggling with the massive upheaval that this has brought into their relatively mundane life.

so. yeah. my tav for this first playthrough may not be the most unique or exciting character but i like him! i like figuring out what kind of choices he'll make and thinking up new ideas for what he likes and how he sees the world. also, i find it funny how in your reply to my ask you said you thought you'd be into gale but then you fell for astarion--because i thought that i'd be all over the edgy, brooding, snarky vampire man, but it turns out gale is so charming and funny that i'm probably going to romance him first. i'm also pretty intrigued by shadowheart and wyll but i'm so early in the game that i can't even say who i think my overall favorite companion will be because they all seem so interesting!! even karlach despite the fact that i haven't actually met her yet, i've seen a bunch of cool gifsets of her and my brother told me he's been romancing her on his playthrough. i really need to go find her soon.

i'm sure you can tell from everything i wrote here that i am definitely enjoying the game LOL. i can already tell that there's just so many different things to do and see, that i will both need and want to do a lot of different playthroughs and that it's going to be something that sticks with me. nothing wrong with using guides and walkthroughs btw! i do it too because i'm worried about missing too many things and have the world's worst sense of direction even with a minimap. honestly i probably need to look up some guides for certain mechanics that i don't feel like i've really figured out yet. there's a sarcophagus trap in the ruins early in the game that got me SO stuck and got my whole party wiped and then i looked up a video and found out you could turn off the whole trap system by pushing a switch... i felt so stupid askjdfgf.

anyway, i think this got to be way too long of a reply so i will stop here! but if you ever wanna tell me more about your tav or anything definitely feel free to and i hope you're having an awesome day!

[ninthprime]

post where i just talk about what im palisade shipping. because im bored.

bucci real. i like to think about how gucci ended up in this deep. how lonely are you that the fish who you know used to scam you and did war crimes is the one you’re falling in love with!! why are you having romantic thoughts about being great heroes and saving everyone with them!! brnine likes gucci of course but i truly don’t think they realized how deep it was until that pre-sun convo. and its like oh gucci is in deep with me. well i’m not gonna process that in my brain because i can’t connect to my own emotions. it’s toxic they’re not good for each other but its ok. care for each other anyway.

brnine/jesset is real too you know it is. but i also think that’s jesset occasionally wanting to make out with them and brnine would probably agree but is not processing it and is just thinking Jesset’s my best friend! ok brnine.

this does mean gucci/brnine/jesset is real i think. bucesset. as it has been dubbed. usually i dont think its romantic with gucci and jesset but it’s. A Relationship. what if we mind melded once and hated each other and what if we were currently each other’s ally on the terrorism council nonetheless and what if we were both in love with a pathetic war criminal. i want them to freak out about brnine being on the pact ship together. i want them to both be a little fucked up about how they nearly just had to give themselves up to the bilats. i want jesset to make gucci promise to not fail brnine like they both did valence.

you all know gurbalence is the forever ot3…for years i have thought of them every day…you know we will get it. ali is already providing us a steady stream of balence. and you KNOW we will get gurlence. you know dre and austin will make that happen. you know gur and brnine are going to have to exist around each other via figure proxy. and it will be awkward and bad. but they are associated forever by grief :) do you think brnine has opinions on the gur puppet. hey if they try to free gur do you think someone will have to make him another body. hey do you think brnine has thought about how they have the notes and tapes that are valence and gur’s legacy recently

i think figure/gur (figur) (you know we have to call it figur) could be real but i need to see it. i KNOW how much a dre pc loves a npc romance. but it could also be so bad for them in the wrong circumstances…them being tied together ties them to clem in many ways still…they have such similar hurts. it is probably not great to finally gain freedom and then have a spider bound to you. but also i think they could understand each other. figure will definitely project on them a little as is their habit. i have to see the flirty quotient…well sometimes gur is just naturally like that.

i did mention this recently in replies but secretly though the figure ship i have been thinking about a lot this season is figure/thisbe. honestly it may be my largest ship this season. but i have been nervous to talk about it because the best thing about thisbe is that she does not see things the way others see them so it is a hard sell while still true to her character. but im not seeing things right. they like to rush into action together. figure wanted to know if she was being treated well and seems to have picked up on how she sees the world differently and will defer to her judgement. thisbe made a clock just for getting them away from clem and prioritized it for multiple missions. they are like a plant to her and now they have plants growing from them!! i think figure will be very grateful and may try to make it up to her and it will be cute and funny. this is thisbe’s weird little crewmate and she is going to hook them up to the blue channel irrigation system and provide them beneficial nutrients. this will be satisfying to her and they will feel very safe.

cori/elle real. they will kiss i think. what i need to see is for them to talk about devotion more. what made you realize you didn’t believe elle. what happened to you as a double agent. can what you know cut through cori’s pain. can it cut through her devotion. how can you share this with her without her punching you again. do you care enough about her to share this. i want to see it all on screen

my friends are much better than me than talking about arbitred the hot new ship but it’s real. sending someone a digital ham slurper is real. when you don’t have a candidate because that’s so demeaning but you work closely with a weird little cyborg girl that’s not romance you know that’s just putting someone under a microscope and thinking they’re entertaining. it’s not like you feel the nonhuman equivalent of a satisfied rush when she sends you an emoji and talks about how successful the two of you are at selling contracts together. simply an incredibly beneficial business transaction. you are sending her five more ham slurpers and watching her say npc dialogue about this.

this isnt a big ship yet but i want to see more of the crusade squad because i miss ignadiah and ramondre the swordbearer rivals. i think hets are allowed if they are constantly trying to destroy one another. they are so much fun to me.

[distance-does-not-matter]

Would love to hear about your DnD chara and her drenched-papersack of a man 👀

HELLO ok i'm back at my computer so i can ANSWER

ok SO

we're playing Curse of Strahd and i have made myself a sorcerer by the name of Asta Lathan, follower of Lathander. and now she's taking up every spare inch of room in my brain. it started in May (more on that later) but now she's a permanent resident

she's a village girl. raised by her grandparents alongside her cousin Cedric. more than your typical adventurer, she's a figure from an adventurer's backstory. she's the apothecary of her village/town, and she never planned to leave. she planned to start a family, find an apprentice, and pass on the apothecary when she was growing old, just like it was passed to her. her cousin Cedric, with the more traumatic loss of his parents and his four years of age on her and the charming demeanor, he's the adventurer. he goes off on these adventures and writes letters home, that they all treasure, and when he comes home (he always comes home), he regales them with stories

you know how he always comes home? one time, he doesn't. Asta studies his last letter. he mentioned a land, Barovia. and so Asta packs and says her goodbyes and sets out to retrieve her cousin, wherever he may be.

when she gets there, she meets with perils but she also meets her beloved party. then proceeds to have the weirdest eleven days ever and baby they're only gonna get weirder

remember how i mentioned May? well, in irl May, we played a session where we went up against creatures we later learned were Night Hags, or the Coven, or whatever we call them. the entire party was incapacitated/outside, except for Asta. so their leader closed in and offered a deal. if Asta agreed to become one of them and to return in ten years' time to learn their ways, they would set her and her friends free (i think they even healed them)

did i mention we fought the Coven because they ate people? yea

what other choice could she make? she took the bargain. she was human before. now she's... well, she doesn't know. her skin is blue and her eyes yellow and branches/thorns grow out of her head

and the bargain is the gift that keeps on giving in terms of roleplay bc it has made some interactions VERY juicy

and now to her wet paper bag of a man!!! who is not actually her man at all. not yet anyway, if i can help it

his name is Vasili and he's an NPC who is awkward and capable and has a horse and says the wrong thing a lot of the time. he's so swagless. it's been around a day since we've met him and he hasn't given a genuine smile once. he feels so guilty for everything, even things that aren't his fault. his face fell when he told Asta her cousin went to Strahd's castle weeks ago and he hasn't heard from him since. he held her upright as she sobbed. he told her she didn't have to eat dinner with him, she didn't mean it. she took it bc she was heartbroken but she did mean it. currently scheming how to tell him that no, she DID mean it, she was just sad (DM and I have a plan)

oh yea she ran into him again in a big battle, demanded his horse (and cursed at him), then they rode the horse together and she called him "baby" and asked him to dinner. that's the prelude to the previous paragraph

he's apparently an accountant

i've been thinking about him so much that it's ridiculous

so. yea.