#because i uh never player ranger

[drawnecromancy]

Still on my Pokemon thoughts - I definitely think that, besides the fact that it's a video game and they needed to choose an appropriate number of moves for Pokemon to have, the "4-move" rule could be explained away in universe by the "Pokemon Trainer fights are a sport, with actual rules in place to make things as fair as possible considering we're dealing with magically overpowered creatures".

So, like, in the wild, Pokemon *might* know more than four moves. Hell, I think the gods legendaries probably have a lot more abilities than just The Four Moves they have in-game - the fact that they only use 4 before you catch them is only incidental to the fact that you're playing a video game, in real life they'd probably throw a bigger more destructive fuss - and I do wholeheartedly imagine a 10 to 14 year old protagonist just, sitting down with a legendary after catching them, explaining the rules of Pokemon Trainer Fights and if they want to join in on the fun, and also that they can only use Four Moves in actual Pokemon Trainer Fights.

Imagine being the 13 year old with the balls to tell, idk, Kyogre, a god who could flood the entire planet, that since Kyogre is caught now they're going to be besties and also can it please choose four moves to battle with ? Just the four. And as it gets stronger they can forget one to use a better move. And like. This is just hilarious to me okay, a very serious young teen explaining their hobby to a very powerful ancient being, and said being going 'this sounds like fun, sure'.

[captainofthetidesbreath]

What classes do you think the mighty nein would play, were they to play dnd? Bonus round would they be good at dnd.

I had a post about this like back in 2020 or something that I cannot find, so I don't know if my opinions have changed since then. I don't have anyone down as DMing because I assume that even their forever DM has a preferred class.

Fjord - Cleric I don't think Fjord would like tanking that much because getting attacked makes him nervous, but he doesn't want to be a glass cannon either. I think that he would initially go for cleric because he simply wants to be useful and helpful, but he didn't necessarily realize how big of a job being the cleric is. He starts out as a just Cure Wounds dispenser, but quickly flourishes into a Holy Terror Wrath Of The Righteous Divine cleric. He loves doing that. His mechanics are solid and efficient and he's tactically astute, but he's a timid roleplayer who struggles to initiate scenes. He's solid if drawn into scenes and forgets to be self-conscious because he's got a better character sense than he thinks. Literally do not ask him what the overall plot of the campaign is because he cannot remember no matter how hard he tries; he remembers individual PC arcs though. I think he'd also like paladins, bards, and druids, and I do think he'd be willing to play some of the more involved fighters like the Knights subclasses and the cooler rangers.

Beau - Wizard She wants to be the person in the game who gets all the information, and that's usually a wizard. She wants to put her little hands all over all the lore, and also she loves having a spell list that's a billion miles long. She does not want you to know that she feels so smugly satisfied playing a character who can do the research and have the connections and know the information. She absolutely hates that this means she's made of tissue paper, so she tends toward Con wizard. Her mechanics and exploration work are really good, and she is stellar at engaging in the world in a way that's highly informed by her character class. She struggles with the roleplaying part of things a lot. She has a decent grasp of character, it's the actual RPing part that she has trouble with. If you can convince her to play a charisma caster, which she is afraid of doing, she'd also enjoy bard a lot. Also monks and artificers.

Caleb - Wizard This is self-explanatory. Caleb is a guy who plays a wizard or the full damage caster in every single game. This is who he is. He is great mechanically until you gotta discuss non-spell stuff. He did, in fact, read that portion of the rules, but it was never relevant to him, so he deleted it from his head. His spell choices and use are phenomenal though. He min-maxes but specifically for the weirdest, most niche element that is useful one time, but it is extremely clutch that one time it's relevant. He is also great at the storytelling portion, though his roleplaying can be a little dense or dry. If you can make him play something that's not a wizard, druid or bard. He will not play a healer druid or bard though.

Veth - Warlock She wants to make bad decisions in her games, and she loves that a warlock comes prepackaged with bad decisions. She has a solid grasp of her spellcasting mechanics, but also finds full casting intimidating. She loves the concept of being a wizard in theory but actually playing one stresses her out. She is a very loud and excitable player, which can be a lot of fun if, uh, loud. She fucking supports you and is into whatever it is you're doing, especially if it's so dumb to do. She is inventing the weirdest and most ambiguously intense patron relationship of all time. She also would enjoy paladins, rangers, artificers, and the fancier fighters (again, the Knights subclasses). She could be eased into cleric if a niche in the party is clear and her mechanical role is structured. She can totally handle full casting, including wizards, she just psyches / stresses herself out.

Jester - Bard I feel like people are going to be like "what about barbarian," but I think that Jester tried it once and the comparative lack of options made her really frustrated. She loves the idea of hitting things, but she hates it when 80% of her options is just hitting it. She is attracted to the charisma casters though, because she really likes the charisma skillset, and she really wants to cast a lot of spells. Out of the charisma caster options, she likes bards best because she loves being a little good at everything. She tends to be a little over-competitive about it and gets sulky when she doesn't feel useful enough. She is actually iffy on mechanical nitty-gritty, but her basics and groundwork is solid so it's fine, but she's a really great if melodramatic roleplayer and her social encounter work is great. She is deeply engaged in the narrative and is intensely invested in every NPC. Buys so fucking hard into the suspension of disbelief. She would like the fancier fighters and paladins better than a barbarian.

Molly - Bard He is playing the stereotype bard of everyone's nightmares. I will not further elaborate.

Caduceus - Ranger He does like to ask the plants and animals question in-game as well, and rangers let him do that and have a bit of magic too without being overwhelming as a class. He isn't super interested in doing complex characters; this is not being bad at D&D, to be clear, it's just a preference. He's your friend who is here to play a simple character because he just wants to hang out with you, which I think is always very sweet. That said, he is not very good mechanically. It's a lot of stuff to keep track of even with 5e being a little simpler. I think he would also like playing paladins or the straightforward fighters, or a cleric if he can decide what his niche is and stick to that specifically. He doesn't vibe with barbarians.

Yasha - Druid She is initially drawn to the class for the vibes (always a valid reason to be drawn to a class), but I think she enjoys having spellcasting options and options that aren't "hit it". She is a timid and awkward roleplayer who has a lot of trouble there, even though she has a lot of fun making up backstory and engaging with the lore and story. Her spellcasting is creative and experimental because she loves weird. She is one of the button pushers of the table and is giggling when she does it. (She and Veth are menaces, lmao, it's great.) I think she'd also enjoy bards, maybe clerics and warlocks, and the fancier fighters and rangers.

[elfroot-and-laurels]

never gonna pass up a request to infodump about my lotro blorbo hehe. I feel like you probably already know a bit about Ethedis' backstory, but idk how much lol (I never posted a proper bio for her on tumblr but I keep meaning to do that)

Anyway Ethedis is the daughter of everyone's favorite Elf Who Dies In The First 5 Minutes Of The Game, Talagan Silvertongue!

She was just a baby when he died in the fall of Edhelion, (making her just around 350 years old in present time. baby.) and years after that her mother became too consumed by grief and had to sail while Ethedis was still very young. Elrond took her under his wing after that, and under his guidance she became a loremaster. Her story follows the epic line pretty closely after that point, and she gets embroiled in The War very quickly while trying to avenge her father (idk how much more I should say on that front, I'm trying to avoid too many spoilers for any new players who might see this)

Anyway she's generally very bright and cheerful (canonically being one of the tra-la-la-lally elves from The Hobbit), but the epic line inflicts some Big Trauma™ on her pretty quickly, and it only gets worse from there. Soon enough her sunshine-y demeanor becomes less of a natural expression, and more of a mask she has to maintain to keep herself and her allies from falling into despair. She's told that she has an ability to inspire hope in those around her, which becomes a great burden to bear. She gets it into her head that, because fear and despair are weapons of the Enemy, openly expressing her doubts is something she Absolutely Cannot Do. She's told that she is a light in the darkness, a warmth amidst the cold, and she feels that she's not allowed to be anything else.

She has to eventually learn to open up to her friends about her feelings, learn that she's allowed to be sad around them and that her sorrow isn't some malevolent force that will drag down everyone around her, that she's allowed to need help too, and her friends want to help her. Also she's best friends with my other PC and Traumatized Ranger, Tossdir! (thought about sending in his backstory, but I don't know if you've played Before the Shadow yet and his backstory like, entirely consists of spoilers for that lmao)

And some Miscellaneous Facts about her:

She was friends with Corunir before he went to Angmar and the assumed dead, pestering him with questions about Dunedain history and generally dragging him into her shenanigans whenever he was in Rivendell. it was... not very pleasant for her to hear the other Rangers eventually start referring to him in the past-tense whenever she asked about him.

her in-game surname, Silverspring, comes from both of her parents' names (Silver from "Silvertongue" and spring from her mother's name Ethuilas, "spring leaf")

Will Not Stop Befriending Rangers (even though they keep dying and breaking her heart)

she's not a half-elf or anyone who would otherwise be granted Luthien's Choice™. Despite this, I'm going to find some way for her to get into the human afterlife. She and her best friend Tossdir are a set, you see, I cannot separate them. the Power of Friendship can break the rules, as a treat.

She's also friends with Arwen! There's uh, a lot of internal angst with her about that. Wishing she had the same choice Arwen has, then guilt over that jealously, sorrow at the prospect of losing another friend to a mortal fate, all that fun stuff. (because for most of her story she doesn't believe she can achieve a mortality, and only gets that option after Tossdir and Corunir are dead)

consequently, the knowledge that her friends will eventually die is slowly eating her alive <3 (I promised to give her story a happy ending, never said I'd be nice with how I got there)

Ethedis I care you 🩵

[officialgleamstar]

:3 Any class (and subclass) headcanons/ideas/theories for Lark? Vaguely related, I can't stop thinking about the fact the he just whistled up a fucking portal last episode?????

i have always assumed lark was a ranger, which is one reason why i was so flabbergasted by grant being the kiddads' ranger. i still think he should be a ranger, a horizon walker ranger specifically, even if it would be dumb and unbalanced for them to have two rangers. literally it makes the most sense. lark is the most ranger guy ever. however, i already made a full post about ranger subclasses for grant, including the reasoning for horizon walker that also applies to lark (namely what you said - WHISTLING TO SUMMON A PORTAL? HORIZON WALKER TYPE SHIT.) SO i will delve into some different ideas instead

if he's not a ranger, then i would guess that he is a fighter, battle master subclass, or a rogue, assassin subclass, with likelihood (in my opinion!) being in that order. thats the tldr. heres the long version LOL:

fighter - fighters are known for being able to wield a wide array of weapons, which makes sense for lark, since he is such a doomsday prepper. he would want to be able to use any weapon he got his hands on. also, indomitable fits lark really well in my opinion. if we wanna talk gear, i'd probably give him chainmail (flavored as bullet-proof vest), two martial weapons (two daggers), a light crossbow and 20 bolts (flavored as a pistol and ammo), and the pack i'm not sure on. i dont think im gonna do gear on every single class but its just part of being a fighter to me to consider that-- subclass wise, we have a few options, listed in order of most to least likely (subjective.)

battle master - the most likely one to me, though now that sparrow seems to be set up as more of the leader than lark, that might change (though i do think that maybe sparrow just takes the head in talking since he's more. uh. sociable than everyone else rn LOL). given how much enemies monologue in dndads, 'know your enemy' would be a super useful skill, and i think if he was spec'd out similar to gerard from neverafter (mostly in the ability to grant other players extra attacks), this would make a lot of sense for him.

champion - listing this because on a meta-level, its extremely easy to play, which makes it an easy pick for anthony. however, i dont think it fits him character-wise because lark would never heal himself LMAO though, to be fair, i dont think the kiddads will ever level up that high

arcane archer - not the best subclass, but very cool to me, and fitting for how all of the kiddads are gun-heavy. banishing arrow would be super useful and fit the general theme of planes and dimensions.

eldritch knight - not as likely, but i think it would be sooo so cool for lark, especially if the eldritch part came from his connection to the doodler. ohhh the drama of gaining power from the eldritch being you swore to eradicate… plus, we get LARK CASTING MAGIC, even if its not as powerful as anything his family can do! so cool!!! this subclass isnt as good for range, but i could see anthony allowing war magic to apply to ranged weapons rather than just blades for the cool factor.

samurai - in general, this subclass is not lark. however, i wanted to mention it because i think their 18th level ability 'strength before death' specifically is very lark. basically, if you get knocked down to zero HP, you can use a reaction to get an entire turn and then you go into death saves. theoretically, you could use this to heal, but its lark - he absolutely would use it to go down swinging.

rogue - other people have made this point for me, but rogues are good for guns if you flavor hand crossbows as such. i actually dont really like rogue for lark, but i dont have a reason why LOL it just doesnt really? do it for me. however, i agree that its likely to fit due to what we know about lark, so i will play my own personal devil's advocate here. i think it makes sense for lark to be the sneaky attacker while the others draw most of the attention, especially since it seems like there would be three magic users (terry jr, nicky, and sparrow) in the group. magic can be used sneakily, but im sure nicky and sparrow at least would lean towards showiness, lol. plus, i think it would be really interesting to flavor 'slippery mind' as like, lark growing a resistance to the doodler after so many years under its influence! once again, subclasses are listed most likely to least likely.

assassin - this works from both an in-character and a meta standpoint, and from what i've seen, this is what people mean when they say lark should be a rogue. its an easy subclass to play, so its good for an NPC. character-wise, with lark's extreme paranoia, it makes sense that lark would spend time studying how to most efficiently kill people. he doesn't want to risk anyone in a drawn-out fight, he's not grant. he just wants things dead as fast as possible.

scout - am i just saying this one is likely being its the ranger-flavored rogue subclass? maybe. but like liSTEN LARK SHOULD BE A RANGER HE IS LITERALLY A RANGER HE IS-

phantom - not very likely, but SEVERELY COOL from a character standpoint. walk with me here. phantom is a rogue subclass where you talk to the dead, but imagine that reflavored as lark being able to talk to like, eldritch beings, even beyond the doodler? or like, maybe the spirits of those killed and used by the doodler? holy SHIT!! it would be COOL.

unfortunately none of this has an explanation on lark whistling a portal Which Is Why He Is A Horiz- [shot] im guessing he has a magical item tho!!!

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

Hey Roddy. You've managed to give me mild brainrot for your BG3 characters.

How strong is Mae's patron, relative to the Courts? ...Uh, have you assigned them a gender yet? I should probably start there, actually. You mentioned that they run a bar or something, with a clientele that warrants a bouncer, that they have "enough" power to spare on a witch, and that they have either beef with or prejudice against hags.

I may as well just ask everything at once. What would you like to share about them?

Okay yeah let's talk about Mae's patron! Let's talk...a lot...about Mae's patron.

First. to contextualize everything about Mae's patron, let us circle all the way back to my "trial run" of BG3, where I played the first couple hours as a dwarf Ranger named Aisling, loosely based on the character I made in Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town. We had a poll to decide her class. I promise there's a reason I'm bringing this up.

Later, discussing her with a friend, I said:

Put a pin in this one.

So. Rangers get to pick different Favored Enemy archetypes at the start. For Aisling, I picked "Sanctified Stalker: You swore to hunt the enemies of a holy or druidic order". My thought was that she came from a small farming sim town on the coast north of Baldur's Gate, and, since the player character in Pioneers of Olive Town is the only member of the community who can see the harvest sprites and the Spirit that watches over the lands, I figured that Aisling's role would be protecting both the town and the spirits from any danger - tie that in to the Sanctified Stalker archetype. Instead of a holy or druidic order, she has her town's nature spirits.

Then, after I set the game down because it ran like ass on the gaming laptop I had, I ended up crafting Mae through extensive conversation and shitpost with a different friend, and decided that I really liked the concept we had for her, and that I was going to set Aisling aside to play Mae. And we decided Mae was a warlock, and then I took to tumblr to make a poll to figure out the subclass, and you guys said Archfey, and I spent a little while chewing on Archfey thoughts with that friend.

And then I circled back to "the harvest spirit from Pioneers of Olive Town as an Archfey patron of a warlock", but with Mae this time instead of Aisling.

ALL OF THIS TO SAY: Mae's patron was ported over from a farming sim. I've elaborated on and spun her off into something new, and different, now, but if you know where she came from, you can see the influence.

Mae's patron doesn't have a name, but she goes by "The Lady of the Springs". Or actually, I want to call her "The Lady of the _____ Springs" and have an adjective in there, but I've never figured out what. Lady of the Blooming Springs. Lady of the Hollow Springs. Lady of the Lonely Springs. Lady of the Cold Springs. Maybe she changes it up based on the season. I don't know. So I haven't nailed that down totally. We'll call her The Lady.

She has a rather small domain in the Feywild - there's a supplement for dnd 5e about archfey and their domains, and it states "Generally, the size of a Domain of Delight is a good determiner of an archfey's power". (Generally. But we can do what we will.) The Lady isn't particularly powerful, but she's powerful enough that she doesn't have others encroaching on her domain.

She's carved out her little section of the Feywild, but she's also got an interest in the lands on the Material Plane that surround the crossing that lets one travel to her domain. That land, of course, includes Aisling's town and its surrounding farmland. The Lady bestows periodic gifts on the people and land, takes their offerings in return, and is generally treated as a local harvest deity by the townsfolk. She may have accidentally created a cult.

Mae lived most of her life in the Underdark, in Menzobarazzan, the drow capital, but about 20 years prior to BG3, she left with some other outcasts, escaped slaves, generally just some misfits, got hopelessly lost in the Underdark on their way out, and popped out like, hundreds upon hundreds of miles south of Menzobarazzan. Not too far from Baldur's Gate, a city Mae had heard about from the others, and thought might be a good place for a drow on the surface to go, keep her head down, scratch out a life.

On reaching the surface, Mae was immediately ditched by the rest of the group - she was kind of an asshole back then! - and struggled to make her way alone along the road, in the dead of winter. She was fortunate enough that when she started freezing to death, she was within the stretch of land that The Lady considered her own - and The Lady found her and basically said "hey, I'm guessing you want to live, yes? Let's make a deal."

And Mae was lucky that The Lady is pretty benevolent, as far as warlock patrons or fey go. Yes, she's petty and mercurial, as all fey are, but she does very much want to be the kindly local goddess who provides bountiful harvests and blessings to those under her care. She did not set out to create a cult but if maybe that's kinda what's happened, then that's kinda what's happened.

(As the warlock of an archfey who's worshiped in one little coastal town, Mae could probably get prophet status if she chose to live in ""Olive Town"" instead of Baldur's Gate. However, at the time she first made her pact, fresh on the surface and not having a great time, she figured it was a 50/50 split on whether the townsfolk would welcome her as someone connected to their fey protector, OR stone her to death as a dark elf who they assumed was coming to enslave their children and eat their elders. Rather than risk seeing how accepting a small, isolated town of humans and dwarves would be, she decided to chance the city instead. 20 years later, jury's still out on whether that was a good idea.)

The Lady doesn't run a bar, though. Mae works at a bar in Baldur's Gate, where her warlock spells and powers can help calm down the rowdier clientele - oh, some idiots getting up to something? Drop a Sleep spell on them. Mae is simultaneously a barmaid and a bouncer. She probably doesn't get paid extra for this.

Um, what else... Mae and The Lady have a good working relationship. The Lady calls Mae up maybe once or twice a year, whenever there's something going on - bandits on the road near her town, or poachers overhunting in her woods, or someone's prodding at her borders in the Feywild and she wants to send Mae to go check it out. The Lady very much hates hags - her tasks for Mae during the events of BG3 are "go kill that hag", "stay alive", and "go kill that hag." I have not decided whether Mae has tangled with hags before that, or if The Lady has had a hag-free 20 years with Mae around. Certainly I don't think The Lady would send her up against one alone.

And I don't think that The Lady - at present, anyway - has any other warlocks besides Mae. And Aisling's young, so she's probably been active as a ranger only a year or two before the game starts, and I don't think The Lady would have as direct contact with Aisling as she does with Mae. And while Mae and The Lady have a good working relationship, Mae would like that to only be a working relationship, while The Lady is like. I think she wants to be friends. She's pretty hands-off with "her people" - the townsfolk - and they mostly see the fruits of her blessings, not her herself, and something I've been chewing on is the idea that The Lady is lonely. She's made herself a looming, large figure over these people, and now she's alone up there. She climbed up on a pedestal and everyone beneath her kept raising her up higher and now she's like. wait. no. bring me back down.

What I'm saying is she's definitely just manifested in Mae's house in Baldur's Gate once or twice before and Mae's like. "hi. what the FUCK are you doing here."

The pact between the two of them is...pretty loose, very different from the dense legalese that devils tend to favor, and that looseness could be very bad for Mae if The Lady really wanted to take advantage of her. But, fortunately for Mae, that's not the case, and the two of them basically just vibe it out whenever they have to figure something out. Pact written in vibes and vaguery on the underside of a mushroom. And after 20 years, she and Mae understand each other pretty well. Mae trusts her, about the amount that Mae trusts anyone - she has very few friends at the start of the game, and at that point, The Lady is the person Mae has known the longest on the surface. Mae considers her too flighty and, well, fey to be 100% reliable, but Mae does trust her not to screw her over or be actively, intentionally, malicious. And in Baldur's Gate, that's sometimes the best you've got.

[spacetrashpile]

🖊️🖊️🖊️

im sending 3 bc i want you to talk about three of them. i want one of them to be a headcanon about your birdcraft character and the other two you to be free range

oh god you've given me too much power.

hm i don’t really have a lot of hcs about my birdcraft character! i’ve realized i’ve kinda been playing them as someone who listens to anyone who claims to have any authority, whether or not that authority’s real (like with kiwi). idk what this means but. fun.

the other two characters are gonna be adriana and rosie!

adriana (she/they) is an earth genasi eloquence bard/wild magic sorcerer (LITERALLY SUCH A GOOD MULTICLASS. i never wanna play anything else.) in the “arcanis” campaign.

(picrew here)

adriana and their wife, lavender (she/they), were traveling performers who performed for the high ranking, rich people in the city they were from. one day, during one of these performances, adriana’s wild magic surge activated for the first time and accidentally killed a noble. adriana and lavender were arrested for treason and set to be executed. adriana planned an escape but only managed to get out alone. she plans to track down lavender again and break her out, but she has no idea if they’re still alive.

rosie (she/her) was my first ever motw character for the “as it was” campaign. she was a flake and also some sort of all knowing monster in secret (i don’t think i ever told the other players about that actualky so uh. hi guys. that was my secret.) in order to have an in-universe explanation for the move where i could always tell when people were lying to me (with our interpretation this was whether or not the person lying knew they were lying).

(picrew here)

rosie hart grew up bouncing around from foster home to foster home. when she was around 9, she was attacked by a monster in the woods around one of these homes. the adults in her life brushed it off as having been some sort of animal (reasonably), but rosie started developing strange powers and also lots of eyes where there shouldn’t be eyes. she quickly realized she could do a glamour on these without really thinking about it- when she first tried to show someone one of the eyes they couldn’t see it, it actually took her more time to figure out how to get rid of the glamour than put it up. this just became a staple of her life after a while that she never ever told anyone about. around age 15 she got a stable home with an older woman named josephine. she went to school to get a botony degree and planned to become a park ranger before finding the amusement park ad and subsequently becoming a dimension traveling world saving guy.

i do wish we’d gotten to do more with as it was, it genuinely had one of my favorite parties i’ve ever run into because everyone was so uniquely weird and entertaining and they had such fun chemistry. alas.

[immortalarizona]

so the artificer is now a goat and the bard fucking died

at this point, I've come to expect my OotA sessions to be just a little bit batshit, but this one. . . this one somehow outdid all the ones that have come before it. I'm too tired to write up a full play-by-play, and to do so would probably take me the better of five character limits, so instead, I'm just going to share the recap I sent out to my players after the session was over and give context to each major point via Numbered List. buckle up!!

“So. It turns out that Jimjar Silversinger—or Aitne Mehre, or Tamril Brenten, or Elthym T’sear, or any of the other names they’ve gone by(1)—has more than a few tricks up their sleeve, including both the means and the mission to unmask the man you thought was Elion Brybalar(2). It turns out the real Elion died years ago(3)—except no, he lives on (in a fashion) in the mysterious, fog-shrouded blob on your map known as the Labyrinth(4). Lucien freed him through one deal with a hag, but found escape from his own curse in perhaps the worst manner possible through another(5). Jimjar left to report back to the Vigilants of Aevus who had sent him that his mission was complete(6); Sarith decided to accompany the real Elion on a mutual journey of discovering what, exactly, had happened to them(7); and last you saw of Selaros, the demon rays were gnawing on his corpse(8), so that leaves just seven people in a band of what had started out as fifteen(9). Soon to be six, once you drop off Stool at their home of Neverlight Grove—something which the little myconid is very excited for.”

let's go.

if you missed my last update, the tl;dr is that both I and the moon deity pretending to be Jimjar Silversinger have been pulling a backstory for this fucking guy out of our collective asses. as part of the Big Flashy Reveal intended to keep the bard's secret under wraps for just a little longer, I had Jimjar cycle through some of the other guises his doppelganger spy/assassin has taken. in order of names, they are: a human priest of said moon deity (fun fact this is actually the original human form of said moon deity, and no one fucking knows this but me), a copper dragonborn paladin of Bahamut (it's fine, he gave the moon deity permission to borrow his holy symbol for a bit), and a drow mage (because I wanted to give a bit more spice, okay). not named but featured in the session was Ekha Rhuriak, aka the crow behind Jimjar's bullshit "yeah, uh, I know how to fly for reasons that are Absolutely Not Suspicious At All" story. the significance of these separate forms is that I decided to yoink wild shape mechanics, which led to a very...... interesting combat. shoutout to the ranger for being the only sane one in this party and being willing to talk things through with Jimjar as opposed to just Violence. this meant that Jimjar finally got to give context to his previous interactions with the bard. . .

so as it happens, two of Jimjar's forms are capable of casting dispel magic, and it only took him two tries to unmask the bard (I set the DC at 18 beforehand and rolled out in the open for both castings, just so my bard player could be certain I wasn't pulling any bullshit to screw him over). it was so fucking !!!!!!!!!!!!!! when the reveal dropped and everyone realized that the Philanthropist inverted was never about Jimjar, it was about Selaros Elpragh (the bard's real name, which I discovered in-session that I had been mentally pronouncing wrong for months) the whole time. the party then turned against him, and Jimjar-as-Tamril wound up nuking him (and healing the fighter, rogue, and ranger) with his radiant breath.

Selaros' backstory is that he was a drow man enslaved by a cruel mistress alongside a half-elf named Elion Brybalar. due to a deal with the setting's god of treachery, Analith, he murdered Elion in order to escape and took on his identity through a reworked version of the Mask of Many Faces invocation. this was a hot minute ago. now, the bard player was thinking about playing the real Elion as a reborn sporeblood sorcerer (a bit of homebrew I cooked up), and I was contemplating a way to introduce him organically. . .

at this point, we're back to what I had originally planned for the session, before the whole thing with Jimjar and the bard blew up in my and the bard player's face. shoutout to whoever it was that came up with this, because it was a blast to run. and, as part of the deal (I was planning this all the way back when I gave the ranger the Merchant inverted during his tarokka reading), I was going to have the hags offer the party a deal that could free them from their curses. . .

Lucien was the party artificer (and had recently multiclassed into wizard), and was the one who wanted the homebrew curse to turn him into a goat man. the artificer is making deals left and right with these hags as everyone else watches in amused horror, and when Nanny Plunk offers to free him from his current cursed form, he accepts. I warn the player out-of-character that the hag's "cure" is going to be turning him into a literal goat. he's like, "okay, I'm gonna roll a wisdom check, and if I roll below a 5, I'm gonna take the deal." he rolls a 4. ultimately, I do not stop him. he made this decision with full knowledge of what would happen next. the party left the goat behind with the hag, and is now looting the stuff he left on the boat (the rogue has already claimed his hat and his bag of holding). the player is now making Another new character, and I sincerely hope this will be the last time he needs one.

okay back to my Jimjar Backstory Bullshit. Aevus is the name of the shapeshifting moon deity, and their priests are often referred to as Vigilants, because I Think That Sounds Cool and it also fits with some of the other naming conventions in the world (some priests of the sun god are called Lightbringers, priestesses of the grave goddess are called Raven Ladies, etc.). so basically, Aevus-as-Jimjar is like "yeahhh, I'm here because.... my own church sent me......" and bullshitted a whole backstory about having been an assassin in the employ of the drow who was saved by the church of Aevus. this is all lies, in fact, but no one can verify it, because Aevus is a god of the surface and they're in the Underdark. before he left (in-universe because the jig was up, out-of-universe because his "greater doppelganger" statblock was not balanced to fight alongside the party), he gave the ranger a blessing that is going to help with the upcoming full moon. somehow. we'll figure it out before next session.

so while the party is in the Dark Mirage (aka the Labyrinth), they free Elion. the fighter violently objects to having Elion travel with them, and it's somehow decided that Elion is going to go on a journey offscreen to figure out how he came back from the dead with fungus powers, and that Sarith is going to accompany him. okay, sure. this is fine. (I'm going to miss Sarith, but oh well. they can always come back later!!)

the fighter (who had been affected most by the bard's manipulations) yeeted his corpse overboard as soon as she could. (little does anyone know that the ex-bard and I are plotting a possible eventual return of Selaros as a deathlock of sorts.... little does anyone know that I'm already doing this with Buppido in Gracklstugh......)

Ront, Derendil, Buppido, and Shuushar are dead. Sarith and Jimjar left, and we're down two PCs. backup characters won't arrive until Neverlight Grove. I think the only factor keeping the survivors together is the children (Topsy, Turvy, Stool) they're still responsible for. oosrp is sad and so am I.

to quote the fighter: "when you lay it out like that in a recap, this was easily our most deranged session, and it's not even a contest."

......yup.

[mundanearcane]

just realised i never explained why on earth i'm making this nightmare of a ttrpg so uh have some backstory:

so back in (lemme check google docs) 2021, i wrote the start of a short i was gonna submit to a magazine. the gist was, in an urban fantasy world, the construction and expansion of this capital city had seen a biiiig ancient magical forest start to recede, causing havoc in the delicate ecosystems within. so, the protagonist volunteers with this ranger force who try to make sure what is left of the forest is protected, by stopping students who study magic at the local university from doing spells in an unprotected environment.

i didn't get wildly far into it before i got distracted by other things, but the idea did linger with me long enough that, when i was invited to take part in a first-time DM's one-shot adventure in DnD 5e, i was like oh! i can fold that idea into a ranger character!

side note: up until that point, i had very intentionally not played a ranger character in DnD, because i know myself well enough to realise that i'd love the class so much i'd never play anything else. stealth archer is my go-to build in just about any fantasy setting, mostly because in any other game that ISN'T a fantasy setting, i play sharpshooters and snipers all the time. i love killing things at a very long distance and suffering none of the repercussions of doing so. instead, i've always chosen classes like barbarian, paladin, and monk--classes that all favour close-range combat. no spellcasters, mind, because i also know myself well enough to know i hate hate HATE magic it's SO annoying!!!! magic has never been my thing, and cantrips are about all i can handle. anyway. back to my point.

so when building this one-shot ranger, i decided it would be funny to really lean in on the ranger aspect by being... a forest ranger! like a real, employed, outdoorsy, government-affiliated Ranger! and the guiding principle of this character would be that they were maintaining the land and the ecosystem and anything that could threaten that would be their purview to manage. so, i made a harengon because i love bunnies, joined the one-shot with (and i cannot stress this enough) the first-time DM, and proceeded to be the most annoying character i've ever made.

to be more specific: as other players did their turns and their dialogue and backstory, i was furiously scribbling down a Ranger's Bible to quote when we found problems. i made Beau "Bobo" Boneyard a Ranger Captain of the second division (which, at the time, had no definition), and wrote down new laws and bylaws and all that good stuff as the DM told us our mission: to perform a heist. to put it simply, some guy had a magical item stolen from him, which was now in display at this weird museum that had cropped up in the forest out of nowhere. we were being paid to enter the building and retrieve the item, no holds barred.

so, whilst the rest of the party discussed how to break and enter into this museum, Bobo walked right up to the front door, knocked on it, and asked the proprietor of the venue if they knew that this land was owned by the governor and, whilst it WAS public right-of-way as according to section 4E sub-section B part iiii of the publicly-available Bill of Natural Resources, needed a permit in order to build any temporary or permanent structure--which comprised of paperworks A-562, J-28C, landowner permission, council permission, and proof that it had followed all regional building laws as well as safety guidance?

now, Bobo knows that if that had all happened, they'd know; this is, after all, their neck of the woods. the proprietor, however, says he has it all in order, yes, come in and i'll get it for you. so the party enters the museum and, whilst bobo waits for the guy to get his papers, the rest of the party try to perform a heist. the guy comes out, sees the rest of the party trying to break into a magically-defended display case, and right before initiative is rolled, beau makes sure to grab all the papers right out of his hand.

long story short: the guy's a dragon. the museum? that's his horde. and since we'd already been playing for the better part of four hours, we decided to get out of dodge by running away, the museum disappearing in our wake.

once we're far away, the DM attempts to wrap up this one-shot, but i ask, wait, i obviously have to verify the papers i've gotten. the rest of the party, mystified, ask if i was actually serious about all the paperwork, and i say, well, of course! it's my job! i take it very seriously! and so the DM pauses and says it's all fake. he literally just scribbled down on a bunch of paper and hoped it would pass muster.

bobo, furious, says, well, this is a problem. because not having the paperwork alone would be a hefty fine--falsifying documents? that's a prison sentence. and so the party agrees that should we all band together again, we will quest for the dragon so bobo can arrest him. after all, the forest rangers do double as law-enforcement, should the need arise.

---

what doing this one-shot made me realise is that rules-lawyering your way in and out of trouble is really fun, especially when it means resolving problems through the power of immense bureaucracy. for instance, walking up to the door and getting inside simply by flashing your authority as part of a government body? using a variety of intimidating titles of papers and permissions and quoting laws to get a literal dragon to try and falsify these papers? suddenly, my focus wasn't on combat or trying to sneak my way around or any of that; instead, i had to think how would this guy have broken relevant laws, and how do i use this to my advantage? it was such a novel approach to a character for me that i really wanted to share that experience around.

so, i decided to make it real! by creating a biiiiiiiiiig book of rules and problems to solve, now you get to literally throw the book at a problem and try and resolve it! no fighting, no biting, no sneaking, no beating; just pure old-fashioned threats of fines and prison times.

[lostinalem]

tell me about the fallout dnd campaign... *eyes emoji bc i'm on my laptop*

HEHEHE OK you don't have to tell me twice ! :3

sooooo first things first, the group consists of a hippie vault dweller (Joel), pre-war ghoul park ranger (Nettle), a girlfailure cowgirl (Andy), and a stubborn bos aspirant (Victoria). I'm literally kicking my feet in the air thinking about them rn

my character is Anderson (Andy for short) and wait. you're gonna love this. SHE RIDES A MECHANICAL HORSE. that's right folks, a giant giddyup buttercup!!!!! it's an absolute pain in the booty ass to draw but it's soooo worth it because it's cool as hell like I'll have to post some of my doodles soon so you can see

now, with 2 points in charisma, she's so. so bad at talking. she fails at pep talks, cannot rally a crowd to save her life, and always says the wrong thing at the wrong time. it never stops her from trying tho! one example of this is after Joel's vault was raided by the "legion" (WHAAAAT!!!! "what does that mean??" you dont get to know yet! cause I don't even really know yet 💀 anyway) she looks at the vault door on the ground and goes "well, you know what they say! one door is... um... blasted off it's hinges and... uh........ another...... um.......... opportunities!!" I LOVE HER !!!!!! I could talk about all the terrible ways she says things all day it's so freaking fun

HOWEVER. somehow, (luck?), it always works out one way or another. no matter how she butchers a speech, no matter how awkward an interaction is, it WORKS. tho people don't react the same way that they would to a more charismatic person, of course. it makes her more lovable, and people listen! for some reason.

she's not stupid, though, I want to make that clear. she's very smart when it comes to things other than talking 💀 with 8 intelligence points and tag skills in repair and science, she knows what she's doing! I mean, she built buttercup all by herself! the brotherhood keeps tabs on her because of her tech capabilities!

speaking of the brotherhood... her interactions with Vic(toria) are SO everything. I like to call Vic a bos pos because she really is a little piece of shit (lovingly) LOL and Andy just. torments her. like somebody threw a snowball at Vic in the vault (it's winter btw) (the dwellers weren't happy with her) and she was like. 'I'm going to handle this with dignity and grace. I am not going to react' and then Andy THROWS ANOTHER just to poke the bear. like girl 😭 or how they all need to use the bos terminals and so Vic is like "ok be normal guys let me do the talking" and before she can, Andy BURSTS through the doors like "I DEMAND TO SPEAK TO YOUR MANAGER" which she would not fucking say that normally but to embarass Vic? absolutely. especially since everyone there already KNOWS her and they're like 'Andy. David is literally in the other room. I don't get paid enough for this.' (and then she proceeds to call him Dave like they're old friends and Vic wants to kill herself and/or Andy at the same time)

now, what's ALSO fun is the interactions between Vic and Nettle. they HATE each other. I mean, obviously, cause Vic is the typical bos type of racist, but also because Andy tries SO desperately to keep things civil like "one big happy family" which we're actually seeing process with recently so !! yay !! Vic got radiation sickness one day and Nettle silently offered her some radaway like awww look at them go :3

Joel is another beast entirely. he doesn't know SHIT about the wasteland (typical vault dweller really) (which is also perfect because his player also doesn't know shit LOL) so he has us 3 idiots to rely on just because we happened to be nearby when his vault opened. his original goal was to set up supply chains because his vault's crops were dying and they have plenty of water to trade, which we dealt with pretty quick, but then we returned to find THE LEGION!!!! subsequently, his dad was stolen, the president (overseer, our dm hates when we call him the president but we do it anyway) was also stolen, and his life was turned upside down! yay!

so now, obviously, our goal is to save Joel's dad, the president, and whoever else the legion stole ! ngl it's been over 2 months since our last session 💀 but that just means I have more time to doodle things that happened previously! I'll post them after finals or something :) thanks for reading omg what do u think?? I'm not doing them justice really there are a lot more complexities but I guess that's the basics. also thank u for asking 🥺 I love talking about them and I will likely do it again LOL

[globofhoney]

Opinion about modded followers

(Lucifer, Xelzaz, Inigo, Bishop)

For my opinion: look at Lucifer! The potato boi is cute!!!

My LDB's opinion: I do not trust him really, yes he is cute and all. But he is shady in his own ways. I never EVER trust someone who refused to be straight with me. And Lucifer is doing just that.

_____________________________________________

Me: Hey, maybe he has trauma about trust issue, you would do the same if someone actively been hunting and trying to kill you?

My LDB: If i have Issue, i will have to do with it myself, not progressive dunk it on others in order to make them help with your bullshit.

Me: That's kind of harsh...

My LDB: It is, and i have no problem pointing that out. If you're on my team, you either make me trust you enough to join. Or leave.

...

Me: if you keep being like this you will have no friends!

My LDB: My Skooma addicted acquaintance tried to killed me once we were not even friends then and it will be harder to call him a friend now after what he has done, So...It doesn't hurt to be cautious.

Inigo: Ouch... 🥲

Me: Nuh uh! You girl are just being mean.

My LDB: Not my fault I am like this.

Xelzaz: Don't you think you are a little bit childish? Cleary you have been sulking because of...whatever that is. We haven't even tried to killed you in the beginning.

My LDB: And that is a statement from a Telvanni who infiltrated, killed, and stole... haven't you noticed? I never once asked for your food, drinks or any other stuff. I cooked my own meal, even collect the snow and make my own clean water. That alone would give you enough message.

Xelzaz: 😶

Lucifer: Hey...you trust me, right?

My LDB: That privilege had been long revoked. You could either be straight with me or never say a thing at all. It's fine if you want to keep to yourself, because i respect you to do the same.

Lucifer: what did i do? I haven't done anything to anger you.

My LDB: I admit that i WAS a little anxious that you couldn't tell me everything because you have your reasons, but to be fair...i simply chose to would not pry further. I let you deal with your problems by yourself, and I am doing the same. That's that.

Lucien F: By the divines, you need therapy.

My LDB: Perhaps.

My LDB: Please don't be distraught. It may sound harsh but all i said is from the bottom from my heart. I never lied about my feelings...if i hate it i say i hate it, and if i like something i will point that out.

Inigo: And that was why you killed your ranger friend?

My LDB: Of course Inigo, I never liked Bishop from the starts, i said no plenty of time and he still acted like he is a leader, it was a fool for a flea bitten wolf to asserting dominance over a dragon. All that crossed me tends to get incinerate anyway.

_____________________________________________

For many players, you keep followers as your company so the gameplay would be more vibrant and alive.

But seriously, for cc spammer and a die hard mage. They are in the way of everything.

And no, they are not guarding my LDB...

My LDB is guarding them.

[factual-fantasy]

I got 25 (late) asks 😅 (its got some fnaf lore too tho!👀)

You know? You’ve got a point. I cant imagine Monty getting split in half would be a fun thing to remember..

But honestly? If Monty remembered everything that happened that night? The damage he took from the splash bucket would be small potatoes to him. The thing that would REALLY freak him out is remembering how he went berserk and tried to hunt down and kill a child.

And Pyro! XD

SLKAJLKDJF THANK YOUUUU!!!

--As for how I create headcannons/AUs,, XD

Headcannons and AUs are mostly just me filling in the blanks in cannon in my own ✨special✨ way.

Like FNAF Security Breach for example.

Me: “So what happened to Bonnie exactly? Did Monty REALLY destroy him out of jealousy? How did Afton get down there in the basement? Why is Foxy never mentioned despite Pirates cove being a thing? Is he even IN the story? How come all the animatronics were attacking you? How come Freddy WASN’T attacking you? What made Freddy crash on stage? What happened to Vanny and the animatronics after Gregory left? How does the Daycare attendant work? Is he two animatronics in one? Is he two separate animatronics? How can his FABRIC CLOTHES physically change color if the game implies they are the same animatronic? WHY was Gregory at the pizzaplex in the first place??“

FNAF/Steel wool: “Lol figure it out”

Me:

Yes, although I will not specify where they are in the story or what is going to become of them.

I can confirm that yes, both William Afton and Vanny are not only in my AU, but both play a major role in the over all story. :}

Hmmm, good question... Now, my memory isn’t the best. But out of all the fandoms I’ve jumped into? I’d probably say Octonauts was the most welcoming and overall supportive of me.

I think part of it was because the Octonauts fandom is a bit small.. so when a new artist came around it was like “Heck yeah man! Common in! :DDD”

And also most of the angst lovers in the fandom were on the same page as me, so I got a lot of support there too XD

Tank qqqq!!! :}}}} ❤❤❤

I have! And I’ve seen a few episodes of it. So far I really like it! Mostly because there were episodes centered around my favorite characters XD (Captain Barnacles, Calico Jack, Ranger Marsh and Professor Natquik)

XD I’m glad you like them! Although I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be posting them. Considering I’m making more progress in the FNAF writing.. 😅

Tank qqq,, I’m glad you like him! :DD And I’m sure DJMM would be glad to hear someone say that XD

I cant find the WORDS for this, this was all so SWEET AHHOASKNLKM This really hit me right in my heart man- I hjust- HSFDF

THANK YOU SO MUCHH!! This was such a nice thing to read!!!😭😭😭

(Post in ask)

Actually, funnily enough Engineer isn’t wounded in this comic. This was before his injury. 

Engineer is just freaking the heck out over the dolls outside.. 👀

(But yes he does recover from his injury that he gets later in the story)

Actually, you may be in luck! Have you heard the news going around? There was some updates recently and a lot of the bots have been weeded out.

When I heard the news, I couldn’t believe it. So I hopped on to see what was up and sure enough.. the casual servers were surprisingly clean. I mean there’s still a bot here and there. But it wasn’t like before when you couldn't even leave spawn without getting sniped from across the map.

The casual servers actually have real players now, and most of the bots have been wiped out :}}

Or at least, uh. It was like that last time I checked a few months ago. Maybe the bots came back idk--

I don’t like it when people draw fanart of my stuff.

But if you were to draw fanart and never show/tell anyone and it would only be for your eyes to see? I mean, what am I gonna do? Be upset about something that I have no idea was drawn?

The only set back would be the ✨soul crushing guilt✨ of drawing fanart of some of my stuff even though you know I don’t vibe with that XD

@orionapraxnia

Not.. really? I mean, if I miss a fandom, I just. Jump back into it XD

Like I did with TF2 recently. I was getting a little burnt out with writing so I took a short break by diving head first into TF2 again XD

I used to shy away from parkouring from fandom to fandom back in the day. But now a days I find that I have more fun by just drawing what ever I feel like drawing at the time. And my followers don’t seem to mind sooo,, XD

@burningmusicfunnygiant​

Yes sirrr, those two were best buds back in the day,

(Here’s a link to the video)

I went and watched the video. And although it was pretty cool!.. It was a fan-made video. Its not an actual DLC..😅

@paintedpig I have a voice in mind for Foxy actually! I imagine him sounding just like his cannon voice. You can hear it in the Ultimate custom night voice lines.

As for Bonnie? I don’t think I really have one in mind for him... But I know he doesn’t sound high pitched and goofy. Like Nedd bear or Goofy the dog. I imagine his voice is deeper and more chill. Kind’a like what Freddy Fazbear might sound like?

Thank youuu,,, :}}}

Aww, I’m glad! :D

And its not that I don’t like those comics anymore. I’m still proud of them and like how they came out! Its just that from a lore perspective,, they don’t fit into the story anymore. Soooo for the sake of telling the story, they need a do over! :}

@sweetturtledonkeycookie  I usually draw/post what ever fandom I’m into at the time. After my FNAF re-faze dies down maybe I’ll jump back into Octonauts. Or Undertale, ooorrrr jump into a NEW fandom like Sam and Max or something XD I cant predict what faze I’m going to go through next! You’re just going to have to wait and see! 😅

Yeah, I figured that the story was probably great and the characters were probably great.. but I judged a book by its cover and turned the other way <XD

Right now I have a lot of shows that I’m too lazy to watch that I mean to get around to someday. I guess for the sake of the story I’ll have to add Transformers animated to the list and give it the shot it deserves. :}

@mysteriousl0ser Roxy only got put up on stage after Bonnie was decommissioned, yes.

When Foxy was taken, the Band took a hit without their Keytar player. But the company hadn’t thought to put the other animatronics on stage in his place. Mostly because Monty/Roxy wouldn’t have really fit into the group..

But when Bonnie was damaged? Now they were down their Keytar player and their Bass player. So at that point they really needed to rebuild the band for that nights show so they tossed Monty and Roxy on the stage in their places.. <:/

As for how long the gap was between Foxy and Bonnie’s decommissions? That part of the timeline hasn’t been fully ironed out yet.. but I’d say about maybe 4 months to a year? It was supposed to feel like when the animatronics were finally starting to get back up on their feet and began to process Foxy’s death.. Bonnie was unexpectedly taken too. Knocking them all back down again..

Also thank you!! :DDD I’m glad you like them!! :}}

@johnbrownanarchist XD Thanks! It took me a while to figure out what he would look like back in the old days.

As for the description thing? I suppose you could use it. I mean, who doesn’t like Monty in a silly hat? XD

@wackigremlinchild Tank you!! :}} I did my best!

@conflicted-phoenix XD That is one of the highest complements I have ever received.

[maxineswritingcenter]

You Saved Me - Derek Hale x fem!reader part 3

I’m really happy that this has gotten some positive feedback, this fic is like my baby. Thanks to everyone for reading!

---------

It had been a week since getting out of the hospital and five days since the funeral. It was an odd feeling, and it didn’t make it better that it was a closed casket funeral since they had been burned so badly. It was probably for the better, that meant that the last time I saw them they were wishing me goodnight, smiling, happy, alive. 

I wanted to try to get back to normal. Uncle Noah told me that it was too soon too. He said he wished he spent some more time at home with Stiles, but he didn’t have much of a choice being the sheriff. But life goes on, even if I wanted to go back in time if just for a moment. Maybe getting back to something I enjoyed would be helpful in coping. Moving into the Stilinski house had been only a little strange. I had spent the night here before, especially when I was younger and Stiles and I would pass out in the living room watching Power Rangers or Disney movies. The only thing that bothered me was that I wouldn’t be going home after this, I had my own room with new sheets, new clothes, and only a few things that had survived the fire. Uncle Noah had painted the walls a soft (your favorite color). 

Everything seemed to be perfect, if you could even call it that. However, along with the fact that I lost practically everything, the person who took everything from me was still out there. Michael’s apartment had been cleaned out, his family was no longer in their home, they all just vanished. 

I stared at myself in the mirror, fiddling with the locket that Stiles had given me for my sixteenth birthday. Inside was a tiny picture of us at a birthday party when we were kids, our faces painted like cats, cake around our mouths. I smiled and thought back to the hospital. 

Uncle Noah left the room after giving my statement, leaving Stiles and I in the room. 

“Just so we’re clear you do mean Derek Hale. Main suspect in the fire that killed his family Derek Hale.” He asked. 

“Stiles, even if he did do it, why would he help me get away from Michael? If he was so crazy, why would he offer to drive me away? Why would he drive me to the hospital?” I sat up in the hospital bed.

“Maybe so he could murder you himself?” He scoffed. 

“I highly doubt that.” I looked out the window. But what he said did bring up a question. Derek and I were in completely different circles in high school. He could have completely ignored me and gave me back to Michael. But he didn’t. He helped me.

 I wanted to thank Uncle Noah for taking me in, so I insisted on making dinner tonight. To be honest, home cooking probably wasn’t standard at the Stilinski house. Some sort of pasta dish would probably be good. 

After giving my appearance a final once over, I made my way downstairs. Stiles was on the couch, eating ramen noodles. 

“Hey, I’m gonna head to the store, you wanna come?” I asked. 

He looked up mid-noodle slurp, “Uh yeah, of course. You want me to drive?” 

I scoffed, “So I can feel every bump in the road?” 

“Hey, Roscoe is a smooth ride.” He defended his Jeep. 

“I think that’s an oxymoron.” I grabbed my keys from the hook by the door, “Let’s go.” I smiled. He threw out his noodle carton and slipped on his shoes. Interactions like this made everything easier. 

- 

Around nine, I was just watching videos on the computer, hoping that it would numb my brain enough to go to sleep. Dinner had been cut short because Uncle Noah got a call from someone and went out saying he would be home later. But that didn’t mean Stiles would go to bed, even if his first day of sophomore was in the morning. 

“Hold it.” I called, not looking up from the screen, his footsteps were loud enough to wake the dead. I spun around in the computer chair, folding my fingers together, “And just where do you think you’re going, Mr. Stilinski?”

He straightened out his body, “Oh, just getting a drink of water.” 

I titled my head, “Really? You’re not going to go get Scott so you can find the body in the woods?” 

He squinted, “How did you know that?” 

“You think you’re the only one who’s tapped into police radio?” 

Stiles rubbed the back of his neck, “So are you gonna tell Dad?” 

“Of course not.” I hummed, “But I’m going with you.” I stood up, zipping up my jacket. The outfit had already been prepared after the police radio chatter explained that there had been a body reported in the woods. 

“(Y/N), I don’t know if that’s a good idea seeing that… you know.” 

“I’m a big girl, Stiles. I can handle it. Plus, we probably won’t even find it.” 

The whole way to Scott’s house was him essentially making me swear a vow of silence. As if he couldn’t trust me, he told me everything and I never tattled. 

At Scott’s, I waited in the car while Stiles made his way to the front door where Scott almost took Stiles out with a bat. After some convincing, Stiles and Scott made their way to the Jeep.

“Hey, (Y/N).” Scott smiled as he got in, shoving his inhaler in his pocket. The smile was a sad one, something I would have to get used to. I was the girl whose parents were killed. 

Close to the destination, Scott brought up a good question: "So which half of the body are we looking for?“ 

We both looked at Stiles who said: "Ahh, I didn’t even think about that." 

"And what if whoever killed the body is still out here?” Scott added. This made me realize that maybe coming was a mistake. Michael was still on the loose, who was to say that this wasn’t another victim. And worse, that could have been her body out in the woods, or at least half of it.

“Also something I didn’t think about." 

“Did you think about anything?” I piped in before we finally parked outside the main trails into the woods. 

-

About fifteen minutes into our hike, I stopped to make sure Scott didn’t fall too far behind. He had the worst case of asthma I had ever seen, he couldn’t walk for very long without needing his inhaler. I knew how much he wanted to play lacrosse, but I really didn’t think it was possible. 

Midthought, I was pulled down the trail with Scott by Stiles. 

“What the he-” I began, but Stiles shushed me. The sound of dogs rang out in the darkness. Without thinking, I started running with Stiles, leaving Scott behind. Our running was stopped abruptly by a dog, who barked and snarled at us from the ground. 

“Heel! Hang on, hang on.” Uncle Noah called to the officer restraining the dog, “This delinquent belongs to me. And so does this one. This I didn’t expect.” He looked from Stiles to me. I stood up, brushing the dirt off my behind. 

“I was uh…babysitting.” 

“Right. Babysitting.” He nodded along, very clearly not believing me. He looked back to Stiles, “Where’s your usual partner in crime?” 

“Who?” Stiles asked, “Scott? Scott’s home. Said he wanted a good night’s sleep for back to school tomorrow. It’s just me and (Y/N). In the woods. Alone.” I elbowed his side at his terrible lie. 

Uncle Noah brought up his flashlight, looking in the trees and called for Scott. When he got no answer, he put the light down. 

“Well, young man, I’m going to walk you back to your Jeep. You too, missy.” He wrapped an arm around both of our shoulders, “We can all have a little conversation about the invasion of privacy.” I took one last glance in the woods, hoping Scott was okay. And if Michael was the one to do this, I really hoped that Scott would be at school tomorrow. 

- 

The next day was the beginning of lacrosse season, meaning the beginning of work. Around one in the afternoon, I made up my lacrosse bag and had a quick lunch and went out to my car. I opened the driver’s side door but I paused, having an eerie feeling crawl up my spine, like I was being watched. I checked my surroundings but saw nothing. Without another thought about it, I made my way towards the high school. 

-

I made it just in time for lacrosse practice to start, Coach Finstock was on the sidelines. He had his usual look of discontent. I made my way to his side. He looked at me out of the corner of his vision, then back to the players making their way on the field. 

“Is there any way you could She’s the Man this and be on the team.” He asked. 

I held onto the strap of my bag, “That would be cheating, Coach. But I would if I could.” He patted me on the back. 

“Good to have you back, (Y/L/N).” He blew his whistle, “Alright, gather ‘round, ladies. Let’s keep this short so we can practice and maybe get something down today. This is (Y/N), my assistant coach. If I see any of you hormonal monsters so much as look at her the wrong way, I will make sure this season will be hell for you. That means you, Greenberg.” After some more instruction, he sent the boys off on their way. Stiles waved at me before starting to run laps. Since it was the first day, Coach said that just sitting in the bleachers would work for today. To be honest, it felt like he was taking it easy on me, if that were even possible for him to do. I sat up on the bleachers, watching all of the players run. I did see Scott so that meant he survived the night in the woods. 

“Hi.” A soft voice came from beside me. I looked up, seeing a brown hair girl had made her way to sit besides me. 

“Hey.” I said back, she didn’t seem familiar at all, maybe a new kid in town. 

“Come to watch your boyfriend?” She pointed to Stiles, whose legs seemed to work out of sync with his body. 

“Oh no no, that’s my friend. I’m also the assistant coach.” I held my hand out, “(Y/N).”

“Allison.” She shook my hand and looked back out at the field.

“You’re new, huh?” I asked. 

“Is it that easy to tell?” She chuckled. 

“Nah, you just didn’t look familiar. Was your last school into lacrosse too, or…?”

“Oh uh, no, I came to see him.” She vaguely pointed in the direction of Scott. 

“Scott? Yeah, he’s a nice guy.” I smiled.

“I know. He gave me a pen in class today, which was a life saver because I lost mine.”

 After a moment, a redhead I knew all too well sat down besides Allison. Not that I knew her personally, Lydia Martin was just the girl that Stiles had been in love with since… ever.

“Are you the girl whose house burned down?” She asked. Her subtlety was immaculate. Allison, looking mortified, gave me an apologetic smile. 

“Ahuh.” I shrugged, getting up from my seat, “I can’t really see the field. I’m gonna get a different angle. It was nice meeting you, Allison.” Before they could say more, I took the steps down to the grass. 

“McCall!” Coach called, “Get in goal.” 

I crossed my arms over my chest, “You think that’s gonna be a good idea? He’s never played goal before.” 

“I got a feeling.” He said, also crossing his arms and calling the players to line up and make shots at the goal. I gave Scott a quick thumbs up. Coach blew his whistle, Scott grabbed at his ears like the sound was too loud. The player sidearm shot the ball at the goal, hitting Scott in the helmet and sending him on his back. I winced, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Stiles had the same reaction. This might not go well.

To my surprise, though, Scott got back up and caught the next ball that came at him. The next player to come up seemed to have an angry walk in his step.

"Who’s that?” I whispered to Coach.

“Jackson Whittemore.” He looked back, enthralled in the fact that Scott was doing well.

Jackson Whittemore was the town rich boy and did pretty well in lacrosse from what I understood. He also had a chip on his shoulder the size of Mars. He whipped the ball as fast he could, it was impressive. But it was no match for Scott’s new goalie skills.

-

After practice, Stiles, Scott, and I made our way back to the woods - this time in broad daylight- to find Scott’s inhaler that he dropped. He mentioned that while he was out, he was attacked by an animal and got bitten.

“I can hear stuff I shouldn’t be able to hear. Smell things.” He explained.

“Smell things?” Stiles scrunched up his nose, “Like what?”

“Like the mint mojito gum in your pocket.” He motioned towards Stiles. Stiles looked skeptical but when searching his pocket did find the pack of gum.

“How many sticks left?” I asked, a little amused.

“Uhhh.” he sniffed, “Two.” I took the gum from Stiles' hand and opened it.

“Well I’ll be damned.” Two sticks.

“So this all started with a bite?” Stiles took back his gum, sticking it back in his pocket.

“Could this be some kind of infection?” Scott asked.

“I actually think I’ve heard of this. It’s a different kind of infection.” Stiles shoved his hands in his jacket pockets. He gave me a side eye, I nodded.

“Are you serious?” He asked, getting more exasperated. We both nodded.

“Yeah, I think it’s called lycanthropy.” Stiles said.

“What is that? Is it bad?” Scott asked, the panic setting in.

“The worst.” I exaggerated. 

“It’s worse about once a month.”

“Once a month?”

“On the night of the full moon.” Stiles sighed, as if this “infection” was terminal. The fact that Scott hasn’t gotten it yet just told me that he wasn’t paying attention during Monster Movie night. Stiles and I threw our heads back and howled towards the sky.

“Come on, guys, this isn’t funny!” Scott glared.

“Didn’t you tell your mom about it?” I asked, then realized how stupid of a question it was. If Ms. McCall had found out how late he was out and that he was in the woods looking for a body, he would have been grounded for sure.

“Of course not.” He shook his head. After that, the boys had walked a little bit ahead, still going on about Scott’s new super infection. I took a little more time looking in the bushes to see if Scott’s inhaler had fallen off the trail. The thing was bright red, it shouldn’t be that hard to find. While I searched, I zoned out everything else in the world. I thought about my parents. There was still so much that I didn’t know that they never got a chance to teach me. The last night they were alive, they had mentioned something offhand.

“(Y/D/N), when are we going to tell her?” Mom whispered, biting her nails. They spoke in the hallway, not realizing I could hear. Dad paused for a moment, then looked down at her.

“We’ll tell her tomorrow.”

I never found out what they were going to tell me.

The other thing that I couldn’t seem to get off my mind was Derek Hale. He practically risked his life to help me. If I saw someone with a knife like Michael was, I would like to believe that I would do what Derek did, but I couldn’t be sure. Besides that, I couldn’t get his face out of my head. It would be a lie if I didn’t think he was attractive. The way he looked at me with those dark green eyes. It made you feel a certain sort of way. 

I looked up from the bushes I was searching and realized it was way darker than it had been and that Scott and Stiles were nowhere in sight. 

“Scott? Stiles?” I called. No answer. What did answer though, was a flash of rain. 

“Great. I’m lost in the woods, where there is a dead body. And even a murderer.” I moped out loud. I found my way back to what I thought was the trail and started walking. I pulled my phone from my back pocket and saw that it was completely dead. So much for calling in a rescue. Thunder roared in the sky, making my pace faster. 

By now it was dark, just flashes of lightning making it easy for me to see where I was walking. I walked for what seemed like forever until I found a large house in the middle of the woods. The place seemed vaguely familiar. It was in disrepair and looked like no one had been there in years. For now, it would probably be better to wait out the storm and start walking when the rain ended. I pushed the door and stepped inside. It was still wet inside from the parts of the house that were missing, but in places where there was still roof, it was dry. I looked around, seeing something on the wall, partially burned. It was a triskelion with a name underneath. Hale. I was standing in the remains of the Hale house.

“What are you doing here?” A deep voice made me jump and turn around. Derek Hale stood in the doorway, a lightning flash lit up his face and for a moment his eyes looked blue before going back to their green color. 

“I’m sorry, I just got lost in the woods and then it started raining. I-I’ll leave now.” I walked towards the door to go out again but he grabbed my arm tightly. 

“Don’t go out there.” He said, looking behind him.

“Why?” I asked in a hushed voice. He looked me in the eyes, looking pretty terrifying frankly. 

“You were followed here.” He said, making my blood run cold. 

“Was it…?” I took a deep breath, “Was it Michael?” He shook his head, pulling me further into the house. 

“No, something else.” 

“Something else? What do you mean?” I asked, pulling my arm from his grip. He stopped and looked at me confused. 

“Didn’t you smell it? Hear it?” 

“Look, Derek, I know we never talked in high school and you barely know me, so I’ll just let you in on a little secret: I can’t smell when something is stalking me in the woods.” I looked over my shoulder at the door. There was a creaking sound coming from outside that was pretty consistent with walking. He glared out at the creaking, taking his jacket off. 

“Put this on.” He held it out to me. 

“Why?” I asked. Looking from the jacket to him. 

“It will put my scent on you.” 

“Your freaking what?” I raised my eyebrows at him. Maybe he was crazy. I was stuck in an abandoned house with whatever was outside with a crazy person. 

“Will you just put it on?” He barked. No need to make a crazy man mad. I took the jacket and slipped it on. Like any other jacket it smelled like leather, but this had something else, a musky smell that would be very pleasing if the situation was different. 

“Go out the back and run.” He started walking towards the door, “Now.” He didn’t need to tell me twice. I took off running as fast as I could out the back door and up the long drive way that connected the Hale property to the main road. And, like an absolute angel, Stiles appeared in his Jeep, stopping right outside the entrance to the overgrown driveway. 

“(Y/N)!” He called over the rain. I ran to the jeep, got in and slammed the door behind me. 

“Go, go go go go.” I said hastily, put on my seat belt and he took off. 

“Why weren’t you answering your phone?!” He shouted, keeping his eyes on the road. 

“I didn’t charge it before going out in the woods.” I panted, looking over my shoulder to make sure the something Derek had been talking about wasn’t behind us. 

“Whose jacket is that?” 

“Derek Hale’s.” 

“Why do you have his jacket?!” 

“Listen, I could explain right now but apparently I was being stalked back there so put this thing in gear and drive faster.”

- 

Last night after getting home, I explained to Stiles what happened. We both agreed that it did sound like Derek was a little crazy. But the fact was that something in the woods bit Scott and it was probably better that Derek had found me instead of whatever it was. 

The next morning, everything should have been a dream. The whole situation would make more sense. But Derek’s jacket was hanging on the back of her door which meant that instead of encountering Derek being a dream, it was reality. Stiles would be in school by now and Uncle Noah was definitely at work, if he even left last night to begin with. Maybe a walk would take my mind off things. I got dressed and ready and was about to walk out of my room when I caught myself grabbing Derek’s jacket to put on. This jacket wasn’t mine, I shouldn’t be wearing it. I didn’t need to have Derek’s “scent” all over me but I grabbed it anyway. There was the possibility that I would see him while I was out since I had been seeing him a hundred times more than usual. I opened the front door, seeing Derek who was just standing outside the door. 

“We need to talk.”

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

Read part 4 here!

Part 3 down. And trust me, this part needed a lot of work from the “original” material. 

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@nyotamalfoy

[tsuki-sennin]

Awoooooooooooooooo! Dog fightin'! Doggo focus! And Toradragonjin, finally? Gonna be a good one.

Spoilers, I guess...

-Haha, Sixth Ranger ain't even got his own robot yet, let's make fun of him >:)

-Miho-chan and Tsuyoshi-san :D

-Awwwwwwww... :(

-Poor kid.

-And of course, Natsumi-san, being epic.

-Tsubasa do a doggy paddle.

-SHE WAS RIGHT THERE AAAAAAGH

-I know what the Hitotsuki of this episode is, it's the Juken-ki!

-I haven't really seen Gekiranger, but I was a Jungle Fury fan as a kid. My grandfather got me one of those small plastic-y balls with the series logo on it as a present, and I played with it a lot and it inspired me to take up soccer for about a year.

-Yeah my athletic career kinda peaked in elementary school... in 2008 lmao

-Constitution, constitution...

-Yeah, overstimulation be like that, I feel you.

-Dog time.

-Shouty-shoooout! ...as the subs say. That's a Jan thing, right?

-Violence

-"Shut the fuck up, I'm in agony!"

-Donbrothers-Assigned Furry.

-"Dogggggyyyyyy!"

-...so wait, do the Donbrothers just appear as their animal counterparts?

-"Ewwwwwww, talking dog!"

-Wow, these highschool girls are so mean.

-Menkai wa wata.

-Haunted by dog.

-Born to bork, forced to wan.

-"Fuck, I'm honger."

-Food thievin' dog!

-Jirou's home :)

-Hmmm... I see the analogues to Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing, Sanzang... who'd Jirou's girlfriend be? Guanyin? Or would she be perhaps be Bai Long Ma, who once turned himself into a sexy lady with huge tits to try and fail to kill a demon? ...and before you ask, yeah, that really happened.

-Oh come now Jirou, you can flex! As a treat.

-Oh hey, you wanted to be a soccer player too, huh?

-Well, at least they're supportive :)

-...in a weird way.

-Ayyyyyyyyy!

-Achooooo!

-"Natsumi!"

-...dog only?

-Marketable dog plushie.

-Natsumi-san!

-...I wonder, will InuBrother's weird shuriken ever be given a name?

-This is

-A lot scarier than I expected it to be.

-OHHHHH SHIT HE'S GOING TO TSUYOSHI

-He's out.

-...Momoi Tarou.

-Aaaand, off he goes!

-...Oooooooh, she's waking up.

-Seyama.

-Literally the only Juto who's been a threat so far.

-Doggy?

-Ohhhhhhhhh, shit, Miho!

-Holy shit, she's cool.

-Ohhhhh, rain fight.

-HOLY SHIT

-Damn, girl!

-Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, shit, memory loss.

-OHHHHHH DOG

-Oh hey guys!

-Hey, Tsuyoshi! Uh... yeah, you all got this, the dog guy's fine!

-"SHUT THE FUCK UUUUUP"

-Jirou's here!

-Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, the Tiger Guy too!

-"I need you, and you need me!"

-Oh, okay, they just have those gears now, that's fine.

-Avatar Change!

-I'm mad we never got a proper team-up battle with Live and Evil's base forms in Revice, so seeing this makes me very happy.

-I swear, it's like they're giving me literally everything I could ever want. Ironic.

-Don Robogoku!

-Robobolt!

-Yeah, this is great.

-Thank you, Tame Jirou and Feral Jirou, very cool.

-DAAAAAAAAI GATTAI!

-Thank you Romi Park, very cool.

-Oh my god, he's in a cage.

-God, it'll never not astound me how these suit actors can get so much mileage out of these bulky costumes.

-Yeah, this form is awesome.

-...don't know if I like the floppy sword though.

-"Ore wa zettai!"

-Doggy.

-:(

-Matching mugs :)

-Miho-san... Natsumi-san... what exactly is your deal, Cool Juto Lady? And will I get to see you fight more, because that'd make me very happy.

-Pochi-san...

-This is cute, but like... too immensely horrifying for me to appreciate?

-Oh

-HKJ:LHGLKLH:J WHAAT

-Oh my god, we're becoming a Son next episode.

-I think we've reached peak "what" this episode, so I think next week I'll be thinking "Oh, what a standard joke, you're slipping Inoue!" ...that is, unless we see Shinichi and Haruka come back in full force. So uhhhh, yeah!

-Avataro Sentai Donbrothers! Very good show, would recommend. But you knew that, right?

[fanfoolishness]

Lazy Sundays (Schitt’s Creek, David x Patrick)

Lazy Sundays were something that Patrick had initially resisted. Quite forcefully. “David, this is how it starts. Lazy Sundays. Followed by lazy Mondays. And lazy Tuesdays. You get the idea. Eventually we stop going into the store and we die, lazily, on the street.” But David, for his part, had given him an especially effective pursed lip and raised brow, and Patrick knew he’d lost. “Well, maybe…”

David had been delighted, and promised repeatedly that lazy Sundays would stay confined to Sundays only. He stuck to the bargain (mostly) and gradually Patrick grew to love those days, full of unstructured time for things like bingeing TV, puttering around the house, working on music, and sometimes, pure nonsense.

Like this. A very lazy two-person game of Truth or Dare on the couch.

David lay with his head in Patrick’s lap, a wicked smile playing around his mouth. “Truth or Dare?”

“Mmm…” Patrick considered the way David’s head pressed comfortably into his lap, a familiar, solid weight. “A dare might force me to get up off the couch. And I’m pretty happy with my couch situation right now. So, Truth.”

David’s nose scrunched thoughtfully. “I don’t think you’ve ever told me who your first crush was,” he said, only a faint hint of accusation entering his voice. “Quite the omission.”

“That’s a tough one. Everyone always assumed it was this girl in my kindergarten, Ashley A. Just because we were both really good at the monkey bars. A skill I still possess, by the way, not that you’ve ever asked.”

“But she wasn’t your first crush? Oooh, I sense a secret,” David said, reaching up and mussing Patrick’s hair.

“Aw, come on.” Patrick could feel his cheeks flushing. “It’s only a secret because it took me so long to realize it was a crush. I just… I just thought Nolan Ryan and his no-hitters were really, really, um, impressive. I don’t know how long it took me to figure out I thought he was handsome, too.” He remembered it clearly, watching the Rangers on TV, dazzled by the lanky pitcher’s form, the way he moved, how batter after batter struck out against him… that steely gaze, that strong jaw…

”Ahh,” David said. He nodded with pursed lips. “Uh, that’s like, a sports guy, right?”

Patrick grinned, brushing his fingertips against David’s cheek. His husband leaned into his touch. “Baseball player. He was a famous pitcher. Amazing strikeout record, and those seven no-hitters… the record still stands, you know. My dad actually took me to a game in his last season in Toronto. It wasn’t a no-hitter, but seeing him pitch even for a few innings, I was on top of the world.”

“Well, I don’t think I’ll be throwing any no-hitters,” David chuckled. “Especially since you’re never getting me into a baseball uniform again. I still don’t know you how you talked me into that travesty of a garment.”

“Hm, I think you did it because you love me.”

David’s mouth dropped open in an expression of mock horror, shortly before he rose up and wrapped his arms around Patrick, pressing a kiss to his mouth. “Well, obviously, but you don’t have to rub it in.”

Patrick paused. “I kind of do. As your husband, it’s one of my duties. As is reminding you when it’s your turn in Truth or Dare.”

“Oh, fine, Dare. You look like you have something in mind and I’m not gonna lie, I kind of really want to see what it is.”

Patrick gazed soulfully into his husband’s dark eyes. “I dare you… to wear that baseball uniform again.”

David recoiled to the other end of the couch in a split second, his arms flailing wildly, his expression this time real horror. “Ew! Excuse me?”

“I didn’t finish the terms of the dare,” said Patrick, holding up a hand. He winked. “I dare you to wear it… and then take it off again.”

“Oh.” Then, “Oh! Well! Someone’s naughty this lazy Sunday!” He smacked Patrick’s shoulder and bounced off the couch. “So uh, where’s that uniform, again?”

Patrick got to his feet, pulling David into another kiss. “C’mon. Let’s get you to the locker room.”

“Ohhh no no no,” David protested, skidding to a stop and starting to head back to the couch. “No sports innuendo or the deal is off —“

“Fine. No sports innuendo. Only because I love you.” He led David into the bedroom, unable to keep the grin from his face.

Yeah. Lazy Sundays had definitely grown on him.

[sunnypogue]

rafe plays college hockey (headcanon)

for all y’all who requested college hockey rafe. i’m just tryna manifest something over here.

warning: cursing, drinking. the sunnypogue special.

y’all met because of hockey.

okay actually y’all technically met because of your 8 am american lit seminar, but the only reason y’all spoke to each other was because of hockey

it was 7:57 am on a Thursday, you had a hangover from your weekly wine wednesday event (which always devolved into walking two streets over to your favorite bar, ordering a round of shots, and getting absolutely shitcanned), and your big ass mouth got you in trouble when you sat down.

“we have a hockey team?” you whisper-yelled, nudging your equally hungover friend as you pointed towards the sweatshirt in front of you

your friend laughed as the guy in said sweatshirt turned around (and his friend next to him, also wearing a UAH HOCKEY hoodie). “your reading comprehension is off the charts.”

you gaped, half embarrassed, half enraged - “okay, well don’t blame me for being surprised - it’s alabama for christ sake.”

“we’re like the token school in the south with a hockey team - how did you not know that?”

you, refusing to back down, argued with him until your professor came in - he got the last word, “alright, well we have a game tomorrow night. might be time for you to branch out and try new things outside of whiskey row.”

(you waited until he turned around before flushing and quietly asking your friend if you still smelled like booze - her answer was an unequivocal yes.)

anyways, that’s how you found yourself at a hockey game, alone, in huntsville, alabama, on a warm october night.

you were NOT dressed for the occasion (fully planning on leaving at whenever it was they took a break to meet your friends at whiskey row) rocking a little flowy halter and high waisted flares - instantly freezing your ass off as you sat on a bleacher towards the back.

he caught your eye immediately, one of the taller ones on the ice, “cameron 19” sitting on his broad shoulders, bucket loosely clasped as he skated around the ice

the game started quickly, and despite your shivering, you rather enjoyed yourself, picking up the cues on when to cheer (this crowd LOVED it when the players checked each other) & when to boo (literally whenever the refs breathed) - it was fast, and fun, and that asshole from your lit class? he was GOOD.

you didn’t even realize you had stayed the whole game until the buzzer sounded, signaling a UAH win. the boys on the ice were hanging around, chatting with local fans - you pocketed your phone (which was blowing up with texts from your friends, wondering where you were) and mustered up the courage to go say hi to the guy from your class

he skated up towards the glass as he saw you descend down the bleachers - grinning and gesturing to shift over to the empty bench, where you wouldn’t be obstructed.

you hugged yourself. “good game, I guess.”

his tongue slid over his teeth before he smiled one hand holding his helmet, the other pushing his sweaty hair back. “you guess?”

you huffed. “I mean, I don’t know, it was my first hockey game and it was really fast and really cold and I didn’t know what the fuck was going on but...yeah. it was good.” you paused, before looking up at him through your lashes. “you were good.”

you rolled your eyes as you watched his chest puff up - men - before you continued, “well, I gotta go...I’m freezing my tits off in here. but thanks for the kinda-invite, I guess.”

you started to turn, when his voice called out “hey! you know, we have a game next week. same time - consider this a formal invitation.”

and that’s how you found yourself at your second-ever hockey game, dressed slightly more appropriate (although the girls were still perky - had to show a lil something), cheering rafe on (you finally got his name after he asked you for your number after class) as he sped down the ice like a wrecking ball, slamming opposing players into the boards, cross-checking when the refs weren’t looking his way.

you were dying - how had no one told you how hot this sport was? you actively had to stop yourself from biting your lip every time he hit someone.

and then he scored - and you were a goner.

after the game, you went to meet him (per his instructions) outside the locker room, friends in tow

“must have been your lucky day, ladies, this guy never goes bar down!” a guy you knew as “top” yelled, arm hooked around rafe, who was a little red in the face.

“gotta show off for your fan club, huh cameron?” a voice crowed from just inside the locker room.

“shut up, kelce.” he yelled, pushing the door shut, before turning your way. 

you gulped, looking up as he towered over you in his skates. “hey, uh, thanks for coming girls.”

your friends giggled, offering their congrats, before gracefully bowing out - “come meet us at whiskey, babes!”

you blushed. “you had a great game. and, uh, a great goal. y’all call them goals, right?”

he laughed, tugging on his gear. “yeah, we call them that. thanks again for coming. who knew you had two hockey games in you?”

you smacked him on the arm, before giving him a coy smile. “hey, after that performance, I think I have a couple more in me.”

he couldn’t ask you fast enough to come grab a bite to eat with him. - “I’ll be out in like, 10...like 8 minutes.” he said, already heading towards the door to the locker room. “just wait - wait here.”

(he was showered and changed in 7 minutes - you were impressed.)

he took you to a local mexican place, known for their beeritas and carne asada tacos - y’all sat there for three hours, getting to know each other.

(you learned he was from the outer banks, fell in love with hockey because of his mom’s dad - a huge rangers fan - and ended up at UAH because it was the only school that recruited in north carolina. he had two sisters - one he tolerated, one he adored - and had a pipe dream of making it to the show one day)

he offered you his sweatshirt (the same one that you had made fun of, that one morning) and drove you home (his huge hand spanning the width of your upper thigh, a light, possessive grip the whole ride)

you kissed him twice (once in the car, soft and sweet, and once on your front porch, where he pinned you to the wall and slipped his tongue into your mouth, long and slow, biting your lip when you finally went to pull away) and spent the rest of the night curled up in your bed, still wrapped up in his warm hoodie, thinking about him.

you kept thinking about him the whole weekend, exchanging texts (some naughty, some nice) & FaceTiming once (you were hammered in the whiskey bathrooms, whining about missing him - he laughed, before reminding you to be a good girl)

it wasn’t until your tuesday 8 am when you saw him again, chest going all warm at the sight of him (rocking a patagonia instead of his usual hockey hoodie, which was laying at the foot of your bed)

he offered you a wink as he walked in, making his way over to his seat, before turning and sliding something on your desk

it was a magnet, with the UAH hockey 2020-21 schedule on it, his face one of the centerpieces. you giggled.

“hey, didn’t know if you had heard, but UAH has a hockey team - wanna come to a game?”

[thealexchen]

What are your headcanons on steph's d&d games in lis3? do you think alex, gabe and ryan would join? in what roles? or would they play something else?

It would be a wasted opportunity if we don't have at least one D&D session with Steph (and Ryan and/or Gabe)! I'm actually so excited. And I'm almost certain there will be more games with Steph in the Wavelengths DLC.

I think Ryan is the only one who's patient (and insane) enough to join Steph's games, but he drags Steph (kicking and screaming) outside on hikes as payback. Ryan also always reuses the same character (probably a ranger, druid, or Paladin since he's a park ranger) and Steph groans every time that he's killing the creativity of tabletop. Ryan shrugs and says "I just think Sir Yanray is cool." "Naming your character with pig Latin is not cool!"

Gabe has never participated because he's too busy bartending and looking after Ethan-- when he tried, he drove Steph crazy because he refused to take anything seriously ("I thought you could do whatever you wanted in these games!" "YOU CAN'T BUY 'MAKEUP FLOWERS' FOR A FIRE-BREATHING ORC GABE. I'm so done.").

Gabe never told Alex about Steph's nerdy hobby in his letters to her, so Alex has no clue how D&D works. So when Alex finally arrives at Haven and Steph eagerly asks "Do you know what a LARP is?" the two dialogue options are "of course" and "Remind me?" But Alex either says “oh… uh… remind me what that is again?” or “Oh… of course. I love… LARPing. Love a good LARP. Gotta be one of my favorite... sports...?" “Okay, no. You’re a better musician than a liar Alex. I can't believe Gabe never told you, that little shit--"

Alex, having a hopeless crush on Steph, joins for the hell of it, but she very quickly finds herself drawn in. She's an incredibly meticulous and strategic player and treasures her characters dearly because it's the first time she gets to "be" someone other than herself and wield a power different from her "curse." Steph, having a hopeless crush, makes sure that Alex's character never quite dies, and decides that Alex's dice roll of 5 is good enough to win the campaign. A lot of their games go like this. Alex mutters, "Sorry I'm such a bad player." Steph replies, "You could never be a bad player. And anything is better than hiking the same trail with Ryan for the 50th time and listening to him talk about the fricking plants."

During slow nights at the bar, Ryan and Alex convince Steph to put away the dice and play Smash Ultimate and Mario Kart with them. They laugh every time she accidentally falls off the stage. Steph fumes and says "THIS is why LARPing is better."

Thanks for asking! :) I’m really having so much fun writing LiS headcanons again so please send more prompts!