#bored enough to write this but not the story

[ghostlywhiskey]

pen pal simon - original post

every day after work, you found yourself sat at your desk attempting to write back a response to the soldier who referred to himself as ‘ghost’. crumpled up stationary surrounded your desk space, along with different types of pens as you obsessed over your handwriting. if one letter of your penmanship looked wrong, the paper would become another ball added to the collection of half written letters that contained slightly different, if not the same, wording in response to the thank you letter from ghost.

the simple questions he asked to get to know you suddenly felt like the hardest questions to answer, as if you were being graded on the facts about yourself. was he going to find your hobbies boring? maybe your hobbies were boring the more you read your response. the easiest question to answer was regarding how long you had been doing the care packages - a few years since one of your friends had a significant other that joined the military. stories often mixed with people who received packages and cards from family members frequently, but the ones where some received little to none are the ones that made you upset. so, you had decided to explain that to ghost and it was probably the easiest response of them all to write out. not single moment did the pen leave the paper for you to collect your thoughts or how to word your answer.

but then, you continued to answer the questions he asked you, and in return you asked him similar or different ones. again, you weren’t positive he would reply this time around, but you figured you’d still return the gesture of asking him questions as well. and when you finished writing it all, reading through it god only knows how many times for errors, you finally slipped it into an envelope. this time, no ‘treats’ were included, instead you had opted to ask him if he had any favorites, that way if he did end up writing you back then you could buy him what he preferred.

and after you mailed out the letter, you pushed the thought of it to the side to try and forget about it. but, you couldn’t deny every time you arrived home and checked the mail you were secretly hoping there was a response. but then a few weeks went by and there really was no response waiting mixed in with your other mail.

then after almost two months, after a shit day at work, you didn’t even think twice as you grabbed the mail and walked into your home. going through the motions of your routine - showering, cooking dinner and anything else you had to take care of, you finally sat at the counter towards the end of the night to sort through the mail. a small card was tucked between a bunch of other trash mail, your eyes immediately recognizing the handwriting. quickly, you opened up the envelope and sure enough, that same notebook paper was tucked into it, this time three pieces of paper unfolded in your hands. 

..it’s been quite hectic over where i’m currently at, so sorry for the lack of my responding…

...i’m a bit upset of the lack of treats, it definitely beats what we have to eat sometimes.

the reason you do the packages is quite sweet. is your friends’ partner still alive? you use the past tense when you speak of them. sorry if that is rude to ask.

you read every word of the letter, not once, but twice. and he didn’t just read your response to his, he took notice of the small details. you didn’t even realize you had used the past tense, but he wasn’t wrong in his assumption either when he thought they might have passed. it was like reading a full blown conversation he had to himself in his head; the way before or after some sentences, he would write out interjections. some sentences were followed by parentheses where he made his own little comment as well about what he had just written.

again, i hope you forgive my delayed response. hope it doesn’t stop you from writing back. don’t always have the time, but promise i’ll get back to you. maybe in your next letter you can send me a picture of yourself, i think it would be nice to put a face to the name that signs off on these. i can’t do the same, but i’ll find a way to make up for that. ‘til the next letter, ghost.

and while you didn’t get started writing your response that night, you did make your way to your room with a smile on your face. excitement was already brewing about what you would say in your response and the next anticipated response he would give back, even if he did take a bit to respond.

[physalian]

How to make your writing sound less stiff

Just a few suggestions. You shouldn’t have to compromise your writing style and voice with any of these, and some situations and scenes might demand some stiff or jerky writing to better convey emotion and immersion. I am not the first to come up with these, just circulating them again.

1. Vary sentence structure.

This is an example paragraph. You might see this generated from AI. I can’t help but read this in a robotic voice. It’s very flat and undynamic. No matter what the words are, it will be boring. It’s boring because you don’t think in stiff sentences. Comedians don’t tell jokes in stiff sentences. We don’t tell campfire stories in stiff sentences. These often lack flow between points, too.

So funnily enough, I had to sit through 87k words of a “romance” written just like this. It was stiff, janky, and very unpoetic. Which is fine, the author didn’t tell me it was erotica. It just felt like an old lady narrator, like Old Rose from Titanic telling the audience decades after the fact instead of living it right in the moment. It was in first person pov, too, which just made it worse. To be able to write something so explicit and yet so un-titillating was a talent. Like, beginner fanfic smut writers at least do it with enthusiasm.

2. Vary dialogue tag placement

You got three options, pre-, mid-, and post-tags.

Leader said, “this is a pre-dialogue tag.”

“This,” Lancer said, “is a mid-dialogue tag.”

“This is a post-dialogue tag,” Heart said.

Pre and Post have about the same effect but mid-tags do a lot of heavy lifting.

They help break up long paragraphs of dialogue that are jank to look at

They give you pauses for ~dramatic effect~

They prompt you to provide some other action, introspection, or scene descriptor with the tag. *don't forget that if you're continuing the sentence as if the tag wasn't there, not to capitalize the first word after the tag. Capitalize if the tag breaks up two complete sentences, not if it interrupts a single sentence.

It also looks better along the lefthand margin when you don’t start every paragraph with either the same character name, the same pronouns, or the same “ as it reads more natural and organic.

3. When the scene demands, get dynamic

General rule of thumb is that action scenes demand quick exchanges, short paragraphs, and very lean descriptors. Action scenes are where you put your juicy verbs to use and cut as many adverbs as you can. But regardless of if you’re in first person, second person, or third person limited, you can let the mood of the narrator bleed out into their narration.

Like, in horror, you can use a lot of onomatopoeia.

Drip Drip Drip

Or let the narration become jerky and unfocused and less strict in punctuation and maybe even a couple run-on sentences as your character struggles to think or catch their breath and is getting very overwhelmed.

You can toss out some grammar rules, too and get more poetic.

Warm breath tickles the back of her neck. It rattles, a quiet, soggy, rasp. She shivers. If she doesn’t look, it’s not there. If she doesn’t look, it’s not there. Sweat beads at her temple. Her heart thunders in her chest. Ba-bump-ba-bump-ba-bump-ba- It moves on, leaving a void of cold behind. She uncurls her fists, fingers achy and palms stinging from her nails. It’s gone.

4. Remember to balance dialogue, monologue, introspection, action, and descriptors.

The amount of times I have been faced with giant blocks of dialogue with zero tags, zero emotions, just speech on a page like they’re notecards to be read on a stage is higher than I expected. Don’t forget that though you may know exactly how your dialogue sounds in your head, your readers don’t. They need dialogue tags to pick up on things like tone, specifically for sarcasm and sincerity, whether a character is joking or hurt or happy.

If you’ve written a block of text (usually exposition or backstory stuff) that’s longer than 50 words, figure out a way to trim it. No matter what, break it up into multiple sections and fill in those breaks with important narrative that reflects the narrator’s feelings on what they’re saying and whoever they’re speaking to’s reaction to the words being said. Otherwise it’s meaningless.

—

Hope this helps anyone struggling! Now get writing.

[hergrandplan]

Sunday Snippet

sometimes you a story idea finds you and it simply won't let go.This one has grown a head or three and like 8 legs. Massive shoutout to @dreamyelectronicmusic for trusting me enough with their prompt to let me to take a stab at it. Also read the first fragment of this story here. PS. this snippet is unedited so excuse any mistakes lol

“Okay, Simon, spill. Who’s the guy?” Simon looks up from his phone, on which he was typing a quick message to Wille saying he was having dinner with a friend, to find Rosh staring him down with a knowing eyebrow raised. Ayub looks up from where he was getting the console ready for their game night, looking confused. “What man?”

“Simon’s seeing someone, and he won’t talk about it.”

Simon quickly locks his phone and stuffs it back into his pocket. “I’m not seeing anyone,” he says, putting as much conviction in his voice as he can. It isn’t a lie, not quite. He and Wille haven’t talked about feelings, Simon doesn’t even know if he feels the same. But there have been messages that have Simon wondering if he doesn’t, like the time Wille had been complaining about a boring dinner and telling Simon he wished he had been there, or how he keeps sending pictures of things because they remind him of Simon.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a guy. But he can’t tell Rosh that, he can’t tell her that he’s fallen for someone he has never even met, even if he knows everything about him. Even if he feels like he knows Wille better than he knows himself, she wouldn’t understand.

Simon still doesn’t quite understand how it happened either. He had never expected he could fall for someone without knowing what they look like, but the truth is, it happened.

Simon’s phone buzzes in his pocket – on the way to Rosh they’d started talking about a trailer of a shared favorite show that had just dropped, and the conversation hadn’t quite been over when he reached Rosh’s doorstep. Which is exactly why he had been writing the message about having dinner with a friend, to let him know that he wouldn’t be responding.

“Bullshit,” Rosh counters then. “You keep glancing at your phone every 5 seconds, and you haven’t stopped smiling like madman since the minute you got here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this excited, not even when you told us you got Luna. So… who’s the man?”

Rosh stares at him, unblinkingly, still with that same eyebrow raised, and Simon crumbles. He takes a sip of his beer – he doesn’t drink often, but he likes to indulge once in a while and right now he could use the courage. Then he says, “You’re gonna make fun of me.”

That certainly gets their attention. He can almost see Ayub’s ears prick up as the other boy sits back and now looks up at him, the console completely forgotten.

[nalyra-dreaming]

Hi, I'm the Anon that wrote to you a while ago desperately seeking assurance about the drop. Want to thank you again for your insights and patience. You are a gift to this fandom. I'm sorry to bother you again but this episode crushed my heart completely.

The added context ended up being the same out of character BS which did nothing to allay my fears over the direction of Lestat's character. And I felt the writer having him "break script" during the trial to make sure that viewers understood that "this asshole is the real Lestat who intentionally dropped his partner from the stratosphere for the crime of defending his daughter but wait he feels really bad about it but also don't forget he's still Domestic Abuser POS" seemed like an insidious choice. The decision to make that drop real and the vile speech about "wanting to break Louis" (wtf) is a total betrayal of who Lestat fundamentally is and for me was kind of an event horizon (because no matter what, that *isn't* Lestat in any universe) It's been 2 years of this and I'm so exhausted. 

Sadly, I'm not nearly as excited for Season 3 as I was before this episode. I no longer feel like I can trust these writers to write Lestat with care and do TVL justice- especially after they inexplicably endowed their version of Louis with several of canon Lestat's character traits and story beats( literally why?)- or anything that comes after. How can you tell Lestat's painful self loathing storylines in QotD and TotBT when you've already written him as the exact kind of shallow violent inherently evil brute that Akasha tried to groom him into believing he was? What would be the point? No one would believe him.

Right now, for me the only bright spot of show!Lestat, is Sam, who is truly doing the lord's work. Much like the character he is playing, he is mesmerizing as an actor and so full of light even as he's playing the part of a monster. He's so brilliant, constantly making lemonade out of lemons and trying valiantly to infuse this evil ooc shell of Lestat with the spirit of the canon character.

And maybe I'm a brat, but we've waited long enough. I want the real Lestat de Lioncourt: the eternally optimistic, impulsive, naive to a fault, enduring, brash, impatient, irreverent, airheaded, sometimes unstable, ridiculous,  traumatized, vicious, obstinate, wicked,  cocky, narcissistic, short tempered, endlessly forgiving, capricious ,vampire to the core, Brat Prince- full of too much love for everything and everyone, who can be an absolute pain in the ass, who is the emperor of really bad impulsive decisions, who is stupidly honest about the terrible things he's done but tries to downplay the terrible things done to him, who finds revenge boring, who would never ever maliciously hurt Louis or Claudia, who tries so hard to be a good father more than once, who fears that he is an evil thing because he thinks his innate light seems to hurt everyone he loves; and that innate light and goodness is so in conflict with the existence he was raped into but he decides "Fuck it. I'm gonna just be the best vampire I can be". And I really really want to see Sam play *that* Lestat.

Of course I completely understand that everything we are seeing is still not the full story and that we are deep in the middle of Armand's Wattpad fanfic. But with the choices made in this episode, I just don't see how we can *ever* have *that* Lestat- (even if or when next week, Armand's story falls apart spectacularly) and unfortunately no spoilers I've seen about the finale give me comfort or hope. It's all too much and it just hurts my heart and my head. I want off this ride. I'm so so tired 😢

Hmmm :)

While I... understand you, I don't quite agree, and... I think I would just like to redirect you to this interview with Sam here, which really lays a lot of it out:

And... it also confirms a lot of what I have been pointing out before, and what has been hinted at.

So. While I get where you are coming from I still think "Lestat" is in very good hands... we haven't had his POV yet. But we will.

And after that... we can judge.

[sciderman]

just out of curiosity, do you actively read any marvel comics? personally really loving the new ultimate spider man and deadpool/wolverine wwIII, the characterization in both are excellent imo (please marvel let joe kelly keep writing wade)

i've read the first two issues of ultimate spider-man but my interest kind of waned - all i really remember is ben and jonah old man yaoi. good for them. i think it's a series i'll read in it's entirety later on, but for now i'm not hooked enough to tune in every month.

deadpool wwiii wolverine though? big into it. want wade and logan to kiss so bad.

really enjoying it so far. seconded. i love the characterisation here. generally love kelly's work on deadpool but will still always be salty about sm/dp (he's great with wade. he's terrible with spider-man.).

i'm reading the current cable series but it's losing my interest. i think i'm mostly there for how hunky nate is. the first issue was fun. but now it's a bit of a downer.

oh mmymyyym god nate and baby nate you're both so depressing could you like. be silly goofy again for a second.

but he's so cute though.

sometimes a gizzled 6'8 time traveller can be so babygirl. i think.

i've read the first two issues of the present deadpool series and it is BOORING me out of my mind. it's so mega ultra boring. 👎 👎 👎

i'm cautiously optimistic about the spectacular spider-men series - i just - i love seeing peter and miles together, and i love peter being just a mundane little loser. and he's so cute. cutest peter you'll find on the shelves right now.

id die for him. kissing him on his silly little face. he is my baby boy.

i'd recommend the infinity dime story which is ALSO a marvel book and the one time ever i ask people to give money to the mouse so that my boy scrooge will do well and they'll make more scrooge mcduck comics for me please and thank you

i can't believe marvel is putting out duck comics now. when i got into ducks i was so excited to be reading something NOT marvel for a change. and now marvel has swallowed me back up again.

[bitttertrees]

“Dungeons and Dragons is for kids! Castles and Creepy Creatures is the true peak roleplaying experience.” “You realize adding ‘creepy’ to it actually makes it sound more childish, right?” “...Do you want to play or not?” Join the Sonic gang on an EPIC tabletop roleplaying adventure! Filled with tears, laughter, loss and a hint of bardic flirting on the side. Dungeon Master Tails sets the scene to introduce the squad to one of his favorite tabletop games of all time while they take a break from Eggman’s usual schemes. Sonic the Bard. Knuckles the Barbarian*. Amy the Paladin. And Sticks the Warlock! Ready to embark on a journey to defeat the evil creepy creatures that plague the magical land. *Knuckles’ role subject to constant change since the rules of each class are confusing him. What do you mean he can’t throw fire as a barbarian?

I got to participate as a writer in the @sthbigbang Big Bang Event! I had a blast being able to write this story that got way more ahead of me then I thought it would!

I also was happy to work with awesome artists @wereh0gz , @dragonofthedepths , @hel-helly , and @madcatscookiejar !! They really helped bring this fic to life! Give them and their awesome art a look when you have the chance!

Fic also under the cut since I have Ao3 locked down to registered users only.

They both stared at the note left on their door. A note that was multiple paragraphs long when, in Sonic’s opinion, it could have just been summed up in a ‘Hey! I’ll come by to try and kill you guys in a few days!’ He honestly ended up drifting off by the start of the second paragraph in the note. Meanwhile Tails, who stood beside him, read it in full. At least one of them cared enough to get through all of Eggman’s dribble and drabble, he supposed.

“It’s a lie.” Sonic finally just rolled his eyes. Letting Tails pull the note off the door. Well at least there wasn’t a random razor blade on the other side of the paper that time “Give it a few hours and egghead will be causing some sort of trouble with his, I dunno, robo-chicken 5000.”

Tails remained silent for a few moments as his eyes continued to scan over the note “He added some ‘reallys’.” 

“Some what?”

Tails moved closer to Sonic’s side and showed him the bottom of the note. Passing all of the fluffy words of Eggman going on about needing a few ‘me days’ and stating he would not be attacking them for about a week as he reflected on his life and the meaning of it, there was a ‘P.S.’ note on the bottom.

“I really, really, really, really mean it.” Sonic read the last bit out loud before he rolled his eyes once more. Clearly not buying it.

“Usually when someone uses a lot of reallys. They really mean it.” Tails nodded as if it truly was some unknown fact. Well Sonic had never heard of it so he was calling bull shit.

“Give it a day. Just one.” The hedgehog shook his head before he opened the door to their humble abode. “By tomorrow he’ll be tired of his vacation and come running into town. He at least better wait until AFTER chilidog o’ clock.”

“About that,” Tails flipped the paper over where somehow there was even MORE writing. Was that part of the plan? To bore them with excessive amounts of writing? Because it was working on Sonic. He already wanted to lay down for a nap with what little he’d read over “On the back there is a P.S.S. Yes, that’s a thing.”

Tails held a hand up to stop Sonic from asking his question. The hedgehog left with an open mouth before he huffed and crossed his arms over his chest.

“It says ‘No I won’t be tired of my vacation by tomorrow. I really, really, really-”

“I get it!” Sonic nearly shouted and rubbed at his eyes “Four more reallys! I still don’t buy it. I’m telling you, he’ll be back to his usual tricks by the afternoon.”

Come the next day, the afternoon came and went. Chilidog o’ clock uninterrupted, which on one hand meant he could eat in peace. But on the other hand it left him questioning if he’d actually been wrong and Eggman really WAS taking a week to himself.

“I think those reallys were serious.” Tails had mumbled with a slight smirk on his face when they’d returned home and there was nary a peep from the old egghead. No random threat. No robot attack. No trash can left turned over and litter strewn about. 

“He’ll attack tomorrow.” Sonic nodded with an air of confidence.

There was no attack the next day either. Amy had been brought over to read the note when she questioned why things had been so quiet. Reading it over carefully while Sonic tapped his foot with impatience.

“I mean,” She finally spoke and flipped the paper back and forth “There are no less than eight reallys. That is pretty serious.” She nodded and Tails joined her. Sonic was very close to banning that word from the house “I think he is taking a vacation. I hope not on some beach where the public can see him.” Amy grimaced at the thought and was probably mentally scolding herself for putting such an image in all of their heads.

“So say he is, which I’m not saying he is,” Sonic quickly interjected “What are we supposed to do until he decides he’s done sipping martinis on top of a killer robot on the beach?”

“Do you have a single hobby besides running and beating up Eggman?” Amy looked at him with a grimace and maybe a bit of pity. Sonic was about ready to talk back in offense when Tails jumped in first.

“What if we take the time to do something for ourselves then? Maaaaybe,” He looked a bit sheepish. A shy smile on his face “Play a game?”

Sonic immediately narrowed his eyes “What game?”

“Oh you know. Just…a game. A board game sorta. One with a lot of adventure. Decisions to make. Characters to build. Dice rolling-”

Sonic let out a loud and over exaggerated groan. He flopped down onto the couch and shook his head in clear disapproval. “You’re talking about that Clowns and Crickets game again aren’t you?”

Now it was Tails turn to look offended “FIRST off, it’s called Castles and Creepy Creatures. SECONDLY don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. It got the highest rating of any board game for three years in a row!” He sounded like a kid in a candy store as he bounced around in excitement. Amy looked endeared, Sonic looked just about done with everything.

“Emphasis on bored.” The hedgehog mumbled, letting out a small ow when Amy elbowed his side.

“Well I think it sounds interesting, Tails. When would we start?”

“Now hold on I never agreed-”

“We could start tomorrow!” Tails practically shouted, bouncing around so much it was a miracle he hadn’t accidentally knocked anything over. Sonic’s pleas had gone unheard as the little fox and Amy discussed details.

“I’ll tell Knuckles and Sticks the plan.” Amy sounded just as excited now “And we’ll be by tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be sure to bring the snacks too!”

“Great!” Tails continued to bounce around from foot to foot. It was probably the most excited Sonic had seen him since he’d built that giant slingshot that caused them to lose Sticks for a whole day. It sort of made him feel bad for not really wanting to play some chronics and canaries, or whatever it was Tails had called it.

But he didn’t really have anything on his schedule now that egghead was taking a vacation. Another five days left before the old man would return and Sonic could go back to his true hobby and-

Oh…maybe Amy was right. His lack of hobbies was a little sad.

Sonic shook his head and rejoined the conversation a little late. Tails rushing off to his workshop to start his planning phase, he had announced. Amy still looked endeared and once Tails was gone, she slowly turned towards the blue hedgehog. He was a fool to not use his speed at that moment and take off. Letting out a yelp when Amy latched onto an ear and pulled him back before he could so much as take a step!

“We are going to have FUN tomorrow. Aren’t we?” She gave him that tight smile that he knew meant he better damn well agree otherwise he’d be having a meeting between a pink hammer and his face.

“Why am I being scolded right now? I haven’t done anything!” He crossed his arms and started to pout. Looking nothing short of like a child about to be sent to the corner. “Because I know that uninterested face of yours.” Her grip on his ear disappeared and instead she switched it to pinching his cheek - which honestly might have been worse “I know you don’t like to sit around and listen for long. But we have nothing else to do and it’s something Tails has wanted to try for some time. So,” She pinched down harder on his cheek and gave it a little shake “We are going to sit there, listen to Tails, and play along with his game and have F-U-N.” She spelt out the word as if it would make it easier for Sonic to understand.

The blue hedgehog rolled his eyes and finally got himself free of Amy’s grip. That bit of guilt from before coming back as he processed Amy’s words and remembered Tails’ excitement. Okay, for just a few days. A few days he could sit around and play a game that his little brother seemed over the moon about. It might feel like torture - but he could do it. For Tails. 

“All right, all right. I get it. No need to threaten me further.” He put his hands up in defense to emphasize his point “Who knows, maybe it will stave off the boredom.” He could hope anyway.

“Good!” Amy’s tight smile became a genuine one. She proceeded to hold out three papers towards him. Sonic quirked a questioning brow at her “Had you been listening and not off in la la land you would have heard Tails talk about this.”

She first handed him a sheet with the word ‘Classes’ at the top. Wait, was learning involved? Did he have to watch a seminar to play a game? He glanced down at the other words to find where Tails had hastily written out things like warlock, fighter, artificer, etc. Okay, he had a vague idea of what the first two might be but what in all the rings was an ARTIFICER? Next to the words were equally hastily written summaries. 

“Use this to pick what you want to be.”

“I want to be me.” He looked back up from the paper, already feeling like playing the game was too much.

“Well you don’t get to be you, well not completely you. Just read through this and pick a class.” She then handed him a second paper “This will be for your stats and spells, if you have any, at least that’s what Tails said.”

“And I have to fill this whole thing out??” Sonic looked exasperated at that point, and they hadn’t even started! Looking down at the multiple blank spots on the sheet. Armor Class? Skill modifiers? Health points?? Why was there so much??

“I can come by in the morning and help you figure it out,” Amy sighed, looking as if she knew she’d have to help them ALL figure out what to put on the sheet to make sure it was correct. Lastly, she gave him the third paper, which was completely blank.

“Uh-”

“For your backstory. Tails said it adds to the roleplay experience. Just make something up after you pick your class.”

Sonic shook his head in disbelief “This seems like a lot of prep work for a game. Can’t we just play uno instead?”

“After what happened last time with Sticks - no. Never again.” They both shuddered at the memory. Uno was banned for a reason.

Sonic relented, for now, and took the papers into his hands. He frowned down at them as Amy headed towards the door to no doubt go spread the news of their latest activity to the others.

“Remember,” She stopped at the door and looked over her shoulder at him. That tight smile back on her face “This is going to be fun!”

x-x-x-x

Come morning he had an…inkling of an idea of what he wanted to be for the game. Sure, he could have spent the latter half of the previous day putting it together. But chili dog o’clock reared its head and then he needed a quick run to burn off all the calories he just ate. Another chili dog for the road. And before he knew it, it was getting dark! Can’t think when the sun is down!

When the sun did rise he grabbed the papers and tried to put something together. To at least put a little effort into it when that morning he passed by Tails setting a table up. A giant map spread across it with little figurines of not only people but landscapes too. In Chaos name, there really was more to it then he thought wasn’t there?

“There uh…is a lot of setup to this dragon and dungeon thing isn’t there?” He recalled saying as he stuffed a breakfast burrito into his mouth.

Tails rolled his eyes and GUFFAWED at him! “That’s a separate game. Besides! Dungeons and Dragons is for kids!” Tails announced, seeming to forget that he himself was still a kid “Castles and Creepy Creatures is the true peak roleplaying experience!”

“You realize adding creepy to it actually makes it sound more childish, right?” Sonic quirked an amused brow at him.

“...Do you want to play or not?”

The look of building disappointment on Tails face was enough to break the blue hedgehog. He had let out a sigh and gave the other a small smile “Yeah. I do. Can’t wait, little buddy.” With that he ruffled the top of the fox’s head, drawing a laugh from Tails before the two parted ways. Sonic quickly rushed to grab the papers left behind on his hammock and come up with something.

A class. Class, class, class. Why were there so many?? He only made it to the B Section before he just decided on what sounded the most entertaining. Bards were music sort of folk, right? And he was a music sort of guy! He hadn’t picked up the guitar in a year but details, details. He glossed over the brief description left on the paper and looked at the list of instruments to choose from. He wasn’t a drummer. Or ew…violin. A lute was like a guitar, wasn’t it? 

Eh, close enough.

He tossed the character stats page to the side. He’d need Amy for that one. He COULD ask Tails, but after peeking into the living room and watching his little brother frantically go around trying to set everything up, he decided it was best to leave him be for now. Onto the blank sheet!

He’d spent all of ten minutes trying to come up with something and writing bits of information down before a knock was heard on the door. Said door slammed open and hit the wall - yep, Knuckles had arrived.

Sonic sauntered into the room just as the big red oaf was distracting Tails with questions that clearly were bringing slight irritation to the little fox. Knuckles didn’t seem to take notice that Tails was still trying to set up and had no time for questions or for papers to be shoved into his face. “Hey, big red.” Sonic quickly came to the rescue and he could see the utter relief on his brother’s face “We’ll tick off Tails later while we play,” Ah, there went the relief. Sonic couldn’t help but give Tails a wink, to which the other just rolled his eyes “What are you bothering him for anyway?” “This thing.” Knuckles held up the blank character stat sheet, a hint of worry on his face “Too much math was involved. I couldn’t get it done!”

The hedgehog let out a snort and waved his hand as if to wave off all of Knuckles’ worries “Amy said she’d help with that once she got here. But in the mean time-” He lets out an audible YOINK as he takes the papers from Knuckles’ hands. Zipping around to different parts of the living room as he read over the papers that Knuckles so desperately tried to get back. 

Oof. Knuckles may have written his backstory in crayon but at least he had more lore than Sonic did. It even looked like some thought had been put into it too. Damn. Shown up by the guy that still read picture books. The shame.

“Barbarian huh? See you only made it to the B’s too.” He couldn’t help but yelp when Knuckles finally got ahold of his leg while Sonic was distracted with reading. The echidna let out a huff as he held Sonic upside down and snatched the papers back.

“I tried reading ahead. But everything else was so confusing. These guys just smash, I know how to do that.” He declared proudly before dropping Sonic on his head. Ignoring the indignant sound the other let out as he held his papers proudly in his hands.

“Wow, Tails. Nice setup.” Amy entered the little abode next with Sticks following shortly behind. A ton of papers in Amy’s hands and a load of snacks taking up real estate in Sticks’ arms. The badger tried to put the bags and drinks on the game table only for Tails to immediately stop her.

“Not there! I don’t want you guys getting anything on the board. This one is a limited edition!” His voice raised a couple octaves as the concern was clear in his tone. Ignoring the huff that Sticks’ let out as Tails guided her towards a smaller, separate table that was shoved into a corner of the room.

“How am I supposed to enjoy a game of death and destruction if I can’t eat during it??” Sticks argued but reluctantly put the snacks on the assigned table. Already opening up a bag of chips and stuffing some into her mouth.

Tails grimaced in response “We can…take breaks so you can eat. Please wash your hands before touching anything.”

Amy made her way to Sonic’s side and gave him an expectant look “I hope you did your homework.”

Sonic couldn’t help but roll his eyes. Did she really think he wouldn’t do it? Well…he almost didn’t. But in his defense he’d been in a chili dog induced coma and forgot! He’d at least come up with something that morning! And it was in PENCIL! Which in his opinion made his sheets better than Knuckles, even if the echidna had more substance to his.

“I did,” He quickly ran to his room and scooped up the two necessary papers before coming back to Amy’s side and presenting them to her “Picked my class. Made up my harrowing backstory. Just need that brain of yours to help with some numbers.” He couldn’t help but to tap the top of Amy’s head, shooting his fellow hedgehog a smirk in the process. It was Amy’s turn to roll her eyes now. But the little smile that came with it let Sonic know she was just the slightest bit amused.

Not a moment later he was shoved aside by Knuckles, who presented his papers to Amy with a smile of his own “I need that brain too! This math stuff made my brain hurt.”

“I’ll get it figured out before we start, don’t worry.” She took both their small piles of paper after putting down her own. Sonic grimaced at how meager theirs looked compared to Amy’s.

“You and Sticks really put a lot of thought into this, huh?” He reached over to grab one of the papers until Amy smacked his hand. The blue hedgehog let out a yelp before giving Amy a mockingly hurt look. Cue another eye roll. RUDE!

“None of those are Sticks’. It’s all mine.” She declared proudly. Sonic counted no less than thirteen or fourteen pages when he took a quick glance at the table again “Eleven pages of backstory that I think will help give Tails a perfect picture of the character I tried to create.”

“And everything else in this pile of dead trees?”

Amy huffed and shuffled through some of her papers, pulling out a few with some drawings on them “And these are for reference! How I envisioned my strong yet alluring paladin to look!”

All right, Sonic couldn’t lie, Amy’s drawings weren’t half bad. He was more impressed that she’d had the time to write everything up and even DRAW after their hang out session last night. She’d even had time to make up a drawing for Sticks!

“I’ll whip up something for you and Knuckles too.” She put her drawings down and put her full attention on what the two boys had given her. Sonic just letting her go about it since interrupting Amy when she had her game face on was just asking for a smack with a hammer.

Thus, he took a back seat for once and watched everything and everyone around him. And truthfully, despite not being all that gungho to play, Sonic was happy to see the excitement on the others faces. Even if the excitement was for varying different reasons. Amy was just happy to be able to pull some micromanaging and put everyone’s ideas together with some flare of her own. The mixture of pens and colored pencils already lining the kitchen counter as she worked with a speed that could have rivaled Sonic’s running (Okay, not really but Sonic would give her the compliment even if he wasn’t saying it out loud).

Knuckles seemed excited to be trying something new. Plopping down next to Sonic on the couch and droning on about being able to play a guy that could just smash and punch his way out of any situation. Seeming to forget he was already that sort of guy in real life. It was sort of endearing, if Sonic was being honest.

Sticks looked content with just eating the snacks. Already through one bag of chips and looking to be eyeing up another along with a giant bottle of soda. Once that inevitable stomach ache kicked in, she’d probably say it was caused by the government sending vibrations to their stomachs to make them sick. That had actually been a fun wack-a-doodle conspiracy theory to listen to.

And finally, Tails. He looked like a kid in a candy store as he went about setting up the game table. Moving things around every so often to no doubt make it PERFECT. Or at least what he envisioned to be perfect. Frankly, it looked fine to Sonic. But if adjusting some rock looking thing on the board slightly to the left made Tails happy, then it was best to let him be.

Another half hour later and they all surrounded the board. But not before Tails made Sticks wash her hands of all the food residue she had on them. 

“Are we ready?” The two tailed fox practically beamed. Smile so bright it was probably on par with the sun.

“Yes we are!” Amy declared, almost equally as excited as she gave Sonic and Knuckles back their character sheets before pulling some more papers out to put in front of Sticks. Sonic couldn’t help but raise a brow.

“She wrote all that?” 

“Of course not,” Amy waved him off before putting an arm around Sticks “She told me the basics of what she wanted and I expanded it for her!”

“I said I wanted to be able to shoot fire from my hands so that I can cause enough anarchy to throw the government off of my trail!” Sticks proudly declared before holding her stomach which made sounds akin to a whale “That way they stop sending signals to my stomach!!”

There it was. Sonic totally called it.

“And you got…” He counted the papers “Five pages worth of material out of that?”

“It was just enough to inspire me.” Amy looked just as proud, if not more so, than Sticks. All of them turned their attention back to Tails as he coughed into his hand. Wait…had he always had the hooded cloak on?

“Well, I think it’s time we get started. Welcome to the epic game of - CASTLES AND CREEPY CREATURES!” Tails used a small device to amplify his voice. Sonic shook his head. Amy looked amused. Knuckles bounced in his seat. And Sticks still held her stomach.

“Now,” The fox continued without interruption “Since we only have a few more days until Eggman returns from his vacation, I made sure to make this a quick campaign. Instead of months this will only last us the rest of the week-

“Hang on, hang on,” Sonic of course had to be the first one to draw them to a pause “MONTHS? These games can go for months? Wait…we are playing this for more than a day?” He saw Tails start to deflate slightly and just out of the corner of his eye he caught the unimpressed look Amy gave him. Quickly backtracking to save face “Uh…because that’s fine. Totally fine. Looking forward to it!”

He quickly plastered on a smile and that was enough for Tails. The blue hedgehog let out a sigh of relief before his two tailed brother continued with his spiel.

“Like I said, it’ll just take up the rest of the week. It was a little hard to come up with something on the fly, especially since I didn’t know what classes you all would be picking. But I think I got everything covered just enough where we can improvise the rest.” Tails stood there behind an upright board thingy - a DM Shield, Sonic was later corrected, the fox looking proud of himself. That changed instantly and he flipped the hood of his cloak off before hitting a button and the lights in the room went out momentarily. A sole light above the board turned on to give focus to both it and the little pieces on it. When the hell had he installed that?

“Welcome to the land of Cardovina! A usually peaceful country that has been plagued by monsters, bandits and extra creepy shadows in the past few years. You and your party already know each other. Having traveled to Cardovina in search of adventure. And to try and figure out why the land has been flooded by such evils. But are you also here for your own personal goal? To seek glory in slaying beasts? To be a helpful hero to the country folk? Or perhaps just here to collect the reward.”

Tails reached over his DM Shield and placed four wooden pieces on the board. Each one had a name on it. One for each of them. Tails opened his mouth to explain further but Sticks quickly snatched her piece off the board.

“They say wood is good for stomach cramps in some regions. Can I just-?” She was about to take a bite before Tails quickly took the piece back and placed it on the table.

“That is meant to represent you! It isn’t for eating.”

“I’ll get you some wood later, Sticks.” Amy gave their tummy aching friend a pat on the shoulder before motioning for Tails to keep going. Another huff left the fox but nonetheless, he continued on.

“As I was saying, you guys will already know each other. Amy is a paladin of Pelor. They are usually sworn by certain oaths and face consequences if they are broken. I also made her the leader-”

BOTH Sonic and Knuckles let out indignant sounds at that.

“But I’M the leader!” Knuckles complained, only to let out an oof when Sonic elbowed him in the stomach.

“Says you, knucklebrain. I’M the leader!”

Tails leaned forward and gave them both a look “Do either of you know the complexities of this game? Enough to make informed decisions that won’t get everyone killed immediately?”

“Well no…” Both got sheepish at that but Sonic trudged on “But Amy doesn’t-”

“Actually I read the rulebook last night.” The smug look on the pink hedgehog’s face almost made Sonic jump across the table “It was a light read. Besides, you two can relinquish leadership for a game.”

Knuckles grumbled in his seat. Sonic joined him with the added bonus of crossing his arms and looking like a pouting child.

“Sticks is your warlock,” Tails cleared his throat as he read off some papers of his own, holding one close to his face just to make sure he was reading it right “That was granted her powers from a patron that can’t be named in case the government is listening in and tries to take out said patron.” He gave both Amy and Sticks a look.

Amy shrugged in response, “I can only use what I was given to work with.”

“The Mobius Bureau of Sketchy Affairs will NEVER know who grants me the power of fire!” Sticks practically shouted before she let out a maniacal laugh.

“Right…then Knuckles is your barbarian. They can typically enter a rage which makes them stronger than they already are. So Knuckles-”

“I can smash EVERYTHING!” He shouted and was almost on par with Sticks. Both of them happily high fiving each other from across the table.

“These next few days are going to be long.” Sonic sighed deeply, not that anyone paid him any mind.

“And Sonic is your bard. Musical geniuses who can use spells-”

“I have SPELLS??”

After going into more depth on everyone’s classes and giving them a better picture, the game was set to begin. Tails offered his four players dice before he began his next round of narration and let the immersive experience begin.

x-x-x-x

The group set off into the first town that rested along the borders of Cardovina. A bustling average sized town where upon arrival they were immediately bombarded with requests to help slay some goblins. Help capture a thief. Get that RAT Prudence to stop flirting with Gary’s husband. Typical things requested of adventures such as themselves.

“Not even five minutes here and they’re already lining up for help!” Amy declared with surprise. Though in hindsight, the four stood out like sore thumbs amongst all the civilians. Her in full armor, Knuckles in a small amount of his own. Sticks carrying around a staff and Sonic…well he didn’t think he looked out of place. The only requests he had gotten were to play some songs. The respect for him was LACKING!

The group were given options by the narration in the sky. Pick up some odd jobs around the village and see if it leads to something grander. Or go to the well populated and most popular inn in town to see if there were bigger fish to fry. To see if grander information could be gathered there as to why Cardovina had become so plagued with problems as of late.

“Why would people at a motel-” (“Inn, Sonic. Motels don’t exist yet.”) “At an inn know more than anyone else on the street?”

“If it’s so popular, it’s probably the place where other travelers go to converse too.” Amy declared, already having made up her mind for the group and heading in the direction of the inn. The others were given the option by the narration in the sky to go and speak to other civilians if they didn’t want to go with Amy, but one look from their paladin and the remaining three thought it best to follow their ‘leader’.

Upon arrival at the inn, it was definitely a given that it was a popular meeting point. A bustling tavern greeting them as the entrance to the inn. Not only were civilians walking between tables and trying to serve drinks, but there were many more folks at tables that could easily be clocked as other adventurers. Dressed in armor, carrying weapons, sitting in loud, drunken groups. They hadn’t even gotten a chance to talk to anyone before Knuckles found the biggest guy in the inn and challenged them to an arm wrestling contest.

“Gotta show them who the strongest guy here is.” Knuckles smirked and gave his friends a confident look.

“Go ahead and roll for athletics.” Tails couldn’t help but to smirk, everyone else able to tell that he was waiting for Knuckles to fail. Knuckles on the other hand remained oblivious and happily rolled his dice. Tails smirk fell after both dice finished rolling on the table and BOTH displayed the number twenty.

“How…you got a nat twenty?? Twice??” The fox looked down in astonishment. Amy looked just as surprised while the rest of them seemed confused. “You just beat a barbarian with a paladin multiclass…they have the highest strength…”

“That a good thing? Did I send the guy flying through the table?” Knuckles beamed.

The barbarian did indeed send his fellow barbarian through the table they arm wrestled on. The losing barbarian’s companions laughing at his misfortune while serving maids just rolled their eyes and continued to serve drinks. One of them shouting that the loser on the floor better pay for the repairs! Before Knuckles could challenge anyone else, Amy latched onto his arm and dragged him towards a table.

“We’re here for information. Not fighting.” She scolded her fellow party member.

“But how will they know who is in charge if I don’t wrestle them all??” Knuckles complained, but his complaints were promptly ignored.

“What do we do now? Just go up to people and ask about their shady business?” Sonic let out a snort, glancing around the inn. (“Bard classes have high charisma. Remember that. It’ll make talking easier!”)

“We can also listen in and see if we hear anything of value. Just get a drink and walk around.” Amy paid for the whole table. Giving the other three their mugs before urging them to walk around the inn. 

“Everyone roll a perception check.” Tails looked down at his papers before looking back up at all of them. Dice hit the table moments later. Amy let out a huff at the measly five she had gotten. Sticks somehow rolling even lower and letting out a huff just to copy Amy. Sonic rolled a sixteen which he figured was good since Tails nodded in approval. And Knuckles-

“You got ANOTHER round of twenties??” The fox looked absolutely baffled as he stared down at Knuckles’ dice. Two twenties staring back at him. 

“That’s still a good thing right? Did I find someone else to arm wrestle?”

No. Knuckles did not in fact find someone else to arm wrestle and smash through a table. (“Aw…”) But while their lady companions were having trouble tuning into conversations above all the talking in the inn, Sonic and Knuckles had no such issues. Stumbling upon a group where they caught a bit of JUICY information that might be of use.

“I heard some weird beast might have cast a spell onto the land. Nothing like that Tiamat thing that cult tried to summon in Baldur’s Gate last spring. It’s a minor beast but still enough to apparently cause a fair bit of trouble.” They heard one of their fellow inn-goers say.

“A beast summoning other beasts I understand. But bandits? What creature would summon bandits?”

That was all the two could hear before the hustle and bustle of everyone else in the inn covered up anything else the group was saying.

“That’s enough, right?” Sonic looked to the others “Got what we needed now we can just go beat up…I don’t know? Some robot?”

“There aren’t any robots in Castles and Creepy Creatures.” Tails quickly interrupted “At least not in this edition OR this campaign. They are only included in the sixteenth-”

“Right, right, right. Whatever it is,” He quickly waved off Tails words before the other went off on an unrelated tangent “Still got what we needed.”

“But we don’t know where the beast is. You need to find out more.” Amy argued.

“Why can’t you talk to them and find out?” Sonic complained. Feeling as if he’d already done enough for the group by getting even that tiny hint of intel. Now he just wanted ACTION!

“I didn’t roll high enough in perception. So I’m technically not over there and technically have no idea what they are talking about. Tails already told you bards have high charisma so you can-”

“What if I just keep listening in?” Sonic didn’t want to roleplay out any sort of conversation. Looking to Tails for confirmation.

“In that case you could roll stealth. But you should probably-”

Sonic quickly picked up his dice “I roll stealth!”

The blue bard tried to sneak between a few people and get closer to the table of other adventurers. But unfortunately he caught the leg of a serving maid with his foot. Sending them both crashing to the ground. Drinks flying with one managing to land in the lap of a fellow bard at the table he’d been trying to eavesdrop on.

“What in the realms?! How dare you!” The bard shouted, directing his anger at Sonic “Watch where you are going!”

(“...You can’t roll to get out of this right now, Sonic. You have to respond.”)

Sonic groaned as he peeled himself off the floor. Looking at the other bard with nothing short of an unimpressed look “It was an accident. Besides, you looked thirsty.”

The other bard scoffed in offense, slowly unstrapping his lute from his back and holding it in his hands “Do you mock me, sir?”

“Wait, is this a fight?” Sonic perked up with a smirk. Looking to Tails for confirmation again.

“If you don’t talk him down, it could become one. And I’m really not supposed to but since it’s your first game, I suggest maybe-”

Sonic pulled off his own instrument from his back. His own lute that he plucked a few strings on momentarily before looking back to the other bard. Holding his lute out in front of him like it was some sort of sword.

“This is more like it! If I win, you tell me everything you know about that beast you guys were talking about earlier!” Sonic declared, he wanted action but he also wanted the plot to keep moving! A fight for information? Right up his alley!

The other bard stuttered over their words, holding their instrument close to their chest “D-deal! And what song are you challenging me to?”

Sonic didn’t even give a response before he swung his lute towards the other bard’s head and-

Tails let out a long sigh, Amy joined him as she buried her face in her hands. Knuckles and Sticks seemed to be the only two amused with Sonic’s antics. Even egging him on!

“I want to hit someone with my staff! Is anyone looking a bit TOO suspicious? Anyone drinking juice instead of mead?” Sticks looked from Tails to the board on the table, as if it would answer her question for her.

“Oh! I want to hit someone with her staff too!” Knuckles declared next.

“No one is hitting anyone with a staff!” Amy interrupted, causing the enablers to whine in response.

“You’re really going to hit him with your lute?” Tails grimaced at his older brother “Rather than use a spell or even play a song?”

“Why do any of that when I’ve caught him by surprise? He wants to play a song to beat me and instead I just…you know…beat him over the head.” Sonic shrugged as if his logic made perfect sense. He’d probably do that in real life too. Maybe not with one of his nicer guitars. He could use that old one he’d gotten from a flea market to bludgeon someone with. But in a kid friendly, made for television sort of way.

Tails gave a look of exasperation, pulling out a book that Sonic hadn’t been aware he’d been hiding behind his DM Shield. Flipping through it like he’d never faced this dilemma before. And maybe he hadn’t. Sonic didn’t know any of the other times his little brother had played his Chromes and Chips game.

“Uh…I guess…roll for unarmed strike?” Tails sounded unsure of himself as he closed the book and put it down. Sonic took his dice back from Amy, who’d stolen them to make sure he’d actually roleplay out his talk with the other bard rather than keep rolling his dice to get out of it.

“Show him a cracked open skull!” Knuckles shouted as he leaned closer to Sonic, the hedgehog let out a snort.

“Maybe not that far. But enough to daze him.”

The lute met the side of the other bard’s head, sending him crashing against another table and onto the ground. Hit hard enough that it had knocked him completely out! His companions sat there in shock. But their friend was not the only casualty. Sonic left holding up a lute that had broken in half after having made impact.

“What?? How??” Sonic shouted “Skull doesn’t beat wood! Or whatever it is a lute is made from!”

“It does when you roll well for an unarmed strike but also all high on strength.” Tails smirked. Oh, he was so getting the little brother swirly special later “You were too strong. The lute didn’t stand a chance.”

“I think you killed him.” Knuckles looked over Sonic’s shoulder in wonder.

“What did you do?!” Amy strode over with Sticks. Their paladin looked nothing short of furious while their warlock poked at the unconscious man with her staff.

“Have to make sure he’s actually dead. Did you double tap? You always hit twice.” Sticks raised her staff to deliver another blow only for Amy to quickly grab her.

“We didn’t kill anyone!”

“Right?” Amy looked desperately at Tails. Sighing in relief when he nodded.

“And we aren’t about to kill anyone. Why did you hit him?” The pink paladin turned her attention to her blue companion. A look that could match that of a furious mother on her face. If Sonic had a mother, he might have been scared. 

Okay, he was a little scared.

“He and these other chumps know about some freaky beast that is causing all the problems! He started the fight! I only said if I won that they had to tell me what else they know!” 

“And to win, instead of playing a song like you are MEANT to do, you hit him?”

“It worked!” Sonic argued, throwing his hands up in the air and causing his broken lute to dangle on the still intact strings.

“Okay, tough guy, if it worked out so well for you, what are you going to use now to play songs and cast spells?” Amy quirked a brow at him as she gestured to his damaged instrument.

Sonic held the lute out in front of him and grimaced slightly “Maybe I can still salvage this. Does medieval duct tape exist?”

Before any response could be uttered, one of the bard’s friends stood up and shouted “GUARDS!”

“Then-”

“Break time!” Knuckles declared and stood up, eyes already falling across the snack table left in the corner “All this beating up imaginary people has left me hungry!”

“Those are MY snacks!” Sticks growled as she jumped up from her seat.

Knuckles tilted his head to the side “I thought your stomach hurt?”

“The government stopped it’s mind control on my stomach.” Sticks crossed her arms with a huff. Knuckles only response was to push against her face and send the badger stumbling to the ground before he darted towards the snack table. Sticks had let out an offended shout before she raced after him.

“Uh…so break?” Sonic gave his little brother a small smirk. Tails stood there in stunned silence before he shook his head and let out a soft sigh.

“Yeah. Break.”

The break was longer than perceived and ended with them calling it a night for now. Amy lamented that they hadn’t gotten much done with Tails telling her some campaigns spend two whole sessions in a single inn! This game made zero sense to Sonic! Who spent that long just talking in a game? He liked to think he jazzed it up a bit by taking a guy out with a lute alone! Even if it apparently was going to cause them future problems.

“We’ll see you tomorrow!” Amy hefted a food coma stricken Sticks over her shoulder. Smiling at Tails before her eyes drifted to Sonic. Ah, that tight smile was back “And once we get you a new lute - no more hitting with it. Read over those spells I wrote down on your character sheet.”

“You know it’s kind of late. And that looked like a lot of reading for one night. Why don’t I-” Amy’s smile grew tighter, a fist was clenched. Sonic quickly held up his hands in defense “All right, all right! I’ll read it!”

“Good boy.” Amy nodded in approval before she carried Sticks out. Slamming the door shut behind her. Sonic couldn’t help but to sigh in relief once she was gone. Turning around only to walk into Knuckles chest.

“What are you still doing here?”

“Spending the night! Don’t wanna lose all of the notes Amy made for me!” Knuckles gestured towards his character papers that had been left on their game table. Sonic quirked a brow up at him.

“You could just leave them here for the night.”

Knuckles sheepishly pushed two fingers together, avoiding making eye contact with Sonic “Well, you know, it might rain tonight. Don’t want to get sick. Might not be able to beat up anyone in our game then! Tails would do something like that! I get sick and then my little barbarian guy gets sick!”

“You want to come and share my hammock again don’t you?” Sonic had let out a soft snort as Knuckles gave a nod. How was a blue hedgehog to refuse? Knuckles had even gone through the trouble of trying to come up with an excuse to stay. He’d probably been thinking up that excuse all game!

“All right, all right. Come on.” Sonic waved the red echidna along. Knuckles bounced momentarily in excitement before he scooped Sonic up and rushed towards the hedgehog’s room “You aren’t hogging my good pillows this time though!”

He just barely managed to catch a glimpse of Tails sitting on the couch and reading through his Cackles and Cacophony nerd book. A determined look on his face as he flipped through the pages. Sonic couldn’t help but to call out before he was forced into a cuddle session.

“Don’t stay up too late, little buddy! Need you paying attention in case I wanna hit someone else over the head with a drum!” He laughed just as he caught Tails rolling his eyes.

x-x-x-x

 Breakfast? Eaten. Beating Knuckles with the pillow he drooled on? Done. Watching Tails mutter to himself and go back and forth from reading his book to writing down notes in a furious fashion? Eh, Sonic would have liked to be doing anything else.

“You’re uh…taking this game a little seriously, aren’t you?” Sonic took a step back as Tails slowly raised his head. A sort of manic look on the fox’s face.

“I don’t understand how Knuckles rolled perfectly - TWICE! Or how you managed to do something I’ve never seen before!” He proceeded to flip through his book again. Looking to be reading the pages but Sonic wasn’t entirely sure what with how fast his little brother was flipping “I’ve played eight different campaigns and no bard ever used their instrument as a weapon before.”

Sonic pulled smugly on his neckerchief “Just consider me the first. And clearly the best bard there is.” 

Tails didn’t seem to think the same as he shot the hedgehog an unimpressed look before returning to his book. Writing down a few more notes that he hid from Sonic’s view.

“No spoilers! You’ll see what happens when we play!”

Sonic simply shrugged and walked away. Despite leaving Tails to his ramblings, that didn’t mean he escaped the dreaded roleplaying world. Knuckles flopping down on the couch next to him once Sonic had returned from his run. Going over how his barbarian could beat up everyone in that inn and probably beat up the dragon they were going to face at the end!

“How do you know it’s a dragon? Did you peek at Tails notes?” Sonic pretended to be ashamed of his friend. Even putting a hand to his chest to give his act more flare.

“No! I can’t even read all those big words he’s writing down!” Knuckles pouted, arms crossed over his chest “But isn’t that how all these things end? With a dragon?”

Sonic shrugged in response. He wasn’t that big on fantasy. And he definitely wasn’t big on Checkers and Chestnuts! Sure, being able to win what seemed like a bar fight was pretty fun. But he’d rather have been fighting ACTUAL baddies. Something about piledriving a robot into the ground by just jumping on them was more satisfying than pretending to hit a belligerent guy over the head with an instrument. 

But he was writing that tactic down for future reference. Just in case. Maybe he should start carrying that old guitar around with him.

Amy and Sticks arrived with a plethora of new snacks. Sonic took note that the variety of foods were healthier and no soda was in sight. Sticks grumbled as she dropped all the new bags of food onto the table. Arms soon crossed and looking like a child who just lost their favorite toy as she pouted. Sonic looked to Amy for an answer. 

“She threw up on my rug last night after gorging on snacks here,” Amy sighed, clearly not having been happy to have cleaned up vomit. “She’s less likely to eat all of this in under five minutes.”

“Right, might have lengthened it to ten minutes.” Sonic smirked as he teased. Despite Sticks’ grumbling, she still eyed the snack table. Knuckles alongside her. The two only looked away when Amy grabbed them both and dragged them to the game table. Tails was already waiting as he finally closed that giant rulebook of his and put it off to the side. Donning his cloak once more.

“Okay,” He let out a sigh like he was a tired old man that was at his limits dealing with his unruly children. And judging how yesterday’s session had gone, Tails couldn’t be blamed for his reaction. Sonic swore he saw a few extra papers filled with notes behind Tails’ DM Shield before he’d sat down “Had a little blip yesterday. But now we can get back on track.”

“First order of business, get Sonic a new lute. Otherwise he won’t be able to do anything for the rest of the game.” Amy quickly declared. Making their plans for them before anyone else could suggest anything. Again, fair to do.

“What do I need a new lute for? Can’t I just…I don’t know…use a dagger or something?” He turned to Tails “Bards can use daggers, right?”

Amy’s eye twitched slightly “Didn’t I tell you to-”

“READ! Yes! You did. Buuuut you only told me to read the spells. Which I did. Mostly.” Sonic smirked at Amy, trying his best not to be intimidated by the look she gave him. He at least managed to stare her down for five seconds before turning away. That’s three more seconds than normal!

Take THAT Miss Rose!

“Bards can use daggers,” Tails gave a nod “But, it shouldn’t be the only weapon you have at your disposal. Bards have spells for a reason and you need an instrument to cast them. So Amy’s right. You need a new lute otherwise you’ll be pretty USELESS the rest of the game.”

Sonic caught the emphasizing of that word! And he knew Tails used it to try and goad him. The smirk that his little brother shot him was just as telling! Fine, fine. He’d get a new lute and bust out some of those spells he’d read about. Ideas already bouncing off the walls of his mind. The rest of the table wouldn’t know what hit them. And neither would the fake-not-robot enemies in the game!

“Can’t we just get him some spoons and he can use them as drumsticks?” Knuckles suggested with his usual dopey smile, putting an arm around Sonic “Then he’d have a drum anywhere he goes! You could use my skull for one.”

Sonic couldn’t help but to let out a snort and use two fingers to drum on the stop of the echidna’s head. Knuckles letting out a loud laugh in response.

“Doesn’t work that way.” Tails shook his own head but actually looked amused with the antics “Or at least I’m not going to try and figure out IF it could work that way.”

x-x-x-x

The group had previously set out to try and find information in regards to the weird coming and goings of the land of Cardovina. And information they had found! But at a price. An unintentional bar fight had ensued thanks to their bard. ( “Worth it. Ow! Amy!” ) And while their bard came out of the fight victorious, it had cost him his lute. The very thing needed for a bard to be USEFUL to his fellow adventurers. 

The other, defeated bard lay on the ground unconscious. His friends yelled out to the guards for assistance. Pointing at the party of four that had just dared to bring harm to their friend.

“HE came at ME first!” Sonic argued, but the other bard’s friends were hearing none of it. Still yelling for guards until the hedgehog raised his already broken lute to take them out too. Amy quickly intervened and grabbed hold of Sonic’s arm to pull him away.

“No! Not again!”

“Why not?? The thing is already broken!” He gestured to his broken lute. Grumbling when Amy managed to pry the instrument out from his hand, leaving him weaponless. Well, save for the dagger, which he coooould-

Before more bloodshed and broken glasses could occur, Amy was dragging the party out through a doorway opposite of the one they’d entered through. Happy to get away from the guards that had finally answered the call but were stuck trying to get through the unruly crowd in the inn. It seemed as if that one little fight had started a massive one throughout the entire place! ( “Uh, you’re welcome.” )

“Where do we go now for a new string thingy?” Sticks asked once they were outside. Looking around their immediate area, they only took notice of various fruit and vegetable vendors as well as stands selling a few bits and bobbles. But no instruments.

“We’d need to look around town to see if anyone even sells lutes.” Amy let out an exasperated sigh.

“The drummer with spoons idea is still on the table.” Knuckles piped up, his idea once again going ignored.

“We also need to figure out how we can afford it-”

“Wait, what is this, Mobius-Opoly? We actually have to pay attention to money?” Sonic looked over his character sheet, skimming through it to see where it even mentioned them having a spot for their money.

“Next time you are coming over and reading the rulebook with me before we play any games.” Amy rubbed at her eyes, Sonic knowing it was a PROMISE and not just a threat. He’d have to make sure his running shoes were primed and ready whenever that day came about “Yes! Money is involved. And since I helped put together everyone’s sheets, we all have only ten gold coins each.”

Amy rubbed at her chin in thought “Depending on how much a new lute costs, we could pull all our coins together to afford it. But then there is the possibility we won’t be able to afford anything else.”

Sonic watched as the pink hedgehog wracked her brain. The other so lost in thought she didn’t realize when Knuckles pulled two spoons out of nowhere and tried to hand them to Sonic. The hedgehog responded by slowly lowering Knuckles’ hand back down.

“Wait!” Amy snapped her fingers “It’s a starter town!”

“And when we came into town, people were already asking us for help! We help a few people out and get a few extra coins and hopefully won’t have to use all of our funds just for one thing! Plus! We can find out more information!” Amy looked rather proud of herself as she laid out her plan.

After coming to an agreement to stay together (And a perception check to take in more of the town as they walked - yes, Knuckles rolled another twenty. Much to Tails’ absolute confusion.) the group found a ‘quest’ that paid both a decent amount and was in their skill level. Sure, it wasn’t the most HEROIC of quests. A little old granny wanted lunch delivered to her grandson that worked at the town bank. A reverse fetch quest, one could say.

And was probably only given to them so they could move the story along quickly and efficiently. Since it was clear by Tails’ face he hadn’t expected them to spend so much time in the FIRST town.

“And here we are!” Amy held her arms out once they stood in front of the bank. The group walked inside to find only a few tellers and customers. Some doing their daily banking. Some arguing. Nothing out of the ordinary for a bank “Let's find the grandson, get a new lute, and then find this big bad evil that is harming these poor country folk!”

“And then smash them?” Knuckles added on with a smile.

“And then smash them - yes.” Amy nodded in agreement. Turning to Sticks and losing her confident smile almost immediately when she finds their warlock digging through the basket of food and eating the contents.

“You ATE our quest item??” Amy groaned and buried her face in her hands. Tails looked like he wanted to do the same thing but settled on just grimacing. Sonic couldn’t help but to laugh.

“My warlock was hungry and had to feed the fire demon inside that grants her the POWER!” Sticks shouted proudly, standing up and putting her foot on the table. Tails let out a concerned shout of his own when Sticks’ dirty foot was placed on his board “TAKE THAT STOMACH UPSETTING GOVERNMENT!”

“Can you sit down??”

With no food left in the basket - the quest was a bust. Such an easy task…failed. The group prepared to turn around and find something else to earn some coins before Sticks stopped them.

“What if we just take money from the bank?” She looked at Tails with a serious expression.

The fox’s grimace only grew. Amy now matched his expression “I don’t think that’d be the best idea. I mean there are other quests you can do that-”

Sticks quickly shook her head. “Banks, even spooky big medieval ones with no metal detectors, are scams made by the shadow government.” 

Sonic leaned forward with a smirk, chin resting on his hands “Is that the same as the stomach upsetting government?”

Once again, she shook her head rapidly “No. Two different branches. Though the shadow government pays the stomach upsetting government to send signals-”

“Are we really about to rob a bank??” Amy intervened before Sticks could go into an all out conspiracy driven rant. Shame. Sonic almost wanted to hear all about that one.

“I say we go for it.” Sonic gave an approving nod as Sticks beamed at the thought of her idea being acknowledged “What are they going to do? Arrest us?”

“That is EXACTLY what they could do!” Amy argued. But even with being the leader, at a three to one vote, she was forced to go along with it. Both her and Tails looked nothing short of exasperated. But really, what did they expect from a group of non-planners?

Their barbarian had the LUCK of spotting an unoccupied bag of coins nearby. A bank teller had been counting some at his station and putting some into a small bag up until he was momentarily called away. Knuckles giving his companions a nudge and gestured towards the bag.

“Perfect! I’ll just go on over and-” Sonic let out an undignified yelp as Sticks pushed by him and went towards the abandoned station.

“I got it!” She called back, the others trying to SHUSH her as a few eyes curiously glanced over before returning to their business. Once in front of the station, the badger glanced around. To the left. To the right. No one seemed to be looking. She raised a hand and-

“You rolled a nat one.” Tails looked like he wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed that Sticks’ failure would make this whole scenario go on longer, or to be amused that she failed THAT badly.

“No! That's two! I think that makes a two.” The badger narrowed her eyes at the dice before looking to Amy for confirmation. The other gave a tired nod in response before Sticks looked back to Tails and gestured to her dice “Two!”

“Two ones don’t equal a two. Well…I mean they do. But not in this case. But even if they did, you still failed. Doesn’t matter what your sleight of hand modifier was either.”

“I could have got it for us!” Now it was Sonic’s turn to groan. A hand ran down his face before he looked across the table to Sticks “I have a high hand sleight thing! Right?” 

All eyes once again fell onto Amy - the one who’d put together their sheets to begin with. The pink hedgehog let out an exhausted sigh and for the umpteenth time, she gave a nod.

Sticks’ hand merely hovered over the bag before the group heard someone shout. The bank teller in charge of those very coins pointed over to the warlock.

“You there! Those aren’t yours! Stop!”

And like that, guards were upon them. Surrounding them faster than they had at the inn, seeing as there was no crowd at the bank to slow them down. Three of the four of them getting captured ( “How did you roll ANOTHER twenty??” ). Knuckles was able to get away at the last second while the rest of his group was dragged off towards the town’s jail. The townsfolk, including the granny who’d sent them to the bank, looked on in disappointment and shame.

“Rub it in a little more, Tails.”

“Well…now what?” Sonic sighed as they sat in their too cramped jail cell. All of their gear save for the clothes on their backs taken from them. Not that they really had much to begin with. 

“Maybe I could talk to the guards? Tell them this is just a big misunderstanding. Maybe say Sticks is just from a country where banks are self-service!” The paladin wracked her brain for ideas. Surely such a ridiculous lie could be believed if she was convincing enough!

“Why don’t you let me save you guys?” Knuckles bounced in his seat, an odd look of excitement on his face “I got away! I could SMASH the wall to your cell down and bust you guys out!”

“That would just bring more attention and they’d still be after us.” Amy sighed and leaned back “Just let me take care of it. I think I can-”

“I want to get them out!” Knuckles proceeded to ignore Amy, much to the other’s offense. He turned to Tails with a huge smirk on his face. Amy became even more offended when Tails looked to be considering it.

“Didn’t you make me the leader to make decisions like this for us??” She quickly complained.

“Well…yeah…” For a moment the fox looked guilty before he shook his head “But I also…sorta…kind of…want to see how this plays out?” Tails’ gave Amy a shaky smile and a shrug to go along with it. Amy’s only response was to groan and rest her head on top of the table.

“Make me the lawyer class!” Knuckles was ready to throw out his current character sheet and to start anew until Tails stopped him.

“First off, there is no lawyer class. At least none in this edition of the game. Maybe in the fourth.” He spent a moment thinking on it before he moved on. “Second, you can’t just switch classes like that. You need a special NPC to do that for you or an item. And with where you are right now-”

“So I can’t be a smart guy person to get them out?” Knuckles’ smile changed instantly to a frown “Guess I can still do the smash method. It works in real life!”

“Like…forty percent of the time.” Sonic sighed and crossed his arms. He made a mental note to never let Knuckles be his only phone call if he were ever stuck in prison.

Tails seemed deep in thought when the others looked back at him. A sigh escaped him before he gave a nod “You know what? Okay. I’ll allow it.”

“You’ll allow it?” Knuckles arched a questioning brow.

“You’ll ALLOW it??” Amy on the other hand shouted and looked indignant.

Tails ignored her, as did the rest of the table, as he pulled out another character sheet and started writing things down on it “You can be a temporary wizard. We’ll say you took a potion to do so, or something.” Tails cringed a bit, looking as if even he was upset with his own decision. But he seemed to quickly get over it before he held out the new character sheet to Knuckles “Only two spells available since this is temporary. But wizards come with high wisdom. You get to be-” He sighed “A smart guy person.”

“A lawyer!” Knuckles shouted, his smile returned tenfold as he looked down at his character sheet as if he could understand it.

“WHY??” Amy let out a shout of her own.

Tails turned to her and huffed “I just want him to stop getting twenties!”

“Ugh!” Amy shouted once more before getting up “I’m calling for a break. I have a headache starting.”

“You and me both…” The fox rubbed at his eyes but nodded in agreement for the break. The break once again went longer than expected before they called it a night.

“You have a home right?” Sonic questioned his red echidna friend when the other hadn’t left with the others.

“Your hammock is comfier than the trees.” Was the only response he got. Fair enough. His hammock was pretty damn comfortable.

It wasn’t until the afternoon before they got started again. Amy had stated she needed a morning to sleep in after the previous day. Tails had also needed the extra time. Stating it was their last day to be able to do anything before Eggman reared his ugly mustached face again. They’d have to speed run through their current situation and he had to figure out how to get them to the final boss without making it seem TOO rushed

Speed was Sonic’s middle name. So he was fine with that.

“I thought your middle name was ‘the’.” Knuckles frowned and earned himself a look from Sonic.

“We are not having this talk again.”

Once Tails felt fairly confident he could get them to the big baddie in a natural way, and once Amy pulled Sticks away from the snacks again, they were ready for their third and final day of Combs and Companies. Or whatever it was called.

Knuckles practically kicked open the doors to the prison. Striding in as if he owned the place and giving his comrades a wink as he spotted them in one of the first round of cells. Managing to reach through the bars and pluck the hat right off Sticks’ head before putting it on himself.

“Hey!” The warlock gave a shout, trying to reach through the bars herself to get it back. Knuckles simply took a step back out of her reach.

“I need it! Got to complete the whole wizard look.”

“Me and the fire monster inside of me will COME FOR YOUR TOES!”

“Maybe later,” Knuckles waved her off before approaching the jailers. Still ever confident as he looked them over “I am here to get my buddies out of jail! They were thrown in there by mistake! Clearly someone else tried to steal those coins and framed my associates!”

“Watch a lot of Mobius Legal lately?” Sonic smirked at him.

“Maybe a little.” Knuckles looked a bit sheepish before he put his attention back on Tails “So does it work?” 

“Uuuh.” Tails flipped through his notes “Roll me charisma.”

Knuckles’ expression dropped “Charisma?? But I became a super smart guy with the smart gene!” He proceeded to whine “Shouldn’t I roll…I don’t know. Smart guy things??”

It was Tails turn to smirk now. Ah, cocky little guy planned for this. Those twenties really were driving him up a wall “You said you wanted to be a smart person class. So I made you a wizard. But being smart isn’t enough to convince these guys to let everyone out of prison. Roll charisma.” 

At that, Knuckles started to pout and crossed his arms “And ruin my streak? No way!” Even Knuckles knew that the rolls may not be in his favor. Especially with the nice ZERO modifier next to his charisma on his sheet.

“How about I talk to the guards?” Amy spoke up quickly before anyone else could. Trying to rein back in control. Sonic could tell by the twitch of her eye that another headache could be imminent. And Amy with a huge headache and minor inconvenience was enough to throw her over the edge and end up in a flipped table. She might be able to control it enough to at least flip over the snack table rather than the game one though. Just as a favor to Tails. But Sonic wouldn’t risk it and end up with an upset little brother. Even if he did want the game to end.

“Amy and I could both talk to them. We both have the rizz factor going for us.” The blue hedgehog smirked and winked at his friend across the table. Amy rolled her eyes but he could see the faintest hint of a smirk on her face!

“Don’t ever use that word again. But yes. Sonic and I both have high enough charisma.-”

“Rizz.”

“To maybe convince the guards that Knuckles is telling the truth.”

“He’s telling the truth! My friend here,” Amy gestured to Sticks, who was still fuming that her hat had been taken - and it was taken for NOTHING! “Tried to stop the original thieves. But those guys had used some um…uh…”

“Some weird thing to make themselves invisible.” Sonic quickly tacked on.

“Yes! Exactly! Some potion or cloak to make themselves invisible!”

“Roll charisma. Both of you.”

Tails let a smile slip when both Amy and Sonic managed to roll high numbers. Both hedgehogs let out a cheer and high fived each other from across the table. All right, even Sonic could admit he’d been excited about that little win.

Both guards narrowed their eyes at the rag tag group. Clearly debating if what they could be saying was true.

“There has been reports of illegal invisibility potion use, you know.” One guard nudged the other. And that was enough to get them released. Sticks nearly took out Knuckles to get her hat back as soon as the cell door was open.

“Now about our things-” Amy turned to the guards. Both of them gestured towards an unlocked chest off in the corner.

“Over there. Only grab your things and go.”

With that, the group collected their items, Sonic stopped though when a perfectly intact lute was found next to his broken one in the chest. He glanced over his shoulder to look at the preoccupied guards before looking back down at the lute. Surely they wouldn’t take notice if he just took it, right? He was an innocent little hedgehog after all and whoever was the original owner was CLEARLY an actual criminal since they were still locked in a cell and he was walking free.

After another quick glance at the guards (And a decent enough sleight of hand roll) he took the undamaged lute and left his broken one behind. It had served him well and managed to damage at least one skull. He’d remember it in his final days.

They quickly scurried out of the cell area, upon getting outside, Sonic saw the bard he’d knocked out earlier complaining to some other guard about the attack. He narrowed his eyes at the undamage lute on the other’s back and another BRILLIANT idea popped into his mind.

“I put a lute in the chest so you wouldn’t have to waste more time trying to get one. Do you want to get thrown back in jail??” Tails groaned right after Sonic asked to steal that other bard’s lute.

“What would you need two for anyway?” Amy sighed.

“Backup lute. In case I need to hit somebody with the other one again.”

The guard seemed VERY uninterested in the complaining bard before him. The bard doing more yelling than actually explaining. Easy target for Sonic to just cut the straps to his lute and yoink it off his back. (Thank you high sleight of hand and low DC. Whatever the DC stood for.)

Another task taken care of. With that, the group made their way away from the prison before anything else could happen that could end up with them back in the cells. Journeying down the brick road of town and-

The door to their home was kicked open, the familiar voices of two robots arguing to get in first echoed throughout. Both falling to the floor before quickly standing up and straightening out. Orbot coughing into his hand to get their attention - as if he didn’t have it already.

“We have come to announce-”

“I knew it!” Sonic stood up and almost placed his foot on the table until he caught Tails giving him something akin to a DEATH GLARE out of the corner of his eye. Message received and foot placed right back on the ground. But he still made the effort to point and smile in victory “I knew it was a lie! There is no vacation!”

“Actually there was.” Eggman stepped in a moment later. Martini glass in hand with a drink he quickly finished off before tossing it behind him. “But! The length of my vacation was indeed a lie! A clever trap setup while I prepared my latest hedgehog crushing bot! The robo-chick-”

“My guy…you ruined the sanctity of the really’s.” Knuckles interrupted and shook his head in disappointment. Eggman almost looked taken off guard for a moment before he quickly regained his momentum.

“Forget about the really’s.” He waved off their words and took in the scene before him “I have come to…are you playing Castles and Creepy Creatures?” 

“Oh my Chaos.” Sonic mumbled under his breath as he slumped back down and buried his face in his hands.

“You…you know about it?” Tails blinked in surprise. Though his tone was almost giddy. Little buddy, no. Don’t have something in common with someone like egghead.

Eggman coughed into his hand and straightened himself out. As if looking more dignified made it seem less awkward that he knew about some roleplaying game “Erm, yes. I was there when the first edition was released. And-” All of them were surprised when Tails slammed his hands on the table and practically zoomed to be in front of Eggman.

“The FIRST EDITION?? Do you know how rare those are? Do you still have it??”

“Pah! Of course I do! Why would I get rid of something like that? It’s the best version of the game there is. Now there are just too many rules. Back in my day a dungeon master had more control.”

Sonic groaned and leaned against Knuckles “This is like the third most nerdiest thing I have ever witnessed.” Next thing they knew, Eggman was practically being strongarmed by Tails to come sit at their game table “Really? We’re just inviting anyone to play now?”

“You don’t understand!” Tails turned to all of them “He’s been playing since the first edition! He remembers back when the game was at its peak!”

Eggman looked far too proud of himself for that fact. As if it were some sort of badge of honor to be that big of a nerd. Sonic almost wanted to comment on it but kept his mouth shut, not wanting to accidentally insult Tails at the same time. Even if he and Eggman were at the same level of nerdom right now. Oh where had he gone wrong with his little brother?

“This was just a quick one shot campaign while you were on vacation. I had to change some things for the end since we were running out of time. But this is what I have so far!” Tails held his papers up to Eggman. The scientist taking them and looking them over like a teacher grading an assignment. Tails staring at him with bated breath.

“We’re really okay with this?” Sonic looked to the others at the table. His response was resounding shrugs.

“It makes Tails happy. And it’ll just be for today. Would you rather be fighting the robo thingy outside?” Amy questioned.

“Yes!” Sonic huffed and crossed his arms. He was absolutely ready to throw down with the metal chicken outside. He could hear the robotic clucking!

“You’ve got a good story here for something that is so short and stuck following the guidelines of the tenth edition.” Eggman spoke up and scowled “I swear, they add more rules every year to this thing.”

“I know! They really nerfed the draaaag-” Tails quickly cut himself off. Sparing the others a glance before he looked back to Eggman “They uh…nerfed the bad guy I have planned for the end!”

Knuckles smirked and nudged Sonic’s side as he stage whispered “Told you it was a dragon!”

Their DM chose to ignore that with a twitch of his eye. Looking still at Eggman for suggestions. The scientist smirked and Sonic almost expected him to pull out a mini robot to destroy the table with and crush all of Tails’ dreams. But alas, he did not. The only thing the egghead pulled out was a pen and started writing things down.

“If we make a few minor changes, still in line with the tenth edition, we could make this harder. Give a real challenge.” Eggman gave an evil laugh. Sonic narrowed his eyes. Amy looked on the defensive. Knuckles bounced in his seat - elated he guessed the end game boss correctly. Sticks started to eye the snack table again.

Eggman slid the paper back towards Tails, who gave it all of his attention. A wide growing smirk spread across the fox’s face and he gave an approving nod “This is perfect! Even better than what I came up with! I never would have thought of that! Did you borrow this from the third edition?” He pointed to something on the paper that the others obviously couldn’t see. Eggman gave an affirmative nod.

“Sometimes you need to mix and match from other editions just to add more flair to the campaign. When they brought out the second edition I-”

“Can we get on with this??” Sonic nearly brought himself to shout but managed to control his volume. Rather offended when BOTH Tails and Eggman gave him an unimpressed look. Excuse him for not wanting to experience another nerd event in the same week!

So they indeed did get on with it.

After leaving the prison ( “You bumbling animals got yourself put in prison?” ) the group continued on. Able to gather more information as they made their way out of town as to what great power had quite possibly brought a plague onto Cardovina. Trekking up hills and snowy mountains where the rumored beast was said to go when it needed to rest. If it even really needed to rest.

“That’s it? We just found it?” Sonic quirked a brow “No other fanfare you want to add?”

“We have limited time and I didn’t want our last session to be you guys just searching for information. So, I gave you a shortcut to the final battle. As much as it kills me inside as a dungeon master to let you guys off that easy.” Tails sighed.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say it’s that easy. Not with the monster they have yet to face.” Eggman smirked.

The four adventurers stood at the entrance to a large cave. Hearing the faint sounds of heavy breathing from within. Clearly belonging to a creature of great size. Readying their weapons, they stepped forward and ventured in. As they progressed they soon came upon a wide alcove where in the center sat the sort of monster that typically only plagues people’s nightmares - Craigoth the Undead Dragon!

“I knew it was a dragon!” Knuckles shouted, as if he hadn’t already declared that earlier.

“The dragon’s name is Craig?” Sticks spoke up next before letting out an ugly sounding laugh.

“CRAIGOTH!” Eggman corrected her, looking insulted. It didn’t make it any less funny to Sticks. 

“Little typical to be fighting a dragon isn’t it?” Sonic rested his elbow on the table and leaned against his hand. 

“I was going to do the Mind Snooper but that is a lot for one campaign. And Craigoth is a dragon meant for one shots. He’s sort of uh…beginner’s guide to dragons?” Tails explained, letting out a huff when Sticks laughed again.

“CRAIG!”

They really were about to fight something named Craig. He couldn’t imagine it would be that hard.

It was that hard.

Initiative activated. Weapons drawn and spells cast. Health low. A few hits were dealt to the mighty undead beast - but not enough to make much of a dent. Sticks on the verge of going down with Sonic following a close second. Knuckles and Amy still held strong with at least half of their health. But the two of them against one dragon wouldn’t be enough. They needed a plan!

“We’re losing to a Craig.” Amy sighed and ran a hand down her face.

“Ah, not as easy as you thought, is it?” Eggman taunted and leaned back. His smirk ever growing.

“You shush it before my in game hammer becomes a real one.” Amy glared at him, Orbot and Cubot letting out an oooo from the spot they made for themselves on the couch.

“Quiet, you idiots!”

“You two keep trying to hit the dragon with your lute and staff and aren’t using effective spells,” She looked pointedly at Sonic and Sticks “How many spell slots do you have left?” Amy ignored Eggman scolding his lackeys and looked to Sonic. The blue hedgehog grimaced and looked down at his character sheet thing. Ah beans on a chilidog, he was supposed to be keeping track of that?

“Uh, I think three?”

“Sticks, what about you?”

“I was supposed to be counting??” Okay, so it wasn’t just him. Good to know.

Tails glanced over his DM shield and looked down at his paper “You have two left.”

“I can work with that.” Amy took both Sonic and Sticks’ character sheets and looked them over.

“Hey, hey. You aren’t supposed to be making the decisions for another player.”

It was now Amy’s turn to look unimpressed, an expression she wore well when it came to Eggman and anything to do with him “Ah, ah. If you bothered to read anything passed the editions of old-”

“I HAVE read the other editions, you little-”

“You’d know that the tenth edition states beginners can help receive help from more seasoned players, and not JUST the dungeon master, when it comes to explaining the intricacies that come with their classes and spells.” Her unimpressed expression turned to a smug one and Eggman looked as if steam could come out of his ears any moment. Hilarious.

Egghead turned to Tails - who nodded the affirmative “She’s right. I mean she’s the most seasoned one here since she read the book sooo-”

“Pah!” Eggman leaned back again and crossed his arms “Rose giving you tips won’t help you defeat Craig, AH! I meant Craigoth!”

“We’ll see about that.” Amy huffed and pursued the character sheets once more “I already have a plan.”

It was Sonic’s turn next, using his lute to cast Healing Word on Sticks. It wasn’t a lot of extra hit points he could give her. But it was enough where she hopefully wouldn’t go down in the next hit if she was targeted. Popping a potion open for himself and restoring a few of his own hit points as well.

“That’s two actions! He can’t do that!” Eggman argued.

Tails tapped his chin in thought before shrugging “Some DMs allow it. So I will too.”

“Are you actively undermining me??”

Knuckles’ turn was next. He swung his mighty battle axe with his rage activated. Managing to make contact and land a critical hit to the dragon’s defenses! ( “How does he keep doing that?” “Don’t ask.” ) The beast roared in rage but it could not yet attack. 

With some pep back in her step thanks to Healing Word, Sticks casted Mage Hand. Summoning a mystical, transparent hand that she directed behind the dragon. Using a bonus action to tug at the dragon’s tail and cause it to become momentarily distracted.

With the distraction in place, the paladin of the group sprung into action. She raised her warhammer and brought it down upon the undead creature. Once again it roared furiously and tried to regain the sort of composure only a dragon could have.

“Divine Smite be upon thee!” ( “Thee? Seriously?” “You be quiet.” ) Another blow delivered upon the dragon. It almost looked taken aback that it was dealt so much injury after such a previously poor performance.

But ah, now it was the undead dragon’s turn. Using its time to bring fright upon the party to try and discourage any future attacks so that it would not face retaliation for its own. But sadly for it, only the paladin was struck. Falling to her knees and left stunned and frightened. The rest of the group stood, ready to continue to fight in her place and defeat the dragon before any harm could come to their heaviest hitter.

“Try dealing with two of these guys!” Sonic laughed and summoned a mystical hand of his own. Two hands were better than one - as they say ( “Boooo! Stick to your day job, fox.” ) and with one pulling on the dragon’s tail and the recently summoned one going back and forth in trying to poke the creature’s eyes, it was thoroughly distracted. 

“Eat FIRE, you agent of the zombie high order!” Sticks shouted and pointed to the dragon. The ring of tall bright flames circling Craigoth. No time for the creature to think as a beam of what seemed like pure radiant energy brought the undead more damage. Causing it to stumble and almost walk into the surrounding circle of flames.

“Since when can she cast TWO spells?” Eggman turned to Tails with a pout.

“Hellish-”

“Kids show, little buddy.”

“Heckish Rebuke has always been a cantrip. So she gets that for free.”

“And Eldritch Blast?? Back in my day that was a cantrip too!” Eggman argued. Back in his day? Seriously?

“In the eighth edition they made it a bonus action first level spell.” Tails explained, seeming to grow a bit smug as he had to explain something to EGGMAN “And even if Sticks’ cast it at a higher level for more damage, it’s still a bonus action. Damage was taken.”

Steam was DEFINITELY going to start coming out of Eggman’s ears. 

Another perfect hit delivered by Knuckles’ battle axe ( “Seriously?? Are your dice rigged?” ) Amy unfortunately left stunned on the ground and unable to render an attack of her own. And though Craigoth stumbled and looked nearly on the verge of defeat, it delivered one sweeping blow at the adventurers. Bringing its sharp claws down upon them. The party’s warlock and paladin hit while the barbarian and bard managed to dodge. Sticks was once again hanging onto life by a thread and Amy still unable to move and would no doubt go down as well if she took any more similar hits. 

“It’s almost defeated!” Amy shouted in a shaky tone of voice. She looked at Sonic and gave a firm nod “You know what you have to do! Hit it with the Thunderclap!”

The blue hedgehog slowly looked down at his lute. One more hit and surely the beast would be defeated and all of Cardovina would be safe again. One hit with a strong burst of thunder and the beast would go down.

…But what was the fun in that?

“I cast Vicious Mockery!” 

“You WHAT!” Amy shouted in despair “Sonic!”

The bard found his way atop a jagged rock. Lute in hand as he started to strum the chords. 

“I stand up. Confident.” He sang with all the flare and charm a bard can have “Atop the rockery. Blasted on this dragon is VICIOUS MOCKERY!”

With a final sweeping strum of his lute, magic crackled in the air. A bright blue rippling mouth was summoned and started to laugh. Insults thrown left and right at the once fearsome creature. The undead monster roared in pain and agony as the laughing and harsh words rang loudly in its ear slits. It could take no more, and with one final taunt, it fell to the ground.

Congratulations. The dragon has been defeated. Cardovina is safe once again.

“What a way to go,” Sonic let out a snort as he leaned against the game table. Tails knocked down the giant dragon figurine he’d put on the table earlier - signaling its defeat “Beaten by deez.”

“Deez?” Eggman questioned, looking to be both highly irritating and pouting like a child would.

“Deez nu-”

“Sonic!” Amy quickly cut in with a scolding tone yet again “Kids show! Remember?”

“Right, right.” Sonic waved her off “Either way, imagine dying to some mean words. Can’t relate.” He tugged on his neckerchief, the smug look would not be coming off his face for a long while.

“You just…why would you…Knuckles did most of the damage!” Eggman argued and pointed to the red echidna.

“As the leader, that was my job.” Knuckles stated proudly, the indignant sound and shouting of Amy going “I was the leader!” completely ignored “Smash as much as possible and then let my teammates take some of the spotlight and earn their place by beating the dragon. It builds morale!”

“Sure, big guy.” Sonic gave the other a pat on the shoulder before turning back to Eggman “So about that robo hen or rooster or whatever kind it is.”

“You don’t get the honor of fighting Henrietta until tomorrow! I need an aspirin…” Eggman groaned as he got up from his spot at the table. Giving Tails one last look as he motioned for his bots to follow him “I can’t believe you allowed half of that. Back in my day-”

“As rare and cool as the first edition was, a lot of the rules were restrictive and lacking. No one had fun, that's why they came out with the second edition.” Tails took off his cloak and tossed it onto the couch. Officially out of dungeon master mode “Buuuut, I can still come see the book some time in person? Right?”

Not even Eggman could be immune to the little brother big eyed stare. He at least pretended to be at first by rolling his eyes “Fine. Whatever. Maybe. Get out of my way.” He grumbled all the way to the door. Orbot and Cubot carrying some bags of snacks in their arms for the road. Sticks almost went after them with a shout until Amy pulled her back down.

“You went off plan.” Amy huffed before she began to help Tails clean up the game table. Knuckles and Sticks made sure to get away as soon as they could to avoid offering such help. What was left of the snack table reclaimed by them.

“Eh, sometimes you need some spontaneous action,” Sonic shrugged. “Still won, didn't we? And it was kind of fun to see egghead’s head spin from being corrected the whole time.” He looked to Tails, still maintaining a bit of a cocky smirk “When are we playing again? Next time bring old Eggman over from the start. See if we can’t make his whole bald head turn red by not doing it by his old man version of the book.”

Tails eyes lit up in surprise “You’d…you’d want to play again?”

The blue hedgehog’s smirk softened into a fond smile before he put an arm around his little brother “Sure. Why not? Besides, you really seemed to be getting into it at the end there.”

Tails gave a nervous chuckle “I like playing the dragons. And I’ve never had someone play a bard that actually sang a part of their spell outloud before!”

“Consider me the first. And the best.” He tugged at his neckerchief again, that time a bit more haughtily. Soon being dragged into clean up duty by Amy before he could ever hope to escape. 

And with that, Cardovina fell into relative peace once again. How an undead dragon could cause such an uproar and increase in chaos, no one was sure. But what they did know is that they had four saviors to thank. The townsfolk cheered as the adventurers entered the town that had once looked at them in shame and disappointment. Treating them like the heroes they now were. 

And with that, their tale was drawn to a close. At least until the next vacation.

[adasknife]

another ada x reader and leon x reader that i will probably write if i'm not lazy. but anyways, ada and reader had been working as mercenaries for the longest time. reader is tired and wants to leave while ada sees as an... obligation. reader is completely honest with their thoughts of this line of work while ada isn't. so, during raccoon city- the job was simple enough but not to survive. ada needed a double pair of hands.

so, that's when leon sees two people claiming to be fbi. reader is sympathizing towards leon because them can push him away like that. while ada is a bit more colder. so, when leon takes the gun wound for ada, they both help him and ada tells them that they need to finish the mission. but reader shakes their head. leon is innocent in this.

the couple's first argument comes in but ends as ada goes to get annette. reader stays with leon. when leon wakes up, reader immediately goes to get their girlfriend. that's when leon and reader begin to work together. when they find ada down there, reader quickly panicked- they didn't have the hacking machine like ada so... more working with leon. during this time, reader explains to him how to deal with the creatures of the sewers.

when they save ada, reader now checks on their girl and helps ada. when they go to the labs, reader is determined to now finish this mission. they have a plan to run away with ada but ada doesn't want reader to get hurt so she tells leon to go. they are temporarily alone and reader kisses ada, "he can handle himself." ada whispered, "he can't." reader whispered back. "he is stupid. he believed we were fbi agents."

ada sighed softly, "go help him then." reader kissed ada again, "love you."

and there goes reader helping leon again.

then, that's when shit goes bad. annette tells leon that ada and reader are mercenary. reader sighed, it was going to hard to explain this.

blah, blah, ada comes in demanding the virus and expected reader to help her. but reader shook their head. "ada, we can stop." but no ada says no. ada is dangling now and reader is crying not wanting to lose their girlfriend. once she fell, reader is alone. then, all they has is a stranger she just met. they attempt to escape and they made it. reader rested their head on leon's shoulder.

reader didn't expect to get caught by the government so quickly. "if you want to live, join us."

and they did. reader trained with leon and explained their backstory and now leon and reader slowly turned into friends. those six years pass and they turned into best friends who know how to fight together. they have their first mission together in spain, when they find ashley reader says that will clean up the mess so it'll be safer for ashley. that's when reader could tell someone was looking at them. ada isn't jealous of leon but she does hate him.

if leon wasn't there, ada and reader would've been still together. and leon is not making easy as he kept lowkey flirting with reader.

ada is trying to get their partner back by helping leon. but things are different now. reader is angry, "why didn't you tell me you are alive?" ada rolled her eyes. during spain, ada is disliking more and more the way leon and reader are with each other.

"we could've have a good life together, [ada's real name]. why didn't you want it?"

when the helicopter comes, ada looked at reader, "reader?"

reader shakes their head. now, it's their obligation to stay with the government or who knows what will happen. they would've betrayed both the mercenary life and the government life- ada looks down. reader was unaware that ada was also forced to be a mercenary and reader was... reader was all ada had.

during the years, ada and leon are petty towards each other if they have mission when they have to talk together. ada still hates leon. she hates him so much. and she hates how reader now holds his hand when they are nervous. ada can't do nothing as they slowly fall in love with each other. why?

maybe it's the guilt- reader gave them an option twelve years ago and ada didn't accept it. ada could've been an agent with them... they could have been safe.

[karizipan]

🦐🦐🦐

[tblsomedoodles]

Just a young Rider with his baby dragon. Nothing bad will happen to them. honest.

Rereading Eragon (b/c reading fourth wing and Iron Flame only succeeded in making me want to read something that actually focuses on the dragons/dragon riding aspects. b/c that's why i was there) and thought, hey this would be cute to draw for a speedpaint.

My computer thought otherwise and decided to shut down when i was almost done, corrupting the video.

The doodle got save (thank you csp for your recovery feature!) but yeah, no speedpaint to go with it.

So back to the drawing board. Literally. (and the speedpaint is already late too : / )

[shirozora-draws]

... anyway! if i wasn't so tired/busy this whole fucking month, i'd already have gotten to a comfortable spot in the 3quelfic Part 1 revisions and started the final outline and first draft of That Staircase Doodle fic, but i am tired/busy so the best I can do right now is spend way too much time sketching and cleaning up said sketching some thoughts on Reluctant Mand'alor Din and Jedi Knight/Ambassador Luke.

i intentionally left in the older sketch line layers to 1) show my thought(?) process as i figure out a composition and 2) remind myself that this is NOT a polished piece, I don't got time to make fancy arts beside the 3 final prints for the print shop project.

I have one more scribble ready to go but it's thematically so dramatically different from this little one that I'll post it either Thursday or Friday night.

... I should.... actually get back to writing fic actually.

[bonefall]

I feel like the Warriors writers are allergic to making a character be cool. Like they all have to be an every man from humble origins and stuff nowadays. Why can't we ever just jump in like 'yeah this guy has cool river powers so we follow him' and BAM have an actual interesting story/concept/world it's always gotta be 'here is how he learns how to swim he is not special and here is his biography now :)' and its driving me NUTS these books are about! cats with magic powers!!

SO true, like, it's as if they saw the backlash to Tigerheart's resurrection and got scared of ever doing anything cool ever again. And they're COWARDS for it. THIS SERIES HAS ALWAYS HAD MAGIC. FUCK OFFFFF, THE CATS CAN DIE 9 TIMES AND FEAR THE WRATH OF GODS, GROW A SPINE

They didn't even HAVE to give him cool ass water powers or anything, just a special connection to the river, y'know? Have him treat it like a living being when others just think it's water. EASY. But nooooo They'll take the only good founder and be like, "What if he had nothing cool about him at all and his wife taught him everything actually."

[icewindandboringhorror]

finally finished all of one character's entire quests/optional dialogue/questions/etc.... 100,000 words... .... aughhh

[damnation-if]

on today's episode of Hashing Out Concepts Theatre, i spent a while today while waiting for my new fridge/freezer to be installed after my previous one died and i lost all my food hashing out a bunch of concepts for another game idea i have. (rest assured i'm not actually working on it as a game yet i just like to bash out a framework for things every now and then to make my brain do happy chemicals lmao)

putting all of this stuff under a cut since it's a bunch of images and also in case people aren't interested XD

i am regrettably a huge fan of comic books (mostly DC) and i've seen a couple of comic book inspired IFs popping up lately, though when it comes to my own interest, i'm definitely more into a straight interpretation of a comic book universe than a more. the boys-style universe - i'm into the camp lol, not so much the grim and gritty stuff. (though that's just my own personal preference)

anyway the idea behind That's Just Super is something that i really like about certain comics - giving the villains more of a purpose and rounded existence than just existing to be in somebody's rogue's gallery. the joker's angry defence of the batfamily from various other DC evil forces, lex luthor's furious resistance against brainiac alongside superman because it's His planet, damn it, DOOM throwing in with the heroes in every second marvel event comic... i really like stories where villains and evil characters don't always make the Most Evil choice just Because, but have clear and explainable motivations that sometimes bring them into what we'd consider a 'good' alignment because unlike in d&d, there's no real such thing as a concrete moral alignment.

(this is my banner design for it)

the basic idea is that an inexplicable cosmic event removes all of the superheroes from the planet, leaving it vulnerable to attack by evil mindflayer style aliens - unless the supervillains who remain are able to band together despite their more unpredictable, less cooperative natures and save the planet in the heroes' absence. after all... if aliens take over the earth, the villains can't take it over themselves.

here's my fun little UI design idea lmao...

the other major thing about That's Just Super that i've been hashing out is the pc. the basic idea is that you pick your villain identity from a list but you get to customise their like. birth name and secret identity, while the villain identity comes with its own name, costume, and set history (including occasionally past romantic encounters). i like playing around with the way that IF works with the idea of mcs and customisable mcs so i just thought it'd be a fun twist... it also allows me to create nice drama by having set occurrences in the past lol.

so i did some profiles for the nine villain options - three each of the DC triad of tech/metahuman/magic origin. they're all based on a specific kind of villain archetype, and i really tried to limit myself to ones where i could definitely pin down more than one specific influence so it didn't end up like me just making too many analogues haha... even if some of the influences are probably pretty obvious.

weirdly i haven't even Thought about ROs yet since i've been so focussed on the pc... maybe i'll play around with the partially set background idea even more and only have 1 possible RO for each villain choice or something. maybe a couple that you can romance as anybody... not sure. (talionis could definitely have a messy broken romance with his superhero for example)

apologies that readability isn't great but these are mostly just made for me lmao

[bookshelf-in-progress]

How many times do I have to learn the lesson that I should start the story when the story starts instead of trying to tack on introductory worldbuilding?

Seriously. My instincts about when to start the story are almost never wrong. But I always assume the first scene in my imagination requires set-up that people outside of my imagination don't have. So I tack on an intro to set the mood and to set up the plot and characters and world. And it's boring. When I should have just started where I wanted to start so I could weave explanations into a scene where things are actually happening.

[sequesteredbhaalspawn]

Just going to go ahead and be silly with this post.

Because I miss EA Wyll so much I'm going to rename him "Byll" (I am so creative, sorry for the sarcasm, might think of a more unique name when I have the brain power to do so) Full Release Wyll Ravenguard's twin brother who also entered into a contract with Mizora- but instead he's an oath breaker paladin and can't reclaim his oath until he is freed of his contract. When he is freed he becomes an oath of devotion paladin.

He would be found in act 2 also being sent to save "Zariel's Asset" and have a reunion with Wyll- but something is wrong and Byll wont speak or look at Wyll- part of his contract being he can not talk to his brother. Part of Wyll's contract being he can't mention he has one. Which play into Mizora's already (abusive) tactics of isolating people.

If you didn't massacre the goblins in act one, you can travel back to their camp and have things play out similarly to how EA went (but without the ''where is Mizora'' angle because that would be settled in act 2). OR just have the content play out in Moonrise towers, but in a more limited way.

Romances between Byll and Wyll would be mutually exclusive (meaning they can not be done at the same time). Byll will be poly though.

Need to think more on how he and Wyll will interact and stuff, and how to fit him in better with Wyll's story.

[tennessoui]

i don’t like hunger games au at all, and i avoid reading not completed fics generally but can i say. Can i say that your hunger games fic is the only think i’ve been capable of thinking for the last days and it’ s only the first chapter? the snippet of the dinner scene —"will you love me if i come back a monster?" / "i will always love you anakin"— made me lose my breathe jesus christ. this fic is everything i ever asked — unhinged lovers for each other, anakin being that younger version of vader who bite onto obiwan and never will let him go, obiwan too addicted to loving and be loved by anakin to standing the thought of losing him, codependency relationship based on needs and possessiveness and crazy addiction they will die if it’s not for this love? the "marriage vows who sealed the death of twenty three kids" line ? i can’t breathe you’re a genius

ahh thank you for giving my hunger games au a chance even though it is both a hunger games au and a wip!! i think having a lot written on tumblr really helps because it gives such a good outline of what the fic will become and what the story will be for both characters - putting it on ao3 is really just fleshing it out and making it sing as a written work

i think what i always struggle with when it comes to aus of other media is the instinct i have to make them 1:1 aus, which is what i call aus where i'm subbing my ship in for the characters of the media, i.e. putting anakin in for katniss and obi-wan in for peeta and pressing play.

at that point im like. why not just read the book if that's what i want to see, so that's something i like about this hunger games au because i'm just using the setting & the premise - anakin isn't meant to be a sub-in for katniss as the tribute and obi-wan isn't meant to be a sub in for peeta as the love interest or haymitch as the mentor and so i find writing it so much easier - i feel less constrained than i would if i was trying to make anakin feel like anakin skywalker from star wars, and also my own character for this fic and also katniss from this different media altogether

and yeah it's fun to make them fucked up and crazy about each other in new and different ways and so im so glad the first chapter has been posted and i can work on the second one now because damn that reaping is gonna be so fun