#edit i should have made the adult squid one like. human

[whatgaviiformes]

Fic: lend me the courage of stars

Summary: It’s the anniversary of their mother’s death, and Gordon takes John out for an adventure at sea, so unlike his home in the skies, and yet so connected. Genre: Family, Angst - Warning for grief over Mom’s death Characters: Gordon, John Words: 6K Also connected to John’s birthday month extravaganza -and I think I hit a few :) A/N: Thank you to @godsliltippy, @the-original-sineater​, and @gumnut-logic​ for the support and read throughs (the many versions of). This wouldn’t be as solid without you. Thank for, Thunderfam, for reading, and continuing to support me as I’ve worked through the last few weeks. It’s been rough, still ongoing, but this fic - and the excitement to share it with you - has been an important constant I’ve been able to fall back on.  There are a few key references made that I’d like to note - First  - This fic draws from a book I read as a young adult by Madeleine L’Engle, called A Ring of Endless Light. If you’ve read the book or her works you may recognize a few references. The name Eddington comes from an important character in her novels. 

Second - This fic also draws from Nutty’s Kermadec AU, and, through it’s evolution, just kind of kept sliding into it. I am calling this Kermadec AU-djacent. If you have not yet read “We’ll Be Home for Christmas” you should.  Thanks for letting me play around with the boys and concepts you’ve built, Nutty.  Third -  Skipper wiggled her way in and wouldn’t let go. So, as part of this story, you all get to meet Gordon’s puppy, inspired by this post here, which was a  commissioned gift from Tippy. 

Music: The title “lend me the courage of stars”  does, in fact, come from a song!  “Lend Me the Courage of Stars” - by Lights and Motion YT | Spotify No lyrics, just emotions, the genre is cinematic, and I so adore the build in this one.  Phew - that was a long one, thanks for reading. The fic in full will be over at Ao3, link below. I’ll get around to FF. Edit - FF added below :) ----- It was not a normal Tracy welcome home.

Usually, John came home to one of two scenarios. Either the whole family (and way too many people at once) met him in the hangar. And if Gordon had anything to say about it, he’d be there like a stranger at the airport waiting for their party, one LARGE sign: Looking for - Ginger with a Bagel. Or, Space Cadet Carrot Top. Or, John’s current favorite, Vulcan in Disguise.

That last one had Virgil’s handwriting all over it. 

Or, there was no one to greet him at all between rescues, maintenance work, and their own unique hobbies and passion projects. And, sure, it was sometimes a bit lonely in those cases, but there were advantages too. It gave him time to rest until he felt more human, and only then would he embark on a sibling scavenger hunt. 

Today, it had simply been Gordon who met him upon arrival, at 1100 hours, sans airport sign, greeting him with his usual squid hug, but with a bit more squeeze behind it than normal. 

“I’m glad you’re here,” Gordon breathed into his shirt. “Terra firma not good enough for you?”

“Terra Firma is fine,” John quipped. “Gravity’s not.” Gordon gripped his chest tighter, and the pressure built behind his eyes. Behind those jokes was a scared child, a little boy who lost his mom too early in life and who needed his big brother’s support on the anniversary of her death. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be, Gordon.”  Read at Ao3 Read at FF

[hercycleface]

Global inventory of wonderful beer: What I drink is not wine, but creativity!

Isn't beer just yeast, barley, water and hops? Well, it's also right and wrong-for some beer, this statement is simply wrong. The brains of the beer brewer are too big, and sometimes the brewed beer-how to put it-is quite "interesting". The following wonderful beers are the best examples.

Collagen beer Speaking of weirdness, the Japanese definitely do their part. Suntory launched a collagen beer called Precious, which is said to remove wrinkles left by the years and make you look young and invincible. This 5-degree Talrag comes in 330ml cans and contains 2 grams of collagen per can.

Cat Shit Beer You must have heard of the famous cat feces coffee: a civet living in the tropics eats coffee cherries and is discharged from the other side of the body. The action of stomach acid can make coffee beans produce a different flavor. Beer Geek Brunch Weasel from Megele is a breakfast Shitao with an alcohol level of 10.9-be careful, the wine is full of strength.

Bloody (Mary) Beer Well, strictly speaking, it is not based on Bloody Mary, a good brunch partner. However, Short's Brewing Company of Bel Air, Michigan does use cherry tomatoes in its Bloody Beer, as well as black pepper and celery. Rapeseed, wasabi, and dill, so it’s similar to Bloody Mary. This "Cool Beer from Bel Air" has long been discontinued, with an alcohol content of 7, and an international bitterness index of 40.

Fossil beer The Lost Rhino Brewery in Virginia and PaleoQuest, a non-profit organization that promotes the excavation of dinosaur fossils rather than food trends, have teamed up to create a beer that will attract attention to science. They collected yeast from whale fossils 35 million years ago and made a 5.5-degree beer named Bone Dusters Amber Ale. Cool! It's a pity that the yeast is not collected from the fossils of the long extinct rhino or Tyrannosaurus.

Sheep dung beer After reading this list, you will find that Icelandic brewers really have a lot of free time and a whimsical spirit of adventure. The Borg Brugghus brewery is a good example: due to lack of wood, they lighted the sheep dung pile to smoke and roast the malt when making Fenrir Nr26. American IPA smoked and roasted with sheep dung, alcohol content 6, and international bitterness index 63.

Beer older than whale fossils Fossil Fuels Brewing Co has a product called AY108, which uses yeast found in bee fossils. This bee was wrapped in pine resin and turned into amber in the Eocene Eocene 45 million years ago (is it so shocking that it can’t close its mouth?). Professor Raul Cano figured out how to separate the yeast from above, and then wondered how to make the best use of it. Finally, he chose to brew beer instead of bread. The first result is this Dan Aier named after yeast, and there is also a Saisen.

Beer made with money The evil twins collaborated with the Norwegian craft brewer Lervig Aktiebryggeri in the port of Stavanger. The raw material is real banknotes. What's even more exaggerated is that they threw some frozen pizza into it. The alcohol content is 17.5 degrees.

Heavy beer from the toilet The Danish government and Norrebro Bryghus brewery are really fighting for environmental protection, and they even have the idea of ​​urinating. They recovered a large amount of urine from the famous Roskilde Music Festival and used it to brew a Pearson called Pisner. Do you want to contribute to the cause of sustainable development? Then taste the piss of these hippies.

Colorful beer Abashiri Brewery in Hokkaido, Japan uses seaweed and other natural ingredients to brew red, blue and green beer. They also used beer and excess milk to produce a malt drink called Bilk. Apart from other things, at least it is colorful.

Beer made from sewage The sewage in the sewer sounds as disgusting as dirty waste oil. I'm afraid no one can drink anything made of it. The Jushi Brewery in San Diego brewed an IPA using recycled water provided by the city's water purification project. This Dan Air, called Full Circle, is limited to five barrels, but it may indicate the future of beer brewing.

Roald Dahl Beer Yeast is ubiquitous and can be collected everywhere, so why not collect some yeast from the custom desk of the late children's literature writer Roald Dahl? London creative company Bompas & Parr entrusted this task to 40FT Brewery to brew Odious Ale for a pop-up restaurant based on Dahl's "Stupid Couple".

Beer from the moon Dogfish Head Brewery is keen to challenge the limit, but often thinks too crazy and circumvents itself in, but the time when they ventured into space may be their most rebellious exploration so far. With the help of the company that makes spacesuits for NASA, they got some dust on the moon, which was taken from NASA where the moon landed on the moon—well, no more obscurations, it’s on the moon— —Collected, and then spilled into this limited edition beer called Oktoberfest. Alcohol 5, International Bitterness Index 25.

Elephant Poop Beer The Japanese brewery Sankt Gallen wanted to brew a beer that will be unforgettable, so he thought of elephant poo. How does it work? They fed coffee cherries to elephants living in Thailand’s wildlife sanctuary, and then brewed a "chocolate shitao" called Un, Koon Kuro (a pun for "poop" in Japanese) from elephant dung coffee beans. It was also selected for sale on April Fool's Day, but this is not a joke.

Beer as dark as ink Cuttlefish juice—or more precisely the juice of cuttlefish, squid and octopus, or the juice of cephalopods—can be said to be everywhere now, so you can’t help thinking that these animals are scared when they face the extinction of humans. What is it like? Anyway, the master brewer of 3 Sheeps in Wisconsin created a black IPA called Nimble Lips Noble Tongue No3, using cuttlefish juice.

Too private beer We are all adults, but the Internet will always surprise us head-on, especially when you see a page on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo for the world’s first vaginal beer fundraising-this one is called Bottled Instinct's acid ale uses lactic acid extracted from a Czech model. We don't know if anyone will drink it, because this project has not even raised 1% of the final goal of 150,000 euros, and it should be a joke on April Fools' Day at all? Otherwise, it really makes people get goosebumps.

16. Add a whole chicken to beer

Over the years, the rooster Al almost cast a layer of mystery. It is said that it was very popular in England in the 17th and 18th centuries. In fact, it is an ordinary Al, but a whole rooster was added during the brewing process. Hand Pulled Cock Ale from Willimantic Brewing Co in Connecticut-7% alcohol, only available in barrels-is a modern version of Cock Ale, but its name still implies that old joke (you got it).

Fried chicken beer As the song in "Grease" sings, fried chicken and beer are good partners, so why not add some chicken to the beer? Veil Brewing Co of Richmond, Virginia, and the evil twins teamed up to brew chicken beer. Their Fried Fried Chicken Chicken DIPA uses a lot of Fried Chicken Nuggets.

Sheep brain beer Philadelphia's Dock Street Brewing Company brewed Dock Street Walker to pay tribute to "The Walking Dead," but it was more terrifying than zombies, using smoked lamb brains. This American Pale Shitao is 7.2 degrees, and cranberries are added to create a touch of acidity.

Whale testicle beer Icelandic microbrewer Steoji has launched Hvalur 2, which is an upgraded version of Hvalur 1, which was produced in cooperation with the whaling company Hvalur and caused a huge controversy due to the addition of full whale meat (fish meat and fish bones). As the second seasonal crossover, it uses whale testicles smoked and roasted with sheep dung—well, one is added to each winemaking cycle.

Masculine beer The Rocky Mountain Oyster Stout of Wynkoop Brewing in Denver was originally just an April Fools' Day joke, but I didn't expect it to become a reality because of the public's enthusiastic response. With an alcohol content of 7.5, three cow testicles are added to each barrel-this "gourmet" is nicknamed Rocky Mountain Oysters locally. A set of two cans is quite appropriate.

Bull Heart Beer Portland's Upright Brewing and Burnside Brewing collaborated to produce this Captain Beefheart. The ingredients include 27 kilograms of charcoal grilled beef heart and a lot of spices. Similar products include the Burke In The Bottle, a collaboration between Jim Koch of Boston Beer Company and chef David Burke.

Sunday barbecue beer Conwy Brewery in Wales caters to the close relationship between locals and sheep and brews a lamb beer. Sunday Toast is a Victorian-style Porter beer with the juice from slow roasting of Welsh lamb. Perhaps lamb-ic is more appropriate.

Truffle beer Truffles are very expensive. Using them to brew beer seems a bit risky, but some people have succeeded. Chicago Moody Tongue's black truffle crumbs Pearson is highly sought after in some of the top high-end restaurants in the United States, while Miki Le has chosen to use black truffles to brew a dark beer called The Forager.

Stag semen beer Green Man Pub in Wellington, New Zealand, and local brewer Choice Bros brewed a beer with stag semen, which caused a huge sensation for a while. We will not continue to discuss the name Lu Jing Shitao to obtain such a subtle beer, let's stop here.

Mushroom beer In the past few years, the brewery seems to have used all the mushrooms imaginable. Jester King of Austin, Texas used locally grown oyster mushrooms in this Snorkel. 4.5 Alcohol, Goss style.

Oysters (really real this time) beer The encounter between Oyster and Shi Tao gave birth to many interesting stories. We used to drink Shitao while sucking oysters beautifully. Now we use oyster shells to clarify the beer, or put them in a boiling pot, or even throw whole oysters into it. Flying Dog Pearl Necklace Oyster Shitao did just that.

Natural green beer Free Tail Brewing Co of San Antonio, Texas adds blue-green algae to a 4.2-degree rye white beer to give it a charming blue-green color. If the advertisements of Mandalay Brewing in Myanmar and Red Dot Brewery in Singapore are accurate, Spirulina beer has another magical effect-anti-aging.

Seaweed beer Bladderwrack is a good name for beer, but it is actually a kind of seaweed. Williams Bros Brew in Alloa, Scotland added it to its own Kelpie Seaweed Ale. This Scottish Groot-an ancient beer style-is intended to recreate the traditional style of beer from the coastal regions of Scotland.

Real gold beer We have all drunk golden Al, but have you ever drunk gold? Golden Queen Bee brewed by Golden Bee Beer contains edible 24K gold leaf. There is no need to throw gold like this, but if you can get another bottle of The Lost Abbey's Gift Of The Magi-a golden Al with frankincense and myrrh, then you must be full of every cell in your body The joy of Christmas.

Pizza beer Mamma Mia Pizza Beer is produced by the Chicago Pizza Beer Company. The ingredients include Margarita Pizza soaked in malt. We don’t know if the crust is Chicago-style.

Donut beer Voodoo Donuts Maple Syrup Bacon Al is the first beer launched by Voodoo Donut Bakery in collaboration with Rogue Brewery, also in Oregon. The series includes six products so far. They want to use these beers to reproduce the best-selling single-product flavors of this bakery in Portland. The latest flavors currently launched are Guerrilla Grape and Mango Spaceman.

Pig head beer Mangalica Pig Porter uses the head and bones of Mangalica Pig. This breed of pig is quite precious and is known as Kobe beef in pork. Right Brain Brewery in Traverse City, Missouri uses whole pig heads when brewing this beer, and even the eyeballs are still in the eye sockets. The winery also brews a series of more delicious pork pie beers, with raw materials including whole pork pie from a local bakery.

Expired bread beer The raw material of toast air is leftover bread that cannot be eaten, and it aims to eliminate food waste. All the profits from this beer brewed with excess bread are donated to charitable organizations, and even a factory is set up in the Bronx, New York. The recipe is public, so you can try it yourself with the leftover bread you eat.

Just put your crying beer There is a resonance between Chili Control and Beer Mania, which is why countless beers have combined these two things in one in pursuit of a mixed effect. The grimace killer at the Twisted Pine Brewery in Colorado—named after the Wudang rapist of the same name—uses six different varieties of peppers. Among them, the hottest pepper is the Devil Pepper (also known as Broken Soul Pepper). Scoville's index exceeds 1 million-the pepper is only about 2000. You can imagine how spicy it is.

Bearded beer Rogge Beard Beer can be regarded as one of the most weird beers in the world. Brewmaster John Maier extracts yeast from his beard and brews an American wild ale. Maier once vowed that he would never shave his beard, so the raw material of this beer can really be said to be

[washiwrites]

I Want To Be A Paladin

This was for the Paladin / Thief square on the Bingo card, but I did NOT get it written in time. I’ve got an outline for one more story based on the bingo card after this that I didn’t get to do, but since I’ve got them outlined, I’d like to still do them.

I hope this appeals to someone else besides me XD

Warnings: Angst, Shance / Pre-Shance (Although it can be read as friendship)

EDIT: Edited the story to be less bad AND put it on AO3!

Read on AO3 HERE

Shiro’s steps slowed as he walked, body hesitating without his consent as he approached the door to Lance’s room. The halls of the military hospital were quiet at night, only the night staff moving between the rooms on their rounds. Well, only the staff and himself. One of the perks of being ‘Takashi Shirogane: Captain of the Atlas’ was that the staff were willing to bend the rules for visiting hours slightly to allow him to visit his former team - his friends - while they recovered from the injuries they sustained in the last battle.

Lance was the last of the human Paladins Shiro had yet to visit in the hospital.

As soon as he could get away from his duties he’d gone to see Keith. The Black Paladin was still suffering the effects of the concussion he’d sustained during their last battle, although he'd refused any of the stronger painkillers he’d been offered despite the pounding headache he had. Instead he’d opted for as much nausea medication as he was allowed and conversations held in low voices only, which Shiro disapprovingly complied with. At least he was lucid; according to Kroalia he’d been worse in the varga or so immediately after he woke up, calling her ‘Crystal’ and asking her several times to slow the bed down because they were going too fast for him to steer it properly.

He drifted off to sleep mid-sentence, so Shiro had left him to rest and gone to visit Pidge next, sparing a quick but fond greeting to Matt and Sam Holt as they left her room to hunt down a late dinner for themselves. Pidge was still a bundle of energy despite being bedridden, talking easily with Shiro about what her family had been doing and how things were in the universe outside the Garrison while slowly making her way through what was left of her own dinner. Shiro stayed talking with her much longer than he should have, content to sit beside her and listen as she jumped from one topic to the next, some combination of her injuries,the painkillers she was on, and exhaustion rendering her unable to stay fixed on any single thing long enough to really finish a thought. By the time she was nearing the end of one idea she was already moving on to the next improvement she could make or the next thing she needed to look up. Shiro excused himself with instructions for her to sleep once the flow of words slowed down.

Hunk was the next closest, so Shiro made sure to check in on him to make sure he was okay. His family had snuck him extra food for dinner; The fact that he still had some tako poke left to offer Shiro told him more about how Hunk was really feeling than any number of assurances that he was doing fine and was just a little banged up around the middle.

Shiro had eaten all of the offered squid embarrassingly fast, not realising exactly how hungry he was until he’d started. It didn’t hurt that the food was amazing, which he’d mentioned about half a dozen times before Hunk had laughed, followed immediately by a pained grimace and a promise to tell his Mom how good Shiro thought her poke was.

Shiro beat a rather guilty retreat from Hunk’s room after that.

That left him here, slowly approaching Lance’s door. He hadn’t spoken much to Lance since his resurrection, at first because he was unconscious, then because Keith was a constant shadow at his side, then because he’d been traveling with Pidge… There were a lot of excuses as to why he hadn’t talked to Lance, but they all amounted to the same thing: Shiro knew he should talk to talk to Lance at some point, and he hadn’t. He didn’t even know why he hadn’t. Perhaps it was because he’d connected with Lance for a moment within Voltron when he’d been unable to reach anyone else.

Maybe it was because his clone been closer to Lance and worked with him more than Shiro had before his untimely demise, and Shiro hadn’t quite integrated all those memories. He’d spoken to Pidge about what happened during his time inside the Black Lion while riding with her, and she’d given him the cliff-notes version of everything his doppleganger had done, helping give context to the few scattered memories and sensations that had been trickling back into his mind through the cracks, but he still felt like there was a lot missing. Fleeting moments where an ache bloomed in his chest that felt familiar and completely foreign all at once, where he wanted to turn one way or move another, expecting something that just wasn’t there. A sensation that he should remember why he felt the way he felt, only to find nothing.

He’d stalled for long enough. He was going to go see Lance now, and if he was already asleep, that was fine. If he wasn’t, Shiro was going to sit next to him and talk to him like an actual adult. Holding that decision firmly in his mind, he covered the final three steps across the hall to Lance’s door and raised his floating hand to knock.

A pained, rasping sound beyond the door had him freezing before he made contact.

A shock of cold panic flooded over him as he shouldered the door open and dashed in, mind already racing itself to provide the worst case scenario. How badly had Lance been hurt? Was he having trouble breathing? Should Shiro be calling a nurse? His chest had been damaged, right? What if his lung had been punctured or collapsed or something, and the medical staff had somehow missed it, and now Lance was-

-Sitting on the hospital bed with his blankets pooled around his waist, staring at him in uncomprehending surprise. Shiro scanned over him quickly, checking for any visible sign of an untreated injury only to find treated bruises and bandages, nothing more. Tears ran over Lance's cheeks to drip from his chin and the tip of his nose, and his eyes were red and puffy, making both their natural blue colour and the dark circles under them stand out in equal measure.

As Shiro watched, Lance’s expression fell from surprise to horror before he turned deliberately away to hide his face and slide his hands under the blankets. Shiro’s panic faded into confusion and concern. It was obvious that Lance had been crying, so why was he trying to hide it? And what had he hidden under the blankets as soon as he’d realised that Shiro was there?

Lance scrubbed his face on his shoulder, using the hospital clothes he’d been put in to wipe some of the tears of his face while sniffing as subtly as he was able. “Shiro,” he croaked in greeting, voice low and rasped. Shiro flinched in surprise at the sound - his throat sounded like it had been badly injured during the fight, although Shiro didn't want to think about how. “I wasn’t expecting any other visitors today.”

“Lance?” Shiro stepped towards the bed, hesitating at the edge before sitting. “What’s wrong?”

Lance’s shoulders hunched up, his whole being tense for a long moment before he slumped and turned back towards Shiro. Something in Lance’s expression was familiar to him; a combination of hurt, defeat and sadness shining in his eyes as they met Shiro’s own.

He felt that familiar ache all over again, but he tamped down on the sensation and forced himself to smile as encouragingly as he could manage.

With a sigh, Lance pulled his hands out from under the blankets and held them out towards Shiro. “Veronica found these in the cockpit after the fight.” He paused to clear his throat, doing little to make his voice sound less rough than it had before. If anything it sounded more raw. “She thought they might be important to me, so she bought them here. Laughed at me a bit for being a big nerd first though.”

Shiro held out his floating hand, allowing Lance to place two objects on his palm. Lance’s hands lingered for a breath before he drew them back, letting his fingers brush briefly over the tips of Shiro’s own on the way back to his lap.

It took a long moment of staring at the gray figurines in his hand in confusion for a memory to spark.

They were Monsters and Mana figures. Lance’s Thief and Shiro’s Paladin. “You...you kept these?” He whispered.

Lance bit his lip and nodded. “It- It’s stupid, I know. I keep having to tell myself that he - it - He wasn’t really you, that he was sent in as a spy or sleeper agent or something. And I’m dumb, so I keep trying to tell myself none of it was real, we didn’t really…” he paused, taking another rasping breath, “we didn’t…” he tried again, only to choke back another sob before regaining control of his voice. “But then I look at that figure, and all I can think is that, whoever he really was, he just-”

Lance’s hands tightened on the sheets over his lap, words tumbling over each other as they fought to be first out of his mouth. “All he wanted was to be a Paladin. That was the best thing he could think of. He tried so hard to get back to us, and even though he was in pain all the time he just wanted to be a Paladin, and- I mean, I know it was just his programming or something Haggar did to him to make him want to fill your position, but I just- I just…”

Shiro didn’t catch the rest of Lance’s rambling. Too many thoughts and feelings were suddenly assaulting him, drowning out the rest of the world in a rush.

- Being in the Black Lion, but this time from within the Clone’s body. Begging them to let him pilot because the people he cared about most in the universe were in danger, and he could do nothing. Genuine fear of being without a way to help, being useless -

- Sitting with his team, playing an adventure game that made him feel foolish and carefree. Getting to play out all the ridiculous fantasies of being a hero he’d always had -

- Wanting so badly to be someone who was unequivocally good. Someone who would always be good, no matter what he had to do. Someone who was still him, but certain beyond any doubt that they were a good person -

- A Paladin. All Shiro - that other Shiro - wanted to be was a Paladin -

- Lance joining him on subsequent playthroughs, playing a Bard once and an Alchemist once, before switching back to his Assassin / Thief character again so that Shiro didn’t feel so awkward always playing his Paladin -

- The feeling of Lance beside him, feeling the warmth of his body whenever they traded the dice back and forth, whenever Lance would nudge him after a particularly daring maneuver -

- Nights spent together re-working their stats and build, planning the next part of their grand, meaningless adventure. A feeling of camaraderie he hadn’t had in a long time, as equals rather than captain and subordinate -

- The feeling of being alone with Lance, of laughing and being invested in what they were doing -

- Corran’s baffled enthusiasm, always coming up with new adventures for them even though the pair spent an entire session on a meaningless quest to set up a random turnip seller with the local tavern owner -

- Nights spent with Lance talking about their characters relationships bleeding into talking about themselves -

- The feeling of Lance hovering beside him, always watching him, always ready to step in -

- Knowing that he was someone doing good, letting himself believe that he was doing good things -

- The way Lance looked at him, smiled at him -

That hollow ache came back in full force, knocking the breath out of Shiro as the barrage of new memories clamoured for attention, not letting themselves be sorted or settled into a timeline yet. He’d originally chalked the feeling up to his missing bond with the Black Lion now that Keith had taken over full time as their Paladin, but he didn’t believe that was all it was any more. That was part of it, there was definitely a new empty place inside him where the Black Lion used to sit that he dealt with by keeping busy and taking command of the Atlas. But that wasn’t all of it. That hole hadn’t only held one thing. It was naive to think it had.

“- And I don’t know if I’m the bigger jerk for being sad that I don’t have that anymore when I know how much worse it is for you! I mean, how selfish do I have to be? It’s disgusting, but I can’t just make those memories go away, and… I’m so sorry, Shiro. I don’t think I can say it enough, but I’m so, so sorry.” Lance finished breathlessly, fresh tears rolling down his face. “I don’t think I can ever make it up to you, but I promise I’ll try, okay? I promise, every day I’ll try.”

Shiro wasn’t sure exactly how much of Lance pouring his heart out he’d missed, but that last bit was something he could try to respond to. He could tell Lance not to regret anything he did with the Clone. He could tell Lance that the Clone was him, just a him that was always in pain and afraid. He could tell Lance how much his presence meant to that other Shiro, how much it was starting to mean to him…

“I…” Shiro gasped, feeling tears spring unbidden to his eyes. He would absolutely tell Lance all of that. As soon as he could get out more than a few words, he’d tell Lance everything. He promised himself that.

Lance’s eyes widened, the flow of words stopping as he took in Shiro’s shaking form. He reached forwards cautiously, hands sliding up Shro’s arms to rest on his shoulders and neck, a gently offer of physical contact that Shiro ate up and dived in for more of. In a heartbeat he’d fallen forwards to wrap his arms around Lance’s chest, careful of the bandages and tubes that wound their way under his scrubs. Gentle over the bruises.

The only thing that he could force out of his mouth was a single phrase.

“I want to be a Paladin again.”

Lance’s arms tightened around Shiro as sobs rattled his frame, pulling him in and letting his own head rest atop Shiro’s. It felt like understanding.

Post Credits Note:

I swear to god I can write happy and fluffy. But it’s not this story. Or the next one. Maybe I should challenge myself to make the one after that be pure candy fluff and niceness without smut.

Or I could write my first Hanahaki, since I’m a fandom rube and haven’t done a bunch of stuff >_>

Anyway, in case you couldn’t tell, it’s unbeta’d and not my best work, but I wanted it. So there :P

[sepiadice]

SepiaDice GMs D&D5e (7/20/17): After School Excursion

After much time, I finally return to the GM’s seat, watching and plotting behind my screen!

So, after many months of scheduling conflicts, and playing other games, I got a small band from my Improv Group (mostly different from the cast of the last campaign) to subject themselves to me. Which is charitable on their part, especially since I’ve still haven’t really read the fifth edition rules…[1]

I went in with my favorite amount of preparation: an opening spiel, a vague idea of what I’d like to have happen, and a large swathe of empty, terrifying space to just let the players run rampant with.

I don’t plan sandboxes, just to be clear. Because that would imply I prepare NPCs and locations. I entered with five paragraphs of introduction and a puzzle.

Of course, my players are seasoned comedy improvisers, so I could’ve also come in with nothing, and they would’ve entertained themselves, even if most of them were new to Dungeons and Dragons.

I told them to make characters, stressing that they should have no backstory before we start. Not even a name or alignment. Because I had an opening twist.

The story began with a spooky dream. Disused lighthouse, shadowy figure, and glowing runes.

Then they had a school day. Because, as it turns out, they’re normal High School Juniors. I followed this reveal by letting them dictate what their school is like.

I admit, if my goal was a normal high school with maybe a couple anime-esques tropes, I shouldn’t have allowed greenhorn players with backgrounds in comedy dictate the terms. However, it does accomplish the more important task of getting the players to make the world their own.[2]

So what I got was a giant, wall-less warehouse named after the setting of High School musical.

Sure, at first I thought “I can interpret wall-less as just being a California High School”, but the players then insisted on specifying that, no, it’s literally a building with no classrooms, instead operating off a grid system.

Also, it’s super-cliquey, poorly funded, and originally a mansion that was part of the underground railroad and bootlegging, so there might be secret tunnels.

After establishing there’s been gossip of the shared dream going on in the (nonexistent) hallways, it’s now lunch, and they’re probably just vaguely themselves,[4] I just let my players go.

(Luckily, unlike me, my players have common names, so I’m going to go ahead and just use them.)

The party reveled momentarily at the chance to go back and do it right, before quickly conceding that, no, they’re totally nerds.

Chris, for whatever bloody reason, decided he wanted to be class president. And also a super Christian, but he’s playing a Paladin, so that’s just foreshadowing.[5]

The others then quickly established his crush on a girl named Tiffany, which they built upon for a bit. Then I brought Tiffany over, only to have three of them immediately give her grief and make her leave.

Which was a nice, subtle method of telling me they didn’t need too much NPC work from me. Again, I prepared very little, and they introduced Tiffany, so I’ve got nothing against that. Let the players define the terms of their entertainment, and fill in what needs be filled in while having fun yourself.

So, after I clarified what is known about the lighthouse (it’s always been there, but they’ve never seen it lit, and it’s on an island), they decide to skip class and go to the docks.

I had hoped to dedicate the opening portion of the game with them investigating and trying to figure out how to get to the lighthouse.

Jason,[6] wanting to be helpful, decided to get into an argument over the fact that I gave everyone a different rune in their dream, and used that as inspiration to go to the lighthouse to prove the rune he saw was the correct one. Also, there was optimism that they’d end up as Power Rangers. Which is… fine as a motivation…

It was as they searched for a ride that I realized an easy way to differentiate their high school forms from their future form: use the Adventurer stats, but with disadvantage on everything![7]

Brook wanted to try and skip the dock sequence by establishing her father has a boat. Not wanting them to brush over things too quickly, I subtly killed that and tried to get them to convince a fisherman to take them.

They started with Tim, who, as a compromise, had his shirt both tied off and also just off and draped over his shoulder. Brook tried to flirt with him to get a ride. I decided to play the ‘Ah, no, you’re fifteen, and I’m an adult angle.’

So Jason improvised inexplicable blackmail, because apparently when given enough agency, my friends default to Loony Toons. He also established that Tim’s a furry.

Jason failed the persuasion check, however, so Tim gets to be a proud furry. Little more discussion, and Tim offers to take them to the lighthouse if they could get some dirt on a rival.

Who I named Dave.

So they go to Dave, who casually admits to criminal activity, but also belief in a giant squid cryptid, which the party then spun to get a ride at midnight, forsaking Tim.

They then went to Tiffany’s party, which was made up to handwave time. I made it midnight in case they wanted to do a youth adventure, gearing up sequence, but instead they went to a house party.

Midnight comes, and Dave sails for the lighthouse, since the party told him light attracts the giant squid. The party then enters the lighthouse, where I finally sprung a puzzle on them!

I bought some wood blocks, drew runes on them, and they had to figure out the sequence to open a magic portal.

I colored the runes differently on each of their handouts, and I expected them to share the notes at some point. Once they identified the correct side, it was a simple matter of following the rainbow.

I apparently underestimated the paranoia the last campaign left with Jason, because no one looked at anyone else’s notes. They successfully communicated what the runes look like, but they never picked up on the different colors, even though that was a passing mention in the argument that got them there.

Basically, it was exactly the subtle time killer I hoped the puzzle would be. Even had pull out the ‘roll INT for hints’ trick once or twice.[8]

Like a good pun, a puzzle should be obvious afterwards, but engaging during the set up.

Anyways, go ahead and steal that one for your games, GMs!

Once they solved the puzzle, the portal opened. I described it and gave a little space to let them decide if they’re going in by their own power or if I need to Digimon them.

They walked in. Because who needs self preservation instincts?

Once in, they obviously turned into their Adventurer selves, waking up at the dead end of a dungeon.

‘Do we still have our own minds?’ “No, all this high schooler stuff was just a Shaggy Dog story.”

I had the players introduce what they looked like at this point. By pure coincidence, the one player who made a human went last, describing himself as just looking aged up.

The others were a dragonborn (the Furry Christian), a Tiefling (Jason played this up for the ‘which afterlife did we go to!?’ angle) and a half-elf dressed in leaves (Brook’s playing a druid.)

So, again, sit back and just let the players enjoy themselves. Then, when I got bored, have Kobolds show up and pick a fight.

I surprisingly wasn’t bored. Probably helped that it was an intentionally easy fight just to introduce the mechanics to the players, who mostly one shotted the Kobolds.

After killing six tiny lizard men, and with no clear way out, the players went deeper into the dungeon.

Jason fell into a trap, and they were ambushed by Gnolls, knocking them out.[9]

End of session.

So, lesson? Low expectations and little planning is a good method if you feel your players are fine building off themselves. I probably would never attempt this structure with less improvisational players, but I knew they could take it.

Still, I probably should’ve had a more clear plan for the dock sequence, and maybe a firmer hand on the school environment. However, I had fun, the players tell me they had fun, so it was a success. Hopefully I can manage to get them back for a session 2. Because I have intentions.

Until next time, may your dice make things interesting!

[1] However, I have years of experience in other systems, have played in a couple 5e games, and I principally learn by doing over reading. [2] Besides, if I actually wanted to anime it up, I already have a setting for that.[3] [3] Maybe I’ll let them play in it someday. Maybe. [4] I could’ve pushed them to establish High School Personas, but, again, Improv Club. Just let them do what they want and hope. [5] I can concede that it’s painfully obvious where my set-up was going, but it’s okay to telegraph things to players so they can subtly help the story. [6] Previous roles include Windy Jerk and… other people? [7] I love the Advantage/Disadvantage system. I’m going to houserule it into everything. [8] Well, I gave a freebie by clarifying all the runes are meant to be hexagons. [9] I love gnolls, which is why it’s surprising this is the first time I’ve ever used gnolls.