Pokémon Dungeons & Dragonite

[kintsugi]

Two strangers play a dead girl's D&D campaign.

table of contents
o. chimerical
i. dead girls & discord mods

-​

content warnings: some foul language, character death, descriptions of violence.
further cw: I’m not really going to dance around this—this fic starts comedic and in theory is lighter than a lot of my other work; that being said, the core premise is about the death of someone who was heavily invested in an online community, and how people feel about that. I don't really know if there's a tag for that, but it may not be something you’re up for reading, and that’s completely okay.

crit requests: hit me, fam. anything goes; do note that this is a quasi-scriptfic. there's a structural reason that should become pretty apparent a few chapters in; realistically I did it because I hate myself. please be aware that this is the one element of the story that I'm committed to.

author's notes: This is a reboot (I know!!) of a story that I find myself returning to every few years. Some older friends of mine may recognize the core premise, but a lot has changed. I can promise that it still involves magical humans trying to hit dragons with hammers. It is both incredibly on-brand and also not at all like my usual content; strap in.

 

[kintsugi]

※
o. chimerical
※​

This used to be the epic story of Taliyah, the Bucket Knight, drawn into adventure by destiny and vengeance when a mysterious wormhole suddenly released a dragon over her village. Standing with her twin sister in the ashen rubble, she sought allies in a quest that would take her to the far reaches of Aloloss.

But this isn’t Taliyah’s story anymore, because Taliyah is just a paladin in a D&D campaign that got tossed to the wayside when life got in the way.

This used to be the slightly-less-epic story of Natalie Leroux, a high school student who escaped her mundane life and boring older brother by mashing up her two favorite hobbies to create an entire world: Dungeons & Dragonite. Which, on paper, wouldn’t have been anything terribly special if it hadn’t given life to the first and last fictional character she’d made who really lived.

But this isn’t Natalie’s story any more either, because Natalie passed away after an anesthetic allergic reaction during what was supposed to be a regular wisdom teeth removal.

This is instead the story of the boring older brother. His name is River.

※​

 

[kintsugi]

※
i. dead girls and discord mods
※​

→ A wild River L. appeared!

9:08 pm
Bastion12: and that’s why legolas should be an arcane archer and not a ranger
RULESBOT: Hi @River L., and welcome to the official Dungeons & Dragonite Discord server! Please read the guidelines in #rules before starting to post here! If you have any questions, please feel free to ask our mods (purple names) or admins (blue names).
River L.: Hi, RULESBOT! Are you a mod?
Bastion12: lmfao
River L.: Hi, Bastion12! Are you a mod?
Bastion12: holy shit is this guy fr
Calciferous: Bast, be polite
Bastion12: sorry cal
Bastion12: but also lmfao cmon
River L.: Hi, Calciferous! Are you a mod?
invinceble: maybe he’s a bot too?
invinceble: seems like something rafael could cook up pretty easy
Calciferous: :o

9:09 pm
invinceble: worth checking i guess
invinceble: @River L. Rulesbot is a bot that makes rules. It is not a mod.
River L.: What is a bot?
Bastion12: omg it’s alive
Calciferous: :cramorant_hype:
Jutsu-No-Justuing: :carmorant_hype: :cramorant_hype: :cramorant_hype:
invinceble: could be a really smart bot
Bastion12: maybe
Bastion12: lfp / oneshot, lvl8, 5e
Bastion12: since it got buried
invinceble: careful bast
invinceble: if a moderator sees that you’re double posting your ads outside of #lfg in a way that’s phrased to evade bots you could get in trouble

9:10 pm
River L.: Is a mod a moderator?
Bastion12: this is a great bot
Bastion12: @leafaR dis you?
Calciferous: obvious troll is obvious
Calciferous: when’s ur game, Bast?
River L.: Is a troll a mod? I was hoping I could talk to a mod.
Bastion12: > when’s ur game, Bast
Bastion12: probably when this poor soul finds a mod
invinceble: @River L. a troll is not a moderator
Bastion12: lmao yall still on this
Calciferous: it’s been ninety seconds
Hoodie: Bast’s hosting a game? 👀
River L.: Hello, are you a moderator?
invinceble: General Kenobi!

9:12 pm
Hoodie: can someone photoshop me that meme with the guy and the butterfly, except it’s this guy asking if it’s a mod
invinceble: lol
Bastion12: can’t tonight
Hoodie: I’ll give you my firstborn character
Bastion12: dinner rn and then gotta prep some stuff
Bastion12: you have MS paint
Bastion12: u got this
Hoodie: dinner? it’s so late
Bastion12: it’s early across the pond
Hoodie: orite
Hoodie: I’ll wait 4 u bby
Hoodie: this guy will probably still be here when you get back anyway
Bastion12: : weary:

9:12 pm
River L.: Sorry if this is out of place, but is this actually a server for Dungeons and Dragons?
invinceble: haha what
invinceble: no
invinceble: this is for dungeons and dragonite
invinceble: homebrew/spinoff version w/ pokemon
Calciferous: The plot thickens. The bot questions its own existence and purpose
River L.: Oh, sorry, I meant the Dungeons and Dragonite.
Hoodie: do you even know what a pokemon is
Calciferous: Yeah, name all the Pokemon!
Hoodie: Cal that’s mean
Hoodie: Make them name one pokemon
Calciferous: But then they’ll just pick Dragonite

9:13 pm
Bastion12: lfp, final call
Hoodie: I’m in, Cal’s in
Hoodie: do you need anyone else?
Bastion12: would be fun with four
Bastion12: *more fun for you at least
Calciferous: ominous
Calciferous: TPK’s are fun for the party too!
Jutsu-No-Justuing: :carmorant_hype: :cramorant_hype: :cramorant_hype:
Calciferous: careful jnj, someone might think you’re a bot too
Bastion12: tbf do we actually know they’re not
Hoodie: hype twice if you can hear me
Jutsu-No-Justuing: :carmorant_hype: :cramorant_hype:

9:14 pm
River L.: Dragonite is the blue squiggly one, right?
Hoodie: I cannot believe it took you two minutes to write that
invinceble: be polite hood
invinceble: a mod might catch you
Hoodie: @Bastion12 more content for your meme when you make it
NymeriaRider: Vince, just ban them already
NymeriaRider: Obvious troll is obvious.
invinceble: idk nym
invinceble: they’ve been typing for like two minutes
invinceble: kinda curious what they’ll come up with
invinceble: last time they spent this long on a message they asked if dragonite is the squiggly blue one
invinceble: don’t you have midterms tomorrow?
NymeriaRider: Yeah, just got distracted
invinceble: @River L. nym here is a mod if you’ve got questions
invinceble: purple names are mods, blue are admins. both can answer your question if you actually ask it
River L.: Nym?
invinceble: NymeriaRider
invinceble: it’s a nickname
River L.: Oh.
NymeriaRider: Vince, I gotta study.
NymeriaRider: pls

9:15 pm
River L.: Wait, so purple names are mods and blue names are admins?
invinceble: yes
Hoodie: @Bastion12 I take it back I want the patrick driver’s license meme instead
River L.: Isn’t your name blue?
invinceble: huh, whaddya know
invinceble: I am the droid you’re looking for I guess
invinceble: of all the days nym actually studies
Bastion12: @Hoodie

Hoodie: PERFECTION THX
Jutsu-No-Justuing: :carmorant_hype: :cramorant_hype: :cramorant_hype:

9:16 pm
River L.: Okay, I have a question.
Hoodie: here he goes
Bastion12: I have lots of questions
invinceble: yeah, shoot

9:17 pm
River L.: I have this big word document from a friend of mine that has a lot of her notes for a Dungeons and Dragonite campaign that she was the DM for. I don’t really understand any of it, but she said it was a mod for this game, and that took me to this server, and I was hoping maybe someone here could help me make sense of it?
invinceble: notes? mod?
invinceble: like a module?
Hoodie: lmao you got a real troll here vince
Hoodie: dms taking notes lol

River L. uploaded a file: chimericalmod.doc

Calciferous: oh man this one’s old school with the .doc instead of .docx and everything
Hoodie: vince don’t click it
Hoodie: it’s probably hentai shit
Calciferous: :o
Jutsu-No-Justuing: :carmorant_hype: :cramorant_hype: :cramorant_hype:

9:19 pm
Marine [LFG | CST]: ohhey, new person?
Hoodie: they’re weird tbh just run
Marine [LFG | CST]: nice.
Marine [LFG | CST]: I told you we should’ve stopped putting adverts on Reddit.
Hoodie: this one’s weirder than reddit ngl
Calciferous: @Marine [LFG | CST] if you’re LFG, I think @Bastion12 is calling your name
invinceble: what the fuck
Calciferous: hentai shit hentai shit
Calciferous: !!!
Hoodie: omg was it actually
invinceble: river dm me
Calciferous: aww man you deleted it

9:20 pm
Calciferous: so was it hentai
Calciferous: 🍆

9:20 pm
invinceble: river dm me please
River L.: huh?
River L.: Oh! That was the thing I was supposed to be looking for actually!
River L.: I’m supposed to ask if you can DM this for me?
RULESBOT: @River L. Please direct all LFG requests to #seeking-games.
River L.: LFG?
Hoodie: holy shit dm/dm
Calciferous: ikr
Calciferous: genius puns
Hoodie: under what rock did you even find this guy vince

9:21 pm
nekoMancer: polearm or great weapon master, which is better?
Calciferous: not now, Mance, we’re all eating popcorn and watching this clown
nekoMancer: oh, what’d I miss?
Hoodie: @nekoMancer pick great weapon master so you can hit things with a big sword it’s more fun tbh
GlaiveMistake: no one expects the polearm inquisition!
Jutsu-No-Justuing: :carmorant_hype: :cramorant_hype: :cramorant_hype:
Marine [LFG | CST]: the answer is neither, pick sentinel, thank me later
Calciferous: that is, in fact, the only wrong answer
Formira: @nekoMancer Depends, but in most campaigns, PAM is always superior to GWM except for a few very niche classes or situations, since it does more specifically with mobs of low AC enemies at low level. I’m writing a blog about it that should be up soon.
Hoodie: oh yo Formira with the math
Calciferous: ask and ye shall receive
invinceble: classic way to bring everyone out of the woodwork, mance

9:22 pm
River L.: RULESBOT, how did you manage to make my name go funny?
River L.: When you made my name blue just now, did that mean I’m a mod? I don’t want to be a mod.
Hoodie: you better dm for vince, River L!
River L.: What does that mean?
invinceble: my god
invinceble: nym does not pay me enough for this shit
NymeriaRider: I don’t pay you at all, actually.
NymeriaRider: Plus you’re technically higher rank than me so idk why you think I’d pay you.
invinceble: don’t you have a test or something
NymeriaRider: tru, if you’re offering to keep an eye on things
NymeriaRider: Have fun with the kiddos, dearest vinceypoo.

–

This is the beginning of your direct message history with River L.
1 Mutual Server: **Dungeons & Dragonite**
> Remove Friend
> Block

9:23 pm
invinceble: why didn’t you dm me lol
River L.: I’m sorry?
River L.: Who is this?
invinceble: o
invinceble: it’s me, from the server
River L.: . . . You have to know that that doesn’t explain anything, right?
invinceble: I’m “the mod” in that dndnite server you were just in
River L.: Oh! You’re the mod!
invinceble: bingo
invinceble: why didn’t you dm me?
River L.: I didn’t know what that meant.
invinceble: dm means direct message, like what we’re doing now
River L.: Oh! Okay. Thanks.

9:24 pm
invinceble: where did you get this module.
River L.: It’s kind of a long story.
invinceble: I’ll be here all night.

9:27 pm
invinceble: I mean it.
River L.: Look, there’s a lot to explain here and I don’t really know where to begin. I didn’t mean to offend anyone.
invinceble: not offended, just confused.
invinceble: where’d you find this?
River L.: It isn’t mine.
invinceble: trust me, I know
invinceble: how did you get your hands on Nat’s module???
River L.: It’s from a friend of mine. I have her stuff for a little while and she asked me to take care of it, but I’m not really sure what that means yet.
River L.: How do you know Nat?
invinceble: oh my god
invinceble: you’re river
River L.: Um.
River L.: Yes, that is the name I have here.
invinceble: no no no
invinceble: you’re river leroux

9:28 pm
River L.: Oh shit. Can you see that somewhere on my profile?
River L.: I don’t remember having to put in my last name when I was signing up for this.
invinceble: I’m so sorry.

9:29 pm
invinceble: Nat is like, really huge for the server your just joined
invinceble: she basically built everything from the ground up
invinceble: like, the lore, the mechanics, everything
invinceble: and like she did most of the work but I’ve been helping her out for a while
invinceble: that’s how i know who you are
River L.: Oh.
River L.: What do you know?
invinceble: we know she’s dead
invinceble: … sorry if that sounded abrupt
invinceble: it sounded a lot less shitty in my head
River L.: Gotcha.

9:34 pm
invinceble: sorry for your welcome into the server earlier
invinceble: you’re like, six years older than her?
River L.: Seven.
invinceble: first time on discord?
River L.: Yeah.
River L.: What gave me away?
invinceble: oh you know
River L.: Know what?
invinceble: nvm
invinceble: (that means “never mind”)
River L.: I know what nvm means.
invinceble: look man I gotta check
River L.: lol lit fortnite yeet lmfao 69 fam
River L.: 🍆
invinceble: wow. you two really are related.

9:37 pm
invinceble: sorry this is just
invinceble: I didn’t really expect this
invinceble: it’s tuesday and I have a test tomorrow but unlike dear nym I don’t study
invinceble: but even so I wasn’t really prepared for like
invinceble: this
River L.: That’s okay.
River L.: I didn’t realize people here knew her or anything.
invinceble: how’d you even end up here?

9:38 pm
River L.: I’m going through her computer.
invinceble: oh
River L.: Yeah.
River L.: There was a massive folder on her computer and I was kind of curious. Lots of pictures and weird grid stuff, but the one I sent you was the biggest text document. There was another document that mentioned taking the mod to a DM for Vince. I posted in a subreddit and they ended up sending me to your sever.
invinceble: wait what
River L.: That’s pretty much word for word from the document.
invinceble: she said to find me?
River L.: Are you Vince?
invinceble: yeah
invinceble: honestly I thought the name would give it away but okay
River L.: Oh. Yeah. Didn’t figure that one out, sorry.
River L.: There’s a note at the top here that says: “If anyone is reading this, for the love of god just assume I’m dead, take this mod to the server, and find a DM so that Vince can finally finish a campaign.”
invinceble: ah
invinceble: oof
River L.: But apparently DM means direct message?
invinceble: no, it means dungeon master
invinceble: uh, someone who runs the game
invinceble: I see now where a lot of this confusion came from
invinceble: so here we are
River L.: So, um, here we are, yeah. I think.

9:39 pm
invinceble: this is unreal
River L.: I swear I didn’t write that note.
invinceble: no trust me this is classic Nat
invinceble: er I mean
invinceble: you probably know that too
invinceble: but like yeah she’d absolutely pull some stupid shit like that
River L.: So I’ve given you the mod. Module? Is there anything else you need?
invinceble: I mean
invinceble: our party kinda splintered ages ago
invinceble: she had to know that when she wrote that

9:40 pm
invinceble: I don’t really know if this was meant for just me
River L.: I don’t really know what that means. Is there someone else I should give this to as well? I want to make sure that there aren’t any loose ends.
invinceble: no it’s not that
invinceble: this was the box campaign she’d written for the setting, back when we were first designing the game
invinceble: so like we were playtesting it and then when our party finished we’d release it to the server
River L.: I see.
invinceble: so like I could probably clean this up and release it
invinceble: that’s probably why she wanted to make sure I saw it. she was always thinking about this place.
invinceble: but
invinceble: idk if this is kind of weird
invinceble: fuck it I guess
invinceble: do you want to play it?
River L.: Play what?
invinceble: the thing she gave you
invinceble: it’s basically an entire campaign module for this setting that she spent three years working on
invinceble: honestly even reading through it now it’s legit pretty nuts
invinceble: I know she put in a lot of work in things but this is ridiculous even for her

9:41 pm
River L.: Oh, that’s pretty cool.
invinceble: and like we should probably playtest it before we release it properly
invinceble: idk
invinceble: you in?
River L.: Sure, I guess. I don’t have any plans for tonight.

9:42 pm
invinceble: you got a character in mind? we were lvl 13 when this left off
invincelbe: basically anything 5e is fine. some homebrew if you want, but we’ll have to talk that through
River L.: Not really, no. How do you want me to do that?
invinceble: uh just roll in and I’ll throw some stuff your way if the balance looks fucky
River L.: Roll in?
invinceble: oh, one s

---

9:43 pm
Welcome to the beginning of the #chimerical channel.
invinceble set the channel description: the story about dungeons and dragons

invinceble: rulesbot should’ve sent you an autofillable character sheet when I made the channel
invinceble: aight you should have dice rolling permissions, dicebot
invinceble: /r1d20
DICEBOT: 14 (invinceble: rolled 1 (one) 20-sided die: 14)
invinceble: neat
invinceble: all set @River L.
River L.: How do you want me to roll in?
invinceble: type /r6d20 and then fill out the ability scores on your character sheet in the order that you rolled
invinceble: 4d6 drop lowest or statbuy if you aren’t insane
invinceble: other stuff should populate for you, click your proficiencies, and then hit level 13 to get the asi’s and spell slots to open up
invinceble: brb gonna do some other setup shit while you get your character up
River L.: /r6d20 and then fill out the ability scores on your character sheet in the order that you rolled
DICEBOT: I’m sorry, I do not recognize that command.

9:44 pm
River L.: /r6d20
DICEBOT: 56 (@River L. rolled 6 (six) 20-sided die: 9 17 2 14 11 3)
River L.: Thank you, DICEBOT!

9:47 pm
invinceble: back
invinceble: oh damn you really went for it
invinceble: 2 in con?
invinceble: what class did you pick
invinceble: don’t be a ranger that’s me
River L.: Paladin I think? I was kind of copying Natalie’s.
invinceble: dexadin op
invinceble: well I guess if you picked anything else you’d immediately die when trying to roll your hp
invinceble: you sure you don’t want a reroll
invinceble: only fools go for 6d20 in order
invinceble: and hood I guess but his characters always end up dead
River L.: Oh, I already put them in the character sheet.
invinceble: you can undo that if you want

9:49 pm
invinceble: taking that as a no
invinceble: so, like, this is kind of a sloppy session 0 and I recognize that
invinceble: sorry
invinceble: I really didn’t expect to be doing this today
River L.: It’s all good! This seems fun.
invinceble: right so, uh, characters and shit
invinceble: ummmmmm
invinceble: in this game I play a horizon walker ranger named corvin
invinceble: nat sorta had this dmnpc named taliyah
invinceble: watchers paladin, so she hits things and they die
River L.: dmnpc?
invinceble: oh, dm npc
invinceble: that’s “dungeon master non-player character” for the cool kids
River L.: I thought DM stood for “direct message”?
invinceble: oh boy
invinceble: I see now why this might’ve caused you some confusion if you were new to discord.

9:50 pm
invinceble: just
invinceble: just imagine taliyah as Nat’s character
River L.: Oh. Okay. Sure.
invinceble: there were a few other people in the party but they sorta dropped out
invinceble: hmmm
invinceble: not sure how I really feel like dealing with that at the moment
River L.: With what?
invinceble: maybe I’ll just have sir wakenjake show up as a boss that we can beat the shit out of later
invinceble: yknow
invinceble: for catharsis
River L.: I’m sorry?
invinceble: it’s nothing.

9:54 pm
invinceble: taking a look at your character sheet now
invinceble: bold to roll with the 2 in con, really
River L.: That is what DICEBOT told me to put.
invinceble: wow did you really put your name as River
River L.: Am I supposed to put someone else’s name?
invinceble: can’t tell if this is a troll
River L.: Oh! I put my race as half-elf. Not troll.
invinceble: to match Nat, yeah, I guessed
River L.: (To match Natalie’s.)
River L.: Ah.
River L.: Yeah.

10:01 pm
invinceble: okay
invinceble: everyone always says you should, like, read the module properly before starting the session but like
invinceble: improv is what the game is about, right?
invinceble: can’t spell improve without improv
River L.: Right?
invinceble: okay so I don’t really have the heart to abandon either my character or Nat’s character for this so like
invinceble: it’ll be kind of weird
inbinceble: we’ll just have a bunch of npc’s in this party
River L.: Oh, do you need more people?
River L.: I think there’s a channel in the other server for people looking for people to play . . .
invinceble: …
invinceble: trust me
invinceble: I know
invinceble: I’m the one who made that channel
River L.: Oh! That’s neat.

10:03 pm
invinceble: but nah I don’t want to deal with other people in this campaign
invinceble: too much to explain
invinceble: cal would probably eat me alive for the amount of shitty mechanics we have in this
invinceble: plus we patched a lot of the broken shit out in later versions but this module runs on some really weird things iirc
invinceble: no idea if Nat figured that out when she was writing the endgame stuff or not
invinceble: and like, it’s Nat’s
invinceble: it’s not something I’d take from you ofc but it’s not something I really want to share with just anyone, ya feel?

Your eyes jolt open to the sound of echoing thunder.

Around you is a crumbling ruin of stone. Lopsided pillars dot the ground like rotting teeth, their bases twined with seaweed. Cold water laps at your ankles. Lightning strikes in the distance. Above you, stormclouds gather, black and thick.

The battlefield here is cracked and broken. A vaulted marble ceiling stretches out roughly thirty feet above you, part of it starting to sag and collapse, part of it having already fallen to the ground. The parts of the walls that haven’t washed away are beautifully decorated, with brightly-colored tiles piecing together a mosaic of some sort. Toward the rear of the room is a crystalline throne, the only object in the room that appears untouched by the withering forces of time.

Opposite the throne, in the center of the room, a single golden-hilted sword sprouts upward from cracked marble tile, the topaz in its pommel glimmering with ethereal light.

10:04 pm
River L.: What’s going on?
invinceble: this is part of the game
invinceble: … this is Nat’s flavor text I’m just repurposing it
invinceble: trying to pick you up where we left off ig
invinceble: since I don’t really want to dm through a bunch of low-level combat
River L.: But what’s going on? Is this the game?
invinceble: yeah?
River L.: Is there a board or something?
invinceble: you mean a map?
River L.: Maybe?
invinceble: I don’t need sass from you young man
River L.: I’m not trying to be sassy, sorry.
invinceble: yeah there’s a map one s

10:05 pm
DICEBOT: invinceble has loaded in an interactive map. Click the pop-out window to view it!

10:06 pm
invinceble: okay, so I just pulled in a generic token for you
River L.: Am I the bulky looking knight guy?
invinceble: no, that’s Nat
invinceble: I’m clicking on your character. it should be lighting up green
River L.: Isn’t that the guy from the picture that Bastion12 posted earlier?
invinceble: oh, wild
invinceble: it would indeed appear that this is the ‘is this a butterfly’ guy
invinceble: crazy coincidence

10:07 pm
invinceble: so you’re fighting a guzzlord
River L.: Is that a Pokemon?
invinceble: no it’s a gazebo
River L.: What?
invinceble: that’s a reference sorry nvm I forget you’re a dinosaur
River L.: I’m a paladin though?
invinceble: haha.
invinceble: just play the game pls

10:08 pm
River L.: Play what game? I don’t really know what’s going on here.
invinceble: right right session 0, I need to catch you up on some stuff, sorry
invinceble: so basically this character I’m highlighting here is Taliyah

Taliyah shakes herself, as if awakening from a deep sleep. She tears her gaze from the battlefield and looks at River. Much of her expression is covered by a sturdy, wooden helm, but her silvery eyes burn brightly with determination.

A bolt of lightning strikes in the distance behind her, and for an instant the brilliant light splashes across her back; silhouetted, she seems to tower over everyone else. Her armor is mismatched, lending her a spiky outline—one pauldron is twice as large as the other, enormous metal spines jutting off near her shoulders; the glove on her opposite hand appears to be made of a coppery metal with a greenish patina. Her other hand, which is bare, is wrapped around the haft of an enormous warhammer, the head of which rests on the stone tiles beneath her feet.

She holds herself with the air of someone who has stared down every monstrosity in Aloloss and lived. When she speaks, though, her voice is gentle. “Greetings, Sir River. I am Taliyah.”

10:09 pm
River L.: Oh woah, what’s happening?
invinceble: this is just some flavor text stuff
invinceble: so you know who you’re playing with
River L.: So this is … Nat? Or her character?
invinceble: yeah

10:10 pm
invinceble: now would be a good time to describe yourself btw
River L.: Describe myself?
invinceble: your character
invinceble: that thing you put on your character sheet?

10:11 pm
River L.: Um, I’m a Human Paladin. My background is Folk Hero. I have 130,000 experience points.
River L.: Is this helpful?
invinceble: jesus christ
invinceble: I can see your character sheet
invinceble: I meant more like, describe the interesting parts of your character?
River L.: I don’t think I have any yet?
invinceble: sigh

“Alright then, Sir River the Boring,” another voice says from approximately forty-five feet away. “I’m Corvin.”

A much more slender figure stares back at him, half-crouched from behind one of the stone pillars. Her dark hair is held back in a tight braid, and although she wears an enormous longbow on her back, in her hands she currently holds a rapier and a small shield that gleams faintly with blue light. Her eyes are narrowed as she looks at Sir River; a small scar cuts across her upper lip and gives her the impression of constant disdain.

Behind her, approximately fifteen feet away, rapier also at the ready, stands a grey, translucent copy of herself. The copy stands upright, seemingly unperturbed by the raging winds and the swirling ocean around them.

10:18 pm
River L.: Why do you keep saying “approximately” and then saying an exact distance in feet?
invinceble: it’s a running joke at the server
invinceble: since the map has a grid you know exactly how far away everyone is
River L.: Also, your character is two characters?
invinceble: technically everyone is my character since I’m the dm now
invinceble: but yeah apparently my past self thought that ranger 10/fighter 3 would be neat
invinceble: even though horizon walker rangers don’t get their best feature until level 11 so putting that off means I don’t come online damagewise until never
invinceble: and echo knight fighters are busted as fuck and there’s no logical place to stop dipping
River L.: Ah. I see.
River L.: Who are those two?
invinceble: who?

River points at the two tokens on the other side of the battlefield. One appears to be a small man with a flute, and the other appears to be a smiling boy with a crown of flame.

10:20 pm
invinceble: fuck

Both figures vanish.

10:20 pm
invinceble: ignore them
invinceble: jake was a major asshole and nym got mad at jake for being a fucking homophobe and then she got too busy with modship duties to play this campaign so she ended up dropping out
invinceble: the old map just has them on it because we were in the middle of combat
River L.: Combat?
invinceble: yeah, we’re in the middle of fighting a boss
invinceble: the guzzlord thing

Corvin points in the direction that her echo is already fixated in. River turns slowly as the battlefield seems to expand around him—

He’s met with a wave of fetid breath, heavy with the stench of rotting fish. An enormous maw opens wide approximately thirty feet away from where he’s standing, and a collection of dark tentacles writhe around the creature’s blackened teeth, vanishing back into the salty foam. Guzzlord has wrapped itself around the crystal throne. The scales of its arms and throat are so black that they appear to devour the room.

10:23 pm
invinceble: and currently we’ve wiped out all of the other bad guys
invinceble: almost entirely because we were hard carried by Nat tbh
invinceble: and we’re trying to rescue tapu koko
River L.: Like the seltzer?
invinceble: the what?
River L.: Never mind, I was thinking of Topo Chico.
invinceble: > Ah. I see.

Tapu Koko (Not the Seltzer) is lithe, flighty creature. Currently, they are wrapped tightly in one of Guzzlord’s tentacle-like arms, although even restrained the demigod seems to be practically vibrating with the thrill of battle. They clutch two straw-covered golden shields tightly to their body, with sharp blades on the end that are aimed currently aimed uselessly at the ground. Bright orange plumage shines brilliantly even in the darkness, and they crow a triumphant battlecry upon seeing the warriors return to their side.

10:25 pm
invinceble: okay, that’s all the groundwork you should need
invinceble: guzzlord screams a battle cry
invinceble: roll initiative!

 

[The Walrein]

Hello kintsgui! I remember reading the first part of this story back on Bulbagarden a while ago and being intrigued, so I'm glad it's getting rebooted here.

To start off, I liked the double "this isn't X's story anymore" fakeout - and I think stating that the story will be about a 'boring' person works as a good hook - boring people are extremely common, but we don't see narratives about them often! I thought it was interesting that you had Natalie die due to an anesthesia complication, instead of the usual default sudden accidental death of a car crash. I think it adds a little verisimilitude - medical errors are one of the leading causes of death in developed countries, but they're rarely depicted in fiction, so it's nice to see some representation for that.

Bastion12: and that’s why legolas should be an arcane archer and not a ranger

If we're talking 5e, I actually think the champion fighter subclass would be most appropriate, given Legolas' lack of any explicitly magical abilities. (EDIT: Modulo quasi-magical abilities like not sinking in snow and things of that nature.)

River L.: Hi, RULESBOT! Are you a mod?
Bastion12: lmfao
River L.: Hi, Bastion12! Are you a mod?
Bastion12: holy shit is this guy fr
Calciferous: Bast, be polite
Bastion12: sorry cal
Bastion12: but also lmfao cmon
River L.: Hi, Calciferous! Are you a mod?
invinceble: maybe he’s a bot too?
invinceble: seems like something rafael could cook up pretty easy
Calciferous: :o

I think this bit worked better in the previous version. I can see someone using the exact "Hi, X" sentence format twice in a row, as in the original, but using it three times in a row, the third time after getting a hint that you may be doing something wrong, just seems weirdly robotic, as the chat members point out. Also, I feel the use of 'moderator' helped convey River's formalness and unfamiliarity better than the abbreviation 'mod' - I guess this was changed because this version of River is familiar enough with reddit that they're used to using the short version? I'd think someone who used reddit a lot would be familiar with the concepts of bots and trolls, though.

River L.: Is a mod a moderator?

Was this accidentally left in from the previous version? If not, I'm kind of confused at what River initially thought a 'mod' was - were you trying to set up some confusion with 'mod as in module' vs 'mod as in moderator' like you did with Dungeon Master/Direct Message? From the context of the statement Natalie left, it seemed pretty clear that she was using 'mod' to refer to the specific document she created, so I don't think that particular mix-up is plausible.

Calciferous: obvious troll is obvious
Calciferous: when’s ur game, Bast?
River L.: Is a troll a mod? I was hoping I could talk to a mod.

The "Is a troll a mod?" line seems forced - I don't think it's likely that someone would assume "troll" meant moderator from this context, especially given how the concepts of a fantasy monster and a social media moderator wouldn't seem to have any particular connection, as opposed to the obvious similarity of the phrases 'mod' and 'moderator'. I felt like this line pushed River over the threshold from a person who's out of touch with internet terminology in a realistic way to "ignorant boomer stereotype".

Hoodie: PERFECTION THX

I thought actually creating the meme picture was a nice touch!

River L.: I’m supposed to ask if you can DM this for me?

Maybe kind of nitpicky, but the note from a Natalie mentioned finding "a DM" for Vince, and it was elsewhere indicated that Natalie was "the DM" so I think River wouldn't use DM as a verb here without already being familiar with the concept of dungeon mastering. True, he did just see Vince use it as a verb, but I think this would generate confusion as to what 'DM' meant rather than River instantly adopting its usage in that way.

9:42 pm
invinceble: you got a character in mind? we were lvl 13 when this left off
invincelbe: basically anything 5e is fine. some homebrew if you want, but we’ll have to talk that through
River L.: Not really, no. How do you want me to do that?
invinceble: uh just roll in and I’ll throw some stuff your way if the balance looks fucky

I'm not sure why Vince would assume River would know how to create a 5e character given that he isn't even familiar with the phrase 'Dungeon Master'.

River L.:[/B] How do you want me to roll in?
invinceble: type /r6d20 and then fill out the ability scores on your character sheet in the order that you rolled
invinceble: 4d6 drop lowest or statbuy if you aren’t insane
invinceble: other stuff should populate for you, click your proficiencies, and then hit level 13 to get the asi’s and spell slots to open up
invinceble: brb gonna do some other setup shit while you get your character up
River L.: /r6d20 and then fill out the ability scores on your character sheet in the order that you rolled
DICEBOT: I’m sorry, I do not recognize that command.

9:44 pm
River L.: /r6d20

Unsure why River went ahead with rolling d20s down the line - surely he's at least familiar with what text being struck through means? Was it because that was the option for which the most explicit directions were given? Trying to issue the exact "/r6d20 and then..." sentence as a command does feel authentic, though.

DICEBOT: 56 (@River L. rolled 6 (six) 20-sided die: 9 17 2 14 11 3)
River L.: Thank you, DICEBOT!

Ouch, those stats... I guess River's lucky that they're playing 5e rather than one of the earlier versions! I'm curious if you actually generated those randomly.

Your eyes jolt open to the sound of echoing thunder.

Around you is a crumbling ruin of stone. Lopsided pillars dot the ground like rotting teeth, their bases twined with seaweed. Cold water laps at your ankles. Lightning strikes in the distance. Above you, stormclouds gather, black and thick.

The battlefield here is cracked and broken. A vaulted marble ceiling stretches out roughly thirty feet above you, part of it starting to sag and collapse, part of it having already fallen to the ground. The parts of the walls that haven’t washed away are beautifully decorated, with brightly-colored tiles piecing together a mosaic of some sort. Toward the rear of the room is a crystalline throne, the only object in the room that appears untouched by the withering forces of time.

Opposite the throne, in the center of the room, a single golden-hilted sword sprouts upward from cracked marble tile, the topaz in its pommel glimmering with ethereal light.

This segment was formatted as a quote rather than a direct text block - was this intentional?

River points at the two tokens on the other side of the battlefield. One appears to be a small man with a flute, and the other appears to be a smiling boy with a crown of flame.

Did Vince actually include River pointing at the tokens in the narration here?

***

So, I feel like saying this might be a bit of a faux-pas when talking about a reboot, but I think the previous version of chapter one worked better. I think River was more appealing as someone who was an outsider but wasn't completely oblivious to everything, like he appears to be in this version. Several humanizing details like River nicknaming Natalie as "Allie", playing Pokemon Sun with her and sharing Silvally as a favorite Pokemon, and the introduction of River as "a Home Depot floor manager who thought that adventure was switching up the kind of beer you drank when watching football" got dropped, and as a result I much less of an idea who River and Natalie are, or why I should care about them.

There were also a few more hints as to how rich the setting Natalie had created was in the original - we get details like there being two moons, a war between Aloloss and the Kantonese Federation, and a reference to Natalie being a paladin in the "old game back then when we didn’t really know the quirks or anything", suggesting at how the game's evolved over the years. In the current version there are some details about the past history - the injoke about describing exact feet distances as approximate, the descriptions of the former party characters - which are nice, but don't really give me the same feel for how Natalie's setting could've become such a major thing.

Another difference is how Vince just plows ahead with the game despite it being obvious that River knows nothing about roleplaying, even trying to start off in a fight against a major boss rather than just some mooks, which I felt was kind of odd. I thought the parts in the previous version where Vince tried to walk River through alignment and class selection were nice (also, in the former version River choosing to play the same class as Natalie after being directly asked what class he wanted to play felt more like a significant choice that highlighted his bond with her, while here it just seemed to be something he did for convenience), and made Vince feel a bit kinder, while here he's just making references to stuff like the gazebo incident and horizon walker optimization that River obviously isn't going get, which feels a little inconsiderate. And the bit where he mocks River's non-character seems slightly mean. Contrast with the part in the original where Vince gets upset and accuses River of 'sandbagging' - it's an unfair accusation given how evidently new River was to roleplaying, but there was some real poignancy there with Vince missing how good a player Natalie was, and we can sort of understand why he did it. I'm not sure how much of Vince's inconsiderateness in this version can be attributed to Vince just being oblivious to River's ignorance, but I'd expect someone who's a moderator for a fairly active server for a game they played a large part in developing would be more familiar with having to explain game systems to people who don't understand them.

However, one thing which was odd in both versions was the casualness with which Vince decided to run a major solo campaign for someone he barely knew. It's understandable that River wouldn't realize how big a commitment it was, but Vince should've known how much work it would take to really do it properly. The previous version did a little better at selling that Vince cared enough about Natalie and the campaign that he was willing to invest a lot of time into seeing her work fulfilled, but I think this needed to be explored more in both versions. (This was gestured at with the explanation that Vince is running the campaign just to 'playtest' it, but that really isn't consistent with him deciding to start off right in the middle of the events with someone who isn't really much like the typical audience for the module would be.)

To end on a positive note, I will say that the voices of the people on the discord and its culture felt very authentic, maybe even a little more so in this version than the previous. I hope writing the rest of the fic goes well, and feel free to message me on TR or discord if you want to talk more about the review.

P.S. If you have any actual rules written up for a Dungeons and Dragonite system, I'd love to see them! I'm familiar with a lot of Pokemon tabletop RPGs - PTU, PTA, Pokerole, Pokemon 5e, and some other minor ones - and it's always interesting seeing how people adapt the setting to the medium.

 

[Pen]

Gotta love that classic pithy kint prologue. I have to admit, from everything I'd heard in bits and pieces about this, I had assumed it would be something of a mystery story--the girl's discord friends slowly uncovering the fact that she died and why (probably a darker story than this actually is, whoops). But it turns out they already know! (I did wonder a bit how. I guess if they've shared irl names and she was absent long enough they might have google searched her and gotten a story about her death? The fact that she died of something unlikely to make headlines makes that seem a little less likely, though.) Instead it seems like the focus is really going to be on exploring the impact of that death and how people and the small world of her server goes on from there.

invinceble: I mean
invinceble: our party kinda splintered ages ago
invinceble: she had to know that when she wrote that

As someone who's more naturally inclined to character plots than anything else, this was where I kind of sat up and got interested. So the party used to be Nat, Vince, Jake, and Nym. Vince pegs Jake as the only bad actor and still seems on decent terms with nym, but they don't seem to think about including her at all. Vince is pretty quick to delete the doc off the server, which, fair enough, but it seems like there's a lot they're not eager to get into.

This was a really fun read and unsurprisingly you nailed server culture. The server already feels real and like it has its own history. River bumping around in it is fun (and painfully relatable for me, flashbacks to not realizing people said hi to me when I first joined the TR server) though I think in places it felt a bit overdone--agree with the places Walrein flagged. So far River comes off as agreeable and well-meaning. If he doesn't know what a dm is, it seems to follow either that he and Nat weren't that close or she really didn't like to talk about dnd, since dm is one of the first abbreviations that would come up in that kind of conversation. I don't get the vibe that they had a super distant relationship or anything, though.

Vince comes across as harried and definitely as keeping secrets, though yeah, there's really no good place to start with discord drama. The choice to just start playing the campaign with River felt a bit sudden. It's not really testing the game to just start playing it with a guy who clearly knows nothing about anything. One reason could be that there's literally no one else in the server Vince trusts to share this with, which is pretty grim and pretty interesting, if they've continued to stick around despite that. Or maybe it's a ploy to keep River from yeeting into the ether immediately. I'd personally buy the 'hey want to play the game' a bit more if River was sounding like he thinks his job is done and is about to log off from discord for good and Vince doesn't want to lose contact just yet. River feels a bit static in that part, like he's just kind of sitting there and has no feelings either way. Him showing more interest (initiating more that they play) or less interest (seeming to be wrapping up the conversation) would give the character a bit more presence to me.

As to the campaign itself, I'm guessing we'll learn a lot more about it in chapters to come. Right now it feels pretty classic Dnd with pokemon as a class of monsters. The character classes don't seem to be trainers or anything. The noob is explained dnd basics of the chapter was the less compelling aspect of it for me. There's no real stakes yet to be invested in the campaign itself, so I felt comparatively less interested as the gears switched away from the characters talking and more towards the playing of a fictional campaign. I'm definitely more invested at the moment in character backstory, why the party split up, and everyone's relationship with Nat.

Hope you've got a second chapter in the works! Scriptfic is like chips, it's exceedingly munchable.

and that’s why legolas should be an arcane archer and not a ranger

counterpoint: he can talk to trees.

This is a really nice establishing line for the general tenor of talk on this server.

seems like something rafael could cook up pretty easy

Hmmmmm where have I heard that name before . . .

Hoodie: can someone photoshop me that meme with the guy and the butterfly, except it’s this guy asking if it’s a mod

Someone has their priorities straight

Bastion12: lmao yall still on this

Bastion12: can’t tonight

I feel like I already have a sense of the kind of person Bastion12 is one discord just from these lines

Calciferous: The plot thickens. The bot questions its own existence and purpose

🤣

invinceble: they’ve been typing for like two minutes
invinceble: kinda curious what they’ll come up with
invinceble: last time they spent this long on a message they asked if dragonite is the squiggly blue one

lmao excellent

River L.: Isn’t your name blue?
invinceble: huh, whaddya know
invinceble: I am the droid you’re looking for I guess

Nice

invinceble: what the fuck
Calciferous: hentai shit hentai shit
Calciferous: !!!
Hoodie: omg was it actually
invinceble: river dm me
Calciferous: aww man you deleted it

9:20 pm
Calciferous: so was it hentai
Calciferous:

This was nice on reread

invinceble: river dm me please

Why wouldn't he just dm? There's no reason River would need to dm him first?

River L.: Oh shit. Can you see that somewhere on my profile?
River L.: I don’t remember having to put in my last name when I was signing up for this.

Mood

River L.: lol lit fortnite yeet lmfao 69 fam
River L.: 🍆
invinceble: wow. you two really are related.

River knows all the cool words

River L.: Are you Vince?
invinceble: yeah
invinceble: honestly I thought the name would give it away but okay
River L.: Oh. Yeah. Didn’t figure that one out, sorry.

It was cunningly disguised

River L.: I thought DM stood for “direct message”?
invinceble: oh boy
invinceble: I see now why this might’ve caused you some confusion if you were new to discord.

River L.: But apparently DM means direct message?
invinceble: no, it means dungeon master
invinceble: uh, someone who runs the game
invinceble: I see now where a lot of this confusion came from

This seems to come up and be resolved twice?

invinceble: maybe I’ll just have sir wakenjake show up as a boss that we can beat the shit out of later
invinceble: yknow
invinceble: for catharsis

Nice indication that Jake left on bad terms

invinceble: wow did you really put your name as River
River L.: Am I supposed to put someone else’s name?
invinceble: can’t tell if this is a troll
River L.: Oh! I put my race as half-elf. Not troll.
invinceble: to match Nat, yeah, I guessed
River L.: (To match Natalie’s.)
River L.: Ah.
River L.: Yeah.

Love the awkwardness produced particularly by the instant message format

inbinceble: we’ll just have a bunch of npc’s in this party

typo?

River L.: Oh, do you need more people?
River L.: I think there’s a channel in the other server for people looking for people to play . . .
invinceble: …
invinceble: trust me
invinceble: I know
invinceble: I’m the one who made that channel

I know that feeling lol

River L.: Isn’t that the guy from the picture that Bastion12 posted earlier?
invinceble: oh, wild
invinceble: it would indeed appear that this is the ‘is this a butterfly’ guy
invinceble: crazy coincidence

Of course

River L.: Why do you keep saying “approximately” and then saying an exact distance in feet?
invinceble: it’s a running joke at the server
invinceble: since the map has a grid you know exactly how far away everyone is

👏

invinceble: roll initiative!

A cliffie!!

 

[Negrek]

Been looking forward to this one since we were talking Pokémon and D&D back in November; glad to see it's ready to start posting!

The hook here is great--from a tale of the epic to a tale of the extremely mundane. Really fun to see a story that

I love a good chatfic, and I think you do a great job of capturing the atmosphere of a small, fairly insular Discord server here. You have the long-suffering mods and admins wearied by the appearance of another Reddit weirdo, hints of the omnipresent build discussion/"what class would this famous character be" that I have to imagine is rampant on D&D discords, the woefully clueless newbie obliviously drawing ire for not immediately knowing how everything works. I love the little details like the colored names, mentions, emoji and so on for giving the sense of a real chat server. That and the nearly-impenetrable (to me) acronyms, heh.

Also fun to see mention of Rafael, plus of course :cramorant_hype: and (perhaps?) cobble. Or AU versions of them, anyway, since my impression is that this story's set in our world rather than the pokémon one. I wonder if they're still big fans of Marnie?

The campaign and its setting are also a lot of fun! Looks like we've got a type:null annnnd... a corviknight? Everything else is very Alola-themed, so decidueye would seem to make more sense, but the description sounds more corviknight-line to me. I like how you paint a pretty good picture of the party splinter that happened earlier even before Vince is forced to lay it out somewhat explicitly; there's a great sense of history to this campaign, and I'll bet it'll be a lot of fun and anguish to unpack as the story progresses.

At times I feel like River comes off too cartoonishly clueless about what's going on in the server. I can buy him not having done real-time chat before, which would be really confusing and overwhelming for a new person. But he does have some Reddit experience, apparently, and it's hard for me to buy someone who's hung around online communities for any length of time who isn't familiar with what a "mod" is. The mod/module and dm/dungeon master confusion could explain it in some contexts, and it was fun to see you play with them a bit, but statements like "is a mod a troll?" do strain my suspension of disbelief a bit. I loved the mod butterfly meme, though. I do also appreciate that if he'd just read the goddamn welcome message that popped up immediately above his post he would have had a much easier time figuring out who the mods were. Truly too real.

I was also a little weirded out by Vince's behavior here. It's clear they don't suffer fools just from the way they handle River's initial appearance on the server, and they're probably feeling a lot of weird and unpleasant stuff having this campaign module dumped on them out of the blue. I can definitely see the impulsive "Yo, wanna play this, grieving guy I don't know?" on those grounds. But the fact that he seems to be almost actively sabotaging River is more curious to me. Making no attempt to explain how anything works, letting River roll with his six d20 stats and a 2 in CON? Chucking him immediately into a big boss battle? I'm not sure if the idea is that he's actively sabotaging the campaign so he can go TPK and then welp, campaign's over, I finished it like she wanted me to, or he just really wants to play with his/Nat's characters and River's presence is merely required to justify that, so Vince is mostly going to ignore him, or what. Also thought it was interesting that he didn't even reach out to Nym to let her know what's up, even if he assumes she won't be back--but that one I could definitely hypothesize some good reasons for.

Some quick quotes:

River L.: There’s a note at the top here that says: “If anyone is reading this, for the love of god just assume I’m dead, take this mod to the server, and find a DM so that Vince can finally finish a campaign.”
invinceble: ah
invinceble: oof

I loved this roast from beyond the grave.

River L.: I thought DM stood for “direct message”?
invinceble: oh boy
invinceble: I see now why this might’ve caused you some confusion if you were new to discord.

They did already sort out the DM/DM confusion earlier, though.

invinceble: I’m clicking on your character. it should be lighting up green
River L.: Isn’t that the guy from the picture that Bastion12 posted earlier?
invinceble: oh, wild
invinceble: it would indeed appear that this is the ‘is this a butterfly’ guy
invinceble: crazy coincidence

Oh nooo, that callback!

River L.: So this is … Nat? Or her character?
invinceble: yeah

big oof

Unrelated to the story itself, I really like to cover art! Wonderful colors on the shattered D20 (but I'm sure this will be a fun romp through a dead girl's campaign setting, nothing to worry about here). I don't know if you've seen Phoenixsong's Pokémonized D&D logo, but if not, thought you might enjoy it.

All in all, this is a fun start and I look forward to the next chapter! I'm curious whether this campaign really will be just Vince and River, or if others are going to get pulled in along the way. One way or another I figure we'll be interacting with the characters hanging out on the main server now and again, at least. Should be a good time! And a "good time." I'll be back for the next installment!

 

[sun]

I fckin love this but they're so mean to him!!?!!!!!!! I felt so bad!???!! Poor guy doesn't have a clue!!!

That said this was very realistic, lol. I really enjoy watching River flounder. It's really charming and also frustrating -- it's only chapter 1 but I want him to have closure (and to not be bullied by discord miscreants)...! I've played dnd casually and I'm lost in the terminology, so the poor dude isn't actually doing that badly! Maybe.

The premise is heartbreaking, can't wait to learn more about it. It's the kind of thing I purposefully avoid pondering, so it's definitely interesting to read about.

Overall this is really charming and I appreciate all the detail (the coloured names are super satisfying). I'm looking forward to the next!

 

[WildBoots]

:cramorant_hype:

I can't believe I never actually gave you written feedback about this. I'm not even gonna apologize because I know you know that life. BUT, I got to work 30 minutes early today, so I'm huddled in a corner of the library thinking of you. ❤️

Overall: this truly epitomizes the Kint brand of heartfelt, sweet, funny, and also oof ouch my feelings. Definitely excited to watch how it plays out. I've been super offline all year, so please aggressively notify me when there's more.

The more detailed edition:
Okay, so this still isn't a very deep response because I read it months ago and only skimmed back through this morning, BUT

I see now that, of course, Raf has been around in your internal world for a while, but I was pleasantly surprised to see his name come up! A similar long-suffering-but-helpful-anyway vibe comes through loud and clear through Vince, and I loved how individual characters have their own memery and typing habits. Very thoughtfully crafted chat log fic.

Some of my favorite gems:

River L.: Dragonite is the blue squiggly one, right?
Hoodie: I cannot believe it took you two minutes to write that

Hoodie: @Bastion12 I take it back I want the patrick driver’s license meme instead

invinceble: nvm
invinceble: (that means “never mind”)
River L.: I know what nvm means.

Hang on,

Natalie’s.

Did you take out the H?

But, yeah, this is a fun concept. Like, using a franchise for children to process actual, real-world grief? Who??? Would ever??? I also love that you're poking a question I've had in the back of my mind for a long time: what happens to the weird, cool, half-finished fannish shit that's sitting on my computer right now if I die tomorrow? Should I make a will that includes a contingency plan for my drafts and outlines????

I also appreciate how fucking lost River is because it's a good setup for a lot of things. First of all, it's hilarious. Second of all, it's a great way to force these strangers to talk about the one thing they have in common: Nat. (Because clearly they struggle to talk about literally anything else.) Also, I feel like we all kinda stumble our way around through grief—like, what the hell is the right way to grieve? I don't think there is one. So I'm feeling hopeful that, even though River is deeply not Discord-savvy, maybe he'll have some other skills to bring to their emotional journey and, maybe if they're really, really lucky, to the campaign.

We've only seen the edges of it so far, but I'm curious to see what Vince and River will start to discover inside the long-awaited mod and inside ... themselves. ❤️ 🌈

Also the cover art is still so good. I've been really enjoying your love/hate slowburn romance with reflections. Petition for an alternative eoe cover that's just an apple with N's face reflected on half of it and the other half is ... IDK, Tourm? Resh? Tear gas canister?

Anyway, happy Friday! I miss your words! Lemme scrape some bitcoin together from between the couch cushions and commission to you write some flash fic or something.