Baklava

Let's B!tch. I feel it's a healthy release for our roleplay annoyances 2.0

I gotta say-- I wouldn't want to be mentioned for simply viewing an interest check either. Not at all.

I think it's a bad habit. Also a bad way to gauge how successful your interest check is, as I know some GMs say stuff like "If 3 more people say they're interested, I'll start working on the OOC!" Of course, there's nothing wrong with that, but you should never count lurkers towards that number. That's like counting people who walk by your food truck and stop long enough to read the menu as customers. Unless they actually buy something-- don't count them. And definitely don't sign them up for your weekly newsletter just because you happen to have the ability to know everyone's email address.

There are a number of reasons why someone might decide to lurk without saying anything-- but I think the main reason is probably that they're either not interested or unsure of whether or not they're interested. If they are, they have all the means available to let it be known and keep track of what's going on. The thread isn't going anywhere. The subscription button is always an option. You might have to go to page two of the Interest Check section if you forgot to subscribe, but that's not a big deal at all. Probably easier than the GM sitting on their toppic and jotting down the name of every person that peeks their head in the window.

I would much rather gauge how passionate a GM is about their RP by observing the effort they put into the story itself than mentioning people who could possibly be uninterested. That just wreaks of desperation to me. Have faith in your story and GMing ability. If both are super great, you shouldn't be having to sneak in the extra numbers so people think your RP is more popular than it is. Overall, it just comes across as a bit scummy-- but maybe that's just me.

.:: ℤ𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕒 - 𝕎𝕙𝕚𝕤𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℕ𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 ::.

Felicia's terrified screams formed a shoddy duet with Archer before she managed to clamp her mouth shut. Archer broke the skeleton's grip on her sword. She scrambled backwards and to her feet, suddenly realizing that the monster's forearm was still soundly latched onto her blade.

"Eugh!" she frantically shook it off, looking up just as she heard the sudden FWOOSH of flames. The dismembered forearm clattered across the room, picked up by the skeleton who'd lost it. With body language that seemed to suggest annoyance in spite of its perpetuating smile, it reattached the arm and inched closer with the others, teeth chattering.

Instinctively, her free arm shot out across Archer's chest, urging him to back up and get behind her. Obviously his fire magic wasn't going to work... er... hadn't worked. In fact, it'd made these ten times worse. Not his fault. He didn't know. She herself didn't know exactly why she was motioning for Archer to get behind her either. She had no idea what she was going to do, but... well, she had to do something.

Hardly thinking, Felicia grabbed her water skin. She hastily unscrewed the top and thrust it towards the flaming skeletons. It pitifully splashed across the nearest sack of bones, but the amount of water was little more than a mouthful. She forgot she'd used up most of it cleaning the wounds from the bats. Suddenly something came hurtling out of the wall Felicia and Archer had come from, plopping onto the ground between them and the skeletons before hissing and scrambling up the bars of the cell.

It was Jillian! Felicia had always been good with names and Jillian was one she wouldn't soon forget. She was a Skullkid. Felicia knew very little of the creatures other than they came from the Lost Woods. As such, you weren't really supposed to see them-- since people were generally encouraged not to go anywhere near there. Nonetheless, something about Jillian awoke something inside of her in that moment. As the skeletons briefly turned their attention towards the Skullkid clinging to the bars, Felicia took a deep breath and adjusted the grip on her sword, tossing her empty water skin aside.

Get it together, Felicia. You know how to use this thing. Now stop being useless and USE IT!

"HYAGH!" Felicia swung her sword across the nearest skeleton with as much strength as she could muster, successfully cleaving the creature in half at the spine. She repeatedly stomped her boot down on the skull as it angrily clattered at her from the floor, putting out the flames while causing the head to cave in on itself.

A second skeleton took a swing at her then. Its flaming fist narrowly missed her cap as she ducked, swinging her sword at the creature's knees and stabbing it through the skull as it made a grab for her ankles. Now infuriated as well as inflamed, the remaining two skeletons collapsed in on her before she could raise her weapon for another blow.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

？？？ / / 𝕌𝕊𝔸ℝ𝕀𝕃ℕ 𝔼𝕒𝕤𝕥 / / ℂ𝕒𝕞𝕡𝕦𝕤 / / ？？？

It started off as a day unlike any other. To sate her hunger, Callan was in the process of pulling a bag of beef jerky out of the cupboard when, all of a sudden--

Salad.

Salad? No... not just salad. Grass. Shrubs. Leaves. Bark. Flowers. Hell, a whole tree.

Callan tore through the cupboards with significantly less grace. Boxes of cereal, bags of jerky, and various other snacks fell to the floor before she finally noticed the tiny... paws? Claws? What the hell were these? And why were they green? She blinked and her ear twitched. Twitched?

She needed to go look in the mirror. Now. Spinning around (or, rather, hopping around), something heavy crashed through the kitchen cupboards near her... feet-like things. The wood splintered loudly. As she jumped around to see what had happened, Callan successfully leveled the rest of the lower cabinets. Among the chunks of wood, snacks and several of her hidden pillows littered the floor.

She barely paid any attention to the damage as her eyes fell on what was unmistakably a tail.

What the hell's going on?

Chief Tater Tot was barking like mad in the other room, which didn't help the chaos. She took a deep breath to try and calm her racing mind, but the air felt off as it traveled through her nose. Everything about it felt off. Her nose, the way her chest expanded, and, finally, the way her mouth moved as she attempted to call out for Marcus and Siena in the other room. The sound that she made was akin to one of those anti-smoking commercials where some poor lady with no larynx tells you about cancer-- only Callan couldn't seem to form any words. To top it all off-- staring down at her stomach, her breath hitched in her throat-- there was a hole in her gut.

Her shadow began to solidify. Oh no, Callan thought in a panic. A small black mount started to rise from the inky black. She took another breath, already feeling more accustomed to the way her body moved. Just before she let the shadow disappear, however, she stopped. Its shape wasn't quite right. What was that?

Out of curiosity and poor judgement, she allowed her shadow to finish summoning.

There among the rubble sat a very tiny, very adorable, black bunny with glowing eyes. It looked so soft. The curious green marsupial slowly reached out her paw. Before she could touch it, the tiny creature let out a blood curdling squeak and launched itself across the room. It tore viciously at the couch, smashed the TV, and kicked the coffee table at the window.

Shit! Callan de-summoned the tiny monster as quickly as possible. Thankfully, all of this happened before the guards came crashing through the door.

Whisked away, Callan watched as Siena and Marcus were also extracted from their suite. Somehow she was able to tell them apart and something about Marcus filled her with the desire to kick his lights out, but she managed to brush it aside. Once in the same vicinity as everyone else, she found that to be a common urge. Every time one of the dogs wandered a little too close, the muscles in her legs tensed. Even more than delivering a swift kick to the ribs, she wanted to run-- but that was just silly. She was strong enough to kick any one of these animals in half. Probably.

She resigned to hopping around and eating whatever shrubbery she could find. While maybe not the most natural thing to do, it seemed to be the least likely to get her in trouble. But then again, she had no idea what could be classified as natural anymore. She was a fucking kangaroo and for whatever reason this grass tasted a m a z i n g.

.:: ℤ𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕒 - 𝕎𝕙𝕚𝕤𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℕ𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 ::.

@The 42nd Gecko Huh? Weird. I'll try resending it

.:: ℤ𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕒 - 𝕎𝕙𝕚𝕤𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℕ𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 ::.

@The 42nd Gecko Hey, Gecko. I sent you a new link via PM-- did you get it?

.:: ℤ𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕒 - 𝕎𝕙𝕚𝕤𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℕ𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 ::.

@POOHEAD189 I won't be opening up an interest check thread this time for the new people I'll be bringing in, but I'll definitely hang on to your name for when I go hunting for recruits. Thanks!

.:: ℤ𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕒 - 𝕎𝕙𝕚𝕤𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℕ𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 ::.

@Captain Jenno@Furia@jasonwolf@Dervish@DearTrickster@The 42nd Gecko

Alright! A few important things goin down now!

Right Group: I'll let you guys decide who, but I require ONE sacrifice to the Wallmasters. Mwahahaha.

Middle Group: I'll have a post up for this group later. I know you're all dying to know what's gonna happen to Alyce, Griz, Graham, and Magus. SUSPENSE!!

Left Group: Welcome to the impasse. Feel free to throw together a mini collab so your characters can talk.

A few more items of business:

#1: Chanda seems to be tied up with too many irl things at the moment, so he's out of the picture for now. Captain Jenno will be co-GMing with me again, so... yep! That's a thing.

#2: I'm considering making us a discord channel. Probably soon... like... by the end of the day. Thoughts? Concerns?

#3: I'll be on the hunt for 2-3 new peeps to join the RP some time next month. So... yay! New faces! Woooo~

.:: ℤ𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕒 - 𝕎𝕙𝕚𝕤𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℕ𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 ::.

As quickly as the weight appeared, it was gone. Trying to regain her stolen breath, Felicia quickly rolled away in the opposite direction. She noticed a sudden spark of light through the blurriness of pain, fear, and confusion that currently occupied her disoriented thoughts. She stared long and hard at the fire wielding figure before finally realizing who it was.

Archer, she remembered. The name found its way into her head just before he seemed to realize she wasn't someone he should be hurling fireballs or threats at. He relaxed his posture and introduced himself, cracking a joke of some sort. But before she could respond her eyes fell on something beside him. Something that was also leaning up against the wall. Something that had just moved.

Shakily, her hands moved towards the hilt of her sword as she shifted her feet beneath her, moving from her knees into a low crouch. There were four skeletons up against the wall the man was currently leaning against. The one immediately to his right had definitely just moved. She glanced at Archer just as it moved again. Its skull turned to face him and her breath caught in her throat-- she needed to warn him, but couldn't find the words. Felicia unsheathed her sword quickly, just as the creature began to raise its bony fingers towards the man's throat.

Everything suddenly happened at once. "Look out!" she screamed, swinging the blade diagonally towards the skeleton with her eyes squeezed shut. The blade crashed through several rib bones, but was stopped suddenly when the monster took hold of the end, giving it a powerful yank. She barely managed to hang on. The three other skeletons seemed to take that as their cue as they all shambled to their feet. Their teeth clattered unnervingly.

.:: ℤ𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕒 - 𝕎𝕙𝕚𝕤𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℕ𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 ::.

Right Tunnel Group

The blood soaked into the stone as before. Instead of fading away, however, the blood ran all the way to the edge of the platform. All at once, a long bridge appeared, no longer only visible in the reflective surface of the blade that continued swinging before them. They would have to be mindful while crossing if they wanted to avoid getting sliced in half.

Lethe was the first to step onto the bridge, albeit with much more caution than before. If she was relieved when her body didn't immediately fall through the stone, Lethe didn't show it. With a toss of her hair, she moved forward, waiting for the first scythe to swing by before continuing on her way.

"HAhahahAHAHaHAhAHahaHAAHAHaAHaAHAAhaHAahahahaha!!"

As Zephyrus, bringing up the rear, cleared the first scythe, a harsh cackle filled the room. The raucous noise caused the very walls to shake. Lethe stopped to try and keep her balance as the bridge trembled.

Shadows with seemingly no light source began to appear along the bridge-- concentrated near the platform from whence they'd come. The sentient, oversized hands fell in droves, forming a mass so thick the platform could scarcely be seen.

"RUN!" Lethe shouted, dashing past the second blade and towards the false wall at the other end of the room.

Left Tunnel Group

The ReDead ceased to move after being crushed by Noi's hammer, leaving the rising the flames inside the room as the only remaining threat. The large cabinet filled with its own assortment of flammable objects was entirely engulfed in flame. It snapped and crackled for a moment before it finally fell. It crumbled backwards through the wall, disappearing from sight.

On the other side of the false wall was yet another ceilingless corridor. At the end was a room with a large, ornate door. An equally ornate and large lock prevented anyone from trespassing. The door and lock would prove durable enough to withstand any attempts to get through without a key. Upon closer inspection, the door was certainly old, but seemed somehow different from the surrounding stone. The crest of the Royal Family decorated the door as well as the lock.

Smoke trickled from the burning room they left behind. Turning back did not seem to be an option.

.:: ℤ𝕖𝕝𝕕𝕒 - 𝕎𝕙𝕚𝕤𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 ℕ𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 ::.

I'll have an update up soon, folks.