Terra (Dirt)
"Are you ok?" Jorje walks in, a face of worry and slight disappointment causing me to sigh internally. The answer to the Pole's question is of course not at fucking all, but I can't exactly say that, can I?
"Ok…is a word you can use," I shrug as I answer his question without looking at him. I can already imagine his face of disappointment morphing into concern and annoyance at my dodging his question.
"Seriously Terence…what happened?" He shakes his head as he pulls up a chair beside me. I finally look at him in his brown eyes as I let out the most resounding sigh of my life.
"Well…let's see…" I groan as I raise my hands off my keyboard to count. "I fucked my English grade, nearly blew up both Chem labs and got Albert banned from them, got robbed of an entire week due to getting sick, pretty sure Lavia hates me now after that screw-up, and I've gotten into a fight with management over just what happened in the labs. That's what happened…"
"That's…" Jorje bites his lip. "Honestly, that was worse than what I was hoping, better than what I feared. Plus, you got a 6 for English. You'll be fine."
"Yeah, but I constantly got 7's before," I sigh. "I'm underperforming, Jorje. I need to do better, no, I must do better. If I want to remain where I am now, I will do better."
That came out with a bit more steel than I'd meant.
Fuck.
Alright, divert to a random topic! It worked with Friedrich, it'll work with Jorje. Probably.
"Right, before I forget, Jorje, what did you pick for our new campaign on Friday?" I smile slightly. I know that Jorje looks forward to every D&D campaign we have, and trying to get his attention with that is probably a good choice.
"Terence," Jorje stares at me with…is that amusement? Exasperation? Confusion? Look, I'm not good at reading people. I'm good at reading books, and they're a lot better at telling me what they're trying to say without me having to guess!
"What?"
"I know you're trying to change the topic by bringing up D&D—" He sighs.
Oh fuck. That—damn, that's not good. Uh…abort? What do I even have for a plan B? I was totally unprepared for this conversation! I was trying to do my physics homework! What do I do? I can't run now, can I? That'll feel weird! You know what, I'll just go with wherever the conversation flows. I've kinda talked myself into—
"—But know that it's working," Jorje surprises me by producing something from his pocket. It's a character sheet.
Huh. Did not expect this to work.
"Let me have a look," I say as he hands me the folded-up piece of paper. It's…very messy. Scratch-out numbers, completely illegible handwriting on the equipment section, and is that crossed-out pen?
I can barely understand a thing!
How, Jorje? You have good handwriting!
"It's uh— It's something," I mutter. "How many times did you restart?"
"Six," My friend responds, with perhaps a little bit of embarrassment, after a moment of silence.
"Please, get another character sheet if you do that," I sigh. "I can barely read a thing, and you have good handwriting."
"Do you really have to read it, though?"
I blink after Jorje's statement. Then I take a closer look at the top of the page, and read 'Berserker Barbarian 5'.
Ah, that'll explain it.
"You want to turn your brain off this session?" I chuckle. Barbarian is a fun class to play, but it doesn't require you to memorise a massive list of spells and have to choose from an even larger list. Not that it's not fun to play casters or that martials are simple; it's a difference in play style. I prefer to play spellcaster anyway.
"Yeah. The last PC I played burned my brain," Jorje signs and rubs his temples, causing me to laugh out loud. That coffeelock build was definitely brain power-consuming, especially the fights that Jorje would have with Jonathan, our resident forever DM, about that said build. Looks like he wants a comfortable class to play with this time. "Spices are delicious, but sometimes you just want to have some plain bread, you know?"
I laugh harder.
"Oh come on, Terence. What did you make for this one-shot that will definitely not stay a one-shot anyway?" Jorje rolls his eyes in annoyance at my continued laughter.
"Huh? Ah, that's right, I picked an artificer," It takes me a moment to stop laughing and recognize that Jorje has asked me a question. "The build itself isn't anything to talk about…but the character is a bit…escapist? Also kind of cringy in certain ways if I'm being honest."
"Really? Can't be worse than what Friedrich came up with a couple of campaigns ago," Jorje snorts. "T.T. Johnson shall save this world! All shall bow before the great T.T. Johnson!"
I laugh a bit too hard at that. Man, that was an amazing campaign. Ironically, T.T. Johnson got the best character death…well, that I've ever seen. Holding back a swarm of undead as the people of the capital fled the oncoming horde of necromancy… Damn, that was a sweet campaign.
"Alright, you…got…pffff…me there," I laugh while trying to talk. I think Jorje understood what I was saying, so all's well that ends well, I guess. "Still, I named my character Terentius Aquilius Aurelius."
"What so wrong with that?" Jorje raises an eyebrow. "It's Roman, sure, but it follows naming conventions."
"Terence the Eagle of Gold," It's my turn to raise an eyebrow. "How the hell is that not edgy?"
Jorje blinks.
"You realise my characters' names have all been spoofs on my Polish name, right?" Jorje raises an eyebrow at me. "Turning your name into a character's name isn't edgy."
"One, nobody in either of our friend groups, with the sole half-exception of James, speaks Polish, so we don't even know what your name is," I frown. "And James is a half exception since he speaks Czech and you two can somehow half understand each other. The main point is that you didn't go naming yourself the Gold Eagle, now did you?"
"Actually," Jorje gives me a sly smile. "The Warlock that I played—"
"And you can stop there," I cut him off. I do not need a four-hour lesson on Polish words and terminology. Again. For the sixth time. I understand you want me to learn Polish Jorje, but this isn't the way to do it. "I'm going to play him as an aggressively Roman version of Stroheim though. Tell me that isn't extremely cringy."
"A…a what?" Jorje blinks.
"Slutle! Technologia Romana optima in mundo est!" I strike my best JoJo pose while screaming at the top of my lungs. I don't start hip-trusting, however. Jorje isn't that much of a Jojo fan for me to start doing that. I'm embarrassed as it is with the Jojo pose since he doesn't even watch the show. Jonathan, Friedrich, and I did the pillar man pose a couple of weeks ago and Jorje didn't even blink.
Thankfully, Jorje scrunches his face up in an effort to not laugh. Even then, he still fails to do so and quickly devolves into a mess.
"I hate that I understood that!" Jorje manages to say before returning to a state of a pair of lungs desperately trying to breathe through a fit of laughter. "God, that was terrible."
"I know, right?" I grin wildly.
"Augh…! I just…gah, that's amazing, Terence. Can't wait to see it at the table," Jorje smiles brightly. "So, what subclass?"
"Artillerist," I nod.
"Artillerist?" Jorje raises an eyebrow. "Not Armourer?"
"I want to play with magic cannons," I fold my arms across my chest. "While punching people in a massive iron man suit is fun as all heck, shooting people with an eldritch cannon is just as if not more fun. Also, my last character had insane AC and I think Jonathan is tired of me saying 'Twenty-Six Armour Class BITCH'. Doing that but with two less AC doesn't change the dynamic at all."
Jorje shrugs, conceding the point.
"Race?" He asks.
"Variant Human: The one with the feat," I respond with a shrug.
"That's rare," Jorje frowns. "You almost always play either an exotic race or a race that has rules written three years ago in a magazine no one knows and only you bother to remember."
"Which is why I'm not this time around," I explain. "I'm trying my best not to piss off Mr Eternal DM Jonathan this time around. I was originally going to go fairy to have a GuP reference, but that would be a pain for Jonathan, so here we are."
"Male, I'm guessing? If you're going with the Strohiem theme, that is," Jorje nods.
"Naturally. It's hard to think of Strohiem as anything other than a male. Plus, Jojo's gay as fuck anyway," I shrug.
"I…you know what, you do you…" Jorje shrugs. "What's the feat, anyway?"
"Elemental Adept," I shrug. "It's better than most of the other feats anyway, especially for an artillerist. Sure, taking Fey Touched and getting Misty Step would also be useful, but I don't think we need any more teleportation shenanigans when Albert exists."
Jorje snorts in amusement.
"And it's going to be fire, because fireball is king," He adds.
"Of course," I chuckle. Hey! Fireball does solve all of your problems! Unless you're playing first edition and have to make sure that the fireball doesn't accidentally go in the wrong direction. Then you might have to reconsider using it in a confined space.
"Honestly? I feel like the character is probably going to be very essential in a party of like, four martials," Jorje snorts a bit after a short pause.
"Really?" I raise an eyebrow. "It's not like Favia to not pick a spellcasting class."
"Which is why I said four, not five. And she picked Eldritch Knight, which is a spellcaster by technicality only," Jorje explains. "Everyone is a martial. We have two fighters, me the barbarian, and a monk."
"We also have no healers," I note. "Do I have to pull double duty? If that's the case, I'll pick up healer."
"I don't think we need…" Jorje bites his lip. "Actually, we probably need a healer…If Albert's going to be a fighter, we need a healer. Yeah, pick Healer as the feat. It's going to be much easier on all of us, honestly."
"You got it," I chuckle. "Lemme pull out the sheet, I'll change it now."
Grabbing my big binder of character sheets, I take the first and most recent of the character sheets and place them on the desk in front of me. I grab a pencil and eraser to change the feat that I had chosen.
"Huh…that's a really good spread of stats," Jorje comments. "The dice gods smiled on you when you rolled up the stats."
"Yeah, they definitely agreed with me that day. Two seventeens, a sixteen, a fourteen, and thirteen and a ten? Sign me up! Having eighteens in intelligence and constitution is great to start with," I nod.
"And we're starting at level 5 since Friedrich is using his old character so that means ability score increase. Intelligence up to twenty?" Jorje smiles slightly.
"You betcha," I nod happily. "How are your stats looking?"
"I have a four," Jorje sighs after a moment of silence.
"I am sorry for your loss," I bow my head and clasp my hands together. Jorje groans.
"Oh, dice gods, what have I done to deserve your ire? Why…" He leans back on his chair in defeat. "In all seriousness, do not try and have this character do any explaining. He just sucks at it. Worse than Albert was when he asked Milia for a date."
This gets a chuckle out of me.
We spend the next couple of minutes talking about what we want to happen during the campaign and our thoughts on it. It's fun, spending some time away from the pressure of life and school to discuss our hobbies and our pastimes. It feels…refreshing.
Oh come on, I know my hobbies all relate to schoolwork in one way or another, but that doesn't mean you have to rub it in my face! Shut up! I don't care that I like to do maths for fun! It's my time and I get to decide how I spend it!
That is what I say to Jorje when he brings it up. Not everyone can draw like a professional, Jorje!
Eventually, the conversation fizzles out. Jorje needs to go do his homework (which was due two days ago, I might add. Our professor is just really nice) and I just sat there, the weight of life slowly creeping back onto my shoulders.
"Ah, fuck it. Life can go piss off. I'm going to enjoy myself on a Saturday and not think about Monday's test. That's a problem for Monday me," I finally groan. I know Monday me is going to kill me for doing this, but time travelling hasn't been invented yet, so I'm safe.
I decide to play some Fire Emblem. What! I'm too braindead to play any Paradox games, and I have Total War burnout right now! Sure, it's just chess but anime but what are you going to do, stop me?
Actually, don't do that. I want to play Awakening right now. Don't stop me. Please.
Well, here goes nothing, I guess…
Welcome to Ylisse, Farseer…
AN [17/6/23]: Hello there! Acardia here! Yep, this is the other project I was talking about. Yes, it's another OC story. It'll be better than A Thousand Burgundy Flowers, I promise. At the very least, I have enough motivation actually to write this. I have the next...well, 75ish thousand words already ready to post, but I'm going to space it out over the next couple of weeks. These first three chapters are...an introduction to the story, of sorts.
As for the themes, there's going to be a lot of Dungeons and Dragons as well as some pretty heavy OC lore flying around. If you know nothing about D&D, be prepared for things not to make sense. If you've played D&D, things will somewhat make sense. I'm combining aspects of both 3.5e and 5e along with some house rules. I find 5e not crunchy enough but 3.5e has a lot of weird and specific ways things work. And if you've played Pathfinder...how the hell did you manage to get your party to play it? My party has been incredibly stubborn about not switching.
Anyhow, since I have the next 4 or so chapters already finished, I'll be releasing those in the following weeks one at a time.
This...probably won't impact WCLS, at least not for the foreseeable future. I'm going to get a lot less busy over the summer, which means more time spent hammering out words on a keyboard.
That's...about it. If you have any questions or any other concerns, please review. Even if you don't please review. It makes my day.
That's it for this week!
Acardia out!