honestly official d&d stuff is super kind and always emphasizes fun first and it’s so different from the stringent serious rules-first impression of d&d i was always given before i started playing??? like this is all such sound advice
“it’s a game in your imagination just have fun and make a cool story with your friends”
LIKE THEY LITERALLY ENCOURAGE U TO BE TRANS/GENDER VARIANT/NON BINARY ID LIKE TO THANK EVERY WIZARD OF THE COAST INDIVIDUALLY
Not to mention the racial diversity of the humans alone! And practical armor for men and for women in the official art! The first picture is the face of the human race in the player handbook, a black woman in beautiful yet fully functional armor!
{{ Syx, please, that is a piss poor Harrison disguise. Where is the color?! But he has insisted. This is what he’s going with. }} @dark-blue-mondays
(( Harrison LOVES the tie, and the vest is fine just nothing special. But he is noping right out of that suit coat since the “stripes” (he’s making me put that in air quotes) are a travesty to the line of the suit and that horrid fan pocket swatch deserves to be burned, not worn.
So fussy *eyeroll* ))
{{ LMFAO Syx is just… }}
“Well, I didn’t like it either!”
{{ he tried really hard on that. XD his fashion sense is very special. }}
“Well it might not have been a perfect copy….” Harrison drawled, caressing the unfortunately striped lapels of the suit. “But you still get points for effort.” He grabs Syx’s tie and yanks the other man into a rough, passionate kiss.
Syx’s deep pout ends with those blue lips crashing against his. His breath coming out into a moan as he pressed his hips against Harrison’s, his hands smoothing over the other’s hips. This was acceptable. Maybe there was something to this whole suit thing if it could get this kind of reaction. Still only for special occasions of course.
“Tomato, tomato,” Syx shrugged off, pronouncing the word the same both times. He squinted up at her over his shoulder, “I mean… donuts are nice… but why would you assume that?”
Winding through the crowd proved not to be difficult at all. It turned out being blue and flanked by a huge woman with a dog meant they were given quite a bit of breathing room. Far more than he was used to since he normally only shopped (during business hours) in disguise.
When they made it to the soft pretzel stand, he held his chin up, expecting to be refused service. He made sure to flash the cash before the cashier could even question him, “Two of your finest pretzels. With butter and cin-o-” he glanced at Wendalyn, “Cinna-men,” getting closer but the word still felt weird on his tongue today, “And please tell me you have the cream cheese.”
He was actually rather shocked when the woman took his order without defiance or questioning him. It was still so strange for his skin not to immediately get him kicked out of everything on principle. The cashier looked up to Wendalyn, not sure if the two were together but guessing so as they had walked up together.
[The butchered phrasing makes her roll her eyes. In this case, it’s not worth correcting him for not mispronouncing one of them.] My Megamind favored doughnuts above all other pastries.
[His twitchy behavior almost earns him another eye roll, but when he actually tries to say cinnamon correctly, she can’t help but give him a small smile. Prehaps this one isn’t as spitefully hopeless as the one she had grown up with. It’s almost cute.]
[Wendalyn waves off the cashier’s questioning look.] My order is separate from his.
[It doesn’t take the cashier long to get Syx’s order together and to accept his payment. Wendalyn has an even simpler order of just a plain pretzel. Once they both have their food, she gestures towards the various tables open to sit at.]
Taking his food, Syx leads the way to a place to sit. He picked a place where no one could come at him from behind, but also made sure the side for his companion to sit in had enough room for her size and dog. Ripping a bit of the pretzel and grinning at the hot steam that escaped, Syx dipping it into the cream cheese and munched on it happily. The dairy would upset his stomach later, but god was it delicious.
“So,” he waved a piece of pretzel around as he spoke, “Which one is yours anyway? I know of a few now. Let’s see…” he ticked them off on his fingers, “Female hero, tongue ring guy, two that wear suits… but I know you can’t mean either of those,” he tipped his head, feeling like he was missing some other options. His eyes flicked to her scar again, but he bit his tongue on the question for now.
His leather jacket sleeves were getting in the way and leather didn’t really roll up… why had he gone gloveless today? He sighed internally, recalling his parting touches with Anna before coming here. That had been the reason, but now re regretted his exposed wrists. Fuck it all, he’d just leave the jacket on and just suffer through it.
Syx’s brows furrowed as he took another bite, finding he was growing quite fond of the unique taste of the edible sand, “Shu-shee-me?” he shook his head, “I’m not sure I know what that is. Minion makes sushi rolls sometimes when we have an anime night? I’m more familiar with Korean dishes… Uncle Jim used to bring us homemade gim and Minion would use it in everything he could think of,” he smiled fondly, “Outside of my Uncles and Minion’s experimentation I haven’t really tried many exotic foods.”
Actually, he’d rarely left the city. Never the country. It had always sounded appealing… but also terrifying.
“Sashimi is a way of preparing raw fish,” Harrison explained enthusiastically. He always loved sharing information, especially about the things he loved. “Its thin slices but its so much more than just cut up fish bits. You have to have the perfect fresh fish and know just how to slice it. Some of them are brushed with just a touch of rice vinegar or dipped in soy sauce. It’s delightful.” He kissed his fingertips in culinary delight.
“Minion loved it. We used to hang out in sushi bars and hostess clubs until all hours of the night. He was more popular with the ladies than me if you can believe it. They used to fawn all over him and tell him he was ‘kawaii desu ne’,” he laughed at the memory of Minions awkwardness. “He had no idea how to handle it. He’d barely left the prison since we landed and still found mammals confusing and offputting.”
Syx chuckled, shoulders shaking, “I’m sure my Minion would feel the same way. His first real experience with sexuality in mammals was us both getting ‘real’ sex ed talks from Aunt Sarah. Minion was horrified and had to leave the room.”
“I’ll take your word on the fish preparation,” Syx crinkled his eyes in an embarrassed half smile, “I have been informed repeatedly that I don’t understand the delicacies of cooking and that I am not at all welcome in the kitchen,” his plate mostly clean, Syx set down his fork and left the greens untouched. He’d eaten the peas, that was enough in his mind.
CONFIDENTIAL TO THOSE OF YOU NICE FOLKS GETTING SPAMMED WITH ANON HATE AS OF LATE, if you’re on Google Chrome, YOU CAN TOTALLY FIND THE ANONYMOUS FOLKS.
STEP ONE: Highlight the word “block” STEP TWO: Right click the word block. STEP THREE: Click “View Selection Source” STEP FOUR: Something like this should pop up: Highlight the “IP” (the blacked out part). STEP FIVE: Copy the IP address and paste it to this website: http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-lookup Paste the IP address into there, press enter or “Lookup IP Address” and all the information should come up.
BOOM. Don’t let jerks hide behind their monitors. Spread this like wildfire so it becomes common knowledge that WE CAN FIND YOU.
Step 1: You’re going to need a diversity consultant. A sensitivity reader. You will have to pay this person if you’re publishing your work anywhere for money. Yes. Get used to the idea.
Step 2: your main character can’t be white/cis/straight/abled if you’re serious about this. If you’re not serious about it, stop lying to yourself (and everyone else) about your intent.
Step 3: Congrats, your protagonist represents at least one minority group. Now, you need to fill your world with lots of people who also represent that minority group. And other minority groups.
Step 4: This means it’s time to start doing the most difficult research you’ve done in a long time: you need to silently listen to the experiences of those of us who are not white/cis/straight/abled /etc. You need to read up on what it’s like to deal with these prejudices. You need to learn about the harm that colonialism, imperialism, racism, xenophobia, religious intolerance (specifically: christian religious intolerance for other religions), homophobia, biphobia, conversion therapy & ableism brings to us.
This step should, once you start, be a never-ending process. But you can make projects while you’re doing this step. Just be aware of the importance here.
Step 5: Start writing your thing. Maybe now that you’re actually thinking about it, you don’t really want to write about how the brave humans are gonna go colonize other planets. Maybe you kinda get this uncomfortable feeling because you now feel how ugly the idea of entitlement to resources truly is, and it makes you feel…gross. That’s not bad, and you need to not shy away from it.
This is the wound: the wound made by systematic and extensive injustice. This is the wound of classism and ableism, of violence and apathy. You cannot ignore this wound, and you cannot cover it with a cloth and keep walking.
You need to learn medicine, and drain the pus.
You need to clean the wound, and dress it.
You need to work on healing this enormous wound, and it is not going to be easy, and you cannot expect people to be impressed by how hard you’re working on it because everybody carries this wound, and is burdened by this wound. This is not you going above and beyond: this is you doing the duty you should always strive to do, and feel content because you know you are trying to do the right thing.
That’s how you improve the representation in your own writing, as someone who is white or cis or abled or straight or christian or rich/middle class. There’s no other effective way. That’s what you have to do.
{{ Syx, please, that is a piss poor Harrison disguise. Where is the color?! But he has insisted. This is what he’s going with. }} @dark-blue-mondays
(( Harrison LOVES the tie, and the vest is fine just nothing special. But he is noping right out of that suit coat since the “stripes” (he’s making me put that in air quotes) are a travesty to the line of the suit and that horrid fan pocket swatch deserves to be burned, not worn.
So fussy *eyeroll* ))
{{ LMFAO Syx is just… }}
“Well, I didn’t like it either!”
{{ he tried really hard on that. XD his fashion sense is very special. }}
She had heard the name around, had heard Syx mention her in passing. She had seen some of the footage from past battles that Syx had between him and his old lover, knew that there was a woman that had been taken a lot.. and now that she thought about it? It had to have been this one. She tilting her head just a touch more with a noise that was more of a animal-like grunt than anything.
“I remember seeing you on footage,” was all she offered on that. She didn’t necessarily trust the woman, but Syx obviously did. If anything, the brain bots made that little fact glaringly obvious. She took in a deep breath, forcing herself to relax a bit more, though her mind still didn’t like that this woman so easily invaded her territory.
“Would you like something to drink?” she prompted, smiling gently. Her voice was much gentler now, extending her hand to the other woman in invitation. She didn’t seem bothered in the slightest that she wasn’t clothed for company.. but then again, skimpy clothing was pretty much how she dressed at all times.
“I- really?” Roxanne shook her head, short hair fluttering around her, “Of course, I’d love to.”
There was no way in hell that she’d pass up the opportunity to get the inside scoop on Megamind’s Evil Lair and surprising unknown details of his life. A girlfriend, Roxanne still couldn’t believe it. Her brain buzzing with questions, she hardly noticed the lack of clothing on the gorgeous dark-skinned woman before her. Nearly not noticed. That… might prove a distraction for this interview that was a bit more than Roxanne was used to. But she’d done it before and could again. She would never let the attractiveness of an interviewee get between herself and a scoop.
“So how long have you and Megamind been dating?” Roxanne’s head swiveled around to take in everything about the Lair, “Are you the reason for his decreased criminal activity of late?”
The box exploding into glitter like that is hardly what Carmen had been expecting, but when it first bursts apart she flinches back reflexively. The action not enough to avoid being part of the glitter cloud, and she has to try to wipe it off her face before getting a look at what had happened.
It being specifically blue glitter is more than enough for her to figure out just who the box had been from, and she scowls. There would be retaliation for this.
Syx made sure to take as many pictures and video as possible of Rockatoo’s glitter covered form through his brain bot. The villain giggled madly over his cocoa as he watched the view screen. A large barrel of glitter still behind him, he was far from done with this.
Trying to shake some of the glitter out of her hair, Carmen doesn’t look the least bit happy, directing the men back away from the building and to try and get as much of it off themselves as they could. Looking around while she does so to try and see if the reason this mess had been created in the first place was nearby.
Biting his finger to try and stifle the giggling, Syx let the brain bot drop out of invisibility. It was one of his stealth combat models, sleek in all black and very beefy. It lacked the spiky mohawk but made up for it in a much larger black titanium bear trap jaw. It’s dome coated to hide the inner blue glow. This wasn’t made for flash, but for business.
Brain bot, #12b group alpha, bowged at the glitter covered villainess and with a short prompt from Syx, switched to audio, “Hearts and kisses, Mrs. Delic.”
Breaking out into raucous laughter, Syx gave his bot the command to return back to the Lair in full stealth mode.
RP backup 