7500 words AO3 link
The H&H crew’s RPG shenanigans. You don’t need to have read H&H to follow this.
Firstly, Charlie GMs a murder mystery.
“Alright!” Alcor clapped his hands together. “We’re finally all here. Let’s do this thing!”
“Hey, sorry again about last week,” said Vin. “I was, for the record, totally willing to play, but Renee was all ‘oh no, we cannot, not until you stop being a fucking sicko’. And I’m like, ‘guess we’re never playing then’.”
“Something about the idea of you getting sick on my character sheet really kills the mood for me,” Renee said. “And I cannot find it in me to apologize for that.”
“Well maybe you need to look harder. I’ve been getting sick all the time since we got here, it’s absurd to put everything on hold just because of something as dumb as ‘serial barfing’.”
Renee sighed. “You know, I was on the same diet as you for years and I’m not perpetually ill. If you just were even slightly more careful about what you ate you would feel much better.”
Vin put his hands in front of him. “Okay but consider: food taste good. It tastes fucking fantastic, actually. Shit’s bananas. Which reminds me: I still need to try bananas.”
“Food would still taste good if you ate simpler things until your system got used to eating things that weren’t protein bars.”
“Yes, that’s great,” Alcor said. “You both have very good points, now can we play?”
“One would really think that after a thousand years you might have acquired some patience,” sad Renee.
Alcor crossed his amrs. “I haven’t roleplayed in two whole centuries, okay? Excuse me for not wanting to sit through an argument about bodily functions.”
“Okay, so just so everyone knows, I’m diverting from the traditional gameplay method until you all get introduced. The first scene is going to be Vin’s if that’s okay with everyone?” Charlie looked pointedly at Alcor.
“Hey, I’m fine waiting until my turn, just so long as we’re actually playing.”
Charlie smiled. “Okay, as a reminder and to help set the scene: we are inside the relatively young town of Celetter, built on the ruins of a massive subterranean city. Just who built the ruins is a mystery; all that is known for certain is that they died off or moved away long ago, abandoning their former home. They are thought to have been far superior in technology to anyone else of their era, and rumors grow like weeds about what they may have left behind. Some people are sure that there’s riches beyond imagination down there. Others think that the ones who came before built something too dangerous for them to handle, and that, perhaps, it now sleeps, just waiting for some foolish soul to once again wake it from its slumber. Others still believe that there’s artifacts capable of miraculous feats hidden in the caves. Most people believe that anything of value would have been plundered long ago and what’s left would only be valuable if you were especially interested in early 24th century city planning.
“Now, shall we begin?”
Tag: renee
Healing and Hijinks Chapter Two
2800 words. AO3 Link
“All I’m saying is it’s utter bullshit that makes no sense is all.” Vin slumped as he walked, arms crossed, his long neck lowered to put his head just off the floor.
They were walking with the flood of students out of the school. The hallway, although not narrow per se, wasn’t quite wide enough for the mass of students trying to navigate it at the end of the day. If you wanted to go against the flow it was generally easiest to just wait a few minutes in your class for everyone to pass.
“Have you tried asking your teacher?”
“Right, like I’m going to talk to that asshole.”
“From what I understand it’s – oh excuse me, I didn’t see you there.” She dodged out of the way of someone standing in the middle of the hall.
“Why, hello,” they said. “Just the people I was hoping to see.”
The hallway around them was suddenly strangely barren. It wasn’t completely empty. but the crowd around them was thin, and people seemed to be clumping up even more densely around the edges of the hallway than before.
“Oh, hey dude,” Vin said.
“Oh. It’s you,” Renee said.
“What?” asked Alcor. “Aren’t you happy to see me?”
Healing and Hijinks
What happens after the events of Haunted and Hunted.
The kids meet their new caretaker and figure out the specifics of their new living situation. 2651 words.
Renee glowered at the person at the other side of the table from her, Charlie, and Vin. Charlie was looking at the floor, fiddling with zir hands. Vin was looking around absently.
Renee had no idea why she agreed to this. This was a mistake. This was so obviously and unmistakably a mistake. They would have been fine on their own. It wouldn’t have been great, but it would’ve worked. They didn’t need some interloper, whom they knew nothing about besides that they worshipped a demon, to inject themself into their lives to take control of everything. It wasn’t going to end well for them and she should have known it from the start. She should have put her metaphorical foot down from the start. But she didn’t. And now she was here, full of regret. She wondered what Alcor would do if she called this off right now. He had said that she they could end the arrangement for any reason. But he would probably get mad at her for not being willing to actually give the person a chance. And she really didn’t want to make Alcor, Maker of Archipelagos, mad. Even if he had assured her that he wasn’t going to do anything to her or her friends, she wasn’t willing to test his temper.
Haunted and Hunted Chapter Six
Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 AO3 Link
“Oh,” Alcor smiled widely. “So you want to make a deal?”
“I want to never have the future tell me what to do again,” Vin said firmly. “If making a deal is the way to get that done, then fuck yeah deal me up.”
“Vin,” Renee said gently. “I’m not going to tell you not to do this, but you are talking about making a deal with the most powerful demon we know about. Please be careful.”
“Oh you know me.” Vin waved his hand like he were clearing away the insinuation that he, of all people, might be anything other than cautious. “‘Careful’ is my true name. Now, what do I gotta give you to get you to eat my third eye or whatever?”
Haunted and Hunted Chapter Five
Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 AO3 Link
AO3 highly highly recommend. The opening dialogue uses fonts to distinguish who’s talking and I have no clue if that will work on mobile.
… That said it is not unreasonable to assume that the recording can be trusted as a source of the details of the encounter. The fact that Magi Hurtzog was killed by subject A is indisputable. It is fully possible that Subject B fabricated some or all of the recording, but changing the apparent method of death would accomplish little. The most logical reason to give the Institute the recording would be as a warning, and altering the apparent events that took place would not significantly increase the effectiveness of the warning. Even under highly unfavorable circumstances Subject A is still deadly, regardless of the methods used.
If we assume that the recording is largely unaltered there is a lot that we can
Actually I did alter the recording. Not that anyone’s found what I added yet.
What?
I go through the effort of giving half the security team googly eyes and no one even bothers paying attention to the background. Honestly, you people. And no one’s bothered checking for encrypted information yet! All those extremely nice messages I left in there are just sitting unread.
Haunted and Hunted: True Signs
Because I know everyone was just dying to know:
Renee is a gold blooded, light-bound Dersite. Her true sign is Gempia, Sign of the Perspaicacious.
Vin is a purple blooded, void-bound Prospitian. His true sign is Caprittanius, Sign of the Brazen.
Charlie is a lime blooded, blood-bound Prospitian. Zir true sign is True Cancer, Sign of the Signless.
Alcor is a blue blooded, light-bound Dersite. His true sign is Scorpia, Sign of the Emperor.
Oh, hey, look. It’s @beelieveinfandom‘s characters, Renee and Vin from Haunted and Hunted!
Just goes to show that sometimes I can’t resist a good character design.
Day 9: This Is Stupid.
Haunted and Hunted Chapter Four
Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 AO3 Link
AO3 is highly advised due to Tumblr having formatting issues.
“And you’re sure this won’t kill me somehow?” Charlie asked.“Yes. Absolutely. If anything goes wrong we’ll stop at once, and even if we don’t, anything going unusually will activate this spell, instantly ending the ritual.” Renee was pointing at a ring of runes inside the arcane circle.
The circle was, outside of the killswitch addition, a very simple one. A pentacle drawn in chalk on the hard cement floor with the five symbols of banishment at each of the star’s corners. It was the simplest reliable banishment spell possible, pretty much only able to work on consenting entities or those who lacked any sort of intent of their own.
I worked pretty hard on that cancel button and I’m like, 80% sure it’ll be fine.
You’re telling me this has a 20% chance of killing me‽
I mean, maybe?
I’m pretty much pulling numbers out of my ass here, to be quite honest.
everything you say is so reassuring.
Hey, I’m the one that advocated against this from the start.
You wanted us to do nothing!
I wanted us to wait for more data. My friend will get us the original summoning circle, and reverse engineering it will be way easier and safer than just guessing at what might work.
But how long will that take? And how will your ‘friend’ even contact us, assuming they get the plans? We’re gonna be in the middle of the woods away from all electronics for a while.
That’s hardly a concern. He’ll find a way; he’s quite crafty.
Anyway.
You’re the one at risk so it’s your decision. You don’t trust my friend? Fine. Try banishing me. Just know that there is danger involved.
“Charlie?” Renee said, “are you ready for us to begin?”
“Um,” Charlie said. “Sure. Let’s… Let’s get this over with.”
Haunted and Hunted Chapter Three
Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 AO3 Link
AO3 is highly advised due to Tumblr having formatting issues.
Magi Hurtzog,
Please excuse the primitive nature of this notice. Conventional means of communication are to be assumed compromised.
We are contacting you with an offer we believe to be of special interest to you. A creature, one you’ve expressed significant interest in facing in the past, is in a position of extreme weakness. This window of opportunity will be very short lived, and it is paramount that the situation be contained and controlled before it closes.
We are willing to pay tenfold your normal rate for taking care of an S-class entity.
If you wish to pursue this opportunity, please get to the coordinates on the back of this sheet as soon as you are able.
Thank you for your consideration.
“I think I’m picking up on something,” Renee said, the dowsing rod she made tugging on her arms gently.
“Oh, is it the river?”
“Vin, this points to food, not water.”
“Could it point to the river anyway? I still really want to see a river.”
“Sure, we’ll just eat the river.” She flicked her wrist. “It would sustain us for at least the time it would take us to get caught for hanging out somewhere that exposed.”
“Oh, hold the phone, Renee.” Vin stopped walking and put a hand to his forehead. “I’m getting some future vision going down. We gotta go to the river, or uh, we’ll like die or some shit. So I’m cool either way but I figured maybe you might want to head riverward?”
“How could I ever manage without you?”
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