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I played a lot of Smash on the Gamecube when I was but a wee teenager. Outside of that, I got really into Soul Calibur for one game, then Injustice. Outside of those three, I'm more or less in the same boat as Natalie. I've picked up a lot of fighting games over time but I never got into any of them. I think I got through one storyline playthrough of one of the Blazblue titles.

But I also don't like fighting I'm a very peaceful person :c

Hi friends! I thought it might be a fun way to connect to one another if we had a thread where we could share our dispatches and factbooks.

I can get started with my historical factbook entry on the rise of the only true Elvehn immortal, Silvehn. That story is documented here.

Also shameless plug we have the eco report for this month.

Hi friend ^-^

Welcome Spiderfriend and ubqfriend! -hugs-

I'm so happy you're here! Take a look around and let us know if you have any questions about how anything works. It's not that different from a chat, just it requires a tiny bit more structure in how you post, since it isn't as easy to break your thoughts into multiple lines.

I'm fine with developing the forum and other web-related aspects of CalRef again if the seasons say it's the thing to do. There's always something to work on. For example, I just noticed that Natalie is yellow despite that not being the correct role 

Yessss! I've missed forums so badly!

It's so weird, as soon as I poke my head in here again I get this rush of nostalgia for times passed. Structured discussions. Forming entire thoughts more than half a sentence at a time. It could be fun to get back into this habit. I actually did a bit of journaling today for the first time in a couple years, and it got me thinking about missing longform conversation.

Right? I've been feeling kind of down lately, and every time I feel bad about the internet as a whole, I find myself coming back to this forum and just looking at it. All my old forums are gone, and probably never coming back, but there's so much potential here. It also just feels so much more comfortable. I was just telling Maddie at work the other day that once I left the work chats, I instantly felt less awful about it. Chats just have a way for me of inspiring ever-increasing levels of anxiety and dreads, while forums give me a lot of serenity.

So I'm thinking about redoubling my efforts into this forum. I know we don't get a lot of traffic and most of our community is entirely uninterested, but I still like that we have the forum and I think it could be a cool place to react.

I love forums because they require you to think a little longer and harder about what you want to say. If you want to make a message, you can't just hit enter between lines. I find that method makes me a little looser and my message overall a bit less cohesive. But doing it here? Like this? Jeez, if my messaging starts to shift, I can edit that earlier line so easily! Not to mention you can format things and have a lot more freedom. And, you know, we don't steal our own information through this product, so

Anyway, consider this me being motivated once again to do something here!  :zyqxuwy:

I wish I had more time to write. I wish I had more time to be at home.

[Because your character is your own IP and entirely under your control, it is not allowable for anyone else to determine your character's actions or behaviours without your consent and acceptance. Occasionally, we will game out posts between two characters in the OOC threads or over private messages, so that eight posts of single lines of dialogue can instead be one long post submitted by one of the two players involved. If your character has something to say to or interactions with another character, contact the player before writing!]

Hi friends!

This post is to give first some basics on how play-by-post (or forum) roleplaying works, and then afterward to give some details on how CalRef's forum RPs work specifically.

Play-by-post roleplaying is a type of collective creative writing exercise where multiple people interact with one another through characters in a pre-determined or agreed upon environment. The environment or play space is usually determined by the person who made the thread and started the story, and changes are maintained either through that same top-down structure or through a collective agreement. Play-by-post roleplaying is a unique method of roleplaying in that it has almost no restraints save graphical interfaces, whereas other methods (video and tabletop games specifically) are limited by the systems contained therein.

In a roleplaying scenario, it's entirely up to you to create and maintain your character. While those of us who have been doing this a long time might play around with minor adaptations of characters from other RPs, it's always an interesting experience to start from nothing. Consider the world you're playing in, the limits you want to impose upon yourself, and start writing! Because your character is your own IP and entirely under your control, it is not allowable for anyone else to determine your character's actions or behaviours without your consent and acceptance. Occasionally, we will game out posts between two characters in the OOC threads or over private messages, so that eight posts of single lines of dialogue can instead be one long post submitted by one of the two players involved. If your character has something to say to or interactions with another character, contact the player before writing! (09/11/2019)

Calamity Refuge has some specificities to how we approach roleplaying, and I think in those are where we find the most interesting avenues to explore. First of all, each thread on the roleplay subforum is a singular story and setting. While there might be related threads afterward or alongside a roleplay, for the most part each thread is a standalone story. This is the least-unique angle of CalRef's RP structure, as many other roleplaying forums do the same thing.

One of my favourite unique aspects of Calamity Refuge is that we provide a recommendation in structure where the world isn't entirely filled out at the start. When you write your first post establishing both the world and your player character, the idea is to describe only what is needed for the scene. This way, everyone can join in. No matter what happens in the RP, everyone else involved incorporates it into what they're doing and runs with it. If there's a hyper-realistic modern world and someone introduces a dragon, it's generally more fun to figure out what that means in the context of the story than to get upset about how it shouldn't have been there in the first place.

Finally, we have a roleplay wiki! Once a world gets filled out enough to start writing articles, feel free to create pages for your cities or countries or characters. We even have helpful how-to articles pre-written to give you the tools you need to write up your page. There are no restriction on this, so feel free to start right away!

If you ever have any questions or feedback, please feel free to post in this thread, send me a private message, or post in the roleplaying room on our discord server. I hope to expand this how-to as we find things that I've overlooked, and make this a comprehensive guide soon. Thank you so much for reading

-Emily

P.S. New additions will be included in bold, along with the date they were added. (09/11/2019)

As the room cleared, Rizali looked down at the book in his hands. There were many things he'd consider strange about the situation, but foremost among them was that the book had been purposefully stripped of any identifying features. He didn't know the title, the author, the publishing date or location. This book could have been printed five years ago or five hundred years ago, perhaps longer still if the Empire was as technologically advanced as he suspected. Even that it came from the empire was an assumption; just because the first page had the word printed on it didn't mean all that much. He tried to still his excitement, to slow the increasing rate of his heartbeat. But at the same time, he found himself feeling incredibly anxious about sitting and reading it. That girl, Síne, had been significantly affected by this. Now that the moment was past and he could think on it more clearly, the mage found his opinion on the girl changing. She had been incredibly nervous, sure, and probably was a jittery person by nature. But she had also been scared.

He knew that fear, better than most. He had a permanent and deep understanding of the downsides to knowledge, how there were some secrets better left unknown. As his mind dwelled on it, Rizali could have sworn he saw a ripple along the back wall of the building. Starlight began shining from the ceiling as the room started to slowly swirl around him, and a distant choir only heard by him began singing. Under his breath, Rizali muttered a choice few words, a cantrip of his own design, so well-used as to not register a thought anymore. As the last word left his mouth, he felt the threads of reality start weaving around him, strands of gold and brown interweaving until he was cocooned, and then fading to the back of his mind. The ripples faded, the starlight dimmed. And as they did-

"Ri' lads, s'the craic?" came the call from across the room. The farmers were nearly out the door, but it didn't stop the teenager from meandering his way into the hall. He approached Rizali and leapt into his plea. He didn't seem particularly torn up about being cast from his home, nor forced to approach a particularly dangerous mission as his only remaining hope in the world. His accent placed Cathal on the western edge of Ustendelle, but it was so removed from the residents of Ceadaichte Mòir that he had to place it farther north. Ustendelle's western border was quite large, as none of the neighbouring kingdoms wanted much to do with Kingfisher Forest given its general spookiness. But Cathal seemed entirely unphased by it, suggesting he hadn't actually grown up nearby, or that people in Thomond were more resiliant -or stupid- than they let on.

"Hmm, alright. Let's have a look at you. You're awfully young, you said you were exiled from... Tomland?" he sized the boy up. Not much to look at, more of a stick than a person, but they wouldn't need him to be much. An extra set of hands here and there, an extra set of eyes looking out for forest tomfoolery could easily be enough to pay his way.

"Thomond," the boy was quick to reply. That was good, Rizali didn't want someone in the party who would just let themselves get walked all over. It was more than likely that what they found on the other side of the forest would be just as, if not more, dangerous than anything in it. "It's bleeding ages away, right at the other end of the aul Shannon. Yeah, I stabbed someone cause he pulled his own knife in a knock."

"And your parents?" An unfair question, to be sure.

"The leaders of our clan. Live up in feckin' bunratty castle"

"I'm sorry, your parents made the decision to exile you?" Less unfair question.

"Yeah. But I was really the disappointment of the family. They wanted me to 'live amongst our people' which is fair. But then they can't expect me not to act like every Ennis lad! It was all very political" Rizali was well-versed in the maps of Ustendelle, but now he was wondering if Thomond wasn't even in the country. He'd never heard of Ennis, or the aul Shannon. And the boy's accent was very strange. Could all of this be a feverdream? He'd have to consult with Cathal later to get more information on this place.

"I don't know what any of that means, but it's no matter where we're going. How do you fight then? Is it with that butter knife?"

"Butter knife? This thing was a terror in war pal. Against the damn Ciarraí men too."

"If you say so," Rizali pushed off from the wall he'd been leaning against and began to lead Cathal back toward the door. "Alright Calvin, you're on heavy lifting duty, let's go meet the team. Lyndh, Lyndh you layabout, do I have to do everything myself? This is Cable, he's here to carry you around."

Lyndh grunted, looking up from where he was sharpening his sword. He eyed Cathal up and down, same as Rizali did, and seemed to come to much the same conclusion. He seemed unimpressed, at least until Cathal spoke up with a "Howye? Would this knobhead ever shup?"

Lyndh was a silent giant, only communicating in grunts. This was the first time Rizali ever heard him laugh. A deep, gutteral bark, but still only one. Amazing, if there had been no other miracles that day, someone getting a different noise out of his hired man was surely something he would write down. "Take a lap, Lyndh, your composure is breaking. Alright, out we go Kevlar."

The pair exited through the doors and into the strangely alien world of Ceadaichte Mòir. The abrupt change between solid tree line and no trees for as far as vision allowed hadn't stopped making Rizali uneasy even after the day or two of being here. But they were in luck, he didn't have to look around much to notice the other young charge, Kaegan, walking up to the same building he was leaving.

""Good day, Kaegan. How are things?"

The boy, who had been looking down and considering his naval, was suddenly shocked from his contemplation. He looked up at Rizali without even the normal showing of exasperation. "Hobos in the woods?" He shrugged.

"Oh you found one as well, splendid!" Rizali pushed Cathal in front of him, within easy sight range of Kaegan and any local wild game. "Here's mine, his name is Cathal, he'll be joining us on our adventure. He's good with a sword, or... at least this very tiny knife on his belt. So at least you and Lyndh won't be the only ones doing the heavy lifting."

"Wait, I have to do lifting?"

"You signed the contract, but don't worry too much about that. Lyndh loves lifting things. And Cathal does as well." Rizali gave his best winning smile.

"Ar-a shup there!" came the cry of protest. Rizali pulled him back again and patted him on the head.

"Ignore him, he's a joker he is. Hell of an accent on him, makes it impossible to understand a word. Alright, you two play nice now. I've got some homework to do before we leave. Lyndh's inside, make sure he has his bedding changed and gets some water in him."

With that, Rizali began walking back to the mayor's home, just a couple buildings away from the town hall. He had a lot of reading to do and not much time to finish it. It was best to keep himself from appearing threatening or as a target, which necessitated the oafish showman act he'd adopted when meeting with the caravan for the first time. His curiosity threatened to consume him, but he couldn't let too much of himself be known to anyone here.

"Mr. Corvus, I don't know what you think you're going to find out there, but it's simply too dangerous."

The ambitiously-titled town hall lacked the lush regality and grand scope of communal spaces of the Inverted Spire or the wider city of Coxarif, it had no finery-wearing nobility or knights in splendid, sparkling armour, but in this moment it carried the same gravity expected of such a grand space. Approximately a dozen farmers, men and women from every corner of this hamlet, had enclosed upon the building. They had come upon hearing the secondhand rumours of the town newcomer's goal-- to cross the Kingfisher Forest and see what was on the other side. The news had spread in a rare bout of secrecy spilling, over lunch with the mayor. Rizali had come to the conclusion that sneaking out of the village in the dead of night and crossing into the treeline was... distasteful, especially considering he would prefer all travel on this journey be conducted during daylight hours. But it would be difficult to leave without alerting the townspeople, given a farmer's penchant for waking up in the pre-dawn or dawn hours. As such, he had brought it up to the extent of delicacy he was able while sharing a lunch with the mayor, Eoin, and his wife. The reserved and mildly disapproving reaction he'd earned from the man was expected, and a planned starting point for gaining assistance.

When he was asked to come to the town hall this afternoon, the mage had been curious of the meeting's purpose of course, but was mostly hopeful it would turn into a chance to gain points toward his ultimate goal. Seeing even more stern faces and disapproval centred squarely upon himself was slightly disorienting. But he had come prepared: he had his wit, his charm, and of course Lyndh was sitting in the corner polishing his massive sword should the worst occur. Rizali hoped the worst wouldn't occur. The woman who had just spoken had a face and hands weathered from long days of hard labour, a stark contrast to the smoothness of the same attributes on the mostly-interior Rizali. Her long, red hair was ratty and dry from the direct sunlight and harsh, dry winds. Judging purely by appearance, she had never left this village, and never would.

Upon entering the village and having a chance to bathe himself, Rizali had changed clothing. Instead of the travel gear from the previous morning, he now wore a simple, taupe button-down shirt with sleeves rolled back to his forearms. The shirt was soft, not quite silk but a more comfortable fabric than the apparent burlap the people he faced wore. The mage found himself to be self-conscious of it, wondering how much his appearance and obvious, relative wealth would affect his interactions here. Blue lines wound around his forearms, ending on the back of each palm. They formed no obvious images, but continued past his sleeves. His black cloth breeches were tucked soundly into comfortable walking boots. A dark gold cowl, like that of a monk, covered his head and neck, revealing only his face.

It had been in the journal of a centuries-dead mage that Rizali had found the information he held on what lay beyond the Kingfisher Forest. He prided himself on how thorough and complete his methods were, and had meticulously crosschecked the information with other literature and maps from the time period, deeming it accurate after several months. What he'd found to lie beyond the trees was something he didn't feel particularly comfortable sharing with the people of this village, nor the purpose of their original cultivation. It would not be prudent to share a discovery that the forest around which your village thrived was actually a barrier meant to keep you from seeing what was on the other side of it. A different approach would be needed. "I swear to you any danger would be upon those that tried to cause us harm within the forest. Lyndh and I are more than capable of taking care of ourselves, isn't that right Lyndh?"

The man at the back of the room looked up, his already-narrowed eyes seeming to narrow further. He gave a singular, assenting hmph, then went back to polishing his sword. "That being said," the mage continued, pushing off the wall against which he had been leaning until that moment, "I can also ensure the safety of anyone from this village that might be interested in joining our little escapade. The more the merrier, as it were. You there," he pointed to a young, stocky farmer standing near the wall, nearly as broad of shoulder as he was tall, with a patchy blonde beard and hair to his shoulders. "What keeps you in Ceadaichte Mòir?"

The young man seemed surprised to be picked, looking momentarily to the crowd for reassurance before regainint his composure and shrugging with feigned disinterest. "Helping take care of my dad's farm."

"Has your father no other children?"

"Counting me, he has three sons."

"Then your father's farm is no chain holding you here, it would be just as well looked after in your absence as if you were here. That's what I'm saying!" the mage exclaimed, excitedly approaching him. "The things that keep you all in this village are small and finite and, and challengeable. Farming is all you've ever known, and that is a noble pursuit, but all it accomplishes is maintaining the status quo. You plant, you harvest, you sell to the convoy who brings your resources to another place you've never seen, and then you start over again. Your actions serve no higher purpose, you are just living to survive. Venturing outside of your home is difficult, it's unnerving. It's leaving behind everything you've ever known and every safety you've ever been afforded for an unsure result. Say we walk into that forest tomorrow, and we travel a few kilometres. What's the furthest anyone here has ever travelled beyond the treeline?"

Eoin, the mayor, chimed in from the front of the crowd. "Ten miles, give or take. We had a search party, fifteen years back, go in searching for a young girl who had wandered in and got lost. Farthest out party reckoned they travelled ten miles before turning back."

"And what did they find?"

"Trees, more or less. No monsters if that's what you're getting at."

"So what's the danger? Ten miles is quite the distance, much further than I would expect dangerous wildlife to start appearing. Isn't it possible that this great wall of trees, this abberation of all sense and logic, has been actually protecting you all this time instead of being threatening? What if the magic of the forest is actually protecting the interior and those who walk through it? What's the harm in going in and checking?" He knew that wasn't true, but he'd told far worse lies for the sake of inspiring good in others, and to protect the things that would have him killed were they known to be true.

The group was silent, clearly mulling these new thoughts about in their heads. Rizali, for all the pride and bluster he could be at his worst, wasn't stupid. He knew that this was not the moment to show any pride, and kept all of the self-righteous cheer from his face. A lack of counterarguments was as good as a victory, it would just take some time to set into the mythically proud stubbornness of western Ustendelle farmers. But it wasn't to be. A door opened at the back of the room. A young woman with messy brown hair entered, holding a book as if it were the world's greatest treasure, and crossed to stand in front of Rizali, where she offered it forward. He began to open his mouth to speak, but she started first, her voice low as if she didn't want anyone else to hear it. In fact, given her volume, it was possible that she was successful in her goal. "Mr. Corvus, my name is Síne, I instruct the children in Ceadaichte Mòir. I was looking through the selection of books that the traders brought into town yesterday -I always look through their books, they usually bring a few for me since I'm the only one here who-"

She stopped and took a breath, focusing herself. "Regardless. I heard a rumour that you planned on crossing the Kingfisher Forest, and I thought you should read through this."

Rizali took the book and, before speaking, looked it over. The book had not been taken care of; the hard cover and front page had been ripped away, and the spine was frail enough that it seemed unlikely to hold together for much longer. The back cover was blank, merely adorned with more faded reds and golds. The first legible page, however, made mention to "the Empire" lasting for thousands of years. Ustendelle was a republic, and most countries surrounding it were run by monarchies. The only empire Rizali had ever heard of was the one across the forest. Was it possible that this was a more contemporary book from his goal? He resisted the urge to immediately open it up and start reading it, making eye contact with the woman, who herself quickly broke it. She was nervous- scared? Of him, or something else? She had clearly not gotten much sleep the night before, worrying him about the contents of what he was to read. She nodded quickly, then took a half step away. Her composure seemed to melt as soon as she had relinquished the tome, and she began speaking again. "I-I don't know why the identifying elements of the book are torn away; I didn't do it, and I don't know who did. When I looked in the cart I couldn't find the cover or anything, so I know it wasn't harmed in transit, but I d-don't know anything more than that. I read it last night but it's, um, it's really something outside of my sphere of knowledge and I just, I just, I just think it's better if you have it, as someone who probably knows a lot more about a lot of things than I do."

"I'll read it when I return to my room," Rizali answered calmly. He had dealt with more... manic mages and academics in his time, and even though this woman was far removed from any sort of centre of knowledge, she had the same demeanour about her. "Thank you Síne. May I come speak with you after I've completed it?"

"O-oh," she replied, shaking her hands in front of her face wildly. "I don't think that's necessary, most of the things in the book went over my head. I'm afraid that I-I don't really have anything to say on it. Not that I'm saying you're not allowed to do what you like, of course! If you really think that there's something I can, I can help you with, then I'll be more than happy to."

A beat of silence passed between them before Síne quickly and unceremoniously pushed her way back out of the room and out of the hall. Rizali looked back down at the book, and then to the crowd of mostly bewildered farmers now. "Please think on what I have said," he did what he could to pull back his hard-fought progress on these people. "Apparently I have been assigned homework."

To update this a little bit, I've been playing some Endless games with Luca and I think it'd be fun to play a large Endless Legend campaign.

[Hearthfire]

The woman adjusted the bag on her shoulder nervously, watching the last vestiges of the galaxy view before the rail entered the main body of the Hestia once again. The sooner she got off this rail, the better it would be not only for her, but for the humans that were made uncomfortable by her presence or would wish to do her harm. As she began to pre-emptively make her way toward the nearest door, a ding came over the train's intercom, before a well-practised voice rang through. "We are now arriving at Hearth West Station, our final destination. All passengers, please exit the train with all your personal belongings. Thank you for riding with Hestia Public Transport, and have a wonderful day."

The rail's brakes were almost entirely unnoticeable, due to the mag-lev tunnels and inertia dampeners equipped in the cars themselves. As the train car slowed down, the darkness of the tunnel through which they travelled opened up into a bright, spectacular space. It slowed to a stop in front of a boarding platform, and as the doors opened, the woman was awash in the overwhelming sounds and lights of Hearth Plaza. She stepped out quickly, stopping a group of humans who had tried to immediately crowd onto the train from the platform, and began walking toward the north side of the commercial district. The plaza was massive, taking up most of the central sphere of the Hestia station. All along its walls and ground floor were shops and stalls, hotels and hydroponic bays. It was said that you could get anything you wanted in the heart of Hestia, and she wasn't one to disagree. She had been here since the station was founed, back when it was just scrap metal held together through willpower and grit teeth. Over the years, she had watched the station, especially Hearth Plaza, grow into a formidable outpost, with regular shipments coming in from neighbouring systems, traded for whatever they scrapped or mined from the planets of this otherwise-dead system. Because of their relatively-rich location in the galaxy, the Hestians were able to grow into a minor economic power- certainly nothing rivalling the central systems, but they were able to hold their own. Certainly well enough to keep the law off their backs.

The centre of the plaza was taken up by a massive tree intertwined with a statue of some historical figure she didn't know. There was a plaque at the bottom, but her kind wasn't allowed near enough to read it, apparently due to its symbolism to those who had fought in the war that preceded her birth and their proudest descendents. That being said, it didn't particularly interest her what the humans were doing with their war gods and goddesses, only that they leave her be to do with her time and space what she wanted. At the top of the tree, held by the statue, was a glowing ball of light, which bathed the entire plaza in the equivalent of what a habitable planet would get from its nearby star. This was filtered through to the hydroponics, as well as the various grocer shops that might capitalise on the brightness that was available at any time of the day or night. The ball itself, allegedly a construction of stable plasma that released light and heat much like a star, but on a much smaller scale, was shielded by a dampener, allowing those in the plaza not to have to cover or shield their eyes from looking in its direction. It had been a gift from their first trade partner and de facto ally, Caer Nua in the neighbouring Epsilon Aurigae system. It was called the Hearthfire, since the scrappers had no inherent creative ability.

She climbed the scenic stair route around the northern edge of the plaza, her eyes directly in front of her. It was safest this way; some of the more conservative humans had a habit of assuming eye contact was a purposeful challenge. Approximately 150 metres from the top of the stairs on the second level was a storefront, with planterboxes hanging off of windows entirely shaded from outside view. A wooden sign hung over the door, both looking like something out of an old history book. The sign said "Oracle Teahouse and Cafe". A metal bar stuck out from above the door, extending partially into the walkway, where a small symbol-board showing a steaming cup of tea hung. The woman leaned over the planterboxes, touching the soil beneath the multicoloured flowers to make sure everything felt right. The soil was springy and mildly damp, a sure sign that the hydration system was working.

As the woman walked into the tea house, all outside sound was muted. Sound dampeners circled the door and windows, keeping the outside hustle and bustle from affecting the carefully-manicured atmosphere of the Oracle. The door closed behind her, bringing the light levels back down to atmospheric as well. The space was bathed in soft, golden light, which the ownership found much more pleasing and easy for the eye than the harsh white light of the plaza. The sound was light, calm music played softly so that the conversations of the patrons both regular and new could be easily heard without raising voices. The occasional muted clink came from behind the bar or at a table as a cup or kettle was sat on a surface. They used wooden utensils to avoid most noise that would come with mixing or eating. The space was approximately five degrees cooler than the plaza as well, which the regulars seemed to appreciate.

Small tables of dark, polished wood were placed haphazardly about the interior, most covered with small dishes and cups. The seats surrounding them were plush and comfortable, meant to entice a person to sit and not want to leave for a while, if the beverages and lack of noise didn't already accomplish that. Shelves lined the walls, lined with old, bound books and antiques from around the universe. Plants spanned the space as well, growing from hanging pots on the ceiling and wrapping around the wiring, from which hung little balls of soft light.

The bar was a single sheet of metal, bordered on three sides by the same dark, polished wood that the tables were made from. A handful of patrons were sitting on comfortable barstools, talking to one another or just enjoying the atmosphere, while a single figure worked behind it. She was a young human, in her mid-20s, with long blonde hair tied back and bright blue eyes that smiled even in the rare times that she did not. She had a small, circular tattoo surrounding her left eye, and wore an off-white sweater over grey leggings and black flats. She was pouring steaming water from a kettle into a cup, but looked up and met the woman's eyes. "Good morning, Seht," she smiled, sliding the teacup across the bar.

The woman walked over and placed her bag behind the bar before picking up the cup of green tea and smiling back. "Good morning, Sable. I trust everything's gone well this morning?"

"Mhm!" she replied. "Nothing out of the ordinary yet. A Sabre came in earlier, asked if you'd been in yet, but didn't seem up to anything. He hung out for about twenty minutes with a drink and then left."

Seht turned around and leaned against the bar, sipping on her morning tea. This was her domain, her little bubble of safety in an otherwise tense world. "We'll have to see what he wants if he comes back, then."

I've had a few bad days in a row. That's not to say I'm broken, or that I need help, just that the few days preceding yesterday were bad ones. The swirling maelstrom of thoughts and distractions taking hold and refusing to let go were far worse than what they used to be: distractions from a legitimately bad life situation.

Things have been wonderful, actually. I've been spending time with Luca (at least what time work allows) and walking to and from home and not engaging with things that depress and hurt me. It's been me- my own mind, more specifically- that has been creating the issues. I'm prone to distraction and procrastination, the latter of which has always been upsetting to me, and those are very difficult things to train out of your mind. Or at least, they have been for me.

When I talk about "training" things out of my mind, it comes from years of experience dating all the way back to... 2005? I think? I've always been good at self-analysis, and putting together action plans for self improvement. The person I am now resembles the person I was five years ago almost not at all. That person resembled the person I was at 14 not at all. It's been a long and exhausting journey to get here, and I feel like I've only recently started resembling what I want to be. I've gotten rid of a lot of the pettiness, the impatience, the duplicity and lying, the capriciousness. The quiet and sometimes not so quiet rage that bubbled below the surface most of the time.

That's not to say I'm all better. I respond easily and quickly to bait. It's hard for me to see something I consider an injustice without speaking up. Sometimes I speak up in places where I'm not wanted, and sometimes I tell someone they're doing something wrong when it's not my place to be correcting them. I have trouble picking my battles, and when I get into those battles that old pettiness comes back to the surface.

There's a site called Gaia online. I'm sure you've heard of it by now if you've been on the discord server, lol. It's... not great, honestly. It used to be the most active forum I'd ever seen, and while it still is the people on it have dwindled, and radicalised. They're insular and angry, fighting and trolling one another in this endless, fruitless cycle of egoism and unnecessary strife. It's frustrating to watch, but incredibly addictive and easy to fall into. I became an older version of myself, one that looked for the fights.

I don't like that.

I need to pull back even further.

I'll keep working on me, and keep doing my best to be the person and friend I should be. But it doesn't involve this path.

I'm pretty proud of where I've gone with AVFtS. When I started, I had planned for my second post to be morning- this most recent one, actually. We've gone pretty far outside my initial expectations, but I've been enjoying it. This is the first RP for me in a very long time where the plot hasn't been controlled and preplanned. It's bringing me back to when rping was fun for me, back before 2008. Except I have post-2008 skill.

Now we've got a cat and a soldier and a leaf sprite and an elf! I hope people continue to be interested and want to keep posting; I know I do. I'll keep it moving from here on out, since I'm focusing more on writing now and am no longer psyching myself out about other responsibilities I'm putting on myself.

Sorry about getting crazy there for a while, by the way.

The Oracle will be my next focus. I'm going to take Seht the rest of the way to her coffee shop. After all, she hasn't been intercepted! The coffee shop and larger hestia square should provide more hooks to come in on

My blog post is coming along, it'll be ready when it's ready.

In all her cycles living in Ceadaichte Mòir, Síne had never known of an empire butting up against the city limits, nor had she met this man who claimed to speak for it. She did not claim to know everything and everyone, but she certainly had expected to know everyone within a wide berth of the village. It was a rush of excitement in her heart to experience this feeling, this introduction to a strange and exceedingly unknowable man. Her conversation with him had gone better than with most new people she met, and she assumed no small part of that success was in the extreme effort she had practiced in holding back her excitement. She had a tendency to ramble on and on, and people would become bored of her quickly.

When the man before her finally stood up, showing more trust than she did from behind her eternal boulderesque shield, Síne let out an internal, silent cheer of success. He was comfortable with her! It was nice to make a new friend, and she couldn't wait to come back and talk to him again. Even with his farewell, "We thank you for your concern, but issues related to Fyrom domestic disputes are handled internally by The Emperor. We bid you good day, as well as safe and pleasant travel in the opposite direction," he radiated class and maturity. In a village of woodsmen and dung farmers, that was the only thing she needed. She wondered if he had any good books, or needed to borrow any good books. It wasn't like there were any she was reading at the moment- at least not until the traders came in the morning with their new supplies.

The woman turned to express her joy to Leeva, but to her disappointment the sprite seemed to have disappeared. Her face fell, but only for a second, as an apparent reason surfaced. "Oi! Síne! Don't ye ken yer nae supposed tae play wi' fire?"

Síne turned to notice Osin approaching, and felt a pang of panic in her chest. The man who spoke for the emperor of Fyrom had expressly stated he didn't want any visitors, and she wasn't sure how to keep that from happening at this moment. It would be best to keep further conversation away from the borders; after all, even though the two of them were very obviously friends now, she couldn't just bring outsiders into the realm! That was presuming far too much on his hospitality... especially if he was the one who could make the aforenoticed explosions and the like. Instead, she hopped up from her position leaning against the boulder, and approached the elven woodcutter. "Oh, Osin, silly me. I was coming out to investigate the sound of the explosion, but couldn't find anything over here. Maybe we should get back to the town, see if Eoin is awake. He'll know what to do, and we shouldn't act on any thoughts without consulting him. After all, he is the mayor. I'm quite tired, and I'm afraid it's past time for me to sleep. Maybe we imagined the sound. Wouldn't that be something! Goodnight!"

She quickly sprinted away from the towering sentry.



After the merchants had packed up their camp that morning, Rizali had chosen to walk the last leg of the journey. It was only a handful of miles to reach the treeline and the tiny village that was said to exist on the edge of it, and he was if nothing else curious to see it. As they closed the distance, his mood soured to match the smell that seemed to surround the village. The scent of damp, fetid leaves drifted out from the forest, a strange experience as there had been no obvious signs of rain elsewhere. That mixed with cedar and a hint of body odour as the mayor came out to greet them. The sorceror stood at the head of the first wagon, appearing to examin the cleanliness of his fingernails as he examined their surroundings. The houses were quaint, the people even quainter. He didn't know why this was considered the last bloc of civilisation before passing through the forest, but that was neither here nor there.

"And these are our guests," he heard the caravan leader say. Letting out a sigh, he looked back to his hired man, Lyndh. The hulking barbarian wore the same stoic expression he had every single day since they'd met, as grim as one might expect of someone wielding a massive, two-handed kora sword. Taking nothing from their brief interaction, Rizali turned back and put on his best smile, stepping forward to take the extended hand of this goat herder. Did they have goats here? It didn't really matter. "A pleasure, master Eoin. My name is Rizali, and this is my hired man Lyndh. He doesn't speak much, but don't worry- I speak more than enough for the both of us." He shared the old man's laugh.

The mage wore a fitted, button-down red shirt under a dark golden cloak, with the hood pulled up. His pants were heavy cloth, picked specifically for their reliability during long-range travel, and his boots were durable, unstained leather. He appeared very much a high-class traveller, which made his pairing with the barbarian all that more strange in appearance. The larger man wore an animal skin across his shoulders, with a leather strap across his chest and under his right arm keeping it from falling away. His scabbard to hold the sword, enough leather to suggest the use of an entire herd of antelopes, hung horizontally across the back of his waist, resting against the heavy fur pants and boots he wore. He let out a grunt and a nod, but did not extend his hand. The kora rested across his shoulders, always drawn in case of surprise attack. They'd need it, if the rumours of this forest were to be believed.

Rizali had travelled with the caravan for protection, though he had no interest in their final destination. The village was a stopping off and restocking -if possible- point before traversing the Kingfisher Forest. The rumours surrounding the forest were extreme- it seemed to be an unbroken line of trees on an exact vertical line across most maps, from as far south as the land went to as far north. It was incredibly magical, even from where he stood the mage could feel the energy radiating from the trees. Though he hoped to keep as many secrets as possible from these bumpkins, the mage wasn't entirely certain how he would sneak out of their sight and into the forest during the day. He would very much prefer not to leave at night if he could at all help it. He would miss the ability to talk with some of the traders though, even if they weren't the brightest men and women. Lyndh wasn't much for conversation, much as he might look it.

"Might there be a place we could get some food and sit down for a moment, mayor Eoin?" Rizali asked, gray eyes peering from beneath the hood before being pointed toward the largest building in the village. Of course, the town hall, he'd be a personal guest of the mayor and his wife, and be treated to the finest food they could offer. Dryly, he wondered if that was to be animal dung and leaves.

So here are my current projects and plans going forward.

Pulling away from Discord to the extent that I have has been very good for me. Luca and I are spending more time cuddling together and just being happy, and that's wonderful. It's weird to notice how much time Discord was draining from my life just through a few minutes here and there to read and respond to comments.

I've begun writing a few different things. First off is a blog post on social burnout and the evolution of online communication over the time that I've been aware of it. Like my joy in creation post and nonbinary post, I've been selfish enough to put it through the lens of my own experience.

Beyond that, I've outlined the basics of my new AVFtS character, Rizali, and how they will fit into and interact with the world we've collectively been building. I'm doing my best to keep the world building vague enough so that everyone can continue participating in building it. As a family

I'm not sure what I'll be doing with Síne. She's a stubborn one, and wouldn't easily leave Ceadaichte Mòir. I set it up for her to do so; it's the day before the sewing season begins and she'll have very little to do until the reaping season is past. But she has no special abilities and I can't imagine her easily attaching to an adventuring group. That being said, I'm keeping the option open. She's sort of a Serana, in that she's infinitely curious and would want to be adjacent to important events and discoveries purely so that she might record them for posterity. Even if the initial fireball of interest for AVFtS has cooled, I've got a lot of hope for the story, and will keep pushing it along to the best of my ability.

Finally, I've got my direction for The Oracle. I should have a new post (and hooks for others to join) soon.

Thank you for reading my CalRef development journal entry lol.

I'm tired. I'm at work right now, but our least reliable co-worker didn't show up again. So I could just close this place myself, I guess, since I leave at 20:30.

Wednesday, 13 March 2019.

To whomever finds this message,
The blizzard has begun. For the next 12 years, it will snow at an increasingly rapid pace and an increasingly intense thickness, until it eventually buries us all. I do not expect to survive this storm, for it has rained significantly between 20:00 and 8:00, and the ground is set to become a solid sheet of ice by today eve'.

The rain this morning was unpleasant to walk through, but I braved the elements so that I could harvest currency from the great, espresso-soaked foliage of the Star Bucked Willow, and buy my darling wife Luca the shoes and chocolate that she desires. Her smile is my world, and it was the thought of that that kept me walking even when I wanted to get a towel or something.

My once-straightened hair has become wild and uncontrolled, freed from its thermal prison by the drip dropping tears from the great sky mother. My carefully manicured and coifed appearance has begun to crack, revealing my true form underneath. I fear it is only a matter of time before I am found out to be a monster of the truest and most sordid sort. Through the rainy streaks along my visage, the charred husk of an eldritch horror can be seen. My true form waiting to emerge.

It is only a matter of time.

My dearest Luca, if you find this message, do not weep for me, for it was your love and warmth that kept me going this far. I now brave the unknown and oncoming storm, secure in the thought that your love will continue to see me through. I will see you again, bathed in white and ice and freezies.

I know, I'm gonna leave the other servers that I share with them. Hopefully I can cut it back down to calref and zf. But for now it's just... I don't know, I'm not comfortable.

I think I just need to be quieter for a bit. I'll get a lot of writing done at least.

It started with a small static sound, but it didn't stay that way for long. Soon, it was too loud for us to hear customers ordering things, and that's when my co-worker looked. She pulled one of the fridges away from the wall and we saw water spraying everywhere.

We were told to shut down the Starbucks while they figured out why the water line had busted. But we were only closed for five minutes because after they just shut the water off to that machine and we got the standing water mopped up, they ordered us to reopen. And just not use that one espresso machine.

Ignore the muted buzzing below the fridge, where the wires had been partially submerged. Ignore your instincts telling you this isn't safe. Because no matter what happens, one thing is certain.

Starbucks is always open. Goodnight, Night Vale. Goodnight.