ROAD TRIP CONFESSIONALS

[thewinemom]

TIMELINE:
It's the days after the purple worm incident. The beautiful Fantasy Australia scenery is composed of dirt, some embarrassing shrubs, and a whoooooole lot of despair. It's gonna be a looooooong drive to the temple if we don't figure out some way to pass the time!

What does that mean?

It means: It's time to get to know each other, assholes!

Post a top level so your party members can approach you with their probing personal questions!

Respond to other people's top levels with your probing personal questions!

Mix! Mingle! Make friends!

Comments

[gogodwarvenranger]

"At least you have an excuse. I can use it, and I still don't get it, more often than not."

It's like knowing how to whistle, versus knowing why that would make a noise in the first place.

"No, I've never owned a dog before. I learned all this from my not-so-friendly neighbors — the wolves. And I won't lie, I was tempted more than once to try and catch one of their pups? But not enough to deal with the papa wolf."

[daddyissuesdrow]

"Right, like. I can make lights, and fire that doesn't even burn anything. I'm just gonna stick to stabbing things."

Man Varis has +2 int and even he's like 'MAGICS??? THE FUCK????'

"Can't blame them for being over protective of their pups, I guess. I mean, considering you could kinda understand them, then wouldn't like taking one of the pups have been super fucked up?"

[gogodwarvenranger]

"Really?" Bowen looks mildly impressed. Emphasis on mildly. "I knew elves and drow have magic in their blood, but I didn't think it was anything like that."

In fact, all she really knew about was the magical resistance, not light shows. But hey, half of what she knows about elves came from dwarves.

"Well, Varis, it turns out you have to do a lot of fucked up things to live in the wilds. Like hunting animals, even the ones you can understand."

And then she quickly clarifies, "I never hunted the wolves, though." Somehow, Varis seems like he would be really sad if anything happened to the 'puppies'.

[daddyissuesdrow]

Don't be impressed at all, it's not even remotely impressive. Varis is aware of this, and kind of chuckles.

"Oh, shit yeah. My mother's bloodline especially is like ridiculously powerful in the whole magic department. I never had a chance to get the right training, but my mom was like. Fuckin' scary. Like take Velo, times like a billion, and all of her spells actually worked right every time."

And then there's dipshit fuckup Varis who can't even pick locks half the time and pees when worms happen.

"Honestly though. I think if I was in your place, I would have gone vegetarian. I don't want my food talkin' to me."

[gogodwarvenranger]

It’s only now that it occurs to Bowen that maaaybe this wasn’t a great topic of discussion. For the first time since Varis sat down, she’s looking uncomfortable.

“... yeah. How powerful drow can get — that I’ve learned a little more about. My grandpa... eh... encountered a few way back in his day.”

Her tone is hinting pretty hard to leave it at that. It is not the sort of story that ends with dwarf and drow chatting peacefully by the campfire.

In fact, she’s going to jump back into the other topic of discussion with a little more enthusiasm, to try and leave that awkwardness behind.

“... right! So! Surviving!! See, the problem is that you’re assuming you’ll have that much of a choice. My very first year on my own? There was a late cold snap, and it took out every plant in my garden. So, I tried replanting the whole thing, and I had animals sneaking in, digging up bulbs, eating the young sprouts — I might as well have planted it all for them! And the foraging wasn’t much better. I mean, I discovered a few plants I hadn't known were safe to eat, but also a lot of plants that I now know for sure aren’t safe to eat...”

[daddyissuesdrow]

Varis actually looks a little confused for a moment. He hadn't thought he'd said anything offensive, he was just talking about his family? Then it kind of dawns on him, 'oh yeah, they were drow' and the first rule of drow club is DON'T TALK ABOUT DROW CLUB. He knows the drow are like 100% fucked up, he really should know better than to bring them up around decent people.

He looks a little upset for a brief moment, not in an offended sort of way, but more like a kid that's just been scolded for swearing. Honestly, he still doesn't know jack shit about these people anyway. He probably shouldn't be opening up to them this much.

"Ah, yeah. I mean, I guess if they're all diggin' up your plants, they're practically asking to be barbecued. I was totally lying, there's no way I'd be able to stay away from meat. No matter how adorable it is."

Well okay maybe he wouldn't eat a bunny. Well. He wouldn't kill the bunny, but he'd still eat it. Either way, he seems a lot more cautious about this chat now. The awkwardness has probably jumped up like 50% rather than being left behind so THAT'S a thing.

[gogodwarvenranger]

Well, shit. That's pretty much exactly what Bowen didn't want to happen.

It's not like she's judging him for his race. Not anymore, at least. But there's few things that can stomp on a budding friendship like a rousing game of So Hey Do You Think Any Of Our Relatives Might Have Killed Each Other.

So, she claps a hand on his shoulder, reassuringly. Not an unarmed attack masking all traces of actual compassion, like you'd expect from Gorudak. Settle in, though, because you're getting a dwarf pep talk.

"... look. My grandpa had a lot of encounters with other people. Bad encounters, sure, but also good ones. He had friends of almost every kind — elves, gnomes, halflings, half-breeds of all sorts of combinations. Oh, and humans, too." It's hard to remember those exist sometimes, isn't it? "He didn't care what you were — if he met a drow that wasn't out to kill him, he'd probably ask if they wanted to go drinking with him. He just... well, he never got that chance."

She grips his shoulder firmer. "But I know, if he heard the dumb shit that you did to help your father? He would be buying all your drinks for life."

[daddyissuesdrow]

Sorry Bowen, we can't always have what we want.

Amazingly, Varis actually keeps his idiot mouth shut while she talks, and he listens. He'd kind of gotten the wrong idea before, and he feels a little bit stupid now that she's explaining it, but he can't help buy give her a small grin.

"I guess what I did was kind of dumb, but your grandpa sounds pretty incredible."

[gogodwarvenranger]

“He was. Of course, whether he was an incredible hero or an incredible moron... that depends on who you ask.” She sends a grin back up to Varis.

“If he taught me anything, it’s the value of guts. Do what’s right, and don’t worry about the rest. And you’ve got quite a bit of that.” She shakes her head. “Hell, I love my dad, but if I had to deal with Portia for his sake... I might have second thoughts. Ask myself, ‘do I really forgive that one birthday he forgot,’ you know?”

That’s a joke. Bowen’s a dwarf, and family is kind of a big thing for dwarves. Which is also why Varis has earned some dwarf cred, for whatever that’s worth.

[daddyissuesdrow]

"You call it guts, Ian might call it stupidity. I know I don't always make the best calls when I'm right in the middle of things."

He doesn't have much by way of cred, so any cred is good cred. Also he probably blushes a tiny bit at the compliment. Just a tiny bit. He's not used to getting praise outside of the fuckwords Ian spews ok.

"Portia, though. Eugh. Maybe no more deals."

[gogodwarvenranger]

"Well... parents can worry like no one else." It sounds like there's more to that. Unfortunately, we have to save some backstory for later, don't we? "I still think you're doing pretty okay."

She's already starting to look like she regrets bringing up the Portia thing. "I'd be all right with that. In fact, I'm still thinking maybe we should have the favor be 'call it even, no more favors'?" She shrugs. "Except... that's begging for us to need one, right after."