[Voice]

[stillwinningthehardway]

[Scout speaks briskly. She's familiar with networks, at least the voice-only kind, but always feels awkward trying to start a conversation like this.]

I was assigned 'Warlock' by... whatever assigned these things for us. I know a lot about what that meant on another world, less about what it means here. Hopefully here - I mean, I don't like being bound to something without knowing much about it.

[She coughs. Moving on.] So I've had a very vivid dream about what I assume is my patron here. She's some kind of fae, and... really excited about the other fae I've had experience with. Is this happening to anyone else?

[How warlocks know about their patrons and exactly what the patrons are like is up to players! One possibility is they're contacted in dreams.]

Comments

[ryuji]

Is Scout your code name? Shit, we're gonna be code name buddies. This is sweet.

[stillwinningthehardway]

I picked Jedi, but maybe I should have gone for Scout anyway. Oh well. They're both still good.

[ryuji]

Wait, Jedi?

Are you one of those space wizards?

[stillwinningthehardway]

[Scout makes a face. She's from a game without fourthwalling, and the idea that anyone knows about anything familiar to her world makes her uncomfortable.]

Something like that.

How'd you get into the habit of 'skull'?

[ryuji]

Before comin' here, I was stuck on a space station for, like, 6 months. One of my really close friends there could do some pretty amazing stuff.

But, uh... I guess since he's not here, he didn't make it.

Or. Yeah, sorry, I'm probably making this super awkward.

[King of awkward all around.]

Anyway, uh, it's a really long story. Me and a buncha my friends got into some weird stuff back home. Like, home, home. We couldn't use our real names, so we went with something that sounded cool.

Skull sounds pretty cool, right?

[stillwinningthehardway]

It's part of how it is, here. I was with someone who took people from reality to reality. Maybe she got some of them out, but I know she wouldn't go out of her way to find me if she did.

[If she dwells on it it's very upsetting, but it's not the only thing. Scout's got to go on regardless.]

A skull is the coolest bone. No one's ever going to introduce themself as Rib.

[ryuji]

Sucks. Having all crazy magic and not even puttin' it to good use, y'know? I ain't even talkin' about saving the world, but like. Find a reality that's just one giant pool party or something. Get everyone there and have it be chill for a while.

Sounds pretty goddamn fun if you ask me

Oh shit

Rib is the worst possible nickname you could ever give someone

Or, like Hip bone

Imagine bein' called hip bone

[stillwinningthehardway]

That's sort of what she did. Before things started going wrong it was basically sort of tourism. Not always to very nice places, but we were only sometimes involved in saving anything.

Also we were literally a circus going to entertain people. It was fun sometimes.

Metatarsal? Oh, no. Pubic bone.

[ryuji]

[He gets a good chuckle out of pubic bone.]

Man.... I dunno where the hell you came from, but this place sounds like it's at least... at LEAST a tiny upgrade.

But shit, pubic bone?

How do you even intro yourself to someone and not just crack up.

Like "Hey. My name's Pubic Bone. But you can call me Pubes for short"

[stillwinningthehardway]

Maybe. If I'm at someone's beck and call it's better to be for some kind of cause than 'you know what would be fun', but in the Carnival you always knew that if you asked politely and nothing was actively on fire you could head back where you came from.

[Not that she really had 'home' to go back to anymore, but there was the vague plan of returning with new powers and being able to change things.]

How does the line go? Please, Pubes is my father. Call me Pue-Bee.

[ryuji]

[Ryuji has some reservations about returning home, too, but it's not because there's nothing to really return to... there are other things playing at here.]

What!? Dude, I've never heard of that one before. Where the hell does that even come from?

[stillwinningthehardway]

Meme... culture? Or something? We stopped at some weird variation on Earth once and got local backstories and it kinda came with background knowledge.

I think the line is 'Please, [whatever] is my father. Call me [something more informal]'. Funnier in my head I guess.