Friendly Neighbour

Writer of countless fan fictions and the occasional screenplay. Here to have fun and create fun for others.

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 31. Life Changing Moment

What would you do if you died? Answering that question is something most don't have to answer. When most people die, that's it. Either it's the void for them and all their remaining senses, or their souls prepares to travel an afterlife. Except, in many cases of fantasy, with D&D as no exception, death doesn't need to be the end. When one is brought back from what should be the end, how do you answer that question?

Mercy felt nearly untouchable. She thought she was smart enough to account for all for avenues in surviving her encounter with a Helm Angel. But facing Frank, the Paladin held tricks that broke through every concept of magic that Mercy knew of this earth. There was nothing that Mercy could do to counter his abilities, and it cost her life. It cost her life in a way that made her feel small, foolish, and put her in extreme pain. Stabbed through the torso, she wondered why she hadn't been good enough to stop him. She wondered for a split moment if she had wasted her talents.

Then came the road. For the briefest moment of being truly dead, Mercy was faced with a darkness around her that was sucking the light away from her path ahead. It was completely unknown to her. And the unknown terrifies her. Coming back to life after the battle, Mercy was snapped back to reality from the road. Her experience with death has given her doubts in her own abilities, all from a fear steaming from not wanting to go back to that road anytime soon. But it has also given her passion to unravel every mystery that she comes across. If she can help it, she never wants to be caught off guard ever again.

Thank you for following for another year of OC-Tober! Have yourselves a Happy Halloween!

Art by @sketchbookyoshi

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 30. Who they could have been/Alternative Future

Mercy leaving Helm behind after learning the deeper zealotry of the church was the best decision of her life. Had she not... her future would be forfeit to the will of Helm itself.

Staying in Helm would take an incredibly degree of faith in the deity of Helm that the original Mercy had not had. This faith would have been the culmination of all her parents grooming in her paid in full. As a wizard loyal to the Church, Mercy would have studied magics that would accelerate the machinations of the spores the Church have spread to mutate and control the populace. Eventually, Mercy would have been specifically chosen by the most zealous of Helm's Paladins to become one of the God's chosen 'Angels'. Disregarding her own physical flesh, Mercy would be falling down the path of a Lich, becoming a highly intelligent and dangerous caster seeking to deconstruction of the world.

Art by SoupLoops, as found on Discord

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 29. In Ten Years

The subject of this is entirely theoretical at this point, given, that at this current time, the world is trapped in darkness and is facing Godly Armageddon. Despite the possibility of failure, Mercy has still made time to plot out where she will take her career. After earning her doctorate in physics, Mercy is going to spend as much time mastering her abilities in chronomancy. It's her goal to unlock the mysteries of life through the concepts of space and time. Once she is content in having a strong base line in her personal understanding and possibly having achieved the ability to stop aging, Mercy will set about seeing if she can pass down her knowledge properly to others.

Being a teacher has always been a strong drive for Mercy. The desire to guide others correctly so that they can become their best selves. Perhaps with more age and experience, she can actually be able to do so in an orderly manner. It would certainly give her a sense of joy that would stay with her for a while.

Art by https://sai-c.carrd.co/

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 28. Losing Something They Love

Mercy holds those she loves incredibly close to her heart, even when she can't admit that love. When it came to Joy, the elf was her closest friend. Mercy, however, never had the courage as a teenager to tell her how she felt. And she never got the chance.

Juli, her own sister, took her to see the body. Mercy wasn't sure what she was going to see. She knew that Joy had been murdered by an unknown assailant at the Valentine household, but denial kept her from fully accepting the truth. That was, until, she was allowed to see the body. Standing there, in the morgue, Mercy was confronted with a loss so traumatic, it kept her unable to have truly healthy mechanisms in telling the truth about her feelings, especially romantic. The only way Mercy was able to bounce back from knowing her friend was dead was to try and make her a martyr. A plan, that ultimately imploded and shattered Mercy's resolve when she saw Joy shortly after at their very own graduation ceremony very much alive...

Art by @sketchbookyoshi

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 27. Bathing

Now, while Mercy does try to bath regularly, using shampoo and conditioner to help the length of her hair, she does so in the safety of a home shower. This is because, despite all of her magical knowledge, she has zero knowledge on how to swim. It's almost an Achilles Heel for her, or kryptonite. The moment that she is thrown into a body of water that her tiny feet can't feel ground underneath her, than she is instantly going to sink. She lacks any strength or technique to safely paddle her way to safety, or have basic survivability in staying afloat. When it comes to beaches or bodies of water, she stays either glued to a towel to sunbath, or requires the most up to date water floaties that pass her inspection for safety. But most of the time it's safer to keep this Halfling out of the water.

Art by @sketchbookyoshi

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 26. Royal AU/Dirt Poor AU

Now, Mercy has experienced having zero income to her name and only having her knowledge and magical know-how to keep her together, so here's a potential Royal AU...

"Long ago, there was a brilliant wizard princess who lived in a flying, giant magical castle! She was a beautiful Halfling who wore the prettiest dresses and loved spending her time learning the most fascinating of spells. This princess was named Mercy Beebody, and she loved helping people. And everyone loved-"

"Mercy, this was supposed to be a written assignment about where you see yourself in ten years."

Sketches by @drryuuchan

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 25. Drunk

Mercy has only been drunk so far twice in her life. The first willing time was when she was encouraged by her supervisor to be a little loose with herself. Feeling under orders to do so, Mercy had a few drinks with their reserve member, Daphne. This more fiery unlocked inhibition lead to their one night stand together. Despite taking the risk with what some might perceive as an award, Mercy hates the feeling that she had to be drunk to get there.

The time before that was Halloween prank pulled on Mercy by her peers in her first year working at Standards and Ethics. When she said she wasn't a hard drinker, someone suggested to her to try out the little candied 'bottles' and 'special liquid' that could be found in a specific brand of chocolates. Doing her best to establish a good relationship with her co-workers, Mercy didn't say no or have any insight into a trick being played on her. It was a wild night and a churning stomach for her.

Art by SoupLoops, as found on Discord

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 24. Alternative Outfits

As a little girl, Mercy loved the idea of being a little Queen Bee, with her job being one that cultivates the well being of the hive. She would dress up around the holidays in a little bee costume and put on a little show to bring her community happiness in her eyes.

Now, in the underdark city of Arachne, Mercy and her team have been put under pressure to stop a vile sorcerous from achieving political power in the city. Their shared investigation has lead them to the one opening that can get them safely close to their target; a masked gala for all to come together in celebration. Mercy has decided to bring back a costume from the past and give it the grace and flair only a woman can provide. Hopefully, she can match the magic of this sorcerous, while looking amazing too.

Art by SoupLoops, found on Discord

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 23. Major Character Flaw

Mercy believes that she is factually correct about most things, and as an A-Type personality Halfling that was raised in a religious community, she does so with an almost 'holier than thou' attitude. She often goes out of her way to speak up for people that she believes aren't as smart as her, but is the type of person to never actively belittle someone out loud. Or at the very least directly. To her, these are just misguided people either needing a little nudge in the right direction or a simple correction. Often times, she thinks from logical points of thinking without considering the emotional side of how her words can effect other people, even though she thinks that she might only be leaving a positive effect. There are many times that her friends sometimes just want to send her flying right into the moon.

Art by @sketchbookyoshi

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 22. Injured

Avoiding pain forever is not something that is tangible in this world. As wizard, Mercy tries her best to do so. She keeps spells prepared that can help her avoid taking physical damage, but even she can't avoid the odds forever. And when the pain comes, it hits her harder than she can brace herself for.

Mercy has had the skin peeled off her arms by a psychopathic doctor, and had an entire bookshelf crash down upon her in a terrorist attack at a library. Her greatest injury she has taken was the one that killed her. An angelic paladin telekinetically gripped her and, bypassing any form of counterspell, pulled her close enough to drive his entire blade through her whole torso, lifting her into the air and tossing her aside as her shattered body hit the cold dirt in a bloody pile of broken fear. More so than the obliterated organs or bones, coming back to life it was Mercy's sense of personally security in her own ability to survive any ordeal with proper preparation that was injured. An injury she still hasn't psychologically healed from.

Art by Ratstealer, my DM

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 21. Their Occupation/Hobby

Mercy Beebody is a field agent in the Zirith Division of Standards and Ethics. Her job is traveling across the land to investigate Helm Cult activity and discover a solution to the Helm infection that is being spread by the cult in the name of their God. Mercy tackles any information that comes their way from a magical lens, looking closely at the arcane to discover new solutions.

As for her hobby, Mercy Beebody is also the founding member of Standard and Ethics very own book club! When traveling between locations, Mercy encourages her team to spend an hour reading a book in silence together, then spend time discussing themes, characters, and what they liked about the books they read. She hopes that when she makes it back to head office that she can implement this company wide.

Art by @dreadlock-detective

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 20. Their Mentor

Mercy's teachers in Helm did not contain people she would call 'mentors'. The closest she felt she had were the journaled notes of her great ancestor, Gloria Gideon, as they were found in her spell book. It was through this that she had her best teacher in magic. That said, it wasn't a proper connection with another person.

This feeling wouldn't come until she would join Standards and Ethics, and meet the like of Saima. A Tiefling from the Shadowlands, Saima is the Patreon to her fellow teammate, Timothy. Saima was the first person on the team that took the time to take any interest in speaking with Mercy casually. This in turn made the Halfling comfortable enough to open up to the Tiefling and trust her with her relationship woes with the team and her own self image.

Art by Ratstealer, my DM

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 19. Reversed Personality

Death effects everyone in many ways; often impactful, life changing ways. In Dungeon and Dragons, death is not often the end. When Mercy was killed, it only took half a minute to bring her back, but the lingering effects are rooting their way slowly into her subconscious. Every decision she is making is tainted by a fear that her every mistake could lead her to dying again.

The reversed personality isn't an alternative reality coming forth. It's a growing seed of doubt that is planted inside the halfling. One that could take away her manners, her patience, and focus her magic into survival. At any cost to avoid hardship. All she needs is one hard push to break the personality she's carefully crafted all her life.

Art by Ratstealer

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 18. Alternative Hairstyles

Mercy has natural long, wavy hair that will have curls if she doesn't care to brush or tie it. Often, however, she tends to tie her hair up, especially if she knows she's going out in public.

Art by Ratstealer and Nemelone

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 17. Dealing with Conflict

Mercy has never enjoyed being around conflict between people. Truthfully, she tries to play peace maker, but is never willing to truly get her hands dirty or fully confront the issue. If two other people are arguing, Mercy will do her best to be a diplomate, observing and quickly drawing up compromises that can be made.

However, when Mercy is faced with her own issues, she'll either do her best to draw up logical reasonings for why she is in the right, being as patient as she can, or she will simply go into denial. Better to just let the other person believe they've won the argument so that they can both move on and go about their business no longer interrupted. If there's no personal problems to confront, then actual tasks can be completed. The 'small things' can be dealt with later.

But please don't yell at her for long periods. She doesn't know how to fight back verbally, because she doesn't want to openly insult you or swear. Mercy will cry.

Art by @sketchbookyoshi

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 16. Doing what they do best

Mercy's greatest characteristic is to never stop believing in herself. She uses this determination to break limits in her understanding of magic, experimenting and studying every source of knowledge that she can. If anyone in the team needs an understanding a cypher or deciphering magic, Mercy will take a crack at it until she either has success or burns out doing so. For Mercy, if she can find ways to crack open the secrets of time and space, then it won't be long until she figures out how to defeat evil Gods.

Art by @drryuuchan

[mrneighbourlove]

OC-Tober: Day 15. Different Colour Palette

Every Thursday, Mercy likes to wear blue. This has oddly not been noticed by her teammates, as Thursdays have coincidently always been downtime days on the train, where Mercy has often used her time to study magic in her room. For the Halfling Wizard, blue is a special colour, one that she rather not get stained with combat out in the field.

Art by @sketchbookyoshi, colour edit by me!