#ekemon

[cdennelly]

I added my two recent characters: Quincy and Vadania 

[sneeple-confirmed]

When Ekemon, our resident Tiefling flautist bard, rolls a really high performance check.

[alluvium-healer]

Ekemon

Class: Warlock

Race: Tiefling

Gender: Male

Sexuality: bi

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Deity: Prince of frost

Backstory: Never knew parents, and at 16 met the Archfey Prince of Frost. He asked to make a pact and spent 2 years killing people who entered the forest without permission. Until he left the Prince to become worthy of his love.

[sneeple-confirmed]

November Writing: Day Seven (Wixia ft. Ekemon)

Mod Mom Friend, back with some more writing! We’re about a quarter of the way through! Today, the prompt was, “I can hear you crying, you know. At night. When you think no one is listening.” Source is this post by @serving-inspiration! And of course I borrowed Mod Snooth Snalking Snatan’s boy because we need more than one person for this prompt! Feel free to request anything, and I absolutely love feedback! Hope you enjoy!

“Hey Wix? Can I ask you a question?”

The gnome heard Ekemon’s voice, and some part of her immediately wanted to turn over and have a conversation. This lack of human contact, meaningful human contact, was grating on her; she’d been so incredibly used to living with others and telling them everything. And now that she’d shut herself off to protect them from her demon? Sure, she was traveling with three other people, but God, she’d never felt so alone. A huge part of her wanted to just sit next to him, just like she used to with her little brother, and spill her guts.

But she shoved that part of her down hard.

“Nope,” she responded coolly, her voice void of emotion.

“How can I get you to talk to me?” he asked.

“Can’t,” Wix replied, biting her lip to stop more words. There was a pause, and Wix was about to look and see if Ekemon had left, turned away, decided to do something else…but instead, he replied.

“You’re not a robot. You need someone. You’re not meant to be alone.” Wix took a deep, shaky breath, begging herself not to break at what she knew was the truth.

“And why do you say that?” she asked, not really wanting to know the answer but feeling like she had so say something. Her voice was still cool, detached, but her heart hurt, and she swore she could hear her demon laughing at her.

“I can hear you crying, you know. At night. When you think no one is listening.” Wix’s head snapped up. She always made sure everyone was asleep. Always. And she always wandered away. But maybe Ekemon was just bluffing, maybe he just was trying to get a rise out of her.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Thankfully, she’d started this conversation turned away from Ekemon, so he wouldn’t see the hot tears rolling down her cheeks. She wanted to tell him everything. She wanted to rip off her shirt and show him the scars that the men left her, tell him that this was why the demon was there. She wanted to tell him she never slept because she was afraid of what she might do when she wasn’t on her guard. And she wanted to tell him that she wanted, with all of herself, to just have a friend. The other things…they’d be bearable if she had someone around to help her through. But she hid the shuddering breaths, hid the tears.

“Wix, I want to help you,” he said, his voice soft. Gods, this absolute child was too pure, too naive. Helping people got you almost nowhere, Wix knew. Too often, other urchins didn’t show any gratitude for being helped out. You didn’t do selfless shit. It was stupid. Setting yourself on fire to keep other people warm was the dumbest thing anyone could do. And here’s this tiefling bard, just sitting here and wanting to help the broken little gnome next to him.

Despite herself, the tears came faster. So few people actually wanted to help, and sure it was naive, but it was just…it was a nice gesture. But he couldn’t know that. And she wasn’t allowed to feel that. When she let someone into her heart, she let the demon have stock in them too, and that absolutely couldn’t happen. “That’s stupid,” she spat back. “Won’t do you any good.”

“It’s not about doing me good. And it’d make you happy. I don’t think I’ve seen you smile since we met. Not once. Everyone smiles.”

“Not me.” God, it had been nice to have a reason to smile. Wix missed Erlin like crazy, her dumb baby brother who she loved more than anything else. She knew he was okay–she’d feel something if he wasn’t, and he was smart–but he’d been a big source of light in her life. He always knew how to make her smile, even when she was at her worst. But that was gone now. She’d been dumb and gotten herself caught…and then she’d been even dumber and called on this demon. Stupid things happened, and the days of smiling were over. “You don’t have to smile to survive.”

“Sure, you’re surviving. But you aren’t living,” Ekemon told her. “Just let me be your friend, okay? We’re more alike than you think.” The thought of someone being like her, of someone going through what she’d gone through, struck fear into Wix’s heart. She didn’t want that. She didn’t want it for anyone. No one should go through the shit she went through. And Ekemon didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. He just didn’t know.

“You aren’t like me. And if you have any sense of self preservation, you’ll never be.” Wix got up, glared at him. And then she walked away, so she’d have some space to cry. Tentatively, she climbed a tree, knowing that it’d be harder to see her, and curled up in on herself. She tucked her knees into her too-large shirt, and she wept silently into the fabric, taking extra care that Ekemon wouldn’t be able to hear this time.

You realize that if you embraced me, you wouldn’t feel like this, Wix heard in her demon’s trademark, gravelly voice. Rage shot through her, and Wix slammed her head against the tree, wincing and feeling dizzy.

“Get out of my head, you bastard!” she hissed.

Just kill them all, and I’ll make sure you don’t feel any pain. It’ll be easier that way.

“Shut up. Shut up.” Her voice shook as she chanted it like a mantra, curled up in the boughs of the tree. And that was where she slept, hoping that anything that she might do in the night would be mitigated by her actually having to get out of the tree. She’d never actually done anything in her sleep, but there was a first time for everything and she absolutely would not kill any of these people.

Because despite her best efforts, they’d managed to worm their way into her heart. And she wouldn’t let any harm come to them. She’d rather fall to her death trying to get out of a tree in the middle of the night than take that risk. She loved these people more than she loved herself.

But then again, that wasn’t a terribly high bar.

[sneeple-confirmed]

Mod Meme Damage’s Campaign Prologue, Part 2 of 3

Hi all, this is the part that this post referred to. I hope you all enjoy us being meme sluts!

Mod Mom Friend

Part One

As the party trekked through the forest, they noticed a distinct change in the environment. The trees were beginning to look wizened and dead, the branches appearing to reach out toward the adventurers with burnt, decaying hands. Eventually, a few miles away from the entrance, the branches became so dense that progress was impossible. They distinctly wove together in what almost looked like a wall. Experimentally, Brian swung his greatsword into the branches, but it bounced off, almost like the branches were repelling it. “Anyone have fire spells?”

“That’d burn the whole forest down,” Geoffrey objected.

“Well, what do we do?” Anya asked, twirling a strand of her light hair around her finger. However, Lawrence stepped forward, with a look of determination in his eyes. He raised his briefcase up on high, and suddenly, a flash of lightning struck the wall. Smoke rose up around the forest, making everyone but Lawrence cough, and when it dissipated, the wall had dissolved, leaving in its place a pile of red tape. Ekemon immediately shoved the red tape into his bag.

“What was that?” Anya gasped.

“The justice of Amaunator,” Lawrence intoned solemnly. “Praise be.” Brian and Geoffrey looked at each other incredulously, but after a moment they shrugged and followed the three others through the newly opened pathway. In reality, it lead almost directly into a clearing, with a small hut sitting in the middle of it. The walls were built entirely of stone, and burn marks were visible all over it. The thatched roof also looked worse for the wear, with a few places looking like they wouldn’t provide too much cover from any inclement weather. That proved a potential impending concern, since the clouds were incredibly dense over this clearing. A flash of lightning lit up the sky, and shortly afterward thunder shook the air. However, most notable was a massive red gem set into the beaten-up wood of the hut’s door, couched in beautiful silver.

“I’m taking it,” Ekemon announced, striding confidently up to the door and trying his utmost to pry it out. However, even using a dagger for leverage, he couldn’t manage it. Anya stepped forward and knocked on the door, but she didn’t get a response. Lawrence tried next.

“Open the door! We have a search warrant!” He opened his briefcase and a search warrant materialized, addressed to “hut in the middle of the forest” and with the signature of “Chief Amaunator.” After a brief silence, there was a bloodcurdling scream. Thunder boomed, and then no matter the yells or banging, they couldn’t get another response.

Ekemon tried the gem again, but it still couldn’t come out. He next tried to yank the door open, but despite the appearance of the wood, it wouldn’t give. Bryan tried next, but all he received was a sore shoulder for his troubles. “How do we get in?” he asked.

“Why don’t we just climb on the roof?” Ekemon asked, already climbing before anyone could object. Lawrence shrugged and followed, with Anya right on his tail. A loud crack resounded, and Ekemon fell in, thankfully catching himself before any damage came to him. Lawrence and Anya descended a touch more carefully. After a moment, Brian and Geoffrey followed, and all of them beheld a vastly underwhelming sight. The hut’s furnishings were sparse, simply a bed and a hearth, and the only one there was a gnome lying prone on the ground, clearly unconscious. However, she didn’t seem hurt; there was nothing wrong with her outwardly, and she was breathing gently, almost as if she was asleep. In fact, she almost looked cute. Her clothes were ratty and too big for her, and her hair was dyed a bright bubblegum pink, in ponytails that stuck up comically. She looked tiny and innocent.

“Hey, wake up!” Lawrence called, shattering the tranquility. He shook her, but she simply fell to the side limply. Ekemon kicked her in the face, and everyone winced as a crack resounded.

“You broke her nose!” Anya whispered, accusingly. Ekemon shrugged as he watched it begin to breathe.

“Anyone else have any ideas?” he asked. Right away, almost as if on cue, Anya took her lute out, and after taking a brief breath, she struck a chord and started in on a song that seemed antithetically intense for a lute. “I've become so numb, Without a soul,” she sang. “My spirit's sleeping somewhere cold. Until you find it there and lead it back….Home.” At that, Ekemon jumped in.

“WAKE ME UP,” he shouted, as Anya’s lute playing intensified.

“Wake me up inside!”

“I CAN’T WAKE UP!”

“Wake me up inside!”

“SAAAAAVE ME!”

“Call my name and save me from the dark!” The gnome jolted up, blood still running down her face, and looked around her hut, stunned. She slowly put a hand to her face, gasping in horror when it came away bloody. Her gasp was high pitched, and almost cute. The party had never seen anything look more vulnerable when she looked around, fear in her eyes.

“Who...who are you?”