#the firestarters

[ghosty-elliot]

Olga and Ophelia

Mine and @luciferiana's d&d characters for the amazing Wild Beyond the Witchlight campaign @raymurata is running. We all hope the gays win ❤

Olga is the black-haired half-elf warlock, Ophelia is the red-haired Eldritch Knight elf

[feralrosie]

Dnd oc asks -- I have so many for Neeve. 1, 5, 12, 16, 27, 28, 29, 31 and 42. 👀👀

I know I'm spamming but I'm taking advantage of my brain being functional* today

* not for work, though

1. Does your PC believe it’s possible to save someone?

Oh, 100%. As long as the person wants to be saved, there's no reason for her to not believe so.

5. What is your PC’s idle animation?

Starts with her having her hands behind her body and shifting from one side to the other, then she grabs her braid and checks the tips of her hair, then she throws her braid back and grabs her notebook, writes a few stuff there and puts it away, and then it loops again.

12. If your PC had to set up a date, what would they plan for it?

A romantic one? Picnic in the mountains and then swimming in a lake 🥺❤️

16. What scents do you associate with your PC?

Wet dirt and grass

27. When your PCs hit rock bottom, what do they do?

A frame-by-frame reenacting of this part of Frozen II KASJDHAKSJDH https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFkClV2gM-s

28. When your PCs want comfort, what do they seek out?

A nice meadow, warm sun, and probably someone she likes spending time with

29. Please describe your PC’s romantic type

Cottagecore Romantic, a warm smile, dreamer eyes and adventurous heart

31. What’s your favorite part of playing your PC?

Moonbeam I like how she adapts to situations in a way that makes sense for her, but also surprises her in the same level

42. Who is your PC’s favorite NPC(s) and why?

In our party, it's Erin kajshdkasaskjhd she really likes the guy (and his broad shoulders that make a perfect non-sexual sitting stool)

[your-heavenly-angel]

Hello from @bendy-and-the-firestarters!

[criticalrolo]

to summarize our light cleric, see the above

[ramblingsthebookblog]

Book Review: The Fire Starters by Jan Carson

“In this city we have a great love of the talking. The talking can be practised on buses, park benches, from pulpits and frequently on gable walls. it swells in the presence of an audience, though a second party is not strictly required.” 

Along with ‘Multitudes’ this the second book I’ve read this year that features my home turf: East Belfast. I read this in July while the air burned hot and the humid air clung to my hair. When the bonfires were lit, I had Carson’s book in my hand. 

Firestarters is set in 2018 in Belfast. And the city is burning. Tall fires are going up all over the city, large bonfires that destroy buildings, department stores and houses alike. Nobody knows who’s doing it. The only thing the police do know is that a mysterious online entity is orchestrating the whole thing. Masked and dressed in black, the mysterious person is riling up the masses and egging his followers on. 

One man, an East Belfast man named Sammy, thinks he knows who the mysterious online figure is: his son. 

On the same side of town, Dr Johnathan Murray has been taken in by a siren. (Yes, you read that right. An actual siren.) While doing the rounds on a night shift, Johnathan is lured to an apartment and drawn into bed with the mysterious creature. It binds him for months, falls pregnant and disappears. Johnathan is left with the child. 

Sammy and Jonathan’s stories are strong and distinct, so much so that this feels like two books meshed into one. Both plots exist together because both men are grappling with the same thing: they are afraid of their own child. Sammy, an ex loyalist paramilitary thug, is scared of his son Mark. He fears that the behaviour of his past has tainted his son and touched him like curse. Jonathan fears that his daughter will grow up to have a hold over him. He worries that she will manipulate people and control others. He ponders, in his darkest moments, cutting out her little tongue. 

This book is full of magical realism. Through his daughter, Jonathan discovers the “unfortunate children of Belfast.” Children born with strange, bizarre abilities.  There’s the girl with wings, the girl who can turn into a boat and a boy who can see the future in every liquid. 

Sammy and Jonathan have the same fear but they live in different worlds. Sammy is working class. Jonathan, middle class. They live five minutes away from one another in the same part of the city. Firestarters brilliantly illustrates the class divide in East Belfast and the invisible line that runs between the Upper and Lower Newtownards Road. Jonathan is completely ignorant of his working class neighbours and the hidden world of the unfortunate children. 

“And why did I never hear about any of this before Sophie?” 

“Cos-no harm intended-Doctor, you’re too posh to have known what was going on at the other end of the road.”

I think there’s a reason why Carson sets her story in post Good Friday Agreement Belfast. Firestarters is about the legacy we leave to our children. It’s about a younger generation that looks back at the past and sees glory instead of pain. 

“They talk of the loud violence their parents knew, as if it is a kind of birthright denied to them.”

Are the Firestarters the young arsonists or the generation that engaged in the violence of the Troubles? That, more than anything, is at the heart of this book. 

[feralrosie]

Edgy/misc: 2, 7, 8, 14, 23 and 25 for Neeve

Here's a bit about The Girl ♥

2. What's something about your OC that people wouldn't expect just from looking at them?

To give a different answer than last time... I'd say that probably how much she has changed over the years.

7. What's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them?

She was supposed to be a chaotic little bean but somehow she's now the responsible party member!!!! idk how!!!

8. Would your OC ostensibly be able to get away with murder?

Not on her own......... She can do the killing but not the hiding.

14. How does your OC want to be seen by other characters?

Like she belongs, I think

23. What emotion is the hardest for your OC to process? How about express?

Answered before, but to process it's Saudade, for sure. To express I said before that it's love, but regret is also a good option

25. What is your favorite thing about your OC?

I like how she saw how the Feywild was changed since she has left and instantly took the responsibility of fixing it back to its natural and harmonic state. She didn't even think twice before considering this her main quest.

[imjustasadsong]

📻+ Olga (if you want numbers -- 13, 17 and 23)

Olga girl what are u doing - OC Playlist

13 - Artemis (Aurora)

What will you do when she drinks the sea? / Drown her in sorrow or let her be free?

When she's upset, all of her heart is cold (ah-ah-ah)

What will you do when she eats the moon? / Make her return it or give her a spoon?

When she is full, all of her heart is warm (ah-ah-ah)

The mother made us a savage daughter / Who never begs for forgiveness

I always wondered why they all came back for more

This song is about her patron! Such a mysterious character, so full of promises for Olga but she demands such a high price and a terrible promise if Olga refuses her. Olga was never one to deny people what they asked of her and that extends to her patron, specially being the only path that leads back to her village, and not only as an prodigal daughter but someone chosen by their Queen, someone worthy of respect. But she’s a cold patron (literally, even), filling Olga’s nights with nightmares and demanding nothing short of absolute allegiance.

17 - Call me Little Sunshine (Ghost)

Call out in the middle of the night / For when else would I hear you?

Fall out in the cold starlight / I can save you if you do

You will never walk alone / You can always reach me

You will never ever walk alone

Again, this one is about her patron. The lyrics are quite literal, even. She appears to Olga in her dreams (turning them into nightmares), they’re always enveloped in the freezing winds of her homeland, she IS the winter Queen, Air and Darkness. And she’s always there, watching. She said Olga would be her eyes and ears and she wasn’t being poetic, she sees through Olga at her every waking moment, there’s no place for secrets between them. Quite the pickle when she asks Olga to kill her brother. Quite the pickle. 

23- Heart (Avantasia)

Don't we all keep moving on / As we try to spell forevermore

I have been searching, where I was told / Didn't find myself around the bend

Oh, I tried to run forevermore / In a lonely charade

Back on my way (afraid of moving closer)

Hot on the trail again (to my heart, afraid of moving closer)

Afraid of moving closer (to my heart, afraid of moving closer)

To my heart (to my heart)

I would always do anything (afraid of moving closer)

Always tried to believe I can (to my heart, afraid of moving closer)

I was burning down inside (to my heart, afraid of moving closer)

To play my part (to my heart)

Are we meant to feel ok / As we stray in someone else's dream?

Burning with honour and pride for glory and fame / The duty of love is not to faint along the way

This song was so fitting to her that I had to include a larger chunk of the lyrics. She has always tried so hard to fit herself inside what was expected of her, out of duty and love to her family. If she could physically cut out the pieces that didn’t fit, she would but it was never that simple. And still, she tried to, and is still trying to, even as it led her down a lonely path, an exile bent on proving that she deserves another chance, that she can do better, be better. But the truth is, what her heart really sings for is the adventure, is the wonder of the wander, she’s never felt as accomplished as she does now, she IS finding herself on a life of adventures but that could also mean letting it go. Letting go of her family, her village and of everything she’s ever known. She’s scared and trying her best but her situation is not an easy one and time is coming that she has to make a choice.  

[imjustasadsong]

The Star, Judgement and The World for Olga

The Star: When has your character been most hopeful?

As much as it was her lowest moment, right after her exile when her patron, the Queen appeared to her and offered her a chance to be accepted back, a chance to prove to her village she deserved another chance was her most hopeful moment. Her world had just collapsed right in front of her, all of a sudden, she had nothing. At that point she’d do anything to be able to go back home and that’s exactly what the Queen promised her, there was still a chance to change her fate.

Judgment: Has your character ever been given a second chance?

She has, many were the times she didn’t meet expectations with her village or her family but they allowed her to keep trying until they didn’t. But for something more specific, she never passed her warlock trials, she attempted many times but it always happened that she’d get extremely anxious after any little mistake and it would snowball into many mistakes that were a bit harder to ignore. She was her own enemy but she had the right to keep trying so she did, even though people were constantly telling her she should just give up on it, that she was clearly not cut out for this. 

The World: When has one of your character’s dreams come true?There were a few times! When she was allowed to join in the raids her village did, when she was allowed to start the warlock training and most importantly, when the Queen of Air and Darkness spoke to her and offered her patronage. Despite everything she’d been told, despite thinking she’d never be good enough to achieve those things they happened! She still doesn’t quite understand the Queen’s choice but she’s not complaining. Now, how much those were her dreams and how much those are things she was told she should pursue and want more than anything? Anyone’s guess. Her nature is to be curious, would she really be happy spending her life attending the village? Would raids and missions be enough for her? Would getting their respect actually make her feel accomplished or would she just be conforming to everyone’s expectations of what she should be?