un: theball | text

[stresstokens]

Hey. Hope everyone's recovering from that stupid maze okay.

I'll just get right down to my point of inquiry. For a place that claims that we're meant to save the universe, I've noticed a pretty dramatic human-bias around here that strikes me as kind of odd, considering how diverse the universe actually is.

So I'd like to get a show of hands. Who here is from a world where humans are the only sentient species around, and who here is from a world with more than just humans kicking around? What other sorts of species are around? I'd like to know how much of it is selection-bias based on who's running this place and how much of it is them drawing from places that just don't have any non-human populations. I wouldn't mind hearing about what sorts of non-humans you have around either, but that's probably less important, statistically speaking.

Lastly... what do you see when you look at this picture?

[ Inserted is a photograph of a suave looking goblin man in a tuxedo with a pencil-thin moustache. He's holding a champagne flute towards the camera with his arm around -- something. If you've been infected by the curse, you'll see the goblin man's arm is around a black tabaxi woman, but if not, his arm looks as though it's simply hanging in mid-air. ]

[ OOC NOTE: due to the extremely low likelihood we'll ever get kalina in-game, the picture is just for flavour! if you'd like your character to be infected by the shadowcat and thus able to see her image in the photo, it would be due to any circumstance in which any of riz's bodily fluids were absorbed into their own body in some way, i.e. blood or saliva. feel free to handwave a circumstance in which that could happen, even if it's riz's blood lingering on one of the labyrinth's traps that then got into an open cut of theirs, a glass in the labyrinth he drank from that they then used, etc., etc.! Please see this comment for more information! ]

Comments

[stresstokens]

Is Baldurs Gate the name of your world, or the name of your hometown? Because Spyre's the name of my actual world. I'm actually from a place called Elmville. Either way, that's confirmation we're from two totally different worlds.

Case in point: Goblins can be debonair! Or maybe the ones you've met just had no reason to dress up. So yeah, that's a Goblin in the photo, like me. And I happen to think I'm a pretty smart dresser too.

[tocastashadow]

Toril's the world. Balder's Gate is a city.

Most of the goblins I've met are more interested in picking fights than dressing up. As long as you're not wearing something that looks like it was fished out of the sewage drain behind a tanner's, you're a smarter dresser than they are.

Was it meant to be some sort of trick question, about the picture?

[stresstokens]

[ Okay, yeah, this is more of what he expects from people who are familiar with Goblins, for better or for worse. ]

My whole family dresses pretty well. You know, for the office. In my experience, people who are wearing rags don't have much of a choice in the matter? It's not like a sartorial decision.

The picture is connected to a curse. If you only see my Dad in the picture and not the lady he has his arm around, you don't have the curse. Simple as that.

[tocastashadow]

Even using the word 'sartorial' in conjunction with them is giving them too much credit, I'm afraid. They do say beggars can't be choosers, but the goblins I've met are hardly beggars. I'm not judging them, mind – well, maybe a little – but they do seem to be dressing that way entirely of their own volition.

Your father, on the other hand, certainly knows how to style himself. She's a lucky woman, this invisible lady.

[stresstokens]

I'm gonna be honest, I don't really know how to react to you saying a bunch of bad shit about my people and then being nice about my Dad? Sorry the goblins you met were jerks I guess??

He's not with the invisible lady, for the record. They were just colleagues. I'll take the compliment for my Mom's sake instead, but I think they're mutually lucky. They're both pretty great.

[ A D&D character with a positive relationship with both of his parents. Will wonders never cease!! ]

1/2

[tocastashadow]

[She really doesn't know how to react to him not knowing how to react. Her negative Charisma modifier isn't doing her any favours here.]

React however you like.

2/2

[tocastashadow]

[It takes her a little while to respond to his comment about his parents.]

I'm glad for them.

[Does that come across as sarcastic over text? She doesn't know! She's too busy thinking sadly about parents to consider making her sincerity more obvious.]

[stresstokens]

Okay. That works for me. I'm just not going to.

[ Saying out loud that you're not going to react is socially subject. Unfortunately, his charisma stats are also lacking. They really need a bard right about now. ]

Yeah, better to have loved and lost and all that jazz.

[tocastashadow]

Is that what you believe? That it's better to love and lose than never love at all?

[stresstokens]

I mean, yeah? I think the only alternative is pretty grim.

Do you not?

[tocastashadow]

You know, I haven't got your name. Unless your name is The Ball, in which case those pretty great parents of yours may owe you an apology.

[Smooth pivot.]

[stresstokens]

So... that's a no, then, huh?

The Ball's just a nickname. My name's Riz. Is Shadowheart your real name, or is it just your username?

[tocastashadow]

My real name.