Refrigerator

I've wrapped up my business, so I'll be signing off now. I'll miss you guys.

Elisabeth Winkly sat. Or rather, she attempted sitting. She had managed quite well to make it to her chair, stumbling along with her freshly re-attached hand. However, that hand had ended up stuck to the desk she used to steady herself, sticking, melting. Trying to remain dignified, she kept her arm at that awkward angle, twisting and turning until she managed to seat herself halfway on her chair. The small pebble that was formerly Axxie's portable computer tumbled its way out of her shirt pocket, bouncing three times before rolling to a stop on the floor. The desk trembled as the rest of her, too, began to melt, like a chocolate bar left in the sun. The noise in the office coalesced, merging into a sweet, soft, deathly A-flat. She needed coffee. "I...require..." she mumbled, neck cracking as she tried to turn her head towards Ambiancips. The smell of coffee called to her like siren song, the wafting steam worming its way up through her senses and revitalizing exhausted limbs and a befuddled mind, giving her enough energy to pry her sticky hand from the desk and step forward with another wobble. But alas, as Elisabeth Winkly attempted to walk, she instead fell forward on her face.

So! Due to a turn of events my upcoming post will be my last roleplay post on this forum. That being said, I leave Gryfyn to you all. After my next post, feel free to treat Elisabeth Winkly as an NPC character that you can throw around between you guys. I've loved every post that you guys have thrown down in my thread, and I'm sorry that I heave to leave so soon, but please do continue bringing light into each other's days.

It's been almost 4 years since I signed up for this forum and honestly it's been one of the most life changing almost-4-years of my life. I know this may seem sudden, especially since my "return" a couple of months ago, but it's that time. I will still wrap up some things and be in contact with people through off-site means, but this is my goodbye. But first, some words of special thanks in the form of a very, very bad poem: Firstly, thanks to HimJL, Yhmi, and Gohrick Trisona for being my very first partners in writing, and to Totalitarian, princeben07, Black Magic, and susitsu for being in my first created thread, Silent Night, most frightening! (I told you it was bad, okay.) To Acies ab Vesania! Ever the knowledgeable, for being a voice of reason, and to supernal for showing faith in my work by helping me start a monster nation. Thanks to Arcanist for being a co-conspirator in funny times, (and we do still have many, funny times) and to Off Topic for being a tour de force, with animation and rhyme. Thanks to Malum for drinking wine out of a jug--that I don't think I'll ever forget-- as well as everyone else in those unval chats and to blood soaked earth, too for being a nerd, and having me push my brain past the absurd. Then there's Syncopy who's always been of support, and Vintage's NightWalker children of dubious rapport, like vasanti and Sorano and various other sorts who traipse through the nights with blood on their shirts. More thanks to King for being one of the best co-brains in the land, as well as Noko and with their villainous plans, and to Paroxysm for his stories about blueberry pies, and Song Sprite with hope and stars in her eyes. Thanks to the friends I've made through Nich'e who wrote its world with me: From Kiva and the Big Gay Cockatoo to The Ceron and Scaevitas, too to Devil, Helrica, Japhetic, and Shamash you've all made this journey one hell of a blast. (And Lucky, to you, I give a special thanks for inspiring a love that no other can match.) Oh Gryfyn Industries! Oh comrades in trade! Thank you for all your work this day, But Elisbeth Winkly must part ways. Keep on with the customers, don't scare them away! (And should your name be missing, do not fret. You, too, on me, have made an impact, in being here with all the rest-- this "poem" is simply far too long, I will not forget.) And here we are at the end of this a dragged far too long reminisce Like many others that have come and gone, so, too, will I but with one last song:

sorry i haven't posted in a while guys, every time i try to write i'm like, dead tired, but i'll try to crank something out this weekend. (all the posts have been pretty great they really make my day <3)

@Misanthropy It's also like D&D crossed with a Lovecraftian babysitting sim lol. Your PCs start getting stressed and then you start getting stressed and you'll find yourself in a dark room sitting in front of the single source of illumination that is your computer screen at midnight like, "GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER FRANCINE WE DON'T HAVE TIME FOR YOU TO FLOG YOURSELF IN THE MIDDLE OF BATTLE." 10/10, I highly recommend it.

I was about to go into this thing about how I'm agnostic (but kind of in an offshoot of religious pluralism kind of way) and that the irrefutable proof of existence of various gods from all kinds of religions would be actually a pretty cool but also potentially chaotic thing and push me to be an even more huge theology nerd--but that's probably not that answer you're looking for. I was raised with an Abrahamic Catholic God, so I'll go with that. The idea of God, even the Abrahamic Catholic Christian God, is extremely complex and I'm not really sure how to go about beginning to answer this. In San Francisco, a chunk of the Catholic parishes (and the one I grew up in) will preach a God that is all-accepting and loving, similar to the preaching of Unitarian Universalist churches. A Catholic church in Mississippi might preach something a little bit different. Heck, Catholics and Protestants tried (and sometimes still try) to kick each other's ass up in Ireland. So, my perception of God (as I learned more about Catholic theology with 12+ years of rather comprehensive scripture education and discussion with people of multiple faiths ) has grown into something very multifaceted. To have an irrefutable certainty of God's existence--in this instance, defining God as a powerful supernatural entity that is responsible for the universe's creation--would be kind of simultaneously comforting and a little disconcerting. I would have so many questions that would take an eternity to answer, as would everyone else. Ultimately, I'm concerned that a lot of people have this notion of what God is supposed to be, and that if the entity does not fit that to a T, then people will inevitably question whether the entity is God at all, and that this will lead to violence. It's not so much how my lifestyle would change--at this rate, it probably wouldn't, especially if God has been around all this time. But how the way other people live with this truth and how their choices might have to force me to make alterations. In sum: I probably won't live in fear of punishment from an irrefutably present God, but rather very much fear punishment from other people who irrefutably think they're doing God a service. Before I begin, I have to note that I've never read a part in the Bible that says murdering homosexuals is an explicit allowable action. I know there's that bit in Leviticus that says "don't sleep with a man as you would a woman because that's an abomination" but there seems to be no real thing about women sleeping with other women, so it just might be less "don't be homosexual" and more "don't stick your dick in another man's asshole and try to diddle him like a woman--we live in the desert and that's unhygienic"? Shrugs. But back to the point. The Bible and its creation is a bit complicated, as it is with the Torah and the Qur'an (or Koran, if you prefer). There are schools all over the world that take their time to study and try to sift out correct interpretations of texts, not only considering the literal text but its sociohistorical context, as well as the interpretation of practitioners in various communities. In a way, the items on your lists are already accepted as literal and "correct"--but we have to really define what "correct" means. "Correct" can mean anything from, "these are the holy words, as divined by God unto man" or "this is the correct translation of the text as written by the original author" or "this is correct to practice for the people of that time period" or "this is correct to practice in our modern context and current community of faith." Even if we're assuming the former, then in what context are these words supposed to be interpreted in, and are they meant to be eternal policies? The Bible as we currently know it is part of a specific canon that was created around the 5th century, and then later revisited in the mid 1500s during the Council of Trent. This particular tree of faith has been growing since before the common era, and up through the transition from oral history to the arrival of the printing press (the 1400s, and if you'll notice, when the Christian Bible started "solidifying". There are plenty of other texts to consider besides the ones made conveniently available. Even our modern interpretation of heaven and hell wasn't really given true shape until the creation of the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. Anyway, even if it's all of the above, I'm not particularly bound to the Christian faith. These are things that I am free to reject and will probably still continue to reject. (Again, not so much what I'd do but being terrified about what other people would do with this information.)

I got Darkest Dungeon and played it for 2 straight hours right when I got home last night...

Let me just say that I'm so glad this conversation is happening because the big itch that I've been unable to scratch when it comes to Valucre is just the overall lack of cohesivity when it comes to lore. I understand it's because of OOC reasons and boards getting made and archived, but I think we can come up with a cool reason for these things to happen. Not even gonna start on the global continent-disappearing mist though, because I also feel like it's a bit weird and that we can collectively come up with a better IC explanation for appearing/disappearing continents. (Also why not just retcon stuff? After Iselyr got archived, I retconned my character from there into one from Umbra. ) Echoing @Off Topic's point of having people lore build plants and creatures as something like evolutionary cousins rather than summoning them out of thin air would be a really cool step to creating a cool "Valucrean ecosystem." I'm not saying all the creatures have to have mundane roots, but rather mixing mundane concepts with magical augmentation. Or something. Also a while back I was talking with @Lucky about magic echoes that kind of run through the underground, kind of like spells that keep casting/feedback looping onto themselves into eternity in these weird streams. I mean there is a lot of magic being cast in the world, so it could be just tunneling through the world. There's also a place in the Sud'dha Ksetrom of Nich'e that has a sort of supernatural river--similar to various cultural myths about rivers to the afterlife--modeled after this very idea. Also lol hollow world you say. Lots of uh, tunnels n' stuff, right? Coughs. (Re: Terrenus & Genesaris trade, I'm pretty sure @supernal said they were undergoing an armistice? Like trade is okay. Shrugsies. Also yeah, Nich'e is independent from the Terran Empire has its own politics and trading policies with other nations/continents.)

Pain is pain, no matter the magnitude. It's not a contest and it shouldn't be--when you're ready to post, we'll be here to listen.

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