Theme: Mystery, choices, and consequencesAudience: Teens & Young Adults At exactly 3:15 every afternoon, someone left a handwritten note under Desk 17. No one knew who. The first note said: “Don’t trust the person sitting beside you.” Everyone laughed. Until the next day, another appeared. “Tomorrow, someone will lose something important.” The class joked about it. Then Priya lost her…

I flexed my fingers before taking a slow breath. I tried not to look her in the eye, but she was staring at me, daring me to react. Reclined like she was at the kitchen table, front feet of the chair off the ground, I was tempted to hook a foot around the leg and tug it forward. But instead I just breathed, "please don't."

"Please don't what, mister Gray?"

"You know how old I am. My mom named me Gray long before those books came out. She wanted me to grow up to be calm, comforting, and humble," I said, carelessly repeating the words I'd heard most of my childhood.

Sasha quirked an eyebrow up at that, clearly not the response she was looking for. It wasn't a response I was planning on giving either. Who wants to bring up their mom as a defense when they're trying not to get teased? Clearly I hadn't been bullied enough as a kid to learn not to do that. But it seemed luck was in my corner, because Sasha didn't have the cruel glint in the eye of a tween bully eager to jump at fleshly exposed vulnerable flesh they can tear into. She just stared at me.

"She was... uh... she's a pretty firm believer in nominative determinism."

"What?"

"Like, you grow up to be what you're named for. A hunter named Hunter, a butcher named with the last name Carver, a librarian named Booker, that kind of thing."

The change in topic seemed to have caught her interest as she frowned slightly, a clear sign that she'd become more entrenched in thought than normal.

"A taxi driver named Parker?"

"Yeah. That kind of thing."

She scoffed, "That's so dumb."

"Well, my dad's name is Robert and you can guess what he got in trouble for to make her believe in it all."

I watched as she processed that. The way her head hunched down a little and her eyes squinted as she stared into the distance trying to puzzle out what I meant.

"Did he... did he do something to that muppet from Sesame Street?"

"What?!"

"What?"

"He got arrested for theft!"

"Oh. I guess that makes more sense. If he goes by Rob, I mean."

"Of course I meant that? Why was your first thought that my dad cucked Ernie?"

"I don't fucking know. I just kind of forgot theft existed for a moment, I guess?"

I slide my palm down my face and calmed back down. More deep breaths, more relaxing of facial muscles. "I wish I lived in that world in your head."

"What? The world where your dad cucked a muppet?"

So he’s a mercenary who fights with bows and swords, and stealths around and takes enemies out silently when those don’t work

I know nothing of dnd so i was wondering if that’d be a possible to make character in it’s systems

Sure, that's possible! I'm going to keep my answer kind of general since I don't know what version of D&D you want to play, but all of them support this kind of thing.

The most obvious choice for this kind of build would probably be a rogue. They get something called "sneak attack" which does extra damage when you're undetected by your opponent. They don't always get all the weapon proficiencies that you listed, but any rogue can at least use a short sword and a crossbow. And if you aren't picky about race, most versions of D&D give elves automatic proficiency with the bow.

But there are definitely other ways to tackle it!

Ranger would probably be the route I would go. They don't get "sneak attack" damage like rogues do, but they're generally better fighters. And they still get the stealth skill as well as access to magic that can help, especially with things like tracking down enemies. Also, a ranger could have a bird companion that helps with scouting, just like Alexios.

Finally, the fighter class could be a good bet as well. Fighters get access to a variety of abilities that make them good with many weapons. The only downside of fighter is that they typically aren't very good at stealth. However, depending on which version of D&D you are playing, there are definitely customization options you could pick that would get you closer to what you're looking for.