Timidbirb

AITA - Drow Posting.

I decided it was about time to update the tattoo design to showcase how I've ended up drawing it, and what I think the specific design of it means in the context of the setting.

Attached notes - This is all headcanon

How comfortable is your OC in their skin? Do they like who they are? What would they want to change about themself?

Physically, she's very comfortable. She's never had cause to not be. Personality wise - She definitely wishes she was more dignified and patient. You know, ✨proper✨. And definitely wishes she could be more ruthless.

15. What is your OC's fatal flaw?

funny answer: too horny to function sometimes.

serious answer: compassion. it's both a positive attribute and a flaw, because in her background and line of work, flinching could mean death :))

46. Does your OC carry any guilt with them?

Where was your OC born, and where did they grow up?

How does your OC remember their childhood? Is this an accurate reflection of what their childhood was actually like?

If your OC could revisit their childhood, what would they want to change about it, if anything at all?

Describe three of the most important photographs your OC owns.

What is your OC's gender identity and sexual orientation? Is this also what they identify as in canon, or are they not (fully) aware?

How comfortable is your OC in their skin? Do they like who they are? What would they want to change about themself?

What is your OC's occupation?

What does your OC's family look like?

Describe a mundane day in your OC's life.

Does your OC have any physical scars? What is the story behind them?

What does your OC carry around in their pockets? What about their bag?

What is the worst thing that has happened to your OC? How has it affected their behavior, their health, and their life in general?

What is something your OC does (to others) that they would not like if others did to them? Are they aware that they do this?

Does your OC hold grudges? How good are they at letting things go? Do they believe in second chances?

What is your OC's fatal flaw?

Is there anyone your OC has lost contact with? What happened?

What are some of your OC's coping mechanisms during stressful or overwhelming periods in their life?

What are your OC's bad habits?

How does your OC handle preparing for and initiating a difficult conversation? How does the conversation itself go?

How quick is your OC to shift blame? Do they own up to their mistakes, or are they prone to start pointing fingers at others?

How does your OC handle criticism?

How good is your OC at apologizing, if they do this at all?

What is your OC like when they're angry?

What is your OC like when they're upset?

What is your OC's deepest desire? Would they ever ask for this?

How quickly does your OC reach their breaking point? What are they like when this point has been reached?

What are some assumptions others make about your OC? Are any of them true?

What does your OC think others are saying about them behind their back? Is any of this true?

What are three traits your OC has that can both have positive as well as negative qualities?

How paranoid is your OC? How does this affect their daily life?

Are there any places or people your OC is avoiding?

How does your OC handle rejection?

How does your OC handle jealousy?

What would be some of the signs your OC is starting to push people away?

If your OC had to kill someone, how would they do it? If killing is a near-daily occurrence to them, what is their preferred method?

Does your OC believe they deserve it when bad things happen to them?

What is the most common feeling or emotion in your OC's life?

What is the most recurring theme in your OC's nightmares?

What is your OC's pain tolerance like? What is the worst pain they have ever felt?

What is your OC afraid of?

Has your OC ever hurt someone, either physically or verbally?

How easily influenced by others is your OC?

What are common things your OC worries about?

Do others consider your OC to be scary or intimidating?

Does your OC keep their promises? Have they ever broken one before?

Does your OC carry any guilt with them?

If your OC had to pick a new identity and skip town, what would they come up with? Where would they go?

What would your OC do if they knew that this was their last day alive?

Does your OC fear death?

🥺 questions about my boy time.

13. What is something your OC does (to others) that they would not like if others did to them? Are they aware that they do this?

Oh lmao. Me hitting my character with a hypocrite beam and laughing.

So yeah. Thing 1: he knows how to read most people and what troubles them, and he had to learn to use that and how to navigate around their wishes and his goals (survival habit №24073279). Nowadays he uses this to help? He sees that a party member is going through something and he goes to talk and maybe give some advices, hoping to, well, help. The trick here: he does not realize that he can use his own advices, and he himself does not follow those.

"You should probably not go far away from the group alone now that you are being hunted by devils", said to a party member. Five seconds later Ristel is stealthing alone somewhere, finds an enemy layer, goes in, goes out, without telling the party. Great job. Or, "you have people around you who care for you and have the experience you are looking for.". (He never uses this). "Yes, working in a trusted group does wonders." "The society that functions on communication, mutual assistance and cooperation, and where people can rely on others, is better". (he doesn't think he deserves this). Also jumps to protect others without thinking, and without expecting said protection back.

He had a conversation with the sea elf girl regarding one of his "going away alone" moments and did not understand she actually meant him, and not a random hypothetical situation.

He can notice when somebody is giving HIM advices without following them themselves (and be all 😑 about that), but not the other way around. My little hypocrite.

Thing 2: he loves Knowing Things. He is a nosy bitch. His perception (read: paranoia) is insane enough that he can hear party (and others) conversations happening around him, and he tends to listen to those without letting people know. This is also a survival habit, obviously, he needed to Know to keep himself alive. Still. This one, he knows, and would be pissed if the tables ever turned. WHY are you listening to his secrets. Those are not yours.

Thing 3: he sometimes refers to inexperienced or naive acquaintances as "kids" in his head (never says it out loud). Tends to think of his sun elf party member as one, despite their age gap being only 5 years. Doesn't really understand that it could anger others, would be angry himself. He's not a kid, he never even had a chance to be one!

17. What are some of your OC's coping mechanisms during stressful or overwhelming periods in their life?

His line of thought is. Wtf even are coping mechanisms. Those do not exist, just ignore everything that's been deeply bothering you and things will be so very fine. Just put things under a mental rug, and keep going and focus on the job! You're fine!! Or go hide somewhere until you can control yourself again so that nobody sees you in a vulnerable state, or they will for sure think you a nuisance and weak and not worth dealing with! Because obviously he isn't. People will Get you and you can't let them.

Yeah he's. He doesn't really have any good ones to share with the class. He pushes down every single feeling because he has to deal with the stressful situation ahead, and if that makes him look unflippable, well. he's aiming for that exact effect. It's another survival habit of his, can't show blood around sharks (= menzo nobility spiders). And when he did show something vulnerable (both around wifey and his lolthite boyfriend), it inevitably was used against him, so. Nah he's fine.

This, of course, contradicts with his belief that people should be able to open up around their trusted ones, should not go through traumatic situations alone. It's just that... not him. But he'll be there for someone if they need it.

6. How comfortable is your OC in their skin? Do they like who they are? What would they want to change about themself?

20. How quick is your OC to shift blame? Do they own up to their mistakes, or are they prone to start pointing fingers at others?

35. If your OC had to kill someone, how would they do it? If killing is a near-daily occurrence to them, what is their preferred method?

Please and thank you!

Ahhh! Another one! YAY. Hi and thanks :з

6. How comfortable is your OC in their skin? Do they like who they are? What would they want to change about themself?

He... hm. Had to think a bit. He was comfortable with who he was and what he could do with it, it's the lolthite societal structure around him that gave him trouble and disgust. Not anymore, though, because currently his perception of self is pretty derogatory. Not pretty anymore, less collected anymore, lost his metaphorical mask and is scrambling to put it back together so it can be used as easily as before, mental walls torn down. He also considers himself a failure and traitor for getting caught and after a while, for being unable to keep wifey from tearing all info directly from his mind, hence getting the entire vhaeraunite cell he was working with killed. And obviously he doesn't think he's worth powers Vhaeraun gave him when he escaped.

He liked who he was, and after going through significant changes he is now trying to just. live with the differences and changes. Kinda difficult to do so on his own and with close to zero mechanisms, but he'll manage! He is fine!

He is very uncertain if he even wants to change something again, like get rid of scars: see, he wanted to skip town and leave Menzo and find other 'raunites, because the place was really really burning him inside out, and he was working towards that, but. he failed. got caught instead. Changes happened but so very much not in a way he planned them to, and he's a bit uhh. Afraid? Maybe? Uncertain. What if he's just unlucky. What if he deserves to stay the same, he's a failure after all?

He's still, however, pretty comfortable with being a drow, and a male drow at that. Extremely comfortable with being a vhaeraunite. He likes his stupid god and his goals and that he could argue back and be heard and all the lil 'raunites he's ever worked with.

20. How quick is your OC to shift blame? Do they own up to their mistakes, or are they prone to start pointing fingers at others?

If we are talking menzo timeline Ristel: yes, shifting blame was just another weapon to survive. Learning to lie good included learning howbto set people up. He didn't really think much of it, but despite rarely starting shit first, he was taught to not hesitate to answer a swing at him. There's also this tiny fact that he was taught from a young age that he is generally to blame for his every failure because of who he was born... just Not Good Enough, you know. So why not make others also feel not good enough, huh!

However. He IS the kind of person who would readily admit his mistakes, and then add a few others' to his own pile. Line of thought: well, he decided to do certain actions that lead to those mistakes, so he should be ready to own up to them. Taking responsibility is also perfectly fine with him, even if that means more mistakes. Stubborn enough to go all "my job, my responsibility, therefore, my fault", etc.

35. If your OC had to kill someone, how would they do it? If killing is a near-daily occurrence to them, what is their preferred method?

His preferred method is the one where nobody is left aware. Quick, out-of-stealth-and-back-again, and very fast. Which is sometimes difficult to execute during a battle, so he's also fine standing in melee range and taking hits (or not. looks at his stats.) and perform a fast throat slash/cut at arteries/target either blood vessels or vulnerable body parts to make sure enemy bleeds fast enough and is no longer a problem.

While he's generally not someone who actually enjoys dealing pain and hurting others in a fight, it goes out of the window the moment his enemies are deliberately getting under his skin (see: domains of dread type of shit. that fucking fallen angel.), or are lolthite priestesses, or insult his god, or like. All that. That's when he's playing cat and mouse, and in hurting either with words or weapons he goes all in. His presence in a fight switches from joking and ragebaiting people to harsh, sharp insults, picking at every single insecurity, every single mistake he notices and tearing it into a gashing wound.

26 How quickly does your OC reach their breaking point? What are they like when this point has been reached?

40 What is your OC afraid of?

Ahhh!! thanks!! I don't talk about my other ocs not because I don't love them, but because my drow parasite is taking the entirety of my brain. So of course it's the him.

26. NOT fast. He's pretty patient, and used to keep his emotions and feelings down down down under mental rug and 1 million walls, as well as straight up lying to himself. He'd rather wait his outbursts somewhere private and emerge in his charming-smiling-totally-okay persona, or not have them at all.

If he does reach a certain point (and let's just say. In our game it took two domains of dread right after 1 year of captivity to even get him there) he becomes evasive, distances himself completely, both emotionally and physically - with people he doesn't consider "friend-ish". However, if that's someone who seems familiar somehow, they get the weird privilege of anger: as in, he trusts you enough to snap at you. To tell at least a small part of what's been bothering him, in angry, very much deliberate getting-under-skin phrases. (Despite the fact that he often communicates with people by being an annoyance, he doesn't do the "hurt deliberately" on purpose.)

And then he realizes he'd fucked up and finds words for an apology.

40. If we're talking deep fears: wifey! Quite obvious, this one. Pretty much the only person he's actually terrified of. Two domains of dread could NOT hold a candle to one mortal drow girl🥰 Despite being dead she keeps appearing in his dreams and is in almost his memories... no getting her out easily. Getting drider-fied ties here with her because this is what he was supposed to end up, this is what the End was for him, in wifey's cell, he was supposed to be a Lesson and be Turned willingly back to Lolth and into Lyssa's possession.

Alsooooo there's this (genuinely out of nowhere) fear of Vhaeraun refusing him as a follower. Like. Ristel doesn't think he deserves the powers he's getting, and he knows he would still remain loyal and help the cause, IF, there's simply no other option for him. But he might just. stop functioning for a while.

Other than that, not a lot of things that can actually really scare him. Losing someone he loves? Something precious to him? Being left alone? Nah, he's used to that.

There never was a skeleton.

Seems like they can grow “elaborate” things.

Forgotten Realms Player’s Guide 4e page 9

no longer proper “facial hair” now “tufts”