This could be a pretty interesting story.


Getting involved in Ellia's business usually is.





See, Alessa, that's just not nice...


I can see this, actually.


Ooohh! So Asher's getting involved in the Beryl storyline! Neat!


Daneera, you make bad choices.

Well, a little self contained story right there.

So I thought a little random generator would help cheer me up, let's just see what spins out of the ole' machine today...
...****! EVERYONE HIT THE DECK! INCOMING!
Oh sweet god this was right after the last one...

Yes! AND EVEN ANGELS! Nevermind the Skeleton Illusion Snake Assembly-Workers.... I... I honestly can't figure out how to layer all of that.
That's a fight that I feel like would be actually fairly interesting.
I am legitimately at a loss.
Been there, done that.
... yep. That's my cue to call it quits.

And THAT'S why I love this prompt so much! I laughed for a long time over this. The fact that they're illusions means some wizard likely constructed them. He made them look like skeletal snakes, presumably to scare people away from the old, abandoned factory, where legend suggests they once worked.

Actually, working through it, I suspect this was an old Scooby Doo plot...

OR... snake could denote what they are assembling!

"In the dark of the night, The Duchess is woken by a Specter! The Specter explains that she has been chosen to become the last defender of Aliavelli and using the magic of An Æther Vent, she can become the hero known as Magical Girl The Duchess! Everything starts to fall apart though when a rival appears with The Calling Bell and becomes Dark Magical Girl Aamir"

Ow my brain

"Nasperge accidentally sees Chardis of the Dual-Walkers naked."

Ow my brain

"The unthinkable has occurred on Ergamon, home of Truga Jungle, which has caused a phenomenon known as Chaotic Æther. Ellia the Endbringer is trapped there, but she isn't the only one caught in the cataclysm. Now Ellia must grudgingly accept the help of Morgan of Voor , but interrupts a romantic meeting between Vasilias, Lord of Ariva and Zhiran ."

Ow my brain

I want to hug whoever came up with this prompt.

Thank you.

Hug accepted!

Although I should note that this is just my "suspicious" prompt, and the "surprise birthday party" is just one of several possible endings for it. Also, the Nasperge/Beryl combination would also have been random. But I do love when stuff works out that way!

I'm surprised no one has pointed out the wonderful tavern name. The Miniature Samurai... on Kamigawa.

Yeah, that was great.

Actually, I should make a variant of the "army" prompt that ALSO uses a tavern name...

Aaaaaaaand modulated. At least somewhat.

On the same note as Barinellos's "army" prompt:

This IS an excellent tavern name.

I love this army quote. I love that AND EVEN doesn't call mod-mod-race-class, it just calls [creature].

I can't even parse this.

Mel: "The train went right over her! Maybe I should have tied her to the rail..."


Ohhh, dear...


Hit the deck!


Gruff: "Oooh, shiny!"


Ahh. I could see this. There might be a bit of personality clash, but they'd probably get along.


Wow. Astria can REALLY pick her friends, huh?


This should probably be a story, although why Clade would care about Kimberley is beyond me.


...

Depressingly plausible.

"Cara Holis begins traveling with Aria. Together, they attempts to win the heart of Raiker Venn"

No

"Mel Odrum tries to tie Aloise Hartley to the railroad tracks.It does NOT end well for him"

Jeez he even gets beat by Aloise

In fairness to Aloise, she's probably capable of taking care of herself in a wide variety of situations. Hmm, I sort of want to write a series of shorts that feature Aloise dealing with the dangers inherent in exploring the multiverse...

Hm hm hm.

That's quite an idea, actually.

"The multiverse has it out for Aria, as The Shifter and Huinn, Last of the Darkwings catches up to her. Poor Aria now has to get Fisco Vane, the Shark's help."

Yeah good luck convincing Fsco to help you there

"Things have gone poorly, and it seems to be the Eightfold Lotus's darkest hour. But then, suddenly and out of nowhere, Kimberley Talon arrives! She comforts Jinsen, and things start to seem better for him. Together, Jinsen and Kimberley head off to explore Arbagoth."

Huh!

"Beryl, the Heart-Scarred arrives on The Wheel, in the possession of the artifact known as the Amulet of the Planeswalkers. But the artifact is cursed! Can Asher help Beryl before the Amulet of the Planeswalkers overwhelms her?"

The Amulet of the Planeswalkers? Cursed?

"The Duchess wakes up to find she's on on the ancient plane of Equilor. She last remembers being on Helkavin and has no memory of how she got here! Will The Duchess be able to regain those lost memories before The Shifter takes advantage of the situation?"

The Shifter? Taking advantage of THE DUCHESS?????

I take all credit for this idea.

To be clear, I fully support this idea, because I love Aloise stories, and I will take EVERY SINGLE ONE I can get.

But, as much as people tend to think of Aloise as all hugs-and-love, and, by extension, to kind of assume that she's somehow helpless, we have actually seen her do a good job of looking out for herself. For example, she did a pretty fair job of defending herself at the end of "The Hermit's Burden," and, by surrounding herself with friends and allies (even mopey old Fisco Vane, who doesn't normally go in for that whole friendship business), she has also assembled a pretty potent team which she can call upon for support. As I always like to point out, the ability to make friends can be just as powerful as anything else -- even more so, in some ways.