And Thus the Tale of the Stardancer Crew Begins

Well, looks like my prediction that I would have to skip last week's post because of work proved correct. That's a bummer, because I started working on this post last Monday, in hopes that I'd get the post written before bed, edited before/during work, and published at some point last Tuesday. The fact that I missed that post update despite actually putting in the effort to get it done on time hurts a bit, especially after the weekend of the 13th. But I'll get to that in a minute.

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I said last update that I still had a large list of things I didn't get around to writing about before the post got overwhelming. I also said I had intended on continuing with that list this post.

Yeah.... I decided against that.

Most of it was centered on my writing (or... lack thereof, if I'm honest). I was going to talk about Plagg Appreciation Day on Friday the 13th, the first one since November. I was then going to talk about how - minus the plot points I'm coming up with for Scum and Villainy - I haven't written anything in 3 months. Significantly fewer months than when I was in a dry spell leading into the last Plagg Appreciation Day, but still a painfully long time. That would have lead me to talk about the last story I did write, how popular it seems to be, and how that popularity appears to be largely due to MostLovedGirl linking to my story at the end of her story (which had inspired my story in the first place).

I'm still not entirely sure how to take those stats, though. Do I see it as proof that I am a good writer, and I'm only hidden in obscurity because there's such a large flood of stories that people just don't find my work in the first place? Probably. I'm sure all of you fine folks are sitting there screaming at your respective screens that is exactly the case.

Despite that, though, of course my mind made me equally wonder if the only reason the story gets the love it does is because MLG is promoting it, and because it's mostly based on her story. So people only really like it because it's her story still... just... zoomed in for a scene she didn't get into. A little less than a quarter of readers who have left kudos on both Could Your Paradise Also Be Your Hell? and Remember That Time When... (so, the best indication I have that they are readers coming from MLG's story) also left me kudos on my other stories. The number shrinks more if you take out those usernames I recognize as already being repeat readers of mine, and further still once you remove those who only left kudos on one other story other than CYPABYH. Even among those readers that left kudos only on my story, about 32% had either went on to leave kudos on at least one other story, or they were already readers of mine that already had.

Take the group as a whole, and just over a quarter of them - 26% - left me kudos on at least one other story of mine, most of those, though, were usernames I recognized as already had left me those kudos before I published CYPABYH.

In other words, my story didn't seem to get many people to go, "ooo. I have to check out more of her work!" So, if I'm honest, larger than a small part of me still believes that CYPABYH's popularity is very much because of the tie to MLG's story, and not because of its own merit.

I guess I'm stuck in this mindset because, with the rare exception (like, one or two people), no one seems to like my stories enough to suggest them to anyone else in the fandom. (Sorry, that sounds salty to my amazing readers. I promise I'm not hating on any of you or trying to guilt trip you into promoting my work for me. This is a "me" problem. I promise.) See, there are other stories that grab readers more intensely than mine seem to, and so whenever there's those "suggested reads" lists, there's a variety of other stories that pop up, but never mine. My stories - or even just me as an author - never seem to come to mind when someone is creating their "OMG you HAVE to read this story/author's works! It's/they're amazing!" list.

Similarly, I've had friends comment about reviews they've received, or I've seen these types of reviews myself on fanfics I enjoy, in which reviewers remark on how much the story personally affected them. The story saved them when they were in a terrible depression, or it helped them through a rough time in their life, or it's one of the most authentic historical stories they've read, or the story depicts mental health the most realistic, or the concept is the most unique plot, or an update was the greatest unintentional birthday gift they could receive. My stories don't get reviews like those.

People seem to enjoy my work well enough, and I do get the loveliest comments on them. Again, I don't mean to shade any of my readers or the love they HAVE showered on me. It means the world to me, and I routinely reread them to remind myself that my work is indeed enjoyed. I just don't know if any of my stories STICK with my readers. If my stories differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack enough. If I have readers who will reread my stories over and over and over again. If my stories have any sort of staying power.

I've tried backtracking this meme, but I can't find the original post.
If anyone knows where this originated, please let me know.

Yes, I know, I know. I need to remember this meme, keep working hard, and have faith. Don't compare myself to others. Maybe my time to pop just hasn't happened yet. I just need to keep waiting. The hot oil might feel rough, and I may wonder if I'll always stay a shelled kernel, but I have to trust.

It's hard though. Despite reminding myself that perhaps I just haven't "popped" yet, I still wonder if I ever will. Am I destined to be one of those unpopped kernels left at the bottom of the bowl/bag? Will I EVER be able to hold my own - no promotions from an author of a well-loved fanfic - like so many other fanfic writers? Let alone if/when I eventually publish professionally? If I can't build a platform with free stories, how can I be sure that I'll get it once people have to pay for them?

I'm going on a bit of a spiral here - one that missing a blog post update, even when I prepared to have it done ahead of time, doesn't help - which is actually one of the main reasons I decided to scrap the rest of that bulleted list from two weeks ago.

Especially since I "failed" on Friday 13, so talking about my writing right now probably isn't the best idea.

Yes, I know that I'm the only one to look at not posting a new story on the 13th as a failure since there was no true obligation, and readers will appreciate any writing I post, once I do. However, I couldn't help but fall into a funk as the weekend came and went, and there was no new Plagg-centric story for Plagg Appreciation Day.

I started this little fandom tradition 2 years ago, and, until this month, I've hit all 4 Friday 13's since 2019. It's not like people follow me enough for this to ever be an actual fandom event like MariChat May or Love Square Fluff Week or Lukanette June, etc. Still, it would be fun if people did start joining in. And yet the creator of the event can't hit her own deadline of getting a Plagg-themed story done by Friday the 13th? Especially when she had 9 months to plan?

It hurt, to be honest. It still hurts. I know that no one else is mad or disappointed with me missing this deadline, but I'm just super angry with myself and my clogged up inspiration. Especially when I DID think of something, but I just couldn't figure out how to execute it.

Four false starts. FOUR. Within the span of about 72hrs. I started the story four different times; each time getting about a page or page-and-a-half in before realizing it either won't go anywhere or won't involve Plagg nearly as much as I was aiming for. (Yes, they are all saved in case I wanted to use them as jumping off points for other stories later.)

I just couldn't figure it out, and I still can't. I tried scrapping the whole idea I had come up with, since I clearly couldn't figure out how to execute it, but I couldn't think of anything else, even after spending hours looking up writing prompts.

Which is why I tend to not ask for writing prompts, or participate in many fan events like ship weeks. Prompts rarely work at actually inspiring me for a story. I can look at the prompt and go, "huh, that's a neat idea", but it's so painfully rare that they ever actually inspire a story.

So... uh... yeah. That was my week: try to come up with a Plagg-centric story for Friday 13, fail, spend a day flipping through prompts to try to come up with an alternate idea, fail again, spend the weekend depressed because of my "failure." Followed by this past week: try to recover from the weekend by working on this post so it can still go up on Tuesday, fail, figure I can work on it throughout the day Tuesday and just post it late, fail, become mentally exhausted from working every day for 9 days straight, slowly chip away at this post, ACTUALLY publish on my first day off since the 14th, feel a sigh of relief.

Oh, and also Hubby bought me a gift the weekend of the 13th to try to help cheer me up during my funk. Bless this glorious man and his huge heart.

My "cheer [LycoRogue] up" gift from Hubby. ❤
OK ORCHESTRA by AJR

Which brings us to right now, and why I'm switching gears again. I'm trying to put the Plagg Appreciation Day debacle behind me (although, not seeing a new story published in 2020 for that collection will always haunt me), and instead talk about the story I HAVE been able to build. Or, rather, the one I've built a foundation for as others co-wrote the main body of it.

We're moving into fun and happy territory, because it's Scum and Villainy story time!

Last Monday Hubby had to work a closing shift. Normally, we would be able to run a session without a player present, and come up with an excuse as to why their character wasn't involved in that job. That's one of the great things about the Forged in the Dark games. That way you don't have to worry about always having everyone available. Problem is, due to timing, the crew is technically still in the middle of a job, so it would be weird to have Hubby's character Quinton randomly vanish. Also, Hubby got off of work at 9:30pm (21:30), and that is normally smack dab in the middle of our session. It would be disrupting to pause the game so I could pick him up, and then for Quinton to randomly pop in for the remainder of the job (or Hubby to continue to miss out on the session despite now being home).

It just made sense to skip game again, but that also means... *drum roll* I still only have two sessions to tell you beautiful peeps about instead of three! Sadly, even THAT is a lot to tell in an already lengthy post (we did a LOT more than I gave our group credit). So this is going to have to be a multi-parter series. I have a head start already for part 2, plus I'm FINALLY getting back to my usual work schedule. I'm hoping both will help me hit my deadline next week. In the meantime though, we've got that first session to catch you up on.

Buckle up, peeps, because shenanigans ensued almost right out of the gate.

Credit to the Scum and Villainy art team:
Brett Barkley, Tomasso Renieri, Juan Ocha, Michaela DeSacco, and Tazio Bettin

So, quick refresher:

The crew consists of Demarcus (I forgot to have Quarthix spell his last name out for me so I could read his handwriting), who was a mob doctor for the Borniko Syndicate. The players decided that Demarcus already had ownership of the Stardancer when he met up with his crewmates (by way of the Syndicate strongly suggesting he go with them). Despite Demarcus owning the ship, the de facto leader of the crew is Quinton Shrike, a member of a minor noble house. Quinton has the expensive habit of racing in the RIP races: high-octane hovercraft races at the speed of sound. Quinton was invited into the official RIP League, but could only do so with a team. Quinton met up with fellow RIP racer tI'kæl, a Memish princess and high priestess who is pretending she's on a religious pilgrimage so she could experience the rest of the galactic sector. During that meet-up, Quinton asked tI'kæl if she wanted to form a RIP team with him. She gladly agreed, but neither of them had the funds to do so. That's where Demarcus and the Borniko Syndicate come in. Demarcus is charged to show Quinton and tI'kæl the criminal ropes, as it were. The trio now use their services as smugglers to fund their RIP League team.

As the official game starts, the crew has picked up a few jobs offered by their reclusive info broker Magnilda "Maggie" Sanaas. One such job is to meet up with her contact Mino "Quirk" Zer on the crystal planet of Vos (nicknamed "Glimmer," similar to how we've nicknamed Mars "The Red Planet"). The crew are to smuggle some of the crystals off of Vos and deliver them to the Turner Society, who use these valuable crystals as a key component for their drugs (called Haze). Problem is, these crystals are highly valued by the Hegemony, and so Vos is heavily guarded and monitored to prevent any crystal theft.

The other job Maggie had for them was an escort mission. Her friend Ishi is a Xeno (re: non-human; alien) weapons dealer and designer who is in hiding on the night side of the tidal-locked planet of Sonhandra. Ishi has allies within the Maelstrom Pirates, who have a secret haven called The Cove, which is hidden within the in-system nebula the Ashtari Cloud. The Cloud causes standard navigation equipment to act up, making it nigh impossible to navigate within the Cloud without specific equipment the Maelstrom Pirates invented. Hoping this is the safest place to hide while on the lam, Ishi needs an escort to The Cove.

Since Vos and Sonhandra are in the same star system - Holt - and this is the system the crew wanted to start in, they figured it would be fairly easy to do both jobs at the same time. One of the Turner Society's three main headquarters happens to be in the Sonhandra capital of Ugar, and Maggie told the crew that Ishi was hidden just over a kilometer outside of Ugar. Easy peasy. They would pick up the crystals from Quirk on Vos, then head over to Sonhandra to drop them off with the Turner Society before picking up Ishi and heading to the neighboring Rin star system to drop Ishi off in The Cove.

The crew was able to make their way easily enough through Customs on the space station orbiting Vos and took a shuttle down to the crystal planet. Once there, they followed Maggie's instructions in order to meet up with Quirk. After proving they were the crew sent by Maggie for the Turner Society, Quirk handed over the crystals in a container roughly the same size and shape of an Igloo-brand 4qt mini cooler.

The actual case would look more futuristic,
but you get the basic size and function idea here.

Now the crew needed to figure out how to smuggle this container through Customs. They decided to try to find a "fellow tourist" to turn into their patsy. They figured they could stash some illicit drugs on the patsy, and while the 51st Legion was busy detaining the patsy, the crew could sneak through Customs with the box. Quinton also thought to line the top of the crystals with one of his fancy scarves and pile cheap but "suuuper pretty" souvenir crystals on top of the scarf. He hoped that if Customs still tried checking the box while the patsy was being arrested that they'd see the souvenir crystals, get distracted by the commotion (hoping the patsy would put up a big stink about how the drugs didn't belong to them), and hurry Quinton along. The other two would then make sure they didn't have anything illegal on them so they could quickly pass through Customs, and then off they would go.

Quinton purposefully picked the flashiest but cheap crystals he could find. "The more I look like the store keepers swindled me, the better. I want Customs to think I'm some rich idiot." Meanwhile, Demarcus and tI'kæl scouted for their fall guy. Soon enough, they found a man decked out in an overpriced get-up stylized to look like authentic Vosian garb while still horribly missing the mark.

Basically, he looked like a tourist walking through Texas while dressed like Lil Nas X from his "Old Town Road" music video.

Hint: Texans (typically) don't dress like this

This guy was clearly an oblivious elitist, and he was loudly gloating about all the pretty crystals he just bought. While Quinton wanted to LOOK like a guy who would spend 3 Cred (about $30,000) on souvenir crystals, this guy clearly was gullible enough to ACTUALLY spend 3 Cred on this pile of crystals. The elitist was flanked by two hulking bodyguards, but they clearly cared the bare minimum required to be paid: is their boss alive and unharmed physically? Good enough. They didn't care if he was taken advantage of, as long as he had enough money left to keep paying them.

It kept a little schmoozing, but tI'kæl used her status as a Memish princess to get close to the guy and strike up a conversation with him. She talked to him about the beauty of Yuura, the frozen moon of Mem, and convinced him that he just HAD to go check it out. A bit more bullshitting, and tI'kæl convinced the patsy - Mevakor Nagan - that he HAD to see Yuura while it is at its peak in just two days (Mem is also in the Holt star system). Since she's Memish, she could escort him there to show it off.

While tI'kæl was schmoozing Mevakor (whom she nicknamed "Mev"), and convincing him that he desperately wants to leave his original travel plans on Vos and go to Mem within two days, Demarcus and Quinton managed to bump both bodyguards and spill Mev's two duffel bags' worth of crystals. The bodyguards manhandled Demarcus a bit to make sure the two guys weren't threats before Demarcus convinced the guards that the crew was harmless. As Demarcus talked his way out of the bumping, Quinton helped the other guard pick up his master's crystals, and slipped the hidden drugs in to the bags.

Everything in place, they headed to Customs. Quinton lined up to be the first through Customs, that way if things go awry, tI'kæl and Demarcus could drop their drugs in front of Mevakor's guards to draw attention to them and the drugs hidden within their bags. Luckily, Quinton was oozing charisma (and fake naiveté). He annoyed the Customs agent right out the gate by flashing his Starsmiths Guild badge, because that simple move kinda-sorta warned the agent that, as a Guild member, he's fairly untouchable. Quinton then went extremely over-the-top with his excitement over the crystals he just bought from the tourist market, even offering to pick some of the crystals out of the box to show off how pretty they were. The agent did note that the scarf was hiding something below it, but was already exasperated enough by Quinton that he just waved him through, assuming it was more worthless crystals and the scarf was just woven through multiple layers to (needlessly) protect them.

No longer needing a patsy, the crew gladly brought Mevakor and his bodyguards along to use as potential future fall guys, should someone stop their ship prior to delivering the crystals to the Turner Society. TI'kæl even offered to show off her carving ritual to Mev while on their way to Mem - with a quick pitstop to refuel on Sonhandra, of course. Problem was, tI'kæl got so attached to Mevakor, that she became a touch loose-lipped, and let it slip that they were professional smugglers. She didn't let Mev know WHAT they were currently smuggling, but didn't even consider secrecy at the time, especially because nearly everything she told Mev seemed so new and exciting for him. Giddy about being on a real life smugglers' ship (no one in his Bridge Club would ever believe he actually rode with criminals!!!!), he began wandering the ship. He didn't find the crystals, but he did find the trio's tank-sized RIP Machines (the vehicles they race) in the hangar.

Upon arriving in Ugar on Sonhandra, Mev and his two bodyguards broke off to hit up the city's famous auction house while the crew did whatever "maintenance" they needed. That was when the trio headed towards Wildside, a society house on Sonhandra that the Turner Society runs as a secret drug den. Upon arriving, they were quickly blocked by the bouncers there. The crew didn't resemble their typical clientele (although Demarcus always dresses to the nines; Quinton is a minor noble, dressed "fancy"; and tI'kæl is a literal princess). Quinton demanded they speak to a higher-up, and one of the bouncers went to fetch someone. Meanwhile, the crew briefly discussed the possibility of selling the crystals to jeweler Yola Sprekk. She would easily match the Turner Society's price for the crystals. Demarcus quickly shut the idea down though. The Turner Society was one of the largest drug cartels in the sector, and, as a drug connoisseur himself, Demarcus didn't want to piss off the Society by selling their crystals to someone else (he didn't want to be cut off when instead he could maybe win favor and possibly some discounted/free drugs).

While the crew was waiting to be let in, a couple of waifs were wandering the street and pickpocketing others in the crowd. The crew spotted this fairly easily, and Demarcus tried to deter the kids by pulling out his gun. While intimidated enough to avoid the trio, the waifs still picked up a couple of small stones and pelted them at the back of Demarcus' head to try to still act tough. Pissed off now, Demarcus fired off a warning shot to scare the kids. It worked. Sorta. He was too mad, and fired off the warning shot too quickly. He didn't really aim ahead of time, plus he didn't properly prepare his arm to handle the kickback like he normally would. The shot went stray, and ended up going through a storefront window, killing the shopkeeper inside with a clean headshot.

Sonhandra is fairly use to violent and/or criminal behavior, and most things are fair game. However, the local authorities still rushed in to see if this was going to explode into a turf war. Demarcus quickly sidestepped his crewmates and casually started walking away (to try to not draw attention to him). Problem is, he started walking before his coat fully had the gun hidden again (he needed a minute for the gun barrel to cool without burning his coat), and a local spotted it. He was excited by the model and started calling out to Demarcus, wondering where he got the gun and shouting the make and model across the street. Nervous that the authorities were going to find him due to this loud mouth, Demarcus ended up selling the guy the gun (since he seemed to like it so much). It was a decent price, but still massively below market value. Demarcus then proceeded to casually wander Ugar to try to not draw any further attention. In the end, he ended up getting horribly lost.

Back in front of Wildside, the one bouncer that went to fetch a higher-up returned and whispered something to the other guard. With the "trouble maker" Demarus no longer with the other two, they're finally allowed inside and escorted to a sort of waiting lounge; not quite in the society house proper, but off the street at least. There, they are greeted by a minor noble named Vallis. She's long, lanky, and skeletally skinny with drawn skin, but there's also an elegance about her that comes exclusively from the way she does her hair and the clothing and jewelry she wears; much like the stereotypical skeletal supermodel.

Not to call this model out or anything, but think Anja Rubik back during 2012's Fall/Winter Paris Fashion Week.

The Lanvin Ready-To-Wear runway during Paris Fashion Week
at Halle Freyssinet on March 2, 2012 in Paris, France.
(March 1, 2012 - Photo by Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Europe)

Quinton does know of Vallis, and knows that she's worked with his noble friend and pseudo-lord Lang. The two have never personally met, though. Quinton still took point as he let her know that they had a package from Quirk, and showed her the box Quirk gave them (Quinton had left the worthless crystals on the Stardancer). Vallis has a single, exceptionally long and acrylic-like reinforced index nail. She picked up one of the crystals, and ran her nail along the full length. As she did, the crystal hummed and glowed, and tI'kæl sensed the mystical force of The Way resonating around them. Finding her proof that these are genuine - and high quality - Vosian crystals, Vallis became giddy, quickly paid Quinton and tI'kæl, and gleefully whisked the crystals away to a back room somewhere in the society house. As she headed out of the waiting room, Vallis told the duo that they would still have to pay like normal customers, but they were welcome to partake in the society house while there.

They opted to instead find their captain, who was still wandering Ugar somewhere. Actually, somehow, someway, Demarcus wandered OUTSIDE of the city of Ugar and into the desert-like sun side of Sonhandra. Quinton and tI'kæl made it back to the Stardancer, grabbed their land transports, and headed out to try to collect Demarcus from the sun side.

Breaking out of narration, this is the part of the gameplay (e.g. the part of closing out a job) where we sort out XP and complications to lead into the next job. One such complication was that the crew has a job with the Borniko Syndicate that they HAVE to do. The crew also built up 3 Heat in the Holt system, and earned 5 Cred (~$50,000) for the job. Quinton also purchased 2 Volts during some of his downtime while the other 2 spent their downtime training (leveling up character stats).

Before moving on to pick up Ishi, the crew heard of a RIP League race right there on Sonhandra scheduled for later that day, so they signed up. Meanwhile, Mevakor also heard about the RIP race. He knew he saw RIP Machines in the hull of the Stardancer, and was excited to see which team the crew "smuggled" them for, so he had his bodyguards escort him to the track on the day side of the planet.

That is where we're going to stop this week. Next post I'll talk about the RIP race, and maybe talk about the Ishi escort mission that started in our second session (the one where we were also socializing/watching Odin the kitten). We'll see how long describing the race runs me.

Thank you so much for sitting through my whining at the top of the post, and I hope getting to read the Scum and Villainy storyline was a nice palate cleanser. A much more pleasant way to send you back to the rest of your day.

One of these days I'll get back to putting this info on my World Anvil story "wiki" so it won't "clog up" my blog (because someday I'll actually talk about my fiction writing again here.... right?). In the meantime, though, I'll keep letting you fine folks in on the storyline here.

So, catch everyone next week!

Scum and Villainy rule book cover designed by art team:
Brett Barkley, Tomasso Renieri, Juan Ocha,
Michaela DeSacco, and Tazio Bettin
(Cheesy Batman-series-joke edits by LycoRogue)