dragonlizard89

A blackwater river moved with the patience of centuries round the bend where Tanin stood. Beside him rested his strider. Sunbeams glistened on the shallow waters in such a way that the surface was the color of rust close to him, yet an eerie green farther ahead. Tanin’s breath was hushed as he eyed the bend ahead, seeing what he did not want to see. The strider next to him chirped restlessly by rubbing its wings together. “Shh, shh…” said Tanin. He patted its big brown head until it quieted. The water strider’s vocalization was just one noise in the din of wildlife that pressed upon them from all sides. Tanin h

It is a land of baths too hot for me, tatami mats, and stylish girls, all of whom I’d like to talk to, but I lack that great facilitator of human communication – shared language. I’m going to Japan with my two best friends, who don’t really want to sightsee much and don’t like sushi, the most well-known food of Japanese cuisine to Americans. But that’s fine with me. I don’t mind people ridiculing me for going to Japan without tasting sushi, and I don’t need to see every darn bridge, building, or temple that fellow tourists deem important. I’m content with just blending in and seeing how t

In the years prior to the new millennium, in the earlier days of the web, those evocative 90s where the internet was not yet ubiquitous in every home, there was a movement, an art form. It built itself in Yahoo chats, and spread to embedded free chatrooms on a few websites chosen seemingly at random for destiny. It was online roleplaying. It was hopelessly nerdy. It grew out of nerddom. It was nerddom. Out of Dungeons & Dragons, out of BBS and IRC, out of choose-your-own-adventure novels and early textual RPGs known as MUDs… And it was a glorious age. Men and women, the bravest and most creative virtual fighters the world would ever kn