That felt good.
What also felt good was that I did a fair amount of Red Hood Rider work today, even if just random trivia. For one of Ruby's birthdays in the story, Sally crafts for her a gift: a Yggdrasil Recurved Longbow. As in, a very large bow, recurved, formed from a piece of the Yggdrasil tree. The arrows' shafts also have that. They have phoenix feather fletching, which essentially means every time an arrow is shot, another one appears in the quiver in its place, giving a limitless supply of arrows, each of which has an arrowhead that is from a different mythological/powerful metal.
At the same time, she receives a quiver that's Hydra leather, and also Nemean leather gloves to replace her own. The bow is stringed from the fabric of life itself. Embedded within both the quiver and the bow are akashic runes: in this case, it allows the bow/quiver to 'remember' positions they are supposed to be in, allowing for a unique sort of pocket dimension, where the weapon is summoned when certain conditions would be fulfilled.
Namely, were Angel Wings ever to actually somehow shut down, automatically the bow would come to Ruby's aid. While not something which really would get used in combat, it is a rather excellent gift (and something incredibly hard even for the rider of earth to make): whereas Angel Wings is basically the ultimate magical bow, Sally crafted this to essentially be the ultimate non-magical bow. (As in, it works off of biology rather than magic. I mean. Supernatural creature biology, between the hydra quiver that regenerates damage, and the phoenix feathers which replace lost arrows. But it's still physical, as in, something which would not be shut down by ANY form of anti-magic because they're explicitly not magical items.)
I also developed a cast bonding activity: the Ruby Gang as a whole at some point starts playing "Final Dungeons: Fantasy Dragons Edition", a tabletop roleplaying game. (Which is, ah. Taking some...rather obvious cues from a couple of totally-nameless sources. But just a couple. Really.)
Ruby creates a Dhamphir Ranger.
Sally settles for a Human Cleric.
Gary, a Human Paladin.
Hannah, an Elf White Mage.
D.D., a (female) Dwarf Black Mage.
Whitney, a Dragonkin (half-dragon) Red Mage.
Vili, a Human Rogue.
Amy, a Dhamphir Martial Artist.
Herald, a Human Fighter.
With Dale as their Dungeon Master.
When they first create their characters, he is not amused. "What's the point if you're just going to be something you already are?!?" (Well Hannah's not an Elf but she has a lot of quirks; D.D. is not a Dwarf but she is the shortest member of the cast; Whitney isn't a dragon, but her super form is a frost dragon, so they're not quite being themselves but are pretty remarkably close.)
The best answer that he can get?
"...Practice?"
And to be fair.
I actually have established there's some in-universe logic to this. The base powers of a rider never change, not even for the elemental riders. But elemental riders in particular can develop new abilities within the constraints of their established powers.
And a roleplaying game would actually be legitimate practice: create a character reasonably close to your real-life powers, and seeing what they face, what they're up against, and what powers they can gain actually serves as...good practice for creating new powers.
I do quite like the idea of having something that basically the whole Ruby Gang would be involved in, rather than just the majority of members, as in the case of their band.
...And speaking of bands, that's actually a rather convenient segue into my next topic! (I swear I didn't plan that.) Specifically, I wrote a full song today. The song isn't quite to the tune of any existing song, but I'll admit it takes some obvious cues and is largely inspired by the Linkin Park song, Somewhere I Belong.
I didn't get the music written, but I did get the lyrics. They go like this:
I started obscure,
With a message pure,
Dreamed of making it,
Of something so big.
It took sacrifice,
Half of my life,
Many times I failed,
Yet I never bailed.
I'm here at last,
With long days past,
I broke the mold,
Got into the fold.
Yet at what cost;
Something was lost.
I sound the same,
My presence will fade.
I'm a one-hit wonder,
With five minutes of fame,
I'm a one-hit wonder,
In the spotlight one day.
Caught everyone's attention,
Got plenty to say,
Lost in presentation,
All my efforts in vain.
The people did flock,
And now they mock.
What did I have,
Why do they laugh?
They call me fool,
Call me a tool,
Everything I make,
Now they call lame.
I had the magic,
Now I lack it,
Where did it go,
How can I know?
What happened to me,
What did they see,
I had some game,
Now I don't play.
I'm a one-hit wonder,
With five minutes of fame,
I'm a one-hit wonder,
In the spotlight one day.
Caught everyone's attention,
Got plenty to say,
Lost in presentation,
All my efforts in vain.
I'm a one-hit wonder,
With five minutes of fame,
I'm a one-hit wonder,
In the spotlight one day.
Caught everyone's attention,
Got plenty to say,
Lost in presentation,
All my efforts in vain.
One note,
I say.
And float
Not okay.
I'm a one-hit wonder,
With five minutes of fame,
I'm a one-hit wonder,
In the spotlight one day.
Caught everyone's attention,
Got plenty to say,
Lost in presentation,
All my efforts in vain.
I'm a one-hit wonder,
With five minutes of fame,
I'm a one-hit wonder,
In the spotlight one day.
Caught everyone's attention,
Got plenty to say,
Lost in presentation,
All my efforts in vain...
...If you couldn't tell. I named the song "One-hit Wonder".
Ironically enough it's a pretty catchy tune in my head.
So I've been pretty busy today. Typical Sunday affair, I suppose.