Bailey sat in the void for a long time running dozens of unused Player Character ideas through her head that she'd thought of over the years. The more she thought about it the more she realized she turned most of them into NPCs for her myriad of games, not wanting to waste them.

  “Come on Bails…you gotta have something…” she said to herself. What would be the most fun to mess around with in this coma delusion before she woke up 6 months from now in a hospital bed?

  “Something fun, something silly that I don't have to take seriously for once…”

  Serious… oh. Maybe that was it. Something that takes itself too seriously that it becomes ridiculous. Something that would be the envy of the subboarddit b/iam13andthisisdeep4real.

  Bailey giggled. She was going to go full ‘Grim-dork’.

  With a flash of inspiration, she touched the scroll, and a quill materialized in her hand.

  “A quill? I get this TTRPG is set in ‘Generic Fantasy Medieval Europe’ but come on!” She complained into the void, trying to reach that disembodied voice. “Can't I get like a keyboard or something?”

  >”Please begin filling out your [Character Sheet]”<

  “I don't know what I expected.”

  It wasn't like Bailey didn't know how to use a quill, she was an artist and had experimented with every drawing, writing, and painting tool you can think of. It was the fact that, in a dream of all things, she was going to have to hand write the whole backstory for this character.

  Bailey stretched her hands, getting them ready to write. “Alright then, time to channel my inner 14 year old, and let the emo cringe flow.”

  “Let's see…” she tapped the end of the quill to her chin, “They need a good ‘Edge-Lord’ name… Blade? No, too on the nose. Damian? Cinder? Oh! Silas!” She scribbled the name in the blank.

  “Now for a last name Dark'ness? Wolfhound? VanHelsing? No, I think that's copy written…Van… I like Van… how aboooout…” she wrote ‘Vander’Bludd’.

  “Yeah! There we go! Silas Vander’Bludd. I can practically hear the YuuTube AMV For this guy now…”

  “Okay, name, check, gender? Male. Race?” There were many playable races in Monsters and Labyrinths, Humans, if you're boring, Elves, Half-Elves, Dwarves, Demonlings, Seraphim, Dragonkin, and Catfolk to name a few. The obvious choice for maximum edge would be a Demonling, a humanoid born from a Human and Demon or from a human who has a deal or pact with a demon.

  “Nothing says edge like a demon-spawn,” she smirked as she entered It. “Ok, Age? I'll just put mine,” and she wrote 24. “Archetype? Oof, now here's a hard decision. What's edgey-ier? Thief or Occultist?” She pondered, tapping her quill again.

  Thief's were normally the go-to for characters like this. Dark, broody, living in the shadows, and always having a dead family. However Occultist was a good option as well. Occultists made pacts and deals with demons, gods, fae, and eldritch horrors to get their magic. And what's more edgy than selling your soul for power?

  Bailey wrote ‘Occultist’, “It’ll fit with him being a Demonling, AND I can do magic. If I'm going to have the most lucid dream ever I want to shoot fire balls and lightning.”

  >”Category [Spells] will be autofilled once [Background] category is completed”<

  “What? That’s bullshit! I know what spells I want, I'm not a noob! I've helped like 30 people do this before.”

  >”Category [Mana Points] auto updated to [5] due to chosen [Occultist] [Archetype]”<

  “Now you're intentionally ignoring me.”

  >”Category [Gear] has been autofilled with [Occultist] starting equipment. Items: [Dagger], [Leather Armor], [Camp Equipment- Basic] and [Player Dice]”<

  Bailey rolled her eyes and went to fill in the ‘Sub-Architype’ section but was met with that annoying buzzer noise again from that voice.

  >”Unable to select. This category will autofill once [Background] category is completed”<

  She huffed and continued. The level was already determined, 3, so she skipped to the next one.

  “Alright. Health Points. That's determined by my Archetype and my Physique score, so I guess I need to do my stat points first.”

  Bailey tapped the stats section with the tip of the quill.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  >”All physical and mental stats will be determined by die roll”<

  “I'm rolling for stats? What if I roll super low? This is a DREAM! At least let me use the ‘Standardized Array’! Hell, I'll take ‘Point Buying’!” She argued with the void.

  >”Please use die to determine physical and mental stats”<

  Bailey furrowed her brow. “How? I only have a D20-” she cut herself off. She looked down at her hand that still had the die in it. It was no longer the metal and white 20 sided die, but four 6 sided dice, all the same color. Bailey was stunned for a second trying to figure out how that even happened. She shook her head. There was no logic she needed to look for, it was a dream.

  “I'm gonna assume I'm going to keep the highest 3…” she murmured to herself as she prayed that she got at least a few good rolls. She shook the dice in her hand, the metal hitting each other, making satisfying *clinks*. Bailey crouched close to the ground to let them roll on the floor of the white void… or what she assumed was a floor.

  She let the dice go expecting them to fall onto the ‘ground’, but they didn't. They fell maybe a few inches before hitting something invisible, and rolled along it like it was on a glass table.

  >”Item [Player Dice] is attuned to [Silas Vander’Bludd]”<

  The disembodied voice spoke up as if sensing Bailey's confusion.

  “Ok… but why did the dice not fall?” she asked the void.

  >”Attuned Item [Player Dice] - Purpose: Used during non-automatic system rolls. Attributes: Cannot be taken more than 1 foot away from [Silas Vander’Bludd] during an active roll. One use of [Players Luck] is infused into [Player Dice], can be used once per 24 hour period”<

  “Players Luck?” She asked, she'd never heard that before.

  >”Item attribute [Players Luck] - Purpose: [Silas Vander’Bludd] can use [Players Luck] to re-roll any automatic or non-automatic roll”<

  “Wow. So it's like an extra life line I can use once a day, neat. But how's time gonna flow in this dream? Real world being a vegetable in a hospital bed time or delulu land time? Voice? Hello?”

  The voice said nothing.

  “Oh now you don't wanna talk and give answers?”

  The voice kept quiet.

  “Ugh.”

  Bailey looked at the 4 white metal dice. “A 2, another 2, a 1, yeesh, annnd oh thank God a 6. So if I'm keeping the highest three, they total to 10. Ok… could be worse, at least it's 10. I'd rather have a neutral modifier than a negative.”

  Bailey repeated the action four more times. She got a 13, 12, 14, and 16. She held her breath. One more roll. She'd been lucky so far, but her luck could only last so long. Statistically, she should have rolled at least another low roll by now.

  “Come on, pleeeeease…” she closed her eyes and prayed to every god she could think of as she shook the dice once more and released them.

  Once she heard the clacking stop, she peaked an eye open to look. A 6, 2, 5, and 6, a total of 18.

  “FUCK YEAH!” She whooped loudly, as she threw her hands up in celebration, her cheers echoing and reverberating back around her. “Holy shit…” she breathed out. Besides that 10, she got insanely lucky.

  >”Please assign your rolls to your preferred physical and mental stat”<

  Bailey, who was still sat on the floor, or the assumed floor, stood up and looked at the sheet.

  “If I'm playing an Occultist, my Charm should be my highest…” she tapped the quill to [Charm] and wrote in ‘18’, the stat flashed, and changed to 19.

  >”Stat [Charm] increased by [+1] due to [Demonling] racial bonus”<

  “Nice. And how about Finesse with the next highest, I don't want to be slow or not able to dodge attacks. Then Brains, and Reason, I want to be able to not fumble around. Oh, then Physique, and… hmm. I guess that means Power is getting the 10. Probably won't be too bad, I'm a spell caster, not like I'm hitting things,” she shrugged as she put all the information down.

  >”Category [HP] auto updated. [HP] Is set to [20]”<

  “Not a lot but could be worse. If I picked Mage I'd probably only have 10 or something.”

  She skipped over the categories that the voice had autofilled, and went to the next section, “Religion. That's got to be the thing I make my deal with as an Occultist. A demon would work well, it fits me playing a Demonling. Hmm, hey voice? I'm assuming you're like… the GM, what's my options for Demons I can make a pact with?”

  Silence.

  “Hey! Voice! You really love picking and choosing when you give me information don't you? … I'm arguing with the voice in my head…”

  “Fine,” Bailey said, “I'll make one up, any you'll just have to roll with it voice, GM…. thing.”

  Bailey sucked at making up names for things, NPCs, countries, cities, everything. Once a player asked her what the name of a random goblin they encountered was. Thinking they would just kill it and move on, she didn't prepare anything. She fumbled around, and just said a few random letter combinations. His name ended up being Smee’Guk and the party loved him. They took that goblin with them the rest of the campaign, all 34 sessions. It felt good killing him off in the last battle, really tore that party up and raised the emotional stakes.

  “Ok then… let just ‘Smee'Guk’ this name. What makes a cool demon name? It's gotta have an ‘X’ in it… Xerox… no wait, that's a thing already… Xumir… No, that sounds like ‘Zoomer’. Damn. Uhh… Xerius? Ooh, yeah. That's good.”

  She scanned the next category, Background, “Hmm I'm gonna do that last.” She skipped to the last section, Appearance.

  She looked at the quill and then to the section, “GM? Can I draw my character?”

  >”Drawn character appearance will be accepted”<

  “Yesss, I can put that art degree to work. Take that mom.”

  Bailey, using the quill, drew in the most blank spot on the sheet. She found herself wishing she had any more colors than the purplish black ink and the white of the paper, but she made it work. After a few minutes she drew a man with white hair, dark scalar, purple eyes, a swirling purple curse mark over His left eye and some of his face that went down his neck and left arm. She placed a tattoo like a crescent moon on his forehead, some edgy piercings on his ears and lip. Bailey gave him a decent build, nothing too muscular or tall, his power was only 10 after all, as well as a tail. Can't have a Demonling without a demon tail. Finally she gave him robes and light leather to wear, and drew that same crescent moon on the front of his robes.

  Bailey couldn't place why she put those moons on him. She knew why she did everything else, it all made sense based on his Race, Archetype, and what she planned for the back story… but that moon… she felt almost compelled to make it…

  She scoffed at herself. “Compelled? Come on Bails.” She shook her head.

  >”[Appearance] as been autofilled based on provided depiction”<

  “And finally, backstory time,” she said. “Let's see. Gotta have a dead family, that's always a standard for edgy characters,” Bailey began writing. “Oh and let's say he died but came back, then he can be all emo about death… give him one alive family member so we have reason to explore his backstory in the plot… and how about he's going a little crazy because of his Occultist deal, give him A ‘ticking clock’.” She finished writing and had about three paragraphs.

  >”Category [Sub-Archetype] autofilled to [Cursed One] based on information in [Background]”<

  >”Category [Morality] autofilled to [Neutral] based on information in [Background]”<

  >”Category [Goal] autofilled based on information in [Background]”<

  >”Category [Spells] autofilled based on information in [Background]. [Spells]: [Flame Shot], [Volt Touch], [Enhance Sight], and [Second Chance] have been added”<

  “Ok, the fire spell I get him having based on this backstory, but Volt Touch?” She wondered out loud. As she thought more on the spell, she swore she could feel that tingling feeling in her body again. The buzz of what she felt just before the lightning hit her. She felt a shiver roll through her body at the memory, and she tried to shake it out of her mind.

  “It's… probably just my brain processing what happened, giving me that spell,” she said as she swallowed and took a deep breath, steadying herself once again, though she felt her fingers trembling slightly still. She shook them too, getting the tingle out of them.

  >”[Character Sheet] has been completed. Would you like to accept this [Character]? Once accepted, you may not change the [Character Sheet] directly unless prompted”<

  “It's as good as I can make him,” she said with a satisfied smile, her hands on her hips as she looked over the sheet. “So, what now, coma dream? Is a table and chairs going to appear with a battle map? Can I request pizza and soda too, GM voice? I hope it's Dr. Pepp-” Bailey cut herself off.

  The large character sheet rolled up into a tight scroll, and a bright purple light flashed out of it, almost blinding.

  “Shit!” She exclaimed as she quickly shut her eyes and put up her hands to block out the light. After a few seconds the blinding purple light faded, and Bailey hesitantly lowered her hands and peaked open an eye. She yelped, and stumbled back at what she saw.

  Floating maybe an inch off the void’s ‘floor’ was a man with his eyes closed. Bailey knew instantly who he was. White hair, gray-purple skin, a swirling curse mark on his left side of his face.

  “...Silas…?”