OK, I’m going to be completely straight with you. I forgotten I’d been working on this series. It happens. Best laid plans and life gets in the way and all that. LOL

Recently, the previous posts (Post 1, Post 2) have seen an increase in traffic, so I thought I’d share a few other stories. Before I do, let me restate their purpose. For a gaming and whiskey weekend, I’d 3D printed characters for my friends to paint. To serve as inspiration for their characters, I wrote some quick backstories that they could mix n match as they desired. More info can be found here: Prologue: Stories for Whiskey Weekend.

Now, let’s meet Molli and Noe (painting by Whiskey Weekend guys).

Molli McGillman sighed. She stopped her nomad’s journey and studied the young person’s face. Another death. Perhaps, this is the one I can prevent.

One year ago, Molli had taken a strange path through the woods and fallen into a time paradox. Of course, she wouldn’t have put it into those words, and she was barely aware anything had happened. The next day, she came upon a drowned man on the riverbank. Making her way upstream, she heard cries ahead. There struggling in the water, though she told herself it was a different person, was the man whose body she’d seen. A few hours later, she saw him a third time as he crossed the river on slippery rocks.

Each time, she dismissed it as an odd coincidence or a muddled memory. And yet, as her day came to an end and she cooked a meal within a small grove, the man came to her with an offer to trade some food for a spot at her fire. He was on his way to the river. With a slow nod, she accepted his company, though she could only stare disbelievingly at him across the fire. He eventually left, seemingly uncomfortable beneath her gaze. Now, five years and a hundred unpreventable tragedies later, Molli hoped this person would be the one who finally let her save him.

Molli’s story is based on an old idea I’ve been kicking around for years. The difficulty in telling it had prevented me from starting, but in this format, I just had to give people a taste of the concept.

Noe Shenks was exhausted. He’d been standing in place for an hour after finally turning invisible again. And just in time, too! His pursuers had been hot on his heels, though whether they were human or those something elses, Noe still wasn’t sure. They hadn’t passed close enough to tell. They looked human, but there was something off about their movements.

As he relaxed, he practically laughed about his luck. He often thought he was invisible, but that was a dirty trick his brain played. And then sometimes it was really real! He could completely disappear!

The most annoying part was that, to his own eyes, he always looked the same, visible or invisible. Fortunately, the plate glass window he’d passed had not reflected his image. And so he’d stopped, praying that it wouldn’t wear off while those things were near. That would have been embarrassing, though perhaps not as embarrassing as the times when he thought he was invisible, but it was just his messed up brain playing with him.

A shuffling down the street caught his ear and Noe whirled around, looking for a reflective surface. He considered fleeing, but he felt like he was still invisible. Hopefully.

This character’s name was one of the few that was a play on words: “No thanks”. It’s probably too subtle, and a bit silly, but that lines up with his, ahem, ability. He could just be a crazy guy, too. That’s up to the person who uses the backstory (or the reader/participants).

Anyway, those are two more stories that I whipped up. I had fun doing it, and my friends had fun reading through them, choosing characters, and painting them. That’s more than we can often ask from the things we create.

Good look with your own creations!

Mike

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