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Co-Host Love Letter: Dustin

February 26, 2019 Kay O'Connor Blog
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So I get to kind of be the odd one out on some of these. I live up in Portland an everyone else lives in Northern California, so I don’t get to spend much time with them. I haven’t even met Angel or Jess in person, and it wasn’t until a couple months ago that I met Abbie. She and Dustin came up for my birthday ♡ but I have yet to get to hug Jess and Angel despite how much I’d love to. So for me, much or our friendships come from wonderful conversations and just getting to know each other through gameplay. So here we go my cast love letters:
Text reading Dustin

Dustin. The mastermind behind all of this. Down to the original game, Dustin is who brought us all together. He’s been our DM in both games, and without him, we wouldn’t even be here. He is the guy that put together a PowerPoint and charts to convince us to do this. He’s the one who built the website and did the majority of the research. He is basically the backbone and brain that got us to this point. Anytime I have a question Dustin is the guy with the answer. We give him a hard time and call him Game Dad, but despite it not being his favorite thing, I hope he knows it’s out of love that he has been given such a title. Seriously, guys, you should hear the unedited recordings, it’s chaos. If it were up to Jess and I it would be bullshitting 24/7, spewing stories about our stupid cats, and talking about anime. Angel wouldn’t try to stop us, and Abbie would join in because she’s just as chaotic. Dustin is who keeps us organized and on track. It’s seriously like herding cats. I work in mental health with children, and I still can’t fathom how he does it.

Dustin is hands down the most generous guy I know. He drove up with Abbie for my birthday and gave me the BIGGEST bright pink rainbow cake I have ever seen from a vegan bakery because he loves me that much. I just can’t even with that. I still tell people about that, and it was months ago. He’s come up to see me in Portland several times and always makes a point of reaching out and just trying to be the best friend he can be. Which is just crazy to me because I can be such a grumpy butt. Honestly y’all it’s a miracle the group as a whole hasn’t thrown me to the wolves yet. Playing with Dustin is both wonderful and terrible. Being the DM means he creates an amazing world for us to run around in, but it also means he gets to try to kill us ALL THE TIME. I don’t even know how many times he’s dropped us below zero at this point, but it’s a lot. That being said, I can’t even imagine how many hours he spends putting all this stuff together. Not even just the time he spends planning the campaign itself, but also working on accents, putting together maps for roll20, figuring out how to fit our intricate backstories that we made into the adventure path. You guys don’t even want to know how much time he spends editing the podcast itself. Just, damn dude. I remember the first time I met Dustin. I had just gotten together with my partner Shannon and we pulled into a gas station in Chico, CA. There was Dustin in his mini cooper getting gas. Shannon introduced me and he hugged me super hard and lifted me off my feet. It was probably the warmest introduction I’ve ever gotten from anyone. He’s got such a good heart and I’m proud to call him my friend. ♡

Co-Host Love Letter: Jess

February 23, 2019 Kay O'Connor Blog
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So I get to kind of be the odd one out on some of these. I live up in Portland an everyone else lives in Northern California, so I don’t get to spend much time with them. I haven’t even met Angel or Jess in person, and it wasn’t until a couple months ago that I met Abbie. She and Dustin came up for my birthday ♡ but I have yet to get to hug Jess and Angel despite how much I’d love to. So for me, much or our friendships come from wonderful conversations and just getting to know each other through gameplay. So here we go my cast love letters:

Jess

Jess is the player I strive to be one day. She is almost always the one that calls out the mistakes if there is one, even if it’s her own, and just totally owns it. I recently listened back from the beginning to where we are now, and let me tell you how big of a difference it has made to have Jess in the game with us. She adds an element I didn’t know we needed, and then BAM there she was, and she was everything. We interviewed a few people to bring on as an additional player when we realized we were going to need the help. She was the one, no contest. I remember Dustin and I doing the interview and Abbie came in late. We were worried that whoever we chose would be drowned out by how obnoxious Abbie and I can be, but girl held her own. She wasn’t even phased and has just been an absolute joy to play with.

We all had to get to know Jess and figure her out mainly through gameplay, but as some people know I aggressively friend people, so I made a goal to befriend our resident hermit (Jess). I can only hope that she knows that we are friends now and she doesn’t really get a choice in the matter (sorry not sorry Jess). I hope in the very near future I will get a chance to see her in person and make up for the months of hugs that she has missed out on.

Don’t even get me started on Menet. If Menet miraculously jumped out of a portal into our world, I would drop everything and hop into her big strong arms never to be seen again. Menet is the kind of character that is made of so many layers, and I’m always ecstatic when we find out something new. Jess picked the perfect voice for her, and it’s all just so fabulous. I basically play constantly swooning over Menet. It’s fine.

One of my favorite things about Jess is that when we are playing, I can almost always rely on her to laugh at the same dumb stuff that I do. Sometimes we will be playing, and I’m stifling laughter and I look up, and Jess is too, which then turns into both of us bursting out laughing because we have not an ounce of self-control between the two of us. She is such a blessing, and I am so glad I have someone to talk to about magical girls and gay trash.

I don’t even know what I did before she joined us. Nothing nearly as funny, that’s what. ♡

#worldstraveler Giveaway

February 20, 2019 Dustin Alexander Blog

Co-Host Love Letter: Angel

February 14, 2019 Kay O'Connor Blog
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So I get to kind of be the odd one out on some of these. I live up in Portland an everyone else lives in Northern California, so I don’t get to spend much time with them. I haven’t even met Angel or Jess in person, and it wasn’t until a couple months ago that I met Abbie. She and Dustin came up for my birthday ♡ but I have yet to get to hug Jess and Angel despite how much I’d love to. So for me, much or our friendships come from wonderful conversations and just getting to know each other through gameplay. So here we go my cast love letters:

Angel

Angel is probably one of the most adultiest adults I know. He has his life so together, and just.. dude what is that even like? How does one get to that point? Who knows? Apparently, Angel does though. He is also probably one of the most thoughtful adults I know as well. It’s just a bunch of small things that compound into something so much greater over time. I had a death in the family recently and he sent up a card, which is one of my favorite things. I love getting mail and I wish that was a medium of communication that wasn’t slowly dying, so it touched my heart perhaps a bit more than others. The small things he does in game where he takes care of everyone isn’t unique to Abraxas, but is just a part of who Angel is.

He is just an encyclopedia of pathfinder knowledge. When I was trying to figure out how to make Jim a reality, he sat down and researched how we could make him. He sent me a huge rundown of options and explained how they worked and which one he thought would be best. Then presented me with all the information so I could make an educated decision all on my own. So you guys can thank Angel for Jim just FYI because I don’t know if I would have figured out his mechanics without him.

Something funny that I don’t think I’ve ever expressed to anyone in the group was that I didn’t actually know Angel was gay for probably at least the first few months of us playing our original campaign that started this whole endeavor. I seriously had no idea. He broke my gaydar which I normally take a lot of pride in. I of course blame this entirely on never having met him in person and relying entirely on just his face and voice on roll20 about twice a month for those first few months. Primarily because I’m too proud to admit that I was not gay enough to notice.

I don’t think I have to say it, because listening in I’m sure you all know, he’s also just a joy to play with. He adds such a unique element to the story and Abraxas’ voice is just too perfect. I also applaud him on taking story driven feats, it’s made Abraxas feel so much more real, and I love that so much.

In short, Angel is amazing. You all should be huge fans of his because in and out of game I cherish him and I hope he knows that ♡

Co-Host Love Letter: Abbie

February 8, 2019 Kay O'Connor Blog
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So I get to kind of be the odd one out on some of these. I live up in Portland an everyone else lives in Northern California, so I don’t get to spend much time with them. I haven’t even met Angel or Jess in person, and it wasn’t until a couple months ago that I met Abbie. She and Dustin came up for my birthday ♡ but I have yet to get to hug Jess and Angel despite how much I’d love to. So for me, much or our friendships come from wonderful conversations and just getting to know each other through gameplay. So here we go my cast love letters:

Abbie

Abbie is my level 2 girl crush (if you need a reference to this link: here). She is such a majestic human, and I spend probably too much time and resources trying to get her to move to Portland, just so I can bother her constantly.1 That is what it’s like to be my friend ladies and gentlemen. I am extra. When Abbie was up here for my birthday this year she was like existing next to a ray of sunshine. She is so thoughtful, kind, and just so snuggly and cuddly.2 It was such a wonderful gift just having her up here. It was so much fun hanging out with her and Dustin, and the memories are some I will cherish forever.

Abbie’s ability to just shift into her character for this campaign is kind of awe-inspiring. Pippa’s sweet little southern accent and just general demeanor are so perfect, and I hope she survives forever (despite the fact that I have a huge crush on her back up character who is also incredible). Playing with Abbie is so easy. She goes with the flow so well and is a force to be reckoned with. She is really the one that keeps us all grounded and sane. I am like existing next to an emotional and mental tornado; my life is a crazy hectic mess, and I’m pretty much always drowning in it. Sometimes that means I’m a grumpy humbug jerk, but Abbie has this way of just making everything better. It’s both amazing and super annoying because sometimes I just want to stay mad damnit.

I remember when I first met Abbie via roll20 and her little face popped up I was super intimidated. She was just SO confident and pretty and generally amazing. I was just kind of always in awe of her. It slowly wore off over time, and now I feel like my confidence can compete with hers at least a little bit.

Abbie is also one of the few people I’ve met who cares about books as much as I do.3 When I took her and Dustin to Powell’s Books here in Portland just watching her face light up in wonder was in my top 5 favorite parts of the weekend. She, of course, left with an armload of books and took all of my recommendations very seriously.4

To wrap this up because I’ll just keep gushing over how amazing Abbie is, I will just say that I hope she knows I’m never going to stop trying to get her to move closer. I’ll find the right bait eventually ♡

P.S. I don’t know why I decided to use footnotes, maybe because of all the papers I’ve had to write this term
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
1 Portland is better than Chico Abbie, just move up here already.
2 These are important perquisites to be my friend.
3 It’s a lot.
4 As she should I give great book recommendations.