SHOUT OUT TO THESE TWO SHOTS I REALLY ENJOYED BUT HAD TO AXE FROM THE ANIMATIC!!! Ez This One Is 4 U

additional au stuff

other au stuff i keep thinking about is roma (after making fun of ez losing x magic thing for the fifty millionth time) is that he explicitly tells her to come visit whenever she wants a hot meal and a quiet place to nap and that theres a space for her if ever she feels like occupying

straightened

sun, wind

current campaign events making roma remember interactions with a party member no longer with them

or

conversations with a changeling formerly known as maraschino

ez should be allowed to use the symbol of ravenkind

HELP was talking to a friend in dms on twit about strahd and literally midway thru the conversation i got a message that a) my response couldn't be sent and b) TWITTER THINKS IM AUTOMATED? HELLO? IM JUST HAVING A CONVERSATION

in between

(holding roma) i love my son i think he is so charming.

roma has the charm of a shibe that DOESN'T want to go on a walk anymore, and you gotta pull his collar and his face scrunches up and you gotta drag him and his stupid little scrunched face along. roma has the charm of a husky that's like. sitting in the car and REFUSES to get out no matter how many times you tell him its time to get out and he's just staring at you in that knowing husky way because you BOTH KNOW!!! HE'S NOT MOVING AND YOU CAN'T CONVINCE HIM TO LEAVE THIS CAR WITHOUT MAJOR INCENTIVE despite YOU KNOWING YOU CAN'T LEAVE THIS HUSKY IN THE HOT CAR.

Roma has the charm of a young person who hasn't experienced the world latching onto some niche detail and being SO CONVINCED of this little thing's GREAT IMPORTANCE that when you mention that this thing is alright HE'S SO BEWILDERED? like what do you MEAN you don't think guardians of the galaxy is PEAK CINEMA... and is just SOO passionate about this random mainstream thing because that's all he's experienced ... and has convinced himself that YOURE the strange one about all this

Roma has the charm of a cat that brings dead birds and mice and lizards into your house that theyve hunted and then MEOW SO LOUDLY AFTER THEYVE HUNTED THEM!!!! and these little corpses are just SO NASTY but your cat is so damn PROUD

roma is very stubborn and rude and annoying but he means everything he says and everything he does 100% and that's a part of his charm!!!! all the bad parts and all the good parts he will own up to completely and while he ends up grating at a lot of people i think there's something to his naked earnestness and honesty that's always on display. he's a stinky, willful dog and everything that comes with it!!!!

happy valentines day from barovia's #1 and #2 vampirekillers

I'm really curious about what Roma has going on with Osybus, how much he knows, how much you know... I am very eye emoji about it in general. Especially the significance of the increasingly? invisible limbs? A rad looking effect to be sure, but also hmmmmmm. (Also I saw it was your birthday recently! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!)

WAH HELLO!!!!!!!! THANK U YES IT WAS (SPINNING HEARTS EMOJI) ROMA’S THING WITH OSYBUS IS A REALLY DEEP VEIN (I personally like it a lot because it naturally interacts really closely with many of Roma’s deepest fears, desires, coping mechanisms, and personal beliefs, and as a narrative device and mechanical plaything I couldn’t have asked for anything better) 

As a general ask “what’s roma’s thing with osybus?” is one of the most pandora’s box-y things you could’ve asked, so I hope you don’t mind if this is a bit wordy and like, ALL over the place.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

Fast answer first: We (OOC party and IC pcs) believe that Osybus originally was part of I think Sessinek, or at least a larger being, and that he’s connected to the amber temple in some way. We also think that we released Osybus when Roma shattered one of the artifacts at the death house, but that’s a theory. Roma also has no idea how Deep he is in with Osybus and enters any transactional interaction with the idea that it may be his last, but I know he’s a little over halfway to being so far gone my DM takes him as an NPC. 

GENERAL BACKSTORY, Osybus is the headfriend (I don’t know the term for it but we just call them headfriends) Roma contracted with during the Feast in Vallaki. We were literally fighting for our lives in front of the church of St. Andral and things were looking pretty grim; a lot of the party was either fully missing or really badly injured, and Strahd was about to land a coup de grace by luring Ireena outside of the safety of the church via killing the party member she was in love with, our druid healer. In a last ditch effort, Roma used his turn to beg Strahd to make a deal with them to spare them, but Strahd very coldly refused because “there is nothing you could give me I would want,” and Roma was devastated. 

It was after that second Osybus contacted Roma in his mind, that he was Osybus the Immortal and that he could save them. Roma initially asked if he could save the whole party but Osybus said that was beyond his power, and that Roma could only choose one person for this gift. Roma was torn, so he decided to ask Osybus what Strahd wanted the most. 

“The girl.” Osybus answered. 

“Then he can’t have her.” Roma replied. “I pick Ireena.” And then Osybus killed Ireena!!! (Ireena was fine tho, and then not, and then worse, etc etc you know how Barovia is) 

Roma’s relationship with Osybus has morphed over time, starting from gratefully deferential due to Osybus “helping” Roma out so often and also due to Roma not having anyone he could turn to for assistance or companionship for a stint of time, to eventually pettily and one-sidedly antagonistic on Roma’s end due to VR’s warnings and some subsequent bad deals. 

That being said, despite it all Osybus is usually the one Roma turns to whenever he feels trapped and cornered, because Osybus’ power to grant wishes is often Roma’s only ripcord in situations where the options left to him are usually death or worse. Osybus has also been nothing but obliging and polite to Roma (though he has shades of sounding like, possessive), which makes interactions all the more sticky since Osybus has such a strong hold over him. 

The ghost limbs are one of the penalties from wishes from Osybus! Roma usually takes some sort of penalty whenever he makes a wish, and since I had some troubles with the original way Osybus’ penalties manifested (rot and decay) my DM kindly changed it to make his limbs translucent, with increasing transparency the more wishes Roma makes. He also has trouble leveraging their strength now that they're translucent and doesn’t have a shadow anymore! 

One of the last things to know about Roma is for a long time, he didn’t consider himself to have many strengths, but one he Did have was a VERY solid sense of self. He understood what he himself wanted, innately and always, and was really decisive about wholeheartedly pursuing whatever he believed was right (even if he was Really Not.) 

More recently, Roma also has begun to realize he has a lot more to gain in the world now that VR is back in the picture, and wants to spend whatever time VR has left to just, hang out with VR. When the adventure in Barovia ends, the first (and honestly, only) thing Roma wants to do is visit Van Richten’s greenhouse. He wants it more than anything in the whole wide world!! 

However, both of these things are now in jeopardy, since Roma is now So deep in Osybus’ penalty shootout with already so little to forfeit, that Osybus has started to change parts of Roma’s desires and personality as payment. And Roma is KEENLY aware of the changes and dissonance and the payments happening, but because they feel “natural” to his personality he struggles to disobey. 

Roma’s current dilemma is now--in extremely high stress, high danger situations-- having to choose between dying having never experience The Thing He Wants More Than Anything, or dealing with Osybus to survive to the end but risk being altered so much that the original reasons he made the deals for no longer matter. Real die a hero or live to be the villain type nonsense.