How to Participate in the Inner Child for the Outer Adult Challenge

HabitRPG is all about self improvement. So are New Year’s Resolutions, too. But life isn’t just about hard work. Sometimes you should stop and smell the flowers. But why leave it at that? Make a daisy chain, or braid them into your hair (or beard) or infuse them in vodka… the options are endless! This challenge is called the Inner Child for the Outer Adult and I’ve made it to help you take time to have fun like a kid. To be honest, I don’t spend much time with my outer adult… he mainly just buys me booze, so this list was really easy for me to make. You don’t have to use HabitRPG to participate, but I find it is really helping me with my productivity (I plan to wax lyrical about it for my non-existent audience after the Christmas holidays).

While there can only be one official winner of the challenge, the touchy-feely feel-good real answer is you’re all winners if you’re participating. And there’s a second bounty of winning for us all if there are players that are willing to fill in the cells of the spreadsheet with -

“Wait, what? Spreadsheet?”

Relax, and bear with me a while. If people are kind enough to fill in the spreadsheet with their opinions, feedback, thoughts, pictures, etc then we can vicariously enjoy their fun too.

Speaking of which, here's the link to the spreadsheet:

Inner Child for the Outer Adult Spreadsheet 

It is the heart, soul and core component of the challenge. I've bookmarked it, as that's faster than fishing it out of my Google Drive. If you just want to play along at home and don't care about audience involvement, then the Master List page is the only one you have to bother with, and you can stop reading now. If however, you want to let others see your antics (or see what they are up to) then keep reading. If you're participating in the challenge in conjunction with Habit, please use your username, so I can pick a winner. But if you're in it for the prize, I'd suggest that buying gems would be a much easier and faster way to get 20 gems.

Instructions to participate in the challenge/share your activities and opinions with the world:

Step 1: 

Open the spreadsheet in the above link

Step 2:

Click on the Master List tab down the bottom of the spreadsheet.

Step 3:

Choose Duplicate

Step 4:

On the Copy of the Master List tab that you just created, choose Rename...

Step 5:

 When you do something, go to your tab and fill it in.

Step 6:

To see what other people have been doing, go to their page and have a gander.


There's 42 different things listed, and since it officially starts on the 1st of January, it  has a soft end of the 11th of February. That works out perfectly for me, since I am in Vietnam and the Tết holidays will have just finished. Depending on how many entries there are, it might take me a while through to go through them all and pick a winner to throw gems at, but like I said previously, that shouldn't be your main focus.


Some preemptive troubleshooting and imaginary question and answers:

Do I have to post about the stuff I do?
Nope. It'd be nice if you do, as you'll be sharing your joy, but it's not compulsory.

Do I have to post for every activity to be in the running to win the challenge?
No of course not. I (along with some other judges if there's a lot of entries) will be deciding it based on a whole bunch of things but quality, humour, imagination, originality, etc will certainly be beating out quantity especially if it's got attributes diametrically opposed to ones in that previous list.

What's stopping someone from deleting/copying/defacing my entries?
Nothing. That's why you should back up your data. There's a slim chance that we'll get hit by someone who is in touch with an inner child who is mean spirited and petty, and derives fun from pissing on the parades of others, but that's just a risk we'll have to take. If it does become a serious issue, I'll think of a plan B, and post it here and on the master list tab.

Help! I can't find my tab!

Yeah, as new tabs are added to the spreadsheet, older ones get pushed further along. Try clicking on the three horizontal lines and finding your name in the popup window, I think that might be easier.

Why did you include X activity? It's lame/boring/embarrassing/I do it all the time?
I tried to pick a range of different things, and since I can't please everyone, I chose to please myself. There's a fair chunk of this list that I do frequently myself, or I've wanted to do for a long time, or just stumbled on and thought it sounded great.

Why didn't you include X activity? It's so much better than some of the ones on your list!
There's nothing stopping you from doing it at any time mate. These are just suggestions. Feel free to swap something out. Or post it in the comments, because someone else might think it's a grand idea too.

Do I need to have a kid with me to do them?
No, but if you've got children of your own or nieces/nephews or friends with kids and you have the patience, you could involve them too, especially if you're shy and want protective camouflage. 

Can I send this list to other people?
Of course, the more the merrier! Ideally, I'd love to have so many entries that I get RSI from scrolling through them all. They don't have to play HabitRPG either. I'm sending this to a few mates that I think would enjoy it. The short link for these instructions is: http://goo.gl/vBWSna and the short link for the spreadsheet is: http://goo.gl/euHnBM

Can I do the activities with friends?
Definitely! I'm sure that will make a lot of the activities even more fun. I'm going to do a bunch with my wife and daughter, and some with my students. 

Will you run it again sometime with different activities?
If people like doing it in a codified way like this, then sure. But like one of the answers above, there's nothing stopping you brainstorming your own list and doing it at any time you please.


A final word...

I haven't asked you to use your imagination too much in the actual challenge, that's because I want you to do it right now. Imagine that some of the standard boilerplate legalese* is here along the lines of :

I am not officially affiliated with HabitRPG and my (or other entrants in the challenge) views, opinions and choice of language is no way a reflection on those fine folks. If you get hurt or in trouble doing any of this stuff it is just like when you were a kid: it's your own fault, you should jolly well know better. If everyone else was jumping off a cliff, would you?

*You Seppos with your litigious culture would be a grave disappointment to your founding fathers I reckon. 

Creating a Female Superhero Challenge

This is my entry for the Creating a Female Superhero Challenge. An excellent idea - and one I could also set my students to work on. I got quite a few Puppy Girls from them, and a pair of Iron Men from the ring-in second grade boys that were in my class that day (even though I kept pointing out the gender, but hey, what are you going to do with 7 year-olds?)

Author: David Ashton
Word count: 397 for the character bio, 412 for the story
Anthology: Yes
Charity: Any of them, they all sound good

Yeah, I can't draw, so some outlines thrown over
textures is the best you're going to get

Name of female superhero: Darkweaver

Name of human alter ego: Glynnis Carr

Human alter ego appearance: As Glynnis, her clothing ranges the gamut of colours and shades. She doesn't wear the complete opposite of her costume - all rainbows all the time - nor does it echo its monochromatic scheme. She wears a pewter necklace: a meaningless sigil of her own devising to remind her of how lucky she is. When asked about it, she always tucks it back under her top and says it was a keepsake given to her long ago.

Superhero Appearance: Completely concealed by her costume.

Costume:  A form fitting suit of swirling greys and blacks with indigo highlights and ultramarine lenses.

Personality as Darkweaver: Vengeful and angry at the injustice at the world. There are no snappy one liners from this heroine.

Personality as Glynnis Carr: Often downcast, but at times happy in that deceptively brittle way that signifies that you're trying, but there is still a lot of healing to go

Brief description of how the superheroine gets her powers: In an attempt to rebel during her college days Glynnis dabbled in mysticism and the occult. It was meant to be harmless fun, but the rituals she was following became increasingly extreme and depraved. Something was listening - luckily not the dark and twisted gods she thought she was praying to - and granted her powers with no further explanation or instructions about what to do with them. Out of a guilty conscience about the rites she had conducted and a hope to expunge these acts from her soul’s record, Gylnnis works for good.... though not always in a way that is acceptable in the eyes of the law.

Powers: She can become insubstantial and two dimensional, allowing her to pass through objects and avoid physical injury. She can possess and control shadows. She can teleport by leaping from shadow to shadow. For short periods of time, She can be in multiple places at once if what she is targeting has more than one shadow.

Anything else important: Bright lights are not her kryptonite. Often they cast larger, darker shadows and so that plays into her hands.  Her weapons are a garrote, cosh and kris - the knife is yet another reminder to herself of her old ways. She is the type of vigilante that leaves corpses, not criminals caught red-handed.

A night on the town

The alley was dark but not deserted. A late night reveller was trying to spell his name on the side of the dumpster, copiously splashing urine in loops as he raced through the final letters. A door banged open, causing him to piss on his shoes.

“What the FUCK are you...” he snarled to the empty alley, “...goddamned wind...”

Zipping up, he continues on his way, trying to peer through the doorway as he draws opposite. There is just enough time for him to blink owlishly before the impact. A shower of his blood coats the wall behind him. When finished, the hulking figure pauses long enough to pick up one of the larger chunks in chitinous claws before stuffing the gobbet into its mandibles. Turning, it slams the door shut once again.

Glynnis was glad she’d finally given that friend of a friend’s friend the slip. As if buying a few drinks for her could make up for the appalling and unending self-indulgent commentary. It was times like these that she was glad she could walk through walls. The park wasn’t really on her way home, but she always made a point of walking through it at night. Slowly, thanks to her actions, it was being reclaimed by couples and families - though not at this hour. When she heard footsteps and mocking laughter behind her Glynnis was surprised and a little disappointed. Her relaxed pace continued, until she was surrounded.

“It ain’t safe, walking alone here at night,” leered one of the thugs, eyeing her up and down.

Glynnis nodded, then winked into his shadow, engulfed by her outfit of greys and blacks, kris appearing in her hand.

“Yes, you’re right,” she whispered into his ear, her smile hidden beneath her mask. Slowly, she slid the blade along his throat.

The morning news made no mention of her escapades in the park, but she was sure the message was received loud and clear in certain circles. The television was full of the usual fluff pieces about celebrities and grumbling about the economy.When they recapped the morning headlines -  a lurid dismemberment, fuzzily caught in a security camera - Glynnis froze in mid bite, her toast forgotten. Those pincers... the spines... it couldn’t be, could it? She had burned all the books and smashed the figurine! It seemed Glynnis wasn’t the only acolyte who dabbled successfully in in the dark arts. But unlike her the other had embraced the monstrosity.

Create a Coreling competition

Peter V. Brett has written two excellent books so far based in Thesa where demons rise from the centre of the world at the fall of night. There's a couple of short novellas based there too, and I'm eagerly awaiting the next book, coming out in February. Every couple of months Peat has a competition of some sort, and this time it was to create a coreling of your own. Most of his are elemental - wood demons, rock demons etc, and we were invited to draw, sculpt, write about or otherwise invent some of our own, up to three. I turned in three entries, and got third place, not too shabby at all!

Below follow my entries, I'll try to do some more writing soon, once we get tests and reports out of the way. I had the most fun with the last one, though writing it did require me to dig through his books a bit to find the correct spelling. 


Demon of Doubt
Demons of doubt have a toothed maw at the centre of a mass of writhing tentacular arms, covered in suckers and terminating in hooked claws. Small as a grain of sand, and fond of remaining insubstantial until they strike, the existence of these demons is unknown in the current age, though their predations continue unchecked. Unfortunately this means there is no specific ward that guards against them.

Drifting through the smallest chinks in ward nets they phase through the skull and feast upon tiny portions of the unwitting brains of their host. This affects the linkages between neurons and unduly influences the hosts' behaviour, causing them to be more likely to give in to their baser emotions – such as doubt, fear, envy, greed, recklessness, or hidebound thinking. It is probably for the best that humanity is unaware of this demon, lest they revel in shallow acts, and blame their actions upon these beasts.

*

Turned Coreling
Far from the lands of Thesa that have been described in the Demon Cycle so far, in one of the last outposts when man was master of machines and science still served him, a small bastion of humanity managed to create an apparatus of surprising power - it was able to convert a small number of demons each night. Though the batteries of this device have long since run down, and the circuitry fallen into disrepair, their numbers still slowly increase, as they are able to overpower and infect those demons that plague the world.

They can be easily identified by their enveloping aura of honey-coloured light, and their eyes are limned with a pleasant viridian tinge that also manifests upon their extremities when they move.

Turned demons can follow simple commands given in their new masters' tongue. Even if the Krasnian army fought their way to them it would do no good, as the language has been lost to the ravages of time and demons - none of that enclave are left alive.

When the sun rises, the enslaved demons do not return all the way to the core, but merely part way down the paths (much like Arlen did) and dwell there. The coreling princes know of their existence, but are unconcerned by them, and see no great need to snuff them out as yet, as that part of the world is devoid of human life.

*

Bone Alagai
May Everam's light always shine upon thee. The Dama will say that the tale within this manuscript is heresy, yet still must it be told, for it is true - those of the white have defiled the Will of Everam by dismissing it out of hand.

In 142 AR our people entered a resurgence of matters spiritual.  New interpretations of previously obscure scripture flowed down to even the lowliest of the khaffit. Eager to further expand our knowledge and understanding, the Andrah formed in utmost secrecy a cadre of Dama'ting well versed in prophesy and Dama that excelled as distinguished scholars of the Evejah with instructions to prepare by any means necessary prognostications of the future - whether they be dire or jubilant.

All of their auguries so far have been accurate, though you will find no other mention of them, they have been eradicated from our peoples’ histories, as have their names. That is due to their final act of soothsaying, which I am sure will be no less accurate, painful though it is.

Turning their thoughts and powers upon that most honourable edifice, the Jewel of Krasia, last resting place of the noble and brave, paean to Everam's glory and might - I speak of none other than Sharik Hora. Those luminaries from long ago ascertained that in the closing stages of alagai’sharak Fort Krasia would be overrun. Runes undone, the Andrah’s palace torn asunder and Nie's children free to despoil the fairest city of all. The taint and scourge of the darklings rendered our defenses useless. Just as the unending desert sands calls to sand demons, and the restless wind summons the winged foe, so too did the concentration of osseous relics summon a type of coreling never before seen - the Bone Alagai.

A blasphemous melding of the skeletons of those who have gone on to Everam's paradise, with thigh bones sprouting from eye sockets, ribs fusing into fingers and other monstrosities too foul to speak of,  the creatures made a mockery of those dal’Sharum who gave their life in alagai’sharak.

Rather than hiding the news of this hideous desecration, these visionaries brought their proof before the Andrah, hoping against hope that given warning we would be able to avert such a course. At first, the Andrah would not accept such an unpalatable message, and threw them out in fury. They did not cease their petitions, and in time, his anger appeared to give way to their entreaties. The Andrah sent word that he would hear them out again, so long as they brought all their evidence and spoke of it to no other.

That most wise of Damaji, Rashid Asu Goram am’Harzuk had in secret left an encoded copy of all documents with his most favoured jiwa, to be passed on to his son when he had completed hannu pash and emerged as a Dama. It is from these that I have gleaned the truth, passed down through the generations, for the Andrah had not recanted in his anger, and still waxed wrothful. When all his seers were assembled and the documents accounted for he accused them of plotting sedition and that their predictions were no more than couzi fueled lies – slander and an abomination of the Everjah, and put their scrolls to the torch.

He then had their tongues ripped out, later to be thrown thrown to fire demons. A rabble of the most miserable and pitiful khaffit was gathered, given lumps of wood and instructed to bludgeon the worthy prophets to death, so that they would suffer an ignominious demise. Then they were bound to stakes on the ramparts of Fort Krasia with their own entrails, so that when the wind demons carried them off that night their souls would be dismembered, screaming wordlessly for eternity beyond Everam's sight in Nie’s darkness.

You will claim that you have never heard of the great Rashid Asu Goram am’Harzuk. This is so, as the Andrah had the names of each oracle and sibyl struck from the record, never to be spoken again, on pain of sharing their fate. The knowledge of them and their “crime” faded from memory, yet their words be true – ‘ware the Bone Alagai.