Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Funeris" data-source="post: 2199062" data-attributes="member: 22792">Stumbling through the groping, prodding masses of overly-sweaty overly-drunk people on Fat Tuesday Night.  Forming a chain with friends; hand-to-hand to make sure you make it through the crowd together, although still molested.  The slightly chilling drizzle just increasing the humidity and amplifying the pounding rhythms pouring out of all the bars.Quick drive out of the French Quarter to pick up alcohol (after pulling money out of the ATMs on Bourboun Street with a $5 charge).  Then returning to walk back into the mass of people.A many-pocketed wool overcoat filled with bottles and bottles of beer and wine constantly gaining weight as the drizzle just won't stop.Clink. Clank. Clink. Clank.Strange glances from other patrons but most of the masses have fled the drizzle.  Past the usual tourist traps, still walking.  The moon has peeked from behind the clouds and a moderately warming breeze has replaced the rain.  Trenchcoat quickly becoming lighter and lighter.Into the Elysian Fields at about 2 am, stumbling now.  Coat still a quarter full of alcohol.  Houses run down and boarded up.  Quite the shame really, they once were quite beautiful.  Now its a gang-owned territory where laws are less applicable.  Survive or be raped, mugged, or worse.  Keep moving.More stumbling as you veer toward the Mississippi River and turn to escape the Elysian Fields.  Heading back toward the aquarium.  The great Mississippi churning ever so slowly off to the left.  The murky depths won't relinquish their secrets; so move on.Wine is definitely gone.  A beer or two left and you look up.  The dilapidated buildings tell you at some point you spun around and returned to the Fields.  But now your bearings are gone.  God you need more beer, you think as you down another.  How to find the path home?The moon itself is bathing the town in an alcoholic haze; the night is astoundingly beautiful despite the filth and worn look.  Slowly you stumble now through the Fields, trying to find your way home.  No one messes with you, although a few beggars do attempt to bum cigarettes.  Apparently, a DnD-playing white man in an oversized trenchcoat can pass safely through this crime-riddled territory.Endless walking.The Sun begins its morning ascent, all the alcohol long gone.  With the morning star as a guide, you make it back to the tourist traps.  You feast upon a Cajun omellete in a diner, the shrimp definitely adding to the taste.  Then half-heartedly you return to your car knowing that you're going to sleep the rest of the day away.  And THEN you'll have to return to work in the morning.You make it back to your apartment, calming your headache with the liquid fire of whiskey.  And close the blinds because the Sun that saved you is now your most hated enemy.You drift into a long, dead sleep and awaken in the early evening.  Again, back to the whiskey to quiet the constant drumming in your head.  After a few shots your awakening mind ponders why you even moved here in the first place.You took a 70% pay cut and you can't afford your bills.  There's no food in the kitchen; only whiskey in the cupboards.  So you open another bottle.  It is warm here though.  Snow is practically impossible.Another drink and you are contemplating returning home, your real home.  Then you sigh, finishing your drink and don your big black trenchcoat.  You grab your keys and head back into the city.The real reason you stay is the Beauty.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------I did live in Nawlins.  Just last year actually.  Although it seems a lifetime ago.  The above is an appropriate transcript of what happened on the night of Fat Tuesday to me.  I never understood exactly why I moved there.  Just needed a change.  And it was beautiful, especially the Garden District and the Lafayette Cemeteries in the GD.  Also visited plantations and marvelled at their beauty.  One of them was "Houmas House" and you may be able to find something on the net about it.Eventually I had to return to real life to pay my bills.  So I moved away.  I still yearn to return though.</blockquote>

Verification