Preamble - I have now completely re-written all of the works I had worked with Sudowrite on. I no longer use it as a writing tool, only a story organizing tool. With my left hand healed I can now type again properly so I'll be able to write a lot easier. I am also returning to the online world but have permablocked where I got hated on for my prior writing of this. I will never author there ever again, and won't even lurk for their content. Their user base proved to be very toxic and the admins didn't care when authors were being harassed by readers. The reviewers were annoying but it was the DM's there that really got me.

Chapter 01: Sibling Rivalry and Last Moments

"I cast Fireball at the dragon!" Johnny declared, leaning forward in Remi's bean bag chair with dramatic flair.

"Roll for it," Andrew said from his cross-legged position on the floor, his DM screen perfectly aligned with the edge of Remi's desk. A small army of carefully painted miniatures was arranged on the battle mat before him.

Remi watched as Johnny's twenty-sided die clattered across the mat, nearly taking out a meticulously painted dragon miniature. He winced – Andrew was particular about his hand-painted figures.

"Natural twenty!" Johnny pumped his fist in the air. "That's what I'm talking about! Just like in that scene from 'Black Clover' where Asta faces down the demon—"

"We are not comparing this to anime," Andrew cut him off, adjusting his glasses. "This is classic D&D. Tolkien-inspired fantasy, not your Japanese—"

"Oh come on!" Johnny leaned forward, nearly knocking over his Mountain Dew. "You can't tell me that wizards throwing fireballs isn't exactly like anime. Have you even seen 'Mage's Labyrinth'? The magic system is practically lifted from D&D!"

"More like D&D's magic system is based on actual mythology and folklore," Andrew countered, his DM screen crinkling as he gripped it tighter. "Besides, 5e's carefully balanced spell progression and component requirements create a much more logical—"

"Logical?" Johnny snorted. "Your wizard needs bat poop to cast Fireball. How is that more logical than channeling your inner spirit energy?"

"It's sulfur from guano, not bat poop, and it's historically accurate to medieval alchemical components—"

"Guys," Remi interrupted, seeing the familiar glint in both his friends' eyes. Last time they'd gotten into this argument, it had somehow ended with a thirty-minute debate about whether a katana should count as a longsword or a shortsword in D&D terms.

"I'm just saying," Johnny pressed on, "that if you actually watched 'The Rising of the Shield Hero,' you'd see how similar the character progression is to D&D's level system. They even have skill trees!"

"That's because JRPGs stole their mechanics from tabletop games," Andrew said with the weary tone of someone who'd had this argument many times before. "And don't even get me started on how anime completely misrepresents the tactical elements of actual combat. A real fighter can't just spam the same move over and over—"

"Have you seen some of the Champion builds in 5e?" Johnny raised an eyebrow. "Action Surge, Extra Attack, just hitting things over and over—"

"That's completely different! There's strategic resource management involved, and positioning, and—"

Remi slouched in his chair, watching his friends gear up for what could easily become an hour-long debate. He'd learned more about both D&D rules and anime plots than he'd ever wanted to know just from being caught in the crossfire of these arguments. At least they were staying away from the Great Sword Debate of last month, when Johnny had tried to convince Andrew that Cloud's Buster Sword would be perfectly practical in a real fight.

"Look," he cut in before they could really get going, "can we just agree that the dragon takes 8d6 fire damage and move on? Some of us would like to finish this encounter before we're eligible for AARP."

A knock at the door interrupted Andrew's familiar rant. Before anyone could answer, Rachel poked her head in, her long dark hair falling across her face in that deliberately casual way that had taken her twenty minutes to perfect.

"What are you guys doing?" she asked, stepping into the room. Her eyes lingered on the miniatures and character sheets.

"We're in the middle of a campaign," Remi said, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice. "Kind of at a crucial moment here, Rach."

"Oh." She picked up one of Andrew's spare dice, turning it over in her hands. "Can I play?"

"It's not really something you can just jump into," Remi explained, watching Andrew tense at the sight of someone handling his precision dice. "You need a character, and we're already mid-campaign, and—"

"Whatever." Rachel tossed the die back onto the desk. "Have fun with your nerdy little games." The door slammed behind her with enough force to make the miniatures wobble.

Johnny let out a low whistle. "Dude, your sister's got some attitude."

"She's fourteen," Remi sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Everything's dramatic at fourteen."

Before anyone could respond, Rachel burst back into the room, all traces of anger gone. She flopped onto Remi's bed, somehow managing to scatter three perfectly stacked sourcebooks in the process.

"So what's everyone doing this weekend?" she asked, voice honey-sweet as she started bouncing on the mattress. Each bounce sent miniatures wobbling on the battle mat. "I heard Tawnee's going to be at Crystal Lake on Saturday. You know, if anyone cares about that sort of thing."

Remi felt his ears burn. "Rachel..."

"What?" She rolled onto her stomach, propping her chin on her hands and batting her eyelashes innocently. "I'm just making conversation. Being sociable. Isn't that what Mom's always telling me to do?"

Another bounce sent Andrew's carefully painted dragon sliding dangerously close to the mat's edge. He lunged to catch it, shooting Rachel a look that would have turned a basilisk to stone.

"Oops," Rachel giggled, not sorry at all. "Hey, did you guys know Remi has a diary where he writes about—"

"OUT!" Remi finally snapped, pointing at the door.

"Fine, fine." She slid off the bed, managing to knock over a dice tower in the process. "But you know," she added from the doorway, "if someone had let me play, I wouldn't have to entertain myself."

They tried to get back into the game, but Rachel's interruption had thrown off the entire rhythm. Andrew had to spend five minutes reorganizing his scattered miniatures, muttering under his breath about proper tabletop etiquette.

"Okay," he finally said, settling back behind his DM screen. "So the dragon is wounded from Johnny's Fireball, but it's still airborne. Remi, your rogue is in position behind that pillar, and—"

"ACHOO!"

Johnny's sneeze sent dice skittering across the battle mat. The d20 bounced off Remi's pencil, spun on its corner, and settled on a one.

Dead silence fell over the room.

"Was that..." Remi leaned forward, staring at the die. "Was that your attack roll?"

"Critical fail," Andrew confirmed with a mixture of horror and delight that only a DM could muster. "Your wizard's spell goes completely wrong. Roll for random direction."

Johnny groaned, grabbing the d8. "This is karma for that anime comment, isn't it?" The die clattered to a stop. "...six?"

"Southeast." Andrew consulted his notes with scholarly precision. "That would be... directly at Remi's rogue. Roll damage."

"But I have Evasion!" Remi protested.

"Not if you used your reaction for that opportunity attack last round," Andrew countered. "Which you did."

Johnny picked up his pile of d6s. "For what it's worth, I'm really sorry about this." The dice bounced across the mat like tiny meteors of doom. "Twenty-seven damage?"

"My rogue only has twenty-four hit points left," Remi said flatly.

Andrew was already scribbling behind his screen. "Your character smells burning leather and hair as the Fireball meant for the dragon goes wide, catching you in its radius. The last thing you see is your fellow party member's apologetic face as magical flames engulf your position. You take... let's say fire damage with a side of emotional betrayal."

"Dude," Johnny said, "I said I was sorry!"

"Your wizard watches in horror as his companion bursts into flames," Andrew continued, clearly enjoying this turn of events. "The dragon, meanwhile, seems to be laughing—"

A notification chime from Johnny's phone interrupted the description. He glanced at it, then grinned. "Hey, my brother's going to be late from soccer practice. I've got at least another hour."

"I say we take a break from this friendly fire hazard," Remi said, looking at his charred character sheet. "Switch to something where Johnny can't accidentally murder my character?"

"Technical term is 'tactical friendly damage,'" Johnny offered, already perking up. "But yeah, I could go for some Smash. At least there I can murder your character on purpose."

"Pretty sure the technical term is 'you're buying the snacks next session,'" Remi countered, standing up. "Come on, let's head downstairs. I don't trust Rachel not to burst in here again and scatter the rest of Andrew's miniatures."

Andrew started carefully arranging his D&D materials with methodical precision. "We'll say the dragon was so impressed by your team's self-destructive tendencies that it offered you all a temporary reprieve."

"Temporary reprieve feels generous," Johnny said, helping to gather the dice.

"Temporary Relief from Perpetual Incompetence," Andrew corrected with a straight face. "The dragon's doing you a favor, really."

Remi was already heading for the door, Switch in hand. "Less dragon judgment, more moving before Rachel realizes we're switching rooms."

"Switch to some Smash?" Remi suggested, already reaching for his console. "Might be easier than saving Andrew's campaign from Johnny's pyromania."

"Hey, Fireball is a perfectly valid strategy!"

They migrated to the living room, where Remi set up the Switch while his friends settled onto the couch. Johnny immediately launched into a detailed comparison of the latest Zelda game to some anime Remi had never heard of, while Andrew made pained noises and pulled out his phone to scroll through Reddit's D&D forums.

"The art style is clearly inspired by Studio Ghibli," Johnny was saying as Remi navigated through the menu. "Even the character designs—"

"Can I play?"

Remi nearly dropped his controller. Rachel had materialized behind the couch, watching the character select screen with forced casualness.

"We've only got three controllers," Remi said, which was technically true – the fourth was upstairs in his drawer, slightly chewed by their old dog.

"I could use yours," Rachel suggested, reaching for his controller. "You always pick Samus anyway."

Remi leaned away from her grabbing hands, starting the match. "Maybe later, Rach."

She didn't leave. Instead, she perched on the couch arm next to him, deliberately pushing into his space. "You're doing it wrong," she announced as his Samus missed a dodge. "You need to roll there. Everyone knows that."

"I know how to play," Remi muttered, trying to focus on avoiding Andrew's Link.

"Doesn't look like it." Rachel's elbow somehow found its way into his ribs. "Oh look, you died. Again."

"Because you keep poking me!"

"I'm not doing anything." She shifted position, somehow taking up even more space despite her small frame. "By the way, you're about to get hit by Johnny's—oh, yep, there it is. Dead again."

Johnny snickered, his Joker character celebrating on screen. "She's not wrong, dude."

"See? I should play. I'm obviously better than you." Rachel made another grab for the controller. "Come on, just one match."

"Rachel." Remi held the controller out of reach, his character standing idle on screen. "I'll hang out with you later, okay? We're kind of in the middle of something here."

"Fine." Her voice could have frozen lava. "I didn't want to play your stupid baby game anyway."

She stormed off toward the stairs, her footsteps thundering overhead.

"Dude, your sister's got it bad for attention," Johnny said, selecting random for the next match. "Worse than that tsundere in the anime I was telling you about—"

"Everything is not an anime reference," Andrew cut in, but his heart wasn't in the usual argument. "Though I guess she's kind of like a low-level chaos demon. Comes in, disrupts the party, leaves destruction in her wake."

"She's just being Rachel," Remi sighed, picking Samus again. "She gets like this whenever Dad's on a business trip. Mom says it's a phase."

"A phase that's lasted what, two years?" Johnny snorted as his random pick landed on Pikachu. "Remember when she swapped your swim trunks for Hello Kitty ones right before Tawnee's pool party? Man, you were so worked up about impressing her, and then Rachel hits you with that."

Remi's Samus missed a jump as he cringed at the memory. "Did you have to bring that up? I ended up not even going to the party."

"Which is exactly what she wanted," Andrew added, his Link taking advantage of Remi's distraction. "Though maybe it was for the best. Didn't Tawnee start dating that guy from the swim team? The one that's always bragging about his lap times?"

"Thanks for that reminder too," Remi muttered. He'd been trying to work up the courage to talk to Tawnee properly ever since she'd smiled at him in AP Bio. She was probably the smartest person in their year, with those intense dark eyes that seemed to see right through you whenever she answered a question in class—

"Yeah, yeah, save the D&D flashbacks," Johnny interrupted. "The point is, your sister's got some serious—watch out for that Bob-omb—serious issues, man."

"She's fourteen," Remi said, dodging the explosion. "Everything's dramatic at fourteen. You should have seen her at dinner yesterday, going on about how nobody in this family understands her true artistic soul."

"Artistic soul?" Johnny laughed. "Is that what we're calling TikTok dances now?"

A particularly loud thump came from overhead, followed by the sound of Rachel's door slamming.

Remi shared a look with his friends, silently counting down in his head.

Three... two... one...

Rachel appeared in the doorway again, twirling back and forth in her sundress. "Hey, whatcha doing now?"

"Rachel..." Remi warned, recognizing the too-innocent tone in her voice.

"I'm just asking!" She drifted into the room, bare feet silent on the carpet. "You guys are always playing something. It's like, don't you ever do anything else?" She perched on the arm of the couch, right next to where the power strip was plugged in. "Like, I don't know, hang out with your sister?"

"We're kind of in the middle of—" Remi started.

"Oh, what's this do?" Rachel's hand hovered over the power strip's switch, eyes wide with exaggerated curiosity.

"Don't you dare—"

The TV screen went black. Along with every other electronic device in the room.

"Oops!" Rachel giggled, bouncing up from the couch. "Was that important? I'm so clumsy sometimes."

"She's definitely your sister," Johnny said, watching Rachel skip toward the door. "She's got that same evil glint you get when you're about to edge-guard someone."

"I do not have an evil glint," Remi groaned, letting his head fall back against the couch. "And Rachel, turn it back on."

"Can't!" she called over her shoulder. "I'm busy being dramatically ignored by my big brother. Maybe I'll go write about it in my diary. You know, like some people write about certain swim team members in theirs—"

"RACHEL!"

"Siblings, man." Johnny shook his head sympathetically. "My little brother's the same way. Last week he deleted my entire Crunchyroll queue and replaced it with nothing but Pokémon reruns. Like, the original series. Not even the good seasons."

"At least you guys have siblings," Andrew said, still trying to peer at his now-dark phone screen. "Try being an only child. My parents think D&D is my cry for attention."

Remi pushed himself up from the couch. "I should probably go talk to her. Rain check on the game?"

"Sure," Johnny said, already pulling out his vape. He caught Remi's look and quickly stuffed it back in his pocket. "I mean, uh, I should head home anyway. Got that history test tomorrow."

"That you haven't studied for because you were too busy watching anime," Andrew added, gathering his things.

"Excuse me, but 'The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire' is a highly educational series—"

Remi left them to their bickering, heading upstairs to deal with his sister. He knew Rachel wasn't really angry about the game – there was always something deeper with her these days. Every interaction felt like navigating a minefield, trying to be a good brother while also maintaining his own life and interests.

He paused outside her door, hearing the muffled sound of her favorite playlist bleeding through her headphones. With a deep breath, he raised his hand to knock, wondering how to bridge the gap that seemed to be widening between them day by day.

He never got the chance. His mom's voice carried up the stairs, calling him down for dinner. Rachel's music got louder, and Remi's hand fell back to his side. He'd try again later, he told himself. There would be plenty of time to figure out how to be a better brother.

But of course, Remi didn't know that time was running out. He just turned away from Rachel's door, heading down to help set the table, one more normal afternoon slipping away before everything would change.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Edit - My dad just reminded me that I was Rachel growing up...... I just had to say "I wasn't that bad!" He disagrees.

Ok, first off.

Originally I had done this 100% AI. And it was a mistake.
I am a mute. So I can't use Voice to Text. So haters that tell me that's an option? It isn't. My vocal chords are destroyed.
I had damaged my left hand badly so typing was horrible. And I mean horrible. On top of that many life things happened that made writing hard, and I mean HARD.

But, I didn't want to leave off and not write. So I posted it. And caught hate. And I mean HATE.

So I pulled everything and went offline to heal. I have worked on fixing myself and re-discovering tools and works. I still can't properly type. Not really. I'm henpecking this with my left hand mostly, but right works better. But, I still want to entertain people. So I'm moving forwards.

This is a completely revised Hatchlings Remorse for anyone who read the old and very cumbersome version. I hope that it is more enjoyable. I know that reworking this and other series has been a joy. Yes, I am using AI to assist me, but I am not having AI do all the writing. Only having it as a tool not as the creator of the concept and the path. And it is just a tool, just as much as microsoft word or clipstudio pro is.

Anywhooo... I'm back and posting.

And if you don't like people using AI for anything? This and all of my works are not for you. Go find someone not using these tools. But remember, your Cell Phone? It is an AI tool. You're using it just to talk and browse online.

Edit:

I’m putting my Discord Channel back up on permanent invite:

https://discord.gg/NYjPU3auVy

Join Me and some other people to talk shop, discuss artwork, stories, chatter, or just share fun videos or memes!

If you want future chapters ahead of my posted works support me on Patreon!

https://www.patreon.com/c/alyssnancyonymous

Also, feel free to PM me if you have any questions or wanna comment.

TTFN Everyone.