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Just finished rewatching the first episode of EXU: Divergence, and first of all, SO GOOD. Second, before I first saw the episode or knew who/what the characters were, I did see the names of each character and who was playing them. So I saw Erro Mordaurum and I was like, “hmm, ‘au’, ‘aurum’ that means gold, is Liam playing some kind of dwarf?” Well, not a dwarf, but a gold dragonborn, which is even more perfect, and after today’s rewatch I took a look to see if the full name had a Latin meaning.

LIAM O’BRIEN YOU NERD

That is all, have a lovely day

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Thinking about the CR team and all the Critters in LA.

Here are some evacuation shelters in the area.

Please stay as safe as possible.

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I believe the proper language is, "Fuck, shit, piss." (As Ashton would say)

Looking forward to knew fic!

Sometimes I be writing pre-campaign fic and then go “fuck shit” and have to replace every mention of Dorian with Bronte

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As someone with aphantasia working on a creative field, it felt surpringly good to see robbie talking about it, I don't actually feel the lack of it since my brain visualize in other ways, but it was nice to hear about it because I still remember that apple test and my very confused self not being able to see that damn apple XD...

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While wearing the Truthbearer armor of the Platinum Dragon.

"The Herald of Asmodeus brings word from the Hells."

-Braius before attempting to hitting Ludinus.

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The Hells are debating the best way to find the path to Imogen's mom and Ludinus.

Sam/Braius: I have locate object but we don't know... Laura/Imogen: What the object is, unless it's the other harness. Sam/Braius: You did see it. Liam/Orym [pointing at Imogen]: You saw it. Laura/Imogen: But you would know vaguely what it looks like as long as it didn't lead us to our harness. Taliesin/Ashton [pointing at Imogen]: You could put the image in his head and then he would know exactly what it looks like if you saw it in your vision. [Imogen and Braius squinting and making suspicious faces at each other] Braius: I don't want you around my head, though. Ashton: Oh for fucks sakes, don't be a baby about it. Imogen: In your head you hear 'Too fucking bad.' Braius: [slaps the sides of his head trying to get her voice out of his mind.]

Oh how I've missed them.

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Average human stats are 10.

Orym is built like a dancer. His strength is 10 I believe (which is strong for a halfling).

Beau has a strength of 10 (at level 20).

Dorian has a strength of 17.

Dorian is, in fact, ripped.

My dear dorym artists, you are doing great, thanks for feeding us, but a bit of feedback and friendly reminder that Orym is fucking ripped, and Dorian is probably the one that is not as much. Love you.

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But he also didn't say in a good way.

He watched Braius brutally take out the enemy, which he would respect...

However, there was black ickor sprayed on Braius, which may be disturbing to some in general...

But Orym had his husband and Father murdered by assassins that melted into black goop.

It could be PTSD.

love that when liam said orym was "hypnotically held" by braius, robbie looked SO offended

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Why do you think Orym has such high perception and Dex? Always looking out for threats and moving out of the way lol.

It's amazing no one has accidentally stepped on Orym during a fight

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This was about 10 min before the kiss. I love the looks they give each other about weddings...

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It's adorable.

I need more people to be talking about the absolute little dance Liam does when Dorian kisses Orym back, because it is making me FERAL.

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I've been wanting to say my own piece about the repeated calls I keep seeing for Vax to let Keyleth mourn him, either by calling off his ravens or, worse, by breaking his pact with the Matron and dying more fully, beyond the reach of resurrection, so Keyleth can finally accept that he's gone. It both places full blame on Vax for Keyleth's choices, which are in turn rooted in her refusal to afford him any agency in his own choices; and affords no respect for Vax's choice to honour his oath and sacrifice his life for his family, while giving full respect to Keyleth's choice to stay mad about it for thirty years.

I have no problem with Keyleth feeling this way, because she isn't the one calling for Vax to die more comprehensively because his death would be easier for her to deal with than his absence and therefore Vax, the Matron, and all of the dead of Exandria should have to accommodate that, no matter the cost to them. I have full sympathy for the way the nature of Vax's continued existence, his ability to act on the physical world in ways an evil arch-mage can wager his life's work on, makes it exceedingly difficult for her to see through to what is nevertheless true: That Vax is as dead as he needs to be for her to grieve for him and move forward.

Vax is already beyond the reach of resurrection, either because in his celestial form he is not “dead enough” for it to work on him, or because he wouldn't be a “willing creature” even if it did. Just because Keyleth will not accept this does not mean Vax should have to be wiped from existence in order for her to get it through her head that he is not permanently coming back.*

That's not fair to Vax and, above-table, it's wildly unfair to Liam. The idea that he should have to take the ending he so lovingly crafted for his character, out of his own grief at the time, and consign him instead to dust—because Matt sent Keyleth a raven every day, and then Marisha turned it into the reason Keyleth can never get over Vax—is just mind-bendingly awful. I'm fine with Marisha sticking to her guns about Keyleth never getting over Vax. I wish Keyleth would find peace instead—she has such a long life of loss ahead of her, it does not bode well if this is how she takes the first one—but I am not going to knock a firm choice, as long as the player owns it and isn't putting it on someone else. Liam also made a firm choice, hers shouldn't cancel his out.

We all grow new selves around our losses, That is the way of it. Keyleth's current incarnation is a creature of anger, but she seems aware of it, and so far she's weaponised it to fairly noble ends. She will not wear her heart on her sleeve—Matt played her as cagey where Vax was concerned, and Marisha has been careful to distinguish between the front she puts on and what she actually feels—and she seems terrified of her own hope.

Well, I hate to tell her but that hope never leaves you. That Vax exists in a state from which she thinks he could be recovered only amplifies what is there regardless—the wish that the person you lost could still be with you. Vax's unique circumstances did not create it, and that wish will not go away if he ceases to exist (or just stops sending the damn ravens and stays in his lane). All she will have lost is what she did have left of him. And the reminders of him will still come for her, from everywhere, from the simplest, the stupidest, the most unexpected places, and whenever the fuck they want to.

He will always be there.

If that one particular raven stops coming, Vax will become every raven she ever sees, anywhere. And if it isn't a raven, it will be the snowdrops, or a song she hears, a scent she catches, a colour he loved to see on her, the cup he always drank from, some vegetable that was overcooked one time and his rant about it was so unhinged she hears it every time she eats even a perfectly prepared one, a dumb random factoid about pens she only knows because he told her and she can never pick one up without thinking about it, a joke she hears that he would love and the immediate thought that “I have to tell Vax this one!” that reaches her brain before the part of her that knows can head it off. If the Matron frees him and he ceases to exist, that wish will fucking endure. There is no degree of acceptance in the world, no measure of time, that can kill it.

It was there in the light of the Big Moon that Orym sat under on the deck of the skyship when he pulled out his sending stone to talk to Dorian and tell him “I wish you were here,” before turning to Will in the sky and saying, “I miss you, too.” He had died himself only days earlier, with the thought of seeing Will again in his head, and the stone that connects him to Dorian in his hand. Will has been explicitly beyond the reach of resurrection from the beginning, we never knew him, and it still took Orym six years to be comfortable with his feelings for someone else, Will has brushed up against him in his dance with Dorian at every turn. He always will. And that's okay.

It will be this way for Keyleth, and that will be okay too.

Destroying Vax only robs him of the chance to fulfil the sacred duty he pledged himself to, the Matron of her Champion, and the rest of the world of the comfort he brings them in death. It does nothing for Keyleth but force her to see something clearly that she should have come to understand anyway, and then she'll realise that, and he will only have been sacrificed to her refusal to see it otherwise.

* Unless, you know, he does come back, and then all those ravens and the occasional drop in for a bit of rescue (from which he ends up needing to be rescued) retroactively become signs that the thread connecting him to her had never been completely severed; and her “inability to get over him” will be reframed as a “refusal to give up on him” that the story has both validated and rewarded. But let's pretend we don't have to think about that.

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After all this is over I want them to celebrate with Orym and Grog bonding over their love for pie.

a priest reprimanding grog and pike, saying “under no circumstances does my piety allow me to partake in such lower class forms of–” and grog asking pike “did he say he has pies?” and pike giggling and asking “do you have pies? do you have a pie in your pocket? or are you just happy to see me, sir.” (bonus: grog and pike then simply listing pies they like,,, “I like apple pies. rhubarb pies.” “pumpkin pies.” “peanut butter pies.” “ham pies. chicken pies.” “ooh, chicken pies.”) 🤣

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sam might be liam's husband, but robbie is liam's boyfriend

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Vex: "I tie ropes."

Percy: "Can confirm."

Me: Well, yeah. As was established by Opal in EXU Prime, all the girls in Byroden do rope training. 😂

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He's probably too distracted to think about the book he put down...

Lieve'tel is back for more fun with Vox Machina, but I don't think is going to be the best mission for her there even if it's related to her goddess I hope there's not a conflict of interests. Cerkonos is having the time of his life, Scanlan and Lieve'tel are going to change everything in his life and he doesn't even know how.

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No TIME.

Robbie Daymon: shit Liam's back I gotta speed run a romance now