malaismere

[malaismere]

good morning! have a jester pinup to brighten your day!

[malaismere]

[malaismere]

Vex: I keep Trinket in the locket because it extends his life

Keyleth: what 😀

Percy: She's phenomenal at letting go. I'm gonna end up in there, don't think I don't know that.

Vex: Don't think I haven't thought about it.

Percy: I'm well aware you've thought about it.

They. Are. Everything.

[malaismere]

Bells Hells Shipping Statistics - Year 3

Having hit the end of October, and the three year anniversary of Bells Hells, I return with more shipping statistics, to see how things have changed. It's been quite the year!

The biggest overall changes have been a rise in Dorym with Robbie's return to the show, Callowmoore becoming more consistent, and Chetney/Fearne eking out Imogen/Dorian to sit be #10. But there's a lot more to talk about as we zoom in to the individual characters.

These data were collected by the number of fics on AO3 from the friday following a given episode to the thursday the next aired, same method as my previous work - which has now moved over on to AO3. It's mostly the same, but the old graphs are a bit shinier.

As always, the closer look for these is hanging out below the cut.

Chetney Pock O'pea

As always, starting with table order means we start with Chetney, who isn't the most exciting of graphs. There isn't much to say about this year - there's a bit of the Fearne/Deanna threesome, and some Fearne and Ashton (and the threesome, for the most recent), but there's no real consistancy to the ships. Fearne is definitely the top, but no ship is getting more than 2/week.

zooming out slightly to the monthly values, I think we can see 2023 was really the height of different Chetney ships, but even then, not that much going on.

Laudna

As should come with no surprise, the dominant ship here is Laudogen. The largest peaks are for Laudna's death (73) and their kiss (63), with the peak for 2024 being episode 97.

While the early period had Dorian as the secondary ship, and the middle Ashton, the only thing with any impact is the Fearne threesome, and even this is very sporadic. There has been a small return of Dusk/Laudna, unrelated to anything in canon.

Zooming out to the monthly scale - Laudogen has been put on the right axis to make things readable, and we see a dearth of anything but Laudogen, with the same generally muted peak, although the threesome really centralizes around August.

Fresh Cut Grass

Fresh Cut Grass is interesting, because, unlike every other case...there's no real fic response to FCG's death. Part of this is the lack of an in party ship - there has been no real ship with anyone but FRIDA since their introduction, and that fell off rapidly following FRIDA's departure, but it's reflected even among & tags, where the dramatic 'peak' is only five Ashton & FCG fics, compared with the dramatic visible reactions to Laudna, Percy in C1, and Molly in C2.

And, zooming out to the monthly, which I think better emphasizes the rather singular peak for FCG/FRIDA.

Fearne Calloway

Fearne has the most chaotic chart, mostly because it's rather low. Only now in 2024 are we really seeing Callowmoore escape from the weeds, with the Dorian/Orym combinations falling finally away, but while they've been consistently at least 1/week since returning from Ruidus, their highest peak in 6/week for e111 (and overall an 8/week back for e77).

Grouping by monthly however really is putting Callowmoore apart from the other ships, as their consistency allows them to be larger than the more variable smaller ships.

Imogen Temult

Imogen is once again dominated by Laudogen as a ship, although we see making a decent impact Imogen/Otohan, a rarepair that has continued through Otohan's death, as well as Beau getting a brief resurgance from an initial peak back at the solstice with the two characters again meeting.

By month, again with Laudogen on the right axis, we can better see the presence of Fearne/Imogen as the largest part of the witches be bitches ot3, as well as the presence of Otohan and Beau, although still very low in comparison to the heights of Laudogen.

Orym

Orym is in a low ship point through the Ruidus arc, before we see a massive spike in the return of Dorian with e93, that once again spikes with the pairing becoming canon in e111.

Also of note, a very brief but high peak with Orym/Braius, which is evident in e98 as his introduction but has not managed much staying power after that, ad the general consistent background of Orym/Will.

Zooming in by month, again most dominant is Dorym dominating, replacing the already declining Ashrym - and while the values aren't back at where they were at the start of C3, they are very close to challenging it.

Ashton Greymoore

Ashton has a fairly clear shift with Callowmoore finally outpacing Ashrym through the Ruidus arc and dominating after. While they had a brief moments (e24 and e77), these had been intermittent, while they've finally managed to stay at least 1/week since e90.

Zooming out to look by month further amplifies the dominance of Callowmoore over Ashrym through 2024, with the rest of ships (mainly Dorian) cntinuing to be a much lower background).

Braius Doomseed

Braius is new, and that makes this an inherently funny graph. But, more seriously, while we see an initial interest in Orym/Braius, it hasn't had as much staying power. The OT3 has had some independent use more recently, as has some use with Fearne/Ashton/Braius (with some Ashton/Braius but no Fearne/Braius), these have been very individual fics.

Zooming out better shows the relative impact of Fearne/Ashton/Braius, but again, it's two fics. This is not quite as comical as the weekly chart but still.

Dorian Storm

Last but certainly not least, Dorian Storm! The impact of Dorym was previously discussed, but it's a clear and dramatic rise. All other ships had fallen to the wayside after his initial departure (save some lingering Ashton/Dorian and ot3s with Orym), and only Dorym came back with force with the return.

Zooming out monthly further shows that, and the sharp rise of Dorym, but everything save Dorian/Ashton is still very lwo.

[malaismere]

caleb, teen murderer and torturer and poly nightmare codependent bloody threesome-haver, making the understatement of the century: "teenage years are rough."

[malaismere]

From Critical Role C3EP110

MIGHTY NEIN I'VE MISSED YOU SO!

[malaismere]

not that i don't think he wanted to convince all of them, but i love the twist that ludinus wasn't actually trying to monologue and prove his point to bells hells, he wanted to get delilah on board

[malaismere]

One of the last things Imri said before changing into Asmodeus was saying I love you to the being who later became Everlight and being hugged by her. This hug, this love being the only thing keeping him alive as unfathomable and realer than anything else heat and fire struck him. This hug, this love being the reason he became Asmodeus, the Lord of the Hells, the King of Lies instead of perishing. Does he despise her for that? Does he envy her for taking the light while he was given only unbearable heat and destruction?

[malaismere]

of all the arguments that Ludinus could make to stand against the gods, I do think that downfall finally presented the best: that the Prime Deities would never truly stand with mortality over the betrayers.

Because they may "love" you, sure, they may mean you well, but they would rather smite a city down and burn the world to ash than really, truly hurt one of their siblings, because even for the Primes, who (betrayed), sealed their siblings away...it's family first. what can you do in the face of that but ally yourself against it?

unfortunately for Ludinus I would destroy the entire world for my siblings so it just makes them more relatable

[malaismere]

downfall subclass notes

Asha is a 20th Long Death monk - touch of death to get temp HP from archmage

S.I.L.A.H.A. is a 18th level Clockwork Soul sorcerer, 2nd level Ghost in the Machine warlock - Clockwork Cavalcade - mentions remote access, from the very early modern magic subclass; could also just have the spell, but this fits

Trist is a 14th level unknown Paladin, 6th level Light Cleric - improved warding flare - 70 points lay on hands

The Emissary is an unknown barbarian - ???

Ayden is a 9+ Peace cleric, 6+ unknown paladin, 2+ Stars? druid, 1-3 unknown barbarian - Rary's telepathic bond (peace or FCG's empathy domain) - channel divinity Balm of Peace for the hospital scene - aura of protection - guiding bolt (also a cleric spell, but Stars druids get some for free)

Emhira is Raven Queen warlock - dearest could be just a flavored pact of the chain familiar, but it fits the UA Raven Queen warlock to a T and also, technically she doesn't use an action to see which is unique to the Sentinel Raven

[malaismere]

[malaismere]

New outfits!

Official artwork by @agarthanguide

[malaismere]

imagine working in a clothing shop and a bunch of weirdos stroll in and say hi. can you give us all new matching outfits in memory of our dead friend. here's a picture of them. they were a fucking robot

[malaismere]

Let’s play Writer’s Would You Ever

Send me an ask that says “Would you ever write…” and continue the sentence.

I’ll respond with yes or no and give an explanation as to why if I want to.

[malaismere]

Caduceus Clay is fully aware that he is a character in a game of dnd and that dnd is based on generally predetermined storylines made up by the DM aka “destiny” or “fate”, but I think if Ashton Greymoore realized they were a character in a dnd game they’d try to punch both Matt Mercer and Taliesin Jaffe in the face

[malaismere]

#this is FASCINATING#also wonder if beaumogen have enough fics to even make a blip#i would love a breakdown of PC/NPC ships

i hear the siren call; i come to make more graphs.

Alright, so, context: these graphs include every ship in my weekly tracking sheet aside from BH/BH and BH/Dorian, but including BH/any other guest. Any crossover ships were ignored.

Additionally, these stats were collected based on what fics were tagged with in the week following the episode; any tags that were added later on (like, to drabble collections) wouldn't show up here.

Also, sorry, I'm not going to be doing image descriptions for these graphs.

Chetney

So, Chetney doesn't get much until late inthe game. It's really just him and Deanna, talked about above, only thing to get more than 1 fic. The Dusk fic is an Everyone/Dusk fic. Chetney/Alma comes after the joke, and Chetney/Oltgar is the same episode (Hopefully that's visible, had to mess with the graph to show).

Laudna

The biggest is Dusk, centered around the Bassuras arc. There's a handful of Laudna/Delilah, centered around the Laudna's death arc. We get one Pretty ship for the break, one Morrigan ship for Ligament Manor, and one Prism for the end of the Issylra arc.

FCG

Already talked about FRIDA, which is one of the biggest non-Dorian guest/npc ships.

Also showing: the one everyone/dusk fic, Imahara Joe's introduction in Bassuras, and a few with Krook House poly (always with Ashton, never just FCG/Milo).

Fearne

Fearne has more than most but it's always one fics. Most prevelant is lingering EXU ships, namely Opal, with a bit of Poska and Dariax.

We also see the Pretty date, two with Keyleth around her introduction for Laudna's death, one with Ludinus when she gets the face to face, and one with Dancer after the return to Bassuras.

Imogen

You are right; Beaumogen has enough of a mark for the Apogee I could have put it on the main graph - the other one is Imogen/Otohan, which is only in the 1-fic peaks but has a decent showing ever since the solstice. We love nemeses, huh.

Also showing: Dusk, during the Bassuras arc, the Pretty date, Dancer after the return to Bassuras, and one each for Eshteross and Fy'ra Rai I have no commentary on.

Orym

The actual top NPC ship is Orym/Will, surprising no one. That's basically all that's going on here - Orym/Will, Orym/Dariax and OT3s with Dorian - the ot3 being more common for the latter, and less common for the former.

Also seen: one Orym/Lieve'tel fic from very early on, and the everyone/Dusk. This leaves Orym only above FCG in number of NPC ships.

Ashton

Coming in with the most NPC ships (by different, not by number), we have Ashton. The dominant is with Milo, which made it on to the board. We also see a fair bit of Ratanish starting with their fight, and a handful of Hexum.

Anni, Dusk, Prism, and Percy are the only other ships with more than one (read: 2), with Anni being mostly early on Krook House poly (the poly ship not included for 'too many ships' reasons), Dusk once for everyone and once later on, Percy after the Whitestone arc, and Prism following the end of the Issylra arc.

Deni$e is at the start of the Issylra arc, not the end. Caleb pops up for the solstice. Eshteross after he's already dead (overlapping with one Dusk fic), Marwa after her appearance (overlapping with Ratanish's first), and Morrigan for Ligament manor.

Dorian

Finally, Dorian is also on the 'few ships but with more content' - Dariax is the dominant, although really only for the first year, and much smaller than the EXU-concurrent peak. Some ot3 with Orym; same as some ot3 with Orym/Will, there's no DOrian/Will not part of ot3.

C3 Ship Stats, Year 2

Hey, look it's been two years of Bells Hells, so I'm back with more stats. You can see my previous post here - or just my stats tag.

First up, the overall top ships: Laudna/Imogen. Nothing else comes close, although there is an Ashrym peak (ship week), Dorym (start of Issylra arc), and FCG/Frida peak (canon) that cross over. Everything else is much lower. Cut off for view, Laudna and Imogen get a high point of 67 for episode 65 and going canon - only beat by the 73 fic peak of episode 34 and dying.

The top ships remain fairly stable from last year; Callowmoore swaps places with Ashton/Dorian, and FCG/FRIDA and Fearne/Imogen jump up to knock Fearne/Orym off the top, but these are pretty small changes.

Since the rest are too small to see... the individual character charts are hanging out below the cut!

Chetney Pock O'pea

Chetney's got some new ships! With the party split in episode 52, we introduce Deanna; there's only a handful of fics with her, but that's pretty significant with how little Chet there is. We can see the episode 58 peak for the threesome, but once the party reunites there's not much of staying power.

Other than that, uh, Fearne/Chetney remains the top Chet ship by a longshot. Nothing else to sya, really.

Laudna

So, Laudna and Imogen, huh.

Okay, actual notes - we get an all time high at 67 fics for their reunion / becoming canon in episode 65; they're back and forth over the next episodes although still consistently the highest ship not just for Laudna but for all of Bells' Hells. It's currently calming down, but we can see the

Compared to year one, we can more clearly see that Ashton/Laudna is the number two ship, with Laudna/Dorian having dropped well after his departure. Other than that, some Laudna/Dusk and the witch trio ot3, nothing else of note, and all much lower than Imogen.

Fresh Cut Grass

Speaking of ships going canon, hey, look, these robots are gay? Okay, more seriously, we can see a bit of Loveletters after FRIDA's introduction, but it hits its stride with their hand holding in episode 55, and has its largest spike after the Uthodern arc concludes. Unlike Deanna/Chetney(/Fearne), this coninues, and is the only FCG ship going on - although that was true well before FRIDA showed up.

Fearne Calloway

Fearne has been relegated to the same scale I used for Chetney (and previously FCG, with no peak higher than four - although hers remains much busier than any of them. Look at this mess. Callowmoore is definitely the strongest contender of the group, and the most consistent, although there's a decent showing with Imogen as well, especially immediately after the party split.

Aside from threesomes and Chetney, everything else is in one-fic peaks and hard to analyze.

Imogen Temult

Imogen and Laudna, nothing comes close. Again, the peak of them going canon is 67 fics, and they're consistently high for the next several weeks.

Imogen has less ships going on in the background than Laudna; really, it's just Fearne, and some three witches ot3 stuff, and a few one-fic peaks here and there.

Orym

Orym's got a decent battle between his three ships: Ashrym, Dorym, and his husband, who never gets the highest peaks but remains fairly constant.

Dorym is slightly higher for total this year, but it's much tighter compared to their overall, and for the past several weeks it's usually been more Ashrym than Dorym. The Ashrym peak is the result of a ship week event; the Dorym peak lines up with the start of the Issylra crew and the introduction of Deni$e.

In the background, we mostly see ot3 ships, with Dorian and various people; the EXU crew ot3 remains present even though there's very little Fearne/Orym solo.

Ashton Greymoore

So, Ashrym dominates; the peak is for a ship week event, but even then we see it strong. Callowmoore takes the spotlight while the party is split, but drops off once we move over to the Issylra crew, and is only just starting to pick up again.

Other than that, Laudna takes a decent showing before the Solstice, and is one of the only things to get higher than a single fic, even if it's not competitive with the top two.

Dorian Storm

Dorian, since his departure, has definitely lessened in the amount of fics, and is very much dominated by Orym and ot3 pairings including Orym. There are a handful of Ashton/Dorian fics as well, seperate from the ot3, but everything else is a scant few oneoffs.

As mentioned, we can see the big spike for the first episode of the Team Issylra arc, since then dropping down to lower normal values.

Other Guests

There's a tail of Dusk ships from last year, but the main show is our newbies from the party split.

FCG/FRIDA takes the cake by a longshot; Deanna/Chetney and Deanna/Chetney/Fearne are the only other ones to hit a 2 peak.

Other than that, we saw some Prism ships and Ashton/Denise, but nothing that's really had a presence, and all the ships have faded away since the guests departed.

Majority Ships

95% of Laudna's ships are with Imogen, and vice versa

76% of Dorian's ships are with Orym

71% of Chetney's ships are with Fearne

65% of FCG's ships are with FRIDA

64% of Orym's ships are with Dorian

56% of Ashton's ships are wih Orym

and there's no Majority with Fearne, but 47% for Ashton is the plurality

Compared to last year, these are pretty similar, the big change being FCG/FRIDA becoming the majority and Chetney going from 93% Fearne to 71% Fearne due to Deanna.

Platonic (&) Pairings

Laudna & Imogen (71% of Laudna, 67% of Imogen)

Orym & Dorian (67% of Dorian's)

Orym & Ashton

FCG & Ashton (75% of FCG's)

Fearne & Orym

Laudna & Ashton

Imogen & Orym

Imogen & Ashton

Laudna & Orym

Fearne & Imogen

Orym & Ashton rose a few rungs (with some quality time in Issylra, I imagine) and Laudna & Ashton rose a rung as well. Laudna & Orym and Fearne & Imogen replace Dorian's tags with Imogen & Ashton, as we move further away from his departure and again, party split quality time.

Most Romantic vs Most Platonic

This is calculated by Romantic ("/") fics divided by Platonic ("&") fics, with greater than 1 being more romantic and less than 1 being more platonic. As I've said previously, this is a little tenuous because many fics are tagged both & and / while, some intending it to be read platonically and many not.

Most Romantic

Laudna/Dorian (16.5)

Ashton/Dorian (5.7)

Fearne/Ashton (5.5)

Orym/Dorian (5.0)

Laudna/Imogen (4.3)

(the exact same group in the exact same order as last year!)

Most Platonic

Chetney/Laudna, Chetney/FCG, Chetney/Imogen, Laudna/FCG, and Dorian/FCG (no ship fics)

Laudna & Orym (0.03)

FCG & Orym (0.1)

FCG & Imogen (0.11)

Imogen & Ashton (0.15)

FCG & Ashton (0.16)

(We got more Chet ships to the list, and Laudna&Orym pushes Imogen & Orym off the top five by qualifying)

Most Contentious (closest to 1 / an even split):

FCG & Fearne (perfect 1.0)

Fearne & Imogen

Fearne & Dorian

Dorian & Imogen

Fearne & Laudna

(there's some rearranging, but Fearne & Laudna take Laudna & Ashton's place as a more even split)

[malaismere]

C3 Ship Stats, Year 2

Hey, look it's been two years of Bells Hells, so I'm back with more stats. You can see my previous post here - or just my stats tag.

First up, the overall top ships: Laudna/Imogen. Nothing else comes close, although there is an Ashrym peak (ship week), Dorym (start of Issylra arc), and FCG/Frida peak (canon) that cross over. Everything else is much lower. Cut off for view, Laudna and Imogen get a high point of 67 for episode 65 and going canon - only beat by the 73 fic peak of episode 34 and dying.

The top ships remain fairly stable from last year; Callowmoore swaps places with Ashton/Dorian, and FCG/FRIDA and Fearne/Imogen jump up to knock Fearne/Orym off the top, but these are pretty small changes.

Since the rest are too small to see... the individual character charts are hanging out below the cut!

Chetney Pock O'pea

Chetney's got some new ships! With the party split in episode 52, we introduce Deanna; there's only a handful of fics with her, but that's pretty significant with how little Chet there is. We can see the episode 58 peak for the threesome, but once the party reunites there's not much of staying power.

Other than that, uh, Fearne/Chetney remains the top Chet ship by a longshot. Nothing else to sya, really.

Laudna

So, Laudna and Imogen, huh.

Okay, actual notes - we get an all time high at 67 fics for their reunion / becoming canon in episode 65; they're back and forth over the next episodes although still consistently the highest ship not just for Laudna but for all of Bells' Hells. It's currently calming down, but we can see the

Compared to year one, we can more clearly see that Ashton/Laudna is the number two ship, with Laudna/Dorian having dropped well after his departure. Other than that, some Laudna/Dusk and the witch trio ot3, nothing else of note, and all much lower than Imogen.

Fresh Cut Grass

Speaking of ships going canon, hey, look, these robots are gay? Okay, more seriously, we can see a bit of Loveletters after FRIDA's introduction, but it hits its stride with their hand holding in episode 55, and has its largest spike after the Uthodern arc concludes. Unlike Deanna/Chetney(/Fearne), this coninues, and is the only FCG ship going on - although that was true well before FRIDA showed up.

Fearne Calloway

Fearne has been relegated to the same scale I used for Chetney (and previously FCG, with no peak higher than four - although hers remains much busier than any of them. Look at this mess. Callowmoore is definitely the strongest contender of the group, and the most consistent, although there's a decent showing with Imogen as well, especially immediately after the party split.

Aside from threesomes and Chetney, everything else is in one-fic peaks and hard to analyze.

Imogen Temult

Imogen and Laudna, nothing comes close. Again, the peak of them going canon is 67 fics, and they're consistently high for the next several weeks.

Imogen has less ships going on in the background than Laudna; really, it's just Fearne, and some three witches ot3 stuff, and a few one-fic peaks here and there.

Orym

Orym's got a decent battle between his three ships: Ashrym, Dorym, and his husband, who never gets the highest peaks but remains fairly constant.

Dorym is slightly higher for total this year, but it's much tighter compared to their overall, and for the past several weeks it's usually been more Ashrym than Dorym. The Ashrym peak is the result of a ship week event; the Dorym peak lines up with the start of the Issylra crew and the introduction of Deni$e.

In the background, we mostly see ot3 ships, with Dorian and various people; the EXU crew ot3 remains present even though there's very little Fearne/Orym solo.

Ashton Greymoore

So, Ashrym dominates; the peak is for a ship week event, but even then we see it strong. Callowmoore takes the spotlight while the party is split, but drops off once we move over to the Issylra crew, and is only just starting to pick up again.

Other than that, Laudna takes a decent showing before the Solstice, and is one of the only things to get higher than a single fic, even if it's not competitive with the top two.

Dorian Storm

Dorian, since his departure, has definitely lessened in the amount of fics, and is very much dominated by Orym and ot3 pairings including Orym. There are a handful of Ashton/Dorian fics as well, seperate from the ot3, but everything else is a scant few oneoffs.

As mentioned, we can see the big spike for the first episode of the Team Issylra arc, since then dropping down to lower normal values.

Other Guests

There's a tail of Dusk ships from last year, but the main show is our newbies from the party split.

FCG/FRIDA takes the cake by a longshot; Deanna/Chetney and Deanna/Chetney/Fearne are the only other ones to hit a 2 peak.

Other than that, we saw some Prism ships and Ashton/Denise, but nothing that's really had a presence, and all the ships have faded away since the guests departed.

Majority Ships

95% of Laudna's ships are with Imogen, and vice versa

76% of Dorian's ships are with Orym

71% of Chetney's ships are with Fearne

65% of FCG's ships are with FRIDA

64% of Orym's ships are with Dorian

56% of Ashton's ships are wih Orym

and there's no Majority with Fearne, but 47% for Ashton is the plurality

Compared to last year, these are pretty similar, the big change being FCG/FRIDA becoming the majority and Chetney going from 93% Fearne to 71% Fearne due to Deanna.

Platonic (&) Pairings

Laudna & Imogen (71% of Laudna, 67% of Imogen)

Orym & Dorian (67% of Dorian's)

Orym & Ashton

FCG & Ashton (75% of FCG's)

Fearne & Orym

Laudna & Ashton

Imogen & Orym

Imogen & Ashton

Laudna & Orym

Fearne & Imogen

Orym & Ashton rose a few rungs (with some quality time in Issylra, I imagine) and Laudna & Ashton rose a rung as well. Laudna & Orym and Fearne & Imogen replace Dorian's tags with Imogen & Ashton, as we move further away from his departure and again, party split quality time.

Most Romantic vs Most Platonic

This is calculated by Romantic ("/") fics divided by Platonic ("&") fics, with greater than 1 being more romantic and less than 1 being more platonic. As I've said previously, this is a little tenuous because many fics are tagged both & and / while, some intending it to be read platonically and many not.

Most Romantic

Laudna/Dorian (16.5)

Ashton/Dorian (5.7)

Fearne/Ashton (5.5)

Orym/Dorian (5.0)

Laudna/Imogen (4.3)

(the exact same group in the exact same order as last year!)

Most Platonic

Chetney/Laudna, Chetney/FCG, Chetney/Imogen, Laudna/FCG, and Dorian/FCG (no ship fics)

Laudna & Orym (0.03)

FCG & Orym (0.1)

FCG & Imogen (0.11)

Imogen & Ashton (0.15)

FCG & Ashton (0.16)

(We got more Chet ships to the list, and Laudna&Orym pushes Imogen & Orym off the top five by qualifying)

Most Contentious (closest to 1 / an even split):

FCG & Fearne (perfect 1.0)

Fearne & Imogen

Fearne & Dorian

Dorian & Imogen

Fearne & Laudna

(there's some rearranging, but Fearne & Laudna take Laudna & Ashton's place as a more even split)